The beautiful lips quivered pitifully over the awful revelation.
“I am almost sure it is the same,” she murmured as she stared hard at the picture. “He is changed in some way, I can’t tell exactly how. Oh, I see it all now! The black-hearted monster! He hypnotized her, my poor, innocent sister!”
“He is to give an exhibition of his power to-night,” said Mr. Ray, who was reading the big bill. “The rascal will hypnotize some ‘subjects’ at Poole’s Theatre this evening.”
Marion shut her white teeth with a defiant snap.
“Well, he shall have me for an audience, Mr. Ray,” she exclaimed, sharply. “Oh, to think of my sister being in the clutches of that monster!”
“Don’t cry, Miss Marlowe! You may be mistaken,” said Mr. Ray, quickly.
It hurt him as much to see her grief as though she had been his own loved sister.
“Oh, I’m not going to cry,” whispered Marion, with the tears almost on her lashes, “but I am going to do some plotting to trap that fiend; and, oh, Mr. Ray, I do hope that you will help me!”
She turned toward him appealingly and held out her hand. There was an expression on her face that made it radiantly beautiful. Archie Ray glanced around quickly. There was nobody looking.
He would have given the whole world to have clasped her in his arms, but he knew instinctively that such an action would never be forgiven him.