hey will make me. But I will
outwit them. See--see!" and she held up a little phial in the moonlight.
"This shall cut the knot for me; this shall keep me true to my Christie,
and save me from breaking promises I ought never to have made. This
shall unite me once more with him I killed, and loved."

She meant she would kill herself the night before the wedding, which
perhaps she would not, and perhaps she would. Who can tell? The weak
are violent. But Christopher, seeing the poison so near her lips, was
perplexed, took two strides, wrenched it out of her hand, with a snarl
of rage, and instantly plunged into the shade again.

Rosa uttered a shriek, and flew into the house.

The farther she got, the more terrified she became, and soon Christopher
heard her screaming in the drawing-room in an alarming way. They were
like the screams of the insane.

He got terribly anxious, and followed her. All the doors were open.

As he went up-stairs, he heard her cry, "His ghost! his ghost! I have
seen his ghost! No, no. I feel his hand upon my arm now. A beard! and so
he had in the dream! He is alive. My darling is alive. You have deceived
me. You are an impostor--a villain. Out of the house this moment, or he
shall kill you."

"Are you mad?" cried Falcon. "How can he be alive, when I saw him dead?"

This was too much. Staines gave the door a blow with his arm, and strode
into the apartment, looking white and tremendous.

Falcon saw death in his face; gave a shriek, drew his revolver, and
fired at him with as little aim as he had at the lioness; then made for
the open window. Staines seized a chair, followed him, and hurled it
at him; and the chair and the man went through the window together, and
then there was a strange thud heard outside.

Rosa gave a loud scream, and swooned away.

Staines laid his wife flat on the floor, got the women about her, and at
last she began to give the usual signs of returning life.

Staines said to the oldest woman there, "If she sees me, she will go
off again. Carry her to her room; and tell her, by degrees, that I am
alive."

All this time Papa Lusignan had sat trembling and whimpering in a chair,
moaning, "This is a painful scene--very painful." But at last an idea
struck him--"WHY, YOU HAVE ROBBED THE OFFICE!"

Scarcely was Mrs. Staines out of the room, when a fly drove up, and this
was immediately followed by violent and continuous screaming close under
the window.

"Oh, dear!" si