Some time after Elsie had gone, Mellen returned to his wife's chamber. She lay with one hand partially over her face, but was watching him all the while; there was an eager expression in her eyes, as if she longed to have him go away, but was afraid to express the wish. "Do you feel sleepy, Bessie?" he asked. "I think so," she replied; "don't let me keep you shut up here any longer--go down and play chess with Elsie." "You will come down after you are rested?" "Oh, certainly; I will be down to tea." He kissed her and turned to leave the room. "What are you going to do?" she asked, huskily. "I have some letters to write; I shall go to the library in order to do it in peace--Elsie is certain not to come there." "Good-bye," said Elizabeth, speaking with hysterical sharpness, which jarred a little on Mellen's quick ear. CHAPTER XLIV. ALMOST DEFIANCE. He was gone and the door closed; Elizabeth raised herself on her elbow and remained listening till the sound of his steps died upon the stairs, then she threw aside the shawls he had flung over her, and sprang to her feet. "Not a day's rest," she exclaimed, "not an hour's--not one! I must go out and answer the demands of this villain. If Grantley should meet me--I don't care--I must have it out! I shall go mad in the end--I shall go mad!" She wrung her hands in a sort of fury, and paced up and down the room with quick, impatient steps. "I might go now," she said at length; "he is in the library--it is growing dark, too." She stopped before one of the windows and looked out; the afternoon was darkening under the mustering clouds and a heavy mist that had swept up from the ocean. "Coming nearer and nearer," muttered Elizabeth, pointing to the waving columns of fog as if she were addressing some unseen person; "just so the danger and the darkness gather closer and closer about my life!" She turned away, urged forward by the courage with which a brave person is impelled to meet a difficulty at once, threw a shawl about her and left the room. She ran through the hall to a back staircase seldom used, and which led into a passage from whence she could pass at once into the thickest part of the shrubbery. At the foot of the stairs she paused an instant, listened then with a quick, choking sigh, opened the door and hurried away. Seated in his library, Mellen found it impossible to fulfil his task of letter writing. He could not account for the feelings which crept over him. The quiet content of the afternoon was all gone; and in its place came, not only anxiety about his wife, but a host of wild suspicions so vague and absurd, that he was angry with the folly which forced him to insult his reason by dwelling upon them.