“The commodore, Mr. Bruce, has authorized me to make a communication to you, which should no longer be withheld. Will you come with me into another room?” The gentleman so addressed at once arose and followed the doctor, who took him into the disused dining-room of the old house, closed and locked the door, and then and there told him the terrible story of the false accusation and the trial to which his young wife had been subjected in his absence. Leonidas was frightfully agitated while listening. He strode up and down the floor, most bitterly reproaching himself, groaning, weeping, as only brave men can weep, and bursting into exclamations of pity, rage, remorse. It took all Dr. Willet’s skill and experience to reduce the fearfully excited man to anything like calmness and rationality. “The dying woman was but a weak tool in this diabolical work! She has done what she could to atone for her share in it, and now she is beyond the reach of punishment. But Malvina Warde! that fiend in human shape! _She_ shall be prosecuted to the utmost extent of the law! I will spend every dollar I am worth to engage the best counsel to be had, to send her to the State prison.” “Leonidas, the wretched woman is a family connection! You could not punish _her_ without——” began the doctor; but Bruce interrupted him in a voice of thunder: “Don’t tell me about family credit, Dr. Willet! If she were my sister I should send her to the State Prison for such a cause!” The doctor ceased to expostulate, thinking it best to let the infuriated man rage himself to exhaustion. Presently, however, Leonidas Bruce came up to Dr. Willet and said: “Doctor, if it had not been for you, Emolyn, _poor_ Emolyn, could never have lived through that terrible ordeal. You, with your constant charity, your wisdom, and your medical skill, bore her up, and sustained her in mind and body, or she must have sunk and perished in that fiery furnace of affliction. Doctor! so long as I may live in this world—ay! and in the next—I shall never forget your invaluable services, never cease to remember them with glowing gratitude. I should have expressed this to you before, for it is as true as truth; but the thought of that fiendish woman’s work put everything else out of my head. But, doctor, believe me——” “Say no more, my dear friend. I have told you this tragic story to forestall any false or garbled account you might possibly receive of it. Now, my dear Leonidas, I advise you never to speak of it again, but to forget it as fast as you can.” (“After I have sent that fiend in female form to the State Prison,” said Lonny to himself.) “Now then, calm yourself and clear your brow, and let us go back to the ladies, lest they should think we are engaged here in some conspiracy.” And they returned together to the parlor. By this time it was midnight, and the moon was up.