ne. When the curtain
begins to rise again it is on a darkened stage, on which the objects are
seen dimly at first, then clearer as returning intelligence, working
slowly for the accommodation of the new setting, places the fresh
impression in order with the throng of previously existing ideas.

Such a moment seemed to have come to Hazel Rath as she stood looking at
Merrington, who sat in an easy chair on the other side of the table
confronting her with the tangible perception of his massive presence,
reinforced by the weight of an authority which, if not so perceptible,
was sufficiently apparent in the stolid blue back of a policeman on duty
outside the glass door, and in the barred windows of the little room to
which she had been brought to receive the news which had just been
conveyed to her. But she gave no sign of having heard, or, at least,
understood the import of Merrington's relation. Her dark eyes wandered
around the little office, and slowly returned to the face of the big man
who was watching her so closely. Her look, which at first had been one
of utter bewilderment, now revealed a trace of incredulity which
suggested a returning power for the assimilation of ideas. But she did
not speak.

"Have you nothing to say?" Merrington demanded. He had been a silent
listener to many criminal confessions in his time, but in the unusual
reversion of roles he was becoming unreasonably angry with the girl for
not repaying his confidence with her own story.

His loud hectoring voice startled her, and seemed to accelerate the
mechanism of her mind into the association of her surroundings with her
position.

"Why did you bring me here to torture me?" she cried, with a sudden rush
of shrill utterance which was, in its way, almost as pitiful and
surprising as her previous silence. "Oh, why cannot you leave me alone?"

She threw her arms out wildly, then, as if realizing the futility of
gesture, dropped them helplessly to her sides. There was something in
the action which suggested a bird trying to stretch its wings in a
cramped cage. Her quivering lips, tense facial muscles, and strained yet
restless bearing plainly revealed an unbalanced temperament, bending
beneath the weight of a burden too heavy and sustained. As an
experienced police official, Merrington was well versed in the little
signs which indicate the breaking point of imprisonment in those unused
to it. He saw that Hazel Rath had reached a state in which kin