Year: 1872

our going there'-with another shudder-
and she slipped away from his OBTAINING
hand.


That evening Mr.. Samuel Rice and Mrs.
Page, took a walk by moonlight. Laughing
gossips commenced on it after their fash
ion: and disagreeable gossips after their
fashion. But nobody, they believed, saw
where they went, or what they did. Yet
those two came from performing an act of
christian charity each with a sense Of guilt
and unworthiness very irritating to endure,
albeit from very different cause. One, be-
cause an unwelcome suspicion had thrust
itself upon his mind, and the other


The ground of Sans suspicion was
photograph, which, in handling the gam
bler's body somewhat awkwardly, by reason
of its weight for Mrs. Dolly Page at the last
found that she could render no assistance,
had slipped from some receptacle in its
clothing. A hasty glance under the full
light of the moon had shown him the fea-
lures of the lady who sat twelve PAGES
away, with her hands over her face. 1t is
not always those that sin who suffer most
from the consciousness of sin and Sam,
perhaps, with that hint of possible-nay,
almost certain--wickednes in his breast
pocket, was more burdened by the weight
of it than many criminal about to suffer
all the terrors of the law, for the woman
that he loved stood accused, if not con-
victed, before his conscience and her own
and he could not condemn, because his
heart refused to judge her.


When the two stood together under the
light of the lamp in the deserted parlor of
the Silver Brick Hotel the long silence
which by her quick perceptions had been
recognized as accusing her, upon what evil
dence she did not yet know, was at length
broken by Sans voice, husky with agita-
tiop, saying:


"Mrs. Page" assuming an unconscious
dignity of mein and sternness Of counte-
nance, 81 shall ask you some questions
sometime, which you may not think quite
polite. And you must answer me; you
understand. Pm bound to know the truth
about this man." .t


"About this man?" Then he suspected
her of connection with the wretched crimi-
nal whose body had only just now been
hidden from mocking eyes? How much
did he knosoS Her pale face and anxious
eyes seemed to ask these questions of him
but not sound escaped her lips. The inn
ploring look, so strange upon her usually
bright face, touched all that was tender in
Sans romantic nature. In another mo-
ment he would have recalled his demand
and trusted her infinitely but in that criti-
cal moment she tainted quite away, to his
mingled sorrow and alarm and Mrs Shaug-
messy being summoned Sam received a
wordy reprimand for having no more sense
than to keep sick woman up half the
night-smarting under which undeserved
censure he retired to think over the event
of the evening.


The hour Of departure from Lucky Dog,
for Sans coach, was four o'clock in the
morning, and its driver was not little
surprised, when about to mount the box,
to discover Mrs. Page waiting to take a
seat beside him. After the adventure of
the previous night it was with some re-
straint that he addressed her; and there
was wanting, also, something of his cheer
ful alacrity of manner when he re quested
the stranger who had taken the box seat to
yield it to o lady. The strangers mood
seemed congenial, for he declined to alb
dicate intimating that there was room for
the lady between himself and the driver, if
she insisted upon an outside seat.


But Mrs, Page did not insist. She whis-
pered to Sam TO open the coach door, and
quickly took seat inside and Sam, with
q sense of irritation very unusual with him
climbed reluctantly to his place, giving the
"c9yuses' the lash in way that set them
off on keen run. By the time he had
gotten his team cooled down the unusual
mood had passed, and the longing returned
| to hear the sweet voice and watch the
bright eyes that had made his happiness
on former occasions. Puzzled as he was,
and panied by evidence he possessed of her
connection, in some way, with the victim
of lynch law, that seemed like dream in
the clear sunny air Of morning, while the
more blissful past asserted its claim TO be
considered reality. Not lark warbling its
fute-like notes by the wayside,iot a pretty
bit of the familiar landscape, nor glimpse
Of brook that leaped sparkling down the
mountain, but recalled some charming ut
terance of Mrs. Dolly Page, as he frst knew
her--as he could not now recognize her in