extreme precaution, and
peeped under it, to see if there was any one hidden thereto listen.
Then he came back and drew his chair close up to the table at which Miss
Badlam had seated herself. The conversation which followed was in a low
tone, and a portion of it must be given in another place in the words
of the third party. The beginning of it we are able to supply in this
connection.

"Look here, Cynthia; you know what I am going for. It's all right, I
feel sure, for I have had private means of finding out. It's a sure
thing; but I must go once more to see that the other fellows don't try
any trick on us. You understand what is for my advantage is for yours,
and, if I go wrong, you go overboard with me. Now I must leave the--you
know--behind me. I can't leave it in the house or the office: they might
burn up. I won't have it about me when I am travelling. Draw your chair
a little more this way. Now listen."

["Indade I will," said the third party to herself. The reader will find
out in due time whether she listened to any purpose or not.]

In the mean time Myrtle, who for some reason was rather nervous and
restless, had found a pair of half-finished slippers which she had left
behind her. The color came into her cheeks when she remembered the state
of mind she was in when she was working on them for the Rev. Mr. Stoker.
She recollected Master Gridley's mistake about their destination, and
determined to follow the hint he had given. It would please him better
if she sent them to good Father Pemberton, she felt sure, than if he
should get them himself. So she enlarged them somewhat, (for the old
man did not pinch his feet, as the younger clergyman was in the habit
of doing, and was, besides, of portly dimensions, as the old orthodox
three-deckers were apt to be,) and worked E. P. very handsomely into the
pattern, and sent them to him with her love and respect, to his great
delight; for old ministers do not have quite so many tokens of affection
from fair hands as younger ones.

What made Myrtle nervous and restless? Why had she quitted the city so
abruptly, and fled to her old home, leaving all the gayeties behind her
which had so attracted and dazzled her?

She had not betrayed herself at the third meeting with the young man who
stood in such an extraordinary relation to her,--who had actually given
her life from his own breath,--as when she met him for the second time.
Whether his introduction to her at the part