Then the wearer of the pearl-grey silk heaved a deep sigh, and Diana softly moved the curtain aside a little to get a view of the person who had spoken.
The face was not visible, but from the figure generally, Diana had not the slightest doubt it was Mrs. Harkaway.
"I want some new jewellery sadly," continued "pearl-grey silk;" "but yet, after all, it would be scarcely safe to wear it here, while the brigands are in the neighbourhood. But they will soon be done for."
The widow glided out from her hiding-place as the wearer of the silk dress continued—
"We have one villain safe enough, and another, Mathias, was smothered in a chimney—ha, ha, ha, ha—oh!"
The laugh ended in a deep groan, and never more came the slightest sound from those lips that a moment before had been so merry.
Diana had struck so hard and surely that no second blow was needed, for the first pierced a human heart.
"That laugh was an insult to the memory of my dead husband," she said. "Let none dare scoff at Mathias."
Like a shadow, she glided away, leaving the wearer of the pearl-grey silk sitting motionless before the mirror. Dead!
The silk dress soaked with her heart's blood.