intonation from her lips, "I know my
husband to be innocent, because the hand that held the dagger was mine.
I killed Felix Cadwalader!"

* * * * *

The horror of such a moment is never fully realized till afterward. Not
a man there moved, not even her husband, yet on every cheek a slow
pallor was forming, which testified to the effect of such words from
lips made for smiles and showing in every curve the habit of gentle
thought and the loftiest instincts. Not till some one cried out from the
doorway, "Catch her! she is falling!" did any one stir or release the
pent-up breath which awe and astonishment had hitherto held back on
every lip. Then he in whose evident despair all could read the real
cause of the great dread which had drawn him into a false confession,
sprang forward, and with renewed life showing itself in every feature,
caught her in his arms. As he staggered with her to a sofa and laid her
softly down, he seemed another man in look and bearing; and Mr. Gryce,
who had been watching the whole wonderful event with the strongest
interest, understood at once the meaning of the change which had come
over his prisoner at that point in his memorable arrest when he first
realized that it was for himself they had come, and not for the really
guilty person, the idolized object of his affections.

Meanwhile, he was facing them all, with one hand laid tenderly on that
unconscious head.

"Do not think," he cried, "that because this young girl has steeped her
hand in blood, she is a wicked woman. There is no purer heart on earth
than hers, and none more worthy of the worship of a true man. See! she
killed my brother, son of my father, beloved by my mother, yet I can
kiss her hand, kiss her forehead, her eyes, her feet, not because I hate
him, but because I worship her, the purest--the best----" He left her,
and came and stood before those astonished men. "Sirs!" he cried, "I
must ask you to listen to a strange, a terrible tale."

CHAPTER XIV.

MEMORANDA.

"It is like and unlike what I have just related to you," began young
Adams. "In my previous confession I mixed truth and falsehood, and to
explain myself fully and to help you to a right understanding of my
wife's act, I shall have to start afresh and speak as if I had already
told you nothing."

"Wait!" cried Mr. Gryce, in an authoritative manner. "We will listen to
you presently;" and, leaning over the inspector, he whi