ccount."

"But I shall. That is, in the city; it is decided. Here is my address.
Promise that if you should wish help or advice in any way--mark that I
say, in any way--you will send me instantly a dispatch."

"I will."

"There is nothing more that I can do for you?"

"Nothing."

"And nothing that you will tell me? Think well, child."

"Nothing."

Then, as it was late, he made her renew her promise, and went away.

The next morning the package of newspapers was brought to Anne from the
station at an early hour as usual. She was in her own room waiting for
them. She watched the boy coming along the road, and felt a sudden
thrill of anger when he stopped to throw a stone at a bird. To stop
with _that_ in his hand! Old Nora brought up the package. Anne took it,
and closed the door. Then she sat down to read.

Half an hour later, Gregory Dexter received a telegraphic dispatch from
Lancaster. "Come immediately. A. D."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

"He was first always. Fortune
Shone bright in his face.
I fought for years; with no effort
He conquered the place.
We ran; my feet were all bleeding,
But he won the race.

"My home was still in the shadow;
His lay in the sun.
I longed in vain; what he asked for,
It straightway was done.
Once I staked all my heart's treasure;
We played--and he won!"

--ADELAIDE PROCTER.

When the dispatch came, Dexter had not yet seen the morning papers. He
ate his breakfast hastily, and on the way to the station and on the
train he read them with surprise and a tumultuous mixture of other
feelings, which he did not stop then to analyze. Mrs. Bagshot had been
brought forward a second time by the prosecution, and had testified to
an extraordinary conversation which had taken place between Mrs.
Heathcote and an unknown young girl on the morning after the news of
Captain Heathcote's death in the Shenandoah Valley had been received,
parts of which (the conversation) she, in an adjoining room, had
overheard. He had barely time to grasp the tenor of the evidence (which
was voluminous and interrupted by many questions) when the train reached
Lancaster, and he found Li in waiting with the red wagon. All Li could
tell was that Miss Douglas was "going on a journey." She was "all ready,
with her bonnet on."

In the little parlor he found her, walking up and down, as he had
walked during the preceding ev