house
on the corner where old Morgan's shop used to stand."

"That's the new police station. West Lynne I assure you, is becoming
grand in public buildings. And how have you been, Richard?"

"Ailing and wretched," answered Richard Hare. "How can I be otherwise,
Mr. Carlyle, with so false an accusation attached to me; and working
like a slave, as I have to do?"

"You may take off the disfiguring hat, Richard. No one is here."

Richard slowly heaved it from his brows, and his fair face, so like
his mother's, was disclosed. But the moment he was uncovered he turned
shrinkingly toward the entrance door. "If any one should come in, sir?"

"Impossible!" replied Mr. Carlyle. "The front door is fast, and the
office is supposed to be empty at this hour."

"For if I should be seen and recognized, it might come to hanging, you
know, sir. You are expecting that cursed Thorn here, Barbara told me."

"Directly," replied Mr. Carlyle, observing the mode of addressing him
"sir." It spoke plainly of the scale of society in which Richard had
been mixing; that he was with those who said it habitually; nay, that
he used it habitually himself. "From your description of the Lieutenant
Thorn who destroyed Hallijohn, we believe this Captain Thorn to be the
same man," pursued Mr. Carlyle. "In person he appears to tally exactly;
and I have ascertained that a few years ago he was a deal at Swainson,
and got into some sort of scrape. He is in John Herbert's regiment, and
is here with him on a visit."

"But what an idiot he must be to venture here!" uttered Richard. "Here
of all places in the world!"

"He counts, no doubt, on not being known. So far as I can find out,
Richard, nobody here did know him, save you and Afy. I shall put you
in Mr. Dill's room--you may remember the little window in it--and from
thence you can take a full view of Thorn, whom I shall keep in the front
office. You are sure you would recognize him at this distance of time?"

"I should know him if it were fifty years to come; I should know him
were he disguised as I am disguised. We cannot," Richard sank his voice,
"forget a man who has been the object of our frenzied jealousy."

"What has brought you to East Lynne again, Richard? Any particular
object?"

"Chiefly a hankering within me that I could not get rid of," replied
Richard. "It was not so much to see my mother and Barbara--though I did
want that, especially since my illness--as that a feeling was within m