ut in vain. 'Lend me your knife, Gerald,' he said. But
Gerald had not got one, so he went into the breakfast room and took
one from the table. He came out feeling its edge and grumbling. 'What
on earth has happened to all the knives--the edges seem all ground
off?' Mary turned away hurriedly and entered the house.

Joshua tried to sever the stalk with the blunt knife as country cooks
sever the necks of fowl--as schoolboys cut twine. With a little effort
he finished the task. The cluster of roses grew thick, so he
determined to gather a great bunch.

He could not find a single sharp knife in the sideboard where the
cutlery was kept, so he called Mary, and when she came, told her the
state of things. She looked so agitated and so miserable that he could
not help knowing the truth, and, as if astounded and hurt, asked her:

'Do you mean to say that _you_ have done it?'

She broke in, 'Oh, Joshua, I was so afraid.'

He paused, and a set, white look came over his face. 'Mary!' said he,
'is this all the trust you have in me? I would not have believed it.'

'Oh, Joshua! Joshua!' she cried entreatingly, 'forgive me,' and wept
bitterly.

Joshua thought a moment and then said: 'I see how it is. We shall
better end this or we shall all go mad.'

He ran into the drawing-room.

'Where are you going?' almost screamed Mary.

Gerald saw what he meant--that he would not be tied to blunt
instruments by the force of a superstition, and was not surprised when
he saw him come out through the French window, bearing in his hand a
large Ghourka knife, which usually lay on the centre table, and which
his brother had sent him from Northern India. It was one of those
great hunting-knives which worked such havoc, at close quarters with
the enemies of the loyal Ghourkas during the mutiny, of great weight
but so evenly balanced in the hand as to seem light, and with an edge
like a razor. With one of these knives a Ghourka can cut a sheep in
two.

When Mary saw him come out of the room with the weapon in his hand she
screamed in an agony of fright, and the hysterics of last night were
promptly renewed.

Joshua ran toward her, and, seeing her falling, threw down the knife
and tried to catch her.

However, he was just a second too late, and the two men cried out in
horror simultaneously as they saw her fall upon the naked blade.

When Gerald rushed over he found that in falling her left hand had
struck the blade, which lay partly upwa