n the hall,
and went out to speak with her.

"You will lie down on the bed in the room next Miss Elsie's," he said,
"and be near her if she wants anything."

He had not forgotten that he must be absent in the night, and was
careful to guard the cherished girl against every possible cause of
fright or agitation.

He spent the evening in Elsie's sick chamber as he had passed the day.
Elsie did not sleep, but she was glad to lie quiet and keep her eyes
closed, shutting out the objects around her. Sometimes when her
reflections became too painful to bear, she would start up, catch his
hands and shriek his name wildly, but his voice always served to calm
her.

Towards midnight she fell into a heavy slumber. More than an hour before
he heard Victoria enter the next room, and knew that he could leave
Elsie in safety.

He bent over the bed, kissed her white forehead, and stole softly out of
the room.

He went down into the library and sat there drearily, starting at the
least sound, almost with a belief that he should stand face to face once
more with his wife who might yet return on some possible pretence. The
hours passed, but there was no step from without, no sign of approach
anywhere about the house.

He went to the window, pushed back the curtains and looked out--the
first thing he saw was the cypress tree waving its branches as they had
done the night before when their moans seemed inarticulate efforts to
speak.

The moon was up now, streaming down with a broad, full glory, very
different from the spectral radiance of the previous night. How vividly
recollection of those fearful hours came back as he stood there! He
lived over every pang, felt every torture redoubled--started back as if
again looking on the dead object which had shut out all happiness from
him for ever.

Suddenly he saw the figure of a man, that man, stealing across the lawn;
he did not wait to reflect, flung open the window and dashed out in
pursuit. He was too late--the intruder disappeared, and though he made a
long and diligent search his efforts were futile.

He returned to the house, livid with the new rage which had come over
him.

"I will find him," he muttered; "there is no spot so distant, no place
so secret, that my vigilance shall not hunt him down!"

So the night passed, and when the dawn again struggled into the sky
Grantley Mellen returned to his sister's chamber, and sat down to watch
her deep, painful slumber once more.