ssness of
my position were presented to my mind with terrific reality. A deadly
swoon-like feeling ensued. To yield in this might seal my fate. I paced
the floor rapidly, praying for help.

Help came suddenly. As I passed the door of my wardrobe, I remembered
that the same key unlocked this and the door of my apartment. I drew it
forth, and in the twinkling of an eye I was free.

The cool air from the outside passage, and the prospect of liberty,
cooled my excited nerves, and revived me for the work I had to
accomplish.

"Richard," said I, my hand upon the latch, "you or I must leave."

He made no reply, but violently rising from his chair, grasped something
that lay near him, and tearing it to atoms, rushed by me without word or
look, and reaching the stairs, hastened out of sight.

Mechanically I sat down, and with sad, straining eyes surveyed the wreck
before me. My bridal wreath was shivered into fragments; its white
petals, like fruit blossoms caught in an untimely blast, sprinkled the
floor; my laces were in shreds like the riven mast of some shipwrecked
vessel.

Of course there was no sleep for me that night. When worn out with
thinking and weeping, I drew a large easy chair up to the door and sat
there as guard, listening, with the hope which moment after moment grew
fainter, that he would return and whisper in my willing ear a sweet
demand for pardon, some word in extenuation for his unseemly conduct; but
he came not.

Toward daybreak, I was aroused from the lethargy into which I had fallen
from sheer exhaustion by the sound of excited voices and hurried
movements in the room below. As these subsided and the gray morning
broke, I was startled by the sound of a horse's hoofs on the graveled
walk.

A fearful foreboding possessed me; what could it mean? Somebody was
riding away; who was it? Through the gate and down the avenue I heard the
galloping steed.

I dragged my nerveless limbs to the window and peered forth. Clear
against the horizon, now streaked with pale crimson rays of dawn, rising
in bold relief I beheld the receding figure of Richard Bristed.

He was leaving me without word or sign. My head reeled; I grasped the
window casement to steady myself, and sank insensible upon the floor.

CHAPTER VI.

I must have remained in this condition some hours, for the sun was high
in the heavens when I opened my eyes and became conscious. Where was I?
Not in my own room, surely; the fragrance