a look at it."

"I remember it by two blots in the corner, and the red lines down the
side."

"You didn't write your own name, did you?"

"It seems to me I did."

"Suppose you examine the paper, under James Ramsey's name, and see
whether yours is there."

Mr. Felcher walked to his glass, turning his back upon Phipps. The
latter sat down, and wrote his name upon the spot thus blindly
suggested.

"It is here, sir."

"Ah! So you have found it! You distinctly remember writing it on that
occasion, and can swear to it, and to the signatures of the others?"

"Oh yes, sir."

"And all this was done in my library, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"How did you happen to be there when these other men were there?"

"You called me in, sir."

"All right! You never smoke, Phipps?"

"Never in the stable, sir."

"Well, lay these cigars away where you have laid the rest of 'em, and go
to bed."

Phipps took the costly bundle of cigars that was handed to him, carried
them by habit to his nose, said "Thank you, sir," and went off down the
stairs, felicitating himself on the ease with which he had won so choice
a treasure.

The effect of Phipps' signature on Mr. Belcher's mind was a curious
illustration of the self-deceptions in which a human heart may indulge.
Companionship in crime, the sharing of responsibility, the fact that the
paper was to have been signed at the time it was drawn, and would have
been signed but for the accident of Benedict's insanity; the fact that
he had paid moneys with the expectation of securing a title to the
inventions he was using--all these gave to the paper an air of
genuineness which surprised even Mr. Belcher himself.

When known evil seems absolutely good to a man, and conscious falsehood
takes on the semblance and the authority of truth, the Devil has him
fast.

CHAPTER XX.

IN WHICH "THE LITTLE WOMAN" ANNOUNCES HER ENGAGEMENT TO JIM FENTON AND
RECEIVES THE CONGRATULATIONS OF HER FRIENDS.

After the frame of Jim's hotel was up, at Number Nine, and those who had
assisted in its erection were out of the woods, he and his architect
entered with great industry upon the task of covering it. Under Mr.
Benedict's direction, Jim became an expert in the work, and the sound of
two busy hammers kept the echoes of the forest awake from dawn until
sunset, every day. The masons came at last and put up the chimneys; and
more and more, as the days went on, the building assumed the look of a