Midnight Queen

"I told you not to speak," said La Masque, quietly, "but you must look on still another scene." Again she threw a portion of the contents of the casket into the caldron, and "spake aloud the words of power." Another cloud of smoke arose and filled the room, and when it cleared away, Sir Norman beheld a third and less startling sight. The scene and place he could not discover, but it seemed to him like night and a storm. Two men were lying on the ground, and bound fast together, it appeared to him. As he looked, it faded away, and once more his own face seemed to mock him in the clear water. "Do you know those two last figures!" asked the lady. "I do," said Sir Norman, promptly; "it was Ormiston and myself." "Right! and one of them was dead." "Dead!" exclaimed Sir Norman, with a perceptible start. "Which one, madam?" "If you cannot tell that, neither can I. If there is anything further you wish to see, I am quite willing to show it to you." "I'm obliged to you," said Sir Norman, stepping back; "but no more at present, thank you. Do you mean to say, madam, that I'm some day to murder a lady, especially one so beautiful as she I just now saw?"

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