"Oh! what shall I do?"
She appeared stunned, crushed, and the kind-hearted creature who served her, and who, of course, had known that something was wrong, was extremely anxious about her.
She begged that she might be allowed to send for Dr. Knox; but Virgie refused, with a shudder. She could not bear the thought of the good physician learning the story of her desertion and shame, for such, she began to feel, must be the true construction to be put upon Sir William's long absence and silence.
A little later there came a tap upon her door. She sent the nurse to answer it, and heard some one say:
"Mrs. Farnum's compliments, and she would like Mrs. Heath to read these, and then return them to her."
The nurse shut the door, and then came to Virgie, with a letter and paper in her hand.
For an instant she thought it might be a letter for her, and she seized it with an eager cry.
But no; it was addressed to Mrs. Farnum, though it bore the Heathdale postmark, and was in the handwriting of Lady Linton.
Virgie grew deathly white, and clutched at her throat, for it seemed as if she were suffocating.
Then she mastered her emotion, and crept away to her chamber to read the letter, for she felt that it contained some fatal news, and she wished no one to witness her suffering as she read it.