Cruel As The Grave

"Oh! had he murdered her and fled?" gasped Sybil, with a half-suppressed

hysterical sob.

Mr. Berners passed his arm around her shoulders and drew her head down

upon his breast, and signed for the landlord to proceed with his story.

"Sir," continued Mr. Judson, "I went up to that bedside in the worst

panic I ever felt in all my life. My heart was hammering at my ribs like

a trip-hammer. First I took up the white hand that was hanging

helplessly down by the side of the bed; and I was glad to find that it

was limber, though cold as ice. Life might not be extinct. I ran down

and dispatched several servants in different directions for physicians,

being determined to insure the attendance of one, even at the risk of

bringing a dozen, and having all their fees to pay."

"You never thought of fees, I'll guarantee," said Mr. Berners.

"Indeed I did not. I thought only of the lady. I sent my old mother to

her bedside, with a request that she would keep everybody else out of

the room until the arrival of a physician, and to let nothing be

touched; for you see, sir, I did not know but what the attendance of a

coroner would be called for as well."

"Oh, how terrible!" murmured Sybil, from her shelter on her husband's

breast.

"Yes, madam, but not so terrible as we feared. Not to tire you with too

long an account of this bad business, I will tell you at once the result

of the physician's examination. It was, that this death-like sleep or

coma of the lady was produced by some powerful narcotic, but by what or

for what purpose administered, he could not discover. The maid was

questioned as to whether her mistress was in the habit of using any form

of opium, and answered that she certainly was not. Well, madam, the

doctor left the lady under the care of my mother, with directions to

watch her pulse, and on any indication of its failure, to summon him

immediately."

"She was in danger, then?"

"Apparently. My mother watched beside her bed all that night; the lady

did not awake until the next morning--that was the Tuesday; and the poor

soul thought it was Monday! You see twenty-four hours had been lost to

her consciousness."

"And her infamous husband?" inquired Mr. Berners.

"Neither he nor his valet were to be found. I had the police upon his

track, you may be sure; though I did not, at the time of the lady's

awakening, know the full extent of his atrocious villainy. I knew he

had swindled me, but I did not know that he had robbed and forsaken his

lovely young wife."

"Robbed and forsaken his wife?" echoed Sybil, piteously.