ther discovery to detain the doctor. The wardrobe only
contained the poor old lady's clothes; the one cupboard was open
and empty. On the point of leaving the room, he went back to the
washhand-stand. While he had the opportunity, it might not be amiss
to make sure that Emily had thoroughly examined those old boxes and
bottles, which she had alluded to with some little contempt.

The drawer was of considerable length. When he tried to pull it
completely out from the grooves in which it ran, it resisted him. In his
present frame of mind, this was a suspicious circumstance in itself. He
cleared away the litter so as to make room for the introduction of his
hand and arm into the drawer. In another moment his fingers touched
a piece of paper, jammed between the inner end of the drawer and the
bottom of the flat surface of the washhand-stand. With a little care, he
succeeded in extricating the paper. Only pausing to satisfy himself
that there was nothing else to be found, and to close the drawer after
replacing its contents, he left the cottage.

The cab was waiting for him. On the drive back to his own house, he
opened the crumpled paper. It proved to be a letter addressed to
Miss Letitia; and it was signed by no less a person than Emily's
schoolmistress. Looking back from the end to the beginning, Doctor
Allday discovered, in the first sentence, the name of--Miss Jethro.

But for the interview of that morning with his patient he might have
doubted the propriety of making himself further acquainted with the
letter. As things were, he read it without hesitation.

"DEAR MADAM--I cannot but regard it as providential circumstance that
your niece, in writing to you from my house, should have mentioned,
among other events of her school life, the arrival of my new teacher,
Miss Jethro.

"To say that I was surprised is to express very inadequately what I felt
when I read your letter, informing me confidentially that I had employed
a woman who was unworthy to associate with the young persons placed
under my care. It is impossible for me to suppose that a lady in your
position, and possessed of your high principles, would make such a
serious accusation as this, without unanswerable reasons for doing so.
At the same time I cannot, consistently with my duty as a Christian,
suffer my opinion of Miss Jethro to be in any way modified, until proofs
are laid before me which it is impossible to dispute.

"Placing the same confidence in