rply. Her lips went suddenly white, and her
look became a trifle wild. I watched her keenly.

"Mr. Swift!" she presently whispered, in dismay. "How unfair!"

"I do not mean to be unfair," I tried to make clear; but she cut me short.

"Are you trying to prepare me for--for the worst?"

"Gracious, no!" I expostulated, with an embarrassed laugh. "But I should
like to have you answer my question."

"It is hideous even to assume such a thing," she very soberly made
answer; "but if such were actually the case, I--I--"

"Well?" I prompted curiously, when she paused and pressed a hand to her
throat.

Of a sudden the lovely eyes were brimming with tears. She timidly laid a
hand upon my arm.

"You _don't_ think he 's guilty, do you?" she murmured distressfully. It
wrung my heart.

"Don't--please don't," I said hastily. "Here is my honest opinion, Miss
Cooper: whatever that young man has done to involve himself in this
affair, I am sure that he is no deliberate, cold-blooded assassin; my
judgment of his character could not be so far at fault.

"For the same reason I am strongly inclined to believe his story,
preposterous as it appears standing alone. I don't mind admitting--to
you, Miss Cooper--that I 'm looking beyond him for the guilty man."

She drew a long breath of relief and clasped her hands in her lap. But
how little did either of us realize that we had disposed of one difficult
situation only to turn round and find ourselves face to face with
another. My candor, to which she had made such a powerful appeal, soon
led to an impasse; one that neither of us was in the least prepared for.

"Of course," she said presently, in a low voice, "I would not utter a
word or lift a finger to influence you from what you regard as your duty.
If your assumption were true, why, I would be with Belle, doing all that
lies within my humble power to comfort her."

She leaned toward me impulsively, her face all at once bright and
animated.

"Mr. Swift," she began, and stopped amid sudden confusion.

"Tell me, Miss Cooper," I encouraged her.

"Oh, I can't--I should not," she said, blushing.

Her blushes signified a deal to me, for I harbored an idea that she was
not given to betraying her feelings so vividly. I was curious.

"The first impulse was the best, I 'm sure," I urged.

"It was merely a flitting thought," she responded, her repose still
shaken; "it was purely out of absent-mindedness that I came so near