To his joy and amazement, the half-crazed woman answered: "Roma told me to throw her in the river or the sewer, but she was so sweet I could not do it! I hid her in an old cellar, very dark and cold, and when I begged her to speak to me, she opened her sweet eyes again! Come with me, and I will show you!" Almost afraid to hope that she spoke the truth, they followed the half-crazed woman to an old unoccupied house several blocks away, and there, indeed, they found Liane, faintly breathing and half frozen, lying on the floor of a cold, dark cellar, half covered with some scraps of carpet that granny had laid over her in her late repentance. Again Sophie's passionate sobs broke out, echoed dismally by granny, who muttered pleadingly: "Don't take her from me if she lives; don't give me Roma to live with! I hate her now, the wicked wretch, and I'd rather have my little angel, Liane! I'll never beat her again; no, never! Do you hear me promise, Liane?" But there was no recognition in the half-open eyes of the poor girl, as they searched their faces, and, pushing granny sharply aside, Edmund Clarke took up his daughter in his arms and bore her back to Mrs. Brinkley's, while Carlos Cisneros was sent in haste for a physician. Granny, seeming to have no fear of arrest for her dreadful crimes, hovered anxiously about, eager as any to aid in undoing her evil work. Liane was laid in Sophie's soft white bed, and the girl said tenderly: "I will nurse her myself, and no one knows better than I how to care for her, for I used to be a nurse in a hospital." "Keep the old woman out," said Mr. Clarke sternly, and she went back to her own rooms, sobbing like a beaten child. The doctor was soon on the scene, and he looked very grave, indeed, when he had made his examination. "It is a serious case," he said. "There has been a severe blow on the head that stunned her, and all her faculties are benumbed. How long this state will last I cannot tell, but I hope I shall bring her around all right." Mr. Clarke rejoiced exceedingly at even this small ray of hope, and, engaging the doctor to remain until his return, set out impatiently to Devereaux's house to tax Roma with her crimes. He was burning with impatience. He could not wait, he was so eager to tell wicked Roma the truth that all her schemes had failed, and that, by Heaven's good mercy, Liane would be restored to her parents' hearts, while she, the wicked usurper, would be driven out to live with the old hag who had helped her in her nefarious plot against his daughter's life. He took with him Carlos Cisneros, and, unknown to them both, Granny Jenks followed in their wake, cunningly curious to see how Roma took her downfall. At nightfall they reached the Devereaux mansion, just a few moments after the ceremony that had made Roma the wife of the young millionaire. Indeed, Lyde and the other two witnesses had just withdrawn from the apartment, on Roma's request to be left alone with her husband.