bourg, and who can give you news of Christophe when
he was there?"

"Oh yes, mademoiselle; I should love it above all things," she
answered, with a flush of joy over her pale face.

"Very well; we will come to-morrow."

There was every reason, for Lucy's sake, why Hugh should come, and
in my heart I longed to see him again before I determined on my
own course of action. It was a pleasing thought, too, that I should
see him comforting one to whom it would mean so much.

The morrow was a long day for both of us, and at four o'clock, just
as it was growing dusk, I sate by her bed, listening anxiously to
every footfall in the corridor, until at last I caught Angelique's
light step, followed by a firmer tread, which I recognised at once.

It would be hard to tell whether Lucy or I was the more excited.

"Be calm, Lucy," I whispered, laying a trembling hand on hers; and
I drew my chair up to the head of the bed, so that I was completely
hidden by its white curtain.

"Lucie," said Angelique, on entering, "I have brought my friend.
Shall he come in?"

"Yes, mademoiselle," answered Lucy, in an expectant voice.

I heard Angelique go towards the door, and then heard Hugh enter.
I caught the arms of my chair tightly as he approached the bed,
when, to my amazement, I felt that Lucy had raised herself, and
the next instant she cried, in a voice strained in agony:

"Hugh Maxwell! What have you done with our son?"

CHAPTER XXII

I AM TORTURED BY MYSELF AND OTHERS

In some manner I controlled myself, and in the confusion which
followed Lucy's wild cry I opened the door beside me and stepped
noiselessly into the adjoining room.

I sank down into a chair, benumbed in body and bewildered in mind.
Everything was in a whirl of confusion, and through it I heard the
heart-breaking cry that was no hallucination of madness, no fancy
of a disordered mind, but an arraignment straight from the heart
of a woman who perhaps had suffered beyond what I was suffering
now.

What was happening behind those closed doors? Once the mad impulse
flashed across me to enter and learn the worst, but I shrank appalled
at the thought of exposing myself to further humiliation. In my
seeking for some escape, I even questioned if I had heard aright;
it seemed impossible that there should not be some explanation,
that there was not some horrible mistake, and a fierce anger swept
over me at the injustice of it all.

Had I wasted the love of m