"Yes; she died to-night."
"That is terrible."
"And yet it is best so. Insanity is far worse than death; at any rate it seems so to me," he said solemnly and slow. "And now, dear Rose, I have but one request to make. If we could only be married before this trial I should feel doubly strong to face the world."
She opened her lips to reply, but the words were drowned in their inseption by the crash of feet in the hall.
Swiftly the man sprang across the carpet and turned the key in the lock, just as a hand shook the door, and a loud voice demanded admittance.
CHAPTER XXVII.
A DEMON'S DEED.
"My presence here has been discovered," he whispered hoarsely. "What shall we do?"
He had seemingly forgotten his determination to face the world and fight for his life as a man should.
Under the excitement of the occasion Rose thought only of saving her lover from the hands of rude men, who looked upon him as a wild beast justly their prey.