Read The Dead Letter: An American Romance Page 1

  Produced by David Edwards, Sonya Schermann and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)

  Page 183.

  THE PORTRAIT.]

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  THE

  DEAD LETTER:

  AN AMERICAN ROMANCE.

  BY SEELEY REGESTER.

  NEW YORK: BEADLE AND COMPANY, _118 WILLIAM STREET_. 1867.

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  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by BEADLE AND COMPANY.

  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

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  CONTENTS--PART I.

  CHAPTER I.

  THE LETTER, 9

  CHAPTER II.

  EVENTS OF A NIGHT, 11

  CHAPTER III.

  THE FIGURE BENEATH THE TREES, 23

  CHAPTER IV.

  MORELAND VILLA, 34

  CHAPTER V.

  MR. BURTON, THE DETECTIVE, 49

  CHAPTER VI.

  TWO LINKS IN THE CHAIN, 72

  CHAPTER VII.

  ELEANOR, 86

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THE HAUNTED GRAVE, 94

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE SPIDER AND THE FLY, 114

  CHAPTER X.

  THE ANNIVERSARY, 132

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE LITTLE GUEST AND THE APPARITION, 154

  CHAPTER XII.

  THE NIGHT IN MORELAND VILLA, 176

  CHAPTER XIII.

  THE SHADOW ASSUMES SHAPE, 188

  PART II.

  CHAPTER I.

  THE LETTER, 199

  CHAPTER II.

  OUR VISITS, 212

  CHAPTER III.

  THE CONFESSION, 228

  CHAPTER IV.

  EMBARKED FOR CALIFORNIA, 243

  CHAPTER V.

  ON THE TRAIL, 252

  CHAPTER VI.

  AT LAST--AT LAST, 261

  CHAPTER VII.

  NOW FOR HOME AGAIN, 278

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THE RIPE HOUR, 383

  CHAPTER IX.

  JOINING THE MISSING LINKS, 296

  CHAPTER X.

  THE NEW LIFE, 305

  ILLUSTRATIONS.

  BAFFLED, 64

  ELEANOR, 90

  "WELL, HOW DO YOU LIKE MY LOOKS?" 161

  THE PORTRAIT--Frontispiece, 183

  IN THE OAK, 223

  "I NEVER ACCUSED YOU," 297

  THE DEAD LETTER.

  PART I.