are the woman whom I have
longed and travailed the most to see. But you were invisible; a being
to be heard of, not seen."

"There have been days, madam," returned she, "when I was to be seen,
and when there were few to be seen like me. But since that time there
have indeed been days on which I was not to be seen. My crimes have
been great, but my sufferings have been greater. So great that neither
you nor the world can ever either know or conceive them. I hope they
will be taken into account by the Most High. Mine have been crimes of
utter desperation. But whom am I speaking to? You had better leave me
to myself, mistress."

"Leave you to yourself? That I will be loth to do till you tell me
where you were that night my young master was murdered."

"Where the devil would, I was! Will that suffice you? Ah, it was a vile
action! A night to be remembered that was! Won't you be going? I want
to trust my daughter with a commission."

"No, Mrs. Calvert, you and I part not till you have divulged that
mystery to me."

"You must accompany me to the other world, then, for you shall not have
it in this."

"If you refuse to answer me, I can have you before a tribunal, where
you shall be sifted to the soul."

"Such miserable inanity! What care I for your threatenings of a
tribunal? I who must soon stand before my last earthly one? What could
the word of such a culprit avail? Or, if it could, where is the judge
that could enforce it?"

"Did you not say that there was some mode of accommodating matters on
that score?"

"Yes, I prayed you to grant me my life, which is in your power. The
saving of it would not have cost you a plack, yet you refused to do it.
The taking of it will cost you a great deal, and yet to that purpose
you adhere. I can have no parley with such a spirit. I would not have
my life in a present from its motions, nor would I exchange courtesies
with its possessor."

"Indeed, Mrs. Calvert, since ever we met, I have been so busy thinking
about who you might be that I know not what you have been proposing. I
believe I meant to do what I could to save you But, once for all, tell
me everything that you know concerning that amiable young gentleman's
death, and here is my band there shall be nothing wanting that I can
effect for you."

"No I despise all barter with such mean and selfish curiosity; and, as
I believe that passion is stronger with you, than fear with me, we part
on equal terms. Do your worst;