her
enemy, and the misery of perpetual contact with him. To buy off such a
man, at once and finally, was, she knew, utterly beyond her power--what
then could she do?

When they were at home, and the door of their sitting-room safely
closed, she turned anxiously to Lucia,

"Bailey is here," she said.

"Bailey?" Lucia repeated--she had forgotten the name.

"The man who was present at my marriage--the American."

"Mamma! How do you know?"

"Father Paul told me just now."

"How did he know?"

"The wretched man had gone to him begging, and he mentioned him to me by
chance, thinking I might know something about him."

"But surely he would not remember you?"

"I think he would. If by any accident he met you and me together, I am
certain he would."

"Ah! I am so like my father."

"Lucia, I _dare_ not meet him. I believe the very sight of him would
kill me."

"Let us go away, mamma. He knows nothing about us yet. We might start
to-morrow."

"Where should we go? Even at our own door we might meet him, at the
railway station--anywhere. No, it is only inside these walls we are
safe, and scarcely here."

Mrs. Costello was literally trembling, the panic which had seized her
was so great; Lucia, not fully understanding yet, could not help being
infected by her terror.

"But, mamma, we cannot shut ourselves up in these rooms. That, with the
constant fear added to it, would soon make you ill again."

"What can we do?" Mrs. Costello repeated helplessly. "If, indeed, we
could start to-night, and go south, or go out of France altogether. But
I have not even money in the house for our journey."

"And if you had, you have not strength for it. Would not it be well to
consult Mr. Wynter? If we had any friend here who would make the
arrangement for us, I don't see why we should not be able to go away
without any fear of meeting this man."

"No; that would not do. To consult George would just be opening up again
all that was most painful--it would be almost as bad as meeting Bailey
himself."

"And we could not be stopped even if we did meet Bailey. Let me go
alone, mamma, and do what is to be done--it is not much. If I meet him I
shall not know it, and seeing me alone, the likeness cannot be so strong
as to make him recognize me all at once."

"But he might see us together when we start from here; and he might
trace us. He would know at once that he could get money from me, and for
money he would do anything."

Sh