uickly and were now at the threshold of the door by which
we had come out.

"Mr. Ashley," I continued, "I shall have to ask you to add to your
former favors that of showing me the young lady in whom, from this
moment on, we are especially interested. If you can manage to let me see
her first without her seeing me, I shall be infinitely obliged to you."

"I do not know where she is. I shall have to search for her."

"I will wait by the hall door."

In a few minutes he returned to me. "Come," said he, and led me into
what I judged to be the library.

With a gesture toward one of the windows, he backed quickly out, leaving
me to face the situation alone. I was rather glad of this. Glancing in
the direction he had indicated, and perceiving the figure of a young
lady standing with her back to me on the farther side of a flowing lace
curtain, I took a few steps toward her, hoping that the movement would
cause her to turn. But it entirely failed to produce this effect, nor
did she give any sign that she noted the intrusion. This prevented me
from catching the glimpse of her face which I so desired, and obliged me
to confine myself to a study of her dress and attitude.

The former was very elegant, more elegant than the appearance of her two
friends had led me to expect. Though I am far from being an authority on
feminine toilets, I yet had experience enough to know that those
sweeping folds of spotless satin, with their festoons of lace and loops
of shiny trimming, which it would be folly for me to attempt to
describe, represented not only the best efforts of the dressmaker's art,
but very considerable means on the part of the woman wearing such a
gown. This was a discovery which altered the complexion of my thoughts
for a moment; for I had presupposed her a girl of humble means, willing
to sacrifice certain scruples to obtain a little extra money. This
imposing figure might be that of a millionaire's daughter; how then
could I associate her, even in my own mind, with theft? I decided that I
must see her face before giving answer to these doubts.

She did not seem inclined to turn. She had raised the shade from before
the wintry panes and was engaged in looking out. Her attitude was not
that of one simply enjoying a moment's respite from the dance. It was
rather that of an absorbed mind brooding upon what gave little or no
pleasure; and as I further gazed and noted the droop of her lovely
shoulders and the languor visib