Celia lay awake half the night, and was up and dressed early in the

morning, waiting for the cry of "Pipers! Daily Pipers!" and when the

newsboy came bounding up the steps she almost sprang out on him in her

eagerness and anxiety.

"Give me--which of the papers has the best police news?" she asked,

trying to speak casually.

"Oh, the Wire, o' course," replied the boy, promptly; "they don't let

nothing escape them, you bet, miss!"

She bought the halfpenny paper and eagerly scanned its columns,

forgetting that there could be no report of the case until the

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appearance before the magistrate; but the absence of any mention of an

arrest, following the message which the old gentleman had given her,

confirmed her relief and encouraged her. Notwithstanding, she found it

almost impossible to eat; but she drank a cup of tea, gathered her

papers together, and went down to the Museum. For the first time she

found her work difficult; for she could not dismiss the young man and

his tragic fate from her mind. Staring at the blank paper, she went over

all the details of the strange scene, and, standing out from them all,

was the expression in his face, in his eyes, as he had paused at the

bend of the stairs and looked at her.

Something in that expression haunted her as she had never been haunted

by anything in her life before, and she was weighed down by the sense of

a burden, the burden of a man's life, destiny; she could not forget that

she had sent him away, that if she had waited and he had remained, he

would have learned that he had no longer reason to fear, that "it was

all right."

She was disturbed in her reverie by the arrival of a young man, who

seated himself in the next chair at her desk; she turned to her book and

papers and began to work; but now a fresh difficulty arose in the

conduct of the young man beside her; the attendant had brought him a

pile of books, and the young fellow was turning them over, in a restless

way, thrusting his hands through his hair, fidgeting with his feet and

muttering impatiently and despairingly.

Celia glanced at him involuntarily. She saw that he was young and

boyish-looking; there was a look of perplexity and worry in his blue

eyes, and muttering a word of apology he rose and went quickly to the

inner circle, the rotunda, where the patient and long-suffering

superintendent stands to be badgered by questions from the readers

needing the assistance of his wonderfully-stored brain. In a minute or

two the young man came back, accompanied by an attendant bearing another

pile of books.




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