ned to them alert again to their presence--"there is the husband that
you want. If you don't believe me, all I say is, wait! He is there. You
will see!"

She ended in a peal of laughter, which itself ended in a weary moan.
"Oh, why can't you help me!" She came toward them, her arms
outstretched. "_Don't_ be afraid of me. I want a woman to know me--to
comfort me. I die to-night. It's calling me, outside. Don't you hear?...

"Listen to me, you women!" she went on, and tried to smile, to gain
their favor. "I lied to you, to get even with you. You want your
husband. Well, I lied. He isn't dead. For all you tried to shut me out.
Do you never pity? Do you never help? O-oh--"

Her hand traveled over her brow, and her eyes wandered.

"No one knows what I need now! I got to tell it, I got to tell it! Hear
that?" There had been a louder and nearer crash outside. "That's my
warning. That says I got to tell it, before it's too late. No storm like
this for forty years--not since one night forty years ago. My God, that
night!" Another heavy rumble interrupted her. "Yes, yes!" she turned and
called. "I'll tell it! I promise!"

She came toward her audience and said pleadingly, "Listen--even if it
frightens you. You've got to listen. That night, forty years ago"--she
peered about her cautiously--"I think--I think I hurt two people--hurt
them very bad. And ever since that night--"

The two women had once again tried to fly away, but again she halted
them. "Listen! You have no right to run away. You got to comfort me! You
hear? Please, please, don't go."

She smiled, and so seemed less ugly. What could her two auditors do but
cling to each other and hear her through, dumb and helpless beneath her
spell?

"Only wait. I'll tell you quickly. Oh, I was not always like this. Once
I could talk--elegant too. I've almost forgotten now. But I never looked
like this then. I was not always ugly--no teeth--gray hair. Once I was
beautiful too. You laugh? But yes! Ah, I was young, and tall, and had
long black hair. I was Mollie, then. Mollie Morgan. That's the first
time I've said my name for years. But that's who I was. Ask Bruce--he
knows."

She had fallen back against the wall again, her eyes roaming as she
remembered. Here she laughed. "But Bruce is dead these many years. He
was my dog." A long pause. "We played together. Among the flowers--in
the pretty cottage--under the vines. Not far from here. But all gone
now, all gone. Even the wo