well as hers."

For an instant the man hesitated, but in that instant his hand slipped
from his mouth over which he had again laid it, and his whole face, with
its changed lines and the threatening, almost cruel expression which
these gave it, appeared in all its combined eagerness and force. A murmur
escaped the watchful group about him, but this affected him little. His
eyes, which he had fixed on Ransom, sharpened a trifle, perhaps, and his
tone grew a thought more sarcastic as he finally retorted:

"I will explain myself to you but not to this crowd. And not to you till
I am sure of the facts which as yet have reached me only through the
newspapers. Let me hear a full account of what has transpired here since
you all came to town. I have an enormous interest in the matter;--a
family interest, as you are well aware for all your badly hidden
insinuations."

"Follow me," was the quiet reply. "There is a room on this very floor
where we can talk undisturbed."

Mr. Hazen cast a quick glance behind him at the man who had driven up
with him and whom nobody had noticed till now. Then without a word he
separated himself from the chattering group encircling him and stepped
after Mr. Ransom into the small room where the latter had held his first
memorable conversation with the lawyer.

"Now," said he as the door swung to behind them, "plain language and not
too much of it. I have no time to waste, but the truth about Georgian I
must know."

Ransom settled himself. He felt bound to comply with the other's request,
but he wished to make sure of not saying too much, or too little. Hazen's
attack had startled him. It revealed one of two things. Either this man
of mystery had assumed the offensive to hide his own connection with this
tragedy, or his antagonism was an honest one, springing from an utter
disbelief in the circumstances reported to him by the press and such
gossips as he had encountered on his way to Sitford.

With the first possibility he felt himself unable to cope without the aid
of Mr. Harper; the second might be met with candor. Should he then be
candid with this doubter, relate to him the facts as they had unrolled
themselves before his own eyes;--secret facts--convincing ones--facts
which must prove to him that whether Georgian did or did not lie at the
bottom of the mill-stream, the woman now in the house was his sister
Anitra, lost to him and the rest of the family for many years, but now
found again a