she had been informed
sufficiently that her husband had perished by his own hand. "What am
I to do?" she said. "Oh, Conway;--you must tell me. Was there ever so
miserable a woman! Was it--poison?"

He got up and walked quickly across the room and back again to the
place where she was sitting. "Never mind about that now. You shall
know all that in time. Do not ask any questions about that. If I were
you I think I would go to bed. You will be better there than up, and
this shock will make you sleep."

"No," she said. "I will not go to bed. How should I know that that
man would not come to me and kill me? I believe he murdered Dobbs;--I
do. You are not going to leave me, Conway?"

"I think I had better, for a while. There are things which should be
done. Shall I send one of the women to you?"

"There is not one of them that cares for me in the least. Oh, Conway,
do not go; not yet. I will not be left alone in the house with him.
You will be very cruel if you go and leave me now,--when you have so
often said that you,--that you,--that you were my friend." And now,
at last, she began to weep.

"I think it will be best," he said, "that I should go to Mrs. Van
Siever. If I can manage it, I will get Clara to come to you."

"I do not want her," said Mrs. Broughton. "She is a heartless cold
creature, and I do not want to have her near me. My poor husband was
ruined among them;--yes, ruined among them. It has all been done that
she may marry that horrid man and live here in this house. I have
known ever so long that he has not been safe among them."

"You need fear nothing from Clara," said Dalrymple, with some touch
of anger in his voice.

"Of course you will say so. I can understand that very well. And it
is natural that you should wish to be with her. Pray go."

Then he sat beside her, and took her hand, and endeavoured to speak
to her so seriously, that she herself might become serious, and if
it might be possible, in some degree contemplative. He told her how
necessary it was that she should have some woman near her in her
trouble, and explained to her that as far as he knew her female
friends, there would be no one who would be so considerate with her
as Clara Van Siever. She at one time mentioned the name of Miss
Demolines; but Dalrymple altogether opposed the notion of sending for
that lady,--expressing his opinion that the amiable Madalina had done
all in her power to create quarrels between Mrs. Broughton and