action of the lips, which testified to some deep and probably painful
train of thought. The cigar was already almost at an end, when the voice
of a young girl was heard suddenly crying the hour from the interior of
the house.

"In a moment," replied John Vandeleur.

And, with that, he threw away the stump, and, taking up the lantern,
sailed away under the verandah for the night. As soon as the door was
closed, absolute darkness fell upon the house; Francis might try his
eyesight as much as he pleased, he could not detect so much as a single
chink of light below a blind; and he concluded, with great good sense,
that the bed-chambers were all upon the other side.

Early the next morning (for he was early awake after an uncomfortable
night upon the floor) he saw cause to adopt a different explanation. The
blinds rose, one after another, by means of a spring in the interior,
and disclosed steel shutters such as we see on the front of shops; these
in their turn were rolled up by a similar contrivance; and for the space
of about an hour the chambers were left open to the morning air. At the
end of that time Mr. Vandeleur, with his own hand, once more closed the
shutters and replaced the blinds from within.

While Francis was still marvelling at these precautions, the door
opened and a young girl came forth to look about her in the garden. It
was not two minutes before she re-entered the house, but even in that
short time he saw enough to convince him that she possessed the most
unusual attractions. His curiosity was not only highly excited by this
incident, but his spirits were improved to a still more notable degree.
The alarming manners and more than equivocal life of his father ceased
from that moment to prey upon his mind; from that moment he embraced his
new family with ardour; and whether the young lady should prove his
sister or his wife, he felt convinced she was an angel in disguise. So
much was this the case that he was seized with a sudden horror when he
reflected how little he really knew, and how possible it was that he had
followed the wrong person when he followed Mr. Vandeleur.

The porter, whom he consulted, could afford him little information; but,
such as it was, it had a mysterious and questionable sound. The person
next door was an English gentleman of extraordinary wealth, and
proportionately eccentric in his tastes and habits. He possessed great
collections, which he kept in the house beside him; a