assage-way we paused.

"This is the door," whispered Miss Althorpe. "Perhaps I had better go in
first and see if she is at all prepared for company."

I was glad to have her do so, for I felt as if I needed to prepare
myself for encountering this young girl, over whom, in my mind, hung
the dreadful suspicion of murder.

But the time between Miss Althorpe's knock and her entrance, short as it
was, was longer than that which elapsed between her going in and her
hasty reappearance.

"You can have your wish," said she. "She is lying on her bed asleep, and
you can see her without being observed. But," she entreated, with a
passionate grip of my arm, which proclaimed her warm nature, "doesn't it
seem a little like taking advantage of her?"

"Circumstances justify it in this case," I replied, admiring the
consideration of my hostess, but not thinking it worth while to emulate
it. And with very little ceremony I pushed open the door and entered the
room of the so-called Ruth Oliver.

The hush and quiet which met me, though nothing more than I had reason
to expect, gave me my first shock, and the young figure outstretched on
a bed of dainty whiteness, my second. Everything about me was so
peaceful, and the delicate blue and white of the room so expressive of
innocence and repose, that my feet instinctively moved more softly over
the polished floor and paused, when they did pause, before that dimly
shrouded bed, with something like hesitation in their usually emphatic
tread.

The face of that bed's occupant, which I could now plainly see, may have
had an influence in producing this effect. It was so rounded with
health, and yet so haggard with trouble. Not knowing whether Miss
Althorpe was behind me or not, but too intent upon the sleeping girl to
care, I bent over the half-averted features and studied them carefully.

They were indeed Madonna-like, something which I had not expected,
notwithstanding the assurances I had received to that effect, and while
distorted with suffering, amply accounted for the interest shown in her
by the good-hearted Mrs. Desberger and the cultured Miss Althorpe.

Resenting this beauty, which so poorly accommodated itself to the
character of the woman who possessed it, I leaned nearer, searching for
some defect in her loveliness, when I saw that the struggle and anguish
visible in her expression were due to some dream she was having.

Moved, even against my will, by the touching sight of he