Cruel As The Grave

"I? I have done nothing!" faltered his wife, with pale and tremulous

lips.

"Oh, Sybil! Sybil! would to Heaven you had died before this night! Or

that I could now give my life for this life that you have madly taken!"

moaned Lyon.

"I have taken no life! What do you mean? This is horrible!" exclaimed

Sybil, dropping the dagger, and looking around upon her husband and

friends, who all shrank from her. "I have taken no life! I am no

assassin! Who dares to accuse me?" she demanded, standing up pale and

haughty among them.

And then she saw that every lowered eye, every compressed lip, every

shuddering and shrinking form, silently accused her.

Mr. Berners had turned again to the dead woman. His hand was eagerly

searching for some pulsation at the heart. Soon he ceased his efforts,

and arose.

"Vain! vain!" he said, "all is still and lifeless, and growing cold and

stiff in death. Oh! my wretched wife!"

"The lady may not be dead! This may be a swoon from loss of blood. In

such a swoon she would be pulseless and breathless, or seem so! let me

try! I have seen many a swoon from loss of blood, as well as many a

death from the same cause, in my military experience," said Captain

Pendleton, pushing forward and kneeling by the sofa, and beginning his

tests, guided by experience.

His words and actions unbound the spell of horror that had till then

held the assembled company still and mute, and now all pressed forward

towards the sofa, and bent over the little group there.

"Air! air! friends, if you please! Stand farther off. And some one open

a window!" exclaimed Captain Pendleton, peremptorily.

And he was immediately obeyed by the falling off of the crowd, one of

whom threw open a window.

"Some one should fetch a physician!" suggested Beatrix Pendleton, whose

palsied tongue was now at length unloosed.

And half a dozen gentlemen immediately started for the stables to

dispatch a messenger for the village doctor from Blackville.

"And while they are fetching the physician, they should summon the

coroner also," suggested a voice from the crowd.

"No! no! not until we have ascertained that life is actually extinct,"

exclaimed Captain Pendleton, hastily; at the same time seeking and

meeting the eyes of Mr. Berners, with a meaning gaze said: "If we cannot restore the dead woman to life, we must at least try to

save the living woman from unspeakable horrors!"

Mr. Berners turned away his head, with a deep groan.

And Captain Pendleton continued his seeming efforts to restore

consciousness to the prostrate form before him, until he heard the

galloping of the horse that took the messenger away for the doctor, and

felt sure that the man could not now receive orders to fetch the coroner

also.