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The cowering forain, with

its face groveling in the dust, and with another prolonged, ly; "what is this?"

He bent to raise her; but, with a sort of scream she held out her arms

to keep him back

"No, no, no I Touch me not! Hate me--kill me! I have murdered your

friend!"

Sir Norman recoiled as if from a deadly tent

"Murdered him! Madame, in Heaven's name, what have you said?"

"Oh, I have not stabbed him, or poisoned him, or shot him; but I a in a sort of gnawing

inward torture

"Mada when you

talk like this"

Still ue-pit, she half rose up, with both

hands clasped tightly over her heart, as if she would have held back

fro her, "NO--no! I aled

me in the first hour of my birth, as they would a viper, rather than I

should have lived through all this life of uilt, to end it

by this last, worst crime of all!"

Sir Norman stood and looked at her still with a dazed expression He