fellow, with beard and moustache, giving him a
foreign-looking aspect; but his eyes! there was no mistaking those
eager, beautiful eyes--the very same that Norah had watched not half
an hour ago, till sleep stole softly over them.

'Tell me, Norah--I can bear it--I have feared it so often. Is she
dead?' Norah still kept silence. 'She is dead!' He hung on Norah's
words and looks, as if for confirmation or contradiction.

'What shall I do?' groaned Norah. 'Oh, sir! why did you come? how
did you find me out? where have you been? We thought you dead, we did
indeed!' She poured out words and questions to gain time, as if time
would help her.

'Norah! answer me this question straight, by yes or no--Is my wife
dead?'

'No, she is not,' said Norah, slowly and heavily.

'Oh, what a relief! Did she receive my letters? But perhaps you don't
know. Why did you leave her? Where is she? Oh, Norah, tell me all
quickly!'

'Mr Frank!' said Norah at last, almost driven to bay by her
terror lest her mistress should return at any moment and find him
there--unable to consider what was best to be done or said--rushing
at something decisive, because she could not endure her present state:
'Mr Frank! we never heard a line from you, and the shipowners said
you had gone down, you and everyone else. We thought you were dead, if
ever man was, and poor Miss Alice and her little sick, helpless child!
Oh, sir, you must guess it,' cried the poor creature at last, bursting
out into a passionate fit of crying, 'for indeed I cannot tell it. But
it was no one's fault. God help us all this night!'

Norah had sat down. She trembled too much to stand. He took her hands
in his. He squeezed them hard, as if, by physical pressure, the truth
could be wrung out.

'Norah.' This time his tone was calm, stagnant as despair. 'She has
married again!'

Norah shook her head sadly. The grasp slowly relaxed. The man had
fainted.

There was brandy in the room. Norah forced some drops into Mr Frank's
mouth, chafed his hands, and--when mere animal life returned, before
the mind poured in its flood of memories and thoughts--she lifted him
up, and rested his head against her knees. Then she put a few crumbs
of bread taken from the supper-table, soaked in brandy, into his
mouth. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.

'Where is she? Tell me this instant.' He looked so wild, so mad, so
desperate, that Norah felt herself to be in bodily danger; but her
time of dread had