For a moment--only for a single moment, as I gather from Fanny--Mrs. Holdfast's face grew haggard, but she became gay again instantly, and began to sing and talk lightly. Can such a nature as hers really feel? Again, for the second time this week, Richard Manx has not come to his room in Great Porter Square. I make sure of this by putting the chain on the street door after mid-night. I attach importance to the slightest circumstance now, and do not allow anything to escape me. Do not for a moment let your courage and your hopefulness fail you. We have not yet obtained a tangible link to start from, but it appears to me as if events were coming closer; something will come to light presently which will assist in the discovery of your father's murderer. You are never absent from my thoughts; you are for ever in my heart. I am yours till death. [Decoration] CHAPTER XXXV. FANNY DISCOVERS WHO RICHARD MANX IS. MY DARLING--What has occurred to-day must be related with calmness, although my mind is in a whirl of excitement. The presentiment I felt last night that we were on the threshold of an important discovery has come true. A discovery _has_ been made which neither you nor I could ever have dreamt of, and we have to thank Fanny for it. How wonderfully all the circumstances of life seem to be woven into one another! Little did I think, when I first met the poor, hungry little girl, and was kind to her, that she would repay me as she has repaid me, and that we should owe to her, perhaps, the happiness of our lives. I may be mistaken; I may be speaking more out of my heart than my head, more out of my hopes than my reason. But surely what Fanny has discovered will lead to a discovery of greater moment. It is, as yet, the most important link in the chain. We must consider what is best to be done. At noon, Fanny said to me: "I want a holiday; I've got something to do." She spoke abruptly, and with great earnestness. "You don't intend to run away from me, Fanny," I said, and immediately repented my words, for Fanny seized my hands, and kissed them, with tears running down her face. "Run away from you!" she cried. "Never--never--never! How could you think it of me. I would die for you--indeed, indeed I would!" I quieted her, trying to excuse myself by saying that it was only because she was keeping something secret from me that the words escaped me. "But I'm doing it for you," she said. "To-night I'll tell you everything." Now, read how Fanny passed the day. I will relate it as nearly as possible out of her lips.