e thought necessary, we were turning
towards the door when Miss Oliver whispered:

"Wait for me in the carriage for just a few minutes. I have one more
thing to buy, and I must do it alone."

"But----" I began.

"I will do it, and I will not be followed," she insisted, in a shrill
tone that made me jump.

And seeing no other way of preventing a scene, I let her leave me,
though it cost me an anxious fifteen minutes.

When she rejoined me, as she did at the expiration of that time, I eyed
the bundle she held with decided curiosity. But I could make no guess at
its contents.

"Now," she cried, as she reseated herself and closed the carriage door,
"where shall I find a dressmaker able and willing to make up this satin
in five days?"

I could not tell her. But after some little search we succeeded in
finding a woman who engaged to make an elegant costume in the time given
her. The first measurements were taken, and we drove back to Ninth
Street with a lasting memory in my mind of the cold and rigid form of
Miss Oliver standing up in Madame's triangular parlor, submitting to the
mechanical touches of the modiste with an outward composure, but with a
brooding horror in her eyes that bespoke an inward torment.

XXXIX.

THE WATCHFUL EYE.

As I parted with Miss Oliver on Mrs. Desberger's stoop and did not visit
her again in that house, I will introduce the report of a person better
situated than myself to observe the girl during the next few days. That
the person thus alluded to was a woman in the service of the police is
evident, and as such may not meet with your approval, but her words are
of interest, as witness:

* * * * *

"Friday P.M.

"Party went out to-day in company with an elderly female of respectable
appearance. Said elderly female wears puffs, and moves with great
precision. I say this in case her identification should prove necessary.

"I had been warned that Miss O. would probably go out, and as the man
set to watch the front door was on duty, I occupied myself during her
absence in making a neat little hole in the partitions between our two
rooms, so that I should not be obliged to offend my next-door neighbor
by too frequent visits to her apartment. This done, I awaited her
return, which was delayed till it was almost dark. When she did come in,
her arms were full of bundles. These she thrust into a bureau-drawer,
with the exception of one, which she lai