The Yellow Face

Arthur Conan Doyle

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[In publishing these short sketches based upon the “How long did he wait?”

numerous cases in which my companion’s singular “Half an hour, sir. He was a very restless gentle-gifts have made us the listeners to, and eventually the man, sir, a-walkin’ and a-stampin’ all the time he was actors in, some strange drama, it is only natural that here. I was waitin’ outside the door, sir, and I could I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon hear him. At last he outs into the passage, and he his failures. And this not so much for the sake of his cries, ‘Is that man never goin’ to come?’ Those were reputations—for, indeed, it was when he was at his his very words, sir. ‘You’ll only need to wait a little wits’ end that his energy and his versatility were most longer,’ says I. ‘Then I’ll wait in the open air, for I admirable—but because where he failed it happened feel half choked,’ says he. ‘I’ll be back before long.’

too often that no one else succeeded, and that the And with that he ups and he outs, and all I could say tale was left forever without a conclusion. Now and wouldn’t hold him back.” again, however, it chanced that even when he erred, “Well, well, you did your best,” said Holmes, as

the truth was still discovered. I have noted of some

we walked into our room. “It’s very annoying, though,

half-dozen cases of the kind of which “The Adventure

Watson. I was badly in need of a case, and this looks,

of the Musgrave Ritual” and that which I am about

from the man’s impatience, as if it were of importance.

to recount are the two which present the strongest

Hullo! That’s not your pipe on the table. He must

features of interest.]

have left his behind him. A nice old brier with a

S herlock Holmes was a man who seldom good long stem of what the tobacconists call amber. took exercise for exercise’s sake. Few men I wonder how many real amber mouthpieces there were capable of greater muscular effort, and are in London? Some people think that a fly in it is a he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers sign. Well, he must have been disturbed in his mind of his weight that I have ever seen; but he looked upon to leave a pipe behind him which he evidently values aimless bodily exertion as a waste of energy, and he highly.” seldom bestirred himself save when there was some “How do you know that he values it highly?” I

professional object to be served. Then he was abso-

asked.

lutely untiring and indefatigable. That he should have

kept himself in training under such circumstances is “Well, I should put the original cost of the pipe at remarkable, but his diet was usually of the sparest, seven and sixpence. Now it has, you see, been twice and his habits were simple to the verge of austerity. mended, once in the wooden stem and once in the Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, amber. Each of these mends, done, as you observe, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against with silver bands, must have cost more than the pipe the monotony of existence when cases were scanty did originally. The man must value the pipe highly and the papers uninteresting. when he prefers to patch it up rather than buy a new one with the same money.”

One day in early spring he had so far relaxed as

“Anything else?” I asked, for Holmes was turning

to go for a walk with me in the Park, where the first

the pipe about in his hand, and staring at it in his

faint shoots of green were breaking out upon the elms,

peculiar pensive way.

and the sticky spear-heads of the chestnuts were just

beginning to burst into their five-fold leaves. For two He held it up and tapped on it with his long, thin hours we rambled about together, in silence for the fore-finger, as a professor might who was lecturing most part, as befits two men who know each other on a bone. intimately. It was nearly five before we were back in “Pipes are occasionally of extraordinary interest,”

Baker Street once more. said he. “Nothing has more individuality, save per-

“Beg pardon, sir,” said our page-boy, as he opened haps watches and bootlaces. The indications here, the door. “There’s been a gentleman here asking for however, are neither very marked nor very important.

you, sir.” The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed,

with an excellent set of teeth, careless in his habits,

Holmes glanced reproachfully at me. “So much

and with no need to practise economy.”

for afternoon walks!” said he. “Has this gentleman

gone, then?” My friend threw out the information in a very

offhand way, but I saw that he cocked his eye at me

“Yes, sir.” to see if I had followed his reasoning.

“Didn’t you ask him in?” “You think a man must be well-to-do if he smokes “Yes, sir; he came in.” a seven-shilling pipe,” said I.

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“This is Grosvenor mixture at eightpence an seems dreadful to discuss the conduct of one’s wife ounce,” Holmes answered, knocking a little out on with two men whom I have never seen before. It’s his palm. “As he might get an excellent smoke for horrible to have to do it. But I’ve got to the end of my half the price, he has no need to practise economy.” tether, and I must have advice.”

“And the other points?” “My dear Mr. Grant Munro—” began Holmes.

“He has been in the habit of lighting his pipe at Our visitor sprang from his chair. “What!” he lamps and gas-jets. You can see that it is quite charred cried, “you know my name?”

all down one side. Of course a match could not have “If you wish to preserve your incognito,” said done that. Why should a man hold a match to the Holmes, smiling, “I would suggest that you cease to side of his pipe? But you cannot light it at a lamp write your name upon the lining of your hat, or else without getting the bowl charred. And it is all on the that you turn the crown towards the person whom right side of the pipe. From that I gather that he is you are addressing. I was about to say that my friend a left-handed man. You hold your own pipe to the and I have listened to a good many strange secrets in lamp, and see how naturally you, being right-handed, this room, and that we have had the good fortune to hold the left side to the flame. You might do it once bring peace to many troubled souls. I trust that we the other way, but not as a constancy. This has always may do as much for you. Might I beg you, as time been held so. Then he has bitten through his amber. may prove to be of importance, to furnish me with It takes a muscular, energetic fellow, and one with a the facts of your case without further delay?” good set of teeth, to do that. But if I am not mistaken I hear him upon the stair, so we shall have something Our visitor again passed his hand over his fore-more interesting than his pipe to study.” head, as if he found it bitterly hard. From every

man entered the room. He was well but quietly An instant later our door opened, and a tall young served, self-contained man, with a dash of pride in gesture and expression I could see that he was a re-his nature, more likely to hide his wounds than to dressed in a dark-gray suit, and carried a brown wide-

expose them. Then suddenly, with a fierce gesture of

awake in his hand. I should have put him at about

his closed hand, like one who throws reserve to the

thirty, though he was really some years older.

winds, he began.

“I beg your pardon,” said he, with some embar-

“The facts are these, Mr. Holmes,” said he. “I am

rassment; “I suppose I should have knocked. Yes, of

a married man, and have been so for three years. Dur-

course I should have knocked. The fact is that I am a

ing that time my wife and I have loved each other

little upset, and you must put it all down to that.” He

as fondly and lived as happily as any two that ever

passed his hand over his forehead like a man who is

were joined. We have not had a difference, not one, in

half dazed, and then fell rather than sat down upon a

thought or word or deed. And now, since last Mon-

chair.

day, there has suddenly sprung up a barrier between

“I can see that you have not slept for a night or us, and I find that there is something in her life and two,” said Holmes, in his easy, genial way. “That tries in her thought of which I know as little as if she were a man’s nerves more than work, and more even than the woman who brushes by me in the street. We are pleasure. May I ask how I can help you?” estranged, and I want to know why.

“I wanted your advice, sir. I don’t know what to “Now there is one thing that I want to impress do and my whole life seems to have gone to pieces.” upon you before I go any further, Mr. Holmes. Effie “You wish to employ me as a consulting detec- loves me. Don’t let there be any mistake about that.

tive?” She loves me with her whole heart and soul, and

“Not that only. I want your opinion as a judicious never more than now. I know it. I feel it. I don’t want man—as a man of the world. I want to know what I to argue about that. A man can tell easily enough ought to do next. I hope to God you’ll be able to tell when a woman loves him. But there’s this secret be-me.” tween us, and we can never be the same until it is He spoke in little, sharp, jerky outbursts, and it cleared.” seemed to me that to speak at all was very painful to “Kindly let me have the facts, Mr. Munro,” said him, and that his will all through was overriding his Holmes, with some impatience.

inclinations. “I’ll tell you what I know about Effie’s history.

“It’s a very delicate thing,” said he. “One does not She was a widow when I met her first, though quite like to speak of one’s domestic affairs to strangers. It young—only twenty-five. Her name then was Mrs.

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Hebron. She went out to America when she was “ ‘Some day, perhaps, but not just at present, Jack.’

young, and lived in the town of Atlanta, where she “So I had to be content with that, though it was married this Hebron, who was a lawyer with a good the first time that there had ever been any secret be-practice. They had one child, but the yellow fever tween us. I gave her a check, and I never thought any broke out badly in the place, and both husband and more of the matter. It may have nothing to do with child died of it. I have seen his death certificate. This what came afterwards, but I thought it only right to sickened her of America, and she came back to live mention it. with a maiden aunt at Pinner, in Middlesex. I may mention that her husband had left her comfortably off, “Well, I told you just now that there is a cottage and that she had a capital of about four thousand five not far from our house. There is just a field between hundred pounds, which had been so well invested by us, but to reach it you have to go along the road and him that it returned an average of seven per cent. She then turn down a lane. Just beyond it is a nice little had only been six months at Pinner when I met her; grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fond of we fell in love with each other, and we married a few strolling down there, for trees are always a neighborly weeks afterwards. kind of things. The cottage had been standing empty

this eight months, and it was a pity, for it was a pretty

“I am a hop merchant myself, and as I have an two storied place, with an old-fashioned porch and income of seven or eight hundred, we found ourselves honeysuckle about it. I have stood many a time and comfortably off, and took a nice eighty-pound-a-year thought what a neat little homestead it would make. villa at Norbury. Our little place was very countrified, considering that it is so close to town. We had an “Well, last Monday evening I was taking a stroll inn and two houses a little above us, and a single down that way, when I met an empty van coming up cottage at the other side of the field which faces us, the lane, and saw a pile of carpets and things lying and except those there were no houses until you got about on the grass-plot beside the porch. It was clear half way to the station. My business took me into that the cottage had at last been let. I walked past it, town at certain seasons, but in summer I had less to and wondered what sort of folk they were who had do, and then in our country home my wife and I were come to live so near us. And as I looked I suddenly just as happy as could be wished. I tell you that there became aware that a face was watching me out of one never was a shadow between us until this accursed of the upper windows. affair began. “I don’t know what there was about that face, Mr.

“There’s one thing I ought to tell you before I go Holmes, but it seemed to send a chill right down my further. When we married, my wife made over all back. I was some little way off, so that I could not her property to me—rather against my will, for I saw make out the features, but there was something un-how awkward it would be if my business affairs went natural and inhuman about the face. That was the wrong. However, she would have it so, and it was impression that I had, and I moved quickly forwards done. Well, about six weeks ago she came to me. to get a nearer view of the person who was watching me. But as I did so the face suddenly disappeared, so

“ ‘Jack,’ said she, ‘when you took my money you

suddenly that it seemed to have been plucked away

said that if ever I wanted any I was to ask you for it.’

into the darkness of the room. I stood for five minutes

“ ‘Certainly,’ said I. ‘It’s all your own.’ thinking the business over, and trying to analyze my “ ‘Well,’ said she, ‘I want a hundred pounds.’ impressions. I could not tell if the face were that of “I was a bit staggered at this, for I had imagined a man or a woman. It had been too far from me for it was simply a new dress or something of the kind that. But its color was what had impressed me most.

that she was after. It was of a livid chalky white, and with something set and rigid about it which was shockingly unnatural.

“ ‘What on earth for?’ I asked.

So disturbed was I that I determined to see a little

“ ‘Oh,’ said she, in her playful way, ‘you said that more of the new inmates of the cottage. I approached you were only my banker, and bankers never ask and knocked at the door, which was instantly opened questions, you know.’ by a tall, gaunt woman with a harsh, forbidding face.

“ ‘If you really mean it, of course you shall have “ ‘What may you be wantin’?’ she asked, in a the money,’ said I. Northern accent.

“ ‘Oh, yes, I really mean it.’ “ ‘I am your neighbor over yonder,’ said I, nod-

“ ‘And you won’t tell me what you want it for?’ ding towards my house. ‘I see that you have only just

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moved in, so I thought that if I could be of any help me more than all the rest, for there was something to you in any—’ indescribably guilty about them. My wife had always

“ ‘Ay, we’ll just ask ye when we want ye,’ said she, been a woman of a frank, open nature, and it gave and shut the door in my face. Annoyed at the churl- me a chill to see her slinking into her own room, and ish rebuff, I turned my back and walked home. All crying out and wincing when her own husband spoke evening, though I tried to think of other things, my to her. mind would still turn to the apparition at the window “ ‘You awake, Jack!’ she cried, with a nervous and the rudeness of the woman. I determined to say laugh. ‘Why, I thought that nothing could awake nothing about the former to my wife, for she is a ner- you.’ vous, highly strung woman, and I had no wish that “ ‘Where have you been?’ I asked, more sternly.

she would share the unpleasant impression which

had been produced upon myself. I remarked to her, “ ‘I don’t wonder that you are surprised,’ said she, however, before I fell asleep, that the cottage was now and I could see that her fingers were trembling as occupied, to which she returned no reply. she undid the fastenings of her mantle. ‘Why, I never

been a standing jest in the family that nothing could The fact is that I felt as though I were choking, and had a perfect longing for a breath of fresh air. I really ever wake me during the night. And yet somehow on “I am usually an extremely sound sleeper. It has remember having done such a thing in my life before.

that particular night, whether it may have been the think that I should have fainted if I had not gone out.

slight excitement produced by my little adventure or I stood at the door for a few minutes, and now I am not I know not, but I slept much more lightly than quite myself again.’ usual. Half in my dreams I was dimly conscious that “All the time that she was telling me this story she something was going on in the room, and gradually never once looked in my direction, and her voice was became aware that my wife had dressed herself and quite unlike her usual tones. It was evident to me that was slipping on her mantle and her bonnet. My lips she was saying what was false. I said nothing in reply, were parted to murmur out some sleepy words of sur- but turned my face to the wall, sick at heart, with my prise or remonstrance at this untimely preparation, mind filled with a thousand venomous doubts and when suddenly my half-opened eyes fell upon her suspicions. What was it that my wife was concealing face, illuminated by the candle-light, and astonish- from me? Where had she been during that strange ment held me dumb. She wore an expression such expedition? I felt that I should have no peace until as I had never seen before—such as I should have I knew, and yet I shrank from asking her again after thought her incapable of assuming. She was deadly once she had told me what was false. All the rest of pale and breathing fast, glancing furtively towards the night I tossed and tumbled, framing theory after the bed as she fastened her mantle, to see if she had theory, each more unlikely than the last.

disturbed me. Then, thinking that I was still asleep, “I should have gone to the City that day, but I was she slipped noiselessly from the room, and an instant too disturbed in my mind to be able to pay attention later I heard a sharp creaking which could only come to business matters. My wife seemed to be as upset from the hinges of the front door. I sat up in bed as myself, and I could see from the little questioning and rapped my knuckles against the rail to make cer- glances which she kept shooting at me that she under-tain that I was truly awake. Then I took my watch stood that I disbelieved her statement, and that she from under the pillow. It was three in the morning. was at her wits’ end what to do. We hardly exchanged What on this earth could my wife be doing out on the a word during breakfast, and immediately afterwards country road at three in the morning? I went out for a walk, that I might think the matter “I had sat for about twenty minutes turning the out in the fresh morning air. thing over in my mind and trying to find some possible explanation. The more I thought, the more ex- in the grounds, and was back in Norbury by one “I went as far as the Crystal Palace, spent an hour traordinary and inexplicable did it appear. I was still

o’clock. It happened that my way took me past the

puzzling over it when I heard the door gently close

cottage, and I stopped for an instant to look at the

again, and her footsteps coming up the stairs.

windows, and to see if I could catch a glimpse of the

“ ‘Where in the world have you been, Effie?’ I strange face which had looked out at me on the day asked as she entered. before. As I stood there, imagine my surprise, Mr.

“She gave a violent start and a kind of gasping Holmes, when the door suddenly opened and my cry when I spoke, and that cry and start troubled wife walked out.

4

“I was struck dumb with astonishment at the sight “ ‘I was sure that you would trust me,’ she cried, of her; but my emotions were nothing to those which with a great sigh of relief. ‘It shall be just as you wish.

showed themselves upon her face when our eyes met. Come away—oh, come away up to the house.’

She seemed for an instant to wish to shrink back in- “Still pulling at my sleeve, she led me away from side the house again; and then, seeing how useless all the cottage. As we went I glanced back, and there was concealment must be, she came forward, with a very that yellow livid face watching us out of the upper white face and frightened eyes which belied the smile window. What link could there be between that crea-upon her lips. ture and my wife? Or how could the coarse, rough “ ‘Ah, Jack,’ she said, ‘I have just been in to see if I woman whom I had seen the day before be connected can be of any assistance to our new neighbors. Why with her? It was a strange puzzle, and yet I knew that do you look at me like that, Jack? You are not angry my mind could never know ease again until I had with me?’ solved it.

“ ‘So,’ said I, ‘this is where you went during the “For two days after this I stayed at home, and my night.’ wife appeared to abide loyally by our engagement,

for, as far as I know, she never stirred out of the house.

“ ‘What do you mean?’ she cried.

On the third day, however, I had ample evidence that

“ ‘You came here. I am sure of it. Who are these her solemn promise was not enough to hold her back people, that you should visit them at such an hour?’ from this secret influence which drew her away from “ ‘I have not been here before.’ her husband and her duty.

“ ‘How can you tell me what you know is false?’ I “I had gone into town on that day, but I returned cried. ‘Your very voice changes as you speak. When by the 2.40 instead of the 3.36, which is my usual train.

have I ever had a secret from you? I shall enter that As I entered the house the maid ran into the hall with cottage, and I shall probe the matter to the bottom.’ a startled face.

“ ‘No, no, Jack, for God’s sake!’ she gasped, in “ ‘Where is your mistress?’ I asked. uncontrollable emotion. Then, as I approached the “ ‘I think that she has gone out for a walk,’ she door, she seized my sleeve and pulled me back with answered. convulsive strength. “My mind was instantly filled with suspicion. I “ ‘I implore you not to do this, Jack,’ she cried. ‘I rushed upstairs to make sure that she was not in the swear that I will tell you everything some day, but house. As I did so I happened to glance out of one of nothing but misery can come of it if you enter that the upper windows, and saw the maid with whom cottage.’ Then, as I tried to shake her off, she clung to I had just been speaking running across the field in me in a frenzy of entreaty. the direction of the cottage. Then of course I saw ex-actly what it all meant. My wife had gone over there, “ ‘Trust me, Jack!’ she cried. ‘Trust me only this

and had asked the servant to call her if I should re-

once. You will never have cause to regret it. You know

turn. Tingling with anger, I rushed down and hurried

that I would not have a secret from you if it were not

across, determined to end the matter once and forever.

for your own sake. Our whole lives are at stake in this.

I saw my wife and the maid hurrying back along the

If you come home with me, all will be well. If you

lane, but I did not stop to speak with them. In the cot-

force your way into that cottage, all is over between

tage lay the secret which was casting a shadow over

us.’

my life. I vowed that, come what might, it should

“There was such earnestness, such despair, in her be a secret no longer. I did not even knock when I manner that her words arrested me, and I stood irres- reached it, but turned the handle and rushed into the olute before the door. passage.

“ ‘I will trust you on one condition, and on one “It was all still and quiet upon the ground floor. In condition only,’ said I at last. ‘It is that this mystery the kitchen a kettle was singing on the fire, and a large comes to an end from now. You are at liberty to pre- black cat lay coiled up in the basket; but there was no serve your secret, but you must promise me that there sign of the woman whom I had seen before. I ran into shall be no more nightly visits, no more doings which the other room, but it was equally deserted. Then I are kept from my knowledge. I am willing to forget rushed up the stairs, only to find two other rooms those which are passed if you will promise that there empty and deserted at the top. There was no one at shall be no more in the future.’ all in the whole house. The furniture and pictures

5

were of the most common and vulgar description, “How long is it since your wife asked you for a save in the one chamber at the window of which I hundred pounds?” had seen the strange face. That was comfortable and “Nearly two months.” elegant, and all my suspicions rose into a fierce bitter “Have you ever seen a photograph of her first

flame when I saw that on the mantelpiece stood a

husband?”

copy of a full-length photograph of my wife, which

had been taken at my request only three months ago. “No; there was a great fire at Atlanta very shortly after his death, and all her papers were destroyed.”

house was absolutely empty. Then I left it, feeling a “I stayed long enough to make certain that the “And yet she had a certificate of death. You say that you saw it.” weight at my heart such as I had never had before. “Yes; she got a duplicate after the fire.” My wife came out into the hall as I entered my house; but I was too hurt and angry to speak with her, and “Did you ever meet any one who knew her in pushing past her, I made my way into my study. She America?” followed me, however, before I could close the door. “No.”

“ ‘I am sorry that I broke my promise, Jack,’ said “Did she ever talk of revisiting the place?” she; ‘but if you knew all the circumstances I am sure “No.” that you would forgive me.’ “Or get letters from it?”

“ ‘Tell me everything, then,’ said I. “No.”

“ ‘I cannot, Jack, I cannot,’ she cried. “Thank you. I should like to think over the matter a little now. If the cottage is now permanently “ ‘Until you tell me who it is that has been living

in that cottage, and who it is to whom you have given other hand, as I fancy is more likely, the inmates were deserted we may have some difficulty. If, on the that photograph, there can never be any confidence warned of your coming, and left before you entered between us,’ said I, and breaking away from her, I yesterday, then they may be back now, and we should left the house. That was yesterday, Mr. Holmes, and I clear it all up easily. Let me advise you, then, to re-have not seen her since, nor do I know anything more turn to Norbury, and to examine the windows of the about this strange business. It is the first shadow that cottage again. If you have reason to believe that is has come between us, and it has so shaken me that I inhabited, do not force your way in, but send a wire

this morning it occurred to me that you were the man hour of receiving it, and we shall then very soon get to advise me, so I have hurried to you now, and I to the bottom of the business.” do not know what I should do for the best. Suddenly to my friend and me. We shall be with you within an

place myself unreservedly in your hands. If there is

any point which I have not made clear, pray question “And if it is still empty?” me about it. But, above all, tell me quickly what I am “In that case I shall come out to-morrow and talk to do, for this misery is more than I can bear.” it over with you. Good-bye, and, above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it.”

Holmes and I had listened with the utmost inter-

est to this extraordinary statement, which had been “I am afraid that this is a bad business, Watson,”

delivered in the jerky, broken fashion of a man who said my companion, as he returned after accompa-is under the influence of extreme emotions. My com- nying Mr. Grant Munro to the door. “What do you panion sat silent for some time, with his chin upon make of it?” his hand, lost in thought. “It had an ugly sound,” I answered.

“Tell me,” said he at last, “could you swear that “Yes. There’s blackmail in it, or I am much mis-this was a man’s face which you saw at the window?” taken.”

“And who is the blackmailer?”

“Each time that I saw it I was some distance away

from it, so that it is impossible for me to say.” “Well, it must be the creature who lives in the only comfortable room in the place, and has her photo-

“You appear, however, to have been disagreeably graph above his fireplace. Upon my word, Watson, impressed by it.” there is something very attractive about that livid face “It seemed to be of an unnatural color, and to at the window, and I would not have missed the case have a strange rigidity about the features. When I for worlds.” approached, it vanished with a jerk.” “You have a theory?”

6

“Yes, a provisional one. But I shall be surprised if “The cottage is still tenanted,” it said.

it does not turn out to be correct. This woman’s first “Have seen the face again at the window.

husband is in that cottage.” Will meet the seven o’clock train, and will

“Why do you think so?” take no steps until you arrive.”

“How else can we explain her frenzied anxiety He was waiting on the platform when we stepped that her second one should not enter it? The facts, out, and we could see in the light of the station lamps as I read them, are something like this: This woman that he was very pale, and quivering with agitation.

was married in America. Her husband developed

some hateful qualities; or shall we say that he con- “They are still there, Mr. Holmes,” said he, laying tracted some loathsome disease, and became a leper his hand hard upon my friend’s sleeve. “I saw lights or an imbecile? She flies from him at last, returns in the cottage as I came down. We shall settle it now to England, changes her name, and starts her life, as once and for all.” she thinks, afresh. She has been married three years, “What is your plan, then?” asked Holmes, as he and believes that her position is quite secure, having walked down the dark tree-lined road. shown her husband the death certificate of some man “I am going to force my way in and see for myself whose name she has assumed, when suddenly her who is in the house. I wish you both to be there as whereabouts is discovered by her first husband; or, witnesses.”

we may suppose, by some unscrupulous woman who “You are quite determined to do this, in spite of has attached herself to the invalid. They write to the your wife’s warning that it is better that you should wife, and threaten to come and expose her. She asks not solve the mystery?” for a hundred pounds, and endeavors to buy them off.

They come in spite of it, and when the husband men- “Yes, I am determined.” tions casually to the wife that there are new-comers “Well, I think that you are in the right. Any truth in the cottage, she knows in some way that they are is better than indefinite doubt. We had better go up her pursuers. She waits until her husband is asleep, at once. Of course, legally, we are putting ourselves and then she rushes down to endeavor to persuade hopelessly in the wrong; but I think that it is worth them to leave her in peace. Having no success, she it.”

goes again next morning, and her husband meets her, It was a very dark night, and a thin rain began to as he has told us, as she comes out. She promises him fall as we turned from the high road into a narrow then not to go there again, but two days afterwards lane, deeply rutted, with hedges on either side. Mr.

the hope of getting rid of those dreadful neighbors Grant Munro pushed impatiently forward, however, was too strong for her, and she made another attempt, and we stumbled after him as best we could. taking down with her the photograph which had “There are the lights of my house,” he murmured,

probably been demanded from her. In the midst of

pointing to a glimmer among the trees. “And here is

this interview the maid rushed in to say that the mas-

the cottage which I am going to enter.”

ter had come home, on which the wife, knowing that

he would come straight down to the cottage, hurried We turned a corner in the lane as he spoke, and the inmates out at the back door, into the grove of there was the building close beside us. A yellow bar fir-trees, probably, which was mentioned as standing falling across the black foreground showed that the near. In this way he found the place deserted. I shall door was not quite closed, and one window in the be very much surprised, however, if it still so when upper story was brightly illuminated. As we looked, he reconnoitres it this evening. What do you think of we saw a dark blur moving across the blind. my theory?” “There is that creature!” cried Grant Munro. “You “It is all surmise.” can see for yourselves that some one is there. Now follow me, and we shall soon know all.”

“But at least it covers all the facts. When new facts

come to our knowledge which cannot be covered by We approached the door; but suddenly a woman it, it will be time enough to reconsider it. We can appeared out of the shadow and stood in the golden do nothing more until we have a message from our track of the lamp-light. I could not see her face in the friend at Norbury.” darkness, but her arms were thrown out in an attitude of entreaty.

But we had not a very long time to wait for that.

It came just as we had finished our tea. “For God’s sake, don’t Jack!” she cried. “I had a presentiment that you would come this evening.

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Think better of it, dear! Trust me again, and you will and little Lucy is darker far than ever her father was.

never have cause to regret it.” But dark or fair, she is my own dear little girlie, and “I have trusted you too long, Effie,” he cried, her mother’s pet.” The little creature ran across at the sternly. “Leave go of me! I must pass you. My friends words and nestled up against the lady’s dress. “When and I are going to settle this matter once and forever!” I left her in America,” she continued, “it was only He pushed her to one side, and we followed closely because her health was weak, and the change might after him. As he threw the door open an old woman have done her harm. She was given to the care of a ran out in front of him and tried to bar his passage, faithful Scotch woman who had once been our ser-but he thrust her back, and an instant afterwards we vant. Never for an instant did I dream of disowning were all upon the stairs. Grant Munro rushed into the her as my child. But when chance threw you in my lighted room at the top, and we entered at his heels. way, Jack, and I learned to love you, I feared to tell you about my child. God forgive me, I feared that I

It was a cosy, well-furnished apartment, with two should lose you, and I had not the courage to tell you.

candles burning upon the table and two upon the I had to choose between you, and in my weakness I mantelpiece. In the corner, stooping over a desk, turned away from my own little girl. For three years I there sat what appeared to be a little girl. Her face have kept her existence a secret from you, but I heard was turned away as we entered, but we could see from the nurse, and I knew that all was well with her.

that she was dressed in a red frock, and that she had At last, however, there came an overwhelming desire long white gloves on. As she whisked round to us, I to see the child once more. I struggled against it, but gave a cry of surprise and horror. The face which she in vain. Though I knew the danger, I determined to turned towards us was of the strangest livid tint, and have the child over, if it were but for a few weeks. I the features were absolutely devoid of any expression. sent a hundred pounds to the nurse, and I gave her An instant later the mystery was explained. Holmes, instructions about this cottage, so that she might come with a laugh, passed his hand behind the child’s ear, a as a neighbor, without my appearing to be in any way mask peeled off from her countenance, an there was a connected with her. I pushed my precautions so far little coal black negress, with all her white teeth flash- as to order her to keep the child in the house during ing in amusement at our amazed faces. I burst out the daytime, and to cover up her little face and hands laughing, out of sympathy with her merriment; but so that even those who might see her at the window Grant Munro stood staring, with his hand clutching should not gossip about there being a black child in his throat. the neighborhood. If I had been less cautious I might

“My God!” he cried. “What can be the meaning have been more wise, but I was half crazy with fear of this?” that you should learn the truth.

“I will tell you the meaning of it,” cried the lady, “It was you who told me first that the cottage was sweeping into the room with a proud, set face. “You occupied. I should have waited for the morning, but I have forced me, against my own judgment, to tell could not sleep for excitement, and so at last I slipped you, and now we must both make the best of it. My out, knowing how difficult it is to awake you. But you husband died at Atlanta. My child survived.” saw me go, and that was the beginning of my trou-

“Your child?” bles. Next day you had my secret at your mercy, but you nobly refrained from pursuing your advantage.

She drew a large silver locket from her bosom. Three days later, however, the nurse and child only “You have never seen this open.” just escaped from the back door as you rushed in at “I understood that it did not open.” the front one. And now to-night you at last know She touched a spring, and the front hinged back. all, and I ask you what is to become of us, my child There was a portrait within of a man strikingly hand- and me?” She clasped her hands and waited for an some and intelligent-looking, but bearing unmistak- answer. able signs upon his features of his African descent. It was a long ten minutes before Grant Munro “That is John Hebron, of Atlanta,” said the lady, broke the silence, and when his answer came it was “and a nobler man never walked the earth. I cut my- one of which I love to think. He lifted the little child, self off from my race in order to wed him, but never kissed her, and then, still carrying her, he held his once while he lived did I for an instant regret it. It other hand out to his wife and turned towards the was our misfortune that our only child took after his door. people rather than mine. It is often so in such matches, “We can talk it over more comfortably at home,”

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said he. “I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think Not another word did he say of the case until that I am a better one than you have given me credit late that night, when he was turning away, with his for being.” lighted candle, for his bedroom.

Holmes and I followed them down the lane, and “Watson,” said he, “if it should ever strike you my friend plucked at my sleeve as we came out. that I am getting a little over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly

“I think,” said he, “that we shall be of more use in whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ear, and I shall be infinitely London than in Norbury.” obliged to you.”

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