It may have been duty; it may have been curiosity; it may have been only dread to know the worst and know it at once; but seeing that single gleam I began to move toward it, and, before I was aware, I had reached the house, edged up to its unshaded window and taken a frightened look within.
"I was prepared and yet unprepared for what I saw.

Within, standing alone, with garments dripping, gazing in frenzy at a slip of paper which clung wet about his hand, stood my husband.

My words to him! I could see it in his eyes and the desperation which lit up all his features.
"Drawing back in terror from the road, I watched him fling that letter of from his fingers as he would a biting snake, and, striding to a cupboard high up on the wall, take down something I could not see and did not guess at till the sharp sound of a pistol-shot cleft my ear, and I beheld him fall face downward on the carpet of fresh autumn leaves with which he had hidden the bare floor in expectation of his bride.
"The shriek which involuntarily went up from my lips must have rung far and wide, but only the groaning of the night-wind answered me.

Driven by my fears to do something to save him if he was not yet dead, I tried the door, but it was locked; so was the window.

Yet I might have battered my way in at that moment had I not heard two men coming down the road, one of whom was shouting to the other: 'I did not like his face.