f our strangeness, when----"

"When you think I will be so charmed with Deacon Spear that I will be
ready to settle down with him in Lost Man's Lane, or if that will not
do, carry him off to Gramercy Park, where he will be the admiration of
all New York and Brooklyn to boot. Why, man, if I was so easily
satisfied as that, I would not be in a position to-day for you to honor
me with this proposal. I am not easy to suit, so I advise you to turn
your attention to some one much more anxious to be married than I am.
But"--and here I allowed some of my real feelings to appear--"if you
value your own reputation or the happiness of the lady you propose to
inveigle into an union with you, do not venture too far in the
matrimonial way till the mystery is dispelled which shrouds Lost Man's
Lane in horror. If you were an honest man you would ask no one to share
your fortunes whilst the least doubt rests upon your reputation."

"_My_ reputation?" He had started very visibly at these words. "Madam,
be careful. I admire you, but----"

"No offence," said I. "For a stranger I have been, perhaps, unduly
frank. I only mean that any one who lives in this lane must feel himself
more or less enveloped by the shadow which rests upon it. When that is
lifted, each and every one of you will feel himself a man again. From
indications to be seen in the lane to-day, that time may not be far
distant. Mother Jane is a likely source for the mysteries that agitate
us. She knows just enough to have no proper idea of the value of a human
life."

The Deacon's retort was instantaneous. "Madam," said he, with a snap of
his fingers, "I have not that much interest in what is going on down
there. If men have been killed in this lane (which I do not believe),
old Mother Jane has had no hand in it. My opinion is--and you may value
it or not, just as you please--that what the people hereabout call
crimes are so many coincidences, which some day or other will receive
their due explanation. Every one who has disappeared in this vicinity
has disappeared naturally. No one has been killed. That is my theory,
and you will find it correct. On this point I have expended more than a
little thought."

I was irate. I was also dumfounded at his audacity. Did he think I was
the woman to be deceived by any such balderdash as that? But I shut my
lips tightly lest I should say something, and he, not finding this
agreeable, being no conversationalist himself, drew himself up