ze for his unceremonious intrusion,
when Mr. Worth arose, and with grave courtesy and earnest sympathy,
informed his visitor that he had already heard, with deep sorrow, the
adverse decision of the governor.

Mr. Berners covered his face with his hand for a moment, and then sank
into the chair placed for him by Mr. Worth.

As soon as he had recovered himself, he entered upon the subject of his
visit--the insanity of Sybil, and the use that might be made of it in
gaining a respite that should prolong her life for some months, until
perhaps she might be permitted to die a natural death.

"Her state, as you represent it, gives me hopes of obtaining not only a
respite, but a full pardon," said Ishmael Worth, when Mr. Berners had
finished his account.

"I scarcely dared to hope as much as that," sighed Mr. Berners.

"I must speak now from the law's point of view. You and I believe that,
sane or insane, Mrs. Berners never committed that murder. But the jury
says she did. Now if she can be proved to be insane at this time, her
present insanity will 'argue a foregone conclusion;' namely, that she
was insane at the time she is said to have committed the crime; and if
insane, then she was therefore irresponsible for her action, and
unamenable to the laws. Let this be satisfactorily proved, and properly
set before the governor, and I have little doubt that the result will be
a full pardon."

"You give me hope, where I thought hope was impossible. If we can only
obtain this pardon, and get my dear wife out of her horrible position, I
will take her at once to some foreign country, where, far from all these
ghastly associations, she may live in peace, and possibly recover her
reason, and where she may have some little share of earthly happiness
even yet," sighed Lyon Berners.

"And if it can be shown that there has been insanity in her family, it
will make our argument much stronger. Has such ever been the case?"
earnestly inquired Ishmael Worth.

"Ah, no! unless the most violent passions roused at times to the most
ungovernable fury, and resulting in the most heinous deeds, can be
called insanity, there is none in her family," said Mr. Berners sadly,
shaking his head.

"That is also insanity certainly," said the philosophical Ishmael Worth,
"but scarcely of the sort that could be brought forward in her favor."

"Nor is it the type of her present mental malady, which is very, very
gentle."

"However, we have ground enou