h took place that night and the doctors warned me not to
press you."

"And Arthur--poor Arthur, has been the sufferer! Tell me the whole story.
I can bear it," she pleaded. "I can bear anything but not knowing. Why
should he have fallen under suspicion? He was not even there. I must go
to him! Pack up our clothing, Miss Huckins. I must go to him at once."

They were in their own room now, and Carmel was standing quite by herself
in the full light of the setting sun. With the utterance of this
determination, she had turned upon her companion; and that astute and
experienced woman had every opportunity for observing her face. There was
a woman's resolution in it. With the sudden rending of the clouds which
had obscured her intellect, strange powers had awakened in this young
girl, giving her a force of expression which, in connection with her
inextinguishable beauty, formed a spectacle before which this older
woman, in spite of her long experience, hesitated in doubt.

"You shall go--" began the nurse, and stopped.

Carmel was not listening. Another change of thought had come, and her
features, as keenly alive now to every passing emotion as they had
formerly been set in a dull placidity, mirrored doubts of her own, which
had a deeper source than any which had disturbed the nurse, even in
these moments of serious perplexity.

"How can I?" fell in unconscious betrayal from her lips. "How can I!"
Then she stood silent, ghastly with lack of colour one minute, and rosy
red with its excess the next, until it was hard to tell in which extreme
her feeling spoke most truly.

What was the feeling? Nurse Unwin felt it imperative to know. Relying on
the confidence shown her by this unfortunate girl, in her lonely position
and unbearable distress, she approached Carmel, with renewed offers of
help and such expressions of sympathy as she thought might lure her into
open speech.

But discretion had come with fear, and Carmel, while not disdaining the
other's kindness, instantly made it apparent that, whatever her burden,
and however unsuited it was to her present weak condition, it was not one
she felt willing to share.

"I must think," she murmured, as she finally followed the nurse's lead
and seated herself on a lounge. "Arthur on trial for his life! _Arthur on
trial for his life!_ And Adelaide was not even murdered!"

"No?" gasped the nurse, intent on every word this long-silenced
witness let fall.

"Had he no friend? Wa