See how she rushes noiselessly, like a pale meteor, along the passages and up the gallery stairs! Those gleaming eyes, those bloodless lips, that swift silent tread, make her look like the incarnation of a fierce purpose, rather than a woman. The mid-day sun is shining on the armour in the gallery, making mimic suns on bossed sword-hilts and the angles of polished breast-plates. Yes, there are sharp weapons in the gallery. There is a dagger in that cabinet; she knows it well. And as a dragon-fly wheels in its flight to alight for an instant on a leaf, she darts to the cabinet, takes out the dagger, and thrusts it into her pocket. In three minutes more she is out, in hat and cloak, on the gravel-walk, hurrying along towards the thick shades of the distant Rookery. She threads the windings of the plantations, not feeling the golden leaves that rain upon her, not feeling the earth beneath her feet. Her hand is in her pocket, clenching the handle of the dagger, which she holds half out of its sheath. She has reached the Rookery, and is under the gloom of the interlacing boughs. Her heart throbs as if it would burst her bosom--as if every next leap must be its last. Wait, wait, O heart!--till she has done this one deed. He will be there--he will be before her in a moment. He will come towards her with that false smile, thinking she does not know his baseness--she will plunge that dagger into his heart. Poor child! poor child! she who used to cry to have the fish put back into the water--who never willingly killed the smallest living thing--dreams now, in the madness of her passion, that she can kill the man whose very voice unnerves her. But what is that lying among the dank leaves on the path three yards before her? Good God! it is he--lying motionless--his hat fallen off. He is ill, then--he has fainted. Her hand lets go the dagger, and she rushes towards him. His eyes are fixed; he does not see her. She sinks down on her knees, takes the dear head in her arms, and kisses the cold forehead. ‘Anthony, Anthony! speak to me--it is Tina--speak to me! O God, he is dead!’ Chapter 14