ry miserable.

"I know of but one thing to do," he remarked. "To-morrow I shall call
upon Mrs. Couldock and Miss Dawes and entreat them to tell me if for any
reason they undertook to deliver a letter mysteriously left in the Bible
of the ---- Hotel one day last month. They may have been deputed to do
so, and be quite willing to acknowledge it."

"And Mrs. Walworth? Will you not ask her the same question?"

He shook his head and turned away.

"Very well," said I to myself, "then I will."

CHAPTER II.

Accordingly, the next day I called upon Mrs. Walworth. She lived, as I
already knew, in a small and unpretentious house just on the verge of
our most fashionable quarter. But there was great taste displayed in the
furnishing of that house, and I was not at all surprised to see
evidences here and there of a poverty which the general effect tended to
make you forget. I was fortunate enough to find her in, and still more
fortunate to find her alone, but my courage fell as I confronted her,
for she has one of those appealing faces that equally interest and
baffle you, making you feel that unless your errand be one of peace and
comfort, you had better not confront so tremulous a mouth and so tender
a hazel eye. But I had steeled myself against too much sympathy when I
entered her presence, so barely pausing to make my most ingratiating
bow, I took her by the hand, and gently forcing her to stand for a
moment where the light from the one window fell full upon her face, I
said:

"You must pardon my intrusion upon you at a time when you are naturally
busy, but there is something you can do for me that will rid me of a
great anxiety. You remember being in ---- Hotel one morning last month?"

She was looking quietly up at me, her lips parted, her eyes smiling and
expectant, but at the mention of that hotel I thought--and yet I may
have been mistaken--that a slight change took place in her expression,
if it was only that the glance grew more gentle and the smile more
marked.

But her voice when she answered was the same as that with which she had
uttered her greeting.

"I do not remember," she replied, "yet I may have been there; I go to so
many places. Why do you ask?" she inquired.

"Because if you were there on that morning--and I have been told you
were--you may be able to solve a question that is greatly perplexing
me."

Still the same gentle inquiring look on her face, only now there was a
little furrow o