early from town or river. All search had not been
abandoned. There were certain persistent ones who had gone as far as
Beardsley's. Some of these might have returned. He would hasten down and
see. But it was only to find the office empty, and though the household
presently awoke and the great front door was thrown open to all comers,
no eager straggler came rushing in with the tidings he equally longed and
dreaded to receive.

At half-past ten the representative of the county police called on Mr.
Ransom, but with small result. Shortly after his departure, the mail
came in and with it the New York papers. These he read with avidity. But
they added nothing to his knowledge. Georgian's death was accepted as
a fact, and the peculiarities of their history since their unfortunate
wedding-day were laid bare with but little consideration for his feelings
or the good name of his bride. With a sorer heart than ever, he flung the
papers from him and went out to gather strength in the open air.

There was a corner of the veranda into which he had never ventured. It
was likely to be a solitary one at this hour, and thither he now went.
But a shock awaited him there. A lady was pacing its still damp boards.
A lady who did not turn her head at his step, but whom he instantly
recognized from her dress, and wilful but not ungraceful bearing, as her
whom he was determined to call, nay recognize, as Anitra Hazen.

His judgment counseled retreat, but the fascination of her presence held
him, and in that moment of hesitation she turned towards him and flight
became impossible.

It was the first opportunity he had had of observing her features in
broad daylight. The effect was a confused one. She was Georgian and she
was not Georgian. Her skin was decidedly darker, her eyes more lustrous,
her bearing less polished and at the same time more impassioned. She was
not so tall or quite so elegantly proportioned;--or was it her rude
method of dressing her hair and the awkward cut of her clothes which made
the difference. He could not be sure. Resolved as he was to consider her
Anitra, and excellent as his reasons were for doing so, the swelling of
his heart as he met her eye roused again the old doubt and gave an
unnatural tone to his voice as he advanced towards her with an impetuous
utterance of her name:

"Anitra!"

She shrunk, not at the word but at his movement, which undoubtedly was
abrupt; but immediately recovered herself and, meetin