were faintly there, although the smile was sad and half hysterical.
She remained standing, erect and tall, her arms dropped at her side,
holding the veil and shawl that still depended from her shoulders.

"So--I've caught you!" she said, with a strange little laugh. "Oh yes.
'Please don't go away yet. I'll get the key in a moment,'" she
continued, mimicking his recent utterance.

He could only stammer, "Miss Brooks--then it was YOU?"

"Yes; and you thought it was SHE, didn't you? Well, and you're caught!
I didn't believe it; I wouldn't believe it when they said it. I
determined to find it out myself. And I have; and it's true."

Unable to determine whether she was serious or jesting, and conscious
only of his delight at seeing her again, he advanced impulsively. But
her expression instantly changed: she became at once stiff and
school-girlishly formal, and stepped back towards the door.

"Don't come near me, or I'll go," she said quickly, with her hand upon
the lock.

"But not before you tell me what you mean," he said half laughingly
half earnestly. "Who is SHE? and what wouldn't you have believed? For
upon my honor, Miss Brooks, I don't know what you are talking about."

His evident frankness and truthful manner appeared to puzzle her. "You
mean to say you were expecting no one?" she said sharply.

"I assure you I was not."

"And--and no woman was ever here--at that door?"

He hesitated. "Not to-night--not for a long time; not since you
returned from Oakland."

"Then there WAS one?"

"I believe so."

"You BELIEVE--you don't KNOW?"

"I believed it was a woman from her voice; for the door was locked, and
the key was downstairs. When I fetched it and opened the door, she--or
whoever it was--was gone."

"And that's why you said so imploringly, just now, 'Please don't go
away yet'? You see I've caught you. Ah! I don't wonder you blush!"

If he had, his cheeks had caught fire from her brilliant eyes and the
extravagantly affected sternness--as of a school-girl monitor--in her
animated face. Certainly he had never seen such a transformation.

"Yes; but, you see, I wanted to know who the intruder was," he said,
smiling at his own embarrassment.

"You did--well, perhaps THAT will tell you? It was found under your
door before I went away." She suddenly produced from her pocket a
folded paper and handed it to him. It was a misspelt scrawl, and ran
as follows:--

"Why are you so cruel? Wh