h
the news was told her, from the expression of her face as she entered
the house. I was standing at the gate, you remember, when she came up,
and her look had in it determination and horror, but no special fear. In
fact, the words she dropped show the character of her thoughts at that
time. She distinctly murmured in my hearing: 'No good can come of it,
none.' As if her mind were dwelling upon the advantages which might
accrue to her lover from his aunt's death, and weighing them against the
foul means by which that person's end had been hastened. Yet I will not
say but she may have been influenced in the course which she took by
some doubt or apprehension of her own. The fact that she came to the
house at all, and, having come, insisted upon knowing all the details
of the assault, seem to prove she was not without a desire to satisfy
herself that suspicion rightfully attached itself to the tramp. But not
until she saw her lover's ring on the floor (the ring which she had with
her own hand dropped into the pocket of his coat the day before) and
heard that the tramp had justified himself and was no longer considered
the assailant, did her true fear and horror come. Then, indeed, all the
past rose up before her, and, believing her lover guilty of this crime,
she laid claim to the jewel as the first and only alternative that
offered by which she might stand between him and the consequences of his
guilt. Her subsequent agitation when the dying woman made use of the
exclamation that indissolubly connected the crime with a ring, speaks
for itself. Nor was her departure from the house any too hurried or
involuntary, when you consider that the vengeance invoked by the widow,
was, in Miss Dare's opinion, called down upon one to whom she had nearly
plighted her troth. What is the next act in the drama? The scene in the
Syracuse depot. Let me see if I cannot explain it. A woman who has once
allowed herself to suspect the man she loves of a murderous deed, cannot
rest till she has either convinced herself that her suspicions are
false, or until she has gained such knowledge of the truth as makes her
feel justified in her seeming treason. A woman of Miss Dare's generous
nature especially. What does she do, then? With the courage that
characterizes all her movements, she determines upon seeing him, and
from his own lips, perhaps, win a confession of guilt or innocence.
Conceiving that his flight was directed toward the Quarry Station,