“Oh she has only been there a short time and has not yet given an exhibition of her oratorical powers. Still the lady who is a clergyman’s widow, told me that she walks about her room in the middle of the night, talking wildly to herself.”
Dr. Tuffnell had not time to visit Miss Wilson that morning, but he made an appointment with Mr. D’Alton for the following day, and together they went to the unfortunate girl’s residence. Arrived at the house they rang the bell, and inquired for Mrs. Brookes, the mistress.
Mrs. Brookes was a middle-aged lady of a retiring disposition. Her husband had died at an early age, leaving her to take care of three young children. Her temporal wants however, were provided for, her husband having been possessed of a handsome income independently of his small salary. Dr. Tuffnell made inquiries concerning Miss Wilson’s habits, and was informed that her actions were at times very peculiar, that she had not gone to bed all the past night, but had stamped up and down her room, talking as if to a second party. Mrs. Brookes was shocked to hear that she had unwittingly engaged a mad woman to take charge of her children, and suddenly recollected several extraordinary episodes which, until that time, had never struck her forcibly.
It was arranged that the Doctor should see Miss Wilson and satisfy himself concerning her affliction before any further steps were taken. Accordingly Mrs. Brookes rang the bell and told the servant to summon the governess.
Miss Wilson had not slept all night, and her eyes had a wild expression, which heightened when she beheld Mr. D’Alton. The doctor, having previously taken all that was told him for granted, made up his mind at once that she was insane, and never reflected for a moment on the possibility of some scheme being on foot to injure her. On entering the room she laughed wildly and said—“So you have come back with your bag of gold. I tell you it’s trash, sordid trash, not half so sweet as REVENGE!”
Now as the doctor had heard nothing from either D’Alton or Mrs. Brookes which he could in any way connect with this wild utterance; moreover, as the young lady looked like a tigress, and walked fiercely up and down the room, he became more than ever convinced that he had got a bad case in hand and acted accordingly. Looking at D’Alton he shook his head, which Mrs. Brookes perceiving, she shook her head in turn, and, taking out her handkerchief, wept copiously. Dr. Tuffnell tried to soothe the patient with gentle words, but she (mistaking him for a pettifogging lawyer, whom D’Alton had engaged to bind her over to keep the peace) cried out:
“Ah, yes! you want to quiet me, but you can’t quiet me. I am like the surging cataract, which, suppressed in one place bursts out again with more fury in another. I have suffered too much to be tamed down by soft and gilded promises. No, Robert D’Alton, you have started the mighty avalanche and it is too late now to stop its progress.”
The doctor began to feel he had a desperate case in hand and tried to quiet her, but the more he did so the worse she got till at last all persons began to talk to her, receiving from the poor girl replies altogether removed from the point at issue coupled with threats and oaths and furious gesticulations. At length the doctor suggested, in a whisper, the propriety of their departure, when they might consider what was best to be done, but, on Mrs. Brookes protesting that she was afraid to stay alone in the house with the maniac, Dr. Tuffnell dispatched a note to the asylum, and in a short time two keepers arrived, and proceeded to take Miss Wilson into their care till she should become possessed of a sound mind.
There is no time at which a sane person looks so much like a maniac as when trying to convince people of his sanity. The real lunatic will cunningly hide his affliction from the most watchful, and is frequently able to deceive those unaccustomed to deal with persons of unsound mind, but the victim of persecution becomes wild with honest indignation, and generally manages to convince even those who might be inclined to believe him to be sane.
When the truth of her position began to dawn on Miss Wilson, she became more frantic than ever. She raved at D’Alton and the doctor, tore with her hands at the keepers, and abused Mrs. Brookes for standing tamely by to see one of her own sex so ill-used. She roared so that two policemen came rushing up to the steps to inquire what was the matter, but, seeing Dr. Tuffnell, with whom they were well acquainted, they saluted him respectfully and withdrew.