Part 16

"There is no doubt about the interest of this novel. The plot is certainly contrived with no little art. The secret is ingeniously kept. Suspicion is skilfully directed, first in one direction, then in another, and the _dénouement_ will probably be unsuspected. A decidedly readable novel."--_Spectator._

Transcriber's note

For this txt-version text in italics has been surrounded with _underscores_, and a spaced-out word with +signs. Text in small capitals was changed to all capitals.

A few errors in punctuation were silently corrected. Also the following corrections were made:

In the table of contents "183" was changed to "185" (The Dream 185), also on page 38 "behavour" changed to "behaviour" (frightened into good behaviour, like a naughty child) 102 "stange" changed to "strange" (to think of the strange interview which had just) 102 "communciated" changed to "communicated" (it was no doubt communicated to me) 103/4 "he" changed to "she" (favourite views, and she had walked) 229 "decrepid" changed to "decrepit" (the grim, decrepit hag which my fancy had) 238 "first" changed to "fist" (shaking her clenched fist to me) 257 "coninued" changed to "continued" (still continued to bind me)

Otherwise the original text has been preserved, including inconsistent hyphenation, and unusual spelling of foreign words.