Suddenly she flung her arms up above her head, stretching her wasted hands towards the ceiling.
"By the God who has renounced and abandoned me," she cried, "I have no more knowledge than you have of Mary Marchmont's fate. From the hour in which she left this house, upon the 17th of October, until this present moment, I have neither seen her nor heard of her. If I have lied to you, Edward Arundel," she added, dropping her extended arms, and turning quietly to her cousin,––"if I have lied to you in saying this, may the tortures which I suffer be doubled to me,––if in the infinite of suffering there is any anguish worse than that I now endure."
Edward Arundel paused for a little while, brooding over this strange reply to his appeal. Could he disbelieve his cousin?
It is common to some people to make forcible and impious asseverations of an untruth shamelessly, in the very face of an insulted Heaven. But Olivia Marchmont was a woman who, in the very darkest hour of her despair, knew no wavering from her faith in the God she had offended.
"I cannot refuse to believe you, Olivia," Captain Arundel said presently. "I do believe in your solemn protestations, and I no longer look for help from you in my search for my lost love. I absolve you from all suspicion of being aware of her fate after she left this house. But so long as she remained beneath this roof she was in your care, and I hold you responsible for the ills that may have then befallen her. You, Olivia, must have had some hand in driving that unhappy girl away from her home."
The widow had resumed her seat by the open davenport. She sat with her head bent, her brows contracted, her mouth fixed and rigid, her left hand trifling absently with the scattered papers before her.
"You accused me of this once before, when Mary Marchmont left this house," she said sullenly.
"And you were guilty then," answered Edward.
"I cannot hold myself answerable for the actions of others. Mary Marchmont left this time, as she left before, of her own free will."
"Driven away by your cruel words."