Experiment Perilous by Margaret Carpenter

Hunt's study of Cissie's narrative is cut short when Allida phones and asks him to follow Nick to their son's room when he comes to their house for dinner the next evening. Nick, jealous, overhears Alec's confession of love, and after the party, the two men argue. Writer Alec Gregory, who is in love with Allida, presents her with a bouquet of daisies and later recites a love poem that he has written for her. In New York, Nick gives Allida a birthday party. Nick invited Allida to accompany him and Cissie to Europe, and two years later, after molding her into a sophisticated woman, he married her. Cissie reared Nick, who later became infatuated by the much younger Allida when he encountered her standing in a field of daisies. Her manuscript relates the story of Nick: After their mother died while giving birth to Nick, their father blamed the infant for her death and one year later, committed suicide. On his way home that day, Hunt notices a man following him, and when he arrives at his hotel, he finds Cissie's briefcase in the closet and discovers her diaries. Intrigued, Hunt accepts Nick's request to observe Allida. As proof, Nick tells Hunt that Allida sends herself daisies and is instilling night terrors in their young son. Soon after, Nick visits Hunt at his office and states that he thinks his wife is insane. Upon meeting the overwrought Allida, Hunt is enchanted by her beauty and tells her that he would have painted her standing in a field of daisies. The next day, Hunt is captivated by Allida's portrait and accepts Clag's invitation. Unknown to Hunt, the hotel maid has accidentally switched his briefcase with Cissie's, which now sits in his closet. Upon returning to his hotel, Hunt sends Cissie's luggage to the Bedereaux mansion on Murray Hill. When Hunt exhibits an interest in the Bedereaux family, Clag sends his friend to the museum to view Maitland's portrait of Allida and invites him to tea at the family mansion.

At the restaurant, he overhears artist John Maitland describing the sudden death of Cissie Bedereaux. In New York that evening, Hunt joins his friends, Clag Claghorn and Elaine, for dinner. After confiding that she is writing a manuscript about her volatile brother and his beautiful young wife Allida, Cissie announces that she has decided to live on her own and asks Hunt to take her suitcases to his hotel and reserve a room for her.

At lunch, Cissie tells Hunt that she is returning home to see her brother Nick after spending five years in a sanitarium for her heart condition. When Hunt calms the frightened Cissie, she invites him to join her for lunch the following day. Psychiatrist Huntington 'Hunt' Brailey recalls a chance meeting that began the strangest days of his life: In the early spring of 1903, Hunt meets Clarissa 'Cissie' Bedereaux when the eastbound train on which they are traveling is assailed by a violent storm.

Experiment Perilous by Margaret Carpenter