“Well, Guy, what is it!” Without moving an inch, she looked up at him.

“Come to my study,” answered her brother quietly.

“And leave your patient to amuse himself?  Really, Guy, you exercise the rites of hospitality so rarely that you forget the ordinary requirements.  Apropos, your little protegee has not returned.  It seems she did not fancy living here, and prefers staying at the asylum.  I would not trouble myself about her, if I were you.  Some people cannot appreciate kindness, you know.”  She uttered this piece of counsel with perfect sangfroid, and met her brother’s eye as innocently as Pauline would have done.

“I am thoroughly acquainted with her objections to this place, and determined to remove them so completely that she cannot refused to return.”

A gray pallor crept over his sister’s face; but she replied, with her usual equanimity.

“You have seen her, then?  I thought you had hurried back to your sick friend here, without pausing by the way.”

“No!  I have not seen her, and, you are aware, her voluntary promise would seal her lips, even if I had.”  He smiled contemptuously, as he saw her puzzled look, and continued:  “Percy will excuse you for a few moments; come with me.  Pauline, entertain this gentleman in our absence.”

She took his offered arm, and they proceeded to the study in silence.

“Sit down.”  Dr. Hartwell pushed a chair toward her, and stood looking her fully in the face.  She did not shrink, and asked unconcernedly: 

“Well, Guy, to what does all this preamble lead?”

“May, is the doctrine of future punishments laid down as orthodox, in that elegantly gilded prayer-book you take with you in your weekly pilgrimages to church?”

“Come, come, Guy; if you have no respect for religion yourself, don’t scoff at its observances in my presence.  It is very unkind, and I will not allow it.”  She rose, with an air of offended dignity.

“Scoff!  You wrong me.  Why, verily, your religion is too formidable to suffer the thought.  I tell you, sister mine, your creed is a terrible one in my eyes.”  He looked at her with a smile of withering scorn.

She grew restless under his impaling gaze, and he continued mockingly: 

“From such creeds! such practice!  Good Lord deliver us!”

She turned to go, but his hand fell heavily on her shoulder.

“I am acquainted with all that passed between Beulah and yourself the evening she left my house.  I was cognizant of the whole truth before I left the city.”

“Artful wretch!  She is as false as contemptible!” muttered the sister, through set teeth.

“Take care!  Do not too hastily apply your own individual standard of action to others.  She does not dream that I am acquainted with the truth, though doubtless she wonders that, knowing you so well, I should not suspect it.”

“Ah, guided by your favorite Mephistopheles, you wrapped the mantle of invisibility about you, and heard it all.  Eh?”