alone andundisturbed," and he went out, closing the door after him.
Five eager minutes passed while I listened for her footstep, expectingeach second to hear her well-known voice; but gradually the atmosphereseemed to become stifling. In my mouth was a sulphurous taste, and thelamp, growing more dim, at last gave a weak flicker and went out.Rushing to the door, I found, to my astonishment, it was locked!
I dashed to the window and tried to open it, but could not. In despairI beat the door frantically with my fists and shouted. But my muffledvoice seemed as weak as a child's. I doubted whether it could be heardbeyond the walls.
Flinging myself upon my knees, I bent to examine the small fire, glowinglike a blacksmith's forge, and discovered to my horror that the chimneyhad been closed, and that the grate was filled with burning charcoal.Quickly I raked it out, but the red cinders only glowed the brighter,and, even though I dashed the hearthrug upon them, I could notextinguish them.
In desperation I tried to struggle to my feet, but failed. My legsrefused to support me; my head throbbed as if my skull would burst.Then a strange sensation of nausea crept over me; my starting eyessmarted as if acid had been flung into them, my tongue clave to the roofof my parched mouth, my chest seemed held in contraction by a band ofiron, as half rising I fell next second, inert and helpless, a suddendarkness obliterating all my senses.
What time elapsed I have no idea. Gradually I struggled back toconsciousness, and as I made desperate endeavour to steady my nerves andcollect my thoughts, I suddenly became painfully aware of a bright lightfalling full upon me. My eyes were dazzled by the extraordinarybrilliancy. I closed them again, and tried to recollect what hadoccurred.
"Pull yourself together, my dear fellow. You are all right now, aren'tyou?" asked a voice in my ear.
I recognised the tones as those of my strange guide.
"Yes," I answered mechanically. "But Sybil--where is she?"
He made no reply.
I tried to open my eyes, but again the light dazzled me. About mesounded soft sibilations and the frou-frou of silk, while the warm airseemed filled with the sickly perfume of tuberoses. My left hand wasgrasping the arm of a capacious saddle-bag chair, wherein I wasevidently sitting, while in my right I held something, the nature ofwhich I could not at first determine.
My trembling fingers closed upon it more tightly a moment later, and Isuddenly recognised that it was the hand of a woman! Again opening myheavy eyes, I strained them until they grew accustomed to thebrightness, and was amazed to discover myself sitting in a spacious,richly-furnished drawing-room, brilliant with gilt and mirrors, whiletwo men and two women in evening dress were standing around me, anxietybetrayed upon their pale faces. In a chair close beside mine sat awoman, whose hand I was holding.
Springing to my feet, my eyes fell full upon her. Attired in dead whitesatin, a long veil hid her face, and in her hair and across her corsagewere orange blossoms. She was a bride!
Behind her--erect and motionless--was the man who had conducted methere, while at her side stood a grave, grey-haired clergyman, who atthat moment was gabbling the concluding portion of the marriage service.The veil failed to conceal her wondrous beauty; in an instant Irecognised her.
It was the woman I adored. A wedding-ring was upon the hand I had held!
"Speak, Sybil!" I cried. "Speak! tell me the reason of this!"
But she answered not. Only the clergyman's droning voice broke thesilence. The hand with the ring upon it lay upon her knees and I caughtit up, but next second dropped it, as if I had been stung. Its contactthrilled me!
Divining my intention, the man who had brought me there dashed betweenus, but ere he could prevent me, I had, with a sudden movement, tornaside the veil.
Horror transfixed me. Her beauty was entrancing, but her blue eyes,wide open in a stony stare, had lost their clearness and were rapidlyglazing; her lips, with their true _arc de Cupidon_, were growing cold,and from her cheeks the flush of life had departed, leaving them whiteas the bridal dress she wore.
I stood open-mouthed, aghast, petrified.
Sybil, the woman I loved better than life, was dead, and I had beenmarried to her!
CHAPTER THREE.
GHOSTS OF THE PAST.
Horrified and appalled, my startled eyes were riveted upon the flawlessface that in life had entranced me.
"See! She's dead--dead!" I gasped wildly, when a few seconds later Ifully realised the ghastly truth.
Then throwing myself upon my knees, heedless of the presence ofstrangers, I seized her clammy hand that bore the wedding ring, andcovered it with mad, grief-impassioned caresses. In her breast was aspray of tuberoses, flowers ineffably emblematic of the grave. Faugh!how I have ever since detested their gruesome, sickly odour. There isdeath in their breath.
The despairing look in her sightless eyes was so horrible that I coveredmy face with my hands to shut it out from my gaze. The secret terrorthat she had dreaded, and to which she had made such veiled, gloomyreferences, had actually fallen. Her incredible presage of evil, whichin Luchon I had at first regarded as the fantastic imaginings of aromantic disposition, had actually become an accomplished fact--somedire, mysterious catastrophe, sudden and complete, had overwhelmed her.
The woman I adored was dead!
In those moments of desolation, stricken down by a sudden grief, I bentover the slim, delicate hands that had so often grasped mine in warmaffection, and there came back to me memories of the brief joyous daysin the gay little mountain town, when for hours I walked by her side inrapturous transports and sat with her each evening under the trees,charmed by her manner, fascinated by her wondrous fathomless eyes, heldby her beautiful countenance as under a spell. There had seemed somemysterious rapport between her soul and mine. The sun shone morebrightly for me on the day she came into my world, and my heart becamefilled with a supreme happiness such as I, blase and world-weary, hadnever known. Heaven had endowed her with one of those women's soulsembodying pity and love, a ray of joy-giving light from a better world,that consoled my being, softened my existence, and aroused within me forthe first time the conviction that in this brotherhood of tears thereexisted one true-hearted, soft-voiced woman, who might be the sweetcompanion of my future life. Through those few sunny days we had beenforgetful of all earth's grim realities, of all the evil thoughts of theworld. We had led an almost idyllic existence, inspired by ourlove-making with great contempt for everything, vainly imagining that weshould have no other care than that of loving one another.
Ah! how brief, alas! had been our paradise! How sudden and complete wasmy bereavement! how bitter my sorrow!
True, Sybil had spoken of the mysterious spectral terror whichconstantly held her in a paroxysm of fear; yet having been satisfied byher declaration that she was not already married, I had continued tolove her with the whole strength of my being, never dreaming that herend was so near. Dead! She could no longer utter those soft,sympathetic words that had brought peace to me. No longer could shepress my hand, nor smile upon me with those great eyes, clear andtrusting as a child's. Only her soulless body was before me; only herchilly form that ere long would be snatched from my sight forever.
No, I could not realise that she had departed beyond recall. In maddesperation I kissed her brow in an attempt to revivify her. At thatmoment her sweet voice seemed raised within me, but it was a voice ofremembrance that brought hot tears to my eyes.
A second later I sprang up, startled by a loud knocking at the door ofthe room. The unknown onlookers, breathless and silent, exchangedglances of abject terror. "Hark!" I cried. "What's that?"
"Hush!" they commanded fiercely. For a few seconds there was a deadsilence, then the summons was repeated louder than before, as a deepvoice outside cried:
"Open the door. We are police officers, and demand admittance in thename of the law."
Upon the small assembly the words fell like a thunderbolt.
"They have come!" gasped one of
the women, pale and trembling. She wasof middle age, and wore an elaborate toilette with a magnificent neckletof pearls.
"Silence! Make no answer," the man who had conducted me from Richmondwhispered anxiously. "They may pass on, and we may yet escape."
"Escape!" I echoed, looking from one to the other; "what crime have youcommitted?"
A third time the knocking was repeated, when suddenly there was a loudcrash, and the door, slowly breaking from its hinges, fell, with itssilken portiere, heavily into the room as three detectives, springingover it, dashed towards us.
"See! there she is!" cried one of the men authoritatively, pointing toSybil. "Arrest her!"
The two others dashed forward to execute their inspector's orders, butas they did so the clergyman stepped quickly before her chair, and,raising his bony hand, cried:
"Back, I command you! Back! The lady for whose arrest I presume
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