Sybil’s dark eyes opened wider and wider in amazement, but still without the least alarm.
“It is enough, oh, Sybil, to repeat to you that your only safety is in instant flight,” he exclaimed, dropping his face upon his hands.
“Flight!” echoed Sybil, staring at him. “Why should I take refuge in flight? I have done nothing criminal, nor will I do anything so ignominious as to fly from my home, Lyon,” she added, proudly.
“But, Sybil—Oh, Sybil! the circumstantial evidence—.”
“Why, I explained all that!” replied Mrs. Berners naïvely. “I told you all how it was: that when I heard her scream, I ran to see what was the matter and I drew the dagger from her bosom, and then the blood spirted up and sprinkled me! It was terrible enough to see and bear that, without having to hear and endure such a preposterous suspicion! And it is all easy enough for any honest mind to understand my explanation.”
“Oh, Sybil! Sybil! that indeed—I mean your presence at her death, with all its concurrent circumstances might be explained away! But the dying woman’s last solemn declaration, charging you as her murderess, that was the most direct testimony! Oh, Heaven, Sybil! Sybil! prepare for your flight; for in that is your only hope of safety! Prepare at once, for there is not an instant to be lost!”
“Stop!” said Sybil, suddenly and solemnly—“Lyon Berners, do you believe that dying declaration to have been true?”
“No! as the Lord hears me, I do not, Sybil! I know you were incapable of doing the deed she charged upon you! No! I am sure she spoke in the delirium of sudden death and terror,” said Lyon Berners earnestly.
“Nor will any one else who knows me, believe it! So be tranquil. I am not guilty, nor will I run away like a guilty one. I will stay here and tell the truth,” said Sybil composedly.
“But, oh, good Heavens! telling the truth will not help you! The law deals with facts, not truths! and judges of facts as if they were truths. And oh! my dear Sybil! the lying facts of this case involve you in such a net of circumstantial evidence and direct testimony as renders you liable to arrest—nay, certain to be arrested and imprisoned upon the charge of murder! Oh, my dear, most innocent wife! my free, wild, high-spirited Sybil! even the sense of innocence could not save you from imprisonment, or support you during its degrading tortures! You could not bear—I could not bear for you, such loss of liberty and honor for one hour—even if nothing worse should follow! But, Sybil, worse may, worse must follow! Yes, the very worst! Your only safety is in flight—instant flight! And oh! Heaven! how the time is speeding away!” exclaimed the husband, beside himself with distress.