Then Ishmael Worth took leave and went away.

Lyon Berners returned to the cell of his wife. He was admitted by the turnkey in attendance.

He found Sybil fast asleep, on the outside of her bed. Beatrix was sitting by her, strumming low, soft notes on the guitar as an accompaniment to a soothing air that she was singing.

"What news?" exclaimed the young lady in half-suppressed eagerness.

"There is a respite for an indefinite period, that Mr. Worth thinks is a certain prelude to a future pardon," answered Mr. Berners, seating himself beside his wife's bedside.

"Thank Heaven!" fervently exclaimed Beatrix. "But why not the full pardon at once?"

Mr. Berners explained the reasons for the delay.

"The people are even more cruel and unjust than the law! But still--oh!

thank Heaven for so much hope and comfort as we have!" she said.

"Mr. Worth feels so sure of the pardon, that he advises me to make all necessary preparations, so as to be able to leave the country immediately upon my wife's liberation," added Mr. Berners.

"That will be glorious! Oh! do you know that advice seems so practical that it gives me more confidence than anything else which has been said?" exclaimed Miss Pendleton, eagerly. "I will tell Clement to begin to get ready at once! For you know we are set to go with you!"

"G.o.d bless you!" was the only response of Lyon Berners. Then he inquired, "How did my dear wife happen to fall asleep at this hour?"

"She laid down to rest. Then I took the guitar and sang to her and she fell asleep like an infant."

At that moment Sybil awoke with a smile, and greeted her husband pleasantly.

He stooped and kissed her; but said nothing of the respite, because she was still happily unconscious of any necessity for such a thing. Neither did he speak of the possible voyage to Europe; deeming it premature to mention such a hope yet, lest she should, in her innocent ignorance of her real position, chatter of it to her visitors, and so do her cause harm.

He staid with her until the prison regulations for closing the doors at six o'clock in the afternoon, obliged him to take leave and depart.

Then he went home in a more hopeful frame of mind than he had enjoyed for many weeks.

The summer was slipping swiftly away.

Since the arrival of her respite for so long and indefinite a period, it had been deemed proper by the warden to accord to his charge many valuable privileges that she had not enjoyed, nor indeed, in her unconsciousness of her real situation and indifference to all external circ.u.mstances, had not missed in her imprisonment.

She was now permitted to walk in the shaded grounds and blooming gardens within the walled inclosure around the prison.

Here, through the influence of fresh air and gentle exercise, her physical health improved very much, though her mental malady remained unmodified.

Here, also, some members of her household from Black Hall, were admitted to see her.

Hitherto Miss Tabby, Raphael, and even little Cromartie had been carefully excluded from her presence, lest the violent emotion of the woman and the youth, or the innocent prattle of the child, should suddenly strike

"The electric chord wherewith we are darkly bound,"

and shock her into a full consciousness of the awful position which her friends were now more than ever anxious to conceal from her knowledge.

For they argued, if only this mist of insanity could be kept around her for a little while longer, until the hoped-for pardon should come, then she need never know that she had been the inmate of a prison or stood within the shadow of the scaffold.

It was the opinion of her physician, and the fear of her friends, that her reason would return with the birth of her child; and they prayed that it might not do so until she should be free from the prison.

And so they had guarded her from all a.s.sociations that might suddenly bring back her memory and her understanding; and therefore had denied the visits of her faithful and afflicted servants and _proteges_ from Black Hall.

Now, however, after she had been some weeks enjoying the privilege of daily exercise in the fresh air of the grounds, and her health had gained so much, her harmless hallucination began to take a pleasing and favorable turn.

She now knew that she was going to be a mother; and she fancied that she was staying at some pleasant place of summer resort for the benefit of her health, and that Beatrix Pendleton was also one of the guests of the house; and that Lyon Berners was only an occasional visitor because the duties of his profession confined him the greater part of the time at Blackville.

It happened one morning, when Sybil was taking her usual exercise in the garden, attended by her husband and her friend, she suddenly turned to Mr. Berners and said:

"Lyon dear, I want to see Tabby and Joe. The next time you come to see me, I wish you would bring them with you."

"I will do so, dear Sybil. Is there any one else you would like to see?"

inquired her husband, who deemed now that, with proper precautions, her friends from Blackville might be permitted to see her.

"No, no one else particularly," she answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Why, yes, Lyon, dear; I am sure I do not care to see anybody else especially. Why, who is there indeed, that I should care for at Black Hall, except my own faithful servants?" she asked, a little impatiently.

She had never once, since her imprisonment, mentioned the name of Raphael or little Cromartie. She had apparently forgotten them, as well as all other persons and circ.u.mstances immediately connected with the tragedy at Black Hall and the trial at Blackville.

And Mr. Berners would not venture to remind her of their existence.

"Very well, dearest, I will bring your friends to see you to-morrow,"

said Mr. Berners soothingly.

CHAPTER XXII.

HOPE.

One precious pearl, in sorrow's cup, Unmelted at the bottom lay.

To shine again when, all drunk up, The bitterness should pa.s.s away.--MOORE.

But if Sybil in the chaos of her mind, had lost all memory of her two proteges, _they_ had not for a moment forgotten her.

Raphael, who was perfectly well aware of Sybil's situation, was breaking his heart at Black Hall. And every morning when little Cro' was set up in his high chair beside Mrs. Berners' vacant place at the head of the breakfast table, he would ask piteously:

"If 'Sybil-mamma,' was coming home to-day?" And every morning he would be answered, evasively:

"May be, to-day or to-morrow."

The day succeeding his promise to his wife, Mr. Berners informed Miss Tabby that he should take her to the prison to see Sybil, and requested her to get ready at once to go. And at the same time he sent a message to Joe to put the horses to the carriage and prepare to drive them.

Miss Tabby, at the prospect of meeting Sybil, whom she had not seen for some months, burst into a fit of loud hysterical sobbing and crying, and could not be comforted.