looking keenly
ahead.

Soon the carriage came into view from behind a bend in the road. A
thrill passed through Gualtier in spite of himself. He grasped his
staff in his right hand, and plunging his left into his
breast-pocket, he grasped his pistol. Nearer and nearer the carriage
came, and he could easily recognize the square face, broad shoulders,
and stalwart frame of Obed Chute. With him there was a lady, whose
face he could not as yet recognize. And now there arose within him an
intense desire to see the face of this lady. She was beyond a doubt
the very one of whom Lord Chetwynde was so eager and so constant in
his pursuit. Could he but see her face once it would be a great gain,
for he could recognize her elsewhere, and thus do something of
importance in assisting Hilda. With this determination in his mind he
went on, and bowing down his head like a decrepit old man, he hobbled
along, leaning on his staff, but at the same time keeping his eyes
upturned and fixed on the lady.

The carriage came nearer and nearer. A strange feeling came over
Gualtier--something like an anguish of fear and of wonder. At last
the lady's face became plainly discernible. That face! White it was,
and the whiteness was intensified by the deep blackness of the hair,
while the eyes were large and lustrous, and rested full upon him in
something like pity. That face! Was this another vision?

Great God!

[Illustration: "'Stop!' She Cried, Tearing With One Hand At The
Reins."]

A groan burst from him as this face thus revealed itself. What was
this? What did it mean? Was this, too, a phantom? Was it a deceit and
mockery of his senses? Was it an eidolon from the realms of death, or
could it be an actual material object--a living being? Here was one
whom he _knew_ to be dead. How came she here? Or by what marvel could
any one else so resemble her? Yet it was not a resemblance. It was
_herself_!

His brain whirled. All thoughts of all things else faded away in that
horror and in that surprise. Spell-bound he stood, while his face was
upturned and his eyes were fixed on the lady.

And thus, as he stood rooted to the spot, motionless and staring, the
carriage came whirling up and flashed past him. That singular figure,
in the peasant garb, with rigid face, and with horror in his eyes,
which stared like the eyes of a maniac, attracted the look of the
lady. At first she had a vague idea that it was a beggar, but on
coming closer she r