xpected, and she really
became quite tragic as she related her story to me. I cannot do justice
to it myself, and I sha'n't try. It is enough that the man whom she did
not know, and the woman whom she immediately recognized as Miss Dare,
were both in a state of great indignation. That he spoke of selfishness
and obstinacy on the part of his aunt, and that she, in the place of
rebuking him, replied in a way to increase his bitterness, and lead him
finally to exclaim: 'I cannot bear it! To think that with just the
advance of the very sum she proposes to give me some day, I could make
her fortune and my own, and win _you_ all in one breath! It is enough to
drive a man mad to see all that he craves in this world so near his
grasp, and yet have nothing, not even hope, to comfort him.' And at
that, it seems, they both rose, and she, who had not answered any thing
to this, struck the tree before which they stood, with her bare fist,
and murmured a word or so which the old woman couldn't catch, but which
was evidently something to the effect that she wished she knew Mrs.
Clemmens; for Mansell--of course it was he--said, in almost the same
breath, 'And if you did know her, what then?' A question which elicited
no reply at first, but which finally led her to say: 'Oh! I think that,
possibly, I might be able to persuade her.' All this," the detective
went on, "old Sally related with the greatest force; but in regard to
what followed, she was not so clear. Probably they interrupted their
conversation with some lovers' by-play, for they stood very near
together, and he seemed to be earnestly pleading with her. 'Do take it,'
old Sally heard him say. 'I shall feel as if life held some outlook for
me, if you only will gratify me in this respect.' But she answered: 'No;
it is of no use. I am as ambitious as you are, and fate is evidently
against us,' and put his hand back when he endeavored to take hers, but
finally yielded so far as to give it to him for a moment, though she
immediately snatched it away again, crying: 'I cannot; you must wait
till to-morrow.' And when he asked: 'Why to-morrow?' she answered: 'A
night has been known to change the whole current of a person's affairs.'
To which he replied: 'True,' and looked thoughtful, very thoughtful, as
he met her eyes and saw her raise that white hand of hers and strike the
tree again with a passionate force that made her fingers bleed. And she
was right," concluded the speaker. "The ni