us Venetian glass. "My grave is open," she used to say;
"and I want all these beautiful things to keep me from looking at it. I
should die at once, if I was left in the dark."

Her brother sat by the couch, thinking "Shall I tell you what is in your
mind?" she asked.

Mirabel humored the caprice of the moment. "Tell me!" he said.

"You want to know what I think of Emily," she answered. "Your letter
told me you were in love; but I didn't believe your letter. I have
always doubted whether you were capable of feeling true love--until
I saw Emily. The moment she entered the room, I knew that I had never
properly appreciated my brother. You _are_ in love with her, Miles; and
you are a better man than I thought you. Does that express my opinion?"

Mirabel took her wasted hand, and kissed it gratefully.

"What a position I am in!" he said. "To love her as I love her; and, if
she knew the truth, to be the object of her horror--to be the man whom
she would hunt to the scaffold, as an act of duty to the memory of her
father!"

"You have left out the worst part of it," Mrs. Delvin reminded him.
"You have bound yourself to help her to find the man. Your one hope of
persuading her to become your wife rests on your success in finding him.
And you are the man. There is your situation! You can't submit to it.
How can you escape from it?"

"You are trying to frighten me, Agatha."

"I am trying to encourage you to face your position boldly."

"I am doing my best," Mirabel said, with sullen resignation. "Fortune
has favored me so far. I have, really and truly, been unable to satisfy
Emily by discovering Miss Jethro. She has left the place at which I saw
her last--there is no trace to be found of her--and Emily knows it."

"Don't forget," Mrs. Delvin replied, "that there is a trace to be found
of Mrs. Rook, and that Emily expects you to follow it."

Mirabel shuddered. "I am surrounded by dangers, whichever way I look,"
he said. "Do what I may, it turns out to be wrong. I was wrong, perhaps,
when I brought Emily here."

"No!"

"I could easily make an excuse," Mirabel persisted "and take her back to
London."

"And for all you know to the contrary," his wiser sister replied, "Mrs.
Rook may go to London; and you may take Emily back in time to receive
her at the cottage. In every way you are safer in my old tower.
And--don't forget--you have got my money to help you, if you want it. In
my belief, Miles, you _will_ want it."