pleased with his wife, his house, his wines, and everything that was his.

Mary was at Cannes, and there was nothing to be learnt from her. De Courcy Smythe had left London. Arden had failed in obtaining further details of Colonel Manville's life or character from any of his friends. Several people knew something about him; but the something was always the same outside knowledge that he had obtained from Smythe. Manville had not been seen about town during the winter. He was a cosmopolitan, and loved the sun. He might be in Rome, Naples, Constantinople, or Egypt.

For ten days the daily report from Jackman told only of failure. He had employed the Parisian police, and had followed up every possible clue, but without result, though he had reason to believe that Colonel Manville was in Paris. But on the eleventh day there came a letter of more significance.

"I have at last succeeded in meeting Colonel Manville, after keeping a close watch upon the club of which I discovered him to be a member. It is the fastest club in Paris, notorious for high play, and rows and scandals of all kinds. Some of the worst duels of the last ten years have been the result of quarrels in the card-room; and the club has the worst possible reputation with the police, though most of the swells belong to it, and everything about the establishment is the tip-top of fashion and luxury.

"Colonel Manville drove to the club at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, and did not leave till two this morning. I was in a café within sight of the door till midnight, and in the street afterwards. I followed him to a house in the Rue Royale, where he has rooms on the second floor, and where I have contrived to get on friendly terms with the concierge. Manville has been living in this house off and on during the winter-sometimes going away for as much as a fortnight or three weeks, but making Paris his headquarters. I believe the porter's statements may be relied upon. He told me that Colonel Manville had only returned to his rooms the day before yesterday, after an absence of more than a fortnight. Whether he was in some other quarter of Paris between the night when you saw him in the continental express and his return to his

lodgings, or whether he has been farther south with the young lady, and where she is living now, I have still to discover. Having found him, I feel hopeful of the result." Three days later there came a telegram

"Lady found. Will meet the train arriving to-morrow morning, Gare du Nord."

་

V.

WITHIN three hours after the receipt of the detective's telegram, Walter Arden was on his way to Paris. He told Mrs. Berry that her daughter was found, and begged her to hope for the best. The unhappy mother wanted to go with him, or at least to follow him next morning; but he succeeded in convincing her that it was best for him to be alone, and free to act as the circumstances of the hour might require. There might be difficulties in the way which would be increased by a woman's presence.

"If it is in me to do this thing, I will bring her back to you," he said, with intense earnestness. "All you have to do is to open your arms to her, and to forgive. And in God's own time you may both be able to forget."

"Oh, sir, I can never do that! I can never forget what she was to her father and me, and how proud we were of her. She has humbled me to the dust for the rest of my life-unless-unless he would marry her and make a lady of her."

"My poor friend, he won't do that. And if he would, she might be a miserable woman for the rest of her life."

"But she would be an honest woman. We shouldn't be ashamed to look in each other's faces, as we shall be if she comes home a ruined girl."

The poor creature broke into a flood of tears. She had borne up bravely in her daily drudgery since the night of the elopement, but the thought of the return crushed her.

Mr. Jackman was waiting in the stony greyness of the terminus, the grey light of a bleak March morning. The traveller had only a Gladstone bag and a hat-box, which had been passed through the customs at Calais. He and

Jackman were sitting side by side in a coupé driving towards the Rue de Rivoli, five minutes after the arrival of the train. "I'm very glad you've come, sir. It's the only chance." "Where is she?"

"In a respectable hotel on the other side of the river." "Alone?"

"No. She has a nurse with her-a Sister of Charity." "And where is Manville? How did you get her away from him?"

"There was no difficulty about that. He has cast her off, I suppose."

"Cast her off-in Paris-a helpless girl? What an incarnate fiend!"

"I believe that's about the size of it, sir."

"You suppose !-you believe! But you must know what he has done."

"No, I don't, sir. No more will you for some time to come. The poor young lady is off her head. She won't be able to give much of an account of herself. It's a sad story." "Where did you find her?"

"On the quay, by the flower-market, in the midst of a crowd, about this time yesterday morning, when I was starting for my day's business in the Rue Royale. My diggings are on that side of the river, in the Rue Matamore, near the boul. Mich, as they call it-the students' boulevard, you know, sir."

"Yes, yes; I know."

"There was a crowd of flower-girls and bargemen, and a rag-picker or two, and I found that one of the bargemen had just picked a girl out of the river. She had thrown herself from the bridge right in the middle of the stream; and the man had been precious quick jumping off his barge, or he would not have saved her. She was lying on the ground, with her head in a woman's lap; and directly I saw the long red hair and the small pale face, I knew she was the girl that was wanted. She was very bad, but she had been got out of the water in time. We carried her into a chemist's shop on the quay, and a doctor came and looked after her, and presently she was able to speak, and said a few words in a rambling light-headed way; and when I heard her talk English, I was all the more sure of her.

"It's all right, Miss Lisbeth,' I said, not wanting to give away her surname; and she started at the sound of her name, and looked at me with a ray of sense in her eyes. The doctor saw that I knew her name, and supposed that I was a friend; so he made no difficulty about my taking charge of her, especially as I asked him to recommend a quiet hotel where I could take her, and to find me a hospital-nurse to look after her. He said that she was very bad, and would need a great deal of care. He thought she must have been in a bad way before she threw herself into the river, for, considering how short a time she had been in the water, the shock and the immersion were not enough to account for her state. He asked me if she was right in her mind, and I told him that, to the best of my belief, she was in possession of her reason when she left London, a fortnight ago."

"She was mad enough to rush headlong to destruction," said Arden, gloomily.

"The doctor said she must have gone through some terrible experience in the mean time to account for her present condition. We put her in a cab and took her to the hotel he recommended, where I was able to get a couple of rooms on the third floor, looking into a courtyard, and very quiet; and then the doctor went off to get a nurse. He is a young man, but he seems to know what he is about. He looks poor, and practises in a poor quarter; but I think he is the right sort of man for the case, in the interests of the young lady and her friends."

"Have you seen her since yesterday morning?" Arden asked.

66

I saw her late last night. There was no change. She had taken no food, and had had no sleep, and had been talking in a wild way, the nursing-sister said."

"You are sure she is Lisbeth Berry?"

"I don't think there's room for doubt. She agrees in every particular with the description I wrote down from your dictation, and I found a handkerchief marked L.B." "Had she any money about her ?"

"Half a sovereign and a little English silver, in a netted silk purse."

"Ought I to send for her mother?"