stop a man in front got out, leaving a newspaper in the seat.
With eager hands, Dunham leaned forward and grasped it, searching its
columns in vain for the tantalizing headlines. But there were others
equally arrestive. This paper announced the mysterious disappearance of a
young actress who was suspected of poisoning her husband. When seen last,
she was boarding a train en route to Washington. She had not arrived
there, however, so far as could be discovered. It was supposed that she
was lingering in the vicinity of Philadelphia or Baltimore. There were
added a few incriminating details concerning her relationship with her
dead husband, and a brief sketch of her sensational life. The paragraph
closed with the statement that she was an accomplished musician.

The young man frowned and, opening his window, flung the scandalous sheet
to the breeze. He determined to forget what he had read, yet the lines
kept coming before his eyes.

When he reached the city he went to the news-stand in the station, where
was an agent who knew him, and procured a copy of every paper on sale.
Then, instead of hurrying home, he found a seat in a secluded corner and
proceeded to examine his purchases.

In large letters on the front page of a New York paper blazed:

HOUSE ROBBED OF JEWELS WORTH TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS BY BEAUTIFUL
YOUNG ADVENTURESS MASQUERADING AS A PARLOR MAID

He ran his eye down the column and gathered that she was still at large,
though the entire police force of New York was on her track. He shivered
at the thought, and began to feel sympathy for all wrong-doers and truants
from the law. It was horrible to have detectives out everywhere watching
for beautiful young women, just when this one in whom his interest
centred was trying to escape from something.

He turned to another paper, only to be met by the words:

ESCAPE OF FAIR LUNATIC

and underneath:

Prison walls could not confine Miss Nancy Lee, who last week
threw a lighted lamp at her mother, setting fire to the house,
and then attempted suicide. The young woman seems to have
recovered her senses, and professes to know nothing of what
happened, but the physicians say she is liable to another attack
of insanity, and deem it safe to keep her confined. She escaped
during the night, leaving no clew to her whereabouts. How she
managed to get open the window through which she left the asylum
is still a mystery.

In