"Phantom! You are flesh and blood, my dear."
"Yes; but I mean that should I fail to discover this secret, or should you persist in treating me as a child, we must part, and never see one another again. I will then be nothing to you but a phantom--a memory. No man can remain true to a memory."
"Strange as it may appear to you, Dora, there have been men thus faithful, and I swear----"
"Do not swear fidelity. You will only perjure yourself in after years. But it is no use discussing such things, my dear," she continued more cheerfully. "I must return home."
"Will you come back and see me again?"
"If I have occasion to, I shall do so. I do not intend to part from you until all mysteries are made plain. It shall be my business to make them so."
"A hopeless task," sighed Allen, as he accompanied her to the door. "I shall send Mrs. Tice over to you in the morning."
"Thank you. Do you know that Mrs. Tice was once acquainted with my guardian?"
"Yes; she said something about it," he murmured, turning away his head; "she knows something."
"I am convinced of that. She knows the celebrated past of Mr. Edermont, about which so much has been said. I would not be surprised if she knew the contents of that stolen manuscript."