“Let me think a moment, Kitty.” She put her hand to her brow in a bewildered way, then answered. “No, I did not go away then, for after you were gone Mrs. St. Alban came into my room to talk to me about my husband.” “The viper! What could she have to say about Talbot?” flashed Miss Strangemore. “She wanted to tell me how unhappy they both were and how I had ruined all their lives by marrying Talbot. She wanted me to consent to a divorce that he wanted to have so that he might marry her,” Nina answered, bitterly. “The she-devil!” Miss Drusilla cried, violently. “How did she dare talk to you so? She was brazen-faced indeed! I hope you ordered her out of the room, Nina.” “I asked her to go, I think, but not until I told her that she should have Talbot for her own soon,” the girl answered, wearily. “You meant to consent to a divorce?” the maiden lady cried, aghast, and all the pride of the Selwyn’s flashed from Nina’s eyes as she answered: “No, never!” “What, then?” “I meant to throw away my life, and so set him free and make him happy.” “But you were committing a deadly sin. Did you think of that?” “Perhaps so, I don’t know. I remember that I asked God to forgive me when I sprang into the cold water.” “You went away directly after that woman left you?” the lady asked her, anxiously, and her heart sank when Nina answered, sadly: “No, not just at once. I was so hurt, so shocked at the thought that Talbot actually contemplated divorcing me, that I sat like one stunned for some time, going over and over in my mind the humiliating thought. I rose at last mechanically, put some dark garments on, and went away down to the shore and flung myself into the sea.” “But after all it could not have been midnight when you went, Nina,” said Miss Strangemore, and the tremor of deep anxiety in her voice struck the girl oddly. “Indeed I do not know, I cannot remember,” she said. “But it does not matter very much, I suppose.” They turned it off as lightly as possible, but their strange questions, their confused answers, awakened her suspicions. The truth began to dawn upon her mind. She sat up in bed looking almost unearthly, with her great, startled dark eyes and her deathly white face. “You are frightened over something, both of you. Is it about me?” she asked. And then Kitty went and sat down behind her on the bed and put her arms about the slender form. Nina turned her face to her. “Can anybody punish me, Kitty, because I tried to kill myself?” “No, dear--no one but God, and He will forgive you if you ask him.” In a minute she asked another question. “Can anyone punish me because that dreadful woman said falsely that I killed her?” “Not if you can prove that she lied,” Miss Drusilla answered. “But if”--and all in a minute a ghastly change came over the lovely, stricken young face, “oh, Aunt Drusilla, what if I cannot prove it?” * * * * *