iew which might rob her of all strength for the morrow.
Accordingly, the District Attorney, addressing Mr. Roberts, suggestively
remarked:

"Mrs. Taylor is showing fatigue. Would it not be better for you to say at
once while she is yet in a condition to remain with us, whether you
prefer to make a public statement of your case or leave it to unfold
itself in the ordinary manner through the two impending inquests and the
busy pen of the reporter?"

"First, am I under arrest? Am I to leave this house----?"

"Not to-night. An officer will remain here with you. To-morrow--after the
inquest, perhaps."

"I will make a statement. I will make it now. I wish to be left in peace
to-night, to think and to regret." Then turning to her, "Ermentrude, a
woman who has served me and my family for twenty-five years is at this
very moment in the rear of the house. Go to her and let her care for you.
I have business here,--business of which I am sure you approve."

"Yes, Carleton. And remember that I shall be put upon my oath to-morrow.
The questions I am asked I must answer--and truthfully," she added,
with a look as full of anguish as inquiry.

"I shall be truthful myself," he assured her, and again their eyes met.

After a while she gave a stumble backward, which Mr. Gryce perceiving,
held out his arm and assisted her from the room.

But once in the hall he felt the clinch of her fingers digging into his
arm.

"Is there no hope?" she whispered. "Must I live----"

"Yes," he interrupted kindly, but with the authority given him by his
relations to this case. "You have won his heart at last, and he speaks
truly when he says that to you and to you alone can he look for comfort,
wherever the action of the law may leave him."

She shivered; then glowed again with renewed fire.

"Thank you," she said; and they passed on.

XXXII

"WHY IS THAT HERE?"

They waited while he wrote. A sinister calm quite unlike that which the
victim of his ambition had shown under the stress of equal suffering if
not equal guilt had subdued his expression to one of unmoved gloom, never
to be broken again.

As word after word flowed from the point of his pen upon the paper spread
out before him, the two officials sitting aside in the shadow watched for
the flicker of an eyelash, or a trembling of the fingers so busy over
their task. But no such sign of weakening did they see. Once only did he
pause to look away--was it into the past or into