EW YORK UNDER A CLOUD

PAST HISTORY OF MISS ELEANORE LEAVENWORTH

I was prepared for it; had schooled myself for this very thing, you
might say; and yet I could not help recoiling. Dropping the paper from
my hand, I stood before her, longing and yet dreading to look into her
face.

"What does it mean?" she panted; "what, what does it mean? Is the world
mad?" and her eyes, fixed and glassy, stared into mine as if she found
it impossible to grasp the sense of this outrage.

I shook my head. I could not reply.

"To accuse _me_" she murmured; "me, me!" striking her breast with her
clenched hand, "who loved the very ground he trod upon; who would have
cast my own body between him and the deadly bullet if I had only known
his danger. Oh!" she cried, "it is not a slander they utter, but a
dagger which they thrust into my heart!"

Overcome by her misery, but determined not to show my compassion until
more thoroughly convinced of her complete innocence, I replied, after a
pause:

"This seems to strike you with great surprise, Miss Leavenworth; were
you not then able to foresee what must follow your determined reticence
upon certain points? Did you know so little of human nature as to
imagine that, situated as you are, you could keep silence in regard to
any matter connected with this crime, without arousing the antagonism of
the crowd, to say nothing of the suspicions of the police?"

"But--but----"

I hurriedly waved my hand. "When you defied the coroner to find
any suspicious paper in your possession; when"--I forced myself to
speak--"you refused to tell Mr. Gryce how you came in possession of the
key--"

She drew hastily back, a heavy pall seeming to fall over her with my
words.

"Don't," she whispered, looking in terror about her. "Don't! Sometimes I
think the walls have ears, and that the very shadows listen."

"Ah," I returned; "then you hope to keep from the world what is known to
the detectives?"

She did not answer.

"Miss Leavenworth," I went on, "I am afraid you do not comprehend
your position. Try to look at the case for a moment in the light of
an unprejudiced person; try to see for yourself the necessity of
explaining----"

"But I cannot explain," she murmured huskily.

"Cannot!"

I do not know whether it was the tone of my voice or the word itself,
but that simple expression seemed to affect her like a blow.

"Oh!" she cried, shrinking back: "you do not, cannot doubt me, too? I
though