hat of the door I had once
endeavored to pass. Oh, the rush of feeling overwhelming me as I held
it in my hand! Would he miss it if I carried it off? Would I be able to
return to the house, see what I wanted to see, and get back in time to
restore it before he wanted his vest? It was early yet, and he was very
busy; I might succeed, and if I failed, and he detected his loss, why I
alone would be the sufferer; and was I not a sufferer now? Dropping the
key into my pocket, I went back into the outer room, and leaving word
that I had remembered a little shopping which would take me again up
town, I left the building and returned to ------ Street. My emotions
were indescribable, but I preserved as sedate an appearance as possible,
and was able to account for my return in a natural enough way to Ambrose
when he opened the door for me. To brave his possible curiosity by going
up-stairs, required a still greater effort; but the thought that my
intentions were pure and my daring legitimate, sustained me in the
ordeal, and I ran, singing, up the first flight, glad that Ambrose
had no better ear for music than to be pleased with what he probably
considered an evidence of happiness on the part of his young mistress.

I was out of breath with suspense, as well as with my rapid movements,
when I reached the shut-in staircase and carefully unlocked its narrow
door. But by the time I had reached the fourth floor, and unlocked, with
the same key, the only other door that had a streak of light under it,
I had gained a certain degree of tense composure born of the desperate
nature of the occasion. The calmness with which I pushed open the door
proved this--a calmness which made the movement noiseless, which was the
reason, I suppose, why I was enabled to suppress the shriek that rose
to my lips as I saw that the room had occupants, and that my worst fears
were thus realized.

A woman was sitting, with her back to me, at a table, and before her,
with her face turned my way, was a young girl in whom, even at first
glance, I detected some likeness to myself. Was this why Mr. Allison's
countenance expressed so much agitation when he first saw me? The next
moment this latter lifted her head and looked directly at me, but with
no change in her mobile features; at which token of blindness I almost
fell on my knees, so conclusively did it prove that I was really looking
upon Mrs. Ransome and her daughter.

The mother, who had been directing he