"Yes," and after glancing anxiously about to see whether she could
be overheard, Mrs. Derwent continued in a lower voice. "You know
that she started to go to Bar Harbor last Tuesday." I nodded.
"Well, she seemed really looking forward to her visit, and when she
left home was very affectionate to me, and more like her old self
than she had been for months. But through some carelessness she
missed her connection in town, and instead of returning here as she
ought to have done, spent two nights in our empty apartment--of all
places!! What possessed her to do such a thing I cannot find out,
and she is at present so extremely excitable that I do not dare to
insist on an explanation. When she did return here on Thursday she
told me at once about the murder and how she was made to look at
the body and to give an account of herself. Of course, we were very
much afraid that her name would get into the papers and all the
facts of her escapade become known. Through some miracle, that at
least has been spared me; but the shock of being brought into such
close contact with a mysterious crime has proved too much for
the child's nerves, and she is in such an overwrought hysterical
condition that I am seriously alarmed about her. I wanted to send
again for Dr. Bertrand. He is not very brilliant, but I thought he
might at least give her a soothing draught. She wept bitterly,
however, at the bare idea--insisted that he only made her more
nervous. I then suggested sending for our New York physician, but
she became quite violent. Really I could hardly recognise May, she
was so----so--impossible. Of course she is ill, and I now fear
seriously so."
Mrs. Derwent paused to wipe her eyes.
"When you say that she is violent and impossible, what do you mean,
exactly?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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