n known to
you. The mere fact of seeing a strange gentleman in the hall would have
been insufficient to cause you astonishment, Mr. Harwell."

He uneasily fingered the back of the chair before which he stood, but
made no reply.

"Sit down," I again urged, this time with a touch of command in my
voice. "This is a serious matter, and I intend to deal with it as it
deserves. You once said that if you knew anything which might serve
to exonerate Eleanore Leavenworth from the suspicion under which she
stands, you would be ready to impart it."

"Pardon me. I said that if I had ever known anything calculated to
release her from her unhappy position, I would have spoken," he coldly
corrected.

"Do not quibble. You know, and I know, that you are keeping something
back; and I ask you, in her behalf, and in the cause of justice, to tell
me what it is."

"You are mistaken," was his dogged reply. "I have reasons, perhaps, for
certain conclusions I may have drawn; but my conscience will not allow
me in cold blood to give utterance to suspicions which may not only
damage the reputation of an honest man, but place me in the unpleasant
position of an accuser without substantial foundation for my
accusations."

"You occupy that position already," I retorted, with equal coldness.
"Nothing can make me forget that in my presence you have denounced Henry
Clavering as the murderer of Mr. Leavenworth. You had better explain
yourself, Mr. Harwell."

He gave me a short look, but moved around and took the chair. "You have
me at a disadvantage," he said, in a lighter tone. "If you choose to
profit by your position, and press me to disclose the little I know, I
can only regret the necessity under which I lie, and speak."

"Then you are deterred by conscientious scruples alone?"

"Yes, and by the meagreness of the facts at my command."

"I will judge of the facts when I have heard them."

He raised his eyes to mine, and I was astonished to observe a strange
eagerness in their depths; evidently his convictions were stronger
than his scruples. "Mr. Raymond," he began, "you are a lawyer, and
undoubtedly a practical man; but you may know what it is to scent danger
before you see it, to feel influences working in the air over and
about you, and yet be in ignorance of what it is that affects you so
powerfully, till chance reveals that an enemy has been at your side, or
a friend passed your window, or the shadow of death crossed your book as