se in the sunshine.

"In government employ!" repeated Uncle Joe, honoring me with a stare
that was almost comic in its mingled awe and surprise.

"Yes," I rejoined; "if any one doubts me, I have papers with me to
establish my identity. By what means I find myself in this place, a
witness of Mr. Benson's death and the repository of certain family
secrets, it is not necessary for me to inform you. It is enough that I
am here, have been here for a good hour, posted behind that curtain;
that I heard Jonas' exclamation as he withdrew from the balcony, saw Mr.
Benson come in from his bedroom, drink his glass of wine, and afterward
fall at the feet of his son and daughter; and that having been here, and
the witness of all this, I can swear that if Mr. Benson drank poison
from yonder decanter, he drank poison that was put into it before either
he or the Yellow Domino entered this room. Who put it there, it is for
you to determine; my duty is done for to-night." And with a bow I
withdrew from the group about me and crossed to the door.

But Miss Carrie's voice, rising in mingled shame and appeal, stopped me.
"Don't go," said she; "not at least until you tell me where my brother
Joseph is. Is he in this town, or has he planned this deception from a
distance? I--I am an orphan, sir, who at one blow has lost not only a
dearly beloved father but, as I fear, a brother too, in whom, up to this
hour, I have had every confidence. Tell me, then, if any support is left
for a most unhappy girl, or whether I must give up all hopes of even my
brother Joe's sympathy and protection."

"Your brother Joe," I replied, "has had nothing to do with my appearance
here. He and I are perfect strangers; but if he is a tall,
broad-shouldered, young man, shaped something like myself, but with a
ruddy cheek and light curling hair, I can tell you I saw such a person
enter the shrubbery at the southwest corner of the garden an hour or so
ago."

"No, he is here!" came in startling accents over my shoulders. And with
a quick leap Joe Benson sprang by me and stood handsome, tall, and
commanding in the centre of the room. "Hartley! Carrie! Edith! what is
this I hear? My father stricken down, my father dying or dead, and I
left to wander up and down through the shrubbery, while you knelt at his
bedside and received his parting blessing? Is this the recompense you
promised me, Hartley? this your sisterly devotion, Carrie? this your
love and attention to my in