Emilia, watching in the snow-clad street, saw Mrs. Middlemore issue from the house with a large jug in her hand. She dared not go up to the housekeeper while Dr. Peterssen was in the house, and with a sinking heart she recognized that the hope she had entertained of obtaining entrance by means of the story she had mentally rehearsed was lost. But she would not leave the spot until Dr. Peterssen appeared. She had no intention of accosting him, for that she felt would be disastrous, but she would follow him, if she could do so safely, to see where he lived or lodged. It might be a point gained, although she did not at that moment see how it could be used to her advantage. She had not long to wait. About ten minutes after Mrs. Middlemore left the house, the street-door was opened again, and Dr. Peterssen appeared. He carried beneath his right arm that which would have sent a thrill of passionate emotion to Emilia's heart, but she was too deeply observant of his personal movements to see the desk which he had taken away with him as a guarantee. He made no pause, but plunged immediately into the snow, and Emilia was about to follow him when she suddenly observed that he had not closed the door behind him. Her attention was instantly diverted from the man. Here was the opportunity for which she had disguised herself, for which she had been waiting. Without thinking of the consequences, she glided into the house and shut the door. Emilia would have scarcely known how to proceed now had it not been that M. Felix, hearing the street-door closed, rose to close his own, which Dr. Peterssen had left ajar. Before putting his intention into execution he opened it a little wider, and inclined his head to the stairs, as if in the act of listening. The stream of light which this action threw into the passage was a guide to Emilia, who, without hesitation, ran up the stairs and confronted him. Startled by her appearance he fell back a step or two, which afforded Emilia space to enter the apartment.

"Who are you? What do you want?" gasped M. Felix, dreading at first whether this was not part of a plot which Dr. Peterssen had devised for his injury. But his doubts were immediately dispelled.

"I am Emilia Paget," said Emilia, "and I want justice."

With a face of terror he retreated farther into the room, and Emilia followed him. His heart almost ceased to beat, and a singular numbness of sensation came over him.

"Through all these years," said Emilia, "I have left you in peace, if peace can ever be the portion of a man like yourself. I come now to force a confession from your lips. I want nothing from you in the shape of money. All that you have, and that once was your brother Gerald's, is yours, and shall remain yours. I do not desire it; if I have any right to it I renounce it; I am here to demand justice."

This speech gave M. Felix time to recover himself somewhat. Though still conscious of a strange deadness of feeling at his heart, he saw the situation, and asked in a faint voice--

"What kind of justice?"

Emilia put a wrong construction upon the low tone in which he spoke. Deeming it a sign of relenting on his part, the defiant air she had boldly assumed gave way to one of imploring.

"When we last met in Switzerland," she said, bending toward him, "you told me that your brother, my dear Gerald--who, in my innermost heart, I believe never did harm to woman--had imposed upon me by a mock ceremony of marriage. At that time I was so overwhelmed by despair and so persecuted by injustice, that I did not dispute your statement. I thought only of the present; I wished only to escape from the cruel eyes and tongues of those to whom I had been maligned; I wished only to fly to a spot where I was unknown, and where I might live out my days in peace. What I yearned for was accomplished. God was good to me; He raised up a friend who took me to her bosom, and who conducted me to a haven of rest. For eighteen years I have lived in a foreign land, contentedly, even happily, with my child, Gerald's child. But circumstances have occurred which render it vitally necessary for our happiness that the proof should be forthcoming that I am a married woman. To obtain this proof I have come to England to find you, and by a happy chance have so far succeeded. I beg, I entreat of you, to give me means to establish my marriage with your brother. That done, I will leave you in peace, as Heaven is my judge. I will bind myself to this in any way you wish. I will swear the most solemn oath, I will sign any document you may draw up. Give me the means of preventing a shameful exposure which wi............