It was Willard Drummond's lost note!
"This is hers; she has dropped it. He gave it to her!" said the unhappy man his face growing absolutely appalling in its ghastly pallor. "Oh, I see it all—I see it all! They dare not meet in day-time, and she will meet him this night on the isle. Good Heaven! I shall go mad! Dishonored, disgraced forever! and by the woman I have loved so madly. And she laughed, mocked, and taunted me to my face, with this in her possession!"
He ground his teeth, to keep back the terrific groans that were making their way up through his tortured heart.
And, as if sent by his evil demon, Laura entered at that moment, laughing merrily at some jest she had left behind.
He stood with his back to her, as if looking out of the window.
"And is this the woman I have loved—this vilest of her sex, who dare laugh with such a crime on her soul? I know now—oh! I know now, why she did not go to the island with him, to-day. She thought to blind me, and make me think she was not going at all, that I might be lulled into security. Curses light on them both!" came through his clenched teeth.
Little dreaming of the thoughts that were passing through his mind, Laura—ever the creature of impulse—forgetting her momentary anger, went over, and, laying her hand on his arm, said:
"Come, Mr. Courtney, throw off this gloom, and be a little like you used to be. There is no occasion for all this anger, for, I am not going to the island, at all. You see, I have even given up my own, sweet will, to please you; so, I think I deserve something in return, for being so good. Don't I?"
He turned, and she almost shrieked aloud, at the awful face she beheld.
"Edgar! Oh, Edgar! Great Heaven! do not look so wild. I never meant to make you so angry. I will not go—indeed, I will not go. Only speak to me, and do not wear that dreadful look!"