tion angered her.
Perhaps it had found her on her knees. Perhaps-- Here I felt
myself seized by a strong and sudden excitement. I remembered the
filings I had gathered up from the small stand by the window, filings
which had glittered and which must have been of gold. What was the
conclusion? In this last hour of her maiden life she had sought to
rid herself of some article of jewelry which she found it undesirable
to carry into her new life. What article of jewelry? In
consideration of the circumstances and the hour, I could think of
but one. A ring! the symbol of some old attachment.

The slight abrasion at the base of her third finger, which had been
looked upon as the result of too rough and speedy a withdrawing of
the wedding-ring on the evening of her death, was much more likely
to have been occasioned by the reopening of some little wound made
two weeks before by the file. If Durbin and the rest had taken into
account these filings, they must have come to very much the same
conclusion; but either they had overlooked them in their search
about the place, or, having noted them, regarded them as a clue
leading nowhere.

But for me they led the way to a very definite inquiry. Asking to
see the rings Mrs. Jeffrey had left behind her on the night she
went for the last time to the Moore house, I looked them carefully
over, and found that none of them showed the least mark of the file.
This strengthened my theory, and I proceeded to take my next step
with increased confidence. It seemed an easy one, but proved
unexpectedly difficult. My desire was to ascertain whether she had
worn previous to her marriage any rings which had not been seen on
her finger since, and it took me one whole week to establish the
fact that she had.

But that fact once learned, the way cleared before me. Allowing my
fancy full rein, I pictured to myself her anxious figure standing
alone in that ancient and ghostly room filing off this old ring
from her dainty finger. Then I asked myself what she would be
likely to do with this ring after disengaging it from her hand?
Would she keep it? Perhaps; but if so, why could it not be found?
None such had been discovered among her effects. Or had she thrown
it away, and if so, where? The vision of her which I had just seen
in my mind's eye came out with a clearness at this, which struck
me as providential. I could discern as plainly as if I had been a
part of the scene the white-clad