?"

"He always slept here of late."

"Where did you see him last?"

"I let him into the works."

"When?"

"I should think about seven o'clock."

"Did you let him out again?"

"No, Mr. Ransome."

"Perhaps you might, and not recollect. Pray think."

The porter shook his head.

"Are you sure you did not let him out?"

"I am quite sure of that."

"Then the Lord have mercy on his soul!"

CHAPTER XXXIII.

That was Grace Carden's first anonymous letter. Its contents curdled
her veins with poison. The poor girl sat pale and benumbed, turning the
letter in her hand, and reading the fatal words over and over again.

There was a time when she would have entirely disbelieved this slander;
but now she remembered, with dismay, how many things had combined to
attach Henry to Jael Dence. And then the letter stated such hard facts;
facts unknown to her, but advanced positively.

But what terrified her most was that Henry had so lately told her Jael
Dence loved him best.

Yet her tossed and tortured mind laid hold of this comfort, that not the
man only, but the woman too, were loyal, faithful spirits. Could they
both have changed? Appearances are deceitful, and might have deceived
this anonymous writer.

After hours of mere suffering, she began to ask herself what she should
do?

Her first feminine impulse was to try and find out the truth without
Henry's aid.

But no; on second thoughts she would be open and loyal, show Henry the
letter, and ask him to tell her how much truth, if any, there was in it.

The agony she endured was a lesson to her. Now she knew what jealousy
was; and saw at once she could not endure its torments. She thought to
herself he was quite right to make her dismiss Mr. Coventry, and he must
dismiss Jael; she should insist on it.

This resolution formed, she lived on thorns, awaiting Henry Little's
next visit.

He came next day, but she was out.

She asked the servant if he had said anything.

The servant said, "He seemed a good deal put out at first, miss, but
afterward he said, 'No, it was all for the best.'"

This was another blow. Grace connected these words of Henry in some
mysterious way with the anonymous letter, and spent the night crying:
but in the morning, being a brave, high-spirited girl, she resolved to
take a direct course; she would go down to the works, and request an
explanation on the premises. She would see the room where Henry was said
to pass so many