undone. What's past remedy is past regret. And what can't be
cured must be endured. The old man squealed, and had to be squelched, or
he'd have brought the house about our ears--'"

"Oh, my father! my dear father! my poor, murdered father! And _you_!
oh _you_! with the beauty and glory of the archangel, and the
cruelty and deceit of the arch fiend, I can never look upon your face
again--never! The sight would blast me like a flame of fire," raved
Salome, throwing back her head, wringing her hands, and gasping as if
for breath of life.

"Ah, my dear lady, I know how hard it is! Pardon me, my lady, but I feel
a mother's heart in my bosom for you. Try to be patient, sweet lady, and
do not despair. You are so young yet, hardly more than a child you seem.
You have a long life before you yet. And if you be good, as I am sure you
will be, it will be a happy life, in which these early sorrows will pass
away like morning mists," said the woman, soothingly.

"Oh, never more for me will morning dawn! Eternal night rests on my soul!
For myself I do not care! But, oh, my ruined archangel!" she wailed,
burying her face in her hands.

A dead silence fell between the two, until Salome, without changing her
position, murmured;

"Go on to the end; I will not interrupt you again. Oh, that I could wake
from this night-mare!--or--expire in it! Go on and finish."

"My lady, while the two men were speaking, they came in sight of the
woman who was waiting under the balcony. Then Mr. John Scott says: 'Hush!
my girl will hear us.' And they hushed, but it was too late--she had
heard them. Mr. John Scott came up to her in a hurry, and put a small but
heavy bag in her hand, saying that she must take it and take care of it,
and never let it go out of her possession, and that she must hurry back
to Lone Station and catch the midnight express train back to London, and
that he himself would follow her, and join her at home the next night."

"And all that, too, was proved--yes, proved by the mouths of two
witnesses at the inquest, though they did not either of them recognize
the man or the woman," moaned Salome.

"Mrs. John Scott returned to my house about breakfast time the next
morning, my lady, bringing that bag with her, which I noticed she
wouldn't let out of her sight, no, nor even out of her hand, while I was
near her. She wouldn't answer any of my questions, or give me any
satisfaction then, even so far as to tell me where she had been,