ghs.

"Dr. Grey, I have no defence to offer."

"Tell me what induced you to come here."

"An eminently charitable and commendable interest in your fair
patient. I came here simply and solely to ascertain whether Mrs.
Gerome would die, or whether she could possibly recover."

Unflinchingly she looked up into his eyes, and he thought he had never
seen a fairer, prouder, or lovelier face.

"How did you expect to accomplish your errand by wandering about these
grounds, exposing yourself to insult and to injury?"

"I have been on the gallery since twilight, looking through the lace
curtains at Mrs. Gerome lying on her bed, and at you sitting in the
arm-chair. Her eyes are keener than yours, for she saw me peeping
through the window, and told you so. When you left the room I came out
among the trees to escape observation. I scorn all equivocation, and
have no desire to conceal the truth, for if I am not dowered

'With blood trained up along nine centuries,
To hound and hate a lie,'

at least I hold my pauper soul high above the mire of falsehood; and

... 'The things we do,
We do: we'll wear no mask, as if we blushed.'"

They had walked away from the hedge, and Dr. Grey paused at the mound,
where the Ariadne gleamed cold and white in the moonbeams that slanted
across it like silver lances.

Revolving in his mind the best method of extricating the orphan from
the unfortunate predicament in which her rashness had plunged her, he
did not answer immediately, and Salome continued, impatiently,--

"If you imagine that I came here to act as spy upon your actions, you
most egregiously mistake me, for I know all that the most rigid
surveillance could possibly teach me. I heard you say that this night
would prove a crisis in Mrs. Gerome's case, and I was so anxious to
learn the result that I could not wait quietly at home until morning.
I begged you to bring me, and you refused; consequently, I came alone.
Deal frankly with me,--tell me, will that woman die?"

The breathless eagerness with which she bent towards him, the
strained, almost ferocious expression of her keen eyes, sickened his
soul, and he put his hand over his face to shut out the sight of
hers.

"Tell me the truth. I must and will know it."

Her sweet clear voice had become a low hoarse pant, and the knotted
lines were growing harder and tighter on her beautiful brow.

"I pray ceaselessly that God will spare her to me, and I hope