"Dead?"

     "Dead! Ay, dead as the stones on which her brains and blood were scattered."

     "Good God!"

     "You may well say so, ma'am: it was frightful!"

     He shuddered.

     "And afterwards?" I urged.

     "Well, ma'am, afterwards the house was burnt to the ground: there are only some bits of walls standing now."

     "Were any other lives lost?"

     "No--perhaps it would have been better if there had."

     "What do you mean?"

     "Poor Mr. Edward!" he ejaculated, "I little thought ever to have seen it! Some say it was a just judgment on him for keeping his first marriage secret, and wanting to take another wife while he had one living: but I pity him, for my part."