order to see these, he must have raised himself on his pillow and
leaned forward on his right arm. But now he was asleep, breathing
painfully, feverish, and shuddering convulsively. Bertha and Hector
did not speak; the solemn and sinister silence was only broken by
the ticking of the clock, or by the leaves of the book which Hector
was reading. Ten o'clock struck; soon after Sauvresy moved, turned
over, and awoke. Bertha was at his side in an instant; she saw that
his eyes were open.

"Do you feel a little better, dear Clement?" she asked.

"Neither better nor worse."

"Do you want anything?"

"I am thirsty."

Hector, who had raised his eyes when his friend spoke, suddenly
resumed his reading.

Bertha, standing by the mantel, began to prepare with great care
Dr. R---'s last prescription; when it was ready, she took out the
fatal little vial as usual, and thrust one of her hair-pins into it.

She had not time to draw it out before she felt a light touch upon
her shoulder. A shudder shook her from head to foot; she suddenly
turned and uttered a loud scream, a cry of terror and horror.

"Oh!"

The hand which had touched her was her husband's. While she was
busied with the poison at the mantel, Sauvresy had softly raised
himself; more softly still, he had pulled the curtain aside, and
had stretched out his arm and touched her. His eyes glittered
with hate and anger.

Bertha's cry was answered by another dull cry, or rather groan;
Tremorel had seen and comprehended all; he was overwhelmed.

"All is discovered!" Their eyes spoke these three words to each
other. They saw them everywhere, written in letters of fire. There
was a moment of stupor, of silence so profound that Hector heard his
temples beat. Sauvresy had got back under the bed-clothes again.
He laughed loudly, wildly, just as a skeleton might have laughed
whose jaws and teeth rattled together.

But Bertha was not one of those persons who are overcome by a single
blow, terrible as it might be. She trembled like a leaf; her legs
staggered; but her mind was already at work seeking a subterfuge.
What had Sauvresy seen--anything? What did he know? For even
had he seen the vial, this might be explained. It could only have
been by simple chance that he had touched her at the moment when
she was using the poison. All these thoughts flashed across her
mind in a moment, as rapid as lightning shooting between the clouds.
And then she dared to approach the bed