k petticoat under it, and
when I observed that it hung below the other, as of course it would, I
went through the house till I came upon some pins with which I pinned it
up out of sight. Thus equipped, I was still a person to attract
attention, especially as I had no hat to put on; my own having fallen
from my head and been covered by the dead woman's body, which nothing
would induce me to move again.

"But I had confidence in my own powers to escape question, toned up as
I was in every nerve by the dreadfulness of my situation, and as soon as
I was in decent shape for flight, I opened the front door and prepared
to slip out.

"But here the intense dread I felt of my husband, a dread which had
actuated all my movements and sustained me in as harrowing a task as
ever woman performed, seized me with renewed force, and I quailed at the
prospect of entering the streets alone. Supposing he should be on the
stoop! Supposing he should be in an opposite window even! Could I
encounter him again and live? He was not far away, or so I felt. A
murderer, it is said, cannot help haunting the scene of his crime, and
if he should see me alive and well, what might I not expect from his
astonishment and alarm? I did not dare go out. But neither did I dare
remain, so after quaking for a good five minutes on the threshold, I
made one wild dash through the door.

"There was no one in sight, and I reached Broadway before I ran across
man or woman. Even then I got by without any one speaking to me, and,
favored by Providence, found a nook at the end of an alley-way, where I
remained undiscovered till it was late enough in the morning for me to
enter a shop and buy a hat.

"The rest of my movements are known. I found my way to Mrs. Desberger's,
this time without interruption; and from that place sought and found a
situation with Miss Althorpe.

"That her fate was in any way connected with mine, or that the Randolph
Stone she was engaged to marry was the John Randolph from whose clutches
I had just escaped, was, of course, unsuspected by me, and, incredible
as it may seem, continued to be unsuspected as long as I remained in the
house. There was reason for this. My duties were such as I could well
attend to in my own room, and feeling a horror of the world and
everything in it, I kept my room as much as possible, and never went out
of it when I knew that he was in the house. The very thought of love
awakened intolerable emotions in me, an