aid, slightly smiling. 'I am not alarmed at
what you have told me, but I do not doubt it, and if you think it
best, if it will help you, I will give that young woman a chance to
ease her mind to me. I will leave you here with Aunt Ann, and go,
under her eyes, to the building next to this, on to the Washington
House, and give her a chance to follow.'

I waited for the elder lady to speak, and my own surprise was great at
her brave proposition--for it was brave, braver than she knew; and I
was asking myself if I had the right to let her go to meet--an
adventuress at the least, a criminal possibly. But her aunt gave the
decisive word.

'My dear June, thee knows I do not like a mystery. If anything is to
be learned concerning this person's strange conduct, we should find it
out, and end the following and spying, else it will not be safe for
thee to come here alone, even by day.'

'Fie! Aunt Ann--with all these guards and half the world looking on?
Then I had better go, Mr. Masters.'

'If you will.'

'Have you any advice or instructions to give me?'

'I think you will know how to proceed. Only it might be well to let
her talk, if she will.'

'Certainly.'

'And, Miss Jenrys, let me beg of you, do not go away from this
immediate vicinity, and do not walk upon the streets with this person
if it can be avoided. Above all, do not make a further appointment
with her.'

'I will be discreet. Good-bye for a short time, Aunt Ann.' She dropped
the newly-returned bag into her aunt's lap and went away, as lithe and
careless-seeming as the veriest pleasure-seeker.

She looked up and down at the windows of the South Dakota House and
then walked deliberately in.

CHAPTER XII.

'MORE DANGEROUS THAN HATE.'

When we had watched her vanish within the walls of the opposite
building, Miss Ross--for 'Aunt Ann' was a spinster--deliberately arose
and took the place beside me.

'We can talk better so,' she said placidly, 'and I want to talk with
thee.' And she began to roll up her knitting with care.

As we sat there I was almost hidden from view from the streets,
because of the thick vine tendrils that fell like a curtain between me
and the passers-by, while it did not prevent my looking through the
green drapery at my pleasure. But Aunt Ann had placed herself where
she was plainly visible to all who passed.

'Now,' she began, having put away her knitting, 'I ask thee honestly,
sir, does thee think my niece in real dan