This must inevitably separate them more widely than ever before; yet he would not think of that--only of what he could do now to aid her.

He tore open his shirt, that he might have air, his dull gaze uplifting piteously from the face of the dead to the place where she stood, her hands pressed against her head, her great eyes staring at him as though she confronted a ghost.

Her very posture shocked him, it was so filled with speechless horror, so wild with undisguised terror.

Suddenly she gave utterance to a sharp cry, that was half a sob, breaking in her throat.
"Oh, my God! my God!--you!" The very sound of her voice, unnatural, unhuman as it was, served to bring him to himself.
"Yes, Beth, yes," he exclaimed hoarsely through dry lips, stepping across the body toward her.

"You need not fear me." She drew hastily back from before him, holding forth her hands as though pressing him away, upon her face that same look of unutterable horror.
"You! You! Oh, my God!" she kept repeating.