ing room while we talked over her case in this one."

"You saw her--saw her face?"

"No, not her face; she was too heavily veiled for that. Mrs. Ransom
explained why. They were too absurdly alike, she said. It awoke comment
and it gave her the creeps. But their figures were identical though their
dresses were different."

"So! there _is_ some one then; the girl is not absolutely a myth."

"Far from it. Nor is the will which Mrs. Ransom has asked me to draw up
for her a myth."

"Her will! she has asked you to draw up her will!"

"Yes. That was the object of her visit. She had entered the married
state, she said, and wished to make a legal disposition of her property
before she returned to you. She was very nervous when she said this; very
nervous through all the interview. There was nothing else for me to do
but comply."

"And you have drawn up this will?"

"According to her instructions, yes."

"But she has not signed it?"

"Not yet."

"But she intends to?"

"Certainly."

"Then you will see her again?"

"Naturally."

"_Is the time set?_"

The lawyer rose to his feet. He understood the hint implied and for an
instant appeared to waver. There was something very winsome about Roger
Ransom; some attribute or expression which appealed especially to men.

"I wish I might help you out of your difficulty," said he. "But a
client's wishes are paramount. Mrs. Ransom desired secrecy. She had every
right to demand it of me."

Mr. Ransom's face fell. Hope had flashed upon him only to disappear
again. The lawyer eyed him out of the corner of his eye, his mouth
working slightly as he walked to and fro between his desk and the door.

"Mrs. Ransom will not always feel herself hampered by a sister, or, if
you prefer it, a brother who has so inconveniently come back from the
dead. You will have the pleasure of her society some day. There is no
doubt about her affection for you."

"But that isn't it," exclaimed the now thoroughly discouraged husband.
"I am afraid for her reason, afraid for her life. There is something
decidedly wrong somewhere. Don't you see that I must have an immediate
interview with her if only to satisfy myself that she aggravates her own
danger? Why should she make a will in this underhanded way? Does she fear
opposition from me? I have a fortune equal to her own. It is something
else she dreads. What? I feel that I ought to know if only to protect her
against herself. I would even promise n