! I see it--I see it on his face--my
husband--Stephen--dead--he is dead--you came to bring the news to
me. Look, Phyllis, he cannot say 'No'--he would say 'No' unless I had
guessed the truth--he would say it--he would have some pity. Is it the
truth? Man--speak--say yes, or no--for God's sake! for God's sake!"

She had taken half a dozen rapid steps to him and grasped him by the
arm, gazing into his face.

He bowed his head.

She flung his arm from her, and burst into a laugh.

"Ah, Phyllis! I see it all now. He was the man I loved--I know it
now--he was the man I loved. It was for him I cried out just now--'Give
him back to me--give him back to me!'"

The wild shriek with which she cried the words the second time rang
through the house. She fell upon her knees, clutching at Phyllis' hand
as before, and then, making a motion as if about to rise, she fell
back and lay with her white face turned to the ceiling, her white arms
stretched limply out on each side of her like the arms of a crucified
woman.

Servants came with restoratives.

CHAPTER XXXV.

IF GOD WOULD ONLY GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE!

"Poor creature! Poor creature!" said Mr. Ayrton. He had just returned
from the room to which they had carried Ella. Phyllis was lying on the
sofa with her face down to the pillow. "Poor creature! No one could have
had any idea that she was so attached to him! She will be one of the
richest women in England. He fell down in the club between nine and ten.
His heart. Sir Joseph was not surprised. He said he had told him a short
time ago that he had not six months to live. He cannot have let his wife
know. Well, well, perhaps it was for the best. His man came to me in a
terrible state. How was it to be broken to her? I just managed to catch
the last train. He must have been worth over a million. She will be
one of the richest women in England. Even in America a woman with
three-quarters of a million is reckoned moderately well off. Poor
creature! Ah! the shorn lamb!--the wind is tempered. 'In the midst of
life--' Dear Phyllis! you must not allow yourself to break down. Your
sympathetic nature is hard to control, I know, but still--oh, my child!"

But Phyllis refused to be comforted. She lay sobbing on the pillow, and
when her father put his arm about her and raised her, she put her head
on his shoulder, crying:

"He is gone from me forever--he is gone from me forever! Oh, I am the
cruelest woman on earth! It is not for