ou separated in peace, as
friends. Her letter will be important, if it proves this."

"It does. I have also another--a little note telling me of her husband's
safety, and dropped into a letter-box on her way to the train. And I
have the locket she gave me on the day of our last interview. She took
it from her own neck and clasped it round mine a moment before I left
her."

"Did Bagshot know of the existence of this locket?"

"She must have known it. For Helen said she always wore it; and Bagshot
dressed her daily."

"Will you let me see it? And the two letters also, if they are here?"

"They are up stairs. I will get them."

What he wished to find out was whether she wore the locket. She came
back so soon that he said to himself she could not have had it on--there
had not been time to remove it; besides, as he held it in his hand it
was not warm. He read the two letters carefully. Then he took up the
locket again and examined it. It was a costly trinket, set with
diamonds; within was a miniature, a life-like picture of Helen's
husband.

He looked at his rival silently. The man was in prison, charged with the
highest crime in the catalogue of crimes, and Dexter believed him
guilty. Yet it was, all the same, above all and through all, the face of
his rival still--of his triumphant, successful rival.

He laid down the locket, rose, and went over to Anne.

She was standing by the window, much dejected that he had not been more
impressed by the importance of that which she had revealed. She looked
up as he came near.

"Anne," he said, "I have promised to take you to Multomah, and I will
keep my promise, if you insist. But have you considered that if you
correct and restate Bagshot's testimony in all the other points, you
will also be required to acknowledge the words of that confession?"

"Yes, I know it," she murmured, turning toward the window again.

"It can not but be horribly repugnant to you. Think how you will be
talked about, misunderstood. The newspapers will be black with your
name; it will go through the length and breadth of the land accompanied
with jests, and possibly with worse than jests. Anne, look up; listen to
what I am going to say. Marry me, Anne; marry me to-day; and go on the
witness stand--if go you must--as my wife."

She gazed at him, her eyes widened with surprise.

He took her hands, and began to plead. "It is a strange time in which to
woo you; but it is a strange ordeal which yo