So now force and cunning had declared war on Alfred, and feebleness in
person enlisted in his defence. His adversary lost no time; that
afternoon Rooke told him he was henceforth to occupy a double bedded room
with another patient.
"If he should be violent in the middle of the night, sing out, and we
will come--if we hear you," said the keeper with a malicious smile.
The patient turned out to be the able seaman. Here Mrs. Archbold aimed a
double stroke; to shake Alfred's nerves, and show him how very mad his
proposed father-in-law was. She thought that, if he could once be forced
to realise this, it might reconcile him to not marrying the daughter.
The first night David did get up and paraded an imaginary deck for four
mortal hours. Alfred's sleep was broken; but he said nothing, and David
turned in again, his watch completed.
Not a day passed now but a blow was struck. Nor was the victim passive;
debarred writing materials, he cut the rims off several copies of the
_Times,_ and secreted them: then catching sight of some ink-blots on the
back of Frank's clothes-brush, scraped them carefully off, melted them in
a very little water, and with a toothpick scrawled his wrongs to the
Commissioners; he rolled the slips round a half-crown, and wrote outside,
"Good Christian, keep this half-crown, and take the writing to the Lunacy
Commissioners at Whitehall, for pity's sake.
Pages:
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971