husband, whom she supposed to be sleeping at her side. At length another
strange sound, which she was sure was not due to her imagination, drove
her to make an attempt to rouse him, when she was horrified to find that
she was alone in the bed, and her husband nowhere within reach.

Filled now with something more than nervous apprehension, she flung
herself to the floor, and tried to penetrate, with frenzied glances, the
surrounding darkness. But the blinds and shutters both having been
carefully closed by Mr. Hasbrouck before retiring, she found this
impossible, and she was about to sink in terror to the floor, when she
heard a low gasp on the other side of the room, followed by the
suppressed cry:

"God! what have I done!"

The voice was a strange one, but before the fear aroused by this fact
could culminate in a shriek of dismay, she caught the sound of
retreating footsteps, and, eagerly listening, she heard them descend the
stairs and depart by the front door.

Had she known what had occurred--had there been no doubt in her mind as
to what lay in the darkness on the other side of the room--it is likely
that, at the noise caused by the closing front door, she would have made
at once for the balcony that opened out from the window before which she
was standing, and taken one look at the flying figure below. But her
uncertainty as to what lay hidden from her by the darkness chained her
feet to the floor, and there is no knowing when she would have moved, if
a carriage had not at that moment passed down Astor Place, bringing with
it a sense of companionship which broke the spell that held her, and
gave her strength to light the gas, which was in ready reach of her
hand.

As the sudden blaze illuminated the room, revealing in a burst the old
familiar walls and well-known pieces of furniture, she felt for a moment
as if released from some heavy nightmare and restored to the common
experiences of life. But in another instant her former dread returned,
and she found herself quaking at the prospect of passing around the foot
of the bed into that part of the room which was as yet hidden from her
eyes.

But the desperation which comes with great crises finally drove her from
her retreat; and, creeping slowly forward, she cast one glance at the
floor before her, when she found her worst fears realized by the sight
of the dead body of her husband lying prone before the open doorway,
with a bullet-hole in his forehead.