e of
her mother, so I out with my apparatus and took it. But when I come
to see that they were as nigh alike as two peas, I hated to give it
up, for I thought it would be almost as good as lookin' at 'Leny. So
I kept it myself, but I don't want her to know it, for she'd be mad."

"Did you ever take a copy of this for any one?" asked Durward, a
faint light beginning to dawn upon him.

"What a feller to hang on," answered Joel, "but bein' I've started,
I'll go it and tell the hull. One morning when I was in Lexington, a
gentleman came in, calling himself Mr. Graham, and saying he wanted a
copy of an old mountain house which he had seen at Mr. Livingstone's.
Whilst I was gettin' it ready, he happened to come acrost this one,
and what is the queerest of all, he like to fainted away. I had to
throw water in his face and everything. Bimeby he cum to, and says
he, 'Where did you get that?' I told him all about it, and then,
layin' his head on the table, he groaned orfully, wipin' off the
thumpinest great drops of sweat and kissin' the picter as if he was
crazy.

"'Mebby you knew Helleny Nichols?' says I.

"'Knew her, yes,' says he, jumpin' up and walkin' the room as fast.

"All to once he grew calm, just as though nothin' had happened, and
says he, 'I must have that or one jest like it.'

"At first I hesitated, for I felt kinder mean always about keepin'
it, and I didn't want 'Leny to know I'd got it. I told him so, and
he said nobody but himself should ever see it. So I took a smaller
one, leavin' off the lower part of the body, as the dress is
old-fashioned, you see. He was as tickled as a boy with a new top,
and actually forgot to take the other one of the mountain house.
Some months after, I came across him in Cincinnati. His wife was
with him, and I thought then that she looked like Aunt Nancy. Wall,
he went with me to my office, and said he wanted another
daguerreotype, as he'd lost the first one. Now I'm, pretty good at
figgerin', and I've thought that matter over until I've come to this
conclusion--_that man_--was--'Lena's father--the husband or something
of Helleny Nichols! But what ails you? Are you faintin', too," he
exclaimed, as he saw the death-like whiteness which had settled upon
Durward's face and around his mouth.

"Tell me more, everything you know," gasped Durward.

"I have told you all I know for certain," said Joel. "The rest is
only guess-work, but it looks plaguy reasonable. 'L