sympathize with me in the project. I was
afraid he might make a blunder, or in some way fail me. Any way, this
was a matter which I wished to attend to myself.

XLI.

MISS LANISTON.

At eight o'clock that evening I was at the house of Miss Laniston. The
lady was at home, and received me. She advanced with both hands
extended.

"Truly," she cried, "this is the most charming instance of masculine
forgiveness I have ever witnessed."

I took one of her hands; this much for the sake of policy. "Madam," I
said, "I am not thinking of forgiveness, or unforgiveness. I am here to
ask a favor; and if you grant it, I am willing that it shall
counterbalance everything between us which suggests forgiveness."

"Dear me!" she exclaimed, leading the way to a sofa. "Sit down, and let
me know my opportunities."

I did not want to sit down, but, as I said before, I felt that I must be
politic, and so took a seat on the other end of the sofa.

"My errand is a very simple one," I said. "I merely want to know the
address of Mother Anastasia, in Washington."

The lady folded her hands in her lap, and looked at me steadily.

"Very simple, indeed," she said. "Why do you come to me for this
address? Would not the sisters give it to you?"

"For various reasons I did not care to ask them," I replied.

"One of them being, I suppose, that you knew you would not get it."

I did not reply to this remark.

"If you know the address," I inquired, "will you kindly give it to me?
It is necessary that I should have it at once."

"To telegraph?" she asked.

"No, I am going to her."

"Oh!" ejaculated the lady, and there was a pause in the conversation.
"It does not strike me," she said presently, "that I have any authority
to tell gentlemen where to find Mother Anastasia, but I can telegraph
and ask her if she is willing that I shall send you to her."

This proposition did not suit me at all. I was quite sure that the
Mother Superior would not consider it advisable that I should come to
her, and would ask me to postpone my communication until she should
return to Arden. But Arden, as I had found, would be a very poor place
for the long and earnest interview which I desired.

"That would not do," I answered; "she would not understand. I wish to
see her on an important matter, which can be explained only in a
personal interview."

"You excite my curiosity," said Miss Laniston. "Why don't you make me
your confidante? In that cas