The relative calm that Saniel had felt since his marriage he owed to Phillis; to the strength, the confidence, the peace that he drew from her. Phillis without strength, without confidence, without interior peace, such as she was now, could not give him what she no longer had herself, and he returned to the distracted condition that preceded his marriage, and felt the same anguish, the same agitation, the same madness. The beautiful relations, worldly consideration, success, decorations, honors, were good for others; but for his happiness he required the tranquillity and serenity of his wife, and her good moral health which passed into him when she slept on his shoulder. In that case there were no sudden awakenings, no sleeplessness; at the sound of her gentle respiration he was reassured, and the spectres remained in their tomb.
But now that this respiration was agitated, and he no longer felt in her this tranquillity and serenity, he was no longer calm; she was weak and uneasy, and she communicated her fever to him, not her sleep.
“You do not sleep. Why do you not sleep?”
“And you?”
He must know.
He persisted in his questions, but she was always on her guard, so that he was unable to draw anything from her, checked as he was by the fear of betraying himself, which seemed easy at the point he believed she had reached. An awkward word, too much persistence, would let a flood of light into her mind.
He also affected to speak as a physician when questioning her, and to look for medical explanations of her condition.
“If you do not sleep it is because you suffer. What is this suffering? From what does it proceed?”
Having no reasons to give to justify it, since she did not even dare to speak of her brother, she denied it obstinately.
“But nothing is the matter with me, I assure you,” she repeated. “What do you think is the matter?”
“That is what I ask you.”
“Then I ask you: What do you think I conceal from you?”
He could not say that he suspected her of concealing anything from him.
“You do not watch yourself properly.”
“I can do nothing.”
“I will force you to watch yourself and to speak.”
“How?”
“By putting you to sleep.”
The threat was so terrible that she was beside herself.
“Do not do that!” she cried.
They looked at each other for a few moments in silence, both equally frightened, she at the threat, he at what he would learn from her. But to show this fright was on his side to let loose another proof even more grave.
“Why should I not seek to discover in every way the cause of this uneasiness which escapes my examination as well as yours? For that somnambulism offers us an excellent way.”
“But since I am not ill, what more could I tell you when I am asleep than when I am awake?”
“We shall see.”
“It is an experiment that I ask you not to attempt. Would you try a poison on me?”
“Somnambulism is not a poison.”
“Who knows?”
“Those who have made use of it.”
“But you have not.”
“Still I know enough to know that you will run no danger in my hands.”
She believed that he opened a door of escape to her.
“Never mind, I am too much afraid. If you ever want to make me talk in a state of forced somnambulism, ask one of your ‘confreres’ in whom you have confidence to put me to sleep.”
Before a ‘confrere’ she was certain he would not ask her dangerous questions.
He understood that she wished to escape him.
“Afraid of what?” he asked. “That I shall ask you questions about the past, concerning your life before we knew each other, and demand a confession that would wound my love?”
“O Victor!” she cried, distracted. “What more cruel wound could you give me than these words? My confession! It comprises three words: I love you; I have never loved any one but you; I shall never love any one but you. I have no past; my life began with my love.”
He could not press it without showing the importance that he attached to it.
“I do not insist,” he said; “it is a way like any other, but better. You do not wish it, and we will not talk of it.”
But he yielded too quickly for her to hope that he renounced his project, and she remained under the influence of a stupefying terror. What would she say if he made her talk? Everything, possibly. She did not even know what thoughts were hidden in the depths of her brain, and she knew absolutely nothing of this forced somnambulism with which she was threatened.
At this time the works of the school of Nancy on sleep, hypnotism, and suggestion, had not yet been published, or at least the book which served as their starting-point was not known, and she knew nothing of processes that were employed to provoke the hypnotic sleep. As soon as her husband left the house she looked for some book in the library that would enlighten her. But the dictionary that she found gave only obscure or confused instructions in which she floundered. The only exact point that struck her was the method employed to produce sleep; to make the subject look at a brilliant object placed from fifteen to twenty centimetres in front of the eyes. If this were true she had no fear of ever being put to sleep.
However, she was not reassured; and when a few days later at a dinner she found herself seated next to one of her husband’s ‘confreres’, who she knew interested himself in somnambulism, she had the courage to conquer her usual timidity concerning medicine, and questioned him.
“Are there not persons with certain diseases who can be put into a state of somnambulism?”
“It was formerly believed by the public and by many physicians that only persons afflicted with hysteria and nervous troubles could be put to sleep in this way, but it was a mistake; artificial somnambulism may be produced on many subjects who are perfectly healthy.”
“Is the will preserved in sleep?”
“The subject only preserves the spontaneity and will that his hypnotizer leaves him, who at his pleasure makes him sad, gay, angry, or tender, and plays with his soul as with an instrument.”
“But that is frightful.”
“Curious, at least. It is certain that there is a local paralysis of such or such a cell, the study of which is the starting-point of many interesting discoveries.”
“When he wakes, does the subject remember what he has said?”
“There is a difference of opinion on this point. Some say yes, and others no. As for me, I believe the memory depends upon the degree of sleep: with a light sleep there is remembrance, but with a profound sleep the subject does not remember what he has said or heard or done.”
She would have liked to continue, and her companion, glad to talk of what interested him, would willingly have said more, but she saw her husband at the other end of the table watching them by fits and starts, and fearing that he would suspect the subject of their conversation she remained silent.
What she had just learned seemed to her frightful. But, at least, as she would not let herself be hypnotized she had nothing to fear; and remembering what she had read, she promised herself that she would never let him place her in a position where he could put her to sleep. It was during the sleep that the will of the hypnotizer controlled that of the subject, not before.
Resting on this belief, and also on his not having again spoken of sending her to sleep, she was reassured. Was not this a sign that he accepted her opposition and renounced his idea of provoked somnambulism?
But she deceived herself.
One night when she had gone to bed at her usual hour while he remained at his work, she awoke suddenly and saw him standing near her, looking at her with eyes whose fixed stare frightened her.
“What is the matter? What do you want?”
“Nothing, I want nothing; I am going to bed.”
In spite of the strangeness of his glance she did not persist; questions would have taught her nothing. And besides, now that he no longer went to bed at the same time as she did, there was nothing extraordinary in his attitude.
But a few days from that she woke again in the night with a feeling of distress, and saw him leaning over her as if he would envelop her in his arms.
This time, frightened as she was, she had the strength to say nothing, but her anguish was the more intense. Did he then wish to hypnotize her while she slept? Was it possible? Then the dictionary had deceived her?
In truth it was while she slept that Saniel tried to transform her natural into an artificial sleep. Would he succeed? He knew nothing about it, for the experience was new. But he risked it.
The first time, instead of putting her into a state of somnambulism, he awoke her; the second, he succeeded no better; the third, when he saw that after a certain time she did not open her eyes, he supposed that she was asleep. To assure himself, he raised her arm, which remained in the air until he placed it on the bed. Then taking her two hands, he turned them backward, and withdrawing his own, the impulsion which he gave lasted until he checked it. Her face had an expression of calmness and tranquillity that it had not had for a long time; she was the pretty Phillis of other days, with the sprightly glance.
“To-morrow I will make you sleep at the same time,” he said, “and you will talk.”
The next night he put her to sleep even more easily, but when he questioned her she resisted.
“No,” she said, “I will not speak; it is horrible. I will not, I cannot.”
He insisted, but she would not.
“Very well, so be it,” he said; “not to-day, to-morrow. But to-morrow I wish you to speak, and you shall not resist me; I will it!”
If he did not insist it was not only because he knew that habit was necessary to make her submit to his will without being able to defend herself, but because he was ignorant whether, when she awoke, she had any memory of what happened in her sleep, which was an important point.
The next night she was the same as she had been the previous evening, and nothing indicated that she was conscious of her provoked sleep, any more than what she said in this sleep. He could then continue.
This time she went to sleep sooner and more easily than usual, and her face took the expression of tranquillity and repose he had seen the night before. Would she answer? And if she consented, would she speak sincerely, without attempting to weaken or falsify the truth? Emotion made his voice tremble when he put the first question; it was his life, his peace, the happiness of both which decided him.
“Where do you suffer?” he asked.
“I do not suffer.”
“Yet you are agitated, often melancholy or uneasy; you do not sleep well. What troubles you?”
“I am afraid.”
“Afraid of what? Of whom?”
“Of you!”
He trembled.
“Afraid of me! Do you think that I could hurt you?”
“No.”
His tightened heart relaxed.
“Then why are you afraid?”
“Because there are things in you that frighten me.”
“What things? Be exact.”
“The change that has taken place in your temper, your character, and your habits.”
“And how do these changes make you uneasy?”
“They indicate a serious situation.”
“What situation?”
“I do not know; I have never stated exactly.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was afraid; and I closed my eyes so that I might not see.”
“See what?”
“The explanation of all that is mysterious in your life.”
“When did you notice the mystery in my life?”
“At the time of Caffie’s death; and before, when you told me that you could kill him without any remorse.”
“Do you know who killed Caffie?”
“No.”
His relief was so great that for several moments he forgot to continue his interrogations. Then he went on: “And after?”
“A little before Madame Dammauville’s death, when you became irritable and furious without cause; when you told me to go because you did not wish to see Madame Dammauville; when, the night before her death, you were so tender, and asked me not to judge you without recalling that hour.”
“Yet you have judged me.”
“Never. When worry urged me, my love checked me.”
“What provoked this uneasiness outside of these facts?”
“Your manner of living since our marriage; your accesses of anger and of tenderness; your fear of being observed; your agitation at night; your complaints—”
“I talked?” he cried.
“Never distinctly; you groan often, and moan, pronouncing broken words without sense, unintelligible—”
His anguish was violent; when he recovered he continued:
“What is it in this way of living that has made you uneasy?”
“Your constant care not to commit yourself—”
“Commit myself how?”
“I do not know—”
“What else?”
“The anger that you show, or the embarrassment, when the name of Caffie is pronounced, Madame Dammauville’s, and Florentin’s—”
“And you conclude that my anger on hearing these three names—”
“Nothing—I am afraid—”
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