es and with
greatly varied expression--now in reproach, now in terror, now in what
seemed to me in tones of wild pleading and even despair. This continued
at intervals all through the day.

"At three P.M., just as people were gathering for the funeral, the quick,
glad cry: 'I smell flowers, sweet, sweet flowers!'"

Alas! she did.

"At three-forty P.M., as the services neared their close, a violent
change took place in her appearance, and she uttered in shrill tones
those astonishing words which horrified all below and made us feel that
she had a clairvoyant knowledge of the closing of the casket, then
taking place:

"'Break it open! Break it open! and see if her heart is there!'"

"Pause there," I said; "that is what I mean. It was not the only time she
uttered that cry. If you will glance further down, you will come across a
second exclamation of the like character."

"Yes; here it is. It was while the ubiquitous Sweetwater was mousing
about the room."

"Read the very words he heard. I have a reason, Clifton. Humour me for
this once."

"Certainly--no trouble. She cried, this time: 'Break it open! Break the
glass and look in. Her heart should be there--her heart--her heart!"
Horrible! but you insisted, Ranelagh."

"I thought I heard that word glass," I muttered, more to myself than to
him. Then, with a choking fear of giving away my thought, but unable to
resist the opportunity of settling my own fears, I asked: "Was there
glass in the casket lid?"

"No; there never is."

"But she may have thought there was," I suggested hastily. "I'm much
obliged to you, Clifton. I had to hear those sentences again. Morbidness,
no doubt; the experience of the last three weeks would affect a
stronger-minded man than myself." Then before he could reply: "What do
you think the nurse meant by a violent change in her patient?"

"Why, she roused up, I suppose--moved, or made some wild or
feverish gesture."

"That is what I should like to know. I may seem foolish and unnecessarily
exacting about trifles; but I would give a great deal to learn precisely
where she looked, and what she did at the moment she uttered those wild
words. Is the detective Sweetwater still in town?"

"I believe so. Came up for the inquest but goes back to-night."

"See him, Clifton. Ask him to relate this scene. He was present, you
know. Get him to talk about it. You can, and without rousing his
suspicion, keen as they all say he is. And when he tal