“And you let yourself be persuaded?” asked the girl, in a faint whisper.

“Persuaded?” echoed David, his voice shaking; “who would have thought of persuading a mad boy?  I let myself be commanded and frightened into submission, and carried away.  And then five or six miserable months passed away and I got a letter from her, and she was with child, and she was ruined forever,—­she prayed to me in words that have haunted me night and day all my life, to come to her and keep my promise.”

And David stopped and gave a groan; the other whispered, “You could not go?”

“I went,” he answered; “I borrowed money, begged it from one of my father’s servants, and ran away and went up there; and oh, I was two days too late!”

“Too late?” exclaimed Helen wonderingly.

“Yes, yes,” was the hoarse reply, “for she was a weak and helpless girl, and scorned of all the world; and her parents had turned her away, and she was gone, no one knew where.  Helen, from that day to this I have never seen her, nor ever heard of her; and now she comes to curse me,—­to curse my soul forever.  And it is more than I can bear, more than I can bear!”

David sank down again, crying out, “It is too much, it is too much!” But then suddenly he caught his wife’s hand in his and stared up at her, exclaiming, “And she said there was a child, Helen!  Somewhere in the world there is another soul suffering for this sin of mine!  Oh, somehow we must find out about that—­something must be done, I could not have two such fearful things to know of.  We must find out, we must find out!”

As the man stopped and stared wildly about him he heard the woman’s voice again, and sprang up; but Helen, terrified at his suffering, caught him by the arm, whispering, “No, no, David, let me go in, I can take care of her.”  And she forced her husband down on the sofa once more, and then ran into the next room.  She found the woman again struggling to raise herself upon her trembling arms, staring about her and calling out incoherently.  Helen rushed to her and took her hands in hers, trying to soothe her again.

But the woman staggered to her feet, oblivious of everything about her.  “Where is he?  Where is he?” she gasped hoarsely; “he will come back!” She began calling David’s name, and a moment later, as Helen tried to keep her quiet, she tore her hands loose and rushed blindly across the room, shrieking louder yet, “David, where are you?  Don’t you know me, David?”

As Helen turned she saw that her husband had heard the cries and come to the doorway again; but it was all in vain, for the woman, though she looked at him, knew him no more; it was to a phantom of her own brain that she was calling, in the meantime pacing up and down, her voice rising higher and higher.  She was reeling this way and that, and Helen, frightened at her violence, strove to restrain her, only to be flung off as if she had been a child; the woman rushed on, groping about her blindly and crying still, “David!  Tell me where is David!”