Thinking Stella might be alarmed at his protracted absence, Sir Frederic mounted the stairs and turned the latch of her sleeping room as softly as possible.
The light was burning dimly, and as he surmised, his wife was far in the land of dreams. Her fair hair fell upon the pillow, while the coverlid, slipping from her shoulders, exposed her tender loveliness, and almost with tears in his eyes, Sir Frederic bent and touched his lips to a wandering curl while he covered the dimpled shoulders, and then with another look at the beautiful, childish face, turned and passed noiselessly from the room. The thought that his fair and innocent darling had once been held within the power of this unprincipled villain, sent his blood tingling through his veins, and with a sudden thirst for vengeance in his soul, he quickly rejoined the others, and following closely upon the heels of the excited Chinaman, was, an hour later, in the actual presence of the man who for nearly three years had succeeded in evading justice and escaping the penalty of his guilty deeds.
CHAPTER XXXI. CLEVERLY CAUGHT.
The game of chance is played by all—
The rich, the poor, the great, the small;
Fate's hand the wheel of fortune drives,
And marks the epoch of our lives.
The street was one of the shortest in the city, extending only the one block from Broadway to the Bowery, and the house itself was plain, dark and unattractive, but Sam Lee led the way with an ease that betokened much familiarity with the neighborhood.