is still safe with me, but I shall find means to be rid of you--Go!"

"Stop!" she commanded, coming nearer and dropping her voice to a
sibillant whisper. "Go back seventeen years to a summer night at Crab
Orchard Springs! Aha! you start, I see you have not forgotten. Do you
recollect the part you played that night? _She is that child!_" and
with a malicious laugh she swiftly passed from the room.

The man sat stunned where she had left him. Could it be true? And what
was the mystery of that far-away night of his youth? The more he
pondered the more complete grew the chain. Senator Carleton had married
a Kentucky girl, it was true; but her youth had been passed on a
Mississippi plantation. He had years ago heard more or less idle gossip
about the hard, miserly nature of the old planter, Hamilton, and of his
bitter opposition to his daughter's match with penniless young Carleton.
There had been an elopement, or something. It came back to him like some
hideous nightmare. His pure, spotless darling--his promised wife! Could
there be sin or shame enveloping such a being? He must know. He wrote to
Mrs. Carleton. In earnest words of manly truth and honor he besought her
to explain to him the past. Eleanor was visiting a friend in a distant
city. No answer came. He went to the house and was denied admittance. He
followed Eleanor only to learn that she had been hastily summoned home.
That was not the day of rapid transit. He returned at last to find a
letter of farewell forever--his beloved had been spirited away to other
scenes. Then Egbert Mason left his native land, baffled, broken-hearted,
and devoted the next three years to the study of special lines in his
profession.

* * * * *