ave shown as much leniency as I have
done; regardless of the consequences to themselves, they would have made
that woman's conduct public, and ruined her utterly."

"She wasn't bad," cried Elsie; "you are crazy to think so. She was the
best woman in the world."

"Have you forgotten what I told you this morning--what I was forced to
tell you or submit to your hatred? From yon window you could look out on
the spot where she had buried----"

"Be still!" interrupted Elsie, with a shriek. "I won't stay in the house
if you go on so--be still, I say!"

It required all his efforts to soothe the excited girl. He longed to
question her, to know if she had left Elizabeth much alone during his
absence, to understand how she could have been so persistently deceived,
but she was in no state to endure such inquiries then.

Elsie lay back among her pillows, refusing to be comforted:

"If you want to cure me send for Bessie--my dear, dear Bessie! Search
for her--send the people out!"

"Elsie, she has gone with that man; I cannot follow her there."

"No, no; she is wandering about in the cold. Go, search for her!"

"Anything but that, Elsie--ask anything else in the world."

"I don't want anything else."

"As soon as you are better we will go away from here," he continued; "to
Europe, if you like."

"But how will she live?" persisted Elsie. "What will become of her? No
money--no friends. Oh, Bessie, Bessie!"

"She has plenty to live on," he replied. "There are stocks enough
deposited in her name to give her a comfortable income."

"But they are gone," cried Elsie. Then, remembering the danger of that
avowal, she stopped suddenly.

"Gone!" he repeated. "How do you know? Oh, Elsie, do you know more than
you own--do--"

"Stop, stop!" she screamed. "You have driven Bessie away and now you
want to kill me! I don't know about anything--you know I don't. Just the
other day Bessie spoke something about the stocks; I thought from what
she said that you had taken them back for some purpose."

He was perfectly satisfied with her explanation, but the distress and
fright into which she had fallen nearly brought on another nervous
crisis. Great drops of perspiration stood on her forehead, and the
slender fingers he held worked nervously in his grasp.

"Don't talk any more, dear child," he said. "Try to go to sleep again."

"I can't sleep--I never shall rest again--never! I feel so wicked--I
hate myself!"

"Child, what do you m