It was dated 1856! The photograph must have been taken two years AFTER her alleged death! He examined it again eagerly, fixedly, tremblingly.

A wild impulse to summon Barker or Stacy on the spot was restrained with difficulty and only when he remembered that they could not help him.

Then he began to oscillate between a joy and a new fear, which now, for the first time, began to dawn upon him.

If the news of her death had been a fiendish trick of her relations, why had SHE never sought him?
It was not ill health, restraint, nor fear; there was nothing but happiness and the strength of youth and beauty in that face and figure.

HE had not disappeared from the world; he was known of men; more, his memorable good fortune must have reached her ears.