"Yes; but, Milly dear, it may be altogether untrue."
She was clinging to him and weeping as if her very heart would break, her whole frame shaking with sobs.
"My brothers, my brothers! my dear, dear brothers!" she cried. "O Charlie, Charlie, why did they ever go into such fearful danger?"
"I thought it for the best, love, when I advised it," he said in a pained tone; "but if I could have foreseen—"
"Dear husband, I forgot it was by your advice," she sobbed; "forgive me; I should never think of blaming you."
"Thank you, love, I can hardly help blaming myself, though reason tells me I am innocent. Ah, if I could but have foreseen—"
"But you could not; no mortal could. Both killed? Both gone? Oh, it is too, too terrible!"
The door flew open and Zillah rushed in, closely followed by Wallace.
He was deathly pale, and his eyes were full of tears. She was weeping aloud.