to the prison
as a turnkey. It was his custom, when I lay weak and helpless in the
semistupor of starvation, to glide into my cell and, standing by my
couch, to recite to me the list of tempting viands that might appear
daily upon the board of a Countess of Claiborne.

"He soon learned that his very presence itself was a persecution. After
my release from jail the last time, he began to follow me everywhere.
Turn where I would, there was Reginald Maltravers. At suffrage meetings
he took his station directly before the speaker's stand, stroked his
long blond mustache with his long white fingers, and stared at me
steadfastly through his monocle, with an evil smile upon his face.
Formerly he had, in several instances, prevented me from attending
suffrage meetings; once he had me spirited away and imprisoned for a
week when it fell to my lot to burn a railroad station for the good of
the cause. He strove to ruin me with my leaders in this despicable
manner.

"But in the end he took to showing himself; he stood and stared. Merely
that. He was subtle enough to shift the persecution from the province
of the physical to the realm of the psychological. It was like being
haunted. Even when I did not see him, I began to THINK that I saw him.
He deliberately planted that hallucination in my mind. It is a wonder
that I did not go mad.

"I finally determined to flee to America. I made all my arrangements
with care and--as I thought--with secrecy. I imagined that I had given
him the slip. But he was too clever for me. The third day out, as one
of the ship's officers was showing me about the vessel, I detected
Reginald Maltravers in the hold. It is not usual to allow women so far
below decks; but I had insisted on seeing everything. Perspiring,
begrimed, and mopping the moisture from his brow with a piece of cotton
waste, there he stood in the guise of a--of--a croaker, is it, Mr.
Cleggett?"

"Stoker, I believe," said Cleggett.

"Stoker. Thank you. He turned away in confusion when he saw that he
was discovered. I perceived that, designing to cross on the same ship
with me, he had thought himself hidden there. He was not wearing his
monocle, but I would know that sloping forehead, that blond mustache,
and that long, high, bony nose anywhere."

Lady Agatha broke off for a moment. She was extremely agitated. But
presently she continued: "I endeavored to evade him. The attempt was
useless. He found me out at once.