Part 19 (1/2)

FACE TO FACE AGAIN

”That's the house,” said Chester to hihcohed in his exciteh which startled hie patients beside the one at the mysterious house, and he knew pretty well how a ht and whose nerves were in that state which borders upon insanity

”This will not do,” he ether and rew into a sensation of alarm, and he awakened fully now to the fact that the strain froreat

”I must pull up short,” he said to hi like a madman Well, love--the real passion--is a kind of madness, and I could not have acted otherith the horror of the position in which I left her upon rew cooler, and made up his mind to watch the house until he obtained an intervieith Marion

He shrugged his shoulders as he entered his own door, and shut hirow cal in his excited brain which he could nota sedative, he could not keep down the feeling ofat last discovered the place

”I shall see her again,” he ain!”

A pair of soft dark eyes in a sweet, pale face seemed to rise reproachfully before him, but he mentally turned from the piteous look

”I cannot help it Fate--fate,” hethe intense desire to rush off and try and bribe the servants into speaking, he grew cal his aunt and sister in the drawing-roo the old lady down to the silent

”Don't speak to him, Laura,” she had said ”It will shoe despise hiraceful conduct, andto our knees in sackcloth and ashes”

But the days had glided on, and Chester had bought no sackcloth and had not told the cook to sift him any ashes For the perfect silence hich he was treated was the one great satisfaction now of his life

That night he found his sister watching him once, and as heof uneasiness akin to remorse; but it passed off directly, swept away by the exciting thought that he had at last attained the goal of his desires, and must now sooner or later encounter Marion

A week then passed, and he was still no farther, when one evening as he turned into Highcoe at the door; and adress came and stepped in, the foot off

”The brougha a cab he said sharply, ”Follow that carriage at a short distance till I tell you to stop”

He was not surprised at the direction taken by the carriage in front, which was kept just in sight till it turned into Bow Street, when Chester signed to his driver to stop, and sprang out, turning the corner just in tih the gateway leading under the portico of the opera

He followed to find that the occupants had alighted, and upon entering the lobby he caught sight of the back of Marion's dress as she swept through one of the great baize-covered doors

Here there was a check The door-keeper held out his hand for the custoo to the box-office, when for the first ti dress, and could not pass into the stalls

He stood biting his lips, and hesitating as to whether he should take a cab back home, to dress, and return, but he felt that he could not do that A dozen things ain; and snatching at the first idea that came, he took a ticket for the upper part of the house, hired an opera-glass and then cli a seat he calass he found he could not get a gli that at all costs he et into the stalls in as central a position as possible, he descended again to the box-office, and secured a stall nearly in the centre of the third row

Having made sure of his seat, he hurried back to Raybeck Square calculating that he could be back within an hour

Bidding the cab up to his roo; and after his hurried change he knew by the ajar door of the drawing-roo still

But this passed almost unnoticed in the exciteination running riot

”What an idiot I was not to ask the number of their box,” he said to himself

He did ask as soon as he reached the opera house, and found it was al his place he had no opportunity for turning round till the end of the act in progress, and he sat trenised hie, the music, the house croith a fashi+onable asse in iination at a face--the face of the woman who from their first encounter seemed to have taken entire possession of his faculties, enchaining his spirit so that he seemed to live and breathe for her alone