the cell he found the place in perfect order,
and Sybil and Beatrix carefully dressed as if for company.

"See! we are all ready to receive our visitors, Lyon. And oh! I am so
glad to be at home again, and to give a dinner party! Like old times!
Before we went on our wedding tour, Lyon!"

These were the first words Sybil addressed to her husband, as he entered
the room.

Lyon Berners drew her to his bosom, pressed a kiss on her lips, and then
signed to Miss Pendleton to follow him to the window.

"What does all this mean, dearest Beatrix?" he inquired.

"If means that her insanity is increasing. She awoke this morning,
perhaps with some dream of home still lingering in her mind; at all
events, with the impression that she was at Black Hall. I have not
combated the pleasant delusion; indeed I have rather fostered it."

"You were right, dear friend. You know of this intended visit of the
physicians?"

"Oh, yes; and so does she, only she fancies that they are to be her
guests at a dinner party."

As Beatrix thus spoke, there was a sound of approaching footsteps in the
corridor, and the cell door was again opened to admit Dr. Hart.

The good physician shook hands with Mr. Berners, who stood nearest the
door, and whispering hastily:

"I wish to speak with you apart presently," he passed on to meet Sybil,
who, with the courtesy of a hostess, was coming forward to welcome him.

He shook hands with her pleasantly, and inquired after her health.

"Oh, thanks! I am very well since I got home. I took cold. Where did I
take cold?" she said, with an air of perplexity, as she passed her thin
white hand through her silken black tresses.

"You have been travelling, then?" said the doctor, to try her memory.

"Yes; travelling."

"And saw many interesting sights, no doubt?"

"I--yes; there were caves--the Mammoth Cave, you see; and ships in the
harbor; and--and--" A look of doubt and pain passed over her, and she
became silent.

"And many, many more attractive or instructive objects met your sight,
no doubt?"

"Yes; we were in England just before the Conquest, and I saw Harold the
Saxon and Edith the Fair. But 'Fair' was 'foul' then--so foul that the
Spirit of Fire consumed her. Oh!--"

She paused, and an expression of horrible anguish convulsed her
beautiful face.

"But you are at home now, my child," said the doctor soothingly, laying
his hand upon her head.

"Oh, yes," she answered, with a sigh of deep relie