“Ha!” and now Everet Mapleson seemed suddenly galvanized. “Did Annie Dale have another child?” he demanded, with hueless lips.
“No; but she is your mother’s child, by a former marriage.”
“Great Heaven!”
There was no defiance or recklessness in his manner now. He sank breathless upon a chair, a horrified look upon his face, a shiver shaking him from head to foot, perspiration starting from every pore.
“My mother’s child! Impossible! Who told you?” he questioned, hoarsely.
“Your mother herself! She was unexpectedly brought face to face with Mr. Huntress to-night; she recognized him and fainted. Upon recovering she confessed to a former marriage, and said, in order to conceal the fact, she had been obliged to give away her child—that Mr. Huntress was the man who adopted her.”
Colonel Mapleson then went on to explain more at length something of the occurrences of the evening, but he was interrupted in the midst of his recital by Everet throwing himself prostrate upon the floor, while a heart-rending groan burst from him as he fell.
When they raised him he was unconscious, and a small stream of blood was trickling from his mouth.
He was carried at once to his room, a servant was immediately dispatched for a doctor, while his anxious friends used what remedies there were at hand for his relief.
When the physician arrived he said his patient had evidently been suffering from a severe cold for several days, and that this, with weariness of body and a sudden shock of some kind, had brought on the hemorrhage, while there were also some indications of a brain trouble, and a severe illness would doubtless follow.