alled attention to by a hand and
index finger pointing towards it from Rochester, intimating that it was
either desired or demanded, on the part of somebody, that she should
leave Rochester for one of the points indicated.

When Bristol and Fox returned "home," as they had come to call their
lodgings, that evening, Mrs. Winslow was at her escritoire, completely
immersed in time-tables and manuscript, and had all the air of an
important author struggling for fitting expressions with which to clothe
some suddenly inspired, though sublime idea.

She looked at them closely a moment, as if she would read their very
thoughts. Whether seeing anything suspicious or not, she remarked very
pointedly:

"Good deal of railroad rivalry nowadays, isn't there?"

"Yes, considerable," replied Bristol pleasantly, and then asking, "Are
you going to introduce some rival railroads in your new play, Mrs.
Winslow?"

"Not much!" she answered tersely.

"I wouldn't," replied Bristol, taking a seat near the chandelier and
pulling a paper from his pocket; "they're dangerous."

Mrs. Winslow paid no attention to this, but suddenly eyed Fox, and
sharply asked:

"They like very much to sell through tickets, don't they?"

"I believe they do--ought to pay better," he promptly rejoined, eyeing
her in return.

"Well," said she, after a slight pause, and as if with something of a
sigh, "it's all right, perhaps; but if either of you should meet any
railroad agent who seems to be laboring under the delusion that I want
to found a colony in some far country, just tell him to expend his
energies in some other direction!"

Of course my operatives were surprised, and demanded an explanation; but
the recipient of the circulars was quite dignified, and would only clear
the matter up by occasional little passionate bursts of confidence, as
if finding fault with them for not being able to unravel the mystery to
her. They protested they knew nothing about the matter, and she
undoubtedly believed them; but she ventured to inform them that if
anybody--mind you, anybody--supposed they could scare her away from
Rochester by any such hint as that, they were mightily mistaken, that's
all there was about _that_.

My detectives allayed her fears as much as possible, but it was plainly
observable that she was really annoyed by the occurrence. There is
always a hundred times more terror in the fear of unknown evil than in
that which we can boldly meet, and this