ll I?"

Terrible seconds passed; then her voice came to him--trailed forth,
high-pitched, slow--an eerie thing in his brain:

"_I thought I was a good queen, but I have been hard and wicked as
hell. I'm Bloody Beth.... He asked for bread and I gave him a stone....
Bloody Beth of the Middle Ages_."

"Beth--please!" he cried.

"Go away--oh, go away!"

Cairns' only thought was to bring Vina to her. Some awful hatred for
himself came forth from the back room. He turned to the outer door,
saying, aloud:

"Yes, Beth, I'll go."

The door shut and clicked after him--without his touch--it seemed very
quickly. He descended the steps--a sort of slave to the routine of
death--as one who finds death, must run to perform certain formalities.
At the front door he stopped a second or two, as if his name had been
called faintly. He thought it a delusion--and went out. Crossing the
street, he heard it again:

"David!"

It was just enough for him to hear--a queer high quality.

He glanced up. Beth was leaning out of the lofty window.... More than
ever it was like death to him--the old newspaper days when he was first
at death--the mute face aloft, the gesture, the instant vanishing, when
he was seen to comprehend.

Her door was ajar. She called for him to come in, as he halted in the
hall. Beth came forth from the little room, after a moment, and stood
before him, leaning against the piano. Her face was grayish-white, but
she was controlled.

"Once you told me you loved me," she said. "A happy man should be ready
to do something for a woman he once told that."

"Anything, Beth."

"It came forth from your happiness--so suddenly. You have found me
out.... You made me see--that I believed the lie of a worthless
woman----"

She halted. The last words had a familiar ring.

"I believed a despicable thing of Andrew Bedient--and sent him away....
He must never know. I could not live and have him know that I believed
it. I am paying. I shall pay. I only ask you to keep it, forever--all
that you saw--all that was said--to-day----"

"I will keep it, Beth."

"Even from Vina. Vina is pure. He would read it in her eyes--if she
knew. I wonder that he loved me.... God!... You have enough of the
world left--to bury this evil thing--for me. I am glad of your
happiness."

"Vina will want to see you to-day."

"She may come.... You may say I have been ill. It is true.... I shall
stay and be with you for your marriage. You want me-