“Sewer-gas!” exclaimed Evelyn, surprised, for madam had not confided to her fully just how she meant to get rid of her brother’s wife; the sewer-gas had been a cunning after-thought with her and she had neglected to mention it to Evelyn. Madame Winthrop shot a lightning glance of warning at her; but it was too late, for Dr. Winthrop was quick to comprehend that some plot had been sprung upon his unsuspecting wife. “Did she even know there was sewer-gas in the house?” he thundered with white lips—“have you dared to lie to me about this matter?” “Truman!” his mother tried to say, with all her accustomed stateliness; but her voice faltered, her eyes drooped, and a guilty flush arose to her brow, beneath the compelling power of his searching glance, and his suspicions were verified. He arose and stood before her white to his lips. “I can understand now why she would not go to the hotel,” he said, in a voice that made both of his listeners shiver; “the whole thing has been a plot to crush an innocent girl and drive her from the protection of her husband; though what possible good you expected to reap from its success I cannot comprehend. I see it all—she knew that you had written to me condemning her, and she may have been too proud to attempt to vindicate herself of the accusations of her husband’s mother; or—heavens! can I believe you guilty of such wickedness?—perhaps she did so, and you intercepted her letters; she did not know you had written to me that her health was suffering from the defective plumbing in the house, and when she received my cable dispatch telling her to leave it at once she must have thought that I believed the very worst—that I condemned her and wished to have her no longer in my home. How she must have suffered! my poor, proud, sensitive darling! for she had pride as quick and strong as even that of a Winthrop, and if she believed I thought her no longer worthy to share my home, she doubtless resolved that she would rid me and my persecuting family of herself entirely. And now she is dead—my beautiful, pure-hearted, much-wronged wife, and I can never right the terrible wrong. Great Heaven! I cannot—I will not bear it! I wonder that I do not curse you both and tell you that I will never look upon your faces again; I—surely will never forgive either of you—you have murdered my wife!” He turned abruptly from them as he ceased speaking, and left the room, while the two cowering, frightened women could only sit and look into each other’s faces in speechless amazement and agony. CHAPTER XVI. DR. WINTHROP’S BATTLE WITH HIS GRIEF. Evelyn was the first to recover herself. “I never dreamed that True had such a temper,” she remarked, in a tone of awe, but uttering a sigh of relief that the trying interview was over.