ghts of New Jerusalem.

Lionel, meanwhile, went to Roy's dwelling. Roy, he found, was not in it.
Mrs. Roy was; and, by the appearance of the laid-out tea-table, she was
probably expecting Roy to enter. Mrs. Roy sat doing nothing, her arms
hung listlessly down, her head also; sunk apparently in that sad state
of mind--whatever may have been its cause--which was now habitual to
her. By the start with which she sprang from her chair, as Lionel Verner
appeared at the open door, it may be inferred that she took him for her
husband. Surely nobody else could have put her in such tremor.

"Roy's not in, sir," she said, dropping a curtsey, in answer to Lionel's
inquiry. "May be, he'll not be long. It's his time for coming home, but
there's no dependence on him."

Lionel glanced round. He saw that the woman was alone, and he deemed it
a good opportunity to ask her about what had been mentioned to him, two
or three hours previously, by the Vicar of Deerham. Closing the door,
and advancing towards her, he began.

"I want to say a word to you, Mrs. Roy. What were your grounds for
stating to Mr. Bourne that Mr. Frederick Massingbird was with Rachel
Frost at the Willow Pool the evening of her death?"

Mrs. Roy gave a low shriek of terror, and flung her apron over her face.
Lionel ungallantly drew it down again. Her countenance was turning livid
as death.

"You will have the goodness to answer me, Mrs. Roy."

"It were just a dream sir," she said, the words issuing in unequal jerks
from her trembling lips, "I have been pretty nigh crazed lately. What
with them Mormons, and the uncertainty of fixing what to do--whether to
believe 'em or not--and Roy's crabbed temper, which grows upon him, and
other fears and troubles, I've been a-nigh crazed. It were just a dream
as I had, and nothing more; and I be vexed to my heart that I should
have made such a fool of myself, as to go and say what I did to Mr.
Bourne."

One word above all others, caught the attention of Lionel in the answer.
It was "fears." He bent towards her, lowering his voice.

"What are these fears that seem to pursue you? You appear to me to have
been perpetually under the influence of fear since that night. Terrified
you were then; terrified you remain. What is the cause?"

The woman trembled excessively.

"Roy keeps me in fear, sir. He's for ever a-threatening. He'll shake me,
or he'll pinch me, or he'll do for me, he says. I'm in fear of him
always."

"That is