Doctor Danton and Dunbar. In the meantime, the tall dark figure that had pursued Rosamond Arleigh from the grounds of The Oaks and into the carriage had mounted on the box in Tom’s place, and was driving Doctor Danton’s horses like mad—but not in the direction of Yorke Towers. [Pg 65] [Pg 65] CHAPTER VIII. When Leonard Yorke reached home after the tragic occurrence at The Oaks, he was met in the hall by Jessie Glyndon. She was very pale, and her eyes bore the traces of recent weeping. “Oh, Mr. Yorke,” she began, as soon as she saw him, “your mother is very ill! When I arrived home from The Oaks and broke to her the news of Mrs. Arleigh’s sudden death, she was fearfully overcome. She had retired, of course; but she was not sleeping, and as I passed through the hall she heard me and called me. I went to her, and then I told her what had taken place. She grew as pale as death, and started up in bed, as though about to arise, and her eyes looked wild and frightened, and she trembled in every limb. “‘Oh, no, no!’ she cried, piteously, looking up into my face with such a pleading look, and something like terror—actual terror. ‘Rosamond Arleigh is not dead—not dead! Don’t say that she is dead, Jessie! Heaven forbid! for then it would be too late—too late for reparation!’ “And then she fell back upon the pillow in a dead faint, and it was a full hour before the housekeeper and[Pg 66] I could restore her. We sent for Doctor Danton. He was at The Oaks; but his assistant came, and at last she is quiet and has fallen asleep. Come into the breakfast-room, Mr. Yorke; you look completely worn out. I have ordered breakfast served.” [Pg 66] He followed her obediently. He could not speak, for his heart was too full. Leonard Yorke’s mother was the dearest thing on earth to him, except the girl he loved, and the thought that she was ill cut his tender heart like a knife. He went into the breakfast-room and seated himself mechanically at the small round table covered with snowy damask and glittering with delicate china and costly silver. Jessie Glyndon began to pour the fragrant coffee from the steaming silver urn, and as she waited upon
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