f the unjust suspicions
that fell on him--of his voyage to Europe?"

"Never," answered Carmichael. "He only spoke, as I remember, of your
beauty and your brightness, and of the good times that you all had
when this old house was in its prime."

"Yes, yes," she said, quickly and with strong feeling, "they were good
times, and he was a man of honour. He never took an unfair advantage,
never boasted of a woman's favour, never tried to spare himself. He
was an American man. I hope you are like him."

The Baron, who had been leaning on the mantel, crossed the room
impatiently and stood beside the bed. He spoke in French again,
dragging the words in his insistent, masterful voice, as if they were
something heavy which he laid upon his wife.

Her grey eyes grew darker, almost black, with enlarging pupils. She
raised herself on the pillows as if about to get up. Then she sank
back again and said, with an evident effort:

"Rene, I must beg you not to speak in French again. The doctor does
not understand it. We must be more courteous. And now I will tell him
about my sudden illness to-night. It was the first time--like a flash
of lightning--an ice-cold hand of pain----"

Even as she spoke a swift and dreadful change passed over her face.
Her colour vanished in a morbid pallor; a cold sweat lay like
death-dew on her forehead; her eyes were fixed on some impending
horror; her lips, blue and rigid, were strained with an unspeakable,
intolerable anguish. Her left arm stiffened as if it were gripped in a
vise of pain. Her right hand fluttered over her heart, plucking at an
unseen weight. It seemed as if an invisible, silent death-wind were
quenching the flame of her life. It flickered in an agony of
strangulation.

"Be quick," cried the doctor; "lay her head lower on the pillows,
loosen her dress, warm her hands."

He had caught up his satchel, and was looking for a little vial. He
found it almost empty. But there were four or five drops of the
yellowish, oily liquid. He poured them on his handkerchief and held it
close to the lady's mouth. She was still breathing regularly though
slowly, and as she inhaled the pungent, fruity smell, like the odour
of a jargonelle pear, a look of relief flowed over her face, her
breathing deepened, her arm and her lips relaxed, the terror faded
from her eyes.

He went to his satchel again and took out a bottle of white tablets
marked "Nitroglycerin." He gave her one of them, and when he sa