and the notion of
your making love to me, more than any thought of the wealth and luxury I
might get a share in, which made me consent to the plan.

"That sickness of Mrs. Legrand's between the seances--I am telling you
all, Paul--was only a sham, so that we might see how much in earnest you
were, and to get time for me to learn by heart all mother could teach me
about the Hilton of forty years ago and Miss Ludington's girlhood. There
were so many lists of names to be kept in mind, and school-room
incidents, picnics, and flirtations; but it was as interesting as a
romance, and being a Hilton girl, it did not take me long to make myself
as much at home with the last generation as with my own. Sometimes mother
would say to me, 'Ida, if I did not know that you are a good girl, and
would be good to Miss Ludington, I would not betray my old friend this
way. I would not do it for any one but you, and if I did not believe that
in deceiving her you would make her very happy--far happier than now.'

"I think, in spite of all, she was very fond of Miss Ludington, for she
made me promise, again and again, that I would be very good to her, as if
I could have helped being good to such a gentle, tender-hearted person as
she.

"You see, in our business, we had shown to so many sad people what they
believed to be the forms and faces of their dead friends, and had sent
them away comforted, that we had come to feel our frauds condoned by the
happiness they caused, and that we were, after all, doing good.

"As for you, Paul, mother had no scruples. She said that I was a good
girl, and any man was lucky to get me. I was not sure of that, but I knew
that any girl would be fortunate whom you loved. She had a dress cut for
me in the exact pattern of that in the picture--a very old-fashioned
pattern, but very becoming to me--and all was ready. You know the rest.

"I forgot to say that the reason the dress all fell to pieces the day
after I came here was that it had been treated with a chemical
preparation, which had completely rotted the texture of the cloth. Indeed
I had trouble to keep it together that first night. Father saw to this
part. He understands chemistry, and indeed, everything else except how to
make a living.

"There was no trap-door in the floor in Tenth Street, but the whole
ceiling of the cabinet was a trap-door, the edges hidden by the breadth
of the boards forming the partition which enclosed it. It rose on oiled
hing