as the committee would be ready
to meet, for her fickleness verged on insanity, he had to accept. He
trusted in his own watchfulness, and in the fidelity of Curran to keep
her in humor. Even now she forgot her disasters in the memory of her
success as an impersonator, and entertained the men with scenes from her
masquerade as Edith, Claire, and the Brand. From such a creature, so
illy balanced, one might expect anything.

However, by judicious coddling and terrorizing, her courage and spirit
were kept alive to the very moment when she stood before Birmingham and
his committee, heard her confession of imposture read, signed it with
perfect sang-froid, and illustrated for the scandalized members her
method of impersonation. So had Arthur worked upon her conceit that she
took a real pride in displaying her costumes, and in explaining how
skilfully she had led three lives in that city. Grim, bitter, sickened
with disappointment, yet masked in smiles, part of the committee watched
her performance to the end. They felt the completeness of Arthur's
triumph. With the little airs and graces peculiar to a stage artiste,
Edith put on the dusty costume of Edith Conyngham, and limped feebly
across the floor; then the decorous garments of the Brand, and whispered
tenderly in McMeeter's ear; last, the brilliant habit of the escaped
nun, the curious eyebrows, the pallid face; curtseying at the close of
the performance with her bold eyes on her audience, as if beseeching the
merited applause. In the dead silence afterwards, Arthur mercifully led
her away.

The journals naturally gave the affair large attention, and the net
results were surprisingly fine. The house of cards so lovingly built up
by Livingstone and his friends tumbled in a morning never to rise again.
All the little plans failed like kites snipped of their tails. Fritters
went home, because the public lost interest in his lectures. The book of
the escaped nun fell flat and disappeared from the market. McMeeter gave
up his scheme of rescuing the inmates of convents and housing them until
married. The hired press ignored the Paddies and their island for a
whole year. Best of all, suddenly, on the plea of dying among his
friends, Ledwith was set free, mainly through the representations of
Lord Constantine in London and Arthur in Washington. These rebuffs told
upon the Minister severely. He knew from whose strong hand they came,
and that the same hand would not soon tire of s