With a low cry of despair she falls upon her knees and stretches out her hands toward the man whom she loves with a deathless love, the agony of a breaking heart stamped on her colorless face, and gleaming from her wild eyes. At that instant, the figure in the doorway—which she sees but dimly now, for the blur that has come over her sight—turns for one last look down the long ward, a gleam of tenderest pity in his eyes for the gentle sister toward whom his heart goes out in profoundest gratitude, but who, he has been assured, is now hopelessly insane, and too easily excited to be allowed to hold any communication with any one whom she has previously known. That look seems to paralyze him. He catches sight of that kneeling form, with its despairing face, its outstretched hands, that seem imploring him not to go, but to save her from a fate worse than death; and for one brief moment he is spell-bound—rooted to the spot. The next, a hoarse, wild cry echoes through that great room, startling all its inmates, sending a thrill of wonder through the watchful attendant’s heart—a shock of fear and dismay through Dr. Arnot’s; then there is a quick, agile bound back into the room—a rush of swift footsteps, and like the sound of distant heavenly music, mingling with the roar of a cataract, Salome catches the startled words: “Great Heaven! Salome! my wife!” Then she is faintly conscious of being lifted and laid upon the broad breast of the man she so fondly loves; of being convulsively clasped to a wildly beating heart; of seeing a face full of love and tenderness bending over her, while agonized tones beseech her to look at him—to speak to him; then the vision goes suddenly out in a deadly calm and great darkness. CHAPTER XL. TELLS HOW DR. WINTHROP FOUND HIS WIFE. Yes, Truman Winthrop had found his wife at last! But the discovery came to him with such a shock that it nearly unhinged his own reason for the moment, and it almost seemed to him as if the whole world had suddenly gone mad. But how did it happen that he came a visitor to Dr. Arnot’s establishment? It has been stated that he was making a special study of diseases of the eye, ear, and brain, and in pursuit of points relating to the latter subject, he had arranged with a friend and fellow-student to visit several retreats for the insane in Paris, for the purpose of observing the different methods of treatment. They had already been over three other institutions in the city, and Dr. Arnot’s establishment was to be the last. That gentleman had received them most graciously. It caused him no little pride that learned men came to him and his asylum for information regarding the treatment of diseases of the brain, and he always made them very welcome. “They did him great honor,” he would affirm, with many bows and smiles, but with an inward feeling that it was quite the reverse.