to you in connection with his unusual awkwardness?
Don't you remember what we were talking of at the time?'

'No,' replied Clara, and she paused with her bodice half pulled over her
lovely shoulders, and a slow wonder on her beautiful, placid face.

'Well, Gladys was telling us at the very moment about the disappearance
of this Hepburn girl, as you call her, and I happened to be looking at
Cousin George while she was speaking, and, Clara, I can't for the life
of me help thinking he knows something about it.'

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Mina saw that she had
made a profound mistake. The red colour leaped into her sister's face,
dyeing even the curves of her stately throat.

'I think you are a wicked, uncharitable girl, Mina,' she said, with icy
coldness. 'I wonder you are not ashamed to have such a thought for a
moment. I only beg of you not to let it go any further. It may do more
harm than you think.'

So saying, Clara gathered up all her wraps and marched off to her own
room, leaving her sister feeling rather hurt and humiliated, though not
in the least convinced that she had simply given rein to an uncharitable
imagination. Mina was indeed so much troubled that she went off her
sleep--a most unusual experience for her; and the morning failed to
banish, as it often benignly banishes, the misgivings of the night.

Once more Gladys made a pilgrimage to the old home where Walter dwelt
alone, working early and late, the monotony of his toil only brightened
by one constant hope. It was a strange existence for the lad on the
threshold of his young manhood, and many who knew something of his way
of life wondered at the steady and dogged persistence with which he
pursued his avocation. He appeared to have reached, while yet not much
past his boyhood, the grave, passionless calm which comes to most men
only after they have outlived the passion of their youth. He was
regarded as a sharp, hard-working young man, with a keen eye for
business, and honourable and just, but conspicuously hard to deal
with--one whose word was as his bond, and who, being so absolutely
reliable himself, suffered no equivocation or crooked dealings in
others. By slow but certain degrees he had extricated himself from the
strange network which old Abel Graham had woven about the business, and
established it upon the basis of sound, straightforward dealing. The old
customers, in spite of certain advantages the new system offered,