“I don’t know myself,” said the young man. “I feel suspicious and queer about everything. He loved you, Barbara.”
“He said so, but men quickly change,” said the girl. Then she added with spirit, “I never could bear him. I was grateful to him for what he did for mother, but I never could bear him for himself. It is a relief that he is married. Who is the girl?”
“Then tell me, if I am not likely to guess.”
“Barbara, he must have done this for a reason. He has married that red-haired nurse who attended little Piers when he was ill.”
Barbara’s utter astonishment was reflected in her face. A queer thrill of alarm ran through her frame.
“Sit still,” said Pelham. “I must ask you to share my burden with me. That marriage confirms a suspicion which I hold.”
Pelham began to pace up and down the room.
“I am pursued by a horrible fear,” he said suddenly. “I think—nay, sometimes my thoughts seem certainties—I think that little Piers came by his death through foul means. Barbara, the thought terrifies me; it takes the joy out of everything. I am haunted by it.”
“Dick! Dick!” said the girl. “Why, this is madness,” she continued. “I have heard of people getting queer when they are overwrought as you have been lately. Your nerves are out of order. Darling, do cast the awful thought from you. There is no foundation for it—none. It terrifies me even to hear you speak.”
“Aye,” said Pelham; “but what if you had to live with my thought day and night, if it haunted you in your dreams, if it pursued you wherever you went—just that little life clamoring to be avenged? Barbara, you don’t suppose that this is merely a figment of the imagination—that I have no cause for what I think?”
“Oh, Dick! I am sick with terror. Must you tell me any more?”
“I must. Afterwards we need not talk of it. Oh, I cannot marry you keeping all this dark.”
“This is a figment of the imagination,” cried the girl. “Did we not go into the room a moment or two after his death? Dick, I will not listen. You are nervous. Marry me, Dick—dear Dick. Let our wedding be soon. I will comfort you, I will cheer you, I will banish those awful thoughts.”
“Do you really wish to hear nothing more?” asked Pelham, gazing at her in astonishment.
“For the present I do. I am so certain that you have no ground for your terrors. Dr. Tarbot is bad, but he is not a murderer. Dick, when I am your wife, I can exorcise the demon. I don’t mind what the world says. Let us be married quietly, and at once.”