"Mr. Lee had been away down East in Jerusalem, Palestine, across deserts, and over pyramids, for almost the whole time since he left home. Sorrowful as a man could be, but always going ahead, as if comfort lay in sharp work. Then he had come back into Italy, and so into France, which is Paris, you know. "Mrs. Dennison was in the hotel when Mr. Lee got there; James thinks, unexpectedly to his master, but is not certain. He knows that she wrote letters to him, any way. "'She is here, then--she has been setting her traps,' I said. 'Tell me everything, James, if you ever loved the sweet lady who is dead, or her child, who is pining herself to death at our own dear home. Tell me everything!' "'Yes,' he said, 'it's no use going over the tracks; but she's got him, and to-morrow they will be married at the American Embassy.' "'To-morrow! Married, to-morrow!' I almost screamed. "'Yes,' he answered; 'nothing can stop it. I passed a woman who brought home the wedding-dress as I came up-stairs.' "I caught hold of James and held his arms down tight. "'Nothing can stop it, James? Yes, sir, you and I can stop it; you and I _will_ stop it! I never promised right out before, James; but if you'll help me to expose this woman, I'll--I'll--yes, you and I'll take their place, and be married at the American Embassy right off ourselves.' "He--well, Miss Hyde, I won't worry you by telling what he said or did just then; but my face burned like fire half an hour after. "Now comes the hardest part of my story. Don't clasp your hands and pray for me, as the worst sinner that ever was; for I a'n't quite that! Still, you think so much of a little fib, and listening, and breaking open seals, that I'd rather not write it if a great deep ocean of water wasn't rolling between you and me. Miss Hyde, I own it, lies a'n't my delight; but I can tell 'em. Peeping through keyholes and windows isn't my nature; but, anyhow, I did it. More than that: I never let one of Mrs. Dennison's letters leave our house without reading it. One or two letters I kept back altogether, because they were written in French, and I couldn't read that. They are with me here. It was to give them into Mr. Lee's hand that I came across the wide ocean. She suspected me--or her girl Cora did--and hired one of the men to mail them safely; but I knew a better way of bribing him to give them up. True, it made James jealous to see how thick I was with the man; but I couldn't help that. "Babylon was cute, though; she wrote carefully. It was to some old friend--who was as bad as herself--to whom the letters were sent. I have some of her answers, too, as well as the journal; these were the papers that I laid before James Grant that night.