and alluring. She said: 'I am glad to see you; I have not been out all day.' I looked at her steadily, then took the handkerchief from my pocket and handed it to her, and said quietly:

"'You dropped this in Cumnor Street this afternoon.'

"She looked at me in terror and made no attempt to take the handkerchief from my hand. I asked her:

"'What were you doing there?' "She answered: 'What right have you to question me?' "I answered her: 'The right of a man who loves you; I came to ask you to be my wife.' She buried her face in her hands and burst into tears.

"I went on: 'You must tell me.' She stood up and gazed at me, then said: 'There is nothing to tell you, Lord Murchison!' I cried out: 'You went there to meet someone. That is your secret!'

"Her face turned white and she cried: 'There is no one I go to meet!'

"I asked her: 'Can you not con-fess the truth?' She answered: 'I have told it to you.' But I did not trust her words; I went out of my mind, and I do not know what I said to her, but I said terrible things. At last I rushed out of the house and made no attempt to see her. A letter from her reached me the next day. I returned it to her unopened. Then I went away with Alan Colville, and when I came back a month later the first piece of news I read in the Morning Post was the death of Lady Alroy: she had caught a chill at the Opera and died five days later of inflammation of the lungs. The event stunned me, and I with-drew from people. I loved her

greatly—I loved her madly. My God, how I loved that woman!..."

I said to him: "Did you not go to that house you saw her enter?"

He answered: "Yes, I went one day to Cumnor Street. Doubt had tormented me and I could no longer bear the uncertainty. I knocked at the door, and a woman of respectable appear-ance opened it to me. I asked her whether she had a room to let...

"She answered: 'The recep-tion rooms are let, but no matter—since Lady Alroy has not come for a month and has not paid the debts she owes, you may take her place.'

"I showed her the photograph and asked her: 'Is this the lady?'

"She answered: 'Yes, that is she exactly. When is she coming back, sir?'

"I said to her: 'She is dead.' "She exclaimed: 'What are you saying?... Oh, sir, she was one of the best lodgers I ever had. She used to pay me three pounds a week merely to sit from time to time in my sitting rooms!'

"I asked her: 'Did she meet anyone here?'

"The woman assured me that she never saw anyone, but always came alone. "I cried out: 'For heaven's sake, what did she do here, then?'

"She answered: 'She came only to read, and sometimes she would take a cup of tea!'

"I did not know what to say, so I gave her some money and went away without a backward glance.

"Now, what is the meaning of all this? And what do you think of this story? Do you believe the woman told me the truth?"

I said: "Yes!"

He said: "Then why did Lady Alroy go there?"

I answered him: "My dear Gerald, Lady Alroy had a passion for the pretense of con-cealment and mystery. She took that room so that she might go there veiled, with the veil drawn over her face, and it pleased her to imagine herself the heroine of a story. But in truth she was nothing but a Sphinx—without a secret!"

He said: "Do you truly believe that?" I said: "I am certain of what I say."

He took the photograph from his pocket and gazed at it, then sighed and said:

"I wonder at all this!"...

Kruschen Salts

If you want to be rid quickly of certain chronic back pains,

then take the six salts of "Kruschen." "Kruschen" salts help the kidneys to perform their natural function, and you will soon find that the poisons left accumulated in your body have been driven out. And with the departure of these poisons, the aches and pains vanish as well.

Kruschen