g as to your
own verdict in the matter. This is very unlikely, I know, for I
understand you were very decided; but still as soon as we have definite
information--if we get it--you may wish to inform poor Mrs. Sarratt of
your journey here. I hope she is getting stronger. She did indeed look
very frail when I saw her last.

'Yours very truly,

'ROBERT HOWSON.'

Since the receipt of that letter Bridget's reflections had been more
disagreeable than any she had yet grappled with. In Nelly's company the
awfulness of what she had done did sometimes smite home to her. Well,
she had staked everything upon it, and the only possible course was to
brazen it out. That George should die, and die _quickly_--without any
return of memory or speech, was what she terribly and passionately
desired. In all probability he would die quickly; he might even now be
dead. She saw the thing perpetually as a race between his returning
mind--if he still lived, and it was returning--and his ebbing strength.
If she had lived in old Sicilian days, she would have made a waxen image
like the Theocritean sorceress, and put it by the fire, that as it
wasted, so George might waste. As it was, she passed her time during the
forty-eight hours after reading Howson's letter in a silent and
murderous concentration on one thought and wish--George Sarratt's
speedy death.

What a release indeed for everybody!--if people would only tell the
truth, and not dress up their real feelings and interests in stale
sentimentalisms. Farrell made happy at no very distant date; Nelly
settled for life with a rich man who adored her; her own future
secured--with the very modest freedom and opportunity she craved:--all
this on the one side--futile tragedy and suffering on the other. None
the less, there were moments when, with a start, she realised what other
people might think of her conduct. But after all she could always plead
it was a mistake--an honest mistake. Are there not constantly cases in
the law courts, which shew how easy it is to fail in identifying the
right person, or to persist in identifying the wrong one?

During the days before Farrell returned, the two sisters were alone
together. Bridget would gladly have gone away out of sight and hearing
of Nelly. But she did not dare to leave the situation--above all, the
postman--unwatched. Meanwhile Nelly made repeated efforts to break down
the new and inexplicable barrier which seemed to have arisen between
herse