only assumed to hide his
pain. 'Nay, my child,' as he saw my face, 'do not make it too hard for
me, by a resistance that will be useless. Think how the months will
fly by, and how the change will benefit you, and how good it is of our
dear Mrs. Grey to give up her peaceful home and her work just for your
sake and mine.'

"His sake! He was driving me mad. Ah, it was on me now. He might talk
or he might be silent, but this would make itself heard.

* * * * *

"Oh, Mona, lying deep in your quiet grave, where they carried you so
soon, it was not I, but the demon who possessed me!

* * * * *

"He was very white now. He took hold of my hands and held them firmly.

"'How dare you, Crystal,' he said, sternly; 'how dare you speak of a
lady, of Mrs. Grey in that way. Ah, Heavenly Father, forgive this
unhappy child, she can not know what she says.'

"I answered with a mocking laugh that seemed forced from my lips, and
then, as though my unhappy fate were sealed, Mrs. Grey entered.

"She thought that it was a hysterical attack, and came at once to
Raby's help.

"'Do not be alarmed, Mr. Ferrers,' she said, gently, 'it is only
hysteria;' and she held out a glass of cold water to him. The action
provoked me. I tore myself from Raby's grasp, dashing the glass aside.
I longed to break something. There was a bottle beside me, some
chemical acid that Hugh Redmond had carelessly left that very morning.
I snatched up the vial, for I wanted to crush it into a million atoms,
and rush from the room; but she called out in affright, 'Oh, Crystal,
don't touch it, it is--' and then she never finished.

"I saw her white hands trembling, her blue eyes dilated with horror;
and then my demon was upon me. I knew what it was, and I hurled it at
her, and Raby sprung between--he sprung between us, oh, Raby,
Raby!--and then, with a shriek that rang through my brain for months
afterward, he fell to the ground in convulsions of agony.

* * * * *

"I can not go on. I can not!

"Was not Cain's punishment greater than he could bear?

"When they came to me as I lay in my despair across the threshold of
his door, and told me that the light of those beautiful eyes was
quenched forever; that I should never meet that loving glance again,
that he was blind--blind--and that it was my hand that had done it;
then it was that in my agony I breathed the vow that I