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BEADLES MONTHLY.
to her reason seemed passing; persuading
her also into taking the powder which he
himself administered; but no argument
could induce her to leave the mute, un-
Moreland to the world from which he had
been so ruthlessly dismissed, I could
hardly have been more determined in the
pursuit. In action only could I feel re-
lief from the oppression which weighed
upon me. It could not give life to the
deadshut the voice of Justice called
aloud, never to permit this deed to sink
into oblivion, until she had executed the
divine vengeance ofthe law upon the doer.
As I stood there in silence and dark-
ness, pondering the matter, I heard a
light rustle of the dry leaves upon the
ground, and felt, rather than saw, a figure
pass me. I might have thought it one of
the servants were it not for the evident
caution of its movements. Presently,
where the shadows of the trees were less
thick, I detected a person stealing toward
the house. As she crossed a11 open space,
the starlight revealed the form and gar-
ments of a female; the next moment she
passed into the obscurity of shadows
again, where she remained some time,
tmsuspicious of my proximity, like my-
selt'leaning.v; against a tree, and watching
the mansion. Apparently satisticd that
no one was about-the hour now verging
toward midnightsslie approached with
lrovering steps, now pausing, now draw-
ing back, the west side of the mansion,
answering clay.
The arrival of the relatives the last
scene in the tragedy of that day. Unable
to bear more of it, I went out in the dark-
ness and walked upon the lawn. My head
was hot ; the cool air felt grateful to me-,
I leaned long upon the trunk of an oak,
whose dark shadow shut out the starlight
from about me-, thought was busy with
recent events. lVho was the nnirderer?
The question revolved in my brain, com-
ing uppermost every other moment, as
certainly as the turning of a wheel brings
21. certain point again and again to the top.
My training, as a student of the law, help-
ed my mind to tix upon every slightest
circumstance which might hold a sus-
pieion.
“Could that woman ?"sbut no, the
hand of a. woman could scarcely have
given that sure and powerful blow. It
looked like the work of a pzwzcllcccl hand
-or, if not, at least it had been deliber-
ately given, with malice aforcthought.
The assassin had premeditated the deed ;
had watched lris victim and awaited the
hour. Thus far, there was :llJ.<f)l11lt'lvV
no clue wlratever to the guilty party; from one of the windows of which the
bold as was the act, committed in the solemn light of the death-candles shone.
early evening, in the haunts of a busy Uiult.-r this window she crouch:-d down.
community, it had been most fatally sue- I could not tell if her attitude were a
cessful; and the doer had vanished as lmeeliny,' one. It must have been more
completely as iftheearth had opened and than an hour that she 1'(‘1llttll1L'tlI110tl0l1-
swallowtal him up. No one, as yet, (-ou‘.d less in this place; I, equally quiet, watch.
form any plausible conjecture, even as to iug the dark spot where she was. For
the 7z1Hl[I,‘0. the instant that she had stood between
In the name of lileanor Argyll-in the me and the window, llt'l' form was out-
name ofher whom I loved, whose happi- lined against the light, when I saw 111-at;
nessI had that day seen in ruins, l vow- this must be the young woman whose
ed to use every mnh-avor to t'.l.<(:UVt‘l' and str:1ng(- conduct at the gate had attracted
my attention. 01' con;-.<p 1 am not gcc
bring to punishlnent. the murderer. I
know not why this purpose tool; sttelr her face; but the tall,slender tigure, the
(inn lmhl of me. The ('.onvietion of the dark bonnet, and nervous lnovement,
gttilly would not restore the lite whirl) I wt'1'etln:san1e. lperplexed 1nyst'll' with
had l)l't'l1 taken; the bloom to a heart Vitlll('Htlj1‘t'llll‘(‘S.
prt-maturt-ly witl1<tI‘<'l1; it would atlord l ('ottltl not help connt-etin: her with
no (‘<)l1.<rrlation to tlwln-1'e:1t'etl. Yet, if the murder, or with the victim, in some
to (1ist'<m-r, havl been to (-all bacl: IIL-nry , manner, however vague.