a figure entered--a figure which she
knew too well. Robed in white it was; the face was pale and white as
the dress; the hair was thick and ebon black, and hung down loosely;
the dress clung closely. Was it the drip of the sea-wave--was it the
wet clothing that thus clung to the figure which had once more come
from the dark ocean depths to avenge her own cause? There, in very
deed, stood the shape of horror--

"her garments
Clinging like cerements,
While the wave constantly
Dripped from her clothing."

It was _she_. It was the one who had been sent down to death beneath
the waters, but who now returned for the last time, no longer to warn
or to baffle, but to change from victim to avenger!

The anguish of that moment was greater fur than all the agonies which
Hilda had ever known. Her heart stopped beating; all life seemed to
ebb away from the terror of that presence. Wildly there arose a
thought of flight; but she was spellbound, her limbs were paralyzed,
and the dark, luminous eyes of the horror enchained her own gaze.
Suddenly she made a convulsive effort, mechanically, and sprung to
her feet, her hands clutching one another in a kind of spasm, and her
brain reeling beneath such thoughts as make men mad. In that deep
agony a groan burst from her, but she spoke not a word as she stood
there rooted to the spot.

As for Zillah herself, she, on entering, had seen Hilda, had
recognized her, and was stricken dumb with amazement. That amazement
made her stop and regard her, with wild, staring eyes, in utter
silence. There had been only one thought in her mind, and that was to
see who it could possibly be that dared to come here with the
pretense of being "Lord Chetwynde's wife." In her eagerness she had
come down in a rather neglige costume, and entering the room she
found herself thus face to face with Hilda. At that sight a thousand
thoughts flashed at once into her mind. In a moment she had divined
the whole extent of Hilda's perfidy. Now she could understand fully
the reason why Hilda had betrayed her; why she had formed so
carefully contrived and so elaborate a plot, which had been carried
out so patiently and so remorselessly. That sight of Hilda showed
her, too, what must have been the height and the depth and the full
extent of the plot against her young, undefended life--its cruelty,
and the baseness of its motive. It was to take her place that Hilda
had betrayed her. Out of such a motive had a