n to these, there
was a former slave girl, who has been somewhat prominent in
meetings which these two have carried on in different parts of the
country. In the words of the southern press, this girl has been
used as a decoy."

"Lily!" exclaimed Josephine. "It must have been she! Yes, I had
such a person in my employ--in very humble capacity. But, Sir, I
assure you I have not seen her for more than two months. I had
supposed her busy with these others on the lecture platform."

"She is not now so engaged," interrupted a voice from the shadows
on the other side of the table.

"Then she has been arrested?" demanded Josephine.

"That is not the term; yet it is true that she sailed on one of
your own colonization ships last week. Her fortune will lie
elsewhere hereafter. It was her own wish."

A sudden sense of helplessness smote upon Josephine St. Auban.
Here, even in this republic, were great and silent powers with
which the individual needed to contend. Absorbed for the time in
that which was nearest her heart, she had forgotten her own
fortunes. Now she suddenly half rose for the first time.

"But, gentlemen," said she, as she held out in her hand some papers
which crackled in her trembling grasp,--"after all, we are at cross
purposes. This is not necessary. My own work is at an end,
already! This very morning it came to an end, and for ever. Will
you not look at these?"

[Illustration: "My own work is at an end."]

"How do you mean, Madam?" The tall grave man near by turned upon
her his beetling brows, his piercing dark eyes. "Your work was
worthy of approval in many ways. What has happened that it should
cease?"

"This!" she said, handing to him the papers which she held. "I
have a report to-day from my agents in Europe. Gentlemen, since I
must mention these things,--I have been possessor of a fortune in
my own name which might have been called considerable. I had
estates in France and in Austria. This advises me that my estates
have been confiscated by the governments in both countries--they
got word there, in some way--"

"It was Hulsemann!" ejaculated the dark man, as to himself.
"Austria's man here!"

She went on: "If I am not welcome in this country, whither shall I
go? I am an exile as I stand before you. I am a widow. I have no
living kin. Moreover, I am an exile, impoverished, as I stand. My
fortune has been dissipated--honestly so, gentlemen; but since it
is gone, my