Cautiously timing my step with hers, that the murmur of the leaves might not betray me, I followed. As she passed out the gate, I stood behind a tree, lest she should look back and discern me; then I passed through, following along in the shadow of the fence. She hurried on in the direction of the spot at which the murder had been committed; but when nearly there, perceiving that some persons, though long past midnight, still hovered about the fatal place, she turned, and passed me. As soon as I dared, without alarming her, I also turned, pursuing her through the long, quiet street, until it brought her to a more crowded and poorer part of the village, where she went down a side street, and disappeared in a tenement-house, the entrance-hall to which was open. I ought to have gone at once for officers, and searched the place; but I unwisely concluded to wait for daylight. As I came up the walk on my return, I met James Argyll in the avenue, near the front portico. "Oh, is it you?" he exclaimed, after I had spoken to him. "I thought it was--was--" "You are not superstitious, James?" for his hollow voice betrayed that he was frightened. "You did give me a confounded uneasy sensation as you came up," he answered with a laugh.--How can people laugh under such circumstances?--"Where have you been at this hour, Richard?" "Walking in the cool air. The house smothered me." "So it did me. I could not rest. I have just come out to get a breath of air." "It is almost morning," I said, and passed on into my chamber. I knew who watched, without food, without rest, in the chamber of death, by whose door my footsteps led; but ache as my heart might, I had no words of comfort for sorrow like hers--so I passed on. CHAPTER IV. MORELAND VILLA. Several minor circumstances prevented my going in search of the woman who had excited my suspicions on the previous day, until about nine o'clock of the morning, when I engaged an officer, and we two went quietly, without communicating our plans to any one else, to the tenement-house before spoken of.