ied
back, and had just entered my room when I heard voices plainly in yours.
My book-closet door was open, that of your bath room must have been
ajar. I did not want to hear, but the angry tones startled me, and the
words grew so fierce--you neither of you thought of how you raised your
voices in your excitement--that I became alarmed, and was about to hurry
round to your room, when a few words came to my ears quite plainly, and,
in spite of its being dishonourable, I, in my dread that you were in
danger, hurried into the book-closet and was drawn to the thin, loose
panel at the end.

"There I was enchained; I could not retreat, for I heard so much of the
piteous position in which you were placed. My mind filled in the
blanks, and I grasped all.

"I need not repeat all you know--only tell you that, unable to master my
curiosity, I placed my eye to one of the cracks in the old panelling,
and could see the man's face--her husband's features--and I saw him
glance again and again at the money, and felt that he meant to have it,
though you seemed ignorant of the fact; and, dreading violence, I drew
back to go for help. But I could not leave. It meant a terrible
_expose_ and untold horror for your promised wife. I tell you I could
not stir, and the fact of my being a miserable eavesdropper died out in
the terrible climax you had reached."

Brettison paused to wipe his brow, wet with a dew begotten by the agony
of his recollections, before he continued:

"I stayed there then, and watched and listened, almost as near as if I
had been a participator in the little life drama which ensued. There, I
was with you in it all, boy--swayed by your emotions, but ready to cry
out upon you angrily when I saw you ready to listen to the wretch's
miserable proposals, and as proud when I saw your determination to
sacrifice your desires and make a bold stand against what, for your
gratification, must have meant finally a perfect hell for the woman you
loved. Then, in the midst of my excitement, there came the final
struggle, as you nobly determined to give the scoundrel up to the fate
he deserved so well. It was as sudden to me as it was horrible. I saw
the flash of the shot, and felt a pang of physical pain, as, through the
smoke, I dimly saw you stagger. Then, while I stood there paralysed, I
saw you fly at him as he raised his pistol to fire again, the struggle
for the weapon, which you struck up as he drew the trigger."

"Ye