He did not refuse her; so Emma relieved her of her veil and threw about her a long cloak, and together they stepped into the street. The glare that struck their faces made them shrink, but they soon overcame the first shock and hastened on. The town was in a tumult, but they saw nothing save the flaming skeleton of their home, with the gaunt outlines of the poplars shining vividly in the scarlet glow. As they drew near to it the front of the house fell in, and Hermione, with a shriek, pointed to the corner where the laboratory had been. "My father! my father! See! see! he is there! He is denouncing me! Look at his lifted arms! It _is_ a judgment, it is----" Her words trailed off in choking horror. They all looked, and they all saw the figure of an old man writhing against a background of flame. Was it a spectre? Was it the restless ghost of the old professor showing itself for the last time in the place of his greatest sin and suffering? Even Edgar was silent, and Frank refused to say, while the girls, sinking upon their knees with inarticulate moans and prayers, seemed to beg for mercy and cry against this retribution, when suddenly Hermione felt herself clasped in two vigorous arms, and a voice exclaimed in the husky accents of great joy: "You are here! You are here! You are not burned! O my dear young mistresses, my dear, dear young mistresses!" Hermione, pushing the weeping Doris back, pointed again towards the toppling structure, and cried: "Do you see who is there? My father, Doris, my father! See how he beckons and waves, see----" Doris, startled, gave a cry in her turn: "It is Mr. Huckins! O save----" But the words were lost in the sudden crash of falling walls. The scene of woe was gone, and the dayspring of hope had risen for the two girls. _A Selection from the Catalogue of_ G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Complete Catalogue sent on application Works by Anna Katharine Green THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story. New Illustrated Edition. Cr. 8vo. $1.50 "She has worked up a _cause célèbre_ with a fertility of device and ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allan Poe."--_Christian Union_. BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. 16^o, cloth $1 00 "... She has never succeeded better in baffling the reader."--_Boston Christian Register_. THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life. 16^o, cloth $1 00 "'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places her high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has shown both delicacy and vigor."--_Congregationalist_. X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES. 16^o, $1 00