ity
of his arms, and waited, drawing each breath with difficulty, saying no
word.

She did not know what was happening, and she dared not look. She could
only wait in anguish for the whimpering that tore her heart to cease.

"Now, _cherie_!" whispered Bertrand at last, and she stiffened in his
arms, preparing for she knew not what.

His hold tightened. For that instant he pressed her hard against his
heart, so that she heard its quick beating.

The next there came a loud report--a sound that violently rent her
stretched nerves, shattering them as glass is shattered by a stone. She
drooped without sound like a broken flower, and the young Frenchman
gathered her up, just as he had done on the occasion of their first
meeting at Valpre, and bore her away.

CHAPTER IV

GOOD-BYE TO CHILDHOOD

Out of the dreadful darkness Chris groped her halting way, saw light,
and, shuddering, closed her eyes again. But at once a voice spoke to her,
soothingly, tenderly, calling her back.

Reluctantly she responded, reluctantly she returned to full
consciousness, and knew that she was lying fully dressed upon a couch in
the drawing-room. But at sight of her husband's face bending above her
she shuddered again--a painful, convulsive shudder that shook her from
head to foot.

He laid a quiet hand on her head, but she shrank away. "Please,
Trevor"--she faltered--"please, I want to be alone."

"Yes, dear," he made gentle reply. "Just drink this first, and I will
leave you."

But she withdrew herself almost violently; she buried her face deep in
the cushion. "I can't! I can't! Please don't ask me to. I am quite all
right. I only want--to be alone."

She was shaking all over as one with an ague, and her words were hardly
articulate. He waited a little for her trembling to pass, but it only
increased till her whole body seemed to twitch uncontrollably. At last
with the utmost quietness he stooped and deliberately raised her.

"Chris, my dear little girl, you mustn't let yourself go like this. I
want you to take this stuff to steady you. Afterwards you will have a
sleep and be better."

She did not absolutely resist him, but he felt her nervous contraction at
his touch. The face she turned to his was ghastly in its pallor.

"I--I don't think I can, Trevor," she said, speaking very rapidly. "My
throat won't swallow. It would only choke me. Please--please, if you
don't mind--go away. I shall be all right if--if you will onl