low?"

"Alas! alas! it is my duty! it is my fate! I cannot escape it! I have
bound my soul by a fearful oath! I cannot evade it! I shall not survive
it! Oh, all the heaven is black with doom, and all the earth tainted
with blood!" cried Miriam, wildly.

"You are insane, poor girl! you are insane!" said Thurston, pityingly.

"Would Heaven I were! would Heaven I were! but I am not! I am not! Too
well I remember I have bound my soul by an oath to seek out Marian's
destroyer, and deliver him up to death! And I must do it! I must do it!
though my heart break--as it will break in the act!"

"And you believe me to be guilty of this awful crime!"

"There stands the fearful evidence! Would Heaven it did not exist! oh!
would Heaven it did not!"

"Listen to me, dear Miriam," he said, calmly, for he had now recovered
his self-possession. "Listen to me--I am perfectly guiltless of the
crime you impute to me. How is it possible that I could be otherwise
than guiltless. Hear me explain the circumstances that have come to your
knowledge," and he attempted to take her hand to lead her to a seat. But
with a slight scream, she snatched her hand away, saying wildly:

"Touch me not! Your touch thrills me to sickness! to faintness!
curdles--turns back the current of blood in my veins!"

"You think this hand a blood-stained one?"

"The evidence! the evidence!"

"I can explain that evidence. Miriam, my child, sit down--at any
distance from me you please--only let it be near enough for you to
hear. Did I believe you quite sane, Miriam, grief and anger might
possibly seal my lips upon this subject--but believing you partially
deranged--from illness and other causes--I will defend myself to you.
Sit down and hear me."

Miriam dropped into the nearest chair.

Mr. Willcoxen took another, and commenced:

"You have received some truth, Miriam. How it has been presented to you,
I will not ask now. I may presently. I was married, as you have somehow
ascertained, to Marian Mayfield, just before going to Europe. I
corresponded with her from Glasgow. I did appoint a meeting with her on
the beach, upon the fatal evening in question--for what purpose that
meeting was appointed, it is bootless to tell you, since the meeting
never took place--for some hours before I should have set out to keep my
appointment, my grandfather was stricken with apoplexy. I did not wish
to leave his bedside until the arrival of the doctor. But when the
evening wor