"It is impossible at present to tell what complications may ensue," he responded. "The best course is to inform the police of the affair, and let them make inquiries. No doubt there has been a most deliberate attempt at murder. Your servant tells me," he added, "that the lady is a friend of yours."

"Yes," I said; "I intend making her my wife; therefore you may imagine my intense anxiety in these terrible circ.u.mstances."

"Of course," he replied, sympathetically. "But have you any suspicion of who perpetrated this villainous crime?"

I thought of that thin, crafty, bony-faced scoundrel Hibbert, and then responded in the affirmative.

"Well, you'd better inform the police of your suspicions, and let them act as they think proper. I've seen the spot where your friend discovered her, and certainly it is just the spot where an a.s.sa.s.sin might lie in wait, commit a crime, and then escape into the street unseen. My advice is that you should inform the police, and let them make inquiries. I only make one stipulation, and that is that no question must be asked of her at present--either by you, or by any one else. If you'll allow me I'll send down a qualified nurse, whom I can trust to carry out my instructions--for I presume you intend that she should remain here in your chambers until she is fit to be removed?"

"Certainly," I answered eagerly. "I leave all to you, doctor; only bring her back to me."

"I will do my utmost," he a.s.sured me. "It is a grave case, a very grave one indeed," he added, with his eyes fixed upon the inanimate form; "but I have every hope that we shall save her by care and attention. I'll go back to the surgery, get some dressing for the wound, and send at once for the nurse. No time must be lost."

"And you think I ought to inform the police?" I asked.

"As you think fit," the doctor responded. "You say you have a suspicion of the ident.i.ty of the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin. Surely you will not let him go unpunished?"

"No!" I cried in fierce resolution. "He shall not go unpunished." But on reflection an instant later it occurred to me that Muriel herself could tell us who had attacked her, therefore it would be best to await in patience her return to health.

The doctor left to obtain his instruments and bandages, while Bryant, Simes, and myself watched almost in silence at her bedside. The kind-hearted old doctor before he went, however, asked us to leave the room for a few minutes, and when we returned we found he had taken off her outer clothing, improvised a temporary bandage, and placed her comfortably in bed, where she now lay quite still, and to all appearances asleep. From time to time in my anxiety I bent with my hand gla.s.s placed close to her mouth to rea.s.sure myself that she was still breathing. It became slightly clouded each time, and that gave me the utmost satisfaction and confidence.

After a quarter of an hour the old man returned, while a little later the nurse, in her neat grey uniform, was in the room, attending to her patient, quickly and silently, and a.s.sisting the doctor to cleanse and bandage the wound with a dexterity which had been acquired by long acquaintance with surgical cases.

With Bryant I retired into the sitting-room while these operations were in progress, and when I again entered my bedroom I found the lights lowered and the nurse calmly sitting by Muriel's side. Then the doctor a.s.sured me that she would be quite right for three hours, and that during the night he would look in again; and with this parting re-a.s.surance he left, accompanied out by Bryant.

Through that night I had but little repose, as may be imagined. The long hours I spent in trying to read or otherwise occupy myself, but such was the intensity of my anxiety that times without number I went and peeped in at the half-open door of my bedroom, wherein lay my beloved, motionless, still as one dead.

A whole week went by. Two or three times daily the doctor called, but by his orders I was not allowed in the room, and it was not until nearly a fortnight had gone by that I entered and stood by her bedside. Even then I was forbidden to mention the circ.u.mstances of that night when such a desperate attempt had been made upon her life. Therefore I stood by her with words of love only upon my lips.

Ours was a joyful meeting. For days my love had hovered between life and death. The doctor had gone into that room and come out again grave and silent several times each day, until at last he had told me that she had taken a turn for the better, and would recover. The delirium had left her, and she had recovered consciousness. Then there came to me a boundless joy when at last I was told that I might again see her.

Not until ten more long and anxious days had pa.s.sed was I allowed to speak to her regarding the mystery which was driving me to desperation, and then one afternoon, as the sunset, yellow as it always is in London, struggled into the room, I found myself alone with her. She was sitting up in my armchair, enveloped in a pretty blue dressing-gown which the nurse had bought for her, and her hair tied coquettishly with a blue ribbon.

She could not rise, but as I entered her bright eyes sparkled with sudden unbounded delight, and speechless in emotion she beckoned me forward to a seat beside her.

"And you are much better, dearest?" I asked, when we had exchanged kisses full of a profound and pa.s.sionate love.

"Yes," she answered, in a voice which showed how weak she still was.

"The doctor says I shall get on quite well now. In a week or so I hope to be about again. Do they know of my illness at the shop?"

"Don't trouble about the shop, darling," I answered. "You will never go back there again, to slave and wear out your life. Remain here content, and when you are well enough you can go down to Stamford and stay there in the country air until we can marry."

"Then you still love me, Clifton?" she faltered.

"Love you!" I cried. "Of course I do, dearest. What causes you to doubt me?"

She hesitated. Her eyes met mine, and I saw they were wavering.

"Because--because I am unworthy," she faltered.

"Why unworthy?" I asked, quickly.

"I have deceived you," she replied. "You are so good to me, Clifton, yet I have concealed from you the truth."

"The truth of what?"

"Of the strange events which have led up to this desperate attempt to take my life."

"But who attacked you?" I demanded. "Tell me, and a.s.suredly he shall not escape punishment."

She paused. Her eyes met mine firmly.

"No," she answered. "It is impossible to tell you. To attempt a retaliation would only prove fatal."

"Fatal!" I echoed. "Why?"

"All that has been attempted is of the past," she responded. "It is best that it should remain as it is. If you seek out that man, there will be brought upon us a vengeance more terrible than it is possible to contemplate. Do not ask me to divulge the ident.i.ty of this man, for I cannot."

"You will not, you mean," I said in a hard voice.

"No," she answered hoa.r.s.ely. "No, I dare not."

"Then you fear this man who has attempted to kill you--this man who sought to take you from me!" I cried fiercely. "Surely I, the man you are to marry, have a right to demand this a.s.sa.s.sin's name."

"You have a right, Clifton, the greatest of all rights, but I beg of you to remain patient," she answered calmly. "There are reasons why I must still preserve a silence on this matter--reasons which some day you will know."

"Does this man love you?"

She shrugged her shoulders and extended her thin, white hands vaguely.

"And he is jealous of me!" I cried. "He attempted to kill you because you came here to me."

"Remain in patience, I beg of you," she said imploringly. "Make no surmises, for you cannot guess the truth. It is an enigma to which I myself have no key."

"The name of the man who has attempted to murder you is Hibbert," I observed, annoyed at her persistent concealment of the truth. "He is the man who was your lover. You can't deny it."

She raised her beautiful eyes for a moment to mine, then said simply--

"Surely you trust me, Clifton?"

Her question drove home to me the fact that my suspicion was ill-founded, and that jealousy in this affair was untimely and unnecessary. I, however, could not rid myself of the thought that Hibbert, this lover she had discarded, had attempted to wreak a deadly revenge. All the circ.u.mstances pointed to it, for he would know the whereabouts of my chambers, if not from Muriel previously, then from Aline, that woman whom once in my hearing he had urged to the commission of a crime.

"I trust you implicitly, Muriel," I answered. "But in this matter I am determined that the man whose hand struck you down shall answer for his crime to me."

"No, no!" she cried in alarm. "Don't act rashly, for your own sake, and for mine. Wait, and I will ere long give you an explanation which I know will astound you. To-day I cannot move in the matter because I am not allowed out. When I can go out I will find a means of giving you some explanation." Then, lifting her dark, trustful eyes to mine she asked again, "Clifton, cannot you trust me? Will you not obey me in this?"

"Certainly," I answered at last, with considerable reluctance I admit.

"If you promise me to explain, then I will wait."