We followed them up to the dainty bedroom in flowered enamel where Virginia Blakeley lay, and it was then for the first time that we saw her. Kennedy drew a chair up beside the little white bed and went to work almost as though he had been a physician himself.
Partly from what I observed myself and partly from what he told me afterward, I shall try to describe the peculiar condition in which she was.
She lay there lethargic, scarcely breathing. Once she had been a tall, slender, fair girl, with a sort of wild grace. Now she seemed to be completely altered. I could not help thinking of the contrast between her looks now and the photograph in my pocket.
Not only was her respiration slow, but her pulse was almost imperceptible, less than forty a minute. Her temperature was far below normal, and her blood pressure low. Once she had seemed fully a woman, with all the strength and promise of precocious maturity. But now there was something strange about her looks. It is difficult to describe. It was not that she was no longer a young woman, but there seemed to be something almost s.e.xless about her. It was as though her secondary s.e.x characteristics were no longer feminine, but--for want of a better word--neuter.
Yet, strange to say, in spite of the lethargy which necessitated at least some artificial feeding, she was not falling away. She seemed, if anything, plump. To all appearances there was really a r.e.t.a.r.dation of metabolism connected with the trance-like sleep. She was actually gaining in weight!
As he noted one of these things after another, Kennedy looked at her long and carefully. I followed the direction of his eyes. Over her nose, just a trifle above the line of her eyebrows, was a peculiar red mark, a sore, which was very disfiguring, as though it were hard to heal.
"What is that?" he asked Mrs. Blakeley, finally.
"I don"t know," she replied, slowly. "We"ve all noticed it. It came just after the sleep began."
"You have no idea what could have caused it?"
"Both Virginia and Cynthia have been going to a face specialist," she admitted, "to have their skins treated for freckles. After the treatment they wore masks which were supposed to have some effect on the skin. I don"t know. Could it be that?"
Kennedy looked sharply at Cynthia"s face. There was no red mark over her nose. But there were certainly no freckles on either of the girls"
faces now, either.
"Oh, mother," remonstrated Cynthia, "it couldn"t be anything Doctor Chapelle did."
"Doctor Chapelle?" repeated Kennedy.
"Yes, Dr. Carl Chapelle," replied Mrs. Blakeley. "Perhaps you have heard of him. He is quite well known, has a beauty-parlor on Fifth Avenue. He--"
"It"s ridiculous," cut in Cynthia, sharply. "Why, my face was worse than Virgie"s. Car--He said it would take longer."
I had been watching Cynthia, but it needed only to have heard her to see that Doctor Chapelle was something more than a beauty specialist to her.
Kennedy glanced thoughtfully from the clear skin of Cynthia to the red mark on Virginia. Though he said nothing, I could see that his mind was on it. I had heard of the beauty doctors who promise to give one a skin as soft and clear as a baby"s--and often, by their inexpert use of lotions and chemicals, succeed in ruining the skin and disfiguring the patient for life. Could this be a case of that sort? Yet how explain the apparent success with Cynthia?
The elder sister, however, was plainly vexed at the mention of the beauty doctor"s name at all, and she showed it. Kennedy made a mental note of the matter, but refrained from saying any more about it.
"I suppose there is no objection to my seeing Doctor Haynes?" asked Kennedy, rising and changing the subject.
"None whatever," returned Mrs. Blakeley. "If there"s anything you or he can do to bring Virginia out of this--anything safe--I want it done,"
she emphasized.
Cynthia was silent as we left. Evidently she had not expected Doctor Chapelle"s name to be brought into the case.
We were lucky in finding Doctor Haynes at home, although it was not the regular time for his office hours. Kennedy introduced himself as a friend of the Blakeleys who had been asked to see that I made no blunders in writing the story for the Star. Doctor Haynes did not question the explanation.
He was a man well on toward the sixties, with that magnetic quality that inspires the confidence so necessary for a doctor. Far from wealthy, he had attained a high place in the profession.
As Kennedy finished his version of our mission, Doctor Haynes shook his head with a deep sigh.
"You can understand how I feel toward the Blakeleys," he remarked, at length. "I should consider it unethical to give an interview under any circ.u.mstances--much more so under the present."
"Still," I put in, taking Kennedy"s cue, "just a word to set me straight can"t do any harm. I won"t quote you directly."
He seemed to realize that it might be better to talk carefully than to leave all to my imagination.
"Well," he began, slowly, "I have considered all the usual causes a.s.signed for such morbid sleep. It is not auto-suggestion or trance, I am positive. Nor is there any trace of epilepsy. I cannot see how it could be due to poisoning, can you?"
I admitted readily that I could not.
"No," he resumed, "it is just a case of what we call narcolepsy--pathological somnolence--a sudden, uncontrollable inclination to sleep, occurring sometimes repeatedly or at varying intervals. I don"t think it hysterical, epileptic, or toxemic. The plain fact of the matter, gentlemen, is that neither myself nor any of my colleagues whom I have consulted have the faintest idea what it is--yet."
The door of the office opened, for it was not the hour for consulting patients, and a tall, athletic young fellow, with a keen and restless face, though very boyish, entered.
"My son," the doctor introduced, "soon to be the sixth Doctor Haynes in direct line in the family."
We shook hands. It was evident that Cynthia had not by any means exaggerated when she said that he was frantic over what had happened to his fiancee.
Accordingly, there was no difficulty in reverting to the subject of our visit. Gradually I let Kennedy take the lead in the conversation so that our position might not seem to be false.
It was not long before Craig managed to inject a remark about the red spot over Virginia"s nose. It seemed to excite young Hampton.
"Naturally I look on it more as a doctor than a lover," remarked his father, smiling indulgently at the young man, whom it was evident he regarded above everything else in the world. "I have not been able to account for it, either. Really the case is one of the most remarkable I have ever heard of."
"You have heard of a Dr. Carl Chapelle?" inquired Craig, tentatively.
"A beauty doctor," interrupted the young man, turning toward his father. "You"ve met him. He"s the fellow I think is really engaged to Cynthia."
Hampton seemed much excited. There was unconcealed animosity in the manner of his remark, and I wondered why it was. Could there be some latent jealousy?
"I see," calmed Doctor Haynes. "You mean to infer that this--er--this Doctor Chapelle--" He paused, waiting for Kennedy to take the initiative.
"I suppose you"ve noticed over Miss Blakeley"s nose a red sore?"
hazarded Kennedy.
"Yes," replied Doctor Haynes, "rather refractory, too. I--"
"Say," interrupted Hampton, who by this time had reached a high pitch of excitement, "say, do you think it could be any of his confounded nostrums back of this thing?"
"Careful, Hampton," cautioned the elder man.
"I"d like to see him," pursued Craig to the younger. "You know him?"
"Know him? I should say I do. Good-looking, good practice, and all that, but--why, he must have hypnotized that girl! Cynthia thinks he"s wonderful."
"I"d like to see him," suggested Craig.
"Very well," agreed Hampton, taking him at his word. "Much as I dislike the fellow, I have no objection to going down to his beauty-parlor with you."
"Thank you," returned Craig, as we excused ourselves and left the elder Doctor Haynes.