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Speaker 1: The blood Stained Parasol by James Ravenscroft. Within the room

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were sounds that were unpleasant to hear. They were dreadful,

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maniacal shouts of command, shrill cries of terror, and more awful,

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because constantly broken by hoarseness and moaning of infinite tenderness

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and sadness. He is in one of his spells. The

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intendant said, perhaps it would be just as well not

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to see him now. It is not a picture that

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you want to carry with you. The attendant's voice was

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one of gentle solitude and pathos. Doubtless long service in

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the place had made it so. It was a private

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sanitarium in the national capital for the hopelessly insane, to

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which my profession as specialist and alienist gained me admittance.

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The sound hypnotized me. I could not turn away. The

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small iron grating at the top part of the window

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drew me like a magnet, and I went and looked

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into the room. A pale faced, emaciated, wild looking man

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standing in the middle of a bare mattress on a

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heavy iron bedstead, was yelling and gesticulating madly at some

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imaginary object at the bottom of the door. Get away.

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Curse you, get away, he cried, frantically. Be gone, you brute,

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out of my sight. Would to God I had burned

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you as fine as ashes. Oh. Oh. The groans which

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ended the fury cannot be described. They were those of

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a soul and agony. His whole appearance was that of

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one convulsed with a terror as of death. At first

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he did not see me as I peered through the grating.

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His eyes, bright with the glitter of madness, were fixed

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in a fearful stare at the bottom of the door.

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It is over now for a while, said the intendant.

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The words roused the man, and he raised his eyes

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to the grating. A wan smile of relief broke the

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expression of horror on his face, and he at once

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stepped off the bed and came to the door. A

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heady sweat, not the kind caused by heat, though the

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day was sultry, was on his brow and upper lip,

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and his body, relaxed from the tension of the spell,

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as shaking with a nervous palsy. He was clad in

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pajamas of some coarse white material, and his feet were bare.

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Pardon me, He spoke in low tones and with an

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accent of breeding, but that infernal dog distracted my attention

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and I didn't see you. I am glad you came.

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I remember you quite well. Indeed, you were doing intern

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work here, were you not. I yielded to his humor,

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grateful that I could help to ease his tormented spirit,

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and nodded affirmatively. The glitter in his eyes seemed to

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be intensified, and putting his face almost against the grating,

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as though he meant his speech to be confidential, he said,

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perhaps you saw her. His voice was almost a whisper.

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She came in when I was dissecting. I was always dissecting, then,

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always dissecting. Understand, I cut things up, alive and dead,

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dead and alive. That was the beginning of the hell.

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He said it, so sanely, so remorsefully, that I startled.

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Looked close at him. Reason appeared to be reinstated on

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her throne. Then he broke out again. I cut them

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to pieces, but I didn't burn the pieces, and they

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escaped out the windows through the keyhole. They even hid

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in the pockets of my clothes until I was on

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the street, and then they would leap out and dart away.

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He moistened his thick, dry lips with his tongue and

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took hold of the bars in the grating and went on, No,

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I didn't burn the pieces. They escaped. That dog follows

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me in pieces at night. Its feet scratched at the

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bottom of the door, and its eyes look in between

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the bars of this window. Its red, dripping tongue lies

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on the bed beside me, and its hot, horrible breath

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smothers me. Its footsteps trod up and down the floor,

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and its hellish moans and wines drive me crazy. Listen,

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it was alive. That's why she struck me. A soft

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white thing. It was, and I threw up my hands

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and caught it. She dropped it, and I took it

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and kept it. That's it. Standing in the corner over there, involuntarily,

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I shuddered and looked toward the corner designated by his gesture.

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There was nothing in any of the corners. And after

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the dog is gone, she comes. She comes, slipping, slipping.

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I can't hear, I can't see her. She comes to

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get her parasol, but when she sees the bloodstains on it,

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she turns to a ghost. I tried to wash the

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stains out, but I can't. Every time I put water

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on them, they spread. He leaned closer to the bars,

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and with one eye cautiously on the attendant, he whispered,

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I'm working on a solution that will entirely remove the bloodstains,

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so she will take the parasol, for when she does,

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the dog will leave, and then I can get a long,

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quiet rest. He paused and looked furtively around the room,

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and then began his awful babblings again. He called piteously

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after me, as the intendant took my arm and drew

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me away. I remembered little else that I saw in

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the sanitarium. Tell me about him, I implored, as soon

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as we got out of hearing of his cries. Who

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is he? How did he come to be here? The

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intendant hesitated. Not everyone should hear that story, he remarked thoughtfully,

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as if half talking to himself. But of course, with

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you a specialist, it's different. He took me to a

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chair on the porch. From them, I could see into

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a section of the grounds of the inmates, where benighted

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beings were engaged in assuming their various and fantastic roles

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of madness. His name I shall not tell you he began,

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for that is a secret and very properly. So I

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shall only relate briefly what happened to him as it

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came to me from his mother. His people are prominent

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and wealthy. It wrecked his mother's life, but the only

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thing that could be done was to give him up

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into this place. When they come here to see him,

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they wait until he is comparatively free from symptoms of

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an attack, and then they go look in the grating

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as you did. Strange to tell he recognizes only one

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of them, a sister, but he believes her to be

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a sister who died some two or three years before

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he became insane. Every possible care is given him, and

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every famous specialist in the country have examined him. They

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say it is useless to hope that he will be

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raving mad to the end of his days. Then the

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furies seize him, and he will hurl at his imaginary

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tormentors anything he can lift. That is why his room

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has nothing in it but a bed, and that is

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fastened to the floor with heavy cleats. The mattress, made

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of a material that resists his nails, is securely attached

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to steal slats riveted to the bed frame, and there

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is no covering. Blankets, spreads, pillows, and cheets were given

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him at first, and he rnt them to tatters fighting

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the dog. In the winter, his room is kept so

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warm that covering is not needed. He was accounted one

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of the brightest minds at the medical college where he

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was a professor. It was predicted that he would do

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great things in surgery. He was making a special research

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in the field of vivisection. As he himself said, every

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time he can get some one to listen. That was

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the beginning of the hell. He was engaged to marry

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one of the loveliest young women of his city. From

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what I was told, she was as lovely in spirit

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as she was in person. The woman, it is said,

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was the real force that moved his work at such

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amazing strides. He was eager to give her of the

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very best of his energies and talents. As a quiet

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and close observer of life, I am sometimes almost persuaded

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to believe in fate. The story is that a whim

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possessed his fiancee to go through the medical college, just

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as I presume as a whim possessed you to go

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through this place. She said nothing to him of her intention,

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for she wanted to surprise him. Two girlfriends accompanied her,

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and together they explored. An attendant, who must have been

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exceedingly careless, was directing them, and at a certain place

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in their adventure, fate willed that he should be called

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elsewhere for a few minutes. In those few minutes, a

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man was doomed to madness, a woman's heart was broken,

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and several lives were made desolate. The place where the

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attendant left them was in a corridor by a laboratory

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where dissecting and other experimental work was done. The doctor's

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fiancee opened the door of the room and peeped in.

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At the opposite side, a man, with his back to her,

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was working over some object. She at once recognized the

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familiar figure, and as fate would have it, she was

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seized with a caprice to steal up behind him, telling

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her companions who he was and bidding them wait in

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the corridor for the intendant. She went in, softly, closed

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the door, and noiselessly tiptoed along the aisle between benches.

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If there had been more light, but why say if

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other than if fate had not taken her there that day.

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Her lightly slippered feet made no sound, and she stood

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behind him unnoticed. He might have heard, but he was

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deeply engrossed in his work. She tilted slightly on one

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foot and looked past him at the object which so

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held his attention. She gazed a moment, and then, as

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though forgetting his presence, she sprang to his side. A

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dog was stretched on a dissecting How she discovered the

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tactics of mystery unless she saw with the inner and

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more penetrating vision, But she did see evidence of life

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in an animal that had been carefully prepared by all

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the modern methods as a subject for the dissector. The

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doctor dropped his instruments and stood staring at her, speechless.

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Had she dropped from above, he could not have been

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more amazed and startled. It's alive, the girl gasped, yes,

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he admitted, you had better not look at it. Please

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come away. How did you get here? The girl never

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moved nor took her eyes from him. It is in

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the interest of science, of saving and preserving human life,

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he began to explain. No doubt, A cold fear was

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creeping into his heart at the sight of her. It

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is done in nearly all colleges and hospitals. You know,

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the animal is under a powerful anesthetic and does not

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feel pain. A moment more she stood, So the tale

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goes as though transfigured. And then you fiend, you coward,

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she screamed, as she struck him in the face with

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her parasol. She swung it with all her strength for

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a second blow, and he threw his hands to ward

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it off. There were red smears where he touched it,

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and when she saw them, she flung the parasol from

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her and swooned. Her companions, from where they were waiting

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in the corridor, heard the scream and the commotion, and

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rushed in just as the doctor picked her up and

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ran after him. As he carried her to another room,

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he told them that she had fainted at the sight

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of the dissecting table. It was a fatal day for

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the doctor. In his excitement, he had forgotten to wipe

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his hands before he lifted the girl, and there were

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red finger marks on her white dress. Almost as soon

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as she revived, she saw them and swooned again. And

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when she again revived, she began trying to tear off

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the dress like she had lost her reason. One of

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her companions telephoned to her home, and fresh clothes were brought.

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It was perhaps all of an hour later, when sick

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and too weak to walk, she was carried from the

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room to which the doctor had taken her. That is

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the end. The doctor pleaded with the girl's father and mother,

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but in vain, she would never again permit him to

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see her. She said she would as soon marry a murderer.

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Night after night he paced the sidewalk in front of

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her home and went away only when the lateness of

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the hour and the vacancy of the street made him conspicuous.

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He gave up his college work, neglected his personal appearance,

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and at last became like a haunted man. Many dark

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tales of what had happened were whispered among friends and

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acquaintances of the two families. The girl became a nervous wreck,

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and finally her people broke up their home and moved

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to a distant city. Then something in the doctor's brain cracked,

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and well, you have seen for yourself, he rose, a

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gentle reminder that he could not spare more of his time.

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As we shook hands in parting, he said Vivisection may

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possibly be of service to medical and surgical science, but

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it has nothing to do with love. The end of

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the blood stained parasol