The very extremity of her peril calmed her thoughts and gave them clearness and decision.

Plunging forward as soon as his wife could recover herself again, General Abercrombie strode away with a speed that made it almost impossible for her to move on without falling, especially as the snow was lying deep and unbroken on the pavement, and her long dress, which she had not taken time to loop up before starting, dragged about her feet and impeded her steps.

They had not gone half a block before she fell again.

A wild beast could hardly have growled more savagely than did this insane man as he caught her up from the bed of snow into which she had fallen and shook her with fierce passion.

A large, strong man, with an influx of demoniac, strength in every muscle, his wife was little more than a child in his hands.