Did you not say, when first you inspected my hand, that you could read my name in the lines of it?
then, of course you knew it before you knocked at the wall--the knocking, therefore, was imposture." "I knew the name," she replied, "the moment I looked into your hand, but I was obliged to ask permission to reveal it.

Your observation, however, was very natural.

It may, in the meantime, be a consolation for you to know that I'm not at liberty to mention it to any one but yourself and one other person." "A man or woman ?" "A woman--she you saw this morning." "Whether that be true or not," observed the stranger, "the mention of my name at present would place me in both difficulty and danger; so that I hope you'll keep it secret." She threw the slip of paper into the fire.

"There it lies," she replied, "and you might as well read it in those white ashes as extract it from me until the proper time comes.

But with respect to it, there is one thing I must tell you before you go." "What is that, pray ?" "It is a name you will not carry long.