that his
love for her was real. I could not admit the thought, remembering what
had passed between us, and the tone of voice in which he had called her
by her name.

'Stay here of course,' the child had said in answer to my question, 'I
always do!' What could take him from home by night, and every night! I
called up all the strange tales I had ever heard of dark and secret
deeds committed in great towns and escaping detection for a long series
of years; wild as many of these stories were, I could not find one
adapted to this mystery, which only became the more impenetrable, in
proportion as I sought to solve it.

Occupied with such thoughts as these, and a crowd of others all tending
to the same point, I continued to pace the street for two long hours;
at length the rain began to descend heavily, and then over-powered by
fatigue though no less interested than I had been at first, I engaged
the nearest coach and so got home. A cheerful fire was blazing on the
hearth, the lamp burnt brightly, my clock received me with its old
familiar welcome; everything was quiet, warm and cheering, and in happy
contrast to the gloom and darkness I had quitted.

But all that night, waking or in my sleep, the same thoughts recurred
and the same images retained possession of my brain. I had ever before
me the old dark murky rooms--the gaunt suits of mail with their ghostly
silent air--the faces all awry, grinning from wood and stone--the dust
and rust and worm that lives in wood--and alone in the midst of all
this lumber and decay and ugly age, the beautiful child in her gentle
slumber, smiling through her light and sunny dreams.

CHAPTER 2

After combating, for nearly a week, the feeling which impelled me to
revisit the place I had quitted under the circumstances already
detailed, I yielded to it at length; and determining that this time I
would present myself by the light of day, bent my steps thither early
in the morning.

I walked past the house, and took several turns in the street, with
that kind of hesitation which is natural to a man who is conscious that
the visit he is about to pay is unexpected, and may not be very
acceptable. However, as the door of the shop was shut, and it did not
appear likely that I should be recognized by those within, if I
continued merely to pass up and down before it, I soon conquered this
irresolution, and found myself in the Curiosity Dealer's warehouse.

The old man and another person