“I have been--foully murdered! It was your wife that did it, Talbot Strangemore! It--it was Nina! She was--jealous, mad--she hated me, and in--in her rage she stole upon me in my sleep and--and plunged a knife in my breast! I saw her--she wore a hood and cloak, ready--to fly--to fly from the scene of her crime! I am--am dying, and--she--Nina Strangemore who hated me--is the woman who has cruelly--murdered--me!” CHAPTER XVI. THE FLIGHT OF NINA. Several days after that tragic night at Selwyn Heights a sensational item appeared in the Baltimore papers and was thence copied widely into other journals. “A thrilling tragedy. A jealous wife murders her beautiful rival and makes a successful flight from justice. A fine old family disgraced by the crime of its last remaining descendant.” Under that heading came the following: “Many members of the _bon ton_ in this city will remember the beautiful Mrs. St. Alban, who about two years ago was the star of a season here, and who at the death of her husband went abroad with a party of friends in the splendid yacht of our citizen, Marmaduke Cameron. This lady recently returned from Europe and during a visit at Selwyn Heights, the seaside home of her friend, Mr. Talbot Strangemore, she was cruelly murdered by the young wife of the latter gentleman. Rumor accredited Mr. Strangemore with a penchant for the charming widow which so enraged the beautiful young wife that she publicly declared her hatred and jealousy of Mrs. St. Alban, and that night she stealthily entered the young widow’s room and assaulted her with a sharp dagger which she left lying upon the floor when she fled from the scene. Mrs. St. Alban is now lying at the point of death at Selwyn Heights, and there is not the faintest hope of her recovery. Her dying deposition accuses Mrs. Strangemore with the crime, and her testimony is strangely supported by the fact that a letter, addressed to Mrs. Strangemore and written by her husband, was found in Mrs. St. Alban’s room, where the jealous wife had most probably dropped it in making her hasty escape. The whole affair is extremely distressing. All the parties belong to the best society, and the crime of the jealous wife has covered with ignominy the name of a fine old family of which she is the last living descendant. It is said that some members of her household will not believe in her guilt, but all the evidence is against her, and her mysterious, unexplained absence of itself is a tacit admission of her sin. Vigorous search is now being made for her, but as yet without success.”