The second portmanteau resisted her efforts to break it open, therefore I handed her the key. If, as she said, that man had held her future in his hands, she certainly had a right to look through what he had left behind. In her eagerness she tossed the papers hither and thither, now pausing to scan a letter and now breaking open a sealed envelope and hastily ascertaining the contents. "No," she cried hoarsely at last, turning fiercely to where the dead body lay. "You have left no written record. Brute! coward! assassin!" she hissed between her teeth, shaking her fist in the dead man's face. "You refused to give me my freedom--to clear my honour--you laughed in my face--you who knew the truth but refused to speak!" The scene was terrible, the living execrating the dead. I took her by the arm and tried to lead her away. But she shook me off, crying:-- "He has died of the terrible disease with which God had afflicted him. He knew, too well, that after his death I should be helpless and defenceless. He was wealthy, but what did all his wealth serve him-- compelled to fly at night and hide himself here, hoping that I should not discover him. He little dreamed that I knew of his hiding-place." "Then he could have cleared you of some false charge, had he been so inclined?" I inquired, hoping that she would reveal the truth to me. "Yes. A foul dastardly charge has been made against me--one of the cruellest and blackest that can be laid against a woman," she answered. "By a word he could have established my innocence. He knew I was innocent, yet he refused--he laughed in my face, and told me that he would not lift a little finger to help either me or my father." "Why not?" "Because the establishment of my innocence would have given me my happiness." "And he denied it to you. He had a motive, I suppose?" "Yes--oh yes!" she said. "Even my tears did not move him. I went upon my knees and begged him to speak, but he was obdurate. That was eight days ago. And how soon has Fate overtaken him! Two days later he was compelled to fly in secret in order to avoid arrest, and to-day he is lying there dead--his lips, alas! sealed." "Ah! unfortunately," I sighed, "he can no longer bear witness on your behalf, miss--I have not the pleasure of your name?" I said, hesitating purposely. "Miller--Lucie Miller," she replied. "And yours?" "Godfrey Leaf." "Yes, Mr Leaf, it is unfortunate for me," she said, with a dark look of desperation. "I am a doomed woman!" "Oh, no, you must not speak like that," I urged. "Surely the charge against you is not so very serious!" To me it seemed impossible that such a sweet-faced girl should have any grave imputation against her. "I have enemies, bitter, relentless enemies," was her brief response. She had grown a little calmer, and I had replaced the sheet over the cold, lifeless countenance of the man who had refused to tell the world the truth and thus save her.