e which bent its head upon your hand, and I saw you put your mouth
where his had been. When you went away I did not go. Something kept me
behind. A moment afterward, I heard voices inside the hedge--just one
exclamation from each person--I could swear to that! and then--O
heaven!"

"What then!"

"A blow! a dull, terrible thud, a smothered groan, a fall--and I stood
there powerless to move--stricken dumb and motionless! And while I stood
transfixed, some person rushed past me, breathless, panting, reckless of
everything save escape! Margie, it was so dark that I could not be
positive, but I am morally certain that the person I saw was Archer
Trevlyn!"

"My God!" Margie cowered down to the floor, and hid her face in the folds
of Alexandrine's dress.

"Hear me through," Miss Lee went on relentlessly, her face growing
colder and harder with every word. "Hear me through and then decide for
yourself. Let no opinion of mine bias your judgment. I stood there a
moment longer, and then, when suspended volition came back to me, I fled
from the place. Margie, words cannot express to you my distress, my
bitter, burning anguish! It was like to madness. But sooner than have
divulged my suspicions, I would have killed myself! For I loved Archer
Trevlyn with a depth and fervor which your cool nature has no conception
of. I love him still, though I feel convinced, from the bottom of my
soul, that he is a murderer!"

Her cheeks grew brilliant as red roses, her eyes sparkled like stars.
Margie looked into the bewilderingly beautiful face with suspended
breath. The woman's passionate presence scorched her; she could not
be herself, with those eyes of fire blazing down into hers.

Alexandrine resumed, "I am wasting time. Let me hurry on to the end, or
your lover will be here before I finish."

"My lover!" cried Margie, in a dazed sort of way, "_my lover_? O yes I
remember, Archer Trevlyn was coming. Is it nearly time for him?"

Alexandrine took the shrinking, cowering girl by the shoulders, and
lifted her into a seat.

"Rouse yourself, Margie. I have not done. I want you to hear it all."

"Yes, I am hearing."

It was pitiful to see how helpless and weak the poor child had become.
All sense of joy and sorrow seemed to have died out of her.

"I feared so much that when the body of the murdered man should be
discovered, there would be some clue which would point to the guilty
party! Such a night as I passed, while they searched f