remember the color of her hair or eyes?"

"No, sir; I had a feeling as if she wasn't dark, and that is all I
know."

"But you remember her face?"

"Yes, sir!"

Mr. Gryce here whispered me to procure two pictures which I would find
in a certain drawer in his desk, and set them up in different parts of
the room unbeknown to the man.

"You have before said," pursued Mr. Gryce, "that you have no remembrance
of her name. Now, how was that? Weren't you called upon to sign the
certificate?"

"Yes, sir; but I am most ashamed to say it; I was in a sort of maze,
and didn't hear much, and only remember it was a Mr. Clavering she was
married to, and that some one called some one else Elner, or something
like that. I wish I hadn't been so stupid, sir, if it would have done
you any good."

"Tell us about the signing of the certificate," said Mr. Gryce.

"Well, sir, there isn't much to tell. Mr. Stebbins asked me to put my
name down in a certain place on a piece of paper he pushed towards me,
and I put it down there; that is all."

"Was there no other name there when you wrote yours?"

"No, sir. Afterwards Mr. Stebbins turned towards the other lady, who now
came forward, and asked her if she wouldn't please sign it, too; and she
said,' yes,' and came very quickly and did so."

"And didn't you see her face then?"

"No, sir; her back was to me when she threw by her veil, and I only saw
Mr. Stebbins staring at her as she stooped, with a kind of wonder on his
face, which made me think she might have been something worth looking at
too; but I didn't see her myself."

"Well, what happened then?"

"I don't know, sir. I went stumbling out of the room, and didn't see
anything more."

"Where were you when the ladies went away?"

"In the garden, sir. I had gone back to my work."

"You saw them, then. Was the gentleman with them?"

"No, sir; that was the queer part of it all. They went back as they
came, and so did he; and in a few minutes Mr. Stebbins came out where I
was, and told me I was to say nothing about what I had seen, for it was
a secret."

"Were you the only one in the house who knew anything about it? Weren't
there any women around?"

"No, sir; Miss Stebbins had gone to the sewing circle."

I had by this time some faint impression of what Mr. Gryce's suspicions
were, and in arranging the pictures had placed one, that of Eleanore, on
the mantel-piece, and the other, which was an uncommonly fine photograph