f away on an adventurer."

"I won't," she replied, sententiously; "I'd like to hear of anybody
saying that! I'd excommunicate them, I'm going to close the mouths of
gossips, by setting my seal of proprietorship upon you. I'm coming here
every day; but, after this, I'll bring Aunt Honor, or Mrs. O'Meara with
me. I'm going to say to every soul who names you to me: 'Doctor Heath is
my affianced husband, defame him if you dare.' And I'm going straight to
tell Mr. O'Meara that he must take your testimony against Frank
Lamotte."

Constance kept her word. Before many days, the town rang with the news
that Constance Wardour, in the face of the accusation against him, had
announced her engagement to Doctor Clifford Heath.

Then a hush fell upon the aristocratic gossipers of W----, and
mischievous tongues were severely bridled. It was not wise to censure
too freely a man whom the heiress of Wardour had marked with her favor.

The lawyers found their client in a mood much more to their liking, and
O'Meara scribbled down in his little book long sentences caught from the
lips of Clifford Heath, who was now a strong helper, and apt in
suggestions for the defense.

He opened for them the sealed up pages of his past life.

He told them in detail, all that he had briefly stated to Constance,
concerning Frank Lamotte, and more.

Every day now they were in close consultation, and every day the Wardour
carriage drove at a stated hour, first to Mapleton, where it took up
Constance, and then to the prison, where, accompanied by her aunt, or
her guardian's wife, the heiress passed a half hour in the cell of her
lover.

She still clung to the hope that the accumulating evidence against Frank
Lamotte might break the chain that bound him, and open his prison doors;
but, one day, a week after her first visit to the prison, Mr. O'Meara
dashed this hope to atoms.

"We can bring no criminal accusation against Lamotte," he said. "The
examination proved that John Burrill was killed as early as eleven
o'clock that night, and investigation has proven that Lamotte remained
at home all that evening, and was heard moving about in his room until
after midnight. I'm terribly sorry, Constance, but the case stands just
about as it did at first, and the odds are still against Heath. He will
have to stand his trial."

The girl's heart sank like lead, and as days passed on and no new
developments could be evolved from a case which began to assume a mo