“After dinner I felt so drowsy that I laid down and he covered me up carefully and told me to take a good sleep; that he would take a late train to the city. “That was the last innocent sleep I had. When I awoke, in the night, I was undressed and in bed. I could not think where I was, and when I turned I thought Dannie was there and I put my arms about him. “When morning came—ah! how can I tell it?” she said shuddering. “When morning came—well, I knew I was no longer what I had been—a true wife.” “Mr. Leighton was very tender to me and tried to soothe my feverish unrest, and after awhile I passed into a quiet slumber. When I awoke I was alone. It was late in the afternoon and I thought with a start of Lita. “When I entered her room she came toward me with outstretched arms. “‘I am so glad to see you, Anita,’ she said. ‘Where have you been all this time? If you had not locked me in so securely, I should have found you before this time.’ She pulled me down on her cot and said: ‘I want to tell you something.’ “I always indulged her whims, so I sat down beside her. “‘You have been so good to me that I have learned to love you, Anita, and I want you to love me, too; but I have much to tell you, and maybe you will hate me when you have heard all,’ she said, her lips quivering. “I was surprised at her rational manner, yet delighted. I put my arms around her and said: ‘Tell me all, Lita. I shall not hate you, no matter how bad it is.’ “‘You think I am crazy, but I am not,’ she said, ‘although I have had enough to make me so in the past two years. My senses have been so benumbed since I have been here that I don’t know all I have done. I have had a terrible experience, and my mother is the cause of it all. Several years ago my father began to speculate; he was a wealthy man at that time, but with the speculation the trouble began. He became deeply involved, and when one of his creditors fell on him and demanded a settlement he collapsed. My mother met the man and he demanded me as the price of liquidation. Rather than suffer the financial loss and the disgrace of the penitentiary, which stared my father in the face, my mother sold my honor, my virtue, my all to this scoundrel who poses as my father. He took me abroad with him and traveled with me as my husband. He was ideally kind to me for more than a year, or until he had worn me out and my health began to fail. Little by little he began to neglect me, and at last I was furious. One night when he did condescend to come home I met him at my door with a revolver and told him to take another step at his peril. This was the beginning of the end. As soon as we returned to this country he brought me directly to Chicago, where he had me examined and pronounced of unsound mind. After that he kept me under the influence of some opiate and the next thing I knew I was here, in this cottage. It is no wonder I have acted insane, no wonder they padded this room to keep me from doing myself violence.