The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mystery of Mary, by Grace Livingston Hill

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Title: The Mystery of Mary

Author: Grace Livingston Hill

Release Date: January 7, 2005 [EBook #14632]
[Date last updated: January 15, 2005]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MYSTERY
OF MARY

BY
GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ

AUTHOR OF

MARCIA SCHUYLER,
PHOEBE DEANE, ETC.

FRONTISPIECE BY

ANNA W. SPEAKMAN

[Illustration]

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

* * * * *

Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

THE MYSTERY OF MARY

[Illustration: THEY STRUGGLED UP, SCARCELY PAUSING FOR BREATH _Page 8_]

The Mystery _of_ Mary

I

He paused on the platform and glanced at his watch. The train on which he
had just arrived was late. It hurried away from the station, and was
swallowed up in the blackness of the tunnel, as if it knew its own
shortcomings and wished to make up for them.

It was five minutes of six, and as the young man looked back at the long
flight of steps that led to the bridge across the tracks, a delicate
pencilling of electric light flashed into outline against the city's
deepening dusk, emphasizing the lateness of the hour. He had a dinner
engagement at seven, and it was yet some distance to his home, where a
rapid toilet must be made if he were to arrive on time.

The stairway was long, and there were many people thronging it. A shorter
cut led down along the tracks under the bridge, and up the grassy
embankment. It would bring him a whole block nearer home, and a line of
cabs was standing over at the corner just above the bridge. It was against
the rules to walk beside the tracks--there was a large sign to that effect
in front of him--but it would save five minutes. He scanned the platform
hastily to see if any officials were in sight, then bolted down the
darkening tracks.

Under the centre of the bridge a slig