had exerted would
not be given up. Wherever the Ferns had gone, he would probably be
found. I discovered the whereabouts of the family, after a great deal of
effort, and went to North Carolina. With the patience of a dog and the
cunning of a fox I laid in wait for weeks, and one night I saw and heard
Daisy Fern and Hannibal in conversation!"

There was no movement on the part of the critic. He sat as still as a
block of stone.

"When they began to speak I could have sworn that my recent guesses were
correct ones. It was at about the hour of midnight, and she had crept
quietly and alone out of her house to meet this African. But the first
dozen sentences that were uttered gave me a new version of the affair.
It was by no mesmeric power, but by a threat of injury to her father
that this fellow held her under bond. I learned that Mr. Fern had done
something--I could not then tell what--which rendered him liable to
imprisonment. I learned, also, beyond question--for they spoke without
restraint, supposing themselves alone--that, whatever the purpose of
Hannibal when Daisy came to his rooms on the day she was to have been
married, it had not been accomplished. She was afraid of him, but only
for her father's sake. And I discovered beside, though not with perfect
clearness, that a promise of secrecy accounted for her refusal to
explain the cause of that absence which had altered the whole course of
our lives.

"I have said I had watched with patience. I determined to continue my
watch till I understood the entire situation. About once a week they met
in the way I have described, and as the next date was always arranged in
my hearing there was no difficulty in my keeping the appointment. In the
meantime I learned that Hannibal was born in the vicinity, that he was
living a hermit life, and that nobody knew of the surreptitious visits
he was paying to Oakhurst. Then one day I heard that Archie was at the
hotel, and thinking it time that I let him into the secret I went there,
pretending I had just arrived from the north, when in reality I had been
boarding for months five miles away. The rest you know. I was enabled to
prove to him as well as to myself what had actually happened. Since
then justice has been done to us all."

Mr. Gouger had to speak at last.

"To _you_?" he asked. "Do you admit that all this is just to you?"

"Without doubt," said Roseleaf. "I forfeited every right to the woman I
had insulted by my suspic