Chapter 24: The Darkest Hour

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌​‌​​‌​‌⁠A week had passed since the fatal birthday of Lovelace Ellsworth, and at the quiet twilight hour he lay among his pillows, a pale, breathing image of the splendid man whose life had been so cruelly blighted on his wedding morn.

It was the strangest thing the medical fraternity had ever heard of—how the young man lingered on with a bullet in his brain; but it was certain, they said, to have a fatal