"Who shall I say?"
Mr. Parmalee handed her his card.
"Give her that. Tell her it's a matter of life and death."
The servant stared, took the pasteboard and vanished. Ten minutes after, and Harriet, in a white morning robe, pale and terrified, hurried in.
"Mr. Parmalee, has anything—have you heard—— Oh, what is it?"
"It is this, Lady Kingsland: your husband has been arrested and tried for your murder!"
She clasped her hands together and sunk into a seat. She did not cry out or exclaim. She sat aghast.
"He has been tried and condemned, and——"
He could not finish the sentence, out of pity for that death-like face.
But she understood him, and a scream rang through the house which those who heard it might never forget.