Infelice | Page 9

were half as unchangingly true, stainless, and holy!"
An hour later he bent his steps,--not to the lawyer's, nor yet to the
insurance office, but to the depot of the only railroad which passed
through the quiet, old-fashioned, and comparatively unimportant town
of V----.
The station agent was asleep upon a sofa in the reception-room, but
when aroused informed Dr. Hargrove that the down train bound south
had been accidentally detained four hours, and instead of being "on

time," due at eleven p.m., did not pass through V---- until after three
a.m. A lady, corresponding in all respects with the minister's
description, had arrived about seven on the up train, left a small valise,
or rather traveller's satchel, for safe keeping in the baggage-room; had
inquired at what time she could catch the down train, signifying her
intention to return upon it, and had hired one of the carriages always
waiting for passengers, and disappeared. About eleven o'clock she
came back, paid the coachman, and dismissed the carriage; seemed
very cold, and the agent built a good fire, telling her she could take a
nap as the train was behind time, and he would call her when he heard
the whistle. He then went home, several squares distant, to see one of
his children who was quite ill, and when he returned to the station and
peeped into the reception-room to see if it kept warm and comfortable
not a soul was visible. He wondered where the lady could have gone at
that hour, and upon such a freezing night, but sat down by the grate in
the freight-room, and when the down train blew for V---- he took his
lantern and went out, and the first person he saw was the missing lady.
She asked for her satchel, which he gave her, and he handed her up to
the platform, and saw her go into the ladies' car.
"Had she a package or box, when she returned and asked for her
satchel?"
"I did not see any, but she wore a waterproof of grey cloth that came
down to her feet. There was so much confusion when the train came in
that I scarcely noticed her, but remember she shivered a good deal, as if
almost frozen."
"Did she buy a return ticket?"
"No, I asked if I should go to the ticket office for her, but she thanked
me very politely, and said she would not require anything."
"Can you tell me to what place she was going?"
"I do not know where she came from, nor where she went. She was
most uncommonly beautiful."

"Are the telegraph wires working south?"
"Why bless you, sir! they are down in several places, from the weight
of the ice, so I heard the station operator say, just before you came in."
As Dr. Hargrove walked away, an expression of stern indignation
replaced the benign look that usually reigned over his noble features,
and he now resolutely closed all the avenues of compassion, along
which divers fallacious excuses and charitable conjectures had marched
into his heart, and stifled for a time the rigorous verdict of reason.
He had known from the moment he learned the tin box was missing,
that only the frail, fair fingers of Minnie Merle could have abstracted it,
but justice demanded that he should have indisputable proof of her
presence in V---- after twelve o'clock, for he had not left the library
until that hour, and knew that the train passed through at eleven.
Conviction is the pitiless work of unbiased reason, but faith is the
acceptance thereof, by will, and he would not wholly believe, until
there was no alternative. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, and quite
naturally Dr. Hargrove began to discredit the entire narrative of wrongs,
which had attained colossal proportions from her delineation, and to
censure himself most harshly for having suffered this dazzling Delilah
to extort from him a solemn promise of secrecy; for, unworthy of
sympathy as he now deemed her, his rigid rectitude would not permit
him to regard that unworthiness as sufficient justification for
abrogating his plighted word. Suspicious facts which twelve hours
before had been hushed by the soft spell of her rich plaintive voice,
now started up clamorous and accusing, and the pastor could not avoid
beholding the discrepancy between her pleas of poverty and
friendlessness, and the costly appearance of her apparel,--coupled with
her refusal to acquaint him with her means of maintenance.
If, as she had averred, the stolen license was--with the exception of his
verbal testimony--the sole proof of her marriage, why was she not
satisfied with the copy given to her unless for some unrighteous motive
she desired to possess in order to destroy all evidence?

Surmise, with crooked and uncertain finger, had pointed to