an invalid
husband, aged and eccentric, beat her wings against the bars. She was
a pretty woman, almost as pretty as her sister, but two years older,
with fair hair, blue eyes, and a pink and white, almost doll-like
complexion. Indeed, I knew quite well that she had long had a host of
admirers, and that just prior to her marriage with Courtenay it had
been rumoured that she was to marry the heir to an earldom, a rather
rakish young cavalry officer up at York.

To restore her to consciousness was not a difficult matter, but after
she had requested me to tell her the whole of the ghastly truth she
sat speechless, as though turned to stone.

Her manner was unaccountable. She spoke at last, and to me it seemed
as though the fainting fit had caused her an utter loss of memory. She
uttered words at random, allowing her tongue to ramble on in strange
disjointed sentences, of which I could make nothing.

"My head! Oh! my head!" she kept on exclaiming, passing her hand
across her brow as though to clear her brain.

"Does it pain you?" I inquired.

"It seems as though a band of iron were round it. I can't think. I--I
can't remember!" And she glanced about her helplessly, her eyes with a
wild strange look in them, her face so haggard and drawn that it gave
her a look of premature age.

"Oh! Mary, dear!" cried Ethelwynn, taking both her cold hands. "Why,
what's the matter? Calm yourself, dear." Then turning to me she asked,
"Can nothing be done, Ralph? See--she's not herself. The shock has
unbalanced her brain."

"Ralph! Ethelwynn!" gasped the unfortunate woman, looking at us with
an expression of sudden wonder. "What has happened? Did I understand
you aright? Poor Henry is dead?"

"Unfortunately that is the truth." I was compelled to reply. "It is a
sad affair, Mary, and you have all our sympathy. But recollect he was
an invalid, and for a long time his life has been despaired of."

I dared not yet tell her the terrible truth that he had been the
victim of foul play.

"It is my fault!" she cried. "My place was here--at home. But--but why
was I not here?" she added with a blank look. "Where did I go?"

"Don't you remember that you went to London with the Hennikers?" I
said.

"Ah! of course!" she exclaimed. "How very stupid of me to forget. But
do you know, I've never experienced such a strange sensation before.
My memory is a perfect blank. How did I return here?"

"Short fetched you in a cab."

"Short? I--I don