* * * * * *
“Oh, Mona, lying deep in your quiet grave, where they carried you so soon, it was not I, but the demon who possessed me!
* * * * * *
“He was very white now. He took hold of my hands and held them firmly.
“‘How dare you, Crystal,’ he said, sternly; ‘how dare you speak of a lady, of Mrs. Grey in that way. Ah, Heavenly Father, forgive this unhappy child, she can not know what she says.’
“I answered with a mocking laugh that seemed forced from my lips, and then, as though my unhappy fate were sealed, Mrs. Grey entered.
“She thought that it was a hysterical attack, and came at once to Raby’s help.
“‘Do not be alarmed, Mr. Ferrers,’ she said, gently, ‘it is only hysteria;’ and she held out a glass of cold water to him. The action provoked me. I tore myself from Raby’s grasp, dashing the glass aside. I longed to break something. There was a bottle beside me, some chemical acid that Hugh Redmond had carelessly left that very morning. I snatched up the vial, for I wanted to crush it into a million atoms, and rush from the room; but she called out in affright, ‘Oh, Crystal, don’t touch it, it is—’ and then she never finished.
“I saw her white hands trembling, her blue eyes dilated with horror; and then my demon was upon me. I knew what it was, and I hurled it at her, and Raby sprung between—he sprung between us, oh, Raby, Raby!—and then, with a shriek that rang through my brain for months afterward, he fell to the ground in convulsions of agony.
* * * * * *