Page 255 (1/2)

"Sentenced for three years! To take her examination!" muttered Mrs

Dench, and with some difficulty these exclamations were silenced, and

Maria Hatherton called on for her evidence

Concise, but terrible in its clear brevity, was the story of the agent

taiven him access to

the private roo

day, Mr Willia, but she herself

had not seen it again till somein lodgings provided for her by Maddox, when she

had found the ring in the drawer of his desk; her suspicion had then

been first excited by his displeasure at her proposing to hi it merely there by accident, and she had afterwards

observed hi

These he had crushed up and thrown aside, but she had preserved theht come of them, and the family had

been very kind to her

The seal and the scraps of paper were here produced by the policee The seal perfectly coincided with that which had

closed the letter to Harry Beauchamp, and was, moreover, identified by

both Alison and Colonel Keith It was noticeable, too, that one of these

frag of a note to Mr Beauchah not Edward'shis friend, was