excitement, if I may so express myself;
and after listening with much interest to the minute account he gave me
of what had passed, I, young and inexperienced as I was in such affairs,
took upon myself to suggest that, as the lady he nothing doubted was as
irreproachable in character as she was confessedly charming and
attractive in person and manners, and as he was unquestionably his own
master, Mrs. Rushton's opposition was not likely to be of long
continuance; and that as to Mademoiselle de Tourville's somewhat
discouraging expression, such sentences from the lips of ladies--

"That would be wooed, and not unsought be won"--

were seldom, if ever, I had understood, to be taken in a literal and
positive sense. Under this mild and soothing treatment, Mr. Rushton
gradually threw off a portion of the load that oppressed him, and we set
off in tolerably cheerful mood for the theatre.

Mrs. Siddons' magnificent and appalling impersonation over, we left the
house; he, melancholy and sombre as I had found him in Harley Street, and
I in by no means a gay or laughing mood. We parted at my door, and
whether it was the effect of the tragedy, so wonderfully realized in its
chief creation, or whether coming events _do_ sometimes cast their
shadows before, I cannot say, but I know that an hour after Rushton's
departure I was still sitting alone, my brain throbbing with excitement,
and so nervous and impressionable, that a sudden, vehement knocking at
the street entrance caused me to spring up from my chair with a terrified
start, and before I could master the impulsive emotion, the room-door was
thrown furiously open, and in reeled Arthur Rushton--pale, haggard,
wild--his eyes ablaze with horror and affright! Had the ghost of Duncan
suddenly gleamed out of the viewless air I could not have been more
startled--awed!

"She is dead!--poisoned!" he shrieked with maniacal fury;
"killed!--murdered!--and by _her_!"

I gasped for breath, and could hardly articulate--"What! whom?"

"My mother!" he shouted with the same furious vehemence--"Killed! by
_her_! Oh, horror!--horror!--horror!" and exhausted by the violence of
his emotions, the unfortunate gentleman staggered, shuddered violently,
as if shaken by an ague fit, and fell heavily--for I was too confounded
to yield him timely aid--on the floor.

As soon as I could rally my scattered senses, I caused medical aid to be
summoned, and got him to bed. Blood was freely taken from b