.

LUTTRA.
"Gentlemen," said he as he ushered us once more into his studio, "you have presumed, and not without reason I should say, to infer that the original of this portrait and the woman who has so long occupied the position of sewing-woman in my house, are one and the same.

You will no longer retain that opinion when I inform you that this picture, strange as it may appear to you, is the likeness of my wife." "Wife!" We both were astonished as I take it, but it was my voice which spoke.

"We were ignorant you ever had a wife." "No doubt," continued our host smiling bitterly, "that at least has evaded the knowledge even of the detectives." Then with a return to his naturally courteous manner, "She was never acknowledged by me as my wife, nor have we ever lived together, but if priestly benediction can make a man and woman one, that woman as you see her there is my lawful wife." Rising, he softly turned the lovely, potent face back to the wall, leaving us once more confronted by the dark and glowing countenance of his cousin.
"I am not called upon," said he, "to go any further with you than this.
I have told you what no man till this hour has ever heard from my lips, and it should serve to exonerate me from any unjust suspicions you may have entertained.

But to one of my temperament, secret scandal and the gossip it engenders is only less painful than open notoriety.