mbarrassing circumstances."

"May I ask, Miss Jethro, to what circumstances you allude?"

"You forget, Mr. Morris, that I left Miss Ladd's school, in a manner
which justified doubt of me in the minds of strangers."

"Speaking as one of those strangers," Alban replied, "I cannot feel that
I had any right to form an opinion, on a matter which only concerned
Miss Ladd and yourself."

Miss Jethro bowed gravely. "You encourage me to hope," she said. "I
think you will place a favorable construction on my visit when I mention
my motive. I ask you to receive me, in the interests of Miss Emily
Brown."

Stating her purpose in calling on him in those plain terms, she added to
the amazement which Alban already felt, by handing to him--as if she was
presenting an introduction--a letter marked, "Private," addressed to her
by Doctor Allday.

"I may tell you," she premised, "that I had no idea of troubling you,
until Doctor Allday suggested it. I wrote to him in the first instance;
and there is his reply. Pray read it."

The letter was dated, "Penzance"; and the doctor wrote, as he spoke,
without ceremony.

"MADAM--Your letter has been forwarded to me. I am spending my autumn
holiday in the far West of Cornwall. However, if I had been at home,
it would have made no difference. I should have begged leave to decline
holding any further conversation with you, on the subject of Miss Emily
Brown, for the following reasons:

"In the first place, though I cannot doubt your sincere interest in the
young lady's welfare, I don't like your mysterious way of showing it. In
the second place, when I called at your address in London, after you
had left my house, I found that you had taken to flight. I place my own
interpretation on this circumstance; but as it is not founded on any
knowledge of facts, I merely allude to it, and say no more."

Arrived at that point, Alban offered to return the letter. "Do you
really mean me to go on reading it?" he asked.

"Yes," she said quietly.

Alban returned to the letter.

"In the third place, I have good reason to believe that you entered Miss
Ladd's school as a teacher, under false pretenses. After that discovery,
I tell you plainly I hesitate to attach credit to any statement that you
may wish to make. At the same time, I must not permit my prejudices
(as you will probably call them) to stand in the way of Miss Emily's
interests--supposing them to be really depending on any interference
of