the
grounds, and I was about to approach you, I saw this same person greet
you, seemingly, and walk on in your company. It made a coward of me. I
dared not approach in the face of a friend of yours whom I had treated
as an impostor.'

'How do you mean?'

'I mean that I doubted the person, and refused to give her the bag.'
And I hurriedly made confession, telling her how at last I was forced
to read first her friend's letter and then her own, in order to learn
her name, and that then her address was still a mystery. 'I had but
one chance of finding you,' I concluded. 'You had informed your friend
that your apartments were conveniently near the Fifty-seventh Street
entrance.'

'Oh! Indeed!' I had seen the quick colour flash into her face at my
mention of the letters, and of having read them, and the restraint was
once more evident in face and voice when she said:

'I thank you, sir; but the contents of the bag--it was hardly worth
the trouble you have taken to restore it--that is----'

'I have it with me, Miss Jenrys, and when I am sure that we are not
under surveillance I will place it in your hands; and now I owe it to
myself to make my own conduct in this affair and my present position
clearer. At first it was with me a simple matter of returning a lost
article to a lady. Failing to overtake you, I might perhaps have
turned it over to some guard but for the interference of the brunette,
who at once put me on the defensive and aroused my suspicion. It
somehow seemed to me that the young person was more than commonly
anxious to possess your bag, and then it occurred to me that the bag
might contain something or some information that she especially wished
to possess. My interest was aroused, and then I took the liberty of
examining your bag, and having done so, I determined at least to
attempt to return it to you, and to ask you to pardon the liberty I
had taken with your correspondence.'

'I suppose anyone would have done the same,' she said, rather coldly.
'What I do not comprehend is why you did not return the bag to me in
the presence of this person, of whom you might have warned me.'

'It is that which I am about to explain,' I replied gravely. 'And I
must, for the sake of others whose interests I represent, ask you to
regard what I am now about to tell you as a confidence made necessary
because of the circumstances. Miss Jenrys, the card in your hand bears
my real name, but few know me by it, because I so