"The miserable knaves! What trust can you put in human natur' arter this!" and she fretted and fumed along the room.
"The book is safe in my house," said Barnhurst, advancing, his face glowing with satisfaction. "This fellow, it appears, is safe. I pledge my word to have that book in this room before an hour."
Godiva, looking over his shoulder, muttered in atone inaudible to the others: "And my manuscript is in the book, and I pledge my word to have that within an hour."
"If you do that, Herman, I'll sell my soul for you!" cried the Madam, warmly.
"Suppose we look at the—the patient," whispered Herman.
"Up-stairs in the same room;" and Herman and Godiva left her room together, and directed their steps toward the chamber of Alice.
"The book is safe; he'll keep his word—don't you think so, Corkins?" said the Madam, as she found herself once more alone with her familiar spirit.
"Safe—perfectly," returned Corkins, when his words were interrupted by the ring of a bell. It was the front door bell this time. Corkins hurried from the room, and in a few moments returned, and placed a card in the hands of the Madam:
"This person wants to see you."
Drawing near the candle, the Madam read upon the card this name—"Dr. Arthur Conroy." A name, you will remember, associated with the history of Marion Merlin. It was Arthur Conroy, who, in the dissecting room, saw the corpse before him start suddenly into life.