"'She stopped and laughed, as a sleep-walker laughs--hollow and distant.
"'"And get into the _Temple_ she occupied. Was you still kind to her while you watched the effect of your draught?" "Was I, did you say? Yes, very kind. Oh! I nursed her dying spirit, that he might think me a ministering angel to his wife, whom I wanted to succeed. He was deceived. Yes, yes; simple fool, he was deceived. Ay, and not deceived, for I loved him."
"'She began to walk again to and fro, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, then of a sudden turned and stood--"She was fair," she continued, as she kept looking at the wall; "but so am I. He got as good a bargain in me as in her." Then she made devious movements, turning and returning, muttering to herself, but so thickly that I only caught words much disjointed--"Remorse!--yes, yes!--no, no!--not till I am to be hanged; but that cannot be; no one saw me. Say nothing, nothing!--mix the draught--away to bed. 'Tis late, late! and I am cold."
"'She came to bed, Francis, cold and shivering. My mind began to regain some form of thinking, after having been tossed about by the effect of her horrible monologue, or rather part of a dialogue. The conviction was instant, unavoidable, and certain. I never thought of awakening her to question her, but lay distant from her as from a reptile. I slept none. In the morning she turned to kiss me. I drew back my head in horror, and saw that she too was horrified at my manner. I bade her begone for a murderer, and, committed thus by my agony, told her she had confessed the whole story in a fit of somnambulism. Then she flew from me, crying she was innocent, tearing her hair in good acting--and there she walks by the passages under the sting of her guilt. Oh! she dare not face me, even were I to allow a meeting, which I wont. Francis, I am convinced.'
"My master," continued Francis, addressing me as I lay listening and thinking of the old brochure, "was always moody, as I have said--ay, and crotchety; no one had any power to drive from him a settled opinion or resolution. After I had listened to him I said--
"'Master, permit me, your poor servant, to say that this is not evidence on which I would beat a dog.'
"'I am convinced,' he replied sternly and unkindly, and he moved his hand as a sign that I should leave him. I retreated, grieved to the heart, for I knew master's nature. When I got to the top of the stair, I saw my lady beckoning me from the door of the library. I went to her.