s of some one smothering a
cough, and pursuing it, found himself at the boundary of the grounds.
Here a thick hedge of osage orange barred egress, and he saw the woman
disentangling her drapery from the thorns that had seized it.

Springing forward, he exclaimed,--

"Stand still! You can not escape me. Who are you?"

A feigned and lugubrious voice answered,--

"I am the restless spirit of Elsie Maclean, come back to guard her
grave."

In another instant he was at her side, and laying his hand on the
white netted shawl with which she was veiling her features, he tore it
away, and Salome's fair face looked defiantly at him.

"If I had known that my pursuer was Dr. Grey, I would not have
troubled myself to play the ghost farce, for of course I could not
expect to frighten you off; but I hoped you were one of the servants,
who would not very diligently chase a spectre. I did not suppose that
you could be coaxed or driven thus far from your arm-chair beside the
bed where Mrs. Gerome is asleep."

Astonishment kept him silent for some seconds, and, in the awkward
pause, the girl laughed constrainedly--nervously.

"After all your show of bravery in pursuing a woman, I verily believe
you are too much frightened to arrest me if I chose to escape."

"Salome, has something terrible happened at home, that you have come
here at midnight to break to me?"

"Nothing has happened at home."

"Then why are you here? Are you, too, delirious?"

Her scornful laugh rang startlingly on the still night air.

"Oh, Salome! You grieve, you shock me!"

"Yes, Dr. Grey, you have assured me of that fact too frequently--too
feelingly--to permit me to doubt your sincerity. You need not repeat
it; I accept the assertion that you are shocked at my indiscretions."

Compassion predominated over displeasure, as he observed the utter
recklessness that pervaded her tone and manner.

"I am unwilling to believe that you would, without some very cogent
reason, violate all decorum by coming alone at dead of night two miles
through a dreary stretch of hills and woods. Necessity sometimes
sanctions an infraction of the rules of rigid propriety, and I am
impatient to hear your defence of this most extraordinary caprice."

She was endeavoring to disengage the fringe of her shawl from the
hedge, but finding it a tedious operation, she caught her drapery in
both hands and tore it away from the thorns, leaving several shreds
hanging on the prickly bou