ybe we shall understand it later. Some ciphers,
you know, are to be read only in connection with something else; I
think this is such a one. Let's put it away and take up something that
I know you can help me with.

"That faded card"--I pointed to it lying upon the table, and noted that
her face instantly grew grave--"why did you start so when you first
looked at it--just as we heard Burke on the porch?"

She regarded me steadily.

"Mr. Swift, that is my aunt's handwriting--her name."

"Do you mean Mrs. Fluette?" I was in truth unprepared for this blunt
announcement.

"Yes," she replied simply.

I believe the first effect of this disclosure was no more than an
uneasy, apprehensive feeling; but in a flash the possibilities entailed
began to occur to me, and I was left groping for words.

During the silence that followed I vainly tried to arrange my thoughts;
the color slowly faded from Miss Cooper's face, and by and by she
averted it from mine. I knew that our minds were working in parallel
currents; I knew without looking at her that she was anxious and
trembling.

At last I secured a grip upon myself, and I addressed her with decision.

"You believe I will do what is right, do you not?"

"Yes," she murmured, without looking up.

"Then I fear that our pact is to be short-lived, after all. This
cursed tragedy is twining its tentacles nearer home than either of us
dreamt of."

What, in the bitterness of my own reflections, was I allowing myself to
say! I silently cursed myself for a blundering fool. The girl's gray
face, the pinched look of it, frightened me. I started from my chair.

"Miss Cooper!"

For her head had dropped forward upon one curved arm, and she was
shaken by a storm of tears.

CHAPTER XIII

DISCLOSURES

After some minutes of miserable waiting on my part, the storm spent
itself; she sat upright again, dried her eyes upon a bit of
handkerchief, and spoke--quite calmly, but terribly in earnest.

"Mr. Swift, I know what your inference is--that Uncle Alfred must be in
some way involved--but you don't know all the significance of the flash
of understanding that so overwhelmed me. The idea that there could
ever have been a love affair between Aunt Clara and Mr. Page is
astounding enough"--she glanced at the card--"eighteen fifty-seven:
why, she was only a mere slip of a girl then; much younger than I am
now!"

It was patent that the revelation had startled and thrilled he