I confess, I have had a motive, and Morton knew this"--I
hesitated--"must have known it."

"Do you mean to say you confided the secret of the mirror to Morton, and
kept it from me? Thank you, Miriam!" loftily. "I might have expected
this, however."

"Not wholly this," I replied, with embarrassment, for I saw how the
matter looked externally. "Morton simply knew that I wanted, for
purposes of my own, to exclude every one except himself from solitary
possession of the dining-room as much as possible, Mr. Bainrothe
especially. Yes, I told him this, but I kept papa's secret. Believe me,
Evelyn, I did this, and you know well enough what Morton's devotion is
to me not to believe that he religiously fulfilled my request without
asking for an explanation."

"Yes," she mused, "I saw him perched up there tonight, as usual, with
his old English newspapers, and I have observed that he never leaves his
post there, while Mr. Bainrothe remains. You could not have procured a
better watchman, surely; but why have you watched at all?"

"Because," I said, "I felt sure that mystery lurked behind those
nocturnal visits. You cannot doubt this yourself, Evelyn, and, with your
opinion of Mr. Bainrothe, must see that I felt I had good reason for
mistrust. I was determined to be present when that chest should next be
opened by him."

A smile quivered across her face. "I had not suspected you of so much
diplomacy," she observed, dryly; "but, after all, Miriam, how does this
change the posture of affairs to me? I shall be all the same, poor and
dependent."

"No, Evelyn, no indeed! I promise you faithfully.--But what is this?" I
exclaimed, rising hastily from my knees, "I am faint--blind! Quick, the
drops Dr. Pemberton left for me, Evelyn, or I am lost again."

I threw myself across the foot of her bed, sick and bewildered, yet
feeling myself gradually--after a few moments of oppression--growing
better, in spite of the dark effort of my evil genius to gain his fatal
ascendency.

When she came with the drops, after some delay, I was, to her surprise,
able to sit up and look around me. The spell was over.

"I believe I have troubled you uselessly," I said; "I will go to bed
without medicine to-night, I think, and strive to be calm, as Dr.
Pemberton enjoined me to do, and there was good sense in his advice,
certainly. We have so much to do to-morrow, Evelyn--we two must remove
these deposits ourselves. But not a word to Bainrothe!"

"Miri