nd conjectures in my mind by that reply," exclaimed
my friend, edging me a little farther back from the crowd. "I have
always had my doubts about--about--" he paused, hunting for the proper
phrase--"about your having done what they said," he somewhat lamely
concluded. "It was so unlike you. But now I begin to see the presence of
a possibility that might perhaps explain much we never understood. Joe,
my boy, you never said you were innocent, but----"

"Who are you?" I asked boldly, peering into the twinkling eyes that
shone upon me from his sedate mask. "In the discussion of such matters
as these, it would be dreadful to make a mistake."

"And don't you recognize your Uncle Joe?" he asked, with a certain
plaintive reproach somewhat out of keeping with his costume of "potent,
grave, and reverend signior." "I came over from Hollowell on purpose,
because Carrie intimated that you were going to make one final effort to
see your father. Edith is here too," he murmured, thrusting his face
alarmingly near mine. "She would not stay away, though we were all
afraid she might betray herself; her emotions are so quick. Poor child!
_she_ never doubted you; and if my suspicions are correct----"

"Edith?" I interrupted,--"Edith?" An Edith was the last person I
desired to meet under these circumstances. "Where is she?" I tremulously
inquired, starting aside in some dismay at the prospect of encountering
this unknown quantity of love and devotion.

But my companion, seizing me by the arm, drew me back. "She is not far
away; of that you may be sure. But it will never do for you to try and
hunt her up. You would not know her in her mask. Besides, if you remain
still she will come to you."

That was just what I feared, but upon looking round and seeing no
suspicious-looking damsel anywhere near me, I concluded to waive my
apprehensions on her account and proceed to the development of an idea
that had been awakened by the old gentleman's words.

"You are right," I acquiesced, edging, in my turn, toward the curtained
recess of a window near by. "Let us wait here, and meantime you shall
tell me what your suspicions are, for I feel the time has come for the
truth to be made known, and who could better aid me in proclaiming it
than you who have always stood my friend?"

"That is true," he murmured, all eagerness at once. Then in a lower tone
and with a significant gesture: "There _is_ something, then, which has
never been made known? Edit