etery, where her murdered infant
reposed, without a farewell glance, although she might never see the
place again.

On coming within sight of the station, she perceived a solitary figure,
that of a man, in a fashionable caped cloak, crossing the fields in the
same direction as hers. It was probably the viscount going to it
separately in order not to compromise her and give a clue to the true
cause of her flight.

Sometimes the unexpected comes to the help of the wicked. Incredible as
it appeared, she received, on the eve of her departure, a telegram from
Paris. At first she thought it a device of Viscount Gratian's to cover
her elopement, but it was not possible for him to have imagined the
appeal. It was from her uncle, who, traveling in France, and intending
to pay her a visit since she was married honorably, was stricken with a
malady. He awaited her at a hotel. Even Von Sendlingen could not have
drawn up this message too simple not to be genuine and too precise in
the genealogical allusions not to be a Russian's and a Dobronowska's.

She regarded this cloak as the act of her "fate"--the evil person's
providence. She handed the paper to Hedwig to be given to her husband as
an explanation at a later hour.

Cesarine was still watching him when she saw him disappear suddenly. It
was in crossing an unnailed plank thrown across a drain-cutting. This
must have turned or broken under his feet unexpectedly, for his fall was
complete. In the ditch which received him, darkness ruled but it seemed
to Cesarine that more shadows than one were engaged in deadly strife,
standing deep in the mire. They wore the aspect of the demons dragging
down a soul in an infernal bog.

What increased the horror was the silence in which the tragedy was
enacted; probably the unfortunate Gratian had been seized by the throat
as soon as he dropped confused into the assassin's clutches.

Halfway between this scene and the dismayed looker on, another shadow
rose and appeared to take the direction to accost her instead of
hurrying to the victim's succor. This made him resemble an accomplice,
and, breaking the spell, Cesarine hurried on without the power to force
a scream for help from her choking throat.

At that moment, while a strong fascination kept her head turned toward
the field, a long beam from the locomotive's head-light shot across it.
It fell for an instant on the solitary form and though its arm made an
upward movement to obscure it