ll?" he whispered, upon entering the house and meeting my glance from
below; "have you seen her?"

"Yes," I returned bitterly, "I have seen her!"

He hurriedly mounted to my side. "And she has confessed?"

"No; I have had no talk with her." Then, as I perceived him growing
alarmed at my voice and manner, I drew him into Mrs. Belden's room and
hastily inquired: "What did you mean this morning when you informed me
you had seen this girl? that she was in a certain room where I might
find her?"

"What I said."

"You have, then, been to her room?"

"No; I have only been on the outside of it. Seeing a light, I crawled up
on to the ledge of the slanting roof last night while both you and Mrs.
Belden were out, and, looking through the window, saw her moving round
the room." He must have observed my countenance change, for he stopped.
"What is to pay?" he cried.

I could restrain myself no longer. "Come," I said, "and see for
yourself!" And, leading him to the little room I had just left, I
pointed to the silent form lying within. "You told me I should
find Hannah here; but you did not tell me I should find her in this
condition."

"Great heaven!" he cried with a start: "not dead?"

"Yes," I said, "dead."

It seemed as if he could not realize it. "But it is impossible!" he
returned. "She is in a heavy sleep, has taken a narcotic----"

"It is not sleep," I said, "or if it is, she will never wake. Look!"
And, taking the hand once more in mine, I let it fall in its stone
weight upon the bed.

The sight seemed to convince him. Calming down, he stood gazing at her
with a very strange expression upon his face. Suddenly he moved and
began quietly turning over the clothes that were lying on the floor.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "What are you looking for?"

"I am looking for the bit of paper from which I saw her take what I
supposed to be a dose of medicine last night. Oh, here it is!" he cried,
lifting a morsel of paper that, lying on the floor under the edge of the
bed, had hitherto escaped his notice.

"Let me see!" I anxiously exclaimed.

He handed me the paper, on the inner surface of which I could dimly
discern the traces of an impalpable white powder.

"This is important," I declared, carefully folding the paper together.
"If there is enough of this powder remaining to show that the contents
of this paper were poisonous, the manner and means of the girl's death
are accounted for, and a case of deliberate