"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