"I insist upon going. All the arguments against my doing so will be quite wasted," she exclaimed, doggedly. "Oh, mamma, do not leave me," cried her daughter, in almost hysterical distress. But Mrs. Stuart shook off the clinging hands of the weeping girl almost rudely. Mr. Stuart regarded his wife in silent amaze and displeasure. Nothing angered him more than for anyone to speak unkindly to his child, but he well knew how useless it would be to remonstrate with his wife, so without more ado Lilia was transferred to Mrs. Leslie's care, and the husband and wife returned to the city. No more unpleasant sight could have greeted Julius Revington's eyes than the face of Mrs. Stuart as she entered the room where he lay attended by the priest and the physician, the only helpers left to him on earth. The eyes already dim with the film of death gazed at her with weak repugnance and horror. Unheeding his gaping wounds and his blood-stained garments, she knelt down by his side and whispered frantically in his ear. With all the strength that was left in his mangled arms he pushed her from him. "Do not tempt me to die with all this load of sin on my soul!" he cried. "I must confess, confess! The priest is waiting to shrive me of my sins! Clarence, Clarence," he cried out wildly, "take her away, take her away! She has been my evil genius. I was weak, but never guilty until she whispered her evil suggestions in my ear and bribed me with her gold!" "It is false, false! Let no one listen to him. These are but the ravings of delirium!" cried the woman angrily. Her looks and actions were those of a desperate, maddened woman. The physician came up firmly to her side and attempted to draw her away. "Let me entreat you, madam, not to shorten the brief span of my patient's life by your unjust charges," he cried. "I assure you he is not delirious, but in the full possession of his senses. Come away from him." They were about to drag her forcibly away when the door opened suddenly and Guy Kenmore entered the room with Miss Brooke clinging to his arm. CHAPTER XLIV. It was a strange sight on which the flickering gaslight fell in that little room. The dying man, lying on the litter on which he had been borne into the room, and from which the physician declared it impossible to remove him, was a ghastly sight that sickened human sensibilities.