cold air going deeper and deeper,
and conscious of the helplessness of their situation unless she used
the strength that yet remained, Mrs. Abercrombie showed symptoms of
returning life and power of action. Perceiving this, the general drew
an arm around her for support and made a motion to go on again, to
which she responded by moving forward, but with slow and not very
steady steps. Soon, however, she walked more firmly, and began pressing
on with a haste that ill accorded with the apparent condition out of
which she had come only a few moments before.

The insane are often singularly quick in perception, and General
Abercrombie was for the time being as much insane as any patient of an
asylum. It flashed into his mind that his wife had been deceiving him,
had been pretending a faint, when she was as strong of limb and clear
of intellect as when they left Mr. Birtwell's. At this thought the
half-expelled devil that had been controlling him leaped back into his
heart, filling it again with evil passions. But the wind was driving
the fine, sand-like, sharp-cutting snow into his face with such force
and volume as to half suffocate and bewilder him. Turning at this
moment a corner of the street that brought him into the clear sweep of
the storm, the wind struck him with a force that seemed given by a
human hand, and threw him staggering against his wife, both falling.

Struggling to his feet, General Abercrombie cursed his wife as he
jerked her from the ground with a sudden force that came near
dislocating her arm. She gave no word of remonstrance nor cry of pain
or fear, but did all in her power to keep up with her husband as he
drove on again with mad precipitation.

How they got home Mrs. Abercrombie hardly knew, but home they were at
last and in their own room, the door closed and locked and the key
withdrawn by her husband, out of whose manner all the wild passion had
gone. His movements were quiet and his voice when he spoke low, but his
wife knew by the gleam of his restless eyes that thought and purpose
were active.

Their room was in the third story of a large boarding-house in a
fashionable part of the city. The outlook was upon the street. The
house was double, a wide hall running through the centre. There were
four or five large rooms on this floor, all occupied. In the one
adjoining theirs were a lady and gentleman who had been at Mr. and Mrs.
Birtwell's party, and who drove up in a carriage just as the