"Yes, Dr. Bleedem says I have been most seriously ill—that he has just rescued me from the jaws of death."
"Ah!" remarked the antiquary with a quiet smile, "and someone else rescued you quite lately from something very like the jaws of death—only worse," he added, in a low tone.
"Oh!" she cried, covering her face with her hands, as if to shut out some horrible vision; "don't mention those two villainous men, or I shall go mad."
"No, no; we won't mention them again. They have gone to their account at last—and—there, there, let us not judge, but try to forgive, as we ourselves would wish to be forgiven," said Oldstone.
"But what harm had I done them? Why should they—I mean, what did they want to do to me?" asked the girl, ingenuously.
"Do to you, silly child! He! he! What all wicked men seek to do when they get the chance," replied her friend. "Let us not talk of them, but rather of the brave man who rescued you in the very nick of time from a living death."
"I understand nothing of their object, and I can't get anyone to explain to me; but I want to know more of the brave man who, at the risk of his own life, came to my assistance."
"Perhaps I can tell you something of him, too," said Oldstone, mysteriously. "Did you note him well?"
"Not I. How could I? I was half fainting when he carried me into the hall. Besides, he was so muffled up in a cloak and hat that I was unable to see his face."
"True; neither could any of us—he was so successfully disguised. But we have discovered since who he was, for all that."