uch of flesh and blood!
No weird reflected image of a wandering brain was before her; a
woman--only a wicked desperate woman--stood in her way. Enid was not
afraid.

"Florence," she said, "why are you here?"

The woman dashed down the detaining hand. She knew that it was of no use
to assume any longer the character with which she had hoped to impress
the mind of the sensitive, nervous, delicate girl. She was no ghost
indeed; she could figure no longer as a nightmare in Enid's memory. She
stood revealed. But she did not lose her self possession. After a
moment's pause, she spoke with dignity.

"I came here," she said, "to see whether you were sleeping quietly.
Surely I may do so much for my husband's niece?"

"And what were you doing there?" said Enid, pointing to the mantelpiece.
"Why were you tampering with what Mr. Ingledew sends me to take?"

"Tampering, you silly girl? You do not know the meaning of your own
words!"

"Do I not? What have you in your hand?"

She grasped at the little phial which Flossy had half hidden in the
white folds of her dressing-gown--grasped at it, and succeeded, by the
quickness of her movement, in wrenching it from Mrs. Vane's hand. Then,
even by the dim light of the candle, she could see that Flossy's color
waned, and that her narrow eyes were distended with sudden fear.

"Why do you take that? Give it me back!"

"Yes," said Enid, upon whom the excitement had acted like a draught of
wine, giving color to her face and decision to her tones--"yes, when I
have found out what it contains."

"You little fool--you will not know when you look at it!"

"I will keep it and ask Mr. Ingledew or Mr. Evandale. You were pouring
from it into the medicine that Mr. Ingledew gave me--for what purpose
you know, not I."

A gasp issued from Flossy's pale lips. Her danger was clear to her now.

"Give it back to me!" she said. "I will have it--I tell you I will!"

Enid's hand was frail and slight; not for one moment could she have
resisted Mrs. Vane's superior strength--for Flossy could be strong when
occasion called for strength--and she did not try. With a quick sweep of
her arm she hurled the little bottle into the grate! It broke into
fragments as it fell, the crash striking painfully on the ear in the
stillness of the night. The two women looked into each other's faces;
and then Flossy quailed and fell back a step or two.

"What good or harm will that do?" she asked slowly. "Why did you br