es just to my mind, and somehow the many
causes for secret fear which I have always had,
assume an undue prominence in my mind. It is
always so when I am not quite well. In vain I
reason with myself, saying that respectable people
do not lightly enter into crime. But there are so
many to whom my death would be more than welcome,
that I constantly see myself in the act of being----

"Good heavens!" ejaculated the spinster, dropping the paper from her
hand and looking dismally around upon the assembled faces of the now
deeply interested spectators.

Seeing her dismay, a man who stood at the right of the coroner, and who
seemed to be an officer of the law, quietly advanced, and picking up the
paper she had let fall, handed it to the jury. The coroner meanwhile
recalled her attention to herself.

"Miss Firman," said he, "allow me to put to you one final question
which, though it might not be called a strictly legal one, is surely
justified by the gravity of the situation. If Mrs. Clemmens had finished
this letter, and you in due course had received it, what conclusion
would you have drawn from the words you have just read?"

"I could have drawn but one, sir. I should have considered that the
solitary life led by my cousin was telling upon her mind."

"But these terrors of which she speaks? To what and whom would you have
attributed them?"

"I don't like to say it, and I don't know as I am justified in saying
it, but it would have been impossible for me, under the circumstances,
to have thought of any other source for them than the one we have
already mentioned."

"And that is?" inexorably pursued the coroner.

"Mr. Gouverneur Hildreth."

VIII.

THE THICK-SET MAN.

Springs to catch woodcocks.--HAMLET.

IN the pause that followed, Miss Firman stepped aside, and Mr. Byrd,
finding his attention released, stole a glance toward the hall-way and
its nearly concealed occupant. He found the elbow in agitated movement,
and, as he looked at it, saw it disappear and a hand project into view,
groping for the handkerchief which was, doubtless, hidden in the hat
which he now perceived standing on the floor in the corner of the
door-way. He looked at that hand well. It was large, white, and
elegantly formed, and wore a seal ring of conspicuous size upon the
little finger. He had scarcely noticed this ring, and wondered if others
had se