the other was outstretched
against the door-post. She swayed as she stood. Morphia and terror
burned in her glassy eyes fixed in agony upon the clergyman. The light
in the hall below struck upward at her colorless face. In later days
this was the picture which Lady Newhaven recalled to mind as the most
striking of the whole series.

"Tell her," said Rachel, sharply.

The Archdeacon advanced.

"Prepare yourself, dear Lady Newhaven," he said, sonorously. "Our dear
friend, Lord Newhaven, has met with a serious accident. Er--the Lord
gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

"Is he dead?" whispered Lady Newhaven.

The Archdeacon bowed his head.

Every one except the children heard the scream which rang through the
house.

Rachel put her arms round the tottering, distraught figure, drew it
gently back into the room, and closed the door behind her.

CHAPTER XXXVI

And Nicanor lay dead in his harness.
--1 MACABEES, xv. 28.

Rachel laid down the papers which were full of Lord Newhaven's death.

"He has managed it well," she said to herself. "No one could suspect
that it was not an accident. He has played his losing game to the bitter
end, weighing each move. None of the papers even hint that his death was
not an accident. He has provided against that."

The butler received a note from Lord Newhaven the morning after his
death, mentioning the train by which he should return to Westhope that
day, and ordering a carriage to meet him. A great doctor made public the
fact that Lord Newhaven had consulted him the day before about the
attacks of vertigo from which it appeared he had suffered of late. A
similar attack seemed to have seized upon him while waiting at Clapham
Junction when the down express thundered past. The few who saw him said
that, as he was pacing the empty platform, he staggered suddenly as the
train was sweeping up behind him, put his hand to his head, and stumbled
over the edge on to the line. Death was instantaneous. Only his wife and
one other woman knew that it was premeditated.

"The only thing I cannot understand about it," said Rachel to herself,
"is why a man, who from first to last could act with such caution, and
with such deliberate determination, should have been two days late. The
twenty-ninth of November was the last day of the five months, and he
died on the afternoon of December the first. Why did he wait two days