re, yo' know. And yo'
kain't nebber look on his face no mo', fer Doctor Platt say he was
gettin' dang'ous an' might hurt somebuddy, so he 'suaded Missis
Ellsworth to fasten him up in a 'sylum way off yonder, an' him'll nebber
come home no mo'!"

CHAPTER XXXVII.

A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.

Fortune had indeed seemed to favor Mrs. Ellsworth.

Nearly nine months had passed since her step-son's attempted murder; and
though his bodily health seemed good, no change for the better had taken
place in his mental condition.

Another very pleasing fact was that Dainty Chase had never turned up
again to annoy her with assertions of a secret marriage, to which she
could produce no proof but her simple word. She wondered in her secret
mind what had become of the girl, for her nieces were too prudent to
confess to her the crime by which they supposed their beautiful cousin
to have perished.

They suspected that while glad to have the girl out of the way, she
might feel squeamish over downright murder.

So they decided that it was just as well not to tell her that they had
tracked the hapless girl to the negro cabin, and having seen her fall
senseless on the floor, had fired the ramshackle old place in front of
both doors and fled.

As the cabin had burned completely to the ground, they supposed that
their victim had perished in the flames; but their guilty consciences
had never permitted them to venture near the _debris_ to see if her
charred bones remained a mute witness of their awful deed.

As the winter wore away and no more was heard of Dainty or her mother,
they confidently looked on the girl as dead; but if their consciences
reproached them for their sin, they allowed no sign of it to appear on
their careless faces as they plunged into every gayety offered by their
new position. The winter had been an epoch in their hitherto
poverty-stricken lives, and they made the most of it, Mrs. Ellsworth
giving them a lavish allowance, and permitting them to travel with
friends wherever they chose.

Thus they had had a trip to California in December, and on returning in
February had been given glimpses of the gay season in New York and
Washington before returning in March to silent, gloomy Ellsworth, where
the mistress had remained inflexibly on guard over her step-son, lest
the doctors, peradventure, should do something to restore his mind.

"That meddlesome old Doctor Platt keeps on hoping for something to
happen. The