tel on that especial day I should be tempted to deny that too,
for I have no recollection of going there last month."

"Not for the purpose of rearranging a veil that had been blown off?"

"Oh!" she said, but as one who recalls a forgotten fact, not as one
who is tripped up in an evasion.

I began to think her innocent, and lost some of the gloom which had
been oppressing me.

"You remember now?" said I.

"Oh, yes, I remember that."

Her manner so completely declared that her acknowledgments stopped
there, I saw it would be useless to venture further. If she were
innocent she could not tell more, if she were guilty she would not;
so, feeling that the inclination of my belief was in favor of the
former hypothesis, I again took her hand, and said:

"I see that you can give me no help. I am sorry, for the whole
happiness of a man, and perhaps that of a woman also, depends upon the
discovery as to who took the letter from out the Bible where I had
hidden it on that unfortunate morning." And, making her another low
bow, I was about to take my departure, when she grasped me impulsively
by the arm.

"What man?" she whispered; and in a lower tone still, "What woman?"

I turned and looked at her. "Great heaven!" thought I, "can such a
face hide a selfish and intriguing heart?" and in a flash I summoned
up in comparison before me the plain, honest, and reliable countenance
of Mrs. Couldock and that of the comely and unpretending Miss Dawes,
and knew not what to think.

"You do not mean yourself?" she continued, as she met my look of
distress.

"No," I returned; "happily for me my welfare is not bound up in the
honor of any woman." And leaving that shaft to work its way into her
heart, if that heart were vulnerable, I took my leave, more troubled
and less decided than when I entered.

For her manner had been absolutely that of a woman surprised by
insinuations she was too innocent to rate at their real importance.
And yet, if she did not take away that letter, who did? Mrs. Couldock?
Impossible. Miss Dawes? The thought was untenable, even for an
instant. I waited in great depression of spirits for the call I knew
Taylor would not fail to make that evening.

When he came I saw what the result of my revelations was likely to be
as plainly as I see it now. He had conversed frankly with Mrs.
Couldock and with Miss Dawes, and was perfectly convinced as to the
utter ignorance of them both in regard to the whole affair.