or the returning steps
of the lost husband, and Sonia's eyes devoured the shadows, her ears
drank in every sound. He laughed, he grew warm with the feeling of
triumph. She would watch and listen in vain. The judgment-seat of God
was the appointment he had made for her.

He began now to wonder at the completeness of his own disappearance. His
former self seemed utterly beyond the reach of men. The detectives had
not only failed to find him, they had not even fallen upon his track by
accident. How singular that an Irish colony in the metropolis should be
so far in fact and sympathy from the aristocracy. Sonia and her
detectives would have thought of Greenland and the Eskimos, Ashanti,
Alaska, the court of China, as possible refuges, but never of Cherry
Street and the children of Erin, who were farther off from the Endicotts
and the Livingstones than the head-hunters of Borneo. Had her detectives
by any chance met him on the road, prepared for any disguise, how dumb
and deaf and sightless would they become when his position as the nephew
of Senator Dillon, the secretary of Sullivan, the orator of Tammany
Hall, and the pride of Cherry Hill, shone upon them.

This triumph he would have enjoyed the more could he have seen the
effect which the gradual change in his personality had produced on
Monsignor O'Donnell, for whom the Endicott episode proved the most
curious experience of his career. Its interest was discounted by the
responsibility imposed upon him. His only comfort lay in the thought
that at any moment he could wash his hands of the affair, before
annoying or dangerous consequences began to threaten. He suffered from
constant misgivings. The drama of a change in personality went on daily
under his eyes, and almost frightened him by its climaxes, which were
more distinct to him than to Endicott. First, the pale, worn, savage,
and blood-haunted boy who came to him in his first agony; then the
melancholy, bearded, yet serene invalid who lay in Anne Dillon's house
and was welcomed as her son; next, the young citizen of the Irish
colony, known as a wealthy and lucky Californian, bidding for honors as
the nephew of Senator Dillon; and last the surprising orator, the idol
of the Irish people, their devoted friend, who spared neither labor nor
money in serving them.

The awesome things in this process were the fading away of the Endicott
and the growing distinctness of the Dillon. At first the old personality
lay conceale