Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/272

260 you know. Perhaps if you oblige me in this instance, I may oblige you later on. Will you promise?"

"Yes," answered Madame de Fonblanque, unable to say no.

"I desire that you remain alone with me until I am dead. It is coming now. I feel it."

Madame de Fonblanque remained silent with horror. A frightful paroxysm of pain came on, and after standing the sight of him writhing for a few moments, she fled shrieking from the room.

An instant later she returned with Chessingham. Mr. Romaine had then recovered from his spasm of pain, and greeted her sarcastically.

"You have broken your promise," he said.

Chessingham came up to him anxiously. He proposed a dozen alleviations of the pain, but Mr. Romaine would not agree to any.

"Look here, Chessingham," he said, "the game is up. I am dying, and I might as well own it. I have n't taken a dose of your medicine since I employed you as my doctor. I consulted Chambers on the sly, and studied up my case myself—and I have a whole pharmacopœia that you never saw or heard of. It was