“I mean exactly what I said,” he went on. “The girl was hypnotized.”
“She wasn’t asleep,” protested Kathryn. “Her eyes were wide open, and her manner was perfectly natural. She knew what she was about.”
“That is not surprising or unusual,” answered Potter. “In cases of animal magnetism the subject is awake; has returned to what may be called her normal state, is able to reflect, reason, and direct her conduct; and yet under these conditions, she is influenced by the auto-suggestion. The real thief is the person who hypnotized Janet.”
“I tell you she was alone in this room,” declared Kathryn stubbornly.
“I am not denying it,” the physician spoke with quiet force. “At the will of the hypnotist the act of stealing may be accomplished several hours, or even two days after the date of auto-suggestion. Such suggestion can only be realized at the given hour, and cannot be realized until that hour arrives.”
“All very fine,” scoffed Kathryn. “But if Janet Fordyce was a poor girl she would be in jail by now. Do you think you’d put up such a bluff for—Miss Langdon, for instance?”
A light broke on Duncan and he stepped toward Marjorie. “Have you known Janet stole?”
“Yes,” she answered huskily. “I feared it was kleptomania. I first saw her take a diamond sunburst from Mrs. Walbridge’s dressing-table on Christmas Eve.”
“And you never told?” Both voice and gesture showed Duncan’s unbounded admiration and love as he addressed Marjorie. “You let others think you the thief!” His look repaid her for the suffering she had endured.
“I watched Janet,” she confessed. “And whenever I found anything in her possession which I knew did not belong to her, I returned it to the rightful owner.”