aid Jarvis;
"I've seen it 'liven a tree right up."

"We will try, at all events," observed Mr. Mellen. "First you may take
those plants under the library window into the greenhouse; it is too
late for them to be left out."

He walked to the side of the house to point out the flowers he wished to
have removed. Elsie darted through the hall and up the stairs in
breathless haste.

She paused at the door of her sister's room and tried the knob, but the
bolt was drawn.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" she called out in a frightened whisper, utterly
incapable of speaking aloud. "Open the door--for heaven's sake, open the
door!"

There was terror in her voice which communicated itself to the woman
sitting so apathetically in her chamber. She rose and opened the door,
whispering, in a voice full of alarm:

"What is it? What is it?"

Elsie pushed her back into the room, shut and locked the door, and
staggered to a couch.

"The cypress tree!" she gasped. "They are going there."

"Who?" cried Elizabeth. "What do you mean?"

"I can't speak--oh, I am choking!" gasped Elsie.

Elizabeth seized her arm, and fairly shook her with frenzied impatience.

"Speak!" she exclaimed. "Speak, I say!"

"Grant has sent old Jarvis to dig about the roots," returned Elsie, in a
shrill whisper.

Elizabeth Mellen sank slowly upon her knees, her limbs giving way
suddenly, as if she had been struck with paralysis. She caught at
Elsie's dress, the girl raised herself, and there they remained for
several moments, staring in each others' faces, with a white, sickening
terror, which could find no relief in words.

After a time Elizabeth shook herself free from Elsie's grasp and rose;
the power to think and act was coming back to her.

"You heard them say this?" she asked.

"Yes, yes!" cried Elsie. "Grant sent for old Jarvis to come up and dig
round the tree; he thinks it is dying."

Elizabeth threw up her arms in silence, more expressive of agony than a
shriek.

"It has come at last!" broke from her white lips. "It has come at last!"

Elsie cowered down upon the sofa and buried her head in the cushions,
shaking with hysterical tremors from head to foot, and uttering
repressed sobs.

"Exposure--ruin--disgrace!" moaned Elizabeth, as if repeating words that
some secret voice whispered in her ear. "It has come at last! It has
come at last!"

"I shall die!" shrieked Elsie. "I shall go mad!"

She beat the couch wildly with her clenched hands