The Other Side of the Door

t lovely locked-in feeling, which comes only when the streets are quiet, and no tradesmen,

o much that his joining me in the garden was no more of an invasion than if he had been one of the family. He said father had told him he was to be out of town, and he had come around to see how the household

," he announced, and disappeared

en seen before. It was a half-grown shuffling Mexican, with a blank and stupid face, looking as if he might be some one's stable-boy. But as soon as he saw me, he produced from some pocket and presented to me with remar

milies of the north. "I am asking if you will honor me with your presence for a short hour this morning," the letter ran. "It is impossible that I come to y

ks. But still, could it be some practical joke? I put the envelope to my face. Ah, it w

revocably separated from mine, as if she inhabited another planet, was amazing. And as for those expressi

en. "I don't know how to answer this

he said; and then, "there's one

mean to say I'm

nquiringly.

esn't even like me

ersonal feeling aside. Now from this letter," and Mr. Dingley tapped the little sheet which he held before him, "I gather that the Se?ora Valencia may have some information concerning thi

a possible means of clearing Johnny

favor. Still, there was something strange about it. "But if she has

t women will often give evidence in some such high-fantastic way as this, which could never be got out of them through the proper channel,-that is by

for when I thought of whom I was to face, some coward

dear Miss Ellie, we don

this verbal message, and I watched him shuffle down the steps, in spite of his loose-hung gait, with admirable quickness. Then I told Lee that I was going o

across the empty stretches of the sand-lots toward where the long gray fa?ade of the convent stretched; and close beside it the high fence with the latticed top which surrounded the Spanish Woman's house. Above the fence the roof and

ngley rapped upon it with the iron knocker, whose lion head had been wont to snarl at me years ago. I heard a sharp clicking as of something

h ran from the fastening of the gate to its top, and from there in a straight line to th

across the neglect of it all moved the shadows of the restless eucalyptus trees. A brick path, very mossy and giving uncertain footho

the gate. But when, quite suddenly, the door opened, I was aware of a figure, very dimly seen in the gloom of the hall. We were allowed to enter without a question, without a word; and as quickly the door closed upon us. After the broad sunlight the hall seemed so d

gilded, that the carpet which I was crushing under my feet, was the color of wine, and every fold of the velvet curtain where it took the light like a ruby. The servant, holding it back, was a strange creature, with a tightly closed mouth, and eyes that looked as if he kept them open only a crack to see out of, but not on any account to le

and most colored; mirrors multiplying the tapestries and marble statues, and seeming to extend the very walls of the room itself. I kept catching glimpses of figures standing in these delusive vistas, and then, wi

ill to descend to the sala. Will th

hat's about as I expected. T

of his coat, "But you sa

to go up-stairs, that's hardly possible! Don't you see, Miss Ellie," he lowered his voice, "it's quit

of what that speech might mean was enough to make me relinquish Mr. Dingley'

my hair pat upon the floor I dared not stoop to pick it up for fear of losing sight of him. I kept on ascending unexpected little steps; entered doors that opened abruptly as panels in the wall, branched off into yet narrower halls, and finally was ushered into what seemed a sort of anteroom, with only a few chairs furnishing it, and a great extent of polished floor stretching out in front of me to a curtain which hung across one

k to the light, which fell splendidly upon the full length of her hair, hanging quite to the floor. She was wrapped in something silk, of two shifting colors, green and copper, uncovering the neck and leaving a most beautiful arm bare to the shoulder. A maid was brushing her hair, bending low with each measured stroke. At my appearance she straightened, stopped, and stepped back. It looked really as if she sank away into the shadow; and the Spanish

rouble to come to me." And still keeping my hand she led me to a chair and gently, prettily pushed me into it. There was something persuasive in her very touch. Then, taking her seat again, "Maria, prondo!" she cried; and the maid coming f

expression; and I thought she was a great deal less overwhelming than I had expected, though she was e

t saw him several years

glance. "Yes, and

w whether she knew what my evidence was to be, "then

hat do you t

don't k

n him three times. Once would have been enough. Surely you can t

!" I mu

ou do not think well of him; h

ound my heart, and my head felt on fire. It was not the

not believe him to be a murderer, you do not even think him unpleasant, and

ok like a murderer," I desperat

unjust, no matter what harm it does? It is for that reason I do not go to the law. I come to you, who are a woman like me, and have compassion. You say you do not know this man, but you have seen him. You can not be quite blind to what he is. He has been rash and foolish, and it is true that he has made angry

heard spoken of him. I almost loved her for them; and the expectation that the next mome

el for a gentle, tender-hearted girl like you to speak such words against him!" A faint col

into court and tell them about it? If only you would speak to them as

ow, are not those that speak to the mind but to the heart. All that the lawyers take count of are the facts; and for the jury, they would be more swayed by one word a little innocent-eyed girl will say, than by the most eloquent plea

had called up of that look; astounded that she had known

en you had lost your head. Now that you have had time to think it all over, now that you know how much it means-oh, surely, you will not speak agai

etely astray. It was not to tell me anything she had called me hither-oh, quite the opposite!-it was to try to close my lips. If I hadn't been so blinded by my obstina

mn him, even though he is innocent, I should want, myself, to die. But I can't believe,

such fine things of them you will be disappointed. As for the lawyers, they will convict an innocent man as merrily as they will eat their dinner, if only th

ed; and that person surely will come forward and tell what he knows before he will let

either arm; and now she slowly rose to her feet. Standing there she seemed fairly to tower above me, and

me, tiny and inconsequent. I closed my hands hard around the arms of my chair. I clung to it as if it had been my last principl

trike a blow-myself, or her own breast. Then she let them fall limp, and, lifting her shoulders with a

he wall, covered with gold-colored velvet. I saw her fling back the covering and kneel beside it, fumbling with t

ly over to where she

t d

you hang upon a Christmas tree, only a hundred times more brilliant. "See how pretty!" she said, and ran it through her fingers in a little blue stream; then, with an easy motion of her wrist, she tossed it around my shoulders. She p

iousness of that. The shock of the realization of what they were sent the blood into my face. Her eyes laughed at me with a gleam that seemed devilish. She threw the box into my

hing from the chest, and, before I could stop her she had pressed it down upon my head. Then she rose. Her face was flushed; her

, crowned with a circlet of gold, and hung with necklaces that made brightness in th

in. They will make you rich, they will make you beautiful! They are nothing to me; I will give them to you, every

ement. In the first moment I d

make it easy for you to go. I have influence-I will

, and rolled on the floor between us, and I believe we both forgot it. "Do you suppose I don't care as much as you do? I would do anything in the world to clear him of this charge. But you don't understand-

g; what do you know about hating or loving? You would not lie-oh, no! You would save him-if he were innocent! Why, you child, I would save him t

y strength of her passion itself, for the moment made her

clasps. I shook my hand free of the last jewel, and then snatching up my turban, pinned it on with trembling fingers, and all the while she stood looking silently at

f a material-I do not know it-but it is not flesh a

ulled toward her a tray, and took up a glass decanter. She poured two glasses of wine, and

rink to it. I will wish for it with

of great things you would do for him if only you could. Well, here is one small thing. Let me see you make good your words!" Her voice was so sweetly coaxing my hand hesit

. "No," I sai

. She was leaning over me. "Drink,

lung up my hand with the impulse to keep it of

was no perceptible change in her face, but suddenly she had b

ted the meaning of those words. "You woul

te throat swell, and laughed. "I tell you, my pretty little girl, I w

nto a tightly closed conservatory. The sound that was struggling in my throat was a scream, but suppose it would only call in some of her creatures before Mr. Dingley should hear! I lo

her hands, which I had dreaded; was the least of my fears. The anteroom was empty, but as I passed its threshold I heard her move across the inner room, and then a bell rang, away down in

ways, and it was only one of these, of course, which would bring me to the sala door. The others might plunge me into Heaven knew what places of the house, or what hands! There was no time to hesitate, I must choose and chance it! There was not one thing-window, furnitu

ed an omen of safety, and as I held it in my hand I fairly ran along the passage and came

o be hardly audible, not behind me, not on the other side of the door in front of me, but somewhere beyond the entry partition on my right. It was there, I reckoned, that one of those dark anterooms, through which we had ap

was so large that it took me some moments to ma

heart. And, in the listening pause, there came again unmistakably, soft, stealthy footsteps, sounding beyond the heavy

ietly across the room to one of the heavily curtaine

myself down the narrow cleft; and in that mind I took hold of the window-frame. I had no hope that I could move it, even after I had stirred the heavy locks; but, with the pressure of all my weight against it, slowly the two sides of the casement opened out. As the dusty panes of glass swung away from before me my eye cau

, and, groping forward with one hand, grasped a stout tangle of vines. Releasing the casement I half-dragged, half-swung myself into the opening in the wall. I clung there a moment trembling, catching my

d over my shoulder into the room behind me, and thought I saw a shadow moving down the floor. I do not know how I turned myself in the cramped space where I knelt. All I could remember afterward was the feel of the edge of t