. It was a female figure.

The sight of this revived all that agitation which he had felt before,
but which had been calmed during the severe efforts which he had been
putting forth. There was but one thought in his mind, and but one
desire in his heart.

His wife.

He crouched low, with a more feverish dread of discovery at this
supreme moment, and a fiercer thirst for some further revelation which
might disclose what he suspected. His breathing came thick and hard,
and his brow lowered gloomily over his gleaming eyes.

He waited thus for some minutes, and the figure passed again.

He still watched.

Suddenly a figure appeared at the window. It was a young girl, a
blonde, with short golden curls. The face was familiar indeed to him.
Could he ever forget it? There it was full before him, turned toward
him, as though that one, by some strange spiritual sympathy, was aware
of his presence, and was thus turning toward him this mute appeal. Her
face was near enough for its expression to be visible. He could
distinguish the childish face, with its soft, sweet innocence, and he
knew that upon it there was now that piteous, pleading, beseeching
look which formerly had so thrilled his heart. And it was thus that
Dacres saw his child-angel.

A prisoner, turning toward him this appeal! What was the cause, and
what did the Italian want of this innocent child? Such was his
thought. What could his fiend of a wife gain by the betrayal of that
angelic being? Was it possible that even her demon soul could compass
iniquity like this? He had thought that he had fathomed her capacity
for malignant wickedness; but the presence here of the child-angel in
the power of these miscreants showed him that this capacity was indeed
unfathomable. At this sudden revelation of sin so enormous his very
soul turned sick with horror.

He watched, and still looked with an anxiety that was increasing to
positive pain.

And now, after one brief glance, Minnie drew back into the room. There
was nothing more to be seen for some time, but at last another figure
appeared.

He expected this; he was waiting for it; he was sure of it; yet deep
down in the bottom of his heart there was a hope that it might not be
so, that his suspicions, in this case at least, might be unfounded.
But now the proof came; it was made manifest here before his eyes, and
in the light of day.

In spite of himself a low groan escaped him. He buried his face in his
hands an