utter hopelessness in every other respect, to induce you the
more willingly to hear what I had to offer, and to comply with certain
conditions which must be preparatory to any development upon my part."

"There is something strangely mysterious in this. I am willing to do
anything and everything, in reason and without dishonor, for the safety
of my nephew; the more particularly as I believe him altogether innocent
of the crime laid to his charge. More than this I dare not; and I shall
not be willing to yield to unknown conditions, prescribed by a stranger,
whatever be the object: but speak out at once, sir, and keep us no
longer in suspense. In the meantime, retire, Edith, my child; we shall
best transact this business in your absence. You will feel too acutely
the consideration of this subject to listen to it in discussion. Go, my
daughter."

But the stranger interposed, with a manner not to be questioned:--

"Let her remain, Colonel Colleton; it is, indeed, only to her that I can
reveal the mode and the conditions of the assistance which I am to
offer. This was the preliminary condition of which I spoke. To her alone
can my secret be revealed, and my conference must be entirely with her."

"But, sir, this is so strange--so unusual--so improper."

"True, Colonel Colleton; in the ordinary concerns, the everyday offices
of society, it would be strange, unusual, and improper; but these are
not times, and this is not a region of the world, in which the common
forms are to be insisted upon. You forget, sir, that you are in the wild
abiding-place of men scarcely less wild--with natures as stubborn as the
rocks, and with manners as uncouth and rugged as the woodland growth
which surrounds us. I know as well as yourself that my demand is
unusual; but such is my situation--such, indeed, the necessities of the
whole case, that there is no alternative. I am persuaded that your
nephew can be saved; I am willing to make an effort for that purpose,
and my conditions are to be complied with: one of them you have
heard--it is for your daughter to hear the rest."

The colonel still hesitated. He was very tenacious of those forms of
society, and of intercourse between the sexes, which are rigidly
insisted upon in the South, and his reluctance was manifest. While he
yet hesitated, the stranger again spoke:

"The condition which I have proposed, sir, is unavoidable, but I ask you
not to remove from hearing: the adjoining room is not