el it!" Their voices dropped again; some new turn seemed to be taken
by the conversation. We heard the lady once more, shrill and joyful this
time. "There's a dear! You see it, don't you, in the right light? And
you haven't forgotten the old times, have you? You're the same dear,
honorable, kind-hearted fellow that you always were!"

I caught hold of Felicia, and put my hand over her mouth.

There was a sound in the next room which might have been--I cannot be
certain--the sound of a kiss. The next moment, we heard the door of the
room unlocked. Then the door of the house was opened, and the noise
of retreating carriage-wheels followed. We met him in the hall, as he
entered the house again.

My daughter walked up to him, pale and determined.

"I insist on knowing who that woman is, and what she wants here." Those
were her first words. He looked at her like a man in utter confusion.
"Wait till this evening; I am in no state to speak to you now!" With
that, he snatched his hat off the hall table and rushed out of the
house.

It is little more than three weeks since they returned to London from
their happy wedding-tour--and it has come to this!

The clock has just struck seven; a letter has been left by a messenger,
addressed to my daughter. I had persuaded her, poor soul, to lie down
in her own room. God grant that the letter may bring her some tidings of
her husband! I please myself in the hope of hearing good news.

My mind has not been kept long in suspense. Felicia's waiting-woman has
brought me a morsel of writing paper, with these lines penciled on it
in my daughter's handwriting: "Dearest father, make your mind easy.
Everything is explained. I cannot trust myself to speak to you about it
to-night--and _he_ doesn't wish me to do so. Only wait till tomorrow,
and you shall know all. He will be back about eleven o'clock. Please
don't wait up for him--he will come straight to me."

September 13th.--The scales have fallen from my eyes; the light is let
in on me at last. My bewilderment is not to be uttered in words--I am
like a man in a dream.

Before I was out of my room in the morning, my mind was upset by the
arrival of a telegram addressed to myself. It was the first thing of
the kind I ever received; I trembled under the prevision of some new
misfortune as I opened the envelope.

Of all the people in the world, the person sending the telegram was
sister Judith! Never before did this distracting relati