“You forget,” I said, severely, “the wife he may leave behind him.”

“I have nothing to say about that,” said Corbridge, rather sharply.  “It is a reprehensible business, and I have nothing to do with it.”

I went away without seeing the German doctor, but as I heard he spoke no English, and as I did not know German, an interview with him would have been of no avail.

Neither Mrs. Colesworthy nor myself slept that night; we were so filled with anxious fears.  But when the day broke, bright and clear, and I had hurried round to Mr. Kilbright’s lodgings, and had found him as full of life and vigor as I had ever seen him, we were greatly comforted, and ate our breakfasts with fair appetites.

“If it had been a dark and lowering day,” said my wife, “I don’t believe I could have swallowed a mouthful.”

The marriage was to take place at noon, and the happy pair were to start by the first afternoon train for the sea-shore, where they were to spend a week.  Mr. Kilbright hated locomotives and railroads almost as much as ever, but he had told me some time before that he intended to conquer this prejudice, if such a thing were possible.

“Being one of you, I must do as you do,” he had said.

The wedding was to be a very simple one.  Miss Budworth was to go from her mother’s house to the church, where Mr. Kilbright was to meet her.  We insisted that he should dress at our house, where he would find better accommodations than at his lodgings; and we assigned him our best guest-room, where he repaired in very good season, to array himself in his wedding suit.

It was not quite eleven o’clock when I went upstairs to see if I could be of any use to Mr. Kilbright in regard to the conclusion of his toilette.  I knocked at the door, but received no answer.  Waiting a few moments, I opened it and entered.  On the floor, in front of a tall dressing-glass, was a suit of clothes.  Not only did I see the black broadcloth suit—­not laid out at length, but all in a compact heap—­but I saw the shoes and stockings, the collar and cravat; everything.  Near by lay a whisk broom.

The truth was plain.  While giving the last touches to his wedding attire, all that was Amos Kilbright had utterly disappeared!

I stood where I had stopped, just inside the door, trembling, scarcely breathing, so stunned by the terrible sight of those clothes that I could not move, nor scarcely think.  If I had seen his dead body there I should have been shocked, but to see nothing!  It was awful to such an extent that my mind could not deal with it!

Presently I heard a step, and slightly turning, saw my wife close by me.  She had passed the open door, and seeing me standing as if stricken into a statue, had entered.

It did not need that I should speak to her.  Pale as a sheet she stood beside me, her hand tightly grasping my arm, and with her lips pallid with horror, she formed the words:  “They have done it!”