obable to the
point of absurdity, or possibly to the extreme of pathos!

It seemed incredible that a woman of that quality should be forced to
accept a vocation at once so low, so distasteful, and so unremunerative.
With her evident antecedents, had she no friends but this common Western
night watchman of a bank? Had Roberts deceived him? Was his whole story
a fabrication, and was there some complicity between the two? What was
it? He knit his brows.

Mr. Breeze had that overpowering knowledge of the world which only comes
with the experience of twenty-five, and to this he superadded the active
imagination of a newspaper man. A plot to rob the bank? These mysterious
absences, that luggage which he doubted not was empty and intended for
spoil! But why encumber herself with the two children? Here his common
sense and instinct of the ludicrous returned and he smiled.

But he could not believe in the ballet dancer! He wondered, indeed, how
any manager could have accepted the grim satire of that pale, worried
face among the fairies, that sad refinement amid their vacant smiles and
rouged checks. And then, growing sad again, he comforted himself with
the reflection that at least the children were not alone that night, and
so went to sleep.

For some days he had no further meeting with his neighbors. The
disturbed state of the city--for the Vigilance Committee were still in
session--obliged the daily press to issue "extras," and his work at the
office increased.

It was not until Sunday again that he was able to be at home. Needless
to say that his solitary little companions were duly installed there,
while he sat at work with his proofs on the table before him.

The stillness of the empty house was only broken by the habitually
subdued voices of the children at their play, when suddenly the harsh
stroke of a distant bell came through the open window. But it was no
Sabbath bell, and Mr. Breeze knew it. It was the tocsin of the Vigilance
Committee, summoning the members to assemble at their quarters for
a capture, a trial, or an execution of some wrongdoer. To him it was
equally a summons to the office--to distasteful news and excitement.

He threw his proofs aside in disgust, laid down his pen, seized his hat,
and paused a moment to look round for his playmates. But they were gone!
He went into the hall, looked into the open door of their room, but they
were not there. He tried the door of the second room, but it was lo