om.

She ran through the hall to a back staircase seldom used, and which led
into a passage from whence she could pass at once into the thickest part
of the shrubbery.

At the foot of the stairs she paused an instant, listened then with a
quick, choking sigh, opened the door and hurried away.

Seated in his library, Mellen found it impossible to fulfil his task of
letter writing. He could not account for the feelings which crept over
him. The quiet content of the afternoon was all gone; and in its place
came, not only anxiety about his wife, but a host of wild suspicions so
vague and absurd, that he was angry with the folly which forced him to
insult his reason by dwelling upon them.

The confinement of the house became absolutely hateful to him. He opened
one of the French windows, stepped out upon the veranda and walked up
and down in the gathering gloom, looking across the waters where the fog
shifted to and fro, like ghostly shadows sent up to veil the ever
restless ocean.

At last Mellen passed down the steps and entered the grounds; he was
some distance from the house when he heard a sound like a person moaning
aloud in distress.

He looked about--the mist and the coming night made it impossible to
distinguish objects with any distinctness--but he saw the garments of a
woman fluttering among the trees.

He darted forward; with what impulse he could hardly have told; but the
woman had disappeared, whether warned by his hasty movement or urged
forward by some other motive, he could not tell.

The thought in his mind was--

"That is my wife, Elizabeth."

Then the folly of this suspicion struck him; not an hour before he had
left his wife almost asleep in her room, how was it possible that she
could be there, wandering about like a demented creature in the misty
twilight?

"I will go up to her room," he thought; "I will cure myself of these
absurd fancies."

He entered the house and ran upstairs quickly, opened the door of his
wife's room and looked in. She was standing before the fire--at the
noise of the opening door she thrust something into her bosom--a paper
it looked like to Mellen--then she turned and stood silently regarding
him.

"You are up," he said.

"Yes," she replied, a little coldly. "Did you want anything?"

"Only to see if you slept--if you were coming down soon."

"I shall be down directly."

He hesitated an instant, then he said:

"Were you not in the grounds just now?"

E