d toward her sister's outstretched
form and fell on her knees beside it. Her involuntary shriek and
the fierce recoil she made as her eyes fell on the long white ribbon
trailing over the floor from her sister's wrist, struck me as voicing
the utmost horror of which the human soul is capable. It was as
though her very soul were pierced. Something in the fact itself,
something in the appearance of this snowy ribbon tied to the scarce
whiter wrist, seemed to pluck at the very root of her being; and
when her glance, in traveling its length, lighted on the death dealing
weapon at its end, she cringed in such apparent anguish that we
looked to see her fall in a swoon or break out into delirium. We
were correspondingly startled when she suddenly burst forth with
this word of stern command:

"Untie that knot! Why do you leave that dreadful thing fast to her?
Untie it, I say, it is killing me; I can not bear the sight." And
from trembling she passed to shuddering till her whole body shook
convulsively.

The captain, with much consideration, drew back the hand he had
impulsively stretched toward the ribbon.

"No, no," he protested; "we can not do that; we can do nothing till
the coroner comes. It is necessary that he should see her just as
she was found. Besides, Mr. Jeffrey has a right to the same
privilege. We expect him any moment."

The beautiful head of the woman before us shook involuntarily, but
her lips made no protest. I doubt if she possessed the power of
speech at that moment. A change, subtle, but quite perceptible,
had taken place in her emotions at mention of her sister's husband,
and, though she exerted herself to remain calm, the effort seemed
too much for her strength. Anxious to hide this evidence of weakness,
she rose impetuously; and then we saw how tall she was, how the long
lines of her cloak became her, and what a glorious creature she was
altogether.

"It will kill him," she groaned in a deep inward voice. Then, with
a certain forced haste and in a tone of surprise which to my ear had
not quite a natural ring, she called aloud on her who could no longer
either listen or answer:

"Oh, Veronica, Veronica! What cause had you for death? And why do
we find you lying here in a spot you so feared and detested?"

"Don't you know?" insinuated the captain, with a mild persuasiveness,
such as he was seldom heard to use. "Do you mean that you can not
account for your sister's violent end, you