Between the Dark and the Daylight

by Richard Marsh

"You tell me that your existence is bound up in that fellow's?"

"Fellow! The fellow is worth twenty thousand such gentleman as you!"

The Major was astounded. The remark amazed him. He really thought Miss Maynard must be demented, not knowing that Mr. Roland had thought the same thing of him not long before.

"Oh, Major Clifford, when I am broken-hearted, and you follow me, if you ever do, to a miserable tomb, then--then may you never know what it is to be a savage!"

The Major began to be alarmed. He feared Miss Maynard must be seriously unwell.

"Eh! ah! you--you're not well. You--you don't take enough care. It's--it's indigestion."

"Indigestion!" cried Miss Maynard, and she sank upon the couch. "Indigestion! He breaks my heart, and he says it's indigestion!"

She burst into a flood of tears. The Major was terrified.

"Mrs. Philips!" he shouted. "Mary Ann!"

"Don't!" exclaimed Miss Maynard. "Call no one. Let me die alone! You have robbed me of the man I love!"