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"M Godin!" I exclai at the stovepipe lest I should fall from the stove "So our rival is hot upon the scent, --probably even ahead of us How on earth--" But I did not finish the exclamation My seizure of the pipe upon my side of the partition had produced an audible vibration of that portion extending over the heads of irl's quick ear had detected the sound and she had ceased speaking and fastened her eyes suspiciously upon the aperture through which I was gazing It seemed to me as if she must see me, yet I dared not move After a little she seemed reassured and continued: "I knew he had been here You are always this way after his visits Why, of late, does he always coh, yet the man to whom it was addressed turned crimson and then as pale as ashes When he spoke the effort his self-control cost him was terribly apparent

"We have private business, dear," he said, "private business" He hesitated a ain his eyes wore the wild look I had first noticed "I a," he continued, "very dear to h for it to guard you froirl questioned fervently I thought I noticed a tre her face down to his, he said, kissing her, "Me? Never mind me, Puss; this cancer here will take care of me"

Sheto her eyes As she did so she raised her face toward me I have never been considered particularly sye,--but there was so in the expression of her face that went to my heart like a knife I felt as if I were about to sob with her I do not knohat it was that so aroused my sympathies We are, I fancy, more apt to feel for those whose beauty is like to the ideals we have learned to love, than we are to beof those whose looks repel us,--and thisgirl was radiantly beautiful,--yet it could hardly have been the real cause of it

So rapt was I in the sympathetic contemplation of her that I did not see Maitland's entrance or realise I was observed till he plucked et down I did so and he told me he had rented the rooms, and laid before me the plan he meant to pursue