CHAPTER XX.
These were not words; they were electric shocks.
The two arms that gripped Rose's arms were paralyzed, and dropped off them; and there was silence.
Then first the thought of all she had done with those three words began to rise and grow and surge over her.

She stood, her eyes turned downwards, yet inwards, and dilating with horror.
Silence.
Now a mist began to spread over her eyes, and in it she saw indistinctly the figure of Raynal darting to her sister's side, and raising her head.
She dared not look round on the other side.

She heard feet stagger on the floor.

She heard a groan, too; but not a word.
Horrible silence.
With nerves strung to frenzy, and quivering ears, that magnified every sound, she waited for a reproach, a curse; either would have been some little relief.

But no! a silence far more terrible.
Then a step wavered across the room.