se hectic changes, and
to tremble for the health of his child.

"I am sick of this crowded place, of these sophisticated people, papa. I
shall die here. Let me return to the country."

Frightened at the daily alteration in her appearance, the Captain
promised to grant her request. Her aunt gave a large party the night
before they were to leave town; and Juliet, to please her kind relative,
exerted herself to the utmost to appear in good spirits.

"There has been a shocking murder committed in your neighborhood, Miss
Whitmore," said the officer, with whom she had been dancing, as he led
her to a seat. "Have you seen the papers?"

"No," said Juliet, carelessly. "I seldom read these accounts. They are
so shocking; and we read them too much as matters of mere amusement and
idle curiosity, without reflecting sufficiently upon the awful guilt
which they involve."

"This is a very dreadful business indeed. I thought you might know
something of the parties."

"Not very likely. We lead such a secluded life at the Lodge, that we are
strangers to most of the people in the neighborhood."

"You have heard of the eccentric miser, Mark Hurdlestone?"

"Who has not?" and Juliet started, and turned pale. "Surely he has not
been murdered?"

"Yes; and by his own son."

"His son? Oh, not by his son! His nephew, you mean?"

"His son. Anthony Hurdlestone. The heir of his immense wealth."

He spoke to a cold ear. Juliet had fainted.

How did that dreadful night pass over the hapless maiden? It did pass,
however, and on the morrow she was far on her journey home.

"I never thought he could be guilty of a crime like this," said the
Captain to his sister as she sat opposite to him in his travelling
carriage. His arm encircled the slender waist of his daughter, and her
pale cheek rested on his shoulder. But no tear hung in the long, dark,
drooping eyelashes of his child. Juliet was stunned; but she had not
wept.

"He is not guilty," she cried, in a passionate voice. "I know and feel
that he is not guilty. Remember Mary Mathews--how strong the
circumstantial evidence against him in that case. Yet he was
innocent--innocent, poor Anthony!"

The Captain, who felt the most tender sympathy for the state of mind
into which this afflicting news had thrown his child, was willing to
soothe, if possible, her grief.

"If he is innocent it will be proved on the trial, Julee darling. We
will hope for the best."

"It will be proved," said