"We met before I reached the house; we should have passed in silence,
had I not spoken. It was the same hour as that in which we had come from
the sands the night before. What a horrible lifetime had intervened! I
said that 'I had some words for him.' He stood still in the air that
throbbed in waves over me. He was speechlessly calm just then.
"'I expected no words after my judgment,' at length he said,--for I knew
not how to open my terrible theme; 'will you tell me on what evidence
you judge?'
"What a trifle then seemed any merely human love in the presence of
Death! I was almost angry that he should once think of it.
"'It is something of more importance than the human affection with which
you play,' I said. 'It is a life, the life of Mary Percival, that last
night went out,--and how? Was it by this cup?'--and I handed the cup to
him.
"He looked simple amazement, as he would have done, had it been a rock
or flower; he did not offer to take it,--still I held it out.
"'Will you examine the contents,' I asked, 'and report to me the
result?'
"'Certainly I will, Miss Axtell,' he said; and with it he walked to the
office.
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