n the arms of the other, holding her in a clasp of agonized
force and intensity. Neither seemed to be aware that others were
near--apparently neither had heard the knock or the opening of the
door--for the time they seemed to be alone upon earth. A moment Leslie
and Crawford gazed upon this picture: then Ralston closed the door
again.

Leslie, who had for an instant started and trembled when the picture met
his view, as he had never failed to do in the presence of that
marvellous woman, uttered no word as the door closed.

"Well?" asked John Crawford, to whom nothing had as yet been revealed.

"You do not understand," said the Virginian. "I think that your friend
sees farther. I married Marion Hobart yesterday, at Toronto. You said
that you held a right over her by the bequest of her last living
relative--her grandfather: I tell you that I have to-night restored her
to a dearer relative, in whose arms she lies----"

"Her _mother_," said Leslie, the two words breaking from his lips as if
involuntarily.

"Her mother? Oh Lord!" broke out John Crawford, surprise completely
overmastering him.

"Her mother--a French lady by birth, and something of whose character
you know, Leslie. Her mother, the repudiated wife of Charles Hampden
Hobart, from whom Marion has been separated since childhood, and to whom
you unwittingly, and I of my own will, have just given her back. Have I
a right to her, now? Are you satisfied?"

"Yes," said John Crawford. "My duty is done, though I should rather have
seen it end differently. Good-night!"

"Good-night and good-bye!" said Tom Leslie, holding out his hand. Dexter
Ralston shook it, bowed to Crawford, and entered the parlor, closing the
door behind him, The two companions descended the stairs; and so closed
Tom Leslie's long adventure, which it must be confessed that he had not
brought to quite so practical an end as that reached by his female
counterpart in another direction. But then who ever heard of a man
managing a mystery or an intrigue with the same effective dexterity as a
woman, or making as much good or evil out of it in the end?

* * * * *

Tom Leslie left Montreal almost as suddenly as he had arrived there, in
company with John Crawford. He reached New York still in company with
the Zouave. His re-union with Joe Harris took place at that auspicious
time when the comedy at Judge Owen's had just come to a conclusion; and
one can very well imag