Mrs. Oranmore was sitting, as she had sat all the evening, stern and upright in her chair. She lifted her keen eyes as he entered, and encountered a face so pallid and ghastly that she almost started. Doctor Wiseman tottered rather than walked to a seat.
"Well?" she said, inquiringly.
"Well," he replied, hoa.r.s.ely, "I have obeyed you."
"That _is_ well. But pray, Doctor Wiseman, take a gla.s.s of wine; you are positively trembling like a whipped schoolboy. Go to the sideboard; nay, do not hesitate; _it_ is not poisoned."
Her withering sneer did more toward reviving him than any wine could have done. His excitement was gradually cooling down beneath those calm, steady eyes, bent so contemptuously upon him.
He drank a gla.s.s of wine, and resumed his seat before the fire, watching sullenly the dying embers.
"Well, you have performed your task?"
"I have, madam, and earned my reward."
"Not quite, doctor; the infant is yet to be disposed of."
"Must it die, too?"
"Yes, but not here. You must remove it, in any way you please, but death is the safest, the surest."
"And why not here?"
"Because I do not wish it," she answered, haughtily; "that is enough for you, sirrah! You must take the child away to-night."
"What shall I do with it?"
"Dolt! blockhead! have you no brains?" she said, pa.s.sionately. "Are you aware ten minutes" walk will bring you to the sea-side? Do you know the waves refuse nothing, and tell no tales? Never hesitate, man! You have gone too far to draw back. Think of the reward; one thousand dollars for ten minutes" work! Tush, doctor! I protest, you"re trembling like a nervous girl."
"Is it not enough to make one tremble?" retorted the doctor, roused to something like pa.s.sion by her deriding tone; "two murders in one night--is that _nothing_?"
"Pshaw! no--a sickly girl and a puling child more or less in the world is no great loss. Hark!" she added, rising suddenly, as a wild, piercing shriek of more than mortal agony broke from the room where Esther lay.
"Did you hear that?"
Hear it! The man"s face was horribly ghastly and livid, as shriek after shriek, wild, piercing, and shrill with anguish, burst upon his ear.
Great drops of perspiration stood on his brow--his teeth chattered as though by an ague fit, and he trembled so perceptibly that he was forced to grasp the chair for support.
Not so the woman. She stood calm, listening with perfect composure to the agonizing cries, that were growing fainter and fainter each moment.
"It is well none of the servants are in this end of the house," she said, quietly; "or those loud screams would be overheard, and might give rise to disagreeable remarks."
Receiving no answer from her companion, she turned to him, and seeing the look of horror on his ghastly face, her lip curled with involuntary scorn. It was strange she could stand there so unmoved, knowing herself to be a murderess, with the dying cries of her victim still ringing in her ears.
They ceased at last--died away in a low, despairing moan, and then all grew still. The deep, solemn silence was more appalling than her shrieks had been, for they well knew they were stilled forever in death.
"All is over!" said Mrs. Oranmore, drawing a deep breath.
"Yes," was the answer, in a voice so hoa.r.s.e and unnatural, that it seemed to issue from the jaws of death.
Again she looked at him, and again the mocking smile curled her lip.
"Doctor," she said, quietly, "you are a greater coward than I ever took you to be. I am going in now to see her--you had better follow me, if you are not _afraid_."
How sardonic was the smile which accompanied these words. Stunned, terrified as he was, it stung him, and he started after her from the room.
They entered the chamber of the invalid. Mrs. Oranmore walked to the bed, drew back the curtains, and disclosed a frightful spectacle.
Half sitting, half lying, in a strange, distorted att.i.tude she had thrown herself into in her dying agony, her lips swollen and purple, her eyes protruding, her hair torn fiercely out by the roots, as she had clutched it in her fierce anguish, was Esther.
The straining eyeb.a.l.l.s were ghastly to look upon--the once beautiful face was now swollen and hideous, as she lay stark dead in that lonely room.
Moment after moment pa.s.sed away, while the murderers stood silently gazing on their victim. The deep silence of midnight was around--nothing was heard save the occasional drifting of the snow against the windows.
A stern, grave smile hovered on the lips of Mrs. Oranmore, as she gazed on the convulsed face of the dead girl. Drawing the quilt at last over her, she turned away, saying, mockingly:
"Where now, Esther Oranmore, is the beauty of which you were so proud?
This stark form and ghastly face is now all that remains of the beauty and heiress of Squire Erliston. Such shall be the fate, sooner or later, of all who dare to thwart me."
Her eyes flamed upon the shrinking man beside her, with an expression that made him quake. A grim smile of self-satisfied power broke over her dark face as she observed it, and her voice had a steely tone of command, as she said:
"Now for the child. It must be immediately disposed of."
"And _she_?" said the doctor, pointing to the bed.
"I shall attend to that."
"If you like, madam, I will save you the trouble."
"No, sir," she replied, sharply; "though in life my enemy, her remains shall never be given up to the dissecting-knife. I have not forgotten she is a gentleman"s daughter, and as such she shall be interred. Now you may go. Wrap the child in this, and--_return without her_!"
"You shall be obeyed, madam," said Doctor Wiseman, catching the infection of her reckless spirit. He stooped and raised the infant, who was still in a deep sleep.
m.u.f.fling it carefully in the shawl, he followed the lady from the room, and cautiously quitted the house.
The storm had now pa.s.sed away; the piercing wind had died out, and the midnight moon sailed in unclouded majesty through the deep blue sky, studded with myriads of burning stars.
The cool night air restored him completely to himself.
Holding the still sleeping infant closer in his arms, he hurried on, until he stood on the sloping bank commanding a view of the bay.
The tide was rising. The waves came splashing in on the beach--the white foam gleaming coldly brilliant in the moonlight. The waters beyond looked cold, and sluggish, and dark--moaning in a strange, dreary way as they swept over the rocks. How _could_ he commit the slumbering infant to those merciless waves? Depraved and guilty as he was, he hesitated.
It lay so confidingly in his arms, slumbering so sweetly, that his heart smote him. Yet it must be done.
He descended carefully to the beach, and laying his living bundle on the snowy sands, stood like Hagar, a distance off, to see it die.
In less than ten minutes, he knew, the waves would have washed it far away.
As he stood, with set teeth and folded arms, the merry jingle of approaching sleigh-bells broke upon his startled ear. They were evidently approaching the place where he stood. Moved by a sudden impulse of terror, he turned and fled from the spot.