A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE

By Anna Katharine Green

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

 The House of the Whispering Pines Miss Hurd. An Enigma Leavenworth Case That Affair Next Door Strange Disappearance Lost Man's Lane Sword of Damocles Agatha Webb Hand and Ring One of My Sons The Mill Mystery Defence of the Bride, Behind Closed Doors and Other Poems Cynthia Wakeham's Money Risifi's Daughter. A Drama Marked "Personal" The Golden Slipper To the Minute

CONTENTS

 CHAPTER I A NOVEL CASE CHAPTER II A FEW POINTS CHAPTER III THE CONTENTS OF A BUREAU DRAWER CHAPTER IV THOMPSON'S STORY CHAPTER V A NEW YORK BELLE CHAPTER VI A BIT OF CALICO CHAPTER VII THE HOUSE AT THE GRANBY CROSS ROADS CHAPTER VIII A WORD OVERHEARD CHAPTER IX A FEW GOLDEN HAIRS CHAPTER X THE SECRET OF MR. BLAKE'S STUDIO CHAPTER XI LUTTRA CHAPTER XII A WOMAN'S LOVE CHAPTER XIII A MAN'S HEART CHAPTER XIV MRS. DANIELS CHAPTER XV A CONFAB CHAPTER XVI THE MARK OF THE RED CROSS CHAPTER XVII THE CAPTURE CHAPTER XVIII LOVE AND DUTY CHAPTER XIX EXPLANATIONS CHAPTER XX THE BOND THAT UNITES

A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE

CHAPTER I. A NOVEL CASE

"Talking of sudden disappearances the one you mention of Hannah in thatLeavenworth case of ours, is not the only remarkable one which has comeunder my direct notice. Indeed, I know of another that in some respects, at least, surpasses that in points of interest, and if you will promisenot to inquire into the real names of the parties concerned, as theaffair is a secret, I will relate you my experience regarding it. "

The speaker was Q, the rising young detective, universally acknowledgedby us of the force as the most astute man for mysterious andunprecedented cases, then in the bureau, always and of course exceptingMr. Gryce; and such a statement from him could not but arouse ourdeepest curiosity. Drawing up, then, to the stove around which wewere sitting in lazy enjoyment of one of those off-hours so dear toa detective's heart, we gave with alacrity the required promise; andsettling himself back with the satisfied air of a man who has a goodstory to tell that does not entirely lack certain points redounding tohis own credit, he began:

I was one Sunday morning loitering at the ----- Precinct Station, whenthe door opened and a respectable-looking middle-aged woman came in, whose agitated air at once attracted my attention. Going up to her, Iasked her what she wanted. 

"A detective, " she replied, glancing cautiously about on the faces ofthe various men scattered through the room. "I don't wish anything saidabout it, but a girl disappeared from our house last night, and"--shestopped here, her emotion seeming to choke her--"and I want some one tolook her up, " she went on at last with the most intense emphasis. 

"A girl? what kind of a girl; and what house do you mean when you sayour house?"

She looked at me keenly before replying. "You are a young man, " saidshe; "isn't there some one here more responsible than yourself that Ican talk to?"

I shrugged my shoulders and beckoned to Mr. Gryce who was just thenpassing. She at once seemed to put confidence in him. Drawing him aside, she whispered a few low eager words which I could not hear. He listenednonchalantly for a moment but suddenly made a move which I knewindicated strong and surprised interest, though from his face--but youknow what Gryce's face is. I was about to walk off, convinced he hadgot hold of something he would prefer to manage himself, when theSuperintendent came in. 

"Where is Gryce?" asked he; "tell him I want him. "

Mr. Gryce heard him and hastened forward. As he passed me, he whispered, "Take a man and go with this woman; look into matters and send me wordif you want me; I will be here for two hours. "

I did not need a second permission. Beckoning to Harris, I reapproachedthe woman. "Where do you come from, " said I, "I am to go back with youand investigate the affair it seems. "

"Did he say so?" she asked, pointing to Mr. Gryce who now stood with hisback to us busily talking with the Superintendent. 

I nodded, and she at once moved towards the door. "I come from No. ----Second Avenue: Mr. Blake's house, " she whispered, uttering a name sowell known, I at once understood Mr. Gryce's movement of sudden interest"A girl--one who sewed for us--disappeared last night in a way toalarm us very much. She was taken from her room--" "Yes, " she criedvehemently, seeing my look of sarcastic incredulity, "taken from herroom; she never went of her own accord; and she must be found if I spendevery dollar of the pittance I have laid up in the bank against my oldage. "

Her manner was so intense, her tone so marked and her words so vehement, I at once and naturally asked if the girl was a relative of hers thatshe felt her abduction so keenly. 

"No, " she replied, "not a relative, but, " she went on, looking every waybut in my face, "a very dear friend--a--a--protegee, I think they callit, of mine; I--I--She must be found, " she again reiterated. 

We were by this time in the street. 

"Nothing must be said about it, " she now whispered, catching me by thearm. "I told him so, " nodding back to the building from which we hadjust issued, "and he promised secrecy. It can be done without folksknowing anything about it, can't it?"

"What?" I asked. 

"Finding the girl. "

"Well, " said I, "we can tell you better about that when we know a fewmore of the facts. What is the girl's name and what makes you think shedidn't go out of the house-door of her own accord?"

"Why, why, everything. She wasn't the person to do it; then the looks ofher room, and--They all got out of the window, " she cried suddenly, "andwent away by the side gate into ------ Street. "

"They? Who do you mean by they?"

"Why, whoever they were who carried her off. "

I could not suppress the "bah!" that rose to my lips. Mr. Gryce mighthave been able to, but I am not Gryce. 

"You don't believe, " said she, "that she was carried off?"

"Well, no, " said I, "not in the sense you mean. "

She gave another nod back to the police station now a block or sodistant. "He did'nt seem to doubt it at all. "

I laughed. "Did you tell him you thought she had been taken off in thisway?"

"Yes, and he said, 'Very likely. ' And well he might, for I heard the mentalking in her room, and--"

"You heard men talking in her room--when?"

"O, it must have been as late as half-past twelve. I had been asleep andthe noise they made whispering, woke me. "

"Wait, " I said, "tell me where her room is, hers and yours. "

"Hers is the third story back, mine the front one on the same floor. "

"Who are you?" I now inquired. "What position do you occupy in Mr. Blake's house?"

"I am the housekeeper. "

Mr. Blake was a bachelor. 

"And you were wakened last night by hearing whispering which seemed tocome from this girl's room. "

"Yes, I at first thought it was the folks next door, --we often hear themwhen they are unusually noisy, --but soon I became assured it came fromher room; and more astonished than I could say, --She is a good girl, "she broke in, suddenly looking at me with hotly indignant eyes, "a--a--as good a girl as this whole city can show; don't you dare, anyof you, to hint at anything else o--"

"Come, come, " I said soothingly, a little ashamed of my toocommunicative face, "I haven't said anything, we will take it forgranted she is as good as gold, go on. "

The woman wiped her forehead with a hand that trembled like a leaf. "Where was I?" said she. "O, I heard voices and was surprised and gotup and went to her door. The noise I made unlocking my own must havestartled her, for all was perfectly quiet when I got there. I waited amoment, then I turned the knob and called her: she did not reply and Icalled again. Then she came to the door, but did not unlock it. 'What isit?' she asked. 'O, ' said I, 'I thought I heard talking here and I wasfrightened, ' 'It must have been next door, ' said she. I begged pardonand went back to my room. There was no more noise, but when in themorning we broke into her room and found her gone, the window open andsigns of distress and struggle around, I knew I had not been mistaken;that there were men with her when I went to her door, and that they hadcarried her off--"

This time I could not restrain myself. 

"Did they drop her out of the window?" I inquired. 

"O, " said she, "we are building an extension, and there is a ladderrunning up to the third floor, and it was by means of that they tookher. "

"Indeed! she seems at least to have been a willing victim, " I remarked. 

The woman clutched my arm with a grip like iron. "Don't you believe it, "gasped she, stopping me in the street where we were. "I tell you if whatI say is true, and these burglars or whatever they were, did carry heroff, it was an agony to her, an awful, awful thing that will kill her ifit has not done so already. You don't know what you are talking about, you never saw her--"

"Was she pretty, " I asked, hurrying the woman along, for more than onepasser-by had turned their heads to look at us. The question seemed insome way to give her a shock. 

"Ah, I don't know, " she muttered; "some might not think so, I alwaysdid; it depended upon the way you looked at her. "

For the first time I felt a thrill of anticipation shoot through myveins. Why, I could not say. Her tone was peculiar, and she spoke in asort of brooding way as though she were weighing something in her ownmind; but then her manner had been peculiar throughout. Whatever it wasthat aroused my suspicion, I determined henceforth to keep a very sharpeye upon her ladyship. Levelling a straight glance at her face, I askedher how it was that she came to be the one to inform the authorities ofthe girl's disappearance. 

"Doesn't Mr. Blake know anything about it?"

The faintest shadow of a change came into her manner. "Yes, " said she, "I told him at breakfast time; but Mr. Blake doesn't take much interestin his servants; he leaves all such matters to me. "

"Then he does not know you have come for the police?"

"No, sir, and O, if you would be so good as to keep it from him. It isnot necessary he should know. I shall let you in the back way. Mr. Blakeis a man who never meddles with anything, and--"

"What did Mr. Blake say this morning when you told him that thisgirl--By the way, what is her name?"

"Emily. "

"That this girl, Emily, had disappeared during the night?"

"Not much of anything, sir. He was sitting at the breakfast tablereading his paper, he merely looked up, frowned a little in anabsent-minded way, and told me I must manage the servants' affairswithout troubling him. "

"And you let it drop?"

"Yes sir; Mr. Blake is not a man to speak twice to. "

I could easily believe that from what I had seen of him in public, forthough by no means a harsh looking man, he had a reserved air which ifmaintained in private must have made him very difficult of approach. 

We were now within a half block or so of the old-fashioned mansionregarded by this scion of New York's aristocracy as one of the mostdesirable residences in the city; so motioning to the man who hadaccompanied me to take his stand in a doorway near by and watch forthe signal I would give him in case I wanted Mr. Gryce, I turned to thewoman, who was now all in a flutter, and asked her how she proposed toget me into the house without the knowledge of Mr. Blake. 

"O sir, all you have got to do is to follow me right up the back stairs;he won't notice, or if he does will not ask any questions. "

And having by this time reached the basement door, she took out a keyfrom her pocket and inserting it in the lock, at once admitted us intothe dwelling. 

CHAPTER II. A FEW POINTS

Mrs. Daniels, for that was her name, took me at once up stairs to thethird story back room. As we passed through the halls, I could not butnotice how rich, though sombre were the old fashioned walls and heavilyfrescoed ceilings, so different in style and coloring from what we seenow-a-days in our secret penetrations into Fifth Avenue mansions. Manyas are the wealthy houses I have been called upon to enter in the lineof my profession, I had never crossed the threshold of such an one asthis before, and impervious as I am to any foolish sentimentalities, I felt a certain degree of awe at the thought of invading with policeinvestigation, this home of ancient Knicker-bocker respectability. Butonce in the room of the missing girl, every consideration fled save thatof professional pride and curiosity. For almost at first blush, I sawthat whether Mrs. Daniels was correct or not in her surmises as to themanner of the girl's disappearance, the fact that she had disappearedwas likely to prove an affair of some importance. For, let me statethe facts in the order in which I noticed them. The first thing thatimpressed me was, that whatever Mrs. Daniels called her, this was nosewing girl's room into which I now stepped. Plain as was the furniturein comparison with the elaborate richness of the walls and ceiling, there were still scattered through the room, which was large even fora thirty foot house, articles of sufficient elegance to make thesupposition that it was the abode of an ordinary seamstress open tosuspicion, if no more. 

Mrs. Daniels, seeing my look of surprise, hastened to provide someexplanation. "It is the room which has always been devoted to sewing, "said she; "and when Emily came, I thought it would be easier to put upa bed here than to send her upstairs. She was a very nice girl anddisarranged nothing. "

I glanced around on the writing-case lying open on a small table in thecentre of the room, on the vase half full of partly withered roses, onthe mantel-piece, the Shakespeare, and Macaulay's History lying on thestand at my right, thought my own thoughts, but said nothing. 

"You found the door locked this morning?" asked I, after a moment'sscrutiny of the room in which three facts had become manifest: first, that the girl had not occupied the bed the night before; second, thatthere had been some sort of struggle or surprise, --one of the curtainsbeing violently torn as if grasped by an agitated hand, to say nothingof a chair lying upset on the floor with one of its legs broken; third, that the departure, strange as it may seem, had been by the window. 

"Yes, " returned she; "but there is a passageway leading from my roomto hers and it was by that means we entered. There was a chair placedagainst the door on this side but we easily pushed it away. "

I stepped to the window and looked out. Ah, it would not be so verydifficult for a man to gain the street from that spot in a dark night, for the roof of the newly-erected extension was almost on a level withthe window. 

"Well, " said she anxiously, "couldn't she have been got out that way?"

"More difficult things have been done, " said I; and was about to stepout upon the roof when I bethought to inquire of Mrs. Daniels if any ofthe girl's clothing was missing. 

She immediately flew to the closets and thence to bureau drawers whichshe turned hastily over. "No, nothing is missing but a hat and cloakand--" She paused confusedly. 

"And what?" I asked. 

"Nothing, " returned she, hurriedly closing the bureau drawer; "only somelittle knick-knacks. "

"Knick-knacks!" quoth I. "If she stopped for knick-knacks, she couldn'thave gone in any very unwilling frame of mind. " And somewhat disgusted, I was about to throw up the whole affair and leave the room. But theindecision in Mrs. Daniels' own face deterred me. 

"I don't understand it, " murmured she, drawing her hand across her eyes. "I don't understand it. But, " she went on with even an increase in herold tone of heart-felt conviction, "no matter whether we understand itor not, the case is serious; I tell you so, and she must be found. "

I resolved to know the nature of that must, used as few women in herposition would use it even under circumstances to all appearance moreaggravated than these. 

"Why, must?" said I. "If the girl went of her own accord as some thingsseem to show, why should you, no relative as you acknowledge, take thematter so to heart as to insist she shall be followed and brought back?"

She turned away, uneasily taking up and putting down some little matterson the table before her. "Is it not enough that I promise to pay forall expenses which a search will occasion, without my being forced todeclare just why I should be willing to do so? Am I bound to tell you Ilove the girl? that I believe she has been taken away by foul means, and that to her great suffering and distress? that being fond of her andbelieving this, I am conscientious enough to put every means I possessat the command of those who will recover her?"

I was not satisfied with this but on that very account felt myenthusiasm revive. 

"But Mr. Blake? Surely he is the one to take this interest if anybody. "

"I have before said, " returned she, paling however as she spoke, "thatMr. Blake takes very little interest in his servants. "

I cast another glance about the room. "How long have you been in thishouse?" asked I. 

"I was in the service of Mr. Blake's father and he died a year ago. "

"Since when you have remained with Mr. Blake himself?"

"Yes sir. "

"And this Emily, when did she come here?"

"Oh it must be eleven months or so ago. "

"An Irish girl?"

"O no, American. She is not a common person, sir. "

"What do you mean by that? That she was educated, lady-like, pretty, orwhat?"

"I don't know what to say. She was educated, yes, but not as you wouldcall a lady educated. Yet she knew a great many things the rest of usdid'nt. She liked to read, you see, and--O sir, ask the girls about her, I never know what to say when I am questioned. "

I scanned the gray-haired woman still more intently than I had yet done. Was she the weak common-place creature she seemed, or had she reallysome cause other than appeared for these her numerous breaks andhesitations. 

"Where did you get this girl?" I inquired. "Where did she live beforecoming here?"

"I cannot say, I never asked her to talk about herself. She came to mefor work and I liked her and took her without recommendation. "

"And she has served you well?"

"Excellently. "

"Been out much? Had any visitors?"

She shook her head. "Never went out and never had any visitors. "

I own I was nonplussed, "Well, " said I, "no more of this at present. I must first find out if she left this house alone or in company withothers. " And without further parley I stepped out upon the roof of theextension. 

As I did so I debated with myself whether the case warranted me or notin sending for Mr. Gryce. As yet there was nothing to show that the girlhad come to any harm. A mere elopement with or without a lover to helpher, was not such a serious matter that the whole police force needbe stirred up on the subject; and if the woman had money, as she said, ready to give the man who should discover the whereabouts of this girl, why need that money be divided up any more than was necessary. Yet Grycewas not one to be dallied with. He had said, send for him if the affairseemed to call for his judgment, and somehow the affair did promise tobe a trifle complicated. I was yet undetermined when I reached the edgeof the roof. 

It was a dizzy descent, but once made, escape from the yard beneathwould be easy. A man could take that road without difficulty; but awoman! Baffled at the idea I turned thoughtfully back, when I beheldsomething on the roof before me that caused me to pause and ask myselfif this was going to turn out to be a tragedy after all. It was a dropof congealed blood. Further on towards the window was another, andyes, further still, another and another. I even found one upon the verywindow ledge itself. Bounding into the room, I searched the carpet forfurther traces. It was the worst one in the world to find anythingupon of the nature of which I was seeking, being a confused pattern ofmingled drab and red, and in my difficulty I had to stoop very low. 

"What are you looking for?" cried Mrs. Daniels. 

I pointed to the drop on the window sill. "Do you see that?" I asked. 

She uttered an exclamation and bent nearer. "Blood!" cried she, andstood staring, with rapidly paling cheeks and trembling form. "They havekilled her and he will never--"

As she did not finish I looked up. 

"Do you think it was her blood?" she whispered in a horrified tone. 

"There is every reason to believe so, " rejoined I, pointing to a spotwhere I had at last discovered not only one crimson drop but many, scattered over the scarcely redder roses under my feet. 

"Ah, it is worse than I thought, " murmured she. "What are you going todo? What can we do?

"I am going to send for another detective, " returned I; and stepping tothe window I telegraphed at once to the man Harris to go for Mr. Gryce. 

"The one we saw at the Station?"

I bowed assent. 

Her face lost something of its drawn expression. "O I am glad; he willdo something. "

Subduing my indignation at this back thrust, I employed my time intaking note of such details as had escaped my previous attention. Theywere not many. The open writing-desk--in which, however I found noletters or written documents of any kind, only a few sheets of paper, with pen, ink, etc. ; the brush and hairpins scattered on the bureau asthough the girl had been interrupted while arranging her hair (if shehad been interrupted); and the absence of any great pile of work such asone would expect to see in a room set apart for sewing, were all I coulddiscover. Not much to help us, in case this was to prove an affair ofimportance as I began to suspect. 

With Mr. Gryce's arrival, however, things soon assumed a better shape. He came to the basement door, was ushered in by your humble servant, hadthe whole matter as far as I had investigated it, at his finger-ends ina moment, and was up-stairs and in that room before I, who am called thequickest man in the force as you all know, could have time to determinejust what difference his presence would make to me in a pecuniary way inevent of Mrs. Daniels' promises amounting to anything. He did not remainthere long, but when he came down I saw that his interest was in no wiselessened. 

"What kind of a looking girl was this?" he asked, hurrying up to Mrs. Daniels who had withdrawn into a recess in the lower hall while all thiswas going on. "Describe her to me, hair, eyes, complexion, etc. ; youknow. "

"I--I--don't know as I can, " she stammered reluctantly, turning veryred in the face. "I am a poor one for noticing. I will call one of thegirls, I--" She was gone before we realized she had not finished hersentence. 

"Humph!" broke from Mr. Gryce's lips as he thoughtfully took down a vasethat stood on a bracket near by and looked into it. 

I did not venture a word. 

When Mrs. Daniels came back she had with her a trim-looking girl ofprepossessing appearance. 

"This is Fanny, " said she; "she knows Emily well, being in the habit ofwaiting on her at table; she will tell you what you want to hear. Ihave explained to her, " she went on, nodding towards Mr. Gryce with acomposure such as she had not before displayed; "that you are lookingfor your niece who ran away from home some time ago to go into some sortof service. "

"Certainly, ma'am, " quoth that gentleman, bowing with mock admirationto the gas-fixture. Then carelessly shifting his glance to thecleaning-cloth which Fanny held rather conspicuously in her hand, herepeated the question he had already put to Mrs. Daniels. 

The girl, tossing her head just a trifle, at once replied:

"O she was good-looking enough, if that is what you mean, for them aslikes a girl with cheeks as white as this cloth was afore I rubbed thespoons with it. As for her eyes, they was blacker than her hair, whichwas the blackest I ever see. She had no flesh at all, and as for herfigure--" Fanny glanced down on her own well developed person, and gavea shrug inexpressibly suggestive. 

"Is this description true?" Mr. Gryce asked, seemingly of Mrs. Daniels, though his gaze rested with curious intentness on the girl's head whichwas covered with a little cap. 

"Sufficiently so, " returned Mrs. Daniels in a very low tone, however. Then with a sudden display of energy, "Emily's figure is not whatyou would call plump. I have seen her--" She broke off as if a littlestartled at herself and motioned Fanny to go. 

"Wait a moment, " interposed Mr. Gryce in his soft way. "You said thegirl's hair and eyes were dark; were they darker than yours?"

"O, yes sir;" replied the girl simpering, as she settled the ribbons onher cap. 

"Let me see your hair. "

She took off her cap with a smile. 

"Ha, very pretty, very pretty. And the other girls? You have other girlsI suppose?"

"Two, sir;" returned Mrs. Daniels. 

"How about their complexions? Are they lighter too than Emily's?"

"Yes, sir; about like Fanny's. "

Mr. Gryce spread his hand over his breast in a way that assured me ofhis satisfaction, and allowed the girl to go. 

"We will now proceed to the yard, " said he. But at that moment the doorof the front room opened and a gentleman stepped leisurely into thehall, whom at first glance I recognized as the master of the house. Hewas dressed for the street and had his hat in his hand. At the sightwe all stood silent, Mrs. Daniels flushing up to the roots of her grayhair. 

Mr. Blake is an elegant-looking man as you perhaps know; proud, reserved, and a trifle sombre. As he turned to come towards us, thelight shining through the windows at our right, fell full upon hisface, revealing such a self-absorbed and melancholy expression, Iinvoluntarily drew back as if I had unwittingly intruded upon a greatman's privacy. Mr. Gryce on the contrary stepped forward. 

"Mr. Blake, I believe, " said he, bowing in that deferential way he knowsso well how to assume. 

The gentleman, startled as it evidently seemed from a reverie, lookedhastily up. Meeting Mr. Gryce's bland smile, he returned the bow, buthaughtily, and as it appeared in an abstracted way. 

"Allow me to introduce myself, " proceeded my superior. "I am Mr. Grycefrom the detective bureau. We were notified this morning that a girlin your employ had disappeared from your house last night in a somewhatstrange and unusual way, and I just stepped over with my man here, tosee if the matter is of sufficient importance to inquire into. With manyapologies for the intrusion, I stand obedient to your orders. "

With a frown expressive of annoyance, Mr. Blake glanced around anddetecting Mrs. Daniels, said: "Did you consider the affair so serious asthat?"

She nodded, seeming to find it difficult to speak. 

He remained looking at her with an expression of some doubt. "I canhardly think, " said he, "such extreme measures were necessary; the girlwill doubtless come back, or if not--" His shoulders gave a slight shrugand he took out his gloves. 

"The difficulty seems to be, " quoth Mr. Gryce eyeing those gloves withhis most intent and concentrated look, "that the girl did not go alone, but was helped away, or forced away, by parties who had previouslybroken into your house. "

"That is a strange circumstance, " remarked Mr. Blake, but still withoutany appearance of interest, "and if you are sure of what you say, demands, perhaps, some inquiry. I would not wish to put anything in theway of justice succoring the injured. But--" again he gave that slightshrug of the shoulders, indicative of doubt, if not indifference. 

Mrs. Daniels trembled, and took a step forward. I thought she wasgoing to speak, but instead of that she drew back again in her strangehesitating way. 

Mr. Gryce did not seem to notice. 

"Perhaps sir, " said he, "if you will step upstairs with me to the roomoccupied by this girl, I may be able to show you certain evidences whichwill convince you that our errand here is not one of presumption. "

"I am ready to concede that without troubling myself with proof, "observed the master of the house with the faintest show of asperity. "Yet if there is anything to see of a startling nature, perhaps I hadbest yield to your wishes. Whereabouts in the house is this girl's room, Mrs. Daniels?"

"It is--I gave her the third story back, Mr. Blake;" replied that woman, nervously eyeing his face. "It was large and light for sewing, and shewas so nice--"

He impatiently waved his hand on which he had by this time fitted hisglove to a nicety, as if these details were an unnecessary bore to him, and motioned her to show the way. Instantly a new feeling appeared toseize her, that of alarm. 

"I hardly think you need trouble Mr. Blake to go up-stairs, " shemurmured, turning towards Mr. Gryce. "I am sure when you tell him thecurtains were torn, and the chair upset, the window open and--"

But Mr. Gryce was already on the stairs with Mr. Blake, whom this smallopposition seemed to have at once determined. 

"O my God!" she murmured to herself, "who could have foreseen this. "And ignoring my presence with all the egotism of extreme agitation, shehurried past me to the room above, where I speedily joined her. 

CHAPTER III. THE CONTENTS OF A BUREAU DRAWER

Mr. Blake was standing in the centre of the room when I entered, carelessly following with his eyes the motion of Mr. Gryce's finger asthat gentleman pointed with unwearying assiduity to the various littledetails that had struck us. His hat was still in his hand, and hepresented a very formidable and imposing appearance, or so Mrs. Danielsappeared to think as she stood watching him from the corner, whither shehad withdrawn herself. 

"A forcible departure you see, " exclaimed Mr. Gryce; "she had not eventime to gather up her clothes;" and with a sudden movement he stoopedand pulled out one of the bureau drawers before the eyes of hisnonchalant listener. 

Immediately a smothered exclamation struck our ears, and Mrs. Danielsstarted forward. 

"I pray, gentlemen, " she entreated, advancing in such a way as to placeherself against the front of the bureau in a manner to preclude theopening of any more drawers, "that you will remember that a modest womansuch as this girl was, would hardly like to have her clothing displayedbefore the eyes of strangers. "

Mr. Gryce instantly closed the drawer. 

"You are right, " said he; "pardon the rough ways of a somewhat hardenedofficer of the law. "

She drew up closer to the bureau, still protecting it with her meagrebut energetic form while her eyes rested with almost a savage expressionupon the master of the house as if he, and not the detective, had beenthe aggressor whose advances she feared. 

Mr. Blake did not return the look. 

"If that is all you can show me, I think I will proceed to myappointment, " said he. "The matter does seem to be more serious than Ithought, and if you judge it necessary to take any active measures, why, let no consideration of my great and inherent dislike to notoriety ofany kind, interfere with what you consider your duty. As for the house, it is at your command, under Mrs. Daniels' direction. Good morning. " Andreturning our bows with one singularly impressive for all its elegantcarelessness, he at once withdrew. 

Mrs. Daniels took one long deep breath and came from the bureau. Instantly Mr. Gryce stooped and pulled out the drawer she had so visiblyprotected. A white towel met our eyes, spread neatly out at its fulllength. Lifting it, we looked beneath. A carefully folded dress of darkblue silk, to all appearance elegantly made, confronted our rathereager eyes. Beside it, a collar of exquisite lace--I know enough of suchmatters to be a judge--pricked through by a gold breast-pin of a strangeand unique pattern. A withered bunch of what appeared to have been abouquet of red roses, surmounted the whole, giving to the otherwisecommonplace collection the appearance of a relic from the tomb. 

We both drew back in some amazement, involuntarily glancing up at Mrs. Daniels. 

"I have no explanation to give, " said that woman, with a calmnessstrangely in contrast to the agitation she had displayed while Mr. Blakehad remained in the room. "That those things rich as they are, reallybelonged to the girl, I have no doubt. She brought them when she came, and they only confirm what I have before intimated: that she was noordinary sewing girl, but a woman who had seen better days. "

With a low "humph!" and another glance at the dark blue dress anddelicate collar, Mr. Gryce carefully replaced the cloth he had takenfrom them, and softly closed the drawer without either of us having laida finger upon a single article. Five minutes later he disappeared fromthe room. 

I did not see him again till occasion took me below, when I beheld himsoftly issue from Mr. Blake's private apartment. Meeting me, he smiled, and I saw that whether he was conscious of betraying it or not, he hadcome upon some clue or at the least fashioned for himself some theorywith which he was more or less satisfied. 

"An elegant apartment, that, " whispered he, nodding sideways toward theroom he had just left, "pity you haven't time to examine it. "

"Are you sure that I haven't?" returned I, drawing a step nearer toescape the eyes of Mrs. Daniels who had descended after me. 

"Quite sure;" and we hastened down together into the yard. 

But my curiosity once aroused in this way would not let me rest. Takingan opportunity when Mr. Gryce was engaged in banter with the girlsbelow, and in this way learning more in a minute of what he wanted toknow than some men would gather in an hour by that or any other method, I stole lightly back and entered this room. 

I almost started in my surprise. Instead of the luxurious apartment Ihad prepared myself to behold, a plain, scantily-furnished room openedbefore me, of a nature between a library and a studio. There was noteven a carpet on the polished floor, only a rug, which strange to saywas not placed in the centre of the room or even before the fireplace, but on one side, and directly in front of a picture that almost at firstblush had attracted my attention as being the only article in the roomworth looking at. It was the portrait of a woman, handsome, haughty andalluring; a modern beauty, with eyes of fire burning beneath high piledlocks of jetty blackness, that were only relieved from being too intenseby the scarlet hood of an opera cloak, that was drawn over them. "Asister, " I thought to myself, "it is too modern for his mother, " and Itook a step nearer to see if I could trace any likeness in the chiselledfeatures of this disdainful brunette, to the more characteristic onesof the careless gentleman who had stood but a few moments before in mypresence. As I did so, I was struck with the distance with whichthe picture stood out from the wall, and thought to myself thatthe awkwardness of the framing came near marring the beauty of thisotherwise lovely work of art. As for the likeness I was in search of, Ifound it or thought I did, in the expression of the eyes which wereof the same color as Mr. Blake's but more full and passionate; andsatisfied that I had exhausted all the picture could tell me, Iturned to make what other observations I could, when I was startled byconfronting the agitated countenance of Mrs. Daniels who had enteredbehind me. 

"This is Mr. Blake's room, " said she with dignity; "no one ever intrudeshere but myself, not even the servants. "

"I beg pardon, " said I, glancing around in vain for the something whichhad awakened that look of satisfaction in Mr. Gryce's eyes. "I wasattracted by the beauty of this picture visible through the half opendoor and stepped in to favor myself with a nearer view. It is verylovely. A sister of Mr. Blake?"

"No, his cousin;" and she closed the door after us with an emphasis thatproclaimed she was anything but pleased. 

It was my last effort to obtain information on my own account. In a fewmoments later Mr. Gryce appeared from below, and a conversation ensuedwith Mrs. Daniels that absorbed my whole attention. 

"You are very anxious, my man here tells me, that this girl should befound?" remarked Mr. Gryce; "so much so that you are willing to defrayall the expenses of a search?"

She bowed. "As far as I am able sir; I have a few hundreds in thebank, you are welcome to them. I would not keep a dollar back if Ihad thousands, but I am poor, and can only promise you what I myselfpossess; though--" and her cheeks grew flushed and hot with an unnaturalagitation--"I believe that thousands would not be lacking if they werefound necessary. I--I could almost swear you shall have anything inreason which you require; only the girl must be found and soon. "

"Have you thought, " proceeded Mr. Gryce, utterly ignoring the wildnessof these statements, "that the girl may come back herself if let alone?"

"She will come back if she can, " quoth Mrs. Daniels. 

"Did she seem so well satisfied with her home as to warrant you insaying that?"

"She liked her home, but she loved me, " returned the woman steadily. "She loved me so well she would never have gone as she did without beingforced. Yes, " said she, "though she made no outcry and stopped to puton her bonnet and shawl. She was not a girl to make a fuss. If they hadkilled her outright, she would never have uttered a cry. "

"Why do you say they?"

"Because I am confident I heard more than one man's voice in her room. "

"Humph! Would you know those voices if you heard them again?"

"No. "

There was a surprise in this last negative which Mr. Gryce evidentlynoticed. 

"I ask, " said he, "because I have been told that Mr. Blake lately kept abody servant who has been seen to look at this girl more than once, whenshe has passed him on the stairs. "

Mrs. Daniels' face turned scarlet with rage and she hastily rose fromthe chair. "I don't believe it, " said she; "Henry was a man who knew hisplace, and--I won't hear such things, " she suddenly exclaimed; "Emilywas--was a lady, and--"

"Well, well, " interposed Mr. Gryce soothingly, "though the cat looks atthe king, it is no sign the king looks at the cat. We have to think ofeverything you know. "

"You must never think of anything like that. "

Mr. Gryce softly ran his thumb around the brim of the hat he held in hishand. "Mrs. Daniels, " observed he, "it would greatly facilitate mattersif you would kindly tell us why you take such an interest in this girl. One glimpse at her real history would do more towards setting us on theright track than anything else you could offer. "

Her face assumed an unmistakable frown. "Have I not told you, " said she, "what is known of it? That she came to me about two years ago for work;that I liked her, and so hired her; that she has been with us ever sinceand--"

"Then you will not tell us?" exclaimed Mr. Gryce. 

Her face fell and a look of hesitation crossed it. 

"I doubt if we can do anything unless you do, " continued he. 

Her countenance settled again into a resolved expression. 

"You are mistaken, " said she; "if the girl had a secret--as nearly allgirls have, brought low as she has evidently been--it had nothing to dowith her disappearance, nor would a knowledge of it help you in any way. I am confident of this and so shall hold my peace. "

She was not a woman to be frightened or cajoled into making revelationsshe did not think necessary, and seeing it, Mr. Gryce refrained fromurging her further. 

"However, you will at least tell me this, " said he, "what were theknick-knacks she took away with her from her bureau drawer?"

"No, " said she, "for they have nothing to do with her abduction. Theywere articles of positive value to her, though I assure you of littleimportance to any one else. All that is shown by their disappearance isthe fact that she had a moment's time allowed her in which to collectwhat she most wanted. "

Mr. Gryce arose. "Well, " said he, "you have given us a hard sum towork out, but I am not the man to recoil from anything hard. If I candiscover the whereabouts of this girl I will certainly do it, but youmust help me. "

"I, how?"

"By inserting a personal in the Herald. You say she loves you; and wouldcome back if she could. Now whether you believe it or not this is opento doubt; therefore I would advise that you take some such means asthat to inform her of the anxiety of her friends and their desire tocommunicate with her. "

"Impossible, " she cried vehemently. "I should be afraid--"

"Well?"

"I might put it that Mrs. D----, anxious about Emily, desiresinformation of her whereabouts--"

"Put it any way you like. "

"You had better add, " said I, speaking for the first time, "that youwould be willing to pay for information. "

"Yes, " said Mr. Gryce, "add that. "

Mrs. Daniels frowned, but made no objection, and after getting as minutea description as possible of the clothing worn by the girl the nightbefore, we left the house. 

CHAPTER IV. THOMPSON'S STORY

"An affair of some mystery, " remarked Mr. Gryce, as we halted at thecorner to take a final look at the house and its environs. "Why a girlshould choose such a method of descent as that, "--and he pointed to theladder down which we believed her to have come--"to leave a house ofwhich she had been an inmate for a year, baffles me, I can tell you. Ifit were not for those marks of blood which betray her track, I wouldbe disinclined to believe any such hare-brained adventure was everperpetrated by a woman. As it is, what would'nt I give for herphotograph. Black hair, black eyes, white face and thin figure! what adescription whereby to find a girl in this great city of New York. Ah!" said he with sudden gratification, "here is Mr. Blake again; hisappointment must have been a failure. Let us see if his description willbe any more definite. " And hurrying towards the advancing figure of thatgentleman, he put some questions to him. 

Instantly Mr. Blake stopped, looked at him blankly for a moment, thenreplied in a tone sufficiently loud for me to hear:

"I am sorry, sir, if my description could have done you any good, but Ihave not the remotest idea how the girl looked. I did not know tillthis morning even, that there was such a person in my house as asewing-woman. I leave all such domestic concerns entirely with Mrs. Daniels. "

Mr. Gryce again bowed low and ventured another question. The answer cameas before, distinctly to my ears. 

"O, I may have seen her, I can not say about that; I very often runacross the servants in the hall; but whether she is tall or short, lightor dark, pretty or ugly, I know no more than you do, sir. " Then witha dignified nod calculated to abash a man in Mr. Gryce's position, inquired, "Is that all?"

It did not seem to be, Mr. Gryce put another question. 

Mr. Blake give him a surprised stare before replying, then courteouslyremarked, "I do not concern myself with servants after they have left me. Henrywas an excellent valet, but a trifle domineering, something which Inever allow in any one who approaches me. I dismissed him and that wasthe end of it, I know nothing of what has become of him. "

Mr. Gryce bowed and drew back, and Mr. Blake, with the haughty steppeculiar to him, passed by him and reentered his house. 

"I should not like to get into that man's clutches, " said I, as mysuperior rejoined me; "he has a way of making one appear so small. "

Mr. Gryce shot an askance look at his shadow gloomily following himalong the pavement. "Yet it may happen that you will have to run therisk of that very experience. "

I glanced towards him in amazement. 

"If the girl does not turn up of her own accord, or if we do not succeedin getting some trace of her movements, I shall be tempted to place youwhere you can study into the ways of this gentleman's household. If theaffair is a mystery, it has its centre in that house. "

I stared at Mr. Gryce good and roundly. "You have come acrosssomething which I have missed, " observed I, "or you could not speak sopositively. "

"I have come across nothing that was not in plain sight of any body whohad eyes to see it, " he returned shortly. 

I shook my head slightly mortified. 

"You had it all before you, " continued he, "and if you were not ableto pick up sufficient facts on which to base a conclusion, you mustn'tblame me for it. "

More nettled than I would be willing to confess, I walked back withhim to the station, saying nothing then, but inwardly determined toreestablish my reputation with Mr. Gryce before the affair was over. Accordingly hunting up the man who had patrolled the district the nightbefore, I inquired if he had seen any one go in or out of the side gateof Mr. Blake's house on ----- street, between the hours of eleven andone. 

"No, " said he, "but I heard Thompson tell a curious story this morningabout some one he had seen. "

"What was it?"

"He said he was passing that way last night about twelve o'clock when heremarked standing under the lamp on the corner of Second Avenue, a groupconsisting of two men and a woman, who no sooner beheld him than theyseparated, the men drawing back into Second Avenue and the woman cominghastily towards him. Not understanding the move, he stood waiting herapproach, when instead of advancing to where he was, she paused at thegate of Mr. Blake's house and lifted her hand as if to open it, whenwith a wild and terrified gesture she started back, covering herface with her hands, and before he knew it, had actually fled in thedirection from which she had come. A little startled, Thompson advancedand looked through the gate before him to see if possible what hadalarmed her, when to his great surprise, he beheld the pale face of themaster of the house, Mr. Blake himself, looking through the bars fromthe other side of the gate. He in his turn started back and before hecould recover himself, Mr. Blake had disappeared. He says he tried thegate after that, but found it locked. "

"Thompson tells you this story, does he?"

"Yes. "

"Well, " said I, "it's a pretty wild kind of a tale, and all I havegot to say is, that neither you nor Thompson had better go blabbingit around too much. Mum is the word where such men as Mr. Blake areconcerned. " And I departed to hunt up Thompson. 

But he had nothing to add to his statement, except that the girlappeared to be tall and thin, and was closely wrapped about in a shawl. My next move was to make such inquiries as I could with safety into theprivate concerns of Mr. Blake and his family, and discovered--well, suchfacts as these:

That Mr. Blake was a man who if he paid but little attention to domesticaffairs was yet rarely seen out of his own house, except upon occasionsof great political importance, when he was always to be found onthe platform at meetings of his constituents. Though to the ordinaryobserver a man eminently calculated, from his good looks, fine position, and solid wealth to enjoy society, he not only manifested a distastefor it, but even went so far as to refuse to participate in the socialdinners of his most intimate friends; the only table to which he wouldsit down being that of some public caterer, where he was sure of findingnone but his political associates assembled. 

To all appearance he wished to avoid the ladies, a theory borne out bythe fact that never, even in church, on the street, or at any place ofamusement, was he observed with one at his side. This fact in aman, young--he was not far from thirty-five at that time--rich, andmarriageable, would, however, have been more noteworthy than it wasif he had not been known to belong to a family eminent for theireccentricities. Not a man of all his race but had possessed some markedpeculiarity. His father, bibliomaniac though he was, would never treat aman or a woman with decency, who mentioned Shakspeare to him, nor wouldhe acknowledge to his dying day any excellence in that divine poetbeyond a happy way of putting words together. Mr. Blake's uncle hatedall members of the legal profession, and as for his grandfather--but youhave heard what a mania of dislike he had against that simple article ofdiet, fish; now his friends were obliged to omit it from their bills offare whenever they expected him to dinner. If then Mr. Blake choseto have any pet antipathy--as for women for instance--he surelyhad precedent enough in his own family to back him. However, it waswhispered in my ear by one gentleman, a former political colleague ofhis who had been with him in Washington, that he was known at one timeto show considerable attention to Miss Evelyn Blake, that cousin ofhis who has since made such a brilliant thing of it by marrying, andstraightway losing by death, a wealthy old scapegrace of a French noble, the Count De Mirac. But that was not a matter to be talked about, Madame the Countess being free at present and in New York, though to allappearance upon anything but pleasant terms with her quondam admirer. 

Remembering the picture I had seen in Mr. Blake's private apartment, Iasked if this lady was a brunette, and being told she was, and of themost pronounced type, felt for the moment I had stumbled upon somethingin the shape of a clue; but upon resorting to Mr. Gryce with myinformation, he shook his head with a short laugh and told me I wouldhave to dive deeper than that if I wanted to fish up the truth lying atthe bottom of this well. 

CHAPTER V. A NEW YORK BELLE

Meanwhile all our efforts to obtain information in regard to the fate orwhereabouts of the missing girl, had so far proved utterly futile. Eventhe advertisements inserted by Mrs. Daniels had produced no effect; andfrustrated in my scheme I began to despair, when the accounts of thatsame Mrs. Daniels' strange and unaccountable behavior during these daysof suspense, which came to me through Fanny, (the pretty housemaid atMr. Blake's, whose acquaintance I had lately taken to cultivating, )aroused once more my dormant energies and led me to ask myself if theaffair was quite as hopeless as it seemed. 

"If she was a ghost, " was her final expression on the subject, "shecould'nt go peramberlating this house more than she does. It seems as ifshe could'nt keep still a minute. Upstairs and down, upstairs and down, till we're most wild. And so white as she is and so trembling! Why herhands shake so all the time she never dares lift a dish off the table. And then the way she hangs about Mr. Blake's door when he's at home!She never goes in, that's the oddest part of it, but walks up and downbefore it, wringing her hands and talking to herself just like a madwoman. Why, I have seen her almost put her hand on the knob twice inan afternoon perhaps, then draw back as if she was afraid it would burnher; and if by any chance the door opened and Mr. Blake came out, youought to have seen how she run. What it all means I don't know, but Ihave my imaginings, and if she is'nt crazy, why--" etc. , etc. 

In face of facts like these I felt it would be pure insanity to despair. Let there be but a mystery, though it involved a man of the position ofMr. Blake and I was safe. My only apprehension had been that the wholeaffair would dissolve itself into an ordinary elopement or some suchcommon-place matter. 

Where, therefore, a few minutes later, Fanny announced that Mr. Blakehad ordered a carriage to take him to the Charity Ball that evening, I determined to follow him and learn if possible what change hadtaken place in himself or his circumstances, to lead him into such aninnovation upon his usual habits. Though the hour was late I had butlittle difficulty in carrying out my plan, arriving at the Academysomething less than an hour after the opening dance. 

The crowd was great and I circulated the floor three times before I cameupon him. When I did, I own I was slightly disappointed; for instead offinding him as I anticipated, the centre of an admiring circle of ladiesand gentlemen, I espied him withdrawn into a corner with a bland oldpolitician of the Fifteenth Ward, discussing, as I presently overheard, the merits and demerits of a certain Smith who at that time was makingsome disturbance in the party. 

"If that is all he has come for, " thought I, "I had better have stayedat home and made love to the pretty Fanny. " And somewhat chagrined, Itook up my stand near by, and began scrutinizing the ladies. 

Suddenly I felt my heart stand still, the noise of voices ceasingthe same instant behind me. A lady was passing on the arm of aforeign-looking gentleman, whom it did not require a second glance toidentify with the subject of the portrait in Mr. Blake's house. Older bysome few years than when her picture was painted, her beauty had assumeda certain defiant expression that sufficiently betrayed the fact thatthe years had not been so wholly happy as she had probably anticipatedwhen she jilted handsome Holman Blake for the old French Count. At allevents so I interpreted the look of latent scorn that burned in her darkeyes, as she slowly turned her richly bejeweled head towards the cornerwhere that gentleman stood, and meeting his eyes no doubt, bowed with asudden loss of self-possession that not all the haughty carriage ofher noble form, held doubly erect for the next few moments, could quiteconceal or make forgotten. 

"She still loves him, " I inwardly commented and turned to see if thesurprise had awakened any expression on his uncommunicative countenance. 

Evidently not, for the tough old politician of the Fifteenth Ward waslaughing, at one of his own jokes probably, and looking up in theface of Mr. Blake, whose back was turned to me, in a way that entirelyprecluded all thought of any tragic expression in that quarter. Somewhatdisgusted, I withdrew and followed the lady. 

I could not get very near. By this time the presence of a live countessin the assembly had become known, and I found her surrounded by a swarmof half-fledged youths. But I cared little for this; all I wanted toknow was whether Mr. Blake would approach her or not during the evening. Tediously the moments passed; but a detective on duty, or on fanciedduty, succumbs to no weariness. I had a woman before me worth studyingand the time could not be thrown away. I learned to know her beauty;the poise of her head, the flush of her cheek, the curl of her lip, theglance--yes, the glance of her eye, though that was more difficult tounderstand, for she had a way of drooping her lids at times that, whileexceedingly effective upon the poor wretch toward whom she might bedirecting that half-veiled shaft of light, was anything but conducive tomy purposes. 

At length with a restless shrug of her haughty shoulders she turned awayfrom her crowd of adorers, her breast heaving under its robing of garnetvelvet, and her whole face flaring with a light that might mean resolveand might mean simply love. I had no need to turn my head to see who wasadvancing towards her; her stately attitude as countess, her thrillingglance as woman, betrayed only too readily. 

He was the more composed of the two. Bowing over her hand with a fewwords I could not hear, he drew back a step and began uttering the usualcommon-place sentiments of the occasion. 

She did not respond. With a splendor of indifference not often seen evenin the manner of our grandest ladies, she waited, opening and shuttingher richly feathered fan, as one who would say, "I know all this has tobe gone through with, therefore I will be patient. " But as the momentspassed, and his tone remained unchanged, I could detect a slight gleamof impatience flash in the depths of her dark eyes, and a changecome into the conventional smile that had hitherto lighted, withoutilluminating her countenance. Drawing still further back from the crowdthat was not to be awed from pressing upon her, she looked around as ifseeking a refuge. Her glance fell upon a certain window, with a gleamof satisfaction. Seeing they would straightway withdraw there, I tookadvantage of the moment and made haste to conceal myself behind acurtain as near that vicinity as possible. In another instant I heardthem approaching. 

"You seem to be rather overwhelmed with attention to-night, " were thefirst words I caught, uttered in Mr. Blake's calmest and most courteoustones. 

"Do you think so?" was the slightly sarcastic reply. "I was justdeciding to the contrary when you came up. "

There was a pause. Taking out my knife, I ripped open a seam in thecurtain hanging before me, and looked through. He was eyeing herintently, a firm look upon his face that made its reserve more markedthan common. I saw him gaze at her handsome head piled with its midnighttresses amid which the jewels, doubtless of her dead lord, burned witha fierce and ominous glare, at her smooth olive brow, her partly veiledeyes where the fire passionately blazed, at her scarlet lips tremblingwith an emotion her rapidly flushing cheeks would not allow her toconceal. I saw his glances fall and embrace her whole elegant form withits casing of ruby velvet and ornamentation of lace and diamonds, andan expectant thrill passed through me almost as if I already beheld themask of his reserve falling, and the true man flash out in response tothe wooing beauty of this full-blown rose, evidently in waiting for him. But it died away and a deeper feeling seized me as I saw his glancesreturn unkindled to her countenance, and heard him say in still moremeasured accents than before:

"Is it possible then that the Countess De Mirac can desire the adulationof us poor American plebeians? I had not thought it, madame. "

Slowly her dark eyes turned towards him; she stood a statue. 

"But I forget, " he went on, a tinge of bitterness for a moment showingitself in his smile: "perhaps in returning to her own country, EvelynBlake has so far forgotten the last two years as to find pleasure againin the toys and foibles of her youth. Such things have been, I hear. "And he bowed almost to the ground in his half sarcastic homage. 

"Evelyn Blake! It is long since I have heard that name, " she murmured. 

He could not restrain the quick flush from mounting to his brow. "Pardonme, " said he, "if it brings you sadness or unwelcome memories. I promiseyou I will not so transgress again. "

A wan smile crossed her lips grown suddenly pallid. 

"You mistake, " said she; "if my name brings up a past laden with bittermemories and shadowed by regret, it also recalls much that is pleasantand never to be forgotten. I do not object to hearing my girlhood's nameuttered--by my nearest relative. "

The answer was dignity itself. "Your name is Countess De Mirac, yourrelatives must be proud to utter it. "

A gleam not unlike the lightning's quick flash shot from the eyes shedrooped before him. 

"Is it Holman Blake I am listening to, " said she; "I do not recognize myold friend in the cool and sarcastic man of the world now before me. "

"We often fail to recognize the work of our hands, madame, after it hasfallen from our grasp. "

"What, " she cried, "do you mean--would you say that--"

"I would say nothing, " interrupted he calmly, stooping for the fan shehad dropped. "At an interview which is at once a meeting and a parting, I would give utterance to nothing which would seem like recrimination. I--"

"Wait, " suddenly exclaimed she, reaching out her hand for her fan with agesture lofty as it was resolute. "You have spoken a word which demandsexplanation; what have I ever done to you that you should speak the wordrecrimination to me?"

"What? You shook my faith in womankind; you showed me that a woman whohad once told a man she loved him, could so far forget that love as tomarry one she could never respect, for the sake of titles and jewels. You showed me--"

"Hold, " said she again, this time without gesture or any movement, savethat of her lips grown pallid as marble, "and what did you show me?"

He started, colored profoundly, and for a moment stood before herunmasked of his stern self-possession. "I beg your pardon, " said he, "Itake back that word, recrimination. "

It was now her turn to lift her head and survey him. With glance lesscool than his, but fully as deliberate, she looked at his proud headbending before her; studying his face, line by line, from the stern browto the closely compressed lips on which melancholy seemed to haveset its everlasting seal, and a change passed over her countenance. "Holman, " said she, with a sudden rush of tenderness, "if in the timesgone by, we both behaved with too much worldly prudence for it now to beany great pleasure for either of us to look back, is that any reasonwhy we should mar our whole future by dwelling too long upon what we aresurely still young enough to bury if not forget? I acknowledge thatI would have behaved in a more ideal fashion, if, after I had beenforsaken by you, I had turned my face from society, and let thecanker-worm of despair slowly destroy whatever life and bloom I hadleft. But I was young, and society had its charms, so did the prospectof wealth and position, however hollow they may have proved; you whoare the master of both this day, because twelve months ago you forsookEvelyn Blake, should be the last to reproach me with them. I do notreproach you; I only say let the past be forgotten--"

"Impossible, " exclaimed he, his whole face darkening with an expressionI could not fathom. "What was done at that time cannot be undone. Foryou and me there is no future. Yes, " he said turning towards her as shemade a slight fluttering move of dissent, "no future; we can bury thepast, but we can not resurrect it. I doubt if you would wish to if wecould; as we cannot, of course you will not desire even to converse uponthe subject again. Evelyn I wanted to see you once, but I do not wish tosee you again; will you pardon my plain speaking, and release me?"

"I will pardon your plain speaking, but--" Her look said she would notrelease him. 

He seemed to understand it so, and smiled, but very bitterly. In anothermoment he had bowed and gone, and she had returned to her crowd ofadoring sycophants. 

CHAPTER VI. A BIT OF CALICO

It was about this time that I took up my residence in a sort oflodging-house that occupied the opposite corner to that of Mr. Blake. My room, as I took pains to have it, overlooked the avenue, and fromits windows I could easily watch the goings and comings of the gentlemanwhose movements were daily becoming of more and more interest to me. For set it down to caprice--and men are often as capricious as women--oraccount for it as you will, his restlessness at this period was trulyremarkable. Not a day that he did not spend his time in walking thestreets, and that not in his usual aimless gentlemanly fashion, buteagerly and with an intent gaze that roamed here and there, like a birdseeking its prey. It would often be as late as five o'clock before hecame in, and if, as now frequently happened, he did not have company todinner, he was even known to start out again after seven o'clock and goover the same ground as in the morning, looking with strained gaze, thatvainly endeavored to appear unconcerned, into the faces of the womenthat he passed. I not unfrequently followed him at these times as muchfor my own amusement as from any hope I had of coming upon anything thatshould aid me in the work before me. But when he suddenly changed hisroute of travel from a promenade in the fashionable thoroughfares ofBroadway and Fourteenth Street to a walk through Chatham Square and thedark, narrow streets of the East side, I began to scent whom the preymight be that he was seeking, and putting every other considerationaside, regularly set myself to dog his steps, as only I, with myinnumerable disguises, knew how to do. For three separate days I kept athis heels wherever he went, each day growing more and more astonishedif not to say hopeful, as I found myself treading the narrowest and mostdisreputable streets of the city; halting at the shops of pawnbrokers;peering into the back-rooms of liquor shops; mixing with the crowds thatinfest the corner groceries at nightfall, and even slinking with hand onthe trigger of the pistol I carried in my pocket, up dark alleys whereevery door that swung noiselessly to and fro as we passed, shut uponhaunts of such villainy as only is known to us of the police, or tothose good souls that for the sake of One whose example they follow, layaside their fears and sensitiveness to carry light into the dim pits ofthis wretched world. At first I thought Mr. Blake might have some suchreason for the peculiar course he took. But his indifference to allcrowds where only men were collected, his silence where a word wouldhave been well received, convinced me it was a woman he was seeking andthat with an intentness which blinded him to the commonest needs of thehour. I even saw him once in his hurry and abstraction, step across thebody of a child who had fallen face downward on the stones, and thatwith an expression showing he was utterly unconscious of anything but anobstacle in his path. The strangest part of it all was that he seemed tohave no fear. To be sure he took pains to leave his watch at home; butwith such a figure and carriage as he possessed, the absence of jewelrycould never deceive the eye for a moment as to the fact of his beinga man of wealth, and those he went among would do anything for money. Perhaps, like me, he carried a pistol. At all events he shunned no spotwhere either poverty lay hid or deviltry reigned, his proud stern headbending to enter the lowest doors without a tremble of the haughty lipsthat remained compressed as by an iron force; except when some poorforlorn creature with flaunting head-gear, and tremulous hands, attracted by his bearing would hastily brush against him, when he wouldturn and look, perhaps speak, though what he said I always failed tocatch; after which he would hurry on as if possessed by seven devils. The evenings of those three days were notable also. Two of them hespent in the manner I have described; the third he went to the WindsorHouse--where the Countess De Mirac had taken rooms--going up to theladies' entrance and actually ringing the bell, only to start back andwalk up and down on the opposite side of the way, with his hands behindhis back, and his head bent, evidently deliberating as to whether heshould or should not carry out his original intention of entering. Thearrival of a carriage with the stately subject of his deliberations, who from her elaborate costume had seemingly been to some kettledrum orprivate reception, speedily put an end to his doubts. As the door openedto admit her, I saw him cast one look at her heavily draped person, withits snowy opera-cloak drawn tightly over the sweeping folds of her maizecolored silk, and shrink back with what sounded like a sigh of anger ordistrust, and without waiting for the closing of the door upon her, turntoward home with a step that hesitated no longer. 

The fourth day to my infinite chagrin, I was sick and could not go withhim. All I could do was to wrap myself in blankets and sit in my windowfrom which I had the satisfaction of viewing him start as I supposedupon his usual course. The rest of the day was employed in a long, dull waiting for his return, only relieved by casual glimpses of Mrs. Daniels' troubled face as she appeared at one window or another ofthe old-fashioned mansion before me. She seemed, too, to be unusuallyrestless, opening the windows and looking out with forlorn cranings ofher neck as if she too were watching for her master. Indeed I haveno doubt from what I afterwards learned, that she was in a state ofconstant suspense during these days. Her frequent appearance at thestation house, where she in vain sought for some news of the girl inwhose fate she was so absorbed, confirmed this. Only the day before Igave myself up to my unreserved espionage of Mr. Blake, she had had aninterview with Mr. Gryce in which she had let fall her apprehensionsthat the girl was dead, and asked whether if that were the case, thepolice would be likely to come into a knowledge of the fact. Upon beingassured that if she had not been privately made way with, there wasevery chance in their favor, she had grown a little calmer, but beforegoing away had so far forgotten herself as to intimate that if someresult was not reached before another fortnight had elapsed, she shouldtake the matter into her own hands and--She did not say what she woulddo, but her looks were of a very menacing character. It was no wonder, then, that her countenance bore marks of the keenest anxiety as shetrod the halls of that dim old mansion, with its dusky corners richwith bronzes and the glimmering shine of ancient brocades, breathingsuggestions of loss and wrong; or bent her wrinkled forehead to gazefrom the windows for the coming of one whose footsteps were everdelayed. She happened to be looking out, when after a longer stroll thanusual the master of the house returned. As he made his appearance at thecorner, I saw her hurriedly withdraw her head and hide herself behindthe curtain, from which position she watched him as with tired steps andsomewhat dejected mien, he passed up the steps and entered the house. Not till the door closed upon him, did she venture to issue forth andwith a hurried movement shut the blinds and disappear. This anxiety onher part redoubled mine, and thankful enough was I when on the next dayI found myself well enough to renew my operations. To ferret out thismystery, if mystery it was, --I still found myself forced to admit thepossibility of there being none--had now become the one ambition of mylife; and all because it was not only an unusually blind one, but of anature that involved danger to my position as detective, I entered uponit with a zest rare even to me who love my work and all it involves withan undivided passion. 

To equip myself, then, in a fresh disguise and to join Mr. Blake shortlyafter he had left his own corner, was anything but a hardship to me thatbright winter morning, though I knew from past experience, a long andwearisome walk was before me with nothing in all probability at theend but reiterated disappointment. But for once the fates had willedit otherwise. Whether Mr. Blake, discouraged at the failure of his ownattempts, whatever they were, felt less heart to prosecute them thanusual I cannot say, but we had scarcely entered upon the lower end ofthe Bowery, before he suddenly turned with a look of disgust, andgazing hurriedly about him, hailed a Madison Avenue car that was rapidlyapproaching. I was at that moment on the other side of the way, but Ihurried forward too, and signaled the same car. But just as I was on thepoint of entering it I perceived Mr. Blake step hastily back and withhis eyes upon a girl that was hurrying past him with a basket on herarm, regain the sidewalk with a swiftness that argued his desire to stopher. Of course I let the car pass me, though I did not dare approach himtoo closely after my late conspicuous attempt to enter it with him. Butfrom my stand on the opposite curb-stone I saw him draw aside the girl, who from her garments might have been the daughter or wife of any oneof the shiftless, drinking wretches lounging about on the four cornerswithin my view, and after talking earnestly with her for a few moments, saunter at her side down Broome Street, still talking. Reckless at thissight of the consequences which might follow his detection of the partI was playing, I hasted after them, when I was suddenly disconcerted byobserving him hurriedly separate from the girl and turn towards me withintention as it were to regain the corner he had left. Weighing in aninstant the probable good to be obtained by following either party, I determined to leave Mr. Blake for one day to himself, and turn myattention to the girl he had addressed, especially as she was tall andthin and bore herself with something like grace. 

Barely bestowing a glance upon him, then, as he passed, in a vainattempt to read the sombre expression of his inscrutable face grownfive years older in the last five days, I shuffled after the girl nowflitting before me down Broome Street. As I did so, I noticed her dressto its minutest details, somewhat surprised to find how ragged anduncouth it was. That Mr. Blake should stop a girl wherever seen, cladin a black alpaca frock, a striped shawl and a Bowery hat trimmed withfeathers, I could easily understand; but that this creature with herfaded calico dress, dingy cape thrown carelessly over her head, andragged basket, should arrest his attention, was a riddle to me. Ihastened forward with intent to catch a glimpse of her countenance ifpossible; but she seemed to have acquired wings to her feet since herinterview with Mr. Blake. Darting into a crowd of hooting urchins thatwere rushing from Centre Street after a broken wagon and runaway horse, she sped from my sight with such rapidity, I soon saw that my only hopeof overtaking her lay in running. I accordingly quickened my steps whenthose same hooting youngsters getting in the way of my feet, I trippedup and--well, I own I retired from that field baffled. Not entirely so, however. Just as I was going down, I caught sight of the girl tearingaway from a box of garbage on the curb-stone; and when order havingbeen restored, by which lofty statement I mean to say when your humbleservant had regained his equilibrium, I awoke to the fact that she hadeffectually disappeared, I hurried to that box and succeeded in findinghanging to it a bit of rag easily recognized as a piece of the oldcalico frock of nameless color which I had been following a momentbefore. Regarding it as the sole spoils of a very unsatisfactory day'swork, I put it carefully away in my pocket book, where it lay till--Butwith all my zeal for compression, I must not anticipate. 

When I came home that afternoon I found myself unexpectedly involved ina matter that for the remainder of the day at least, prevented me fromfurther attending to the affair I had in hand. The next morning Mr. Blake did not start out as usual, and at noon I received intimationfrom Fanny that he was preparing to take a journey. Where, she couldnot inform me, nor when, though she thought it probable he would take anearly train. Mrs. Daniels was feeling dreadfully, she informed me; andthe house was like a grave. Greatly excited at this unexpected move onMr. Blake's part, I went home and packed my valise with something of thespirit of her who once said, under somewhat different circumstances Iallow, "Whither thou goest I will go. "

The truth was, I had travelled so far and learned so little, thatmy professional pride was piqued. That expression of Mr. Gryce stillrankled, and nothing could soothe my injured spirit now but success. Accordingly when Mr. Blake stepped up to the ticket office of the HudsonRiver Railroad next morning, to buy a ticket for Putney, a small townin the northern part of Vermont, he found beside him a spruceyoung drummer, or what certainly appeared such, who by some strangecoincidence, wanted a ticket for the same place. The fact did not seemin the least to surprise him, nor did he cast me a look beyond theordinary glance of one stranger at another. Indeed Mr. Blake had noappearance of being a suspicious man, nor do I think at this time, he had the remotest idea that he was either watched or followed; anignorance of the truth which I took care to preserve by taking my seatin a different car from him and not showing myself again during thewhole ride from New York to Putney. 

CHAPTER VII. THE HOUSE AT THE GRANBY CROSS ROADS

Why Mr. Blake should take a journey at all at this time, and why ofall places in the world he should choose such an insignificant townas Putney for his destination, was of course the mystery upon which Ibrooded during the entire distance. But when somewhere near five in theafternoon I stepped from the cars on to the platform at Putney Stationonly to hear Mr. Blake making inquiries in regard to a certain stagerunning between that town and a still smaller village further east, Iown I was not only surprised but well-nigh nonplussed. Especially ashe seemed greatly disappointed to hear that it only ran once a day, andthen for an earlier train in the morning. 

"You will have to wait till to-morrow I fear, " said the ticket agent, "unless the landlord of the hotel down yonder, can harness you up ateam. There is a funeral out west to-day and--"

I did not wait to hear more but hurried down to the hotel he had pointedout, and hunting up the landlord inquired if for love or money he couldget me any sort of a conveyance for Melville that afternoon. He assuredme it would be impossible, the livery stable as well as his own beingentirely empty. 

"Such a thing don't happen here once in five years, " said he to me. "Butthe old codger who is dead, though a queer dick was a noted personage inthese parts, and not a man, woman or child, who could find a horse, muleor donkey, but what availed himself of the privilege. Even the doctor'sspavined mare was pressed into service, though she halts on one leg andstops to get her breath half a dozen times in going up one short hill. You will have to wait for the stage, sir. "

"But I am in a hurry, " said I as I saw Mr. Blake enter. "I have businessin Melville tonight, and I would pay anything in reason to get there. "

But the landlord only shook his head; and drawing back with the air ofan abused man, I took up my stand in the doorway where I could hear thesame colloquy entered into with Mr. Blake, with the same unsatisfactorytermination. He did not take it quite as calmly as I did, though hewas of too reserved a nature to display much emotion over anything. The prospect of a long tedious evening spent in a country hotel seemedalmost unendurable to him, but he finally succumbed to the force ofcircumstances, as indeed he seemed obliged to do, and partaking of suchrefreshment as the rather poorly managed hotel afforded, retired withoutceremony to his room, from which he did not emerge again till nextmorning. In all this he had somehow managed not to give his name; and bymeans of some inquiries I succeeded in making that evening, I found hisperson was unknown in the town. 

By a little management I secured the next room to his, by whicharrangement I succeeded in passing a sleepless night, Mr. Blake spendingmost of the wee sma' hours in pacing the floor of his room, with anunremitting regularity that had anything but a soothing effect upon mynerves. Early the next morning we took the stage, he sitting on the backseat, and I in front with the driver. There were other passengers, butI noticed he never spoke to any of them, nor through all the long drivedid he once look up from the corner where he had ensconced himself. Itwas twelve o'clock when we reached the end of the route, a small townof somewhat less than the usual pretensions of mountain villages; soinsignificant indeed, that I found it more and more difficult to imaginewhat the wealthy ex-Congressman could find in such a spot as this, tomake amends for a journey of such length and discomfort; when to myincreasing wonder I heard him give orders for a horse to be saddled andbrought round to the inn door directly after dinner. This was a move Ihad not expected and it threw me a little aback, for although I had thusfar managed to hold myself so aloof from Mr. Blake, even while keepinghim under my eye, that no suspicion of my interest in his movements hadas yet been awakened, how could I thus for the third time follow hisorder with one precisely similar, without attracting an attention thatwould be fatal to my plans. Yet to let him ride off alone now, would beto drop the trail at the very moment the scent became of importance. 

The landlord, a bustling, wiry little man all nervousness and questions, unwittingly helped me at this crisis. 

"Are you going on to Perry, sir?" inquired he of that gentleman, "I havebeen expecting a man along these three days bound for Perry. "

"I am that man, " I broke in, stepping forward with some appearance ofasperity, "and I hope you won't keep me waiting. A horse as soon asdinner is over, do you hear? I am two days late now, and won't stand anynonsense. "

And to escape the questions sure to follow, I strode into thedining-room with a half-fierce, half-sullen countenance, thateffectually precluded all advances. During the meal I saw Mr. Blake'seye roam more than once towards my face; but I did not return his gaze, or notice him in any way; hurrying through my dinner, and mounting thefirst horse brought around, as if time were my only consideration. Butonce on the road I took the first opportunity to draw rein and wait, suddenly remembering that I had not heard Mr. Blake give any intimationof the direction he intended taking. A few minutes revealed to me hiselegant form well mounted and showing to perfection in his closelybuttoned coat, slowly approaching up the road. Taking advantage ofa rise in the ground, I lingered till he was almost upon me, when Icantered quickly on, fearing to arouse his apprehensions if I allowedhim to pass me on a road so solitary as that which now stretched outbefore us: a move provocative of much embarassment to me, as I dared notturn my head for the same reason, anxious as I was to keep him in sight. 

The roads dividing before me, at length gave me my first opportunityto pause and look back. He was some fifty paces behind. Waiting till hecame up, I bowed with the surly courtesy I thought in keeping with thecharacter I had assumed, and asked if he knew which road led towardsPerry, saying I had come off in such haste I had forgotten to inquire myway. He returned my bow, pointed towards the left hand road and saying, "I know this does not, " calmly took it. 

Now here was a dilemma. If in face of this curt response I proceeded tofollow him, my hand was revealed at once; yet the circumstanceswould admit of no other course. I determined to compromise matters bypretending to take the right hand road till he was out of sight, when Iwould return and follow him swiftly upon the left. Accordingly I reinedmy horse to the right, and for some fifteen minutes galloped slowlyaway towards the north; but another fifteen saw me facing the west, andriding with a force and fury of which I had not thought the old marethey had given me capable, till I put her to the test. It was not longbefore I saw my fine gentleman trotting in front of me up a long butgentle slope that rose in the distance; and slackening my own rein, Iwithdrew into the forest at the side of the road, till he had passed itssummit and disappeared, when I again galloped forward. 

And thus we went on for an hour, over the most uneven country I evertraversed, he always one hill ahead; when suddenly, by what instinct Icannot determine, I felt myself approaching the end, and hastening tothe top of the ascent up which I was then laboring, looked down into theshallow valley spread out before me. 

What a sight met my eyes if I had been intent on anything less practicalthan the movements of the solitary horseman below! Hills on hills piledabout a verdant basin in whose depths nestled a scanty collection ofhouses, in number so small they could be told upon the fingers of theright hand, but which notwithstanding lent an indescribable aspect ofcomfort to this remote region of hill and forest. 

But the vision of Mr. Blake pausing half way down the slope before me, examining, yes examining a pistol which he held in his hand, soon putan end to all ideas of romance. Somewhat alarmed I reined back; but hisaction had evidently no connection with me, for he did not once glancebehind him, but kept his eye on the road which I now observed took ashort turn towards a house of so weird and ominous an appearance that Iscarcely marvelled at his precaution. 

Situated on a level track of land at the crossing of three roads, itsspacious front, rude and unpainted as it was, presented every appearanceof an inn, but from its moss-grown chimneys no smoke arose, nor couldI detect any sign of life in its shutterless windows and closed doors, across which shivered the dark shadow of the one gaunt and aged pine, that stood like a guard beside its tumbled-down porch. 

Mr. Blake seemed to have been struck by the same fact concerning itsloneliness, for hurriedly replacing his pistol in his breast pocket, herode slowly forward. I instantly conceived the plan of striking acrossthe belt of underbrush that separated me from this old dwelling, and bytaking my stand opposite its front, intercept a view of Mr. Blake ashe approached. Hastily dismounting, therefore, I led my horse into thebushes and tied her to a tree, proceeding to carry out my plan on foot. I was so far successful as to arrive at the further edge of the wood, which was thick enough to conceal my presence without being too dense toobstruct my vision, just as Mr. Blake passed on his way to this solitarydwelling. He was looking very anxious, but determined. Turning my eyesfrom him, I took another glance at the house, which by this movement Ihad brought directly before me. It was even more deserted-looking thanI had thought; its unpainted front with its double row of blank windowsmeeting your gaze without a response, while the huge old pine with halfits limbs dismantled of foliage, rattled its old bones against its sidesand moaned in its aged fashion like the solitary retainer of a deadrace. 

I own I felt the cold shivers creep down my back as that creaking soundstruck my ears, though as the day was chill with an east wind I dare sayit was more the effect of my sudden cessation from exercise, than ofany superstitious awe I felt. Mr. Blake seemed to labor under no suchimpressions. Riding up to the front door he knocked without dismounting, on its dismal panels with his riding whip. No response was heard. Knitting his brows impatiently, he tried the latch: the door was locked. Hastily running his eye over the face of the building, he drew rein andproceeded to ride around the house, which he could easily do owingto the absence of every obstruction in the way of fence or shrubbery. Finding no means of entrance he returned again to the front door whichhe shook with an impatient hand that however produced no impressionupon the trusty lock, and recognizing, doubtless, the futility of hisendeavors, he drew back, and merely pausing to give one other look atits deserted front, turned his horse's head, and to my great amazement, proceeded with sombre mien and clouded brow to retake the road toMelville. 

This old inn or decayed homestead was then the object of his lengthenedand tedious journey; this ancient house rotting away among the bleakhills of Vermont, the bourne towards which his steps had been tendingfor these past two days. I could not understand it. Rapidly emergingfrom the spot where I had secreted myself, I in my turn made a circuitof the house, if happily I should discover some loophole of entrancewhich had escaped his attention. But every door and window was securelybarred, and I was about to follow his example and leave the spot, whenI saw two or three children advancing towards me down the cross roads, gaily swinging their school books. I noticed they hesitated and huddledtogether as they approached and saw me, but not heeding this, I accostedthem with a pleasant word or so, then pointing over my shoulder to thehouse behind, asked who lived there. Instantly their already pale facesgrew paler. 

"Why, " cried one, a boy, "don't you know? That is where the two wickedmen lived who stole the money out of the Rutland bank. They were put inprison, but they got away and--"

Here, the other, a little girl, plucked him by the sleeve with suchaffright, that he himself took alarm and just giving me one quick stareout of his wide eyes, grasped his companion by the hand and took to hisheels. As for myself I stood rooted to the ground in my astonishment. This blank, sleepy old house the home of the notorious Schoenmakersafter whom half of the detectives of the country were searching? I couldscarcely credit my own ears. True I now remembered they had come fromthese parts, still--

Turning round I eyed the house once more. How altered it looked to me!What a murderous aspect it wore, and how dismally secret were the tightshut windows and closely fastened doors, on one of which a rude crossscrawled in red chalk met the eye with a mysterious significance. Eventhe old pine had acquired the villainous air of the uncanny repositor ofsecrets too dreadful to reveal, as it groaned and murmured to itself inthe keen east wind. Dark deeds and foul wrong seemed written all overthe fearful place, from the long strings of black moss that clung tothe worm-eaten eaves, to the worn stone with its great blotch ofsomething, --could it have been blood?--that served as a threshold tothe door. Suddenly with the quickness of lightning the thought flashedacross me, what could Mr. Blake, the aristocratic representative of NewYork's oldest family, have wanted in this nest of infamy? What errandof hope, fear, despair, avarice or revenge, could have brought thissuperior gentleman with his refined tastes and proudly reticent manners, so many miles from home, to the forsaken den of a brace of hardyvillains whose name for two years now, had stood as the type of all thatwas bold, bad and lawless, and for whom during the last six weeks theprison had yawned, and the gallows hungered. Contemplation broughtno reply, and shocked at my own thoughts, I put the question by forsteadier brains than mine; and instead of trying further to solve it, cast about how I was to gain entrance into this deserted building; forto enter it I was more than ever determined, now that I had heard towhom it had once belonged. 

Examining with a glance the several roads that branched off in everydirection from where I stood, I found them all equally deserted. Eventhe school children had disappeared in some one of the four or fivehouses scattered in the remote distance. 

If I was willing to enter upon any daring exploit, there was no one toobserve or interrupt. I resolved to make the attempt with which my mindwas full. This was to climb the old tree, and from one of the two orthree branches that brushed against the house, gain entrance at anopen garret window that stared at me from amid the pine's dark needles. Taking off my coat with a sigh over the immaculate condition of my newcassimere trousers, I bent my energies to the task. A difficult one youwill say for a city lad, but thanks to fortune I was not brought up inNew York, and know how to climb trees with the best. With little morethan a scratch or so, I reached the window of which I have spoken, and after a moment spent in regaining my breath, gave one spring andaccomplished my purpose. I alighted upon a heap of broken glass in alarge bare room. An ominous chill at once struck to my heart. ThoughI am anything but a sensitive man as far as physical impressions areconcerned, there was something in the hollow echo that arose from thefour blank walls about me as my feet alighted on that rough, uncarpetedfloor, that struck a vague chill through my blood, and I actuallyhesitated for the moment whether to pursue the investigations I hadpromised myself, or beat a hasty retreat. A glance at the huge distortedlimbs swaying across the square of the open window decided me. Itwas easy to enter by means of that unsteady support, but it would beextremely unsafe to venture forth in that way. If I prized life and limbI must seek some other method of egress. I at once put my apprehensionsin my pocket and entered upon my self imposed task. 

A single glance was sufficient to exhaust the resources of the emptygarret in which I found myself. Two or three old chairs piled in onecorner, a rusty stove or so, a heap of tattered and decaying clothing, were all that met my gaze. Taking my way, then, at once to the ladder, whose narrow ends projecting above a hole in the garret floor, seemedto proffer the means of reaching the rooms below, I proceeded to descendinto what to my excited imagination looked like a gulf of darkness. Itproved, however, to be nothing more nor less than an unlighted hall ofsmall dimensions, with a stair-case at one end and a door at the other, which, upon opening I found myself in a large, square room whose immensefour-post bedstead entirely denuded of its usual accompaniments of bedand bolster at once struck my eye and for a moment held it enchained. There were other articles in the room; a disused bureau, a rockingchair, even a table, but nothing had such a ghostly look as that antiquebedstead with its curtains of calico tied back over its naked framework, like rags draped from the bare bones of a skeleton. Passing hurriedlyby, I tried a closet door or so, finding little, however, to reward mysearch; and eager to be done with what was every moment becoming moreand more drearisome, I hastened across the floor to the front of thehouse where I found another hall and a row of rooms that, while notentirely stripped of furniture, were yet sufficiently barren tooffer little encouragement to my curiosity. One only, a small but notuncomfortable apartment, showed any signs of having been occupied withina reasonable length of time; and as I paused before its hastily spreadbed, thrown together as only a man would do it, and wondering why theroom was so dark, looked up and saw that the window was entirely coveredby an old shawl and a couple of heavy coats that had been hastily nailedacross it, I own I felt my hand go to my breast pocket almost as if Iexpected to see the wild faces of the dreaded Schoenmakers start up allaglare from one of the dim corners before me. Rushing to the window, Itore down with one sweep of my arm both coat and shawl, and with a startdiscovered that the window still possessed its draperies in the shape ofa pair of discolored and tattered curtains tied with ribbons that mustonce have been brilliant and cheery of color. 

Nor was this the only sign in the room of a bygone presence that hadpossessed a taste for something beyond the mere necessities of life. On the grim coarsely papered wall hung more than one picture; cut frompictorial newspapers to be sure, but each and every one, if I may becalled a judge of such matters, possessing some quality of expression tocommend it to a certain order of taste. They were all strong pictures. Vivid faces of men and women in daring positions; a hunter holding backa jaguar from his throat; a soldier protecting his comrade from thestroke; and most striking of all, a woman lissome as she was powerful, starting aghast and horror stricken from--what? I could not tell; arough hand had stripped the remainder of the picture from the wall. 

A bit of candle and a half sheet of a newspaper lay on the floor. Ipicked up the paper. It was a Rutland Herald and bore the date of twodays before. As I read I realized what I had done. If these daringrobbers were not at this very moment in the house, they had been there, and that within two or three days. The broken panes of glass in thegarret above were now explained. I was not the first one who had climbedthat creaking pine tree this fall. 

Something like a sensible dread of a very possible danger now seizedhold of me. If I had stumbled upon these strangely subtile, yetdevilishly bold creatures in their secret lair, the pistol I carried wasnot going to save me. Shut in like a fox in a hole, I had little to hopefor, if they once made their appearance at the stairhead or came upon mefrom any of the dim halls of the crazy old dwelling, which I now beganto find altogether too large for my comfort. Stealing cautiously forthfrom the room in which I had found so much to disconcert me, I crepttowards the front staircase and listened. All was deathly quiet. Theold pine tree moaned and twisted without, and from time to time the windcame sweeping down the chimney with an unearthly shrieking sound thatwas weirdly in keeping with the place. But within and below all wasstill as the tomb, and though in no ways reassured, I determined todescend and have the suspense over at once. I did so, pistol in handand ears stretched to their utmost to catch the slightest rustle, but nosound came to disturb me, nor did I meet on this lower floor the sign ofany other presence in the house but my own. Passing hastily through whatappeared to be a sort of rude parlor, I stepped into the kitchen andtried one of the windows. Finding I could easily lift it from theinside, I drew my breath with ease for the first time since I hadalighted among the broken glass above, and turning back, deliberatelyopened the door of the kitchen stove, and looked in. As I half expected, I found a pile of partly charred rags, showing where the wretches hadburned their prison clothing, and proceeding further, picked up fromthe ashes a ring which whether or not they were conscious of havingattempted to destroy in this way I cannot say, but which I thankfullyput in my pocket against the day it might be required as proof. 

Discerning nothing more in that quarter inviting interest, I askedmyself if I had nerve to descend into the cellar. Finally concludingthat that was more than could be expected from any man in my position, Igave one look of farewell to the damp and desolate walls about me, thenwith a breath of relief jumped from the kitchen window again into thelight and air of day. As I did so I could swear I heard a door withinthat old house swing on its hinges and softly close. With a thrill Irecognized the fact that it came from the cellar. 

 * * * *

My thoughts on the road back to Melville were many and conflicting. Chief above them all, however, rose the comfortable conclusion that inthe pursuit of one mysterious affair, I had stumbled, as is often thecase, upon the clue to another of yet greater importance, and by sodoing got a start that might yet redound greatly to my advantage. Forthe reward offered for the recapture of the Schoenmakers was large, andthe possibility of my being the one to put the authorities upon theirtrack, certainly appeared after this day's developements, open at leastto a very reasonable hope. At all events I determined not to let thegrass grow under my feet till I had informed the Superintendent of whatI had seen and heard that day in the old haunt of these two escapedconvicts. 

Arrived at the public house in Melville, and learning that Mr. Blake hadsafely returned there an hour before, I drew the landlord to one sideand asked what he could tell me about that old house of the two notedrobbers Schoenmaker, I had passed on my way back among the hills. 

"Wa'al now, " replied he, "this is curious. Here I've just been answeringthe gentleman up stairs a heap of questions concerning that self sameold place, and now you come along with another batch of them; just asif that rickety old den was the only spot of interest we had in theseparts. "

"Perhaps that may be the truth, " I laughed. "Just now when the papersare full of these rogues, anything concerning them must be of superiorinterest of course. " And I pressed him again to give me a history of thehouse and the two thieves who had inhabited it. 

"Wa'al, " drawled he "'taint much we know about them, yet after all itmay be a trifle too much for their necks some day. Time was when nobodythought especial ill of them beyond a suspicion or so of their beingsomewhat mean about money. That was when they kept an inn there, butwhen the robbery of the Rutland bank was so clearly traced to them, more than one man about here started up and said as how they hadalways suspected them Shoenmakers of being villains, and even hinted atsomething worse than robbery. But nothing beyond that one rascality hasyet been proved against them, and for that they were sent to jail fortwenty years as you know. Two months ago they escaped, and that is thelast known of them. A precious set, too, they are; the father being onlyso much the greater rogue than the son as he is years older. "

"And the inn? When was that closed?"

"Just after their arrest. "

"Has'nt it been opened since?"

"Only once when a brace of detectives came up from Troy to investigate, as they called it. "

"Who has the key?"

"Ah, that's more than I can tell you. "

I dared not ask how my questions differed from those of Mr. Blake, norindeed touch upon that point in any way. I was chiefly anxious nowto return to New York without delay; so paying my bill I thanked thelandlord, and without waiting for the stage, remounted my horse andproceeded at once to Putney where I was fortunate enough to catch theevening train. By five o'clock next morning I was in New York where Iproceeded to carry out my programme by hastening at once to headquartersand reporting my suspicions regarding the whereabouts of theSchoenmakers. The information was received with interest and I hadthe satisfaction of seeing two men despatched north that very day withorders to procure the arrest of the two notable villains wherever found. 

CHAPTER VIII. A WORD OVERHEARD

That evening I had a talk with Fanny over the area gate. She came outwhen she saw me approach, with her eyes staring and her whole form in aflutter. 

"O, " she cried, "such things as I have heard this day!"

"Well, " said I, "what? let me hear too. " She put her hand on her heart. "I never was so frightened, " whispered she, "I thought I should havefainted right away. To hear that elegant lady use such a word ascrime, --"

"What elegant lady?" interrupted I. "Don't begin in the middle of yourstory, that's a good girl; I want to hear it all. "

"Well, " said she, calming down a little, "Mrs. Daniels had a visitorto-day, a lady. She was dressed--"

"O, now, " interrupted I for the second time, "you can leave that out. Tell me what her name was and let the fol-de-rols go. "

"Her name?" exclaimed the girl with some sharpness, "how should I knowher name; she did'nt come to see me. "

"How did she look then? You saw her I suppose?"

"And was'nt that what I was telling you, when you stopped me. She lookedlike a queen, that she did; as grand a lady as ever I see, in her velvetdress sweeping over the floor, and her diamonds as big as--"

"Was she a dark woman?" I asked. 

"Her hair was black and so were her eyes, if that is what you mean. "

"And was she very tall and proud looking?"

The girl nodded. "You know her?" whispered she. 

"No, " said I, "not exactly; but I think I can tell who she is. And soshe called to-day on Mrs. Daniels, did she. "

"Yes, but I guess she knew master would be home before she got away. "

"Come, " said I, "tell me all about it; I'm getting impatient. "

"And ain't I telling you?" said she. "It was about three o'clock thisafternoon, the time I go up stairs to dress, so I just hangs about inthe hall a bit, near the parlor door, and I hear her gossiping with Mrs. Daniels almost as if she was an old friend, and Mrs. Daniels answeringher mighty stiffly and as if she was'nt glad to see her at all. But thelady didn't seem to mind, but went on talking as sweet as honey, andwhen they came out, you would have thought she loved the old woman likea sister to see her look into her face and say something about knowinghow busy she was, but that it would give her so much pleasure if shewould come some day to see her and talk over old times. But Mrs. Danielswas'nt pleased a bit and showed plain enough she did'nt like the lady, fine as she was in her ways. She was going to answer her too, but justthen the front door opened and Mr. Blake with his satchel in his hand, came into the house. And how he did start, to be sure, when he saw them, though he tried to say something perlite which she did'nt seem to taketo at all, for after muttering something about not expecting to see him, she put her hand on the knob and was going right out. But he stopped herand they went into the parlor together while Mrs. Daniels stood staringafter them like one mad, her hand held out with his bag and umbrella init, stiff as a statter in the Central Park. She did'nt stand so long, though, but came running down the hall, as if she was bewitched. I wasdreadful flustered, for though I was hid behind the wall that juts outthere by the back stairs, I was afraid she would see me and shame mebefore Mr. Blake. But she passed right by and never looked up. 'There issomething dreadful mysterious in this, ' thought I, and I just made upmy mind to stay where I was till Mr. Blake and the lady should come outagain from the parlor. I did'nt have to wait very long. In a few minutesthe door opened and they stepped out, he ahead and she coming after. Ithought this was queer, he is always so dreadful perlite in his ways, but I thought it was a deal queerer when I saw him go up the frontstairs, she hurrying after, looking I cannot tell you how, but awfultroubled and anxious, I should say. 

"They went into that room of his he calls his studio and though I knewit might cost me my place if I was found out, I could'nt help followingand listening at the keyhole. "

"And what did you hear?" I asked, for she paused to take breath. 

"Well, the first thing I heard was a cry of pleasure from her, and thewords, 'You keep that always before you? You cannot dislike me, then, asmuch as you pretend. ' I don't know what she meant nor what he did, buthe stepped across the room and I heard her cry out this time as if shewas hurt as well as awful surprised; and he talked and talked, and Icould'nt catch a word, he spoke so low; and by and by she sobbed just alittle, and I got scared and would have run away but she cried out witha kind of shriek, 'O, don't say any more; to think that crime shouldcome into our family, the proudest in the land. How could you, Holman, how could you. ' Yes, " the girl went on, flushing in her excitement tillshe was as red as the cherry ribbons in her cap, "those were the verywords she used: 'To think that crime should come into our family! theproudest one in the land!' And she called him by his first name, andasked him how he could do it. "

"And what did Mr. Blake say?" returned I, a little taken back myself atthis result of my efforts with Fanny. 

"O, I did'nt wait to hear. I did'nt wait for anything. If folks wasgoing to talk about such things as that, I thought I had better beanywhere than listening at the keyhole. I went right up stairs I cantell you. "

"And whom have you told of what you heard in the half dozen hours thathave gone by?"

"Nobody; how could you think so mean of me when I promised, and--"

It is not necessary to go any further into this portion of theinterview. 

The Countess De Mirac possessed to its fullest extent the present finelady's taste for bric-a-brac. So much I had learned in my inquiriesconcerning her. Remembering this, I took the bold resolution ofprofiting by this weakness of hers to gain admission to her presence, she being the only one sharing Mr. Blake's mysterious secret. Borrowinga valuable antique from a friend of mine at that time in the business, I made my appearance the very next day at her apartments, and sendingin an urgent request to see Madame, by the trim negress who answered mysummons, waited in some doubt for her reply. 

It came all too soon; Madame was ill and could see no one. I was not, however, to be baffled by one rebuff. Handing the basket I held to thegirl, I urged her to take it in and show her mistress what it contained, saying it was a rare article which might never again come her way. 

The girl complied, though with a doubtful shake of the head which wasanything but encouraging. Her incredulity, however, must have beenspeedily rebuked, for she almost immediately returned without thebasket, saying Madame would see me. 

My first thoughts upon entering the grand lady's presence, was that thegirl had been mistaken, for I found the Countess walking the floor in anabstracted way, drying a letter she had evidently but just completed, byshaking it to and fro with an unsteady hand; the placque I had brought, lying neglected on the table. 

But at sight of my respectful form standing with bent head in thedoorway, she hurriedly thrust the letter into a book and took up theplacque. As she did so I marked her well and almost started at thechange I observed in her since that evening at the Academy. It was notonly that she was dressed in some sort of loose dishabille that wasin eminent contrast to the sweeping silks and satins in which I hadhitherto beheld her adorned; or that she was laboring under somephysical disability that robbed her dark cheek of the bloom that was itschiefest charm. The change I observed went deeper than that; it was moreas if a light had been extinguished in her countenance. It was the samewoman I had beheld standing like a glowing column of will and strengthbefore the melancholy form of Mr. Blake, but with the will and strengthgone, and with them all the glow. 

"She no longer hopes, " thought I, and already felt repaid for mytrouble. 

"This is a very pretty article you have brought me, " said she withsomething of the unrestrained love of art which she undoubtedlypossessed, showing itself through all her languor. "Where did it comefrom, and what recommendations have you, to prove it is an honest saleyou offer me?"

"None, " returned I, ignoring with a reassuring smile the first question, "except that I should not be afraid if all the police in New York knew Iwas here with this fine placque for sale. "

She gave a shrug of her proud shoulder that bespoke the French Countessand softly ran her finger round the edge of the placque. 

"I don't need anything more of this kind, " said she languidly;"besides, " and she set it down with a fretful air, "I am in no mood tobuy this afternoon. " Then shortly, "What do you ask for it?"

I named a fabulous price. 

She started and cast me a keen glance. "You had better take it to someone else; I have no money to throw away. "

With a hesitating hand I lifted the placque towards the basket. "I wouldvery much like to sell it to you, " said I. "Perhaps--"

Just then a lady's fluttering voice rose from the room beyond inquiringfor the Countess, and hurriedly taking the placque from my hand withan impulsive "O there's Amy, " she passed into the adjoining apartment, leaving the door open behind her. 

I saw a quick interchange of greetings between her and a fashionablydressed lady, then they withdrew to one side with the ornament I hadbrought, evidently consulting in regard to its merits. Now was my time. The book in which she had placed the letter she had been writing lay onthe table right before me, not two inches from my hand. I had onlyto throw back the cover and my curiosity would be satisfied. Takingadvantage of a moment when their backs were both turned, I pressed openthe book with a careful hand, and with one eye on them and one on thesheet before me, managed to read these words:--

 MY DEAREST CECILIA. 

 I have tried in vain to match the sample you sent me at Stewart's, Arnold's and McCreery's. If you still insist upon making up the dress in the way you propose, I will see what Madame Dudevant can do for us, though I cannot but advise you to alter your plans and make the darker shade of velvet do. I went to the Cary reception last night and met Lulu Chittenden. She has actually grown old, but was as lively as ever. She created a great stir in Paris when she was there; but a husband who comes home two o'clock in the morning with bleared eyes and empty pockets, is not conducive to the preservation of a woman's beauty. How she manages to retain her spirits I cannot imagine. You ask me news of cousin Holman. I meet him occasionally and he looks well, but has grown into the most sombre man you ever saw. In regard to certain hopes of which you have sometimes made mention, let me assure you they are no longer practicable. He has done what--

Here the conversation ceased in the other room, the Countess made amovement of advance and I closed the book with an inward groan over myill-luck. 

"It is very pretty, " said she with a weary air; "but as I remarkedbefore, I am not in the buying mood. If you will take half you mention, I may consider the subject, but--"

"Pardon me, Madame, " I interrupted, being in no wise anxious to leavethe placque behind me, "I have been considering the matter and I hold tomy original price. Mr. Blake of Second Avenue may give it to me if youdo not. "

"Mr. Blake!" She eyed me suspiciously. "Do you sell to him?"

"I sell to anyone I can, " replied I; "and as he has an artist's eye forsuch things--"

Her brows knitted and she turned away. "I do not want it;" said she, "sell it to whom you please. "

I took up the placque and left the room. 

CHAPTER IX. A FEW GOLDEN HAIRS

When a few days from that I made my appearance before Mr. Gryce, it wasto find him looking somewhat sober. "Those Schoenmakers, " said he, "aremaking a deal of trouble. It seems they escaped the fellows up north andare now somewhere in this city, but where--"

An expressive gesture finished the sentence. 

"Is that so?" exclaimed I. "Then we are sure to nab them. Given time anda pair of low, restless German thieves, I will wager anything, our handswill be upon them before the month is over. I only hope, when we do comeacross them, it will not be to find their betters too much mixed up withtheir devilish practices. " And I related to him what Fanny had told me afew evenings before. 

"The coil is tightening, " said he. "What the end will be I don't know. Crime, said she? I wish I knew in what blind hole of the earth that girlwe are after lies hidden. "

As if in answer to this wish the door opened and one of our men camein with a letter in his hand. "Ha!" exclaimed Mr. Gryce, after he hadperused it, "look at that. "

I took the letter from his hand and read:

 The dead body of a girl such as you describe was found in the East river off Fiftieth Street this morning. From appearance has been dead some time. Have telegraphed to Police Headquarters for orders. Should you wish to see the body before it is removed to the Morgue or otherwise disturbed, please hasten to Pier 48 E. R. GRAHAM. 

"Come, " said I, "let's go and see for ourselves. If it should be theone--"

"The dinner party proposed by Mr. Blake for to-night, may have itsinterruptions, " he remarked. 

I do not wish to make my story any longer than is necessary, but I mustsay that when in an hour or so later, I stood with Mr. Gryce before theunconscious form of that poor drowned girl I felt an unusual degreeof awe stealing over me: there was so much mystery connected with thisaffair, and the parties implicated were of such standing and repute. 

I almost dreaded to see the covering removed from her face lest I shouldbehold, what? I could not have told if I had tried. 

"A trim made body enough, " cried the official in charge as Mr. Grycelifted an end of the cloth that enveloped her and threw it back. "Pitythe features are not better preserved. "

"No need for us to see the features, " exclaimed I, pointing to the locksof golden red hair that hung in tangled masses about her. "The hair isenough; she is not the one. " And I turned aside, asking myself if it wasrelief I felt. 

To my surprise Mr. Gryce did not follow. 

"Tall, thin, white face, black eyes. " I heard him whisper to himself. "It is a pity the features are not better preserved. "

"But, " said I, taking him by the arm, "Fanny spoke particularly ofher hair being black, while this girl's--Good heavens!" I suddenlyejaculated as I looked again at the prostrate form before me. "Yellowhair or black, this is the girl I saw him speaking to that day inBroome Street. I remember her clothes if nothing more. " And opening mypocketbook, I took out the morsel of cloth I had plucked that day fromthe ash barrel, lifted up the discolored rags that hung about the bodyand compared the two. The pattern, texture and color were the same. 

"Well, " said Mr. Gryce, pointing to certain contusions, like marks fromthe blow of some heavy instrument on the head and bared arms of the girlbefore us; "he will have to answer me one question anyhow, and thatis, who this poor creature is who lies here the victim of treachery ordespair. " And turning to the official he asked if there were any othersigns of violence on the body. 

The answer came deliberately, "Yes, she has evidently been battered todeath. "

Mr. Gryce's lips closed with grim decision. "A most brutal murder, " saidhe and lifting up the cloth with a hand that visibly trembled, he softlycovered her face. 

"Well, " said I as we slowly paced back up the pier, "there is one thingcertain, she is not the one who disappeared from Mr. Blake's house. "

"I am not so sure of that. "

"How!" said I. "You believed Fanny lied when she gave that descriptionof the missing girl upon which we have gone till now?"

Mr. Gryce smiled, and turning back, beckoned to the official behind us. "Let me have that description, " said he, "which I distributed among theHarbor Police some days ago for the identification of a certain corpse Iwas on the lookout for. "

The man opened his coat and drew out a printed paper which at Mr. Gryce's word he put into my hand. It ran as follows:

 Look out for the body of a young girl, tall, well shaped but thin, of fair complexion and golden hair of a peculiar bright and beautiful color, and when found, acquaint me at once. G. 

"I don't understand, " began I. 

But Mr. Gryce tapping me on the arm said in his most deliberate tones, "Next time you examine a room in which anything of a mysterious naturehas occurred, look under the bureau and if you find a comb there withseveral long golden hairs tangled in it, be very sure before you drawany definite conclusions, that your Fannys know what they are talkingabout when they declare the girl who used that comb had black hair onher head. "

CHAPTER X. THE SECRET OF MR. BLAKE'S STUDIO

"Mr. Blake is at dinner, sir, with company, but I will call him if yousay so. "

"No, " returned Mr. Gryce; "show us into some room where we can becomfortable and we will wait till he has finished. "

The servant bowed, and stepping forward down the hall, opened the doorof a small and cosy room heavily hung with crimson curtains. "I willlet him know that you are here, " said he, and vanished towards thedining-room. 

"I doubt if Mr. Blake will enjoy the latter half of his bill of fare asmuch as the first, " said I, drawing up one of the luxurious arm-chairsto the side of my principal. "I wonder if he will break away from hisguests and come in here?"

"No; if I am not mistaken we shall find Mr. Blake a man of nerve. Not amuscle of his face will show that he is disturbed. "

"Well, " said I, "I dread it. "

Mr. Gryce looked about on the gorgeous walls and the rich old fashionedfurniture that surrounded him, and smiled one of his grimmest smiles. 

"Well, you may, " said he. 

The next instant a servant stood in the doorway, bearing to our greatastonishment, a tray well set with decanter and glasses. 

"Mr. Blake's compliments, gentlemen, " said he, setting it down on thetable before us. "He hopes you will make yourselves at home and he willsee you as soon as possible. "

The humph! of Mr. Gryce when the servant had gone would have done yoursoul good, also the look he cast at the pretty Dresden Shepherdess onthe mantel-piece, as I reached out my hand towards the decanter. Somehowit made me draw back. 

"I think we had better leave his wine alone, " said he. 

And for half an hour we sat there, the wine untouched between us, listening alternately to the sound of speech-making and laughter thatcame from the dining-room, and the solemn ticking of the clock as itcounted out the seconds on the mantel-piece. Then the guests came infrom the table, filing before us past the open door on their way tothe parlors. They were all gentlemen of course--Mr. Blake never invitedladies to his house--and gentlemen of well known repute. The dinner hadbeen given in honor of a certain celebrated statesman, and the characterof his guests was in keeping with that of the one thus complimented. 

As they went by us gaily indulging in the jokes and light banter withwhich such men season a social dinner, I saw Mr. Gryce's face grow soberby many a shade; and when in the midst of it all, we heard the voiceof Mr. Blake rise in that courteous and measured tone for which itis distinguished, I saw him reach forward and grasp his cane with anuneasiness I had never seen displayed by him before. But when some timelater, the guests having departed, the dignified host advanced with someapology to where we were, I never beheld a firmer look on Mr. Gryce'sface than that with which he rose and confronted him. Mr. Blake's ownhad not more character in it. 

"You have called at a rather inauspicious time, Mr. Gryce, " said thelatter, glancing at the card which he held in his hand. "What may yourbusiness be? Something to do with politics, I suppose. "

I surveyed the man in amazement. Was this great politician stoopingto act a part, or had he forgotten our physiognomies as completely asappeared?

"Our business is not politics, " replied Mr. Gryce; "but fully asimportant. May I request the doors be closed?"

I thought Mr. Blake looked surprised, but he immediately stepped to thedoor and shut it. Then coming back, he looked at Mr. Gryce more closelyand a change took place in his manner. 

"I think I have seen you before, " said he. 

Mr. Gryce bowed with just the suspicion of a smile. "I have had thehonor of consulting you before in this very house, " observed he. 

A look of full recognition passed over the dignified countenance of theman before us. 

"I remember, " said he, shrugging his shoulders in the old way. "You areinterested in some servant girl or other who ran away from this house aweek or so ago. Have you found her?" This with no apparent concern. 

"We think we have, " rejoined Mr. Gryce with some solemnity. "The rivergives up its prey now and then, Mr. Blake. "

Still only that look of natural surprise. 

"Indeed! You do not mean to say she has drowned herself? I am sorry forthat, a girl who had once lived in my house. What trouble could she havehad to drive her to such an act?"

Mr. Gryce advanced a step nearer the gentleman. 

"That is what we have come here to learn, " said he with a deliberationthat yet was not lacking in the respect due to a man so universallyesteemed as Mr. Blake. "You who have seen her so lately ought to be ableto throw some light upon the subject at least. "

"Mr. --" he again glanced at the card, "Mr. Gryce, --excuse me--I believeI told you when you were here before that I had no remembrance of thisgirl at all. That if such a person was in my house I did not know it, and that all questions put to me on that subject would be so much laborthrown away. "

Mr. Gryce bowed. "I remember, " said he. "I was not alluding to anyconnection you may have had with the girl in this house, but to theinterview you were seen to have with her on the corner of Broome Streetsome days ago. You had such an interview, did you not?"

A flush, deep as it was sudden, swept over Mr. Blake's usually unmovedcheek. "You are transgressing sir, " said he and stopped. Though a man ofintense personal pride, he had but little of that quality called temper, or perhaps if he had, thought it unwise to display it on this occasion. "I saw and spoke to a girl on the corner of that street some days ago, "he went on more mildly, "but that she was the one who lived here, I neither knew at the time nor feel willing to believe now withoutpositive proof. " Then in a deep ringing tone the stateliness of which itwould be impossible to describe, he inquired, "Have the city authoritiespresumed to put a spy on my movements, that the fact of my speaking toa poor forsaken creature on the corner of the street should be not onlynoted but remembered?"

"Mr. Blake, " observed Mr. Gryce, and I declare I was proud of mysuperior at that moment, "no man who is a true citizen and aChristian should object to have his steps followed, when by his ownthoughtlessness, perhaps, he has incurred a suspicion which demands it. "

"And do you mean to say that I have been followed, " inquired he, clenching his hand and looking steadily, but with a blanching cheek, first at Mr. Gryce then at me. 

"It was indispensable, " quoth that functionary gently. 

The outraged gentleman riveted his gaze upon me. "In town and out oftown?" demanded he. 

I let Mr. Gryce reply. "It is known that you have lately sought to visitthe Schoenmakers, " said he. 

Mr. Blake drew a deep breath, cast his eyes about the handsome apartmentin which we were, let them rest for a moment upon a portrait that gracedone side of the wall, and which was I have since learned a picture ofhis father, and slowly drew forward a chair. "Let me hear what yoursuspicions are, " said he. 

I noticed Mr. Gryce colored at this; he had evidently been met in adifferent way from what he expected. "Excuse me, " said he, "I do not sayI have any suspicions; my errand is simply to notify you of the death ofthe girl you were seen to speak with, and to ask whether or not youcan give us any information that can aid us in the matter before thecoroner. "

"You know I have not. If I have been as closely followed as you say, youmust know why I spoke to that girl and others, why I went to the houseof the Schoenmakers and--Do you know?" he suddenly inquired. 

Mr. Gryce was not the man to answer such a question as that. He eyed therich signet ring that adorned the hand of the gentleman before him andsuavely smiled. "I am ready to listen to any explanations, " said he. 

Mr. Blake's haughty countenance became almost stern. "You consider youhave a right to demand them; let me hear why. "

"Well, " said Mr. Gryce with a change of tone, "you shall. Unprofessionalas it is, I will tell you why I, a member of the police force, dareenter the house of such a man as you are, and put him the questions Ihave concerning his domestic affairs. Mr. Blake, imagine yourself ina detective's office. A woman comes in, the housekeeper of a respectedcitizen, and informs us that a girl employed by her as seamstress hasdisappeared in a very unaccountable way from her master's housethe night before; in fact been abducted as she thinks from certainevidences, through the window. Her manner is agitated, her appeal forassistance urgent, though she acknowledges no relationship to the girlor expresses any especial cause for her interest beyond that of commonhumanity. 'She must be found, ' she declares, and hints that any sumnecessary will be forthcoming, though from what source after her ownpittance is expended she does not state. When asked if her master hasno interest in the matter, she changes color and puts us off. He nevernoticed his servants, left all such concerns to her, etc. ; but showsfear when a proposition is made to consult him. Next imagine yourselfwith the detectives in that gentleman's house. You enter the girl'sroom; what is the first thing you observe? Why that it is not only oneof the best in the house, but that it is conspicuous for its comforts ifnot for its elegancies. More than that, that there are books of poetryand history lying around, showing that the woman who inhabited it wasabove her station; a fact which the housekeeper is presently brought toacknowledge. You notice also that the wild surmise of her abduction bymeans of the window, has some ground in appearance, though the factthat she went with entire unwillingness is not made so apparent. Thehousekeeper, however, insists in a way that must have had some specialknowledge of the girl's character or circumstances to back it, that shenever went without compulsion; a statement which the torn curtainsand the track of blood over the roof of the extension, would seem toemphasize. A few other facts are made known. First, a pen-knife ispicked up from the grass plot in the yard beneath, showing with whatinstrument the wound was inflicted, whose drippings made those marks ofblood alluded to. It was a pearl-handled knife belonging to the writingdesk found open on her table, and its frail and dainty character provedindisputably, that it was employed by the girl herself, and that againstmanifest enemies; no man being likely to snatch up any such puny weaponfor the purpose either of offence or defence. That these enemies weretwo and were both men, was insisted upon by Mrs. Daniels who overheardtheir voices the night before. 

"Mr. Blake, such facts as these arouse curiosity, especially whenthe master of the house being introduced upon the scene, he fails tomanifest common human interest, while his housekeeper betrays in everyinvoluntary gesture and expression she makes use of, her horror if nother fear of his presence, and her relief at his departure. Yes, " heexclaimed, unheeding the sudden look here cast him by Mr. Blake, "andcuriosity begets inquiry, and inquiry elucidated further facts such asthese, that the mysterious master of the house was in his garden at thehour of the girl's departure, was even looking through the bars of hisgate when she, having evidently escaped from her captors, came back withevery apparent desire to reenter her home, but seeing him, betrayed anunreasonable amount of fear and fled back even into the very arms ofthe men she had endeavored to avoid. Did you speak sir?" asked Mr. Grycesuddenly stopping, with a sly look at his left boot tip. 

Mr. Blake shook his head. "No, " said he shortly, "go on. " But that lastremark of Mr. Gryce had evidently made its impression. 

"Inquiry revealed, also, two or three other interesting facts. First, that this gentleman qualified though he was to shine in ladies' society, never obtruded himself there, but employed his leisure time instead, inwalking the lower streets of the city, where he was seen more thanonce conversing with certain poor girls at street corners and in blindalleys. The last one he talked with, believed from her characteristicsto be the same one that was abducted from his house--"

"Hold there, " said Mr. Blake with some authority in his tone, "there youare mistaken; that is impossible. "

"Ah, and why?"

"The girl you allude to had bright golden hair, something which thewoman who lived in my house did not possess. "

"Indeed. I thought you had never noticed the woman who sewed for you, sir, --did not know how she looked?"

"I should have noticed her if she had had such hair as the girl youspeak of. "

Mr. Gryce smiled and opened his pocketbook. 

"There is a sample of her hair, sir, " said he, taking out a thin strandof brilliant hair and showing it to the gentleman before him. "Brightyou see, and golden as that of the unfortunate creature you talked withthe other night. "

Mr. Blake stooped forward and lifted it with a hand that visiblytrembled. "Where did you get this?" asked he at last, clenching it tohis breast with sudden passion. 

"From out of the comb which the girl had been using the night before. "

The imperious man flung it hastily from him. 

"We waste our time, " said he, looking Mr. Gryce intently in the face. "All that you have said does not account for your presence here nor thetone you have used while addressing me. What are you keeping back? I amnot a man to be trifled with. "

Mr. Gryce rose to his feet. "You are right, " said he, and he gave ashort glance in my direction. "All that I have said would not perhapsjustify me in this intrusion, if--" he looked again towards me. "Do youwish me to continue?" he asked. 

Mr. Blake's intent look deepened. "I see no reason why you should notutter the whole, " said he. "A good story loses nothing by being toldto the end. You wish to say something about my journey to Schoenmaker'shouse, I suppose. "

Mr. Gryce gravely shook his head. 

"What, you can let such a mystery as that go without a word?"

"I am not here to discuss mysteries that have no connection with thesewing-girl in whose cause I am interested. "

"Then, " said Mr. Blake, turning for the first time upon my superior withall the dignified composure for which he was eminent, "it is nolonger necessary for us to prolong this interview. I have allowed, nayencouraged you to state in the plainest terms what it was you had orimagined you had against me, knowing that my actions of late, seen bythose who did not possess the key to them, must have seemed a littlepeculiar. But when you say you have no interest in any mysterydisconnected with the girl who has lived the last few months inmy house, I can with assurance say that it is time we quitted thisunprofitable conversation, as nothing which I have lately done, said orthought here or elsewhere has in any way had even the remotest bearingupon that individual; she having been a stranger to me while in myhouse, and quite forgotten by me, after her unaccountable departurehence. "

Mr. Gryce's hand which had been stretched out towards the hithertountouched decanter before him, suddenly dropped. "You deny then, " saidhe, "all connection between yourself and the woman, lady or sewing-girl, who occupied that room above our heads for eleven months previous to theSunday morning I first had the honor to make your acquaintance. "

"I am not in the habit of repeating my assertions, " said Mr. Blake withsome severity, "even when they relate to a less disagreeable matter thanthe one under discussion. "

Mr. Gryce bowed, and slowly reached out for his hat; I had never seenhim so disturbed. "I am sorry, " he began and stopped, fingering hishat-brim nervously. Suddenly he laid his hat back, and drew up his forminto as near a semblance of dignity as its portliness would allow. 

"Mr. Blake, " said he, "I have too much respect for the man I believedyou to be when I entered this house to-night, to go with the thingunsaid which is lying at present like a dead weight upon my lips. I darenot leave you to the consequence of my silence; for duty will compelme to speak some day and in some presence where you may not havethe opportunity which you can have here, to explain yourself withsatisfaction. Mr. Blake I cannot believe you when you say the girl wholived in this house was a stranger to you. "

Mr. Blake drew his proud form up in a disdain that was only held incheck by the very evident honesty of the man before him. "Youare courageous at least, " said he. "I regret you are not equallydiscriminating. " And raising Mr. Gryce's hat he placed it in his hand. 

"Pardon me, " said that gentleman, "I would like to justify myself beforeI go. Not with words, " he proceeded as the other folded his arms with asarcastic bow. "I am done with words; action accomplishes the rest. Mr. Blake I believe you consider me an honest officer and a reliable man. Will you accompany me to your private room for a moment? There issomething there which may convince you I was neither playing the foolnor the bravado when I uttered the phrase I did an instant ago. "

I expected to hear the haughty master of the house refuse a request sopeculiar. But he only bowed, though in a surprised way that showedhis curiosity if no more was aroused. "My room and company are at yourdisposal, " said he, "but you will find nothing there to justify you inyour assertions. "

"Let me at least make the effort, " entreated my superior. 

Mr. Blake smiling bitterly immediately led the way to the door. "Theman may come, " he remarked carelessly as Mr. Gryce waved his hand in mydirection. "Your justification if not mine may need witnesses. "

Rejoiced at the permission, for my curiosity was by this time raised tofever pitch, I at once followed. Not without anxiety. The assured poiseof Mr. Blake's head seemed to argue that the confidence betrayed by mysuperior might receive a shock; and I felt it would be a serious blowto his pride to fail now. But once within the room above, my doubtsspeedily fled. There was that in Mr. Gryce's face which anyoneacquainted with him could not easily mistake. Whatever might bethe mysterious something which the room contained, it was evidentlysufficient in his eyes to justify his whole conduct. 

"Now sir, " said Mr. Blake, turning upon my superior with his sternestexpression, "the room and its contents are before you; what have you tosay for yourself. "

Mr. Gryce equally stern, if not equally composed, cast one of hisinscrutable glances round the apartment and without a word steppedbefore the picture that was as I have said, the only ornamentation ofthe otherwise bare and unattractive room. 

I thought Mr. Blake looked surprised, but his face was not one thatlightly expressed emotion. 

"A portrait of my cousin the Countess De Mirac, " said he with a certaindryness of tone hard to interpret. 

Mr. Gryce bowed and for a moment stood looking with a strange lack ofinterest at the proudly brilliant face of the painting before him, thento our great amazement stepped forward and with a quick gesture turnedthe picture rapidly to the wall, when--Gracious heavens! what a visionstarted out before us from the reverse side of that painted canvas! Noluxurious brunette countenance now, steeped in pride and languor, but aface--Let me see if I can describe it. But no, it was one of those facesthat are indescribable. You draw your breath as you view it; you feel asif you had had an electric shock; but as for knowing ten minutes laterwhether the eyes that so enthralled you were blue or black, or the locksthat clustered halo-like about a forehead almost awful in its expressionof weird, unfathomable power, were brown or red, you could not nor wouldyou pretend to say. It was the character of the countenance itself thatimpressed you. You did not even know if this woman who might have beenanything wonderful or grand you ever read of, were beautiful or not. Youdid not care; it was as if you had been gazing on a tranquil eveningsky and a lightning flash had suddenly startled you. Is the lightningbeautiful? Who asks! But I know from what presently transpired, thatthe face was ivory pale in complexion, the eyes deeply dark, and thehair, --strange and uncanny combination, --of a bright and peculiar goldenhue. 

"You dare!" came forth in strange broken tones from Mr. Blake's lips. 

I instantly turned towards him. He was gazing with a look that was halfindignant, half menacing at the silent detective who with eyes droopedand finger directed towards the picture, seemed to be waiting for him tofinish. 

"I do not understand an audacity that allows you to--to--" Was thisthe haughty gentleman we had known, this hesitating troubled man withbloodless lips and trembling hands?

"I declared my desire to justify myself, " said my principal with arespectful bow. "This is my justification. Do you note the color of thewoman's hair whose portrait hangs with its face turned to the wall inyour room? Is it like or unlike that of the strand you held in your handa few moments ago; a strand taken as I swear, hair by hair from the combof the poor creature who occupied the room above. But that is not all, "he continued as Mr. Blake fell a trifle aback; "just observe the dressin which this woman is painted; blue silk you see, dark and rich; a widecollar cunningly executed, you can almost trace the pattern; a brooch;then the roses in the hand, do you see? Now come with me upstairs. "

Too much startled to speak, Mr. Blake, haughty aristocrat as he was, turned like a little child and followed the detective who with anassured step and unembarassed mien led the way into the deserted roomabove. 

"You accuse me of insulting you, when I express disbelief of yourassertion that there was no connection between you and the girl Emily, "said Mr. Gryce as he lit the gas and unlocked that famous bureau drawer. "Will you do so any longer in face of these?" And drawing off the towelthat lay uppermost, he revealed the neatly folded dress, wide collar, brooch and faded roses that lay beneath. "Mrs. Daniels assures us thesearticles belonged to the sewing-woman Emily; were brought here by her. Dare you say they are not the ones reproduced in the portrait below?"

Mr. Blake uttering a cry sank on his knees before the drawer. "My God!My God!" was his only reply, "what are these?" Suddenly he rose, hiswhole form quivering, his eyes burning. "Where is Mrs. Daniels?" hecried, hastily advancing and pulling the bell. "I must see her at once. Send the house-keeper here, " he ordered as Fanny smiling demurely madeher appearance at the door. 

"Mrs. Daniels is out, " returned the girl, "went out as soon as ever yougot up from dinner, sir. "

"Gone out at this hour?"

"Yes sir; she goes out very often nowadays, sir. "

Her master frowned. "Send her to me as soon as she returns, " hecommanded, and dismissed the girl. 

"I don't know what to make of this, " he now said in a strange tone, approaching again the touching contents of that open bureau drawer witha look in which longing and doubt seemed in some way to be strangelycommingled. "I cannot explain the presence of these articles in thisroom; but if you will come below I will see what I can do to make othermatters intelligible to you. Disagreeable as it is for me to take anyoneinto my confidence, affairs have gone too far for me to hope any longerto preserve secrecy as to my private concerns. "

CHAPTER XI. LUTTRA

"Gentlemen, " said he as he ushered us once more into his studio, "youhave presumed, and not without reason I should say, to infer that theoriginal of this portrait and the woman who has so long occupied theposition of sewing-woman in my house, are one and the same. You will nolonger retain that opinion when I inform you that this picture, strangeas it may appear to you, is the likeness of my wife. "

"Wife!" We both were astonished as I take it, but it was my voice whichspoke. "We were ignorant you ever had a wife. "

"No doubt, " continued our host smiling bitterly, "that at least hasevaded the knowledge even of the detectives. " Then with a return tohis naturally courteous manner, "She was never acknowledged by me as mywife, nor have we ever lived together, but if priestly benediction canmake a man and woman one, that woman as you see her there is my lawfulwife. "

Rising, he softly turned the lovely, potent face back to the wall, leaving us once more confronted by the dark and glowing countenance ofhis cousin. 

"I am not called upon, " said he, "to go any further with you than this. I have told you what no man till this hour has ever heard from my lips, and it should serve to exonerate me from any unjust suspicions you mayhave entertained. But to one of my temperament, secret scandal and thegossip it engenders is only less painful than open notoriety. If I leavethe subject here, a thousand conjectures will at once seize upon you, and my name if not hers will become, before I know it, the football ofgossip if not of worse and deeper suspicion than has yet assailed me. Gentleman I take you to be honest men; husbands, perhaps, and fathers;proud, too, in your way and jealous of your own reputation and that ofthose with whom you are connected. If I succeed in convincing you thatmy movements of late have been totally disconnected with the girl whosecause you profess solely to be interested in, may I count upon yoursilence as regards those actions and the real motive that led to them?"

"You may count upon my discretion as regards all matters that do notcome under the scope of police duty, " returned Mr. Gryce. "I haven'tmuch time for gossip. "

"And your man here?"

"O, he's safe where it profits him to be. "

"Very well, then, I shall count upon you. "

And with the knitted brows and clinched hands of a proudly reticentman who, perhaps for the first time in his life finds himself forced toreveal his inner nature to the world, he began his story in these words:

"Difficult as it is for me to introduce into a relation like this thename of my father, I shall be obliged to do so in order to make myconduct at a momentous crisis of my life intelligible to you. My father, then, was a man of strong will and a few but determined prejudices. Resolved that I should sustain the reputation of the family for wealthand respectability, he gave me to understand from my earliest years, that as long as I preserved my manhood from reproach, I had only to makemy wishes known, to have them immediately gratified; while if I crossedhis will either by indulging in dissipation or engaging in pursuitsunworthy of my name, I no longer need expect the favor of hiscountenance or the assistance of his purse. 

"When, therefore, at a certain period of my life, I found that thecharms of my cousin Evelyn were making rather too strong an impressionupon my fancy for a secured peace of mind, I first inquired how such aunion would affect my father, and learning that it would be in directopposition to his views, cast about in my mind what I should do toovercome my passion. Travel suggested itself, and I took a trip toEurope. But the sight of new faces only awakened in me comparisonsanything but detrimental to the beauty of her who was at that time mystandard of feminine loveliness. Nature and the sports connected with awild life were my next resort. I went overland to California, roamed theorange groves of Florida, and probed the wildernesses of Canada andour Northern states. It was during these last excursions that an eventoccurred which has exercised the most material influence upon my fate, though at the time it seemed to me no more than the matter of a day. 

"I had just returned from Canada and was resting in tolerable enjoymentof a very beautiful autumn at Lake George, when a letter reached mefrom a friend then loitering in the vicinity, urging me to join him ina certain small town in Vermont where trout streams abounded and what isnot so often the case under the circumstances, fishers were few. 

"Being in a somewhat reckless mood I at once wrote a consent, and beforeanother day was over, started for the remote village whence his letterwas postmarked. I found it by no means easy of access. Situated in themidst of hills some twenty miles or so distant from any railroad, Idiscovered that in order to reach it, a long ride in a stage-coach wasnecessary, followed by a somewhat shorter journey on horseback. Notbeing acquainted with the route, I timed my connections wrong, so thatwhen evening came I found myself riding over a strange road in thedarkest night I had ever known. As if this was not enough, my horsesuddenly began to limp and presently became so lame I found itimpossible to urge her beyond a slow walk. It was therefore with noordinary satisfaction that I presently beheld a lighted building in thedistance, which as I approached resolved itself into an inn. Stoppingin front of the house, which was closed against the chill night air, I called out lustily for someone to take my horse, whereupon the dooropened and a man appeared on the threshold with a lantern in his hand. Iat once made my wishes known, receiving in turn a somewhat gruff, "'Well it is a nasty night and it will be nastier before it's over;' anopinion instantly endorsed by a sudden swoop of wind that rushed by atthat moment, slamming the door behind him and awakening over my head alugubrious groaning as from the twisting boughs of some old tree, thatwas almost threatening in its character. 

"'You had better go in, ' said he, 'the rain will come next. '

"I at once leaped from my horse and pushing open the door with mainstrength, entered the house. Another man met me on the threshold whomerely pointing over his shoulder to a lighted room in his rear, passedout without a word, to help the somewhat younger man, who had firstappeared, in putting up my horse. I at once accepted his silentinvitation and stepped into the room before me. Instantly I found myselfconfronted by the rather startling vision of a young girl of a uniqueand haunting style of beauty, who rising at my approach now stood withher eyes on my face and her hands resting on the deal table before whichshe had been sitting, in an attitude expressive of mingled surpriseand alarm. To see a woman in that place was not so strange; but sucha woman! Even in the first casual glance I gave her, I at onceacknowledged to myself her extraordinary power. Not the slightness ofher form, the palor of her countenance, or the fairness of the locks ofgolden red hair that fell in two long braids over her bosom, could fora moment counteract the effect of her dark glance or the vivid almostunearthly force of her expression. It was as if you saw a flameupstarting before you, waving tremulously here and there, but burningand resistless in its white heat. I took off my hat with deference. 

"A shudder passed over her, but she made no effort to return myacknowledgement. As we cast our eyes dilating with horror, down somehorrible pit upon whose verge we suddenly find ourselves, she allowedher gaze for a moment to dwell upon my face, then with a sudden liftingof her hand, pointed towards the door as if to bid me depart--when itswung open with that shrill rushing of wind that involuntarily awakes ashudder within you, and the two men entered and came stamping up to myside. Instantly her hand sunk, not feebly as with fear, but calmly as ifat the bidding of her will, and without waiting for them to speak, sheturned away and quietly left the room. As the door closed upon her Inoticed that she wore a calico frock and that her face did not own oneperfect feature. 

"'Go after Luttra and tell her to make up the bed in the northwestroom, ' said the elder of the two in deep gutteral tones unmistakablyGerman in their accent, to the other who stood shaking the wet off hiscoat into the leaping flames of a small wood fire that burned on thehearth before us. 

"'O, she'll do without my bothering, ' was the sullen return. 'I'm wetthrough. '

"The elder man, a large powerfully framed fellow of some fifty years orso, frowned. It was an evil frown, and the younger one seemed to feelit. He immediately tossed his coat onto a chair and left the room. 

"'Boys are so obstropolous now-a-days, ' remarked his companion to mewith what he evidently intended for a conciliatory nod. 'In my time theywere broke in, did what they were told and asked no questions. '

"I smiled to myself at his calling the broad shouldered six-footer whohad just left us a boy, but merely remarking, 'He is your son is henot!' seated myself before the blaze which shot up a tongue of whiteflame at my approach, that irresistibly recalled to my fancy theappearance of the girl who had gone out a moment before. 

"'O, yes, he is my son, and that girl you saw here was my daughter; Ikeep this inn and they help me, but it is a slow way to live, I can tellyou. Travel on these roads is slim. '

"'I should think likely, ' I returned, remembering the half dozen or sohills up which I had clambered since I took to my horse. 'How far are wefrom Pentonville?'

"'O, two or three miles, ' he replied, but in a hurried kind of a way. 'Not far in the daytime but a regular journey in a night like this?'

"'Yes, ' said I, as the house shook under a fresh gust; 'it is fortunateI have a place in which to put up. '

"He glanced down at my baggage which consisted of a small hand bag, an over-coat and a fishing pole, with something like a gleam ofdisappointment. 

"'Going fishing?' he asked. 

"'Yes, ' I returned. 

"'Good trout up those streams and plenty of them, ' he went on. 'Goingalone?'

"I did not half like his importunity, but considering I had nothingbetter to do, replied as affably as possible. 'No, I expect to meet afriend in Pentonville who will accompany me. "

"His hand went to his beard in a thoughtful attitude and he cast mewhat, with my increased experience of the world, I should now consider asinister glance. 'Then you are expected?' said he. 

"Not considering this worth reply, I stretched out my feet to the blazeand began to warm them, for I felt chilled through. 

"'Been on the road long?' he now asked, glancing at the blue flannelsuit I wore. 

"'All summer, ' I returned, "I again thought he looked disappointed. 

"'From Troy or New York?' he went on with a vague endeavor to appeargood naturally off hand. 

"'New York. '

"'A big place that, ' he continued. 'I was there once, lots of moneystored away in them big buildings down in Wall Street, eh?'

"I assented, and he drew a chair up to my side, a proceeding that wasinterrupted, however, by the reentrance of his son, who without anyapology crowded into the other side of the fire-place in a way tosandwich me between them. Not fancying this arrangement which I, however, imputed to ignorance, I drew back and asked if my room wasready. It seemed it was not, and unpleasantly as it promised, I feltforced to reseat myself and join in, if not support, the conversationthat followed. 

"A half hour passed away, during which the wind increased till it almostamounted to a gale. Spurts of rain dashed against the windows with asharp crackling sound that suggested hail, while ever and anon a distantroll as of rousing thunder, rumbled away among the hills in a long andreverberating peal, that made me feel glad to be housed even under theroof of these rude and uncongenial creatures. Suddenly the conversationturned upon the time and time-pieces, when in a low even tone I heardmurmured behind me, "'The gentleman's room is ready;' and turning, I saw standing inthe doorway the slight figure of the young girl whose appearance hadpreviously so impressed me. 

"I immediately arose. 'Then I will proceed to it at once, ' said I, taking up my traps and advancing towards her. 

"'Do not be alarmed if you hear creaks and cracklings all over thehouse, ' observed the landlord as I departed. 'The windows are loose andthe doors ill-fitting. In such a storm as this they make noise enoughto keep an army awake. The house is safe enough though and if you don'tmind noise--'

"'O I don't mind noise, ' rejoined I, feeling at that moment tired enoughto fall into a doze on the staircase. 'I shall sleep, never fear, ' andwithout further ado followed the girl upstairs into a large clumsilyfurnished room whose enormous bed draped with heavy curtains at onceattracted my attention. 

"'O I cannot sleep under those things, ' remarked I, with a gesturetowards the dismal draperies which to me were another name forsuffocation. 

"With a single arm-sweep she threw them back. 'Is there anything more Ican do for you?' asked she, glancing hastily about the room. 

"I thanked her and said 'no, ' at which she at once departed with a lookof still determination upon her countenance that I found it hard toexplain. 

"Left alone in that large, bare and dimly lighted room, with the windshrieking in the chimney and the powerful limbs of some huge treebeating against the walls without, with a heavy thud inexpressiblymournful, I found to my surprise and something like dismay, that thesleepiness which had hitherto oppressed me, had in some unaccountableway entirely fled. In vain I contemplated the bed, comfortable enoughnow in its appearance that the stifling curtains were withdrawn; notemptation to invade it came to arouse me from the chair into which Ihad thrown myself. It was as if I felt myself under the spell of someinvisible influence that like the eye of a basilisk, held me enchained. I remember turning my head towards a certain quarter of the wall as ifI half expected to encounter there the bewildering glance of a serpent. Yet far from being apprehensive of any danger, I only wondered over theweakness of mind that made such fancies possible. 

"An extra loud swirl of the foliage without, accompanied by a quickvibration of the house, aroused me at last. If I was to lose the senseof this furious storm careering over my head, I must court sleep atonce. Rising, I drew off my coat, unloosened my vest and was about tothrow it off, when I bethought me of a certain wallet it contained. Going to the door in some unconscious impulse of precaution I suppose, Ilocked myself in, and then drawing out my wallet, took from it a roll ofbills which I put into a small side pocket, returning the wallet to itsold place. 

"Why I did this I can scarcely say. As I have before intimated, Iwas under no special apprehension. I was at that time anything but asuspicious man, and the manner and appearance of the men below struck meas unpleasantly disagreeable but nothing more. But I not only did what Ihave related, but allowed the lamp to remain lighted, lying down finallyin my clothes; an almost unprecedented act on my part, warranted howeveras I said to myself, by the fury of the gale which at that time seemedas if it would tumble the roof over our heads. 

"How long I lay listening to the creakings and groanings of the ricketyold house, I cannot say, nor how long I remained in the doze whichfinally seized me as I became accustomed to the sounds around and overme. Enough that before the storm had passed its height, I awoke as if atthe touch of a hand, and leaping with a bound out of the bed, beheldto my incredible amazement, the alert, nervous form of Luttra standingbefore me. She had my coat in her hand, and it was her touch that hadevidently awakened me. 

"'I want you to put this on, ' said she in a low thrilling tone totallynew in my experience, 'and come with me. The house is unsafe for you toremain in. Hear how it cracks and trembles. Another blast like that andwe shall be roofless. '

"She was moving toward the door, which to my amazement stood ajar, butmy hesitation stopped her. 

"'Won't you come?' she whispered, turning her face towards me with alook of such potent determination, I followed in spite of myself 'I darenot let you stay here, your blood will be upon my head. '

"'You exaggerate, ' I replied, shrinking back with a longing look at thecomfortable bed I had just left. 'These old houses are always strong. It will take many such a gust as that you hear, to overturn it, I assureyou. '

"'I exaggerate!' she returned with a look of scorn impossible todescribe. 'Hark!' she said, 'hear that. '

"I did hear, and I must acknowledge that it seemed is if we were aboutto be swept from our foundations. 

"'Yes, ' said I, 'but it is a fearful night to be out in. '

"'I shall go with you, ' said she. 

"'In that case--' I began with an ill-advised attempt at gallantry whichshe cut short with a gesture. 

"'Here is your hat, ' remarked she, 'and here is your bag. Thefishing-pole must remain, you cannot carry it. '

"'But, --' I expostulated. 

"'Hush!' said she with her ear turned towards the depths of thestaircase at the top of which we stood. 'My father and brother willthink as you do that it is folly to leave the shelter of a roof for theuncertainties of the road on such a night as this, but you must not heedthem. I tell you shelter this night is danger, and that the only safetyto be found is on the stormy highway. '

"And without waiting for my reply, she passed rapidly down stairs, pushed open a door at the bottom, and stepped at once into the room wehad left an hour or so before. 

"What was there in that room that for the first time struck an ominouschill as of distinct peril through my veins? Nothing at first sight, everything at the second. The fire which had not been allowed to dieout, still burned brightly on the ruddy hearthstone, but it was not thatwhich awakened my apprehension. Nor was it the loud ticking clock on themantel-piece with its hand pointing silently to the hour of eleven. Noryet the heavy quiet of the scantily-furnished room with its one lampburning on the deal table against the side of the wall. It was the sightof those two powerful men drawn up in grim silence, the one against thedoor leading to the front hall, the other against that opening into thekitchen. 

"A glance at Luttra standing silent and undismayed at my side, however, instantly reassured me. With that will exercised in my favor, I couldnot but win through whatever it was that menaced me. Slinging my bagover my shoulder, I made a move towards the door and the silent figureof my host. But with a quick outreaching of her hand, she drew me back. 

"'Stand still!' said she. 'Karl, ' she went on, turning her face towardsthe more sullen but less intent countenance of her brother, 'open thedoor and let this gentleman pass. He finds the house unsafe in such agale and desires to leave it. At once!' she continued as her brothersettled himself more determinedly against the lock: 'I don't often askfavors. '

"'The man is a fool that wants to go out in a night like this, ' quoththe fellow with a dogged move; 'and so are you to encourage it. I thinktoo much of your health to allow it. '

"She did not seem to hear. 'Will you open the door?' she went on, notadvancing a step from the fire, before which she had placed herself andme. '

"'No, I won't, ' was the brutal reply. 'Its been locked for the night andits not me nor one like me, that will open it. '

"With a sudden whitening of her already pale face, she turned towardsher father. He was not even looking at her. 

"'Some one must open the house, ' said she, glancing back at her brother. 'This gentleman purposes to leave and his whim must be humored. Will youunlock that door or shall I?'

"An angry snarl interrupted her. Her father had bounded from the doorwhere he stood and was striding hastily towards her. In my apprehensionI put up my arm for a shield, for he looked ready to murder her, butI let it drop again as l caught her glance which was like white flameundisturbed by the least breeze of personal terror. 

"'You will stop there, ' said she, pointing to a spot a few feet fromwhere she stood. 'Another step and I let that for which I have heardyou declare you would peril your very soul, fall into the heart of theflames. ' And drawing from her breast a roll of bills, she stretched themout above the fire before which she was standing. 

"'You -----' broke from the gray-bearded lips of the old man, but hestopped where he was, eyeing those bills as if fascinated. 

"'I am not a girl of many words, as you know, ' continued she in a loftytone inexpressibly commanding. 'You may strangle me, you may kill me, it matters little; but this gentleman leaves the house this night, or Idestroy the money with a gesture. '

"'You -----' again broke from those quivering lips, but the old man didnot move. 

"Not so the younger. With a rush he left his post and in another instantwould have had his powerful arms about her slender form, only that Imet him half way with a blow that laid him on the floor at her feet. She said nothing, but one of the bills immediately left her hand andfluttered into the fire where it instantly shrivelled into nothing. 

"With the yell of a mad beast wounded in his most vulnerable spot, theold man before us stamped with his heel upon the floor. 

"'Stop!' cried he; and going rapidly to the front door he opened it. 'There!' shrieked he, 'if you will be fools, go! and may the lightningblast you. But first give me the money. '

"'Come from the door, ' said she, reaching out her left hand for thelantern hanging at the side of the fireplace, 'and let Karl light thisand keep himself out of the way. '

"It was all done. In less time than I can tell it, the old man hadstepped from the door, the younger one had lit the lantern and we werein readiness to depart. 

"'Now do you proceed, ' said she to me, 'I will follow. '

"'No, ' said I, 'we will go together. '

"'But the money?' growled the heavy voice of my host over my shoulder. 

"'I will give it to you on my return, ' said the girl. "

CHAPTER XII. A WOMAN'S LOVE

"Shall I ever forget the blast of driving rain that struck our faces andenveloped us in a cloud of wet, as the door swung on its hinges and letus forth into the night; or the electric thrill that shot through me asthat slender girl grasped my hand and drew me away through the blindingdarkness. It was not that I was so much affected by her beauty asinfluenced by her power and energy. The fury of the gale seemed to bendto her will, the wind lend wings to her feet. I began to realize whatintellect was. Arrived at the roadside, she paused and looked back. Thetwo burly forms of the men we had left behind us were standing in thedoor of the inn; in another moment they had plunged forth and towardsus. With a low cry the young girl leaped towards a tree where tomy unbounded astonishment I beheld my horse standing ready saddled. Dragging the mare from her fastenings, she hung the lantern, burning asit was, on the pommel of the saddle, struck the panting creature a smartblow upon the flank, and drew back with a leap to my side. 

"The startled horse snorted, gave a plunge of dismay and started awayfrom us down the road. 

"'We will wait, ' said Luttra. 

"The words were no sooner out of her mouth than her father and brotherrushed by. 

"'They will follow the light, ' whispered she; and seizing me again bythe hand, she hurried me away in the direction opposite to thatwhich the horse had taken. 'If you will trust me, I will bring you toshelter, ' she murmured, bending her slight form to the gusty wind butrelaxing not a whit of her speed. 

"'You are too kind, ' I murmured in return. 'Why should you exposeyourself to such an extent for a stranger?'

"Her hand tightened on mine, but she did not reply, and we hastenedon as speedily as the wind and rain would allow. After a short butdetermined breasting of the storm, during which my breath had nearlyfailed me, she suddenly stopped. 

"'Do you know, ' she exclaimed in a low impressive tone, 'that we are onthe verge of a steep and dreadful precipice? It runs along here for aquarter of a mile and it is not an uncommon thing for a horse and riderto be dashed over it in a night like this. '

"There was something in her manner that awakened a chill in my veinsalmost as if she had pointed out some dreadful doom which I hadunwittingly escaped. 

"'This is, then, a dangerous road, ' I murmured. 

"'Very, ' was her hurried and almost incoherent reply. 

"How far we travelled through the mud and tangled grasses of thathorrible road I do not know. It seemed a long distance; it was probablynot more than three quarters of a mile. At last she paused with a short'Here we are;' and looking up, I saw that we were in front of a smallunlighted cottage. 

"No refuge ever appeared more welcome to a pair of sinking wanderers Iam sure. Wet to the skin, bedrabbled with mud, exhausted with breastingthe gale, we stood for a moment under the porch to regain our breath, then with her characteristic energy she lifted the knocker and struck asmart blow on the door. 

"'We will find shelter here, ' said she. 

"She was not mistaken. In a few moments we were standing once morebefore a comfortable fire hastily built by the worthy couple whoseslumbers we had thus interrupted. As I began to realize the sweetness ofconscious safety, all that this young, heroic creature had done for meswept warmly across my mind. Looking up from the fire that was beginningto infuse its heat through my grateful system, I surveyed her as sheslowly undid her long braids and shook them dry over the blaze, andalmost started to see how young she was. Not more than sixteen I shouldsay, and yet what an invincible will shone from her dark eyes anddignified her slender form; a will gentle as it was strong, elevatedas it was unbending. I bowed my head as I watched her, in gratefulthankfulness which I presently put into words. 

"At once she drew herself erect. 'I did but my duty, ' said she quietly. 'I am glad I was prospered in it. ' Then slowly. 'If you are grateful, sir, will you promise to say nothing of--of what took place at the inn?'

"Instantly I remembered a suspicion which had crossed my mind whilethere, and my hand went involuntarily to my vest pocket. The roll ofbills was gone. 

"She did not falter. 'I would be relieved if you would, ' continued she. 

"I drew out my empty hand, looked at it, but said nothing. 

"'Have you lost anything?' asked she. 'Search in your overcoat pockets. '

"I plunged my hand into the one nearest her and drew it out withsatisfaction; the roll of bills was there. 'I give you my promise, ' saidI. 

"'You will find a bill missing, ' she murmured; 'for what amount I do notknow; the sacrifice of something was inevitable. '

"'I can only wonder over the ingenuity you displayed, as well as expressmy appreciation for your bravery, ' returned I with enthusiasm. 'You area noble girl. '

"She put out her hand as if compliments hurt her. 'It is the first timethey have ever attempted anything like that, ' cried she in a quick lowtone full of shame and suffering. 'They have shown a disposition to--totake money sometimes, but they never threatened life before. And theydid threaten yours. They saw you take out your money, through a holepierced in the wall of the room you occupied, and the sight made themmad. They were going to kill you and then tumble you and your horse overthe precipice below there. But I overheard them talking and when theywent out to saddle the horse, I hurried up to your room to wake you. Ihad to take possession of the bills; you were not safe while you heldthem. I took them quietly because I hoped to save you without betrayingthem. But I failed in that. You must remember they are my father and mybrother. '

"'I will not betray them, ' said I. 

"She smiled. It was a wintry gleam but it ineffably softened her face. Ibecame conscious of a movement of pity towards her. 

"'You have a hard lot, ' remarked I. 'Your life must be a sad one. '

"She flashed upon me one glance of her dark eye. 'I was born forhardship, ' said she, 'but--' and a sudden wild shudder seized her, 'butnot for crime. '

"The word fell like a drop of blood wrung from her heart. 

"'Good heavens!' cried I, 'and must you--'

"'No, ' rang from her lips in a clarion-like peal; 'some things cut thevery bonds of nature. I am not called upon to cleave to what will dragme into infamy. ' Then calmly, as if speaking of the most ordinary matterin the world, 'I shall never go back to that house we have left behindus, sir. '

"'But, ' cried I, glancing at her scanty garments, 'where will you go?What will you do? You are young--'

"'And very strong, ' she interrupted. 'Do not fear for me. ' And her smilewas like a burst of sudden sunshine. 

"I said no more that night. 

"But when in the morning I stumbled upon her sitting in the kitchenreading a book not only above her position but beyond her years, a sudden impulse seized me and I asked her if she would like to beeducated. The instantaneous illumining of her whole face was sufficientreply without her low emphatic words, "'I would be content to study on my knees to know what some women do, whom I have seen. '

"It is not necessary for me to relate with what pleasure I caught atthe idea that here was a chance to repay in some slight measure theinestimable favor she had done me; nor by what arguments I finally wonher to accept an education at my hands as some sort of recompense forthe life she had saved. The advantage which it would give her in herstruggle with the world she seemed duly to appreciate, but that sogreat a favor could be shown her without causing me much trouble and anunwarrantable expense, she could not at once be brought to comprehend, and till she could, she held out with that gentle but inflexible will ofhers. The battle, however, was won at last and I left her in that littlecottage, with the understanding that as soon as the matter could bearranged, she was to enter a certain boarding-school in Troy with themistress of which I was acquainted. Meanwhile she was to go out toservice at Melville and earn enough money to provide herself withclothes. 

"I was a careless fellow in those days but I kept my promise to thatgirl. I not only entered her into that school for a course of threeyears, but acting through its mistress who had taken a great fancy toher, supplied her with the necessities her position required. It was soeasy; merely the signing of a check from time to time, and it wasdone. I say this because I really think if it had involved any personalsacrifice on my part, even of an hour of my time, or the labor of athought, I should not have done it. For with my return to the city myinterest in my cousin revived, absorbing me to such an extent that anymatter disconnected with her soon lost all charm for me. 

"Two years passed; I was the slave of Evelyn Blake, but there was noengagement between us. My father's determined opposition was enough toprevent that. But there was an understanding which I fondly hoped wouldone day open for me the way of happiness. But I did not know my father. Sick as he was--he was at that time laboring under the disease which ina couple of months later bore him to the tomb--he kept an eye upon mymovements and seemed to probe my inmost heart. At last he came to adefinite decision and spoke. 

"His words opened a world of dismay before me. I was his only child, ashe remarked, and it had been and was the desire of his heart to leaveme as rich and independent a man as himself. But I seemed disposedto commit one of those acts against which he had the most determinedprejudice; marriage between cousins being in his eyes an unsanctifiedand dangerous proceeding, liable to consequences the most unhappy. If Ipersisted, he must will his property elsewhere. The Blake estate shouldnever descend with the seal of his approbation to a race of probableimbeciles. 

"Nor was this enough. He not only robbed me of the woman I loved, but with a clear insight into the future, I presume, insisted uponmy marrying some one else of respectability and worth before he died. 'Anyone whose appearance will do you credit and whose virtue is beyondreproach, ' said he. 'I don't ask her to be rich or even the offspring ofone of our old families. Let her be good and pure and of no connectionto us, and I will bless her and you with my dying breath. '

"The idea had seized upon him with great force, and I soon saw he wasnot to be shaken out of it. To all my objections he returned but the oneword, "'I don't restrict your choice and I give you a month in which tomake it. If at the end of that time you cannot bring your bride to mybedside, I must look around for an heir who will not thwart my dyingwishes. '"

"A month! I surveyed the fashionable belles that nightly thronged theparlors of my friends and felt my heart sink within me. Take one of themfor my wife, loving another woman? Impossible. Women like these demandedsomething in return for the honor they conferred upon a man by marryinghim. Wealth? they had it. Position? that was theirs also. Consideration?ah, what consideration had I to give? I turned from them with distaste. 

"My cousin Evelyn gave me no help. She was a proud woman and loved mymoney and my expectations as much as she did me. 

"'If you must marry another woman to retain your wealth, marry, saidshe, 'but do not marry one of my associates. I will have no rival in myown empire; your wife must be a plainer and a less aspiring woman thanEvelyn Blake. Yet do not discredit your name, --which is mine, ' she wouldalways add. 

"Meanwhile the days flew by. If my own conscience had allowed me toforget the fact, my father's eagerly inquiring, but sternly unrelentinggaze as I came each evening to his bedside, would have kept itsufficiently in my mind. I began to feel like one in the power ofsome huge crushing machine whose slowly descending weight he in vainendeavors to escape. 

"How or when the thought of Luttra first crossed my mind I cannotsay. At first I recoiled at the suggestion and put it away from me indisdain; but it ever recurred and with it so many arguments in her favorthat before long I found myself regarding it as a refuge. To be sure shewas a waif and a stray, but that seemed to be the kind of wife demandedof me. She was allied to rogues if not villains, I knew; but then hadshe not cut all connection with them, dropped away from them, plantedher feet on new ground which they would never invade? I commenced tocherish the idea. With this friendless, grateful, unassuming protegee ofmine for a wife, I would be as little bound as might be. She wouldask nothing, and I need give nothing, beyond a home and the commonattentions required of a gentleman and a friend. Then she was notdisagreeable, nor was her beauty of a type to suggest the charms ofher I had lost. None of the graces of the haughty patrician lady whoselightest gesture was a command, would appear in this humble girl, tomock and constrain me. No, I should have a fair wife and an obedientone, but no vulgarized shadow of Evelyn, thank God, or of any of herfashionably dressed friends. 

"Advanced thus far towards the end, I went to see Luttra. I had notbeheld her since the morning we parted at the door of that littlecottage in Vermont, and her presence caused me a shock. This, the humblewaif with the appealing grateful eyes I had expected to encounter? thistall and slender creature with an aureola of golden hair about a facethat it was an education to behold! I felt a half movement of anger as Isurveyed her. I had been cheated; I had planted a grape seed and a palmtree had sprung up in its place. I was so taken aback, my salute lostsomething of the benevolent condescension I had intended to infuse intoit. She seemed to feel my embarassment and a half smile fluttered toher lips. That smile decided me. It was sweet but above all else it wasappealing. 

"How I won that woman to marry me in ten days time I care not tostate. Not by holding up my wealth and position before her. Somethingrestrained me from that. I was resolved, and perhaps it was the onlypoint of light in my conduct at that time, not to buy this young girl. Inever spoke of my expectations, I never alluded to my present advantagesyet I won her. 

"We were married, there, in Troy in the quietest and most unpretendingmanner. Why the fact has never transpired I cannot say. I certainly tookno especial pains to conceal it at the time, though I acknowledgethat after our separation I did resort to such measures as I thoughtnecessary, to suppress what had become gall and wormwood to my pride. 

"My first move after the ceremony was to bring her immediately to NewYork and to this house. With perhaps a pardonable bitterness of spirit, I had refrained from any notification of my intentions, and it was asstrangers might enter an unprepared dwelling, that we stepped across thethreshold of this house and passed immediately to my father's room. 

"'I can give you no wedding and no honeymoon, ' I had told her. 'Myfather is dying and demands my care. From the altar to a death-bed maybe sad for you, but it is an inevitable condition of your marriage withme. ' And she had accepted her fate with a deep unspeakable smile it hastaken me long months of loneliness and suffering to understand. 

"'Father, I bring you my bride, ' were my first words to him as the doorclosed behind us shutting us in with the dread, invisible Presence thatfor so long a time had been relentlessly advancing upon our home. 

"I shall never forget how he roused himself in his bed, nor with whateager eyes he read her young face and surveyed her slight form swayingtowards him in her sudden emotion like a flame in a breeze. Nor while Ilive shall I lose sight of the spasm of uncontrollable joy with whichhe lifted his aged arms towards her, nor the look with which she sprangfrom my side and nestled, yes nestled, on the breast that never to myremembrance had opened itself to me even in the years of my earliestchildhood. For my father was a stern man who believed in holding love atarm's length and measured affection by the depth of awe it inspired. 

"'My daughter!' broke from his lips, and he never inquired who she wasor what; no, not even when after a moment of silence she raised her headand with a sudden low cry of passionate longing looked in his face andmurmured, "'I never had a father. '

"Sirs, it is impossible for me to continue without revealing depthsof pride and bitterness in my own nature, from which I now shrink withunspeakable pain. So far from being touched by this scene, I felt myselfgrow hard under it. If he had been disappointed in my choice, queriedat it or even been simply pleased at my obedience, I might have acceptedthe wife I had won, and been tolerably grateful. But to love her, admireher, glory in her when Evelyn Blake had never succeeded in winning aglance from his eyes that was not a public disapprobation! I couldnot endure it; my whole being rebelled, and a movement like hate tookpossession of me. 

"Bidding my wife to leave me with my father alone, I scarcely waitedfor the door to close upon the poor young thing before all that had beenseething in my breast for a month, burst from me in the one cry, "'I have brought you a daughter as you commanded me. Now give me theblessing you promised and let me go; for I cannot live with a woman I donot love. '

"Instantly, and before his lips could move, the door opened and thewoman I thus repudiated in the first dawning hour of her young bliss, stood before us. My God! what a face! When I think of it now in thenight season--when from dreams that gloomy as they are, are oftenelysian to the thoughts which beset me in my waking hours, I suddenlyarouse to see starting upon me from the surrounding shadows that youngfair brow with its halo of golden tresses, blotted, ay blotted by theagony that turned her that instant into stone, I wonder I did not takeout the pistol that lay in the table near which I stood, and shoot herlifeless on the spot as some sort of a compensation for the misery I hadcaused her. I say I wonder now: then I only thought of braving it out. 

"Straight as a dart, but with that look on her face, she came towardsus. 'Did I hear aright?' were the words that came from her lips. 'Haveyou married me, a woman beneath your station as I now perceive, becauseyou were commanded to do so? Have you not loved me? given me that whichalone makes marriage a sacrament or even a possibility? and must youleave this house made sacred by the recumbent form of your dying fatherif I remain within it?'

"I saw my father's stiff and pallid lips move silently as thoughhe would answer for me if he could, and summoning up what courage Ipossessed, I told her that I deeply regretted she had overheard myinconsiderate words. That I had never meant to wound her, whateverbitterness lay in my heart towards one who had thwarted me in my dearestand most cherished hopes. That I humbly begged her pardon and would sofar acknowledge her claim upon me as to promise that I would not leavemy home at this time, if it distressed her; my desire being not toinjure her, only to protect myself. 

"O the scorn that mounted to her brow at these weak words. Not scorn ofme, thank God, worthy as I was of it that hour, but scorn of my slightopinion of her. 

"'Then I heard aright, ' she murmured, and waited with a look that wouldnot be gainsaid. 

"I could only bow my head, cursing the day I was born. 

"'Holman! Holman!' came in agonized entreaty from the bed, 'you will notrob me of my daughter now?'

"Startled, I looked up. Luttra was half way to the door. 

"'What are you going to do?' cried I, bounding towards her. 

"She stopped me with a look. 'The son must never forsake the father, 'said she. 'If either of us must leave the house this day, let it be I. 'Then in a softer tone, 'When you asked me to be your wife, I who hadworshipped you from the moment you entered my father's house on thememorable night I left it, was so overcome at your condescension thatI forgot you did not preface it by the usual passionate, 'I love you, 'which more than the marriage ring binds two hearts together. In theglamour and glow of my joy, I did not see that the smile that was in myheart, was missing from your face. I was to be your wife and that wasenough, or so I thought then, for I loved you. Ah, and I do now, myhusband, love you so that I leave you. Were it for your happiness Iwould do more than that, I would give you back your freedom, but fromwhat I hear, it seems that you need a wife in name and I will be butfulfilling your desire in holding that place for you. I will neverdisgrace the position high as it is above my poor deserts. When the daycomes--if the day comes--that you need or feel you need the sustainmentof my presence or the devotion of my heart, no power on earth save thatof death itself, shall keep me from your side. Till that day arrives Iremain what you have made me, a bride who lays no claim to the nameyou this morning bestowed upon her. ' And with a gesture that was like abenediction, she turned, and noiselessly, breathlessly as a dream thatvanishes, left the room. 

"Sirs, I believe I uttered a cry and stumbled towards her. Some one inthat room uttered a cry, but it may be that it only rose in my heart andthat the one I heard came from my father's lips. For when at the doorI turned, startled at the deathly silence, I saw he had fainted on hispillow. I could not leave him so. Calling to Mrs. Daniels, who was neverfar from my father in those days, I bade her stop the lady--I believeI called her my wife--who was going down the stairs, and then rushed tohis side. It took minutes to revive him. When he came to himself it wasto ask for the creature who had flashed like a beacon of light upon hisdarkening path. I rose as if to fetch her but before I could advance Iheard a voice say, 'She is not here, ' and looking up I saw Mrs. Danielsglide into the room. 

"'Mrs. Blake has gone, sir, I could not keep her. '"

CHAPTER XIII. A MAN'S HEART

"That was the last time my eyes ever I rested upon my wife. Whither shewent or what refuge she gained, I never knew. My father who had receivedin this scene a great shock, began to fail so rapidly, he demanded myconstant care; and though from time to time as I ministered to him andnoted with what a yearning persistency he would eye the door and thenturn and meet my gaze with a look I could not understand, I caughtmyself asking whether I had done a deed destined to hang forever aboutme like a pall; it was not till after his death that the despairingimage of the bright young creature to whom I had given my name, returnedwith any startling distinctness to my mind, or that I allowed myself toask whether the heavy gloom which I now felt settling upon me was owingto the sense of shame that overpowered me at the remembrance of thepast, or to the possible loss I had sustained in the departure of myyoung unloved bride. 

"The announcement at this time of the engagement between Evelyn Blakeand the Count De Mirac may have had something to do with this. Though Ihad never in the most passionate hours of my love for her, lost sight ofthat side of her nature which demanded as her right the luxury of greatwealth; and though in my tacit abandonment of her and secret marriagewith another I had certainly lost the right to complain of her actionswhatever they might be, this manifest surrendering of herself to thepower of wealth and show at the price of all that women are believed tohold dear, was an undoubted blow to my pride and the confidence Ihad till now unconsciously reposed in her inherent womanliness andaffection. That she had but made on a more conspicuous scale, the samesacrifice as myself to the god of Wealth and Position, was in my eyesat that time, no palliation of her conduct. I was a man none too goodor exalted at the best; she, a woman, should have been superior to thetemptations that overpowered me. That she was not, seemed to drag allwomanhood a little nearer the dust; fashionable womanhood I ought tosay, for somehow even at that early day her conduct did not seem toaffect the vivid image of Luttra standing upon my threshold, shorn ofher joy but burning with a devotion I did not comprehend, and saying, "'I loved you. Ah, and I do yet, my husband, love you so that I leaveyou. When the day comes--if the day comes--you need or feel you needthe sustainment of my presence or the devotion of my heart, no power onearth save that of death itself, shall keep me from your side. '

"Yes, with the fading away of other faces and other forms, that face andthat form now began to usurp the chief place in my thoughts. Not to myrelief and pleasure. That could scarcely be, remembering all that hadoccurred; rather to my increasing distress and passionate resentment. I longed to forget I was held by a tie, that known to the world wouldcause me the bitterest shame. For by this time the true character ofher father and brother had been revealed and I found myself bound to thedaughter of a convicted criminal. 

"But I could not forget her. The look with which she had left me wasbranded into my consciousness. Night and day it floated before me, tillto escape it I resolved to fasten it upon canvas, if by that means Imight succeed in eliminating it from my dreams. 

"The painting you have seen this night is the result. Born with anartist's touch and insight that under other circumstances might, perhaps, have raised me into the cold dry atmosphere of fame, theexecution of this piece of work, presented but few difficulties to mysomewhat accustomed hand. Day by day her beauty grew beneath my brush, startling me often with its spiritual force and significance till mymind grew feverish over its work, and I could scarcely refrain fromrising at night to give a touch here or there to the floating goldenhair or the piercing, tender eyes turned, ah, ever turned upon theinmost citadel of my heart with that look that slew my father before histime and made me, yes me, old in spirit even in the ardent years of myfirst manhood. 

"At last it was finished and she stood before me life-like and real inthe very garments and with almost the very aspect of that never to beforgotten moment. Even the roses which in the secret uneasiness of myconscience I had put in her hand on our departure from Troy, as a sortof visible token that I regarded her as my bride, and which through allher interview with my father she had never dropped, blossomed beforeme on the canvas. Nothing that could give reality to the likeness, was lacking; the vision of my dreams stood embodied in my sight, and Ilooked for peace. Alas, that picture now became my dream. 

"Inserting it behind that of Evelyn which for two years had held itsplace above my armchair, I turned its face to the wall when I rose inthe morning. But at night it beamed ever upon me, becoming as the monthspassed, the one thing to hold to and muse over when the world grew alittle noisy in my ears and the never ceasing conflict of the ages beata trifle too loudly on heart and brain. 

"Meanwhile no word of her, only of her villainous father and brother; notoken that she had escaped evil or was removed from want. If I had lovedher I could not have succored her, for I did not know where to find her. Her countenance illumined my wall, but her fair young self lay for all Iknew sheltered within the darkness and silence of the tomb. 

"At length my morbid broodings worked out their natural result. A dullmelancholy settled upon me which nothing could break. Even the news thatmy cousin who had lost her husband a month after marriage, had returnedto America with expectation to remain, scarcely caused a ripple in myapathy. Was I sinking into a hypochrondriac? or was my passion for thebeautiful brunette dead? I determined to solve the doubt. 

"Seeking her where I knew she would be found, I gazed again upon herbeauty. It was absolutely nothing to me. A fair young face with highthoughts in every glance floated like sunshine between us and I left thehaughty Countess, with the knowledge burned deep into my brain, that thelove I had considered slain was alive and demanding, but that the objectof it past recall, was my lost young wife. 

"Once assured of this, my apathy vanished like mist before a kindledtorch. Henceforth the future held a hope, and life a purpose. I wouldseek my wife throughout the world and bring her back if I found herin prison between the men whose existence was a curse to my pride. Butwhere should I turn my steps? What golden thread had she left in my handby which to trace her through the labyrinth of this world? I could thinkof but one, and that was the love which would restrain her from goingaway from me too far. The Luttra of old would not leave the city whereher husband lived. If she was not changed, I ought to be able to findher somewhere within this great Babylon of ours. Wisdom told me toset the police upon her track, but pride bade me try every other meansfirst. So with the feverish energy of one leading a forlorn hope, Ibegan to pace the streets if haply I might see her face shine upon mefrom the crowd of passers by; a foolish fancy, unproductive of result! Inot only failed to see her, but anyone like her. 

"In the midst of the despair occasioned by this failure a thought flashedacross me or rather a remembrance. One night not long since, beinguncommonly restless, I had risen from my bed, dressed me and gone outinto the yard back of my house for a little air. It was an unusual thingfor me to do but I seemed to be suffocating where I was, and nothingelse would satisfy me. As you already surmise, it was the night on whichdisappeared the sewing girl of which you have so often spoken, but Iknew nothing of that, my thoughts were far from my own home and itsconcerns. You may judge what a state of mind I was in when I tell youthat I even thought at one moment while I paused before the gate leadinginto ---- Street that I saw the face of her with whom my thoughts wereever busy, peering upon me through the bars. 

"You tell me that I did see a girl there, and that it was the one whohad lived as sewing woman in my house; it may be so, but at the time Iconsidered it a vision of my wife, and the remembrance of it, coming asit did after my repeated failures to encounter her in the street, workeda change in my plans. For regard it as weakness or not, the recollectionthat the vision I had seen wore the garments of a working-woman ratherthan a lady, acted upon me like a warning not to search for her anylonger among the resorts of the well-dressed, but in the regions ofpoverty and toil. I therefore took to wanderings such as I have no heartto describe. Nor do I need to, if, as you have informed me, I have beenfollowed. 

"The result was almost madness. Though deep in my heart I felt asteadfast trust in the purity of her intentions, the fear of what shemight have been driven to by the awful poverty and despair I every daysaw seething about me, was like hot steel in brain and heart. Then herfather and her brother! To what might they not have forced her, innocentand loving soul though she was! Drinking the dregs of a cup such as Ihad never considered it possible for me to taste, I got so far as tobelieve that her eyes would yet flash upon me from beneath some of thetattered shawls I saw sullying the forms of the young girls upon which Ihourly stumbled. Yes, and even made a move to see my cousin, if haply Icould so win upon her compassion as to gain her consent to shelter thepoor creature of my dreams in case the necessity came. But my heartfailed me at the sight of her cold face above the splendor she hadbought with her charms, and I was saved a humiliation I might never haverisen above. 

"At last, one day I saw a girl--no, it was not she, but her hair wassimilar to hers in hue, and the impulse to follow her was irresistible. I did more than that, I spoke to her. I asked her if she could tell meanything of one whose locks were golden red like hers--But I need nottell you what I said nor what she replied with a gentle delicacy thatwas almost a shock to me as showing from what heights to what depths awoman can fall. Enough that nothing passed between us beyond what I haveintimated, and that in all she said she gave me no news of Luttra. 

"Next day I started for the rambling old house in Vermont, if haplyin the spot where I first saw her, I might come upon some clue to herpresent whereabouts. But the old inn was deserted, and whatever hope Imay have had in that direction, perished with the rest. 

"Concerning the contents of that bureau-drawer above, I can say nothing. If, as I scarcely dare to hope, they should prove to have been indeedbrought here by the girl who has since disappeared so strangely, whoknows but what in those folded garments a clue is given which will leadme at last to the knowledge for which I would now barter all I possess. My wife--But I can mention her name no more till the question that nowassails us is set at rest. Mrs. Daniels must--"

But at that moment the door opened and Mrs. Daniels came in. 

CHAPTER XIV. MRS. DANIELS

She still wore her bonnet and shawl and her face was like marble. 

"You want me?" said she with a hurried look towards Mr. Blake that hadas much fear as surprise in it. 

"Yes, " murmured that gentleman moving towards her with an effort wecould very well appreciate. "Mrs. Daniels, who was the girl you harboredin that room above us for so long? Speak; what was her name and wheredid she come from?"

The housekeeper trembling in every limb, cast us one hurried appeal. 

"Speak!" reechoed Mr. Gryce; "the time for secrecy has passed. "

"O, " cried she, sinking into a chair from sheer inability to stand, "itwas your wife, Mr. Blake, the young creature you--"

"Ah!"

All the agony, the hopelessness, the love, the passion of those last fewmonths flashed up in that word. She stopped as if she had been shot, butseeing the hand which he had hurriedly raised, fall slowly before him, went on with a burst, "O sir, she made me swear on my knees I would never betray her, nomatter what happened. When not two weeks after your father died she cameto the house and asking for me, told me all her story and all her love;how she could not reconcile it with her idea of a wife's duty to liveunder any other roof than that of her husband, and lifting off the blackwig which she wore, showed me how altered she had made herself by thatsimple change--in her case more marked by the fact that her eyes werein keeping with black hair, while with her own bright locks they alwaysgave you a shock as of something strange and haunting--I gave up my willas if forced by a magnetic power, and not only opened the house to herbut my heart as well; swearing to all she demanded and keeping my oathtoo, as I would preserve my soul from sin and my life from the knife ofthe destroyer. "

"But, when she went, " broke from the pallid lips of the man before her, "when she was taken away from the house, what then?"

"Ah, " returned the agitated woman, "what then! Do you not think Isuffered? To be held by my oath, an oath I was satisfied she would wishkept even at this crisis, yet knowing all the while she was driftingaway into some evil that you, if you knew who she was, would give yourlife to avert from your honor if not from her innocent head! To see youcold, indifferent, absorbed in other things, while she, who would haveperished any day for your happiness, was losing her life perhaps in theclutches of those horrible villains! Do not ask me to tell you what Ihave suffered since she went; I can never tell you, --innocent, tender, noble-hearted creature that she was. "

"Was?" His hand clutched his heart as if it had been seized by a deathlyspasm. "Why do you say was?"

"Because I have just come from the Morgue where she lies dead. "

"No, no, " came in a low shriek from his lips, "that is not she; that isanother woman, like her perhaps, but not she. "

"Would to God you were right; but the long golden braids! Such hair ashers I never saw on anyone before. "

"Mr. Blake is right, " I broke in, for I could not endure this scene anylonger. "The woman taken out of the East river to-day has been both seenand spoken to by him and that not long since. He should know if it ishis wife. "

"And isn't it?"

"No, a thousand times no; the girl was a perfect stranger. "

The assurance seemed to lift a leaden weight from her heart. "O thankGod, " she murmured dropping with an irresistible impulse on her knees. Then with a sudden return of her old tremble, "But I was only to revealher secret in case of her death! What have I done, O what have I done!Her only hope lay in my faithfulness. "

Mr. Blake leaning heavily on the table before him, looked in her face. 

"Mrs. Daniels, " said he, "I love my wife; her hope now lies in me. "

She leaped to her feet with a joyous bound. "You love her? O thank God!"she again reiterated but this time in a low murmur to her self. "ThankGod!" and weeping with unrestrained joy, she drew back into a corner. 

Of course after that, all that remained for us to do was to lay ourheads together and consult as to the best method of renewing our searchafter the unhappy girl, now rendered of double interest to us by thefacts with which we had just been made acquainted. That she had beenforced away from the roof that sheltered her by the power of her fatherand brother was of course no longer open to doubt. To discover them, therefore, meant to recover her. Do you wonder, then, that from themoment we left Mr. Blake's house, the capture of that brace of thievesbecame the leading purpose of our two lives?

CHAPTER XV. A CONFAB

Next morning Mr. Gryce and I met in serious consultation. How, and inwhat direction should we extend the inquiries necessary to a discoveryof these Schoenmakers?

"I advise a thorough overhauling of the German quarter, " said mysuperior. "Schmidt, and Rosenthal will help us and the result ought tobe satisfactory. "

But I shook my head at this. "I don't believe, " said I, "that they willhide among their own people. You must remember they are not alone, buthave with them a young woman of a somewhat distinguished appearance, whose presence in a crowded district, like that, would be sure to awakengossip; something which above all else they must want to avoid. "

"That is true; the Germans are a dreadful race for gossip. "

"If they dared to ill-dress her or ill-treat her, it would be different. But she is a valuable piece of property to them you see, a choice lotof goods which it is for their interest to preserve in first-classcondition till the day comes for its disposal. For I presume you have nodoubt that it is for the purpose of extorting money from Mr. Blake thatthey have carried off his young wife. "

"For that reason or one similar. He is a man of resources, they may havehoped he would help them to escape the country. "

"If they don't hide in the German quarter they certainly won't in theItalian, French or Irish. What they want is too keep close and rouseno questions. I think they will be found to have gone up the riversomewhere, or over to Jersey. Hoboken would'nt be a bad place to sendSchmidt to. "

"You forget what it is they've got on their minds; besides noconspicuous party such as they could live in a rural district withoutattracting more attention than in the most crowded tenement house in thecity. "

"Where do you think, then, they would be liable to go?"

"Well my most matured thought on the subject, " returned Mr. Gryce, aftera moment's deliberation, "is this, --you say, and I agree, that theyhave hampered themselves with this woman at this time for the purpose ofusing her hereafter in a scheme of black-mail upon Mr. Blake. He, then, must be the object about which their thoughts revolve and toward whichwhatever operations or plans they may be engaged upon must tend. Whatfollows? When a company of men have made up their minds to rob a bank, what is the first thing they do? They hire, if possible, a house next tothe especial building they intend to enter, and for months work uponthe secret passage through which they hope to reach the safe andits contents; or they make friends with the watchman that guards itstreasures, and the janitor who opens and shuts the doors. In short theyhang about their prey before they pounce upon it. And so will theseSchoenmakers do in the somewhat different robbery which they plan sooneror later to effect. Whatever may keep them close at this moment, Mr. Blake and Mr. Blake's house is the point toward which their eyes areturned, and if we had time--"

"But we have'nt, " I broke in impetuously. "It is horrible to think ofthat grand woman languishing away in the power of such rascals. "

"If we had time, " Mr. Gryce persisted, "all it would be necessary to dowould be to wait, they would come into our hands as easily and naturallyas a hawk into the snare of the fowler. But as you say we have not, andtherefore, I would recommend a little beating of the bush directly aboutMr. Blake's house; for if all my experience is not at fault, those menare already within eye-shot of the prey they intend to run down. "

"But, " said I, "I have been living myself in that very neighborhood andknow by this time the ways of every house in the vicinity. There is nota spot up and down the Avenue for ten blocks where they could hide awayfor two days much less two weeks. And as for the side streets, --whyI could tell you the names of those who live in each house for aconsiderable distance. Yet if you say so I will go to work--"

"Do, and meanwhile Schmidt and Rosenthal shall rummage the Germanquarter and even go through Williamsburgh and Hoboken. The end justifiesany amount of labor that can be spent upon this matter. "

"And you, " I asked. 

"Will do my part when you have done yours. "

CHAPTER XVI. THE MARK OF THE RED CROSS

And what success did I meet? The best in the world. And by what meansdid I attain it? By that of the simplest, prettiest clue I ever cameupon. But let me explain. 

When after a wearisome day spent in an ineffectual search through theneighborhood, I went home to my room, which as you remember was a frontone in a lodging-house on the opposite corner from Mr. Blake, I was soabsorbed in mind and perhaps I may say shaken in nerve, by the strainunder which I had been laboring for some time now, that I stumbled up anextra flight of stairs, and without any suspicion of the fact, triedthe door of the room directly over mine. It is a wonder to me now that Icould have made the mistake, for the halls were totally dissimilar, the one above being much more cut up than the one below, besides beingflanked by a greater number of doors. But the intoxication of the mindis not far removed from that of the body, and as I say it was not tillI had tried the door and found it locked, that I became aware of themistake I had made. 

With the foolish sense of shame that always overcomes us at thecommittal of any such trivial error, I stumbled hastily back, when myfoot trod upon something that broke under my weight. I never let evensmall things pass without some notice. Stooping, then, for what I hadthus inadvertently crushed, I carried it to where a single gas jetturned down very low, made a partial light in the long hall, andexamining it, found it to be a piece of red chalk. 

What was there in that simple fact to make me start and hastily recallone or two half-forgotten incidents which, once brought to mind, awokea train of thought that led to the discovery and capture of those twodesperate thieves? I will tell you. 

I don't remember now whether in my account of the visit I paid tothe Schoenmakers' house in Vermont, I informed you of the red cross Inoticed scrawled on the panel of one of the doors. It seemed a trivialthing at the time and made little or no impression upon me, the chancesbeing that I should never have thought of it again, if I had not comeupon the article just mentioned at a moment when my mind was full ofthose very Schoenmakers. But remembered now, together with anotherhalf-forgotten fact, --that some days previous I had been told by thewoman who kept the house I was in, that the parties over my head (twomen and a woman I believe she said) were giving her some trouble, butthat they paid well and therefore she did not like to turn them out, --itaroused a vague suspicion in my mind, and led to my walking back to thedoor I had endeavored to open in my abstraction, and carefully lookingat it. 

It was plain and white, rather ruder of make than those below, butoffering no inducements for prolonged scrutiny. But not so with theone that stood at right angles to it on the left. Full in the centreof that, I beheld distinctly scrawled, probably with the very piece ofchalk I then held, a red cross precisely similar in outline to the oneI had seen a few days before on the panel of the Schoenmakers' door atGranby. 

The discovery sent a thrill over me that almost raised my hair on end. Was, then, this famous trio to be found in the very house in which I hadbeen myself living for a week or more? over my head in fact? I couldnot withdraw my gaze from the mysterious looking object. I bent near, Ilistened, I heard what sounded like the suppressed snore of a powerfulman, and almost had to lay hold of myself to prevent my hand frompushing open that closed door and my feet from entering. As it was I didfinger the knob a little, but an extra loud snore from within remindedme by its suggestion of strength that I was but a small man and that inthis case and at this hour, discretion was the better part of valor. 

I therefore withdrew, but for the whole night lay awake listening tocatch any sounds that might come from above, and going so far as to planwhat I would do if it should be proved that I was indeed upon the trailof the men I was so anxious to encounter. 

With the breaking of day I was upon my feet. A rude step had gone upthe stairs a few minutes before and I was all alert to follow. ButI presently considered that my wisest course would be to sound thelandlady and learn if possible with what sort of characters I had todeal. Routing her out of the kitchen, where at that early hour she wasalready engaged in domestic duties, I drew her into a retired corner andput my questions. She was not backward in replying. She had conceived aninnocent liking for me in the short time I had been with her--a displayof weakness for which I was myself, perhaps, as much to blame asshe--and was only too ready to pour out her griefs into my sympathizingear. For those men were a grief to her, acceptable as was the moneythey were careful to provide her with. They were not only always in thehouse, that is one of them, smoking his old pipe and blackening up thewalls, but they looked so shabby, and kept the girl so close, and ifthey did go out, came in at such unheard of hours. It was enough todrive her crazy; yet the money, the money--

"Yes, " said I, "I know; and the money ought to make you overlook allthe small disagreeablenesses you mention. What is a landlady withoutpatience. " And I urged her not to turn them out. 

"But the girl, " she went on, "so nice, so quiet, so sick-looking! Icannot stand it to see her cooped up in that small room, always watchedover by one or both of those burly wretches. The old man says she ishis daughter and she does not deny it, but I would as soon think of thatlittle rosy child you see cooing in the window over the way, belongingto the beggar going in at the gate, as of her with her lady-like wayshaving any connection with him and his rough-acting son. You ought tosee her--"

"That is just what I want to do, " interrupted I. "Not because you havetempted my fancy by a recital of her charms, " I hastened to add, "butbecause she is, if I don't mistake, a woman for whose discovery andrescue, a large sum of money has been offered. "

And without further disguise I acquainted the startled woman before mewith the fact that I was not, as she had always considered, the clerkout of employment whose daily business it was to sally forth in quest ofa situation, but a member of the city police. 

She was duly impressed and easily persuaded to second all my operationsas far as her poor wits would allow, giving me free range of her upperstory, and above all, promising that secrecy without which all my finelylaid plans for capturing the rogues without raising a scandal, wouldfall headlong to the ground. 

Behold me, then, by noon of that same day domiciled in an apartment nextto the one whose door bore that scarlet sign which had aroused withinme such feverish hopes the night before. Clad in the seedy garments ofa broken down French artist whose acquaintance I had once made, withsomething of his air and general appearance and with a few of hiswretched daubs hung about on the whitewashed wall, I commenced withevery prospect of success as I thought, that quiet espionage of the halland its inhabitants which I considered necessary to a proper attainmentof the end I had in view. 

A racking cough was one of the peculiarities of my friend, anddetermined to assume the character in toto, I allowed myself to startlethe silence now and then with a series of gasps and chokings thatwhether agreeable or not, certainly were of a character to show that Ihad no desire to conceal my presence from those I had come among. Indeedit was my desire to acquaint them as fully and as soon as possible withthe fact of their having a neighbor: a weak-eyed half-alive innocentto be sure, but yet a neighbor who would keep his door open night andday--for the warmth of the hall of course--and who with the fretfulhabit of an old man who had once been a gentleman and a beau, wentrambling about through the hall speaking to those he met and expectinga civil word in return. When he was not rambling or coughing he madearchitectural monsters out of cardboard, wherewith to tempt the penniesout of the pockets of unwary children, an employment that kept himchained to a small table in the centre of his room directly opposite theopen door. 

As I expected I had scarcely given way to three separate fits ofcoughing, when the door next me opened with a jerk and a rough voicecalled out, "Who's that making all that to do about here? If you don't stop thatinfernal noise in a hurry--"

A soft voice interrupted him and he drew back. "I will go see, " saidthose gentle tones, and Luttra Blake, for I knew it was she before theskirt of her robe had advanced beyond the door, stepped out into thehall. 

I was yet bent over my work when she paused before me. The fact is I didnot dare look up, the moment was one of such importance to me. 

"You have a dreadful cough, " said she with that low ring of sympathy inher voice that goes unconsciously to the heart. "Is there no help forit?"

I pushed back my work, drew my hand over my eyes, (I did not need tomake it tremble) and glanced up. "No, " said I with a shake of my head, "but it is not always so bad. I beg your pardon, miss, if it disturbsyou. "

She threw back the shawl which she had held drawn tightly over her head, and advanced with an easy gliding step close to my side. "You do notdisturb me, but my father is--is, well a trifle cross sometimes, and ifhe should speak up a little harsh now and then, you must not mind. I amsorry you are so ill. "

What is there in some women's look, some women's touch that more thanall beauty goes to the heart and subdues it. As she stood there beforeme in her dark worsted dress and coarse shawl, with her locks simplybraided and her whole person undignified by art and ungraced byornament, she seemed just by the power of her expression and thewitchery of her manner, the loveliest woman I had ever beheld. 

"You are veree kind, veree good, " I murmured, half ashamed of mydisguise, though it was assumed for the purpose of rescuing her. "Yoursympathy goes to my heart. " Then as a deep growl of impatience rose fromthe room at my side, I motioned her to go and not irritate the man whoseemed to have such control over her. 

"In a minute, " answered she, "first tell me what you are making. "

So I told her and in the course of telling, let drop such other factsabout my fancied life as I wished to have known to her and through herto her father. She looked sweetly interested and more than once turnedupon me that dark eye, of which I had heard so much, full of tears thatwere as much for me, scamp that I was, as for her own secret trouble. But the growls becoming more and more impatient she speedily turned togo, repeating, however, as she did so, "Now remember what I say, you are not to be troubled if they do speakcross to you. They make noise enough themselves sometimes, as you willdoubtless be assured of to-night. "

And the lips which seemed to have grown stiff and cold with her misery, actually softened into something like a smile. 

The nod which I gave her in return had the solemnity of a vow in it. 

My mind thus assured as to the correctness of my suspicions, and the waythus paved to the carrying out of my plans, I allowed some few daysto elapse without further action on my part. My motive was to acquaintmyself as fully as possible with the habits and ways of these twodesperate men, before making the attempt to capture them upon which somany interests hung. For while I felt it would be highly creditable tomy sagacity, as well as valuable to my reputation as a detective, torestore these escaped convicts in any way possible into the hands ofjustice, my chief ambition after all was to so manage the affair asto save the wife of Mr. Blake, not only from the consequences of theirdespair, but from the publicity and scandal attendant upon the openarrest of two heavily armed men. Strategy, therefore, rather than forcewas to be employed, and strategy to be successful must be founded uponthe most thorough knowledge of the matter with which one has to deal. Three days, then, did I give to the acquiring of that knowledge, theresult of which was the possession of the following facts. 

1. That the landlady was right when she told me the girl was never leftalone, one of the men, if not the father then the son, always remainingwith her. 

2. That while thus guarded, she was not so restricted but that she hadthe liberty of walking in the hall, though never for any length of time. 

3. That the cross on the door seemed to possess some secret meaningconnected with their presence in the house, it having been erased oneevening when the whole three went out on some matter or other, only tobe chalked on again when in an hour or so later, father and daughterreturned alone. 

4. That it was the father and not the son who made such purchases aswere needed, while it was the son and not the father who carried onwhatever operations they had on hand; nightfall being the favoritehour for the one and midnight for the other; though it not infrequentlyhappened that the latter sauntered out for a short time also in theafternoon, probably for the drink he could not go long without. 

5. That they were men of great strength but little alertness; the strayglimpses I had had of them, revealing a breadth of back that was trulyformidable, if it had not been joined to a heaviness of motion thatproclaimed a certain stolidity of mind that was eminently in our favor. 

How best to use these facts in the building up of a matured plan ofaction, was, then, the problem. By noon of a certain day I believedit to have been solved, and reluctant as I was to leave the spot of myespionage even for the hour or two necessary to a visit to headquarters, I found myself compelled to do so. Packing up in a small basket I hadfor the purpose, the little articles I had been engaged during the lastfew days in making, I gave way to a final fit of coughing so hollow andsepulchral in its tone, that it awoke a curse from the next room deep asthe growl of a wild beast, and still continuing, finally brought Luttrato the door with that look of compassion on her face that always calledup a flush to my cheek whether I wished it or no. 

"Ah, Monsieur, I am afraid your cough is very bad to-day. O I see; youhave been getting ready to go out--"

"Come back here, " broke in a heavy voice from the room she had left. "What do you mean by running off to palaver with that old rascal everytime he opens his ----- battery of a cough?"

A smile that went through me like the cut of a knife, flashed for amoment on her face. 

"My father is in one of his impatient moods, " said she, "you had bettergo. I hope you will be successful, " she murmured, glancing wistfully atmy basket. 

"What is that?" again came thundering on our ears. "Successful? What areyou two up to?" And we heard the rough clatter of advancing steps. 

"Go, " said she; "you are weak and old; and when you come back, try andnot cough. " And she gave me a gentle push towards the door. 

"When I come back, " I began, but was forced to pause, the elderSchoenmaker having by this time reached the open doorway where he stoodfrowning in upon us in a way that made my heart stand still for her. 

"What are you two talking about?" said he; "and what have you got inyour basket there?" he continued with a stride forward that shook thefloor. 

"Only some little toys that he has been making, and is now going out tosell, " was her low answer given with a quick deprecatory gesture such asI doubt if she ever used for herself. 

"Nothing more?" asked he in German with a red glare in the eye he turnedtowards her. 

"Nothing more, " replied she in the same tongue. "You may believe me. "

He gave a deep growl and turned away. "If there was, " said he, "you knowwhat would happen. " And unheeding the wild keen shudder that seized herat the word, making her insensible for the moment to all and everythingabout her, he laid one heavy hand upon her slight shoulder and led herfrom the room. 

I waited no longer than was necessary to carry my feeble and falteringsteps appropriately down the stairs, to reach the floor below and gainthe landlady's presence. 

"Do you go up, " said I, "and sit on those stairs till I come back. Ifyou hear the least cry of pain or sound of struggle from that younggirl's room, do you call at once for help. I will have a policemanstanding on the corner below. "

The good woman nodded and proceeded at once to take up her work-basket. "Lucky there's a window up there, so I can see, " I heard her mutter. "I've no time to throw away even on deeds of charity. "

Notwithstanding which precaution, I was in constant anxiety during myabsence; an absence necessarily prolonged as I had to stop and explainmatters to the Superintendent, as well as hunt up Mr. Gryce and get hisconsent to assist me in the matter of the impending arrest. 

I found the latter in his own home and more than enthusiastic upon thesubject. 

"Well, " said he after I had informed him of the discoveries I had made, "the fates seem to prosper you in this. I have not received an inklingof light upon the matter since I parted from you at Mr. Blake's house. By the way I saw that gentleman this morning and I tell you we will findhim a grateful man if this affair can be resolved satisfactorily. "

"That is good, " said I, " gratitude is what we want. " Then shortly, "Perhaps it is no more than our duty to let him know that his wife issafe and under my eye; though I would by no means advocate his knowingjust how near him she is, till the moment comes when he is wanted, or weshall have a lover's impetuosity to deal with as well as all the rest. "Then with a hurried remembrance of a possible contingency, went on tosay, "But, by the way, in case we should need the cooperation of Mrs. Blake in what we have before us, you had better get a line writtenin French from Mrs. Daniels, expressive of her belief in Mr. Blake'spresent affection for his wife. The latter will not otherwise trust us, or understand that we are to be obeyed in whatever we may demand. Letit be unsigned and without names in case of accident; and if thehousekeeper don't understand French, tell her to get some one to helpher that does, only be sure that the handwriting employed is her own. "

Mr. Gryce seemed to perceive the wisdom of this precaution and promisedto procure me such a note by a certain hour, after which I related tohim the various other details of the capture such as I had planned it, meeting to my secret gratification an unqualified approval that went fartowards alleviating that wound to my pride which I had received from himin the beginning of this affair. 

"Let all things proceed as you have determined, and we shall accomplishsomething that it will be a life-long satisfaction to remember, " saidhe; "but you must be prepared for some twist of the screw which youdo not anticipate. I never knew anything to go off just as oneprognosticates it must, except once, " he added thoughtfully, "andthen it was with a surprise attached to it that well nigh upset menotwithstanding all my preparations. "

"You won a great success that day, " remarked I. "I hope the fates willbe as propitious to me to-morrow. Failure now would break my heart. "

"But you won't fail, " exclaimed he. "I myself am resolved to see youthrough this matter with credit. "

And in this assurance I returned to my lodgings where I found thelandlady sitting where I had left her, darning her twenty-third sock. 

"I have to mend for a dozen men and three boys, " said she, "and the boysare the worst by a heap sight. Look at that, will you, " holding upa darn with a bit of stocking attached. "That hole was made playingshinny. "

I uttered my condolences and asked if any sound or disturbance hadreached her ears from above. 

"O no, all is right up there; I've scarcely heard a whisper since you'vebeen gone. "

I gave her a pat on the chin scarcely consistent with my aged andtottering mien and proceeded to shamble painfully to my room. 

CHAPTER XVII. THE CAPTURE

Promptly next morning at the designated hour, came the little notepromised me by Mr. Gryce. It was put in my hand with many sly winks bythe landlady herself, who developed at this crisis quite an adaptationfor, if not absolute love of intrigue and mystery. Glancing over it--itwas unsealed--and finding it entirely unintelligible, I took it forgranted it was all right and put it by till chance, or if that failed, strategy, should give me an opportunity to communicate with Mrs. Blake. An hour passed; the doors of their rooms remained unclosed. A half hourmore dragged its slow minutes away, and no sound had come from theirprecincts save now and then a mumbled word of parley between the fatherand son, a short command to the daughter, or a not-to-be-restrained oathof annoyance from one or both of the heavy-limbed brutes as somethingwas said or done to disturb them in their indolent repose. At lastmy impatience was to be no longer restrained. Rising, I took a boldresolution. If the mountain would not come to Mahomet, Mahomet would goto the mountain. Taking my letter in the hand, I deliberately proceededto the door marked with the ominous red cross and knocked. 

A surprised snarl from within, followed by a sudden shuffling of feetas the two men leaped upright from what I presume had been a recumbentposition, warned me to be ready to face defiance if not the fury ofdespair; and curbing with a determined effort the slight sinking ofheart natural to a man of my make on the threshold of a very doubtfuladventure, I awaited with as much apparent unconcern as possible, thequick advance of that light foot which seemed to be ready to performall the biddings of these hardened wretches, much as it shrunk fromfollowing in the ways of their infamy. 

"Ah miss, " said I, as the door opened revealing in the gap her whiteface clouded with some new and sudden apprehension, "I beg your pardonbut I am an old man, and I got a letter to-day and my eyes are so weakwith the work I've been doing that I cannot read it. It is from some oneI love, and would you be so kind as to read off the words for me and sorelieve an old man from his anxiety. "

The murmur of suspicion behind her, warned her to throw wide open thedoor. "Certainly, " said she, "if I can, " taking the paper in her hand. 

"Just let me get a squint at that first, " said a sullen voice behindher; and the youngest of the two Schoenmakers stepped forward and torethe paper out of her grasp. 

"You are too suspicious, " murmured she, looking after him with the firstassumption of that air of power and determination which I had heardso eloquently described by the man who loved her. "There is nothing inthose lines which concerns us; let me have them back. "

"You hold your tongue, " was the brutal reply as the rough man opened thefolded paper and read or tried to read what was written within. "Blastit! it's French, " was his slow exclamation after a moment spent inthis way. "See, " and he thrust it towards his father who stood frowningheavily a few feet off. 

"Of course, it's French, " cried the girl. "Would you write a note inEnglish to father there? The man's friends are French like himself, andmust write in their own language. "

"Here take it and read it out, " commanded her father; "and mind youtell us what it means. I'll have nothing going on here that I don'tunderstand. "

"Read me the French words first, miss, " said I. "It is my letter and Iwant to know what my friend has to say to me. "

Nodding at me with a gentle look, she cast her eyes on the paper andbegan to read:

 "Calmez vous, mon amie, il vous aime et il vous cherche. Dans quatre heures vous serez heureuse. Allons du courage, et surtout soyez maitre de vous meme. "

"Thanks!" I exclaimed in a calm matter-of-fact way as I perceived thesudden tremor that seized her as she recognized the handwriting andrealized that the words were for her. "My friend says he will pay myweek's rent and bids me be at home to receive him, " said I, turning uponthe two ferocious faces peering over her shoulder, with a look of meekunsuspiciousness in my eye, that in a theatre would have brought downthe house. 

"Is that what those words say, you?" asked the father, pointing over hershoulder to the paper she held. 

"I will translate for you word by word what it says, " replied she, nerving herself for the crisis till her face was like marble, thoughI could see she could not prevent the gleam of secret rapture that hadvisited her, from flashing fitfully across it. "Calmez vous, mon amie. Do not be afraid, my friend. Il vous aime et il vous cherche. He lovesyou and is hunting for you. Dans quatre heures vous serez heureuse. Infour hours you will be happy. Allons du courage, et surtout soyezmaitre de vous meme. Then take courage and above all preserve yourself-possession. It is the French way of expressing one's self, "observed she. "I am glad your friend is disposed to help you, " shecontinued, giving me back the letter with a smile. "I am afraid youneeded it. "

In a sort of maze I folded up the letter, bowed my very humble thanks toher and shuffled slowly back. The fact is I had no words; I was utterlydumbfounded. Half way through that letter, with whose contents youmust remember I was unacquainted, I would have given my whole chance ofexpected reward to have stopped her. Read out such words as those beforethese men! Was she crazy? But how naturally at the conclusion did shewith a word make its language seem consistent with the meaning I hadgiven it. With a fresh sense of my obligation to her, I hurried to myroom, there to count out the minutes of another long hour in anxiousexpectation of her making that endeavor to communicate with me, whichher new hopes and fears must force her to feel almost necessary to herexistence. At length, my confidence in her was rewarded. Coming out intothe hall, she hurried past my door, her finger on her lip. I immediatelyrose and stood on the threshold with another paper in my hand, which Ihad prepared against this opportunity. As she glided back, I put it inher hand, and warning her with a look not to speak, resumed my usualoccupation. The words I had written were as follows:

 At or as near the time as possible of your brother's going out, you are to come to this room wrapped in an extra skirt and with your shawl over your head. Leave the skirt and shawl behind you, and withdraw at once to the room at the head of the stairs. You are not to speak, and you are not to vary from the plan thus laid down. Your brother and father are to be arrested, whether or no; but if you will do as this commands, they will be arrested without bloodshed and without shame to one you know. 

Her face while she read these lines, was a study, but I dared not softentoward it. Dropping the paper from her hand, she gave me one inquiringlook. But I pointed determinedly to the words lying upward on the floor, and would listen to no appeal. My resolve had its effect. Bowing herhead with a sorrowful gesture, she laid her hand on her heart, looked upand glided from the room. I took up that paper and tore it into bits. 

And now for the first time since I had been in the house, I closed thedoor of my room. I had a part to perform that rendered the dropping ofmy disguise indispensable. The old French artist had finished his work, and henceforth must merge into Q. The detective. Shortly before twoo'clock my assistants began to arrive. First, Mr. Gryce appeared on thescene and was stowed away in a large room on the other side of mine. Next, two of the most agile, as well as muscular men in the force who, thanks to having taken off their shoes in the lower hall, gained thesame refuge without awakening the suspicions of those we were anxious tosurprise. Lastly, the landlady who went into the closet to which I hadbidden Mrs. Blake retire after leaving in my room the articles I hadmentioned. 

All was now ready and waiting for the departure of the youngestSchoenmaker. Would he disappoint us and remain at home that day? Had anysuspicions been awakened in the stolid breasts of these men, that wouldserve to make them more watchful than usual against running unnecessaryrisks? No; at or near the time for the clock to strike two, their dooropened and the tread of a lumbering foot was heard in the hall. On itcame, passing my room with a rude stamping that gradually grew lessdistinct as the hardy rough went down the corridor, brushing the wallbehind which Mr. Gryce and his men lay concealed with his thick cane, and even stopping to light his pipe in front of the small apartmentwhere cowered our good landlady with her eternal basket of mending inher lap. 

At length all was quiet, and throwing open my door, I withdrew intoa small closet connected with my room, to wait with indescribableimpatience, the appearance of Mrs. Blake. She came in a very fewminutes, remained for an instant, and departed, leaving behind her asI had requested, the skirt and shawl in which she had left her father'spresence. I at once endued myself in these articles of apparel--takingcare to draw the shawl well over my head--and with a pocket handkerchiefto my face, (a proceeding made natural enough by the sneeze which atthat very moment I took care should assail me) walked boldly back to theroom from which she had just come. 

The door was of course ajar, and as I swung it open with as near asimulation of her manner as possible, the vision of her powerfulfather lolling on a bench directly before me, offered anything but anencouraging spectacle to my eyes. But doubling myself almost togetherwith as ladylike an atch-ee as my masculine nostrils would allow, Isucceeded in closing the door and reaching a low stool by the windowwithout calling from him anything worse than a fretful "I hope you arenot going to bark too. "

I did not reply to this of course, but sat with my face turned towardsthe street in an attitude which I hoped would awaken his attentionsufficiently to cause him to get up and come over to my side. For as hesat face to the door it would be impossible to take him by surprise, andthat, now that I saw what a huge and muscular creature he was, seemedto me to be the only safe method before us. But, whether from thesullenness of his disposition or the very evident laziness of themoment, he manifested no disposition to move, and hearing or thinking Idid, the stealthy advance of Mr. Gryce and his companions down the hall, I allowed myself to give way to a suppressed exclamation, and leaningforward, pressed my forehead against the pane of glass before me asif something of absorbing interest had just taken place in the streetbeneath. 

His fears at once took alarm. Bounding up with a curse, he strodetowards me, muttering, "What's up now? What's that you are looking at?" reaching my side justas Mr. Gryce and his two men softly opened the door and with a quickleap threw their arms about him, closing upon him with a force he couldnot resist, desperate as he was and mighty in the huge strength of anunusually developed muscular organization. 

"You, you girl there, are to blame for this!" came mingled with cursesfrom his lips, as with one huge pant he submitted to his captors. "Onlylet me get my hand well upon you once--Damn it!" he suddenly exclaimed, dragging the whole three men forward in his effort to get his mouth downto my ear, "go and rub that sign out on the door or I'll--you know whatI'll do well enough. Do you hear?"

Rising, still with face averted, I proceeded to do what he asked. But inanother moment seeing that he had been effectually bound and gagged, I took out the piece of red chalk I had kept in my pocket, anddeliberately chalked it on again, after which operation I came back andtook my seat as before on the low stool by the window. 

The object now was to secure the second rascal in the same way we hadthe first; and for this purpose Mr. Gryce ordered the now helpless giantto be dragged into the adjoining small room formerly occupied by Mrs. Blake, where he and his men likewise took up their station leaving meto confront as best I might, the surprise and consternation of the onewhose return we now awaited. 

I did not shrink. With that brave woman's garments drawn about me, something of her dauntless spirit seemed to invade my soul, and though Iexpected--But let that come in its place, I am not here to interest youin myself or my selfish thoughts. 

A half hour passed; he had never lingered away so long before, or so itseemed, and I was beginning to wonder if we should have to keep up thisstrain of nerve for hours, when the heavy tread was again heard inthe hall, and with a blow of the fist that argued anger or a brutalimpatience, he flung open the door and came in, I did not turn my head. 

"Where's father?" he growled, stopping where he was a foot or so fromthe door. 

I shook my head with a slight gesture and remained looking out. 

He brought his cane down on the floor with a thump. "What do you mean bysitting there staring out of the window like mad and not answering whenI ask you a decent question?"

Still I made no reply. 

Provoked beyond endurance, yet held in check by that vague sense ofdanger in the air, --which while not amounting to apprehension is oftensufficient to hold back from advance the most daring foot, --he stoodglaring at me in what I felt to be a very ferocious attitude, but madeno offer to move. Instantly I rose and still looking out of the window, made with my hand what appeared to be a signal to some one on theopposite side of the way. The ruse was effective. With an oath thatrings in my ears yet, he lifted his heavy cane and advanced upon me witha bound, only to meet the same fate as his father at the hands of thewatchful detectives. Not, however, before that heavy cane came down uponmy head in a way to lay me in a heap at his feet and to sow the seedsof that blinding head-ache, which has afflicted me by spells ever since. But this termination of the affair was no more than I had feared fromthe beginning; and indeed it was as much to protect Mrs. Blake fromthe wrath of these men, as from any requirements of the situation I hadassumed the disguise I then wore. I therefore did not allow this mishapto greatly trouble me, unpleasant as it was at the time, but, as soonas ever I could do so, rose from the floor and throwing off my strangehabiliments, proceeded to finish up to my satisfaction, the work alreadyso successfully begun. 

CHAPTER XVIII. LOVE AND DUTY

Dismissing the men who had assisted us in the capture of these two hardyvillains, we ranged our prisoners before us. 

"Now, " said Mr. Gryce, "no fuss and no swearing; you are in for it, andyou might as well take it quietly as any other way. "

"Give me a clutch on that girl, that's all, " said her father, "Where isshe? Let me see her; every father has a right to see his own daughter, "

"You shall see her, " returned my superior, "but not till her husband ishere to protect her. "

"Her husband? ah, you know about that do you?" growled the heavy voiceof the son. "A rich man they say he is and a proud one. Let him comeand look at us lying here like dogs and say how he will enjoy having hiswife's father and brother grinding away their lives in prison. "

"Mr. Blake is coming, " quoth Mr. Gryce, who by some preconcerted signalfrom the window had drawn that gentleman across the street. "He willtell you himself that he considers prison the best place for you. Blastyou! but he--"

"But he, what?" inquired I, as the door opened and Mr. Blake with a paleface and agitated mien entered the room. 

The wretch did not answer. Rousing from the cowering position in whichthey had both lain since their capture, the father and son struggledup in some sort of measure to their feet, and with hot, anxious eyessurveyed the countenance of the gentleman before them, as if they felttheir fate hung upon the expression of his pallid face. The son was thefirst to speak. 

"How do you do, brother-in-law, " were his sullen and insulting words. 

Mr. Blake shuddered and cast a look around. 

"My wife?" murmured he. 

"She is well, " was the assurance given by Mr. Gryce, "and in a room notfar from this. I will send for her if you say so. "

"No, not yet, " came in a sort of gasp; "let me look at these wretchesfirst, and understand if I can what my wife has to suffer from herconnection with them. "

"Your wife, " broke in the father, "what's that to do with it; thequestion is how do you like it and what will you do to get us clear ofthis thing. "

"I will do nothing, " returned Mr. Blake. "You amply merit your doom andyou shall suffer it to the end for all time. "

"It will read well in the papers, " exclaimed the son. 

"The papers are to know nothing about it, " I broke in. "All knowledgeof your connection with Mr. Or Mrs. Blake is to be buried in this spotbefore we or you leave it. Not a word of her or him is to cross the lipsof either of you from this hour. I have set that down as a condition andit has got to be kept. "

"You have, have you, " thundered in chorus from father and son. "And whoare you to make conditions, and what do you think we are that you expectus to keep them? Can you do anymore than put us back from where we camefrom?"

For reply I took from my pocket the ring I had fished out of the ashesof their kitchen stove on that memorable visit to their house, andholding it up before their faces, looked them steadily in the eye. 

A sudden wild glare followed by a bluish palor that robbed theircountenances of their usual semblance of daring ferocity, answered mebeyond my fondest hopes. 

"I got that out of the stove where you had burned your prison clothing, "said I. "It is a cheap affair, but it will send you to the gallows if Ichoose to use it against you. The pedlar--"

"Hush, " exclaimed the father in a low choked tone greatly in contrast toany he had yet used in all our dealings with him. "Throw that ring outof the window and I promise to hold my tongue about any matter you don'twant spoke of. I'm not a fool--"

"Nor I, " was my quick reply, as I restored the ring to my pocket. "Whilethat remains in my possession together with certain facts concerningyour habits in that old house of yours which have lately been made knownto me, your life hangs by a thread I can any minute snip in two. Mr. Blake here, has spent some portion of a night in your house and knowshow near it lies to a certain precipice, at foot of which--"

"Mein Gott, father, why don't you say something!" leaped in cowedaccents from the son's white lips. "If they want us to keep quiet, letthem say so and not go talking about things that--"

"Now look here, " interposed Mr. Gryce stepping before them with a lookthat closed their mouths at once. "I will just tell you what we proposeto do. You are to go back to prison and serve your time out, there isno help for that, but as long as you behave yourselves and continueabsolutely silent regarding your relationship to the wife of thisgentleman, you shall have paid into a certain bank that he will name, a monthly sum that upon your dismissal from jail shall be paid you withwhatever interest it may have accumulated. You are ready to promisethat, are you not?" he inquired turning to Mr. Blake. 

That gentleman bowed and named the sum, which was liberal enough, andthe bank. 

"But, " continued the detective, ignoring the sudden flash of eye thatpassed between the father and son, "let me or any of us hear of a wordhaving been uttered by you, which in the remotest way shall suggest thatyou have in the world such a connection as Mrs. Blake, and the money notonly stops going into the bank, but old scores shall be raked up againstyou with a zeal which if it does not stop your mouth in one way, will inanother, and that with a suddenness you will not altogether relish. "

The men with a dogged air from which the bravado had however fled, turned and looked from one to the other of us in a fearful, inquiringway that duly confessed to the force of the impression made by thesewords upon their slow but not unimaginative minds. 

"Do you three promise to keep our secret if we keep yours?" muttered thefather with an uneasy glance at my pocket. 

"We certainly do, " was our solemn return. 

"Very well; call in the girl and let me just look at her, then, beforewe go. We won't say nothing, " continued he, seeing Mr. Blake shrink, "only she is my daughter and if I cannot bid her good-bye--"

"Let him see his child, " cried Mr. Blake turning with a shudder to thewindow. "I--I wish it, " added he. 

Straightway with hasty foot I left the room. Going to the little closetwhere I had ordered his wife to remain concealed, I knocked and entered. She was crouched in an attitude of prayer on the floor, her face buriedin her hands, and her whole person breathing that agony of suspense thatis a torture to the sensitive soul. 

"Mrs. Blake, " said I, dismissing the landlady who stood in helplessdistress beside her, "the arrest has been satisfactorily made and yourfather calls for you to say good-bye before going away with us. Will youcome?"

"But my--my--Mr. Blake?" exclaimed she leaping to her feet. "I am sure Iheard his footstep in the hall?"

"He is with your father and brother. It was at his command I came foryou. "

A gleam hard to interpret flashed for an instant over her face. Withher eye on the door she towered in her womanly dignity, while thoughtsinnumerable seemed to rush in wild succession through her mind. 

"Will you not come?" I urged. 

"I--, " she paused. "I will go see my father, " she murmured, "but--"

Suddenly she trembled and drew back; a step was in the hall, on thethreshold, at her side; Mr. Blake had come to reclaim his bride. 

"Mr. Blake!"

The word came from her in a low tone shaken with the concentratedanguish of many a month of longing and despair, but there was noinvitation in its sound, and he who had held out his arms, stopped andsurveying her with a certain deprecatory glance in his proud eye, said, "You are right; I have first my acknowledgments to make and yourforgiveness to ask before I can hope--"

"No, no, " she broke in, "your coming here is enough, I request no more. If you felt unkindly toward me--"

"Unkindly?" A world of love thrilled in that word. "Luttra, I am yourhusband and rejoice that I am so; it is to lay the devotion of my heartand life at your feet that I seek your presence this hour. The year hastaught me--ah, what has not the year taught me of the worth of her I sorecklessly threw from me on my wedding day. Luttra, "--he held out hishand--"will you crown all your other acts of devotion with a pardonthat will restore me to my manhood and that place in your esteem which Icovet above every other earthly good?"

Her face which had been raised to his with that earnest look we knew sowell, softened with an ineffable smile, but still she did not lay herhand in his. 

"And you say this to me in the very hour of my father's and brother'sarrest! With the remembrance in your mind of their bound and abjectforms lying before you guarded by police; knowing too, that they deservetheir ignominy and the long imprisonment that awaits them?"

"No, I say it on the day of the discovery and the restoration of thatwife for whom I have long searched, and to whom when found I have noword to give but welcome, welcome, welcome. "

With the same deep smile she bowed her head, "Now let come what will, I can never again be unhappy, " were the words I caught, uttered in thelowest of undertones. But in another moment her head had regained itssteady poise and a great change had passed over her manner. 

"Mr. Blake, " said she, "you are good; how good, I alone can know andduly appreciate who have lived in your house this last year and seenwith eyes that missed nothing, just what your surroundings are and havebeen from the earliest years of your proud life. But goodness must notlead you into the committal of an act you must and will repent to yourdying day; or if it does, I who have learned my duty in the school ofadversity, must show the courage of two and forbid what every secretinstinct of my soul declares to be only provocative of shame and sorrow. You would take me to your heart as your wife; do you realize what thatmeans?"

"I think I do, " was his earnest reply. "Relief from heart-ache, Luttra. "

Her smooth brow wrinkled with a sudden spasm of pain but her firm lipsdid not quiver. 

"It means, " said she, drawing nearer but not with that approach whichindicates yielding, "it means, shame to the proudest family that livesin the land. It means silence as regards a past blotted by suggestionsof crime; and apprehension concerning a future across which the shadowof prison walls must for so many years lie. It means, the hushing ofcertain words upon beloved lips; the turning of cherished eyes fromvisions where fathers and daughters ay, brothers and sisters areseen joined together in tender companionship or loving embrace. Itmeans, --God help me to speak out--a home without the sanctity ofmemories; a husband without the honors he has been accustomed to enjoy;a wife with a fear gnawing like a serpent into her breast; and children, yes, perhaps children from whose innocent lips the sacred word ofgrandfather can never fall without wakening a blush on the cheeks oftheir parents, which all their lovesome prattle will be helpless tochase away. "

"Luttra, your father and your brother have given their consent to gotheir dark way alone and trouble you no more. The shadow you speak ofmay lie on your heart, dear wife, for these men are of your own blood, but it need never invade the hearthstone beside which I ask you to sit. The world will never know, whether you come with me or not, thatLuttra Blake was ever Luttra Schoenmaker. Will you not then give me thehappiness of striving to make such amends for the past, that you too, will forget you ever bore any other name than the one you now honor sotruly?"

"O do not, " she began but paused with a sudden control of her emotionthat lifted her into an atmosphere almost holy in its significance. "Mr. Blake, " said she, "I am a woman and therefore weak to the voice of lovepleading in my ear. But in one thing I am strong, and that is in mysense of what is due to the man I have sworn to honor. Eleven months agoI left you because your pleasure and my own dignity demanded it; to-dayI put by all the joy and exaltation you offer, because your position asa gentleman, and your happiness as a man equally requires it. "

"My happiness as a man!" he broke in. "Ah, Luttra if you love me as I doyou--"

"I might perhaps yield, " she allowed with a faint smile. "But I loveyou as a girl brought up amid surroundings from which her whole beingrecoiled, must love the one who first brought light into her darknessand opened up to her longing feet the way to a life of culture, purityand honor. I were the basest of women could I consent to repay such aboundless favor--"

"But Luttra, " he again broke in, "you married me knowing what yourfather and brother were capable of committing. "

"Yes, yes; I was blinded by passion, a girl's passion, Mr. Blake, bornof glamour and gratitude; not the self-forgetting devotion of a womanwho has tasted the bitterness of life and so learned its lesson ofsacrifice. I may not have thought, certainly I did not realize, what Iwas doing. Besides, my father and brother were not convicted criminalsat that time, however weak they had proved themselves under temptation. And then I believed I had left them behind me on the road of life; thatwe were sundered, irrevocably cut loose from all possible connection. But such ties are not to be snapped so easily. They found me, you see, and they will find me again--"

"Never!" exclaimed her husband. "They are as dead to you as if the gravehad swallowed them. I have taken care of that. "

"But the shame! you have not taken care of that. That exists and must, and while it does I remain where I can meet it alone. I love you; God'ssun is not dearer to my eyes; but I will never cross your threshold asyour wife till the opprobrium can be cut loose from my skirts, and theshadow uplifted from my brow. A queen with high thoughts in her eyes andbrave hopes in her heart were not too good to enter that door with you. Shall a girl who has lived three weeks in an atmosphere of such crimeand despair, that these rooms have often seemed to me the gateway tohell, carry there, even in secrecy, the effects of that atmosphere? Iwill cherish your goodness in my heart but do not ask me to bury thatheart in any more exalted spot, than some humble country home, wheremy life may be spent in good deeds and my love in prayers for the man Ihold dear, and because I hold dear, leave to his own high path among thestraight and unshadowed courses of the world. "

And with a gesture that inexorably shut him off while it expressed themost touching appeal, she glided by him and took her way to the roomwhere her father and brother awaited her presence. 

CHAPTER XIX. EXPLANATIONS

"I cannot endure this, " came in one burst of feeling from the lips ofMr. Blake. "She don't know, she don't realize--Sir, " cried he, suddenlybecoming conscious of my presence in the room, "will you be good enoughto see that this note, " he hastily scribbled one, "is carried across theway to my house and given to Mrs. Daniels. "

I bowed assent, routed up one of the men in the next room and despatchedit at once. 

"Perhaps she will listen to the voice of one of her own sex if not tome, " said he; and began pacing the floor of the narrow room in which wewere, with a wildness of impatience that showed to what depths had sunkthe hope of gaining this lovely woman for his own. 

Feeling myself no longer necessary in that spot, I followed where mywishes led and entered the room where Luttra was bidding good-bye to herfather. 

"I shall never forget, " I heard her say as I crossed the floor to whereMr. Gryce stood looking out of the window, "that your blood runs in myveins together with that of my gentle-hearted, never-to-be-forgottenmother. Whatever my fate may be or wherever I may hide the head you havebowed to the dust, be sure I shall always lift up my hands in prayer foryour repentance and return to an honest life. God grant that my prayersmay be heard and that I may yet receive at your hands, a father's kindlyblessing. "

The only answer to this was a heavily muttered growl that gave butlittle promise of any such peaceful termination to a deeply viciouslife. Hearing it, Mr. Gryce hastened to procure his men and remove thehardened wretches from the spot. All through the preparations for theirdeparture, she stood and watched their sullen faces with a wild yearningin her eye that could scarcely be denied, but when the door finallyclosed upon them, and she was left standing there with no one in theroom but myself she steadied herself up as one who is conscious that allthe storms of heaven are about to break upon her; and turning slowlyto the door waited with arms crossed and a still determination upon herbrow, the coming of the feet of him whose resolve she felt must have, asyet been only strengthened by her resistance. 

She had not long to wait. Almost with the closing of the street doorupon the detectives and their prisoners, Mr. Blake followed by Mrs. Daniels and another lady whose thick veil and long cloak but illyconcealed the patrician features and stately form of the Countess DeMirac, entered the room. 

The surprise had its effect; Luttra was evidently for the moment thrownoff her guard. 

"Mrs. Daniels!" she breathed, holding out her hands with a longinggesture. 

"My dear mistress!" returned that good woman, taking those hands in hersbut in a respectful way that proved the constraint imposed upon her byMr. Blake's presence. "Do I see you again and safe?"

"You must have thought I cared little for the anxiety you would be sureto feel, " said that fair young mistress, gazing with earnestness intothe glad but tearful eyes of the housekeeper. "But indeed, I havebeen in no position to communicate with you, nor could I do so withoutrisking that to protect which I so outraged my feelings as to leave thehouse at all. I mean the life and welfare of its master, Mrs. Daniels. "

"Ha, what is that?" quoth Mr. Blake. "It was to save me, you consentedto follow them?"

"Yes; what else would have led me to such an action? They might havekilled me, I would not have cared, but when they began to utter threatsagainst you--"

"Mrs. Blake, " exclaimed Mrs. Daniels, catching hold of her mistress'suplifted hand, and pointing to a scar that slightly disfigured her whitearm a little above the wrist, "Mrs. Blake, what's that?"

A pink flush, the first I had seen on her usually pale countenance, rosefor an instant to her cheeks, and she seemed to hesitate. 

"It was not there when I last saw you, Mrs. Blake. "

"No, " was the slow reply, "I found myself forced that night to inflictupon myself a little wound. It is nothing, let it go. "

"No, Luttra I cannot let it go, " said her husband, advancing towards herwith something like gentle command. "I must hear not only about this butall the other occurrences of that night. How came they to find you inthe refuge you had attained?"

"I think, " said she in a low tone the underlying suffering of whichit would be hard to describe, "that it was not to seek me they firstinvaded your house. They had heard you were a rich man, and the sightof that ladder running up the side of the new extension was too much forthem. Indeed I know that it was for purposes of robbery they came, forthey had hired this room opposite you some days previous to making theattempt. You see they were almost destitute of money and though they hadsome buried in the cellar of the old house in Vermont, they dared notleave the city to procure it. My brother was obliged to do so later, however. It was a surprise to them seeing me in your house. They hadreached the roof of the extension and were just lifting up the corner ofthe shade I had dropped across the open window--I always open my windowa few minutes before preparing to retire--when I rose from the chair inwhich I had been brooding, and turned up the gas. I was combing my hairat the time and so of course they recognized me. Instantly they gavea secret signal I, alas, remembered only too well, and crouching back, bade me put out the light that they might enter with safety. I was atfirst too much startled to realize the consequences of my action, andwith some vague idea that they had discovered my retreat and come forpurposes of advice or assistance, I did what they bid. Immediately theythrew back the shade and came in, their huge figures looming frightfullyin the faint light made by a distant gas lamp in the street below. 'What do you want?' were my first words uttered in a voice I scarcelyrecognized for my own; 'why do you steal on me like this in the nightand through an open window fifty feet from the ground? Aren't you afraidyou will be discovered and sent back to the prison from which you haveescaped?' Their reply sent a chill through my blood and awoke me to arealization of what I had done in thus allowing two escaped convictsto enter a house not my own. 'We want money and we're not afraid ofanything now you are here. ' And without heeding my exclamation ofhorror, they coolly told me that they would wait where they were tillthe household was asleep, when they would expect me to show them the wayto the silver closet or what was better, the safe or wherever it was Mr. Blake kept his money. I saw they took me for a servant, as indeed I was, and for some minutes I managed to preserve that position in their eyes. But when in a sudden burst of rage at my refusal to help them, theypushed me aside and hurried to the door with the manifest intention ofgoing below, I forgot prudence in my fears and uttered some wildappeal to them not to do injury to any one in the house for it was myhusband's. Of course that disclosure had its natural effect. 

"They stopped, but only to beset me with questions till the whole truthcame out. I could not have committed a worse folly than thus taking theminto my confidence. Instantly the advantages to be gained by using mysecret connection with so wealthy a man for the purpose of cowering meand blackmailing him, seemed to strike both their minds at once, slowas they usually are to receive impressions. The silver-closet andmoney-safe sank to a comparatively insignificant position in their eyes, and to get me out of the house, and with my happiness at stake, treatwith the honorable man who notwithstanding his non-approval of me as awoman, still regarded me as his lawfully wedded wife, became in theireyes a thing of such wonderful promise they were willing to run any andevery risk to test its value. But here to their great astonishmentI rebelled; astonishment because they could not realize my desiringanything above money and the position to which they declared I was bylaw entitled. In vain I pleaded my love; in vain I threatened exposureof their plans if not whereabouts. The mine of gold which they fondlybelieved they had stumbled upon unawares, promised too richly to beeasily abandoned. 'You must go with us, ' said they, 'if not peaceablythen by force, ' and they actually advanced upon me, upsetting a chairand tearing down one of the curtains to which I clung. It was then Icommitted that little act concerning which you questioned me. I wantedto show them I was not to be moved by threats of that character; that Idid not even fear the shedding of my blood; and that they would only bewasting their time in trying to sway me by hints of personal violence. And they were a little impressed, sufficiently so at least to turn theirthreats in another direction, awakening fears at last which I could notconceal, much as I felt it would be policy to do so. Gathering up a fewarticles I most prized, my wedding ring, Mr. Blake, and a photograph ofyourself that Mrs. Daniels had been kind enough to give me, I put on mybonnet and cloak and said I would go with them, since they persisted inrequiring it. The fact is I no longer possessed motive or strengthto resist. Even your unexpected appearance at the door, Mrs. Daniels, offered no prospect of hope. Arouse the house? what would that do?only reveal my cherished secret and perhaps jeopardize the life of myhusband. Besides, they were my own near kin, remember, and so had somelittle claim upon my consideration, at least to the point of my notpersonally betraying them unless they menaced immediate and actual harm. The escape by the window which would have been a difficult task for mostwomen to perform, was easy enough for me. I was brought up to wildways you know, and the descent of a ladder forty feet long was acomparatively trivial thing for me to accomplish. It was the tearingaway from a life of silent peace, the reentrance of my soul into anatmosphere of sin and deadly plotting, that was the hard thing, thedifficult dreadful thing which hung weights to my feet, and made mewell nigh mad. And it was this which at the sight of a policeman in thestreet led me to make an effort to escape. But it was not successful. Though I was fortunate enough to free myself from the grasp of my fatherand brother, I reached the gate on ----- street only to encounter theeyes of him whose displeasure I most feared, looking sternly upon mefrom the other side. The shock was too much for me in my then weak andunnerved condition. Without considering anything but the fact that henever had known and never must, that I had been in the same house withhim for so long, I rushed back to the corner and into the arms of themen who awaited me. How you came to be there, Mr. Blake, or why you didnot open the gate and follow, I cannot say. "

"The gate was locked, " returned that gentleman. "You remember it closeswith a spring, and can only be opened by means of a key which I did nothave. "

"My father had it, " she murmured; "he spent a whole week in the endeavorto get hold of it, and finally succeeded on the evening of the very dayhe used it. It was left in the lock I believe. "

"So much for servants, " I whispered to myself. 

"The next morning, " continued she, "they put the case very plainlybefore me. I was at liberty to return at once to my home if I wouldpromise to work in their interest by making certain demands upon you asyour wife. All they wanted, said they, was a snug little sum and a liftout of the country. If I would secure them these, they would trouble meno more. But I could not concede to anything of that nature, of course, and the consequence was these long weeks of imprisonment and suspense;weeks that I do not now begrudge, seeing they have brought me theassurance of your esteem and the knowledge, that wherever I go, yourthoughts will follow me with compassion if not with love. "

And having told her story and thus answered his demands, she assumedonce more the position of lofty reserve that seemed to shut him backfrom advance like a wall of invincible crystal. 

CHAPTER XX. THE BOND THAT UNITES

But he was not to be discouraged. "And after all this, after all youhave suffered for my sake and your own, do you think you have a right todeny me the one desire of my heart? How can you reconcile it with yourideas of devotion, Luttra?"

"My ideas of devotion look beyond the present, Mr. Blake. It is to saveyou from years of wearing anxiety that I consent to the infliction uponyou of a passing pang. "

He took a bold step forward. "Luttra, you do not know a man's heart. Tolose you now would not merely inflict a passing pang, but sow the seedsof a grief that would go with me to the grave. "

"Do you then"--she began, but paused blushing. Mrs. Daniels took theopportunity to approach her on the other side. 

"My dear mistress, " said she, "you are wrong to hold out in thismatter. " And her manner betrayed something of the peculiar agitationthat had belonged to it in the former times of her secret embarassment. "I, who have honored the family which I have so long served, above everyother in the land, tell you that you can do it no greater good thanto join it now, or inflict upon it any greater harm than to wilfullywithdraw yourself from the position in which God has placed you. "

"And I, " said another voice, that of the Countess de Mirac, who up tothis time had held herself in the background, but who now came forwardand took her place with the rest, "I, who have borne the name of Blake, and who am still the proudest of them all at heart, I, the Countess deMirac, cousin to your husband there, repeat what this good woman hassaid, and in holding out my hand to you, ask you to make my cousin happyand his family contented by assuming that position in his householdwhich the law as well as his love accords you. "

The girl looked at the daintily gloved hand held out to her, coloredfaintly, and put her own within it. 

"I thank you for your goodness, " said she, surveying with half-sad, half-admiring glances, the somewhat pale face of the beautiful brunette. 

"And you will yield to our united requests?" She cast her eye down atthe spot where her father and brother had cowered in their shackles, andshook her head. "I dare not, " said she. 

Immediately Mrs. Daniels, whose emotion had been increasing every momentsince she last spoke, plunged her hand into her bosom and drew out afolded paper. 

"Mrs. Blake, " said she, "if you could be convinced that what I have toldyou was true, and that you would be irretrievably injuring your husbandand his interests, by persisting in that desertion of him which yourpurpose, would you not consent to reconsider your determination, settledas it appears to be?"

"If I could be made to see that, most certainly, " returned she in a lowvoice whose broken accents betrayed at what cost she remained true toher resolve. "But I cannot. "

"Perhaps the sight of this paper will help you, " said she. And turningto Mr. Blake she exclaimed, "Your pardon for what I am called upon todo. A duty has been laid upon me which I cannot avoid, hard as it is foran old servant to perform. This paper--but it is no more than just thatyou, sir, should see and read it first. " And with a hand that quiveredwith fear or some equally strong emotion, she put it in his clasp. 

The exclamation that rewarded the act made us all start forward. "Myfather's handwriting!" were his words. 

"Executed under my eye, " observed Mrs. Daniels. 

His glance ran rapidly down the sheet and rested upon the finalsignature. 

"Why has this been kept from me?" demanded he, turning upon Mrs. Danielswith sternness. 

"Your father so willed it, " was her reply. "'For a year' was hiscommand, 'you shall keep this my last will and testament which I giveinto your care with my dying hands, a secret from the world. At theexpiration of that time mark if my son's wife sits at the head of herhusband's table; if she does and is happy, suppress this by deliberatelygiving it to the flames, but if from any reason other than death, she isnot seen there, carry it at once to my son, and bid him as he honorsmy memory, to see that my wishes as there expressed are at once carriedout. '"

The paper in Mr. Blake's hand fluttered. 

"You are aware what those wishes are?" said he. 

"I steadied his hand while he wrote, " was her sad and earnest reply. 

Mr. Blake turned with a look of inexpressible deference to his wife. 

"Madame, " said he "when I urged you with such warmth to join yourfate to mine and honor my house by presiding over it, I thought I wasinviting you to share the advantages of wealth as well as the love ofa lonely man's heart. This paper undeceives me. Luttra, thedaughter-in-law of Abner Blake, not Holman, his son, is the one whoby the inheritance of his millions has the right to command in thispresence. "

With a cry she took from him the will whose purport was thus brieflymade known. "O, how could he, how could he?" exclaimed she, running hereye down the sheet, and then crushing it spasmodically to her breast. "Did he not realize that he could do me no greater wrong?" Then in oneyielding up of her whole womanhood to the mighty burst of passion thathad been flooding the defenses of her heart for so long, she exclaimedin a voice the mingled rapture and determination of which rings in myears even now, "And is it a thing like this with its suggestions ofmercenary interest that shall bridge the gulf that separates you and me?Shall the giving or the gaining of a fortune make necessary the unitalof lives over which holier influences have beamed and loftier hopesshone? No, no; by the smile with which your dying father took me to hisbreast, love alone, with the hope and confidence it gives, shall be thebond to draw us together and make of the two separate planes on which westand, a common ground where we can meet and be happy. "

And with one supreme gesture she tore into pieces the will which sheheld, and sank all aglow with woman's divinest joy into the arms heldout to receive her. 

 * * * * *

I was present at the wedding-reception given them by the Countess DeMirac in her elegant apartments at the Windsor. I never saw a happierbride, nor a husband in whose eyes burned a deeper contentment. To allquestions as to who this extraordinary woman could be, where she wasfound, and in what place and at what time she was married, the Countesshad apt replies whose art of hushing curiosity without absolutelysatisfying it, was one of the tokens she yet preserved, of her shortsway as grand lady, in the gayest and most hollow city of the world. 

As I prepared to leave a scene perhaps the most gratifying in manyrespects that I had ever witnessed, I felt a slight touch on my arm. Itcame from Mrs. Blake who with her husband had crossed the room to bid mefarewell. 

"Will you allow me to thank you, " said she, "for the risk you ran forme one day and of which I have just heard. It was an act that merits thegratitude of years, and as such shall be always remembered by me. Ifthe old French artist with the racking cough ever desires a favor at myhands, let him feel free to ask it. The interest I experienced in him inthe days of my trouble, will suffer no abatement in these of my joy andprosperity. " And with a look that was more than words, she gave me aflower from the bouquet she held in her hand, and smilingly withdrew.