work to convince her that she could. The midnight
train did not leave the city for a half-hour yet, and the distance to
the depot could be easily walked by her in fifteen minutes. But she had
no money! I easily supplied that. And she was afraid she couldn't find
her way! I entered into minutest directions. She still hesitated, but
at length consented to go, and with some further understanding of the
method I was to employ in communicating with her, we went down-stairs.
There we found a hat and shawl of the cook's which I put on her, and in
another moment we were in the carriage yard. "Remember, you are to say
nothing of what has occurred, no matter what happens," I whispered in
parting injunction as she turned to leave me. "Remember, you are to come
and marry me some day," she murmured in reply, throwing her arms about
my neck. The movement was sudden, and it was probably at this time she
dropped the candle she had unconsciously held clenched in her hand till
now. I promised her, and she glided out of the gate.

Of the dreadful agitation that followed the disappearance of this girl
I can give no better idea than by saying I not only committed the
additional error of locking up the house on my re-entrance, but omitted
to dispose of the key then in my pocket by flinging it into the street
or dropping it in the hall as I went up. The fact is, I was so absorbed
by the thought of the danger I stood in from this girl, I forgot
everything else. Hannah's pale face, Hannah's look of terror, as she
turned from my side and flitted down the street, were continually before
me. I could not escape them; the form of the dead man lying below was
less vivid. It was as though I were tied in fancy to this woman of the
white face fluttering down the midnight streets. That she would fail in
something--come back or be brought back--that I should find her standing
white and horror-stricken on the front steps when I went down in the
morning, was like a nightmare to me. I began to think no other result
possible; that she never would or could win her way unchallenged to that
little cottage in a distant village; that I had but sent a trailing flag
of danger out into the world with this wretched girl;--danger that would
come back to me with the first burst of morning light!

But even those thoughts faded after a while before the realization
of the peril I was in as long as the key and papers remained in my
possession. How to get rid of them! I dare