of thorns and noxious weeds. My
records are full of lives wrecked upon the glittering rocks built by
false pride and vanity and the greed for gold which society, and even
the aristocratic systems of modern religion compel. Whatever may be
preached, all this cursed assumption of what is not possessed without
years of honest, sturdy toil, is practised in the pulpit, the pew, the
palace, and the poverty-stricken hovel, permeating every stratum of
business, society and religion, until honorable action is at discount,
dishonesty commands a premium of gain and lachrymose sympathy, and the
whole world is being swiftly driven into a surging channel of fraud,
crime and debauchery that will require generations of something besides
splendid hypocrisy and luxurious cant to restrain and purify.

With this digression, which I cannot well avoid, as it contains the
convictions based upon long years of close observation and peculiar
experience, I will return to the woman whom my operatives found so
difficult to analyze and trace out.

Bangs's visit to Dr. Hubbard showed that she had a habit of driving out.
Bristol and Fox became acquainted with this fact at once and transmitted
it in their reports. It appeared that the carriage and driver were
secured at a livery stable near the opera house, a short distance from
her rooms and Fox's boarding-house. I instructed Fox to ascertain to
what points these trips were made, and if any one ever accompanied her.
Careful inquiries at this stable elicited nothing, as Mrs. Winslow's
custom was valuable, and even her driver proved close-mouthed upon the
subject. Accordingly, after Fox had discovered the general direction
taken by Mrs. Winslow and the usual streets frequented at starting, he
strolled out State Street and from thence into Lake View Avenue, which
is but a continuation of State Street. After he had walked some little
distance he was pleased to find that he had company in the person of a
dapper little blond gentleman who was somewhat in advance of him, but
who, though apparently enjoying the morning air, seemed both
apprehensive of being followed, and desirous of the appearance of some
one for whom he was waiting. His make-up gave him something of a foreign
air, and was the most exquisite imaginable. He was a slender, tender
nymph of the male order of fairies, with a face as delicate as a
woman's, with large, blue, expressive eyes, long, luxuriant hair, and as
neat a little moustache as