At the end of two years,
her case was pronounced hopeless. Fortunately the child died at the
age of six weeks, so the seed of insanity which in the first Mrs
Lawrence was simply a case of "nerves," growing into the plant
hysteria in Mabel, and yielding the deadly fruit of insanity in
Alice, was allowed by a kind providence to become extinct in the
fourth generation.
This disaster to his only child caused a complete breaking down of
spirit and health in Preston Cheney.
Like some great, strongly coupled car, which loses its grip and goes
plunging down an incline to destruction, Preston Cheney's will-power
lost its hold on life, and he went down to the valley of death with
frightful speed.
During the months which preceded his death, Senator Cheney's only
pleasure seemed to be in the companionship of his son-in-law. The
strong attachment between the two men ripened with every day's
association. One day the rector was sitting by the invalid's couch,
reading aloud, when Preston Cheney laid his hand on the young man's
arm and said: "Close your book and let me tell you a true story
which is stranger than fiction. It is the story of an ambitious man
and all the disasters which his realised ambition brought into the
lives of others. It is a story whose details are known to but two
beings on earth, if indeed the other being still exists on earth.
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