xcellent memory, he gave a _verbatim_ account of the conversation that
had passed between him and the old woman. Mr. Orcutt listened, as he
always did, without interruption or outward demonstration; but when the
recital was over and Mr. Byrd ventured to look at him once more, he
noticed that he was very pale and greatly changed in expression. Being
himself in a position to understand somewhat of the other's emotion, he
regained by an effort the air of polite nonchalance that became him so
well, and quickly suggested: "Miss Dare will, of course, be able to
explain herself."

The lawyer flashed upon him a quick glance.

"I hope you have no doubts on the subject," he said; then, as the
detective's eye fell a trifle before his, paused and looked at him with
the self-possession gained in fifteen years of practice in the criminal
courts, and said: "I am Miss Dare's best friend. I know her well, and
can truly say that not only is her character above reproach, but that I
am acquainted with no circumstances that could in any way connect her
with this crime. Nevertheless, the incidents of the day have been such
as to make it desirable for her to explain herself, and this, as you
say, she will probably have no difficulty in doing. If you will,
therefore, wait till to-morrow before taking any one else into your
confidence, I promise you to see Miss Dare myself, and, from her own
lips, learn the cause of her peculiar interest in this affair.
Meanwhile, let me request you to put a curb upon your imagination, and
not allow it to soar too high into the regions of idle speculation."

And he held out his hand to the detective with a smile whose vain
attempt at unconcern affected Mr. Byrd more than a violent outbreak
would have done. It betrayed so unmistakably that his own secret doubts
were not without an echo in the breast of this eminent lawyer.

IV.

IMOGENE.

You are a riddle, solve you who can.--KNOWLES.

MR. ORCUTT was a man who for many years had turned a deaf ear and a cold
eye to the various attractions and beguilements of woman. Either from
natural coldness of disposition, or for some other latent cause,
traceable, perhaps, to some fact in his past history, and not to be
inquired into by gossiping neighbors and so-called friends, he had
resisted, even to the point of disdain, both the blandishments of
acknowledged belles, and the more timid but no less pleasing charms of
the shy country misses that he