, against the wall: then
glided to the door and listened. The footsteps died away through her
father's room and down the stairs.

Now in that chest there was a peculiarity that it was almost impossible
for a stranger to detect. A part of the boarding of the room had been
broken, and Gerard being applied to to make it look neater, and being
short of materials, had ingeniously sawed away a space sufficient just
to admit Margaret's soi-disant bed, and with the materials thus acquired
he had repaired the whole room. As for the bed or chest, it really
rested on the rafters a foot below the boards. Consequently it was full
two feet deep, though it looked scarce one.

All was quiet. Margaret kneeled and gave thanks to Heaven. Then she
glided from the door and leaned over the chest, and whispered tenderly,
"Gerard!"

Gerard did not reply.

She then whispered a little louder, "Gerard, all is safe, thank Heaven!
You may rise; but oh! be cautious!"

Gerard made no reply.

She laid her hand upon his shoulder--"Gerard!"

No reply.

"Oh, what is this?" she cried, and her hands ran wildly over his face
and his bosom. She took him by the shoulders; she shook him; she lifted
him; but he escaped from her trembling hands, and fell back, not like a
man, but like a body. A great dread fell on her. The lid had been down.
She had lain upon it. The men had been some time in the room. With all
the strength of frenzy she tore him out of the chest. She bore him in
her arms to the window. She dashed the window open. The sweet air came
in. She laid him in it and in the moonlight. His face was the colour of
ashes; his body was all limp and motionless. She felt his heart. Horror!
it was as still as the rest! Horror of horrors! she had stifled him with
her own body.

The mind cannot all at once believe so great and sudden and strange a
calamity. Gerard, who had got alive into that chest scarce five minutes
ago, how could he be dead?

She called him by all the endearing names that heart could think or
tongue could frame. She kissed him and fondled him and coaxed him and
implored him to speak to her.

No answer to words of love, such as she had never uttered to him before,
nor thought she could utter. Then the poor creature, trembling all over,
began to say over that ashy face little foolish things that were at once
terrible and pitiable.

"Oh, Gerard! I am very sorry you are dead. I am very sorry I have killed
you. Forgive me for not l