been too
much for you. Go upstairs, and rest. You will find the door of one of
the rooms left open. That is the room you are to occupy. Good-night."

She put the candle (which she had left burning for him) on the table,
and gave him her hand. He held her back by it desperately as she turned
to leave him. His horror of what might happen when she was left by
herself forced the words to his lips which he would have feared to speak
to her at any other time.

"Don't," he pleaded, in a whisper; "oh, don't, don't, don't go
downstairs to-night!"

She released her hand, and signed to him to take the candle. "You shall
see me to-morrow," she said. "Not a word more now!"

Her stronger will conquered him at that last moment, as it had conquered
him throughout. He took the candle and waited, following her eagerly
with his eyes as she descended the stairs. The cold of the December
night seemed to have found its way to her through the warmth of the
house. She had put on a long, heavy black shawl, and had fastened it
close over her breast. The plaited coronet in which she wore her hair
seemed to have weighed too heavily on her head. She had untwisted it,
and thrown it back over her shoulders. The old man looked at her flowing
hair, as it lay red over the black shawl--at her supple, long-fingered
hand, as it slid down the banisters--at the smooth, seductive grace of
every movement that took her further and further away from him. "The
night will go quickly," he said to himself, as she passed from his view;
"I shall dream of her till the morning comes!"

She secured the staircase door, after she had passed through
it--listened, and satisfied herself that nothing was stirring--then went
on slowly along the corridor to the window. Leaning on the window-sill,
she looked out at the night. The clouds were over the moon at that
moment; nothing was to be seen through the darkness but the scattered
gas-lights in the suburb. Turning from the window, she looked at the
clock. It was twenty minutes past one.

For the last time, the resolution that had come to her in the earlier
night, with the knowledge that her husband was in the house, forced
itself uppermost in her mind. For the last time, the voice within her
said, "Think if there is no other way!"

She pondered over it till the minute-hand of the clock pointed to the
half-hour. "No!" she said, still thinking of her husband. "The one
chance left is to go through with it to the end. He