where but
where they are."

"But I go as her particular friend. They have given her the privilege
of taking with her one of her own sex and she has chosen me. I shall not
fail her. Father is away, and if the awful disappointment you suggest
awaits her, there is all the more reason why she should have some
sympathetic support?"

This was so true, that the fresh protest he was about to utter died on
his lips. Instead, he simply remarked as he bowed her out:

"I foresee that we shall not work much longer together. You are nearing
the end of your endurance."

He never forgot the smile she threw back at him.

V

There are some events which impress the human mind so deeply that their
memory mingles with all after-experiences. Though Violet had made it a
rule to forget as soon as possible the tragic episodes incident to the
strange career upon which she had so mysteriously embarked, there was
destined to be one scene, if not more, which she has never been able to
dismiss at will.

This was the sight which met her eyes from the bow of the small boat
in which Dr. Zabriskie and his wife were rowed over to Jersey on the
afternoon which saw the end of this most sombre drama.

Though it was by no means late in the day, the sun was already sinking,
and the bright red glare which filled the west and shone full upon
the faces of the half dozen people before her added much to the tragic
nature of the scene, though she was far from comprehending its full
significance.

The doctor sat with his wife in the stern and it was upon their faces
Violet's glance was fixed. The glare shone luridly on his sightless
eyeballs, and as she noticed his unwinking lids, she realized as never
before what it was to be blind in the midst of sunshine. His wife's
eyes, on the contrary, were lowered, but there was a look of hopeless
misery in her colourless face which made her appearance infinitely
pathetic, and Violet felt confident that if he could only have seen
her, he would not have maintained the cold and unresponsive manner which
chilled the words on his poor wife's lips and made all advance on her
part impossible.

On the seat in front of them sat an inspector and from some quarter,
possibly from under the inspector's coat, there came the monotonous
ticking of the small clock, which was to serve as a target for the blind
man's aim.

This ticking was all Violet heard, though the river was alive with
traffic and large and small boats were