the shadow of regret or repentance, by the woman in whom I
believed as I believed in Heaven, told with cynical laughter instead,
and impatient contempt of the innocence, sullied years ago by
Hilyard--the friend I trusted and loved. I could draw to-day exactly the
pattern of that portiere, the curling leaves of dull crimson, the
intricate tracery of gold thread.

"And Lewis?" suggested Kate, at length.

Amy rolled her head restlessly on the pillow. The soft golden hair was
loosened from its pins, and fell over the slender shoulders. "Oh! well,
one must marry, you know," she said, indifferently.

I moved away silently and unnoticed. I went to brush my hair aside from
my wet forehead, and noticed, parenthetically, that my hand was soiled
with blood, where my nails had bitten the palm. With the death of love
and faith in me had come an immense capacity for cunning, concealment
and cruelty, the trinity of power that abides in certain beasts. Came
also a dull purpose, growing each moment in strength.

I do not remember that I felt a single throe of expiring love, the love
that had filled my heart to the brim. An immeasurable nausea of disgust
overcame me, to the exclusion of other ideas, a fixed sense that a thing
so dangerous in its angelic disguise, so poisonous and loathsome, must
not remain on earth; this jest of Satan must be removed lest it
contaminate all with whom it came in contact. Yet did there live any
being uncontaminated already? Were not all vile, even as she was vile?
My brain reeled. Surely to the eyes of any beholder, she was the
incarnation of purity! That which animated me was not a personal sense
of grievance so much as the inborn, natural desire one feels to
exterminate a pest, to crush a reptile, the more dangerous that it
crawls through flowers to kill. As I have said, I felt power for
strategy, unknown to my nature before, rising in me. Certain ideas were
suggested to me, on which I acted with coolness and promptness. I felt
like a minister of God's will, charged with destruction. It no longer
remained for me to decide what to do: some power dwelling in me impelled
me, against which I could not, even if I would, have struggled.

I went to my room, still unobserved, washed my face and hands, and
looking in the mirror, saw my face reflected, calm and placid, unmarked
by the last half-hour. I descended the stairs, and came in by the porch.

Amy sprang up from the couch as I entered, gaily humming a