How much she does remember it is impossible to say." His head fell; his brooding eyes were fixed again on the rug at his feet.

After a while he looked up.
"It is pitiful, Mr.Ruthven--she is so young--with all her physical charm and attraction quite unimpaired.

But the mind is gone--quite gone, sir.

Some sudden strain--and the tension has been great for years--some abrupt overdraft upon her mental resource, perhaps; God knows how it came--from sorrow, from some unkindness too long endured--" Again he relapsed into his study of the rug; and slowly, warily, Ruthven lifted his little, inflamed eyes to look at him, then moistened his dry lips with a thick-coated tongue, and stole a glance at the locked door.
"I understand," said Selwyn, looking up suddenly, "that you are contemplating proceedings against your wife.

Are you ?" Ruthven made no reply.
"_Are_ you ?" repeated Selwyn.