chamber door is shut swiftly and locked
securely. John Burrill has been led out like a lamb, and the fat and
smiling strategist comes back to the bedside.

"I suppose he thought I would tell him a secret when I got him outside,"
she laughs, softly.

Whatever he thought he kept to himself. After uttering a few curses he
went below, "returned to his pipe and his bowl," and waited the dinner
hour.

"I shall send for Doctor Heath," said Mrs. Lamotte, as she bent above
her daughter, who had slowly returned to consciousness, but lay passive,
seeming not to see or know the friends who stood about her. "Sybil does
not know us; I feel alarmed."

Mrs. Aliston nodded sagaciously. "He can not come too soon," she said;
then to Constance, with a mingling of womanly tact and genuine
kindliness, "my child, you had better drive home soon. If Mrs. Lamotte
wishes, or will permit, I will stay to-night. It will be better, believe
me, Mrs. Lamotte, than to share a watch with any servant; and I am a
good nurse."

So it is arranged that she shall stay, and Constance proposes to return
alone to Wardour.

As she goes down stairs to her carriage, from out the shadow of the
drawing room comes Frank Lamotte, still very haggard, and trembling with
excitement suppressed.

"Constance!" he whispers, hoarsely, "one moment, please."

She pauses before him, very pale and still.

"Constance," speaking with an effort, "I--went up there, hoping to keep
Burrill from intruding; he was too quick for me, and--and I heard
Sybil's last words--and yours."

No answer from the pale listener.

"My sister asked you to refuse me. Am I right?"

"You heard."

"And you promised?"

"I promised."

"Constance, Sybil is half mad. You surely were only humoring her whim in
so replying."

"Sybil _is_ half mad. I begin to think that you know why."

"We all know why. She has sacrificed herself for an ingrate; she has
saddled us all with a monster, to save a brother who is not worth
saving."

"Frank Lamotte, stop; I can not listen to this; for, let me tell you
that I know this charge against Evan Lamotte to be false, and I know
that you know it; and yet you have sanctioned the fraud. Who has
blighted Sybil's life, you may know, but it is not Evan."

"Constance do you mean--"

"I mean all that I say. Let me pass, Frank."

"Not yet. Constance, Constance! had you never any love for me? Is there
no shadow of hope?"

"At first," said Constance, coldly, "I