Part 49 (1/2)

”You look like a ghost, Anna,” he remarked, as he searched her face with some anxiety. ”What is the matter with you? I fear you are going to be ill.”

”I am ill,” she said, in a hoa.r.s.e, unnatural tone.

”Then let me call your physician,” said her brother, eagerly. ”I am going out immediately, and will leave a message for him.”

”No, no,” she nervously replied; then with a hollow laugh that smote heavily upon her companion's heart, she added: ”My case is beyond the reach of Dr. Hunt or any other physician.”

”Anna, have you been quarreling with Gerald again?”

”Yes,” was the brief response.

”Well, of course I can understand that such matters are beyond the skill of any physician,” said the young man, with a half-impatient shrug of his shoulders; ”neither have I any business to interfere between you,” he added; ”but my advice would be to make it up as soon as possible, and then try to live peaceably in the future. I do not like to leave you looking so white and miserable, but I must go. Take good care of yourself, and I shall hope to find you better and happier when I return.”

He bent down to give her a farewell caress, and was amazed by the pa.s.sion she manifested in returning it.

She threw her arms around his neck and held him in a convulsive embrace, while she quivered from head to foot with repressed emotion.

She did not utter one word of farewell, but a wild sob burst from her; then, as if she could bear no more, she pushed him from her and rushed into her chamber, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Emil Correlli left the boudoir, a puzzled expression on his handsome face; for, although his sister was subject to strange attacks, he had never seen her like this before.

”Anna will come to grief some day with that cursed temper of hers,” he muttered, as he went to his room to pack his portmanteau, but he was too intent upon his own affairs to dwell long upon even the trouble of his sister, and a couple of hours later was on his way to New York to begin his search for his runaway bride.

The next morning Mrs. G.o.ddard was ”too ill to rise,” she told her maid, when she came at the usual hour to her door. She would not admit her, but sent word to her husband that she could not join him at breakfast.

He went up later to see if she would allow him to call a physician for her, but she would not see him, simply telling him she ”would do well enough without advice--all she needed was rest, and she did not wish to be disturbed by any one until she rang.”

Feeling deeply disappointed and depressed by her unusual obstinacy, the wretched man went downstairs and shut himself into the library, where he remained all day, while there was such an atmosphere of loneliness and desolation about the house that even the servants appeared to feel it, and went about with solemn faces and almost stealthy steps.

Could any one have looked behind those closed doors he could not have failed to have experienced a feeling of pity for the man; for if ever a human being went down into the valley of humiliation, Gerald G.o.ddard sounded its uttermost depths, while he battled alone with all the powers of evil that beset his soul.

When night came he was utterly exhausted, and sought his couch, looking at least ten years older than he had appeared forty-eight hours previous.

He slept heavily and dreamlessly, and did not awake till late, when an imperative knock upon the door and a voice, calling in distress, caused him to spring suddenly from his bed, and impressed him with a sense of impending evil.

”What is it, Mary?” he inquired, upon recognizing the voice of his wife's maid.

”Oh, sir! come--come to madam; she is very ill!” cried the girl, in a frightened tone.

”I will be there immediately. Send James for the doctor, and then go back to her,” commanded her master, as he hurriedly began to dress.

Five minutes later he was in his wife's room, to find her lying upon the lounge, just as he had seen her thirty-six hours previous.

It was evident that she had not been in bed at all for two nights, for she still had on the same dress that she had worn at the Copley Square Hotel.

But the shadow of death was on her white face; her eyes were glazed, and though only partially closed, it was evident that she saw nothing.

She was still breathing, but faintly and irregularly. Her hands were icy cold, and at the base of the nails there was the unmistakable purple tint that indicated approaching dissolution.

Gerald G.o.ddard was shocked beyond measure to find her thus, but he arose to the occasion.