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THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

recalling those terrible scenes had completely exhausted the unfortunate creature. She closed her eyes, and lay perfectly still. She did not even wait to see the impression her story had made upon her companion; it seemed as if she was wholly indifferent to all that now.

"It must be getting late, Doctor," she said, presently, in a low, feeble voice. "Perhaps you had better go at once; there's not much time to lose."

He rose in silence, took his hat, and stole out of the room. In twenty minutes or so he climbed the stairs again, followed by Gilbert Ferris. As the two men entered, the woman raised her head languidly, and gazed at them with dull, vacant eyes. Suddenly the expression changed to a look of joyful recognition. She held out her hands, gave a short, sharp cry, and dropped heavily back upon the pillow.

She was dead!