That night Emilia was once more in her native town. Eighteen years had passed since she left it, and it was with sadness she recognized familiar landmarks with which her childhood had been associated. She had taken the precaution of effecting a change in her appearance. She darkened her eyebrows and arranged her hair in a fashion so strange as to be startled when she looked into the glass. Moreover, she wore a thick veil. "No one will know me," she thought. But when she issued from the hotel the next morning she was a little afraid, for among the first persons she met was Mrs. Seaton. The cruel woman was but little altered; her features were more pinched, her eyes more stern than of yore, but Emilia knew her instantly. Mrs. Seaton, however, did not recognize Emilia, although she looked at her sharply, as was her wont with strangers. There was in the town a gossip who kept a small shop, and thither Emilia went, and, entering the shop, was greeted by the same woman who used to serve her in former years. Making some purchases and bargaining for others, Emilia drew the woman into conversation, and learned all she wished to know. Oh, yes, the woman remembered the brothers Paget very well, very well indeed. They were not brothers, no, they were stepbrothers. There was a fire in their house, and it was burned down, how many years ago? Eighteen or twenty, she could not quite say to a year or two; and a young lady, Miss Braham--Emilia Braham, that was her right name--rushed out of the house in the middle of the night while the fire was raging. There was a lot of talk about it. Miss Braham's father died suddenly--was killed by the falling of a scaffold--and Emilia was left alone, without a shilling in the world. Then she got a situation with Mrs. Seaton--Oh, everybody knew Mrs. Seaton; she had a sharp tongue, and had more enemies than friends--and she left her mistress' house at a moment's notice. Late at night, too. Mrs. Seaton said she had planned a secret meeting with Mr. Gerald Paget--he was the handsomest and the youngest of the step-brothers--and that was the reason of her going away so suddenly. It did look suspicious, didn't it? And it looked more than suspicious when she rushed out of Mr. Gerald's house in the middle of the night to save herself from being burned alive. That is often how people are found out in a way they little expect. But there were some people afterward who took Miss Braham's part, and said she wasn't guilty, though appearances were so much against her. That was because two ladies--old maids they were, and sisters--stood up for her, and went about saying all sorts of kind things about Miss Braham. What is that you say? God bless them for it! Yes, they deserve all that; they were kind-hearted ladies. They're in the churchyard now, and know more than we do. Well, these old maids took Miss Braham home on the night of the fire, when she was in a high fever, and no wonder, with what was on her mind; and Mrs.