"Enough of this. I must and will know the cause of Merle's sudden illness. I know that, deny though he may, that sickness had its foundation in the woman's appearance and nowhere else. Just before that he was talking animatedly to me about his sister, and the thought went through my mind 'how well he looks; all the fatigue of the day has gone, and he is his old self again, quaffing enjoyment like a child.'
"I felt a sense of envy that he could be so light-hearted, and for just one moment could have wished myself a negative subject instead of a positive operator, but before that wish had been fully formulated in my mind, the singer appeared and almost simultaneously rang out his distracted cry 'William!' (the name by which he never addresses me except in private) and that in so loud a tone as to penetrate, it seems to me now, every portion of that immense auditorium.
"I heard the cry, still I seemed unable to turn away from that woman's face; when, immediately there came another cry, so full of suffering it broke the spell that bound me, but I could do no more than to calm and quiet him.
"Was it selfishness on my part to remain that I might hear her sing just once more, or was it really an unselfish desire not to disturb others by going out while she was singing? I hope it was the latter. Is any man capable to analyze correctly his own thoughts? If so, I am not one of them. Why should Merle be stricken so ill by just one fleeting glance at her? She is as beautiful as a poet's dream. There must be something in their lives of more than ordinary acquaintance. He knows her;—he must.—But even so, why should he be so affected? I shall know. He shall tell me—if not waking, I will entrance him.
"It seems impossible that Merle has had any love experience with a woman, yet there is no other way to account for the incident. I must be wrong. He has been my subject now almost ten years; I know that in all that time he has been free from any attachments with women, for he has been continually under my care. Before that time, he was only a boy, incapable of generating any strong attachment, still she would have been a girl about his own age.
"Probably they met, and, like every other true-hearted man, he has remembered and suffered, while she, with her beauty, has gone on wounding new hearts. I will find out about it. He is too good a boy to be the victim of a designing woman. I have warned him times enough, and thought he heeded me.
"This is another proof of one man's inability to dominate the entire consciousness of another so as to know for a certainty his exact thoughts and emotions.
"I thought I was aware of all the principal traits, wishes and events of Merle's life, while the strongest and most potent force of all probably, was entirely undreamed of.
"I thought before I went to that concert, I had a difficult problem before me,—one that would try my patience, ingenuity and knowledge, but I am likely to find that one simple, compared to the last.
"However intricate, I will solve it. There is only one way to do it; I will go to him as soon as I can get away from the consultation with my colleagues, when we have arranged to talk over our failure.