een thinking of her position in
every light, and I really do not see any thing she could have done,
except running away as she did, or making up her mind to be deaf and
blind and dumb. There was no other alternative."

"But could he not be induced to leave her in peace if she gave up a
portion of her property?" I asked.

"Why should he?" she retorted. "If she was in his hands the whole of the
property would be his. He will never release her--never. No, her only
chance is to hide herself from him. The law cannot deal with wrongs like
hers, because they are as light as air apparently, though they are as
all-pervading as air is, and as poisonous as air can be. They are like
choke-damp, only not quite fatal. He is as crafty and cunning as a
serpent. He could prove himself the kindest, most considerate of
husbands, and Olivia next thing to an idiot. Oh, it is ridiculous to
think of pitting a girl like her against him!"

"If she had been older, or if she had had a child, she would never have
left him," said my mother's gentle and sorrowful voice.

"But what can be done for her?" I asked, vehemently and passionately.
"My poor Olivia! what can I do to protect her?"

"Nothing!" answered Kate Daltrey, coldly. "Her only chance is
concealment, and what a poor chance that is! I went over to Sark, never
thinking that your Miss Ollivier whom I had heard so much of was Olivia
Foster. It is an out-of-the-world place; but so much the more readily
they will find her, if they once get a clew. A fox is soon caught when
it cannot double; and how could Olivia escape if they only traced her to
Sark?"

My dread of the woman into whose hands my imbecile curiosity had put the
clew was growing greater every minute. It seemed as if Olivia could not
be safe now, day or night; yet what protection could I or Tardif give to
her?

"You will not betray her?" I said to Kate Daltrey, though feeling all
the time that I could not trust her in the smallest degree.

"I have promised dear Julia that," she answered.

I should fail to give you any clear idea of my state of mind should I
attempt to analyze it. The most bitter thought in it was that my own
imprudence had betrayed Olivia. But for me she might have remained for
years, in peace and perfect seclusion, in the home to which she had
drifted. Richard Foster and his accomplice must have lost all hope of
finding her during the many months that had elapsed between her
disappearance and my visit to