n the semi-darkness until she found the knob of the
door and slowly turned it, pressing her weight against the panels. It
did not yield. With a sickening feeling of disappointment she realized
that it was locked.

She stood still for a moment, wondering what she should do next.
Suddenly she shuddered, and a horrible faintness came over her. From
within the room she distinctly heard the slow moaning of someone
evidently in great pain. Thoughts of Richard at once rushed through her
mind; she flung herself on her knees, in an agony of fear, and sought
frantically for the keyhole. At last she found it, and looked into the
room. The sight that met her gaze sent her reeling backward. There lay
Richard, her husband, upon the floor, his face encircled by a ring of
blinding light, by which she could see, with frightful distinctness, the
ghastly expression of his features, the lines of agony about his eyes
and mouth.

For a moment she beat frantically upon the door, calling to him
incoherently. She thought he did not hear her, for he did not turn his
head. Then she stopped, frightened at what she had done. Suppose the
doctor were to overhear her? Everything would be lost. There was but one
chance for Richard now, she felt, and that lay with her. She would leave
the house, in the morning, proceed at once to the Minister's, and tell
him the whole story. Snuff box or no snuff box, she was determined to
rescue her husband from his present situation, if it was not already too
late.

For a long time she looked into the room, watching the face, grim and
silent in the circle of light. She called to him over and over, softly,
telling him of her plans, of her love for him, of her sorrow, but he
seemed not to hear. But for the twitching of his face, and the low moans
which he uttered from time to time, she might have supposed him dead.

How she got back to her room, she could scarcely have told. She
staggered up the stairs into the laboratory, out along the corridor, and
at last reached the door leading into the main building. She pushed this
silently open, and gazed cautiously into the hall. The nurse sat in her
chair, apparently asleep. With the utmost care, Grace managed to enter
the hall, and to close the door behind her. Then seeing that the woman
was rousing, she determined upon a bold plan. She opened her eyes wide,
trying to give them a vacant, staring appearance, and with arms extended
started toward the nurse.

The latter ro