cried out,
in evident remorse, 'God! what have I done!' and fled without
approaching your victim.

"Descending the stairs, you rushed from the house, closing the front
door behind you and regaining your own without being seen. But here you
found yourself baffled in your attempted escape, by two things. First,
by the pistol you still held in your hand, and secondly, by the fact
that the key upon which you depended for entering your own door was so
twisted out of shape that you knew it would be useless for you to
attempt to use it. What did you do in this emergency? You have already
told us, though the story seemed so improbable at the time, you found
nobody to believe it but myself. The pistol you flung far away from you
down the pavement, from which, by one of those rare chances which
sometimes happen in this world, it was presently picked up by some late
passer-by of more or less doubtful character. The door offered less of
an obstacle than you anticipated; for when you turned to it again you
found it, if I am not greatly mistaken, ajar, left so, as we have reason
to believe, by one who had gone out of it but a few minutes before in a
state which left him but little master of his actions. It was this fact
which provided you with an answer when you were asked how you succeeded
in getting into Mr. Hasbrouck's house after the family had retired for
the night.

"Astonished at the coincidence, but hailing with gladness the
deliverance which it offered, you went in and ascended at once into your
wife's presence; and it was from her lips, and not from those of Mrs.
Hasbrouck, that the cry arose which startled the neighborhood and
prepared men's minds for the tragic words which were shouted a moment
later from the next house.

"But she who uttered the scream knew of no tragedy save that which was
taking place in her own breast. She had just repulsed a dastardly
suitor, and, seeing you enter so unexpectedly in a state of
unaccountable horror and agitation, was naturally stricken with dismay,
and thought she saw your ghost, or, what was worse, a possible avenger;
while you, having failed to kill the man you sought, and having killed a
man you esteemed, let no surprise on her part lure you into any
dangerous self-betrayal. You strove instead to soothe her, and even
attempted to explain the excitement under which you labored, by an
account of your narrow escape at the station, till the sudden alarm from
next door distracted he