y darling, my life, my love,
my wife! Oh, my God to think, I should love her, wildly, madly still,
believing her--knowing her to be false!"

He went up to his dressing-room, his heart full to bursting. A mad,
insane longing to go to her, to fold her to his breast, to forgive her
all, to take her, guilty or innocent, and let pride and honor go to the
winds, was upon him. He loved her so intensely, so passionately, that
life without her, apart from her, was hourly increasing torture.

The sight of a folded note lying on the table alone arrested his
excited steps. He took it up, looked at the strange superscription,
tore it open, ran over its diabolical contents, and reeled as if struck
a blow.

"Great Heaven! it is not true! it can not be true! it is a vile,
accursed slander! My wife meet this man alone, and at midnight, in
that forsaken spot! Oh, it is impossible! May curses light upon the
slanderous coward who dared to write this infernal lie!"

He flung it, in a paroxysm of mad fury, into the fire. A flash of
flame, and Sybilla Silver's artfully written note was forever gone. He
started up in white fury.

"I will go to her room; I will see for myself! I will find her safely
asleep, I know!"

But a horrible misgiving filled him, even while he uttered the brave
words. He dashed out of his room and into his wife's. It was
deserted. He entered the bedroom. She was not there; the bed had not
been slept in. He passed to her boudoir; that, too, was vacant.

Sir Everard seized the bell-rope and rang a peal that resounded with
unearthly echoes through the sleeping house. Five minutes of mad
impatience--ten; then Claudine, scared and shivering, appeared.

"Where is your mistress?"

"_Mon Dieu_! how should I know? Is not my lady in bed?"

"No; her bed has not been slept in to-night. She is in none of her
rooms. When did you see her last?"

"About ten o'clock. She dismissed me for the night; she said she would
undress herself."

"Where is Miss Silver?"

"In bed, I think, monsieur."

"Go to her--tell her I want to see her at once. Lose no time."

Claudine disappeared. Miss Silver was so very soundly asleep that it
required five minutes rapping to rouse her. Once aroused, however, she
threw on a dressing-gown, thrust her feet into slippers, and appeared
before the baronet, with a pale, anxious, inquiring face.

"Where is my wife? Where is Lady Kingsland?"

"Good Heaven! is she not here?"