yer about it; I can scarcely be sure myself. I--I am simply up
against a mystery I am unable to solve. Everywhere I turn I run into a
blank wall."
"But I do not understand."
"How could you expect to, when it is so utterly obscure to me? I seem to
be fighting against a ghost."
"A ghost!"
"Yes; now don't laugh at me! Do you suppose I would ever have done
anything as reckless as advertising for help if I had not been actually
desperate? Can you imagine a respectable girl performing so ridiculous an
act, as putting her whole trust in a stranger, inviting him to her home,
introducing him as her promised husband to her relatives and friends?
Why, it almost proves me crazed, and, in a measure, I think I must be.
But it is because I have exhausted all ordinary methods. I do not seem to
be opposing anything of flesh and blood; I am fighting against shadows. I
cannot even explain my predicament to another."
"You must try," he insisted firmly, affected by her evident distress. "I
must be told everything if I am to be of any value. A half way confidence
can accomplish nothing."
"But it sounds so foolish; I am being haunted! I know that, yet that is
all I do know."
"Haunted, in what way?"
"I do not even know that; but by a woman, I think--a woman who must
strangely resemble me. She pretends to be me--to my friends, to my
servants, at my bank. I never see the creature, but I hear of her from
others. She has actually drawn checks in my name, imitating my signature,
and having them cashed by clerks who know me well. She has given orders
to my servants, and they protest that I gave them. She meets and talks
with my friends in places where I never go. I am sure she has actually
been in this house, and ridden in my car undiscovered. I am constantly
reported as being seen at restaurants and hotels where I have not been,
and with parties I do not know. This has been going on for a month now. I
am unable to prove her an imposter, even to identify her. I have
endeavoured to discuss the situation with a few people, but they only
laugh at the strange idea. No one will listen to me seriously. My lawyer
actually believes I am demented."
"And you conceived the thought that perhaps a total stranger might prove
more sympathetic?"
"Yes," she admitted. "If he was young and adventurous; provided I
interested him at all. It would seem to offer me a chance; and then, if
unknown to the party impersonating me, such a one might learn
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