Be calm! There was little need to tell her to be calm. After the first involuntary shock, she stood like an outraged empress before them, her regal form drawn up to its full height, her noble brow expanded, her dark, magnificent eyes blazing with insulted pride and unutterable scorn, her full lips curled with a contempt too profound for words, her whole face and form irradiated with the light of insulted majesty.
There was one instant's death-like pause, broken at last by the voice of Mr. Lawless, saying politely:
"I am very sorry that painful necessity compels me to thus break up the festivities of this day. This charge against the lady may be groundless—I hope it is. But I have a duty to perform, however unpleasant it may be to me, and to all of you."
"On whose charge is my sister arrested for this deed?" said Captain Campbell, in a deep, stern voice.
"On that of Mr. Edgar Courtney, I believe," answered the sheriff.
"Edgar Courtney!" rang from every lip, in tones in which amazement had completely mastered every other feeling. Even Sibyl looked bewildered.
"Yes; and in support of his deposition he has brought to bear such a strong chain of circumstantial evidence, that even in the face of the proof being brought against a young lady so wealthy, high-born, and distinguished as Miss Campbell, it was found necessary to issue a warrant for her immediate apprehension."
"Heaven of heavens! this is maddening! Oh! for the thunderbolt of Heaven to blast that double-dyed perjurer where he stands!" exclaimed Captain Campbell, passionately.
Without heeding this indignant outburst, the sheriff turned to Sibyl and said, courteously;
"Miss Campbell, this duty is exceedingly unpleasant to me; but I regret to say you must go with me now!"