THE MYSTERIOUS MAN


For a moment Cora and the Robinson twins looked alternately at one
another, and then at the figure of the frail girl on the bed. She
seemed to be weeping, but when she took her hands down from her eyes,
there was no trace of tears in them--only a wild, and rather haunting
look in her face.

"Is she--do you think she is raving--a little out of her mind?"
whispered Belle.

"Hush!" cautioned Cora, but Inez did not seem to have heard.

"I pray your pardon--I should not inflict my emotions on you thus,"
the lace seller said, with a pretty foreign accent. Only now and
then did she mispronounce words--occasionally those with the hard (to
her) "th" sound.

"We shall be only too glad to help you," said Cora, gently.

"I do not know zat you can help me, Senorita," the girl murmured,
"and yet I need help--so much."

She was silent a moment, as though trying to think of the most simple
manner in which to tell her story.

"You said your father was a--a prisoner," hesitated Bess, gently.
"Did he--"