“Oh, Aunt Drusilla, you must find my husband for me now. I cannot die without seeing him again. He loves me, and only think how he would feel if he came back again after long months and years had passed, and they told him what a terrible death I had died,” exclaimed Nina, passionately, the day after her sentence of death had been pronounced. A very madness of despair had taken possession of the wretched young creature. She was drowned in bitter tears of woe and pain. “Until I knew that Talbot loved me I could have borne to die,” she said. “But now, oh, now, it is too hard to bear. Oh, if my life could be spared to me, how happy I should be when my husband came home again! There would be no more sorrow, nor regrets, no cruel misunderstandings, but only heavenly peace and happiness. And then, perhaps, after awhile we might find out the real murderer of Sibyl St. Alban. I would give half my fortune to find out who murdered the poor lady that Talbot once loved. Perhaps it was some jealous lover, goaded to madness by her open flirtations,” she added, little dreaming how near her fancy had hit the truth. The whole passionate plaint of her heart was to see her husband again before the awful sentence of the law was carried out against her. Something told her that Talbot would not let them kill her for a crime that she had never committed although the jury men had said that she had. “I am innocent, and Talbot will not let them murder me in cold blood,” she said, passionately. “Oh, Aunt Drusilla, send some one to bring him to me before it is too late!” “Oh, my darling, if I only knew where to send for him how gladly would I do so,” sighed the poor old lady, whose heart was nearly broken by this dreadful tragedy. “I have heard that money will do almost anything. I will give all that I am worth to any one who will bring Talbot to me before that fatal 25th of July,” shuddered Nina. It seemed as if neither love nor money could do anything in this case. Talbot Strangemore’s whereabouts were wrapped in the densest mystery. If the earth or the sea had opened and closed over him he could not have remained more silent to the appeals that went abroad for him. Everyone agreed that it was simply dreadful that Strangemore’s young wife should perish so miserably while he remained abroad in utter ignorance of her fate. Mr. Davenport advised that a detective be sent in search of him. Nina sprang eagerly at the suggestion and desired that two should go.