ing of
what had happened to her aunt. She took her way to the rectory to seek
my advice.

It is needless to encumber my narrative by any statement of
the questions which I felt it my duty to put to her under these
circumstances. My inquiries informed me that Captain Stanwick had in the
first instance produced a favorable impression on her. The less showy
qualities of Mr. Varleigh had afterward grown on her liking; aided
greatly by the repelling effect on her mind of the Captain's violent
language and conduct when he had reason to suspect that his rival
was being preferred to him. When she knew the horrible news of Mr.
Varleigh's death, she "knew her own heart" (to repeat her exact words to
me) by the shock that she felt. Toward Captain Stanwick the only
feeling of which she was now conscious was, naturally, a feeling of the
strongest aversion.

My own course in this difficult and painful matter appeared to me to be
clear. "It is your duty as a Christian to see this miserable man again,"
I said. "And it is my duty as your friend and pastor, to sustain you
under the trial. I will go with you to-morrow to the place of meeting."

II.

THE next evening we found Captain Stanwick waiting for us in the park.

He drew back on seeing me. I explained to him, temperately and firmly,
what my position was. With sullen looks he resigned himself to endure
my presence. By degrees I won his confidence. My first impression of him
remains unshaken--the man's reason was unsettled. I suspected that the
assertion of his release was a falsehood, and that he had really escaped
from the asylum. It was impossible to lure him into telling me where the
place was. He was too cunning to do this--too cunning to say anything
about his relations, when I tried to turn the talk that way next. On the
other hand, he spoke with a revolting readiness of the crime that he
had committed, and of his settled resolution to destroy himself if Miss
Laroche refused to be his wife. "I have nothing else to live for; I am
alone in the world," he said. "Even my servant has deserted me. He knows
how I killed Lionel Varleigh." He paused and spoke his next words in a
whisper to me. "I killed him by a trick--he was the best swordsman of
the two."

This confession was so horrible that I could only attribute it to an
insane delusion. On pressing my inquiries, I found that the same idea
must have occurred to the poor wretch's relations, and to the doctors
who signed the