ens, I will unite these people, who have been so faithful to me
and toward whom I have acted the part of a cur and a coward!'"

The young man was speaking with perfect composure, but with intense
earnestness.

"The first thing to be done," he continued, "was to take myself out of
their way. The next was to unravel the mystery that had made the
trouble. I knew, when my mind had resumed its natural state, that,
whatever had occurred, Daisy was blameless. I knew that something far
out of the common line had caused her to commit the act which had cast a
blight over her reputation. For weeks I could find no clue. Then, one
day, in the street, I saw Hannibal, the negro for whom she had borrowed
my money and who I supposed was still in France. I cannot help the quick
temper I have inherited, and I confess that the sight of that fellow
aroused my suspicions against this girl, only they took a new and more
horrible form.

"I remembered distinctly what a strong hold Hannibal had on the Fern
family. I recalled, with frightful distinctness, the manner in which he
attended Daisy at table, his interest in her health, the $1,000 she had
given him, her quick movement to prevent my striking him when his
answers insulted us both. Perhaps--but I will not dilate on the things
that came to my distorted imagination. It was enough for me to put a
detective on his track. I engaged Hazen, and in three days he came to
tell me that a white woman had passed the night with Hannibal at a house
on Seventh Avenue, the date corresponding with the one on which I was to
have been married!"

Gouger listened spellbound. It seemed to him that the most exciting
chapter of this weird tale was yet to be written.

"If I had lost control of my senses before," pursued Roseleaf, "what do
you suppose happened when this information was brought to me? But then I
found an excuse for my beloved one. I considered her the victim of one
of those forms of hypnotism of which there can no longer be any doubt.
She could not have gone there without the demoniac influence of a
stronger personality. He had charmed her from her home by the exercise
of diabolic arts. My fury was entirely for him. I sought him at once,
only to learn that he had left the city a few days before, leaving
absolutely no trace. I could not give over the hunt, however. If he was
on the earth I must find him and be avenged for the wrong he had done.
It occurred to me that an influence so strong as he