nswer to Mrs. Ocumpaugh's
heart-rending appeal.

"We do not hear because she was not taken from you simply for the money
her return would bring. Indeed, after hours of action and considerable
thinking, I am beginning to doubt if she was taken for money at all. Can
you not think of some other motive? Do you not know of some one who
wanted the child from--_love_, let us say?"

"Love?"

Did her lips frame it, or did I see it in her eyes? Certainly I heard no
sound, yet I was conscious that she repeated the word in her mind, if
not aloud.

"I know I have startled you," I pursued. "But, pardon me--I can not help
my presumption--I must be personal--I must even go so far as to probe
the wound I have made. You have a claim to Gwendolen not to be doubted,
not to be gainsaid. But isn't there some one else who is conscious of
possessing certain claims also? I do not allude to Mr. Ocumpaugh."

"You mean--some relative--aunt--cousin--" She was fully human now, and
very keenly alert. "Mr. Rathbone, perhaps?"

"No, Mrs. Ocumpaugh, none of these." Then as the paper rattled in her
hand and I saw her eyes fall in terror on it, I said as calmly and
respectfully as I could: "You have a secret, Mrs. Ocumpaugh; that secret
I share."

The paper trembled from her clasp and fell fluttering downward. I
pointed at it and waited till our eyes met, possibly that I might give
her some encouragement from my look if not from my words.

"I was a boy in Doctor Pool's employ some five years ago, and one day--"

I paused; she had made me a supplicating gesture.

"Shall I not go on?" I finally asked.

"Give me a minute," was her low entreaty. "O God! O God! that I should
have thought myself secure all these years, with two in the world
knowing my fatal secret!"

"I learned it by accident," I went on, when I saw her eye turn again on
mine. "On a certain night six years ago, I was in the office behind an
old curtain--you remember the curtain hanging at the left of the
doctor's table over that break in the book-shelves. I had no business
there. I had been meddling with things which did not belong to me and,
when I heard the doctor's step at the door, was glad to shrink into this
refuge and wait for an opportunity to escape. It did not come very soon.
First he had one patient, then another. The last one was you; I heard
your name and caught a glimpse of your face as you went out. It was a
very interesting story you told him--I was touched by it