"I cannot bear it--she looks so still, and she is growing--rigid, like a corpse! Oh, if she should be dead!" And she hid her face on her husband's breast.
At that moment we heard the grating of wheels on the gravel outside; it was the Challoners' carriage returned.

The coachman, after depositing his master and family at the Grand Hotel, had driven rapidly back in the teeth of the stinging sleet and rain to bring the message that Dr.
Morini would be with us as soon as possible.
"Then," whispered Colonel Everard gently to me, "I'll take Amy home.
She is thoroughly upset, and it's no use having her going off into hysterics.

I'll call with Challoner to-morrow;" and with a kindly parting nod of encouragement to us all, he slipped softly out of the room, half leading, half carrying his trembling wife; and in a couple of minutes we heard the carriage again drive away.
Left alone at last with Heliobas and Father Paul, I, kneeling at the side of my darling Zara, looked into their faces for comfort, but found none.

The dry-eyed despair on the countenance of Heliobas pierced me to the heart; the pitying, solemn expression of the venerable priest touched me as with icy cold.

The lovely, marble-like whiteness and stillness of the figure before me filled me with a vague terror.