Possessed | Page 5

healthy than yourself. What gives
you this idea that your mind is affected? Not those dreams? You are
surely too intelligent to give such importance to mere dreams?"
Penelope bit her red lips in perplexed indecision, then she leaned nearer
the doctor and spoke in a low tone, glancing nervously over her
shoulder. Fear was plainly written on her face.
"No--it's not just the dreams. They are horrible enough, but I have faith
that you will help me get rid of them. There's something else,
something more serious, more uncanny. It terrifies me. I feel that I'm in
the power of some supernatural being who takes a fiendish delight in
torturing me. I'm not a coward, Dr. Owen," Penelope lifted her head
proudly, "for I truly have no fear of real danger that I can see and face
squarely, but the unseen, the unknown----" She broke off suddenly, a
strained, listening look on her face. Then she shivered though the
glowing fire in the grate was making the room almost uncomfortably
warm.

"Do you mind giving me some details?" Dr. Owen spoke in his gentlest
manner, for he realized that he must gain her confidence.
Penelope continued with an effort:
"For several months I have heard voices about me, sometimes when no
one is present, sometimes in crowds on the street, at church, anywhere.
But the voices that I hear are not the voices of real persons."
"What kind of voices are they? Are they loud? Are they distinct? Or are
they only vague whispers?"
"They are perfectly distinct voices, just as clear as ordinary voices. And
they are voices of different persons. I can tell them apart; but none of
them are voices of persons that I have ever seen or known."
"Hm! I suppose you have heard, as a trained nurse, of what we call
clairaudient hallucinations?"
"Yes, doctor, and I know that those hallucinations often appear in the
early stages of insanity. That is what distresses me."
"How often do you hear these voices--not all the time? Do you hear
them in the night?"
"I hear them at any time--day or night. I have tried not to notice them, I
pretend that I do not hear them. I do my best to forget them. I have
prayed to God that He will make these voices cease troubling me, that
He will make them go away; but nothing seems to do any good."
"What kind of things do these voices say? Do they seem to be talking to
you directly?"
"Sometimes they do, sometimes they seem to be talking about me, as if
two or three persons were discussing me, criticizing me. They say very
unkind things. It seems as if they read my thoughts and make
mischievous, wicked comments on them. Sometimes they say horrid
things, disgusting things. Sometimes they give me orders. I am to do

this or that; or I am not to do this or that. Sometimes they say the same
word over and over again, many times. It was that way when I went out
on the battlefield to help Captain Herrick. As I ran along, stumbling
over the dead and wounded, I heard these voices crying out: 'Fool! Fool!
Don't do it! You mustn't do it! You're a coward! You know you're a
coward! You're going to be killed! You're a little fool to get yourself
killed!'"
"And yet you went on? You did not obey these voices?"
"I went on because I was desperate. I tell you I wanted to die. What is
the use of living if one is persecuted like this? There is nothing to live
for, is there?"
He met her pathetic look with confidence.
"I think there is, Mrs. Wells. There is a lot to live for. Those
hallucinations and dreams are not as uncommon as you think. I could
give you cases of shell shock patients who have suffered in this way
and come back to normal health. You have been through enough, my
young friend, to bring about a somewhat hysterical condition that is
susceptible of cure, if you will put yourself in favorable conditions. Do
you mind if I ask you straight out whether you have any objections to
marrying a second time?"
"N--no, that is to say I--er----" The color burned in her cheeks and
Owen took note of this under his grizzled brows.
"As an old friend of the family--I mean Herrick's family--may I ask you
if you would have any objection to Captain Herrick as a
husband--assuming that you are willing to accept any husband?"
"I like Captain Herrick very much, I--I think I care for him more than
any man I know, but----"
"Well? If you love Herrick and he loves you----" Owen broke off here
with a new thought, "Ah, perhaps