The strength of love

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When Dallas Bain and Royall Sherwood, with the dashing young widow, Mrs. Fleming, drove down the village street in their fine landau that summer afternoon, Daisie Bell stood on the steps of her aunt’s cottage, plucking the purple wistaria blooms from the vines above her head, and the picture she made in her youth and grace stayed in both the men’s hearts till they died.

Just a slip of a girl—perhaps seventeen or eighteen—gowned very simply, in white, with lavender ribbons at throat and waist; but her figure was grace and symmetry itself; and her face—well, men have died for faces less fair than hers, with its dusk-violet eyes, blue in the light, black in the shade, under the fringed curtain of jetty lashes that contrasted so vividly with the living gold of her hair as it swept in loose waves over her shoulders.

Both the young men gazed at this charming vision in frank delight, and as the unknown beauty and the gay little widow exchanged formal bows, exclaimed simultaneously:

Mrs. Fleming frowned jealously, bit her red lips, and answered, with some asperity:

“What geese men are! Always caught by theatricals! Couldn’t you both see that the bold thing was just posing for your benefit?”

“How exceedingly kind of her, to be sure! We certainly enjoyed the tableau very much,” lisped Royall Sherwood, a rich young man of the genus dude, who was Mrs. Fleming’s cousin, and visiting her at her summer home in Maryland, having brought with him Dallas Bain, a new friend he had made on the return trip from Europe, a month ago.

“I don’t know a thing about him, except that he’s clever and handsome, and seems to have plenty of money; but I like him immensely, so I brought him here with me, and if you’re not pleased you can just ship us both when you get tired,” Royall said coolly to his cousin, who answered gayly:

That was ten days ago, and as time went by she found him more charming than ever, though there was about him a careless insouciance, a cynical indifference to her wiles, that piqued her into deeper earnestness, so that by the end of the first week she was passionately in love, and using every feminine art to bring him to her feet.

And, never having loved before, despite several pronounced flirtations, she was desperately in earnest.

At only twenty-five, she was the widow of an old man whom she had married for his money when she was only nineteen years old. Three years later he obligingly died, and left her the mistress of half a million, which she was enjoying in royal fashion. A selfish, careless little beauty, she had never felt the great passion of life till she met Dallas Bain, whose large, dark, flashing eyes had pierced her heart in a moment with love’s keen arrow.

She set herself to win him without a thought of defeat, for she was very pretty in a doll-like fashion, petite, with turquoise-blue eyes, and[Pg 8] crinkly flaxen hair always in the most picturesque disorder. Not a fear of rivalry crossed her mind, for although she had several young girls as guests, she had been careful to invite only those who were plain-looking enough to serve as a foil to her own beauty. To Daisie Bell she had never given a thought till this moment, when, on their drive, the coachman had turned into Temple Street just to vary the route, and her visitors had seen the young girl in her wondrous beauty, that, once seen, could never be forgotten.

“Couldn’t you both see that the bold thing was just posing for your benefit?” she exclaimed, in jealous alarm; and Royall had answered as above recorded, winking significantly at his friend; but Dallas said not a word, but gazed, with his heart in his eyes, at the beauty till she was out of sight.

Then he drew a long breath that was mingled delight and pain, and cried eagerly:

“Yes, who is she, and why haven’t we met her at your receptions, Lutie?” added Royall.

“Oh, she isn’t in our set at all—only a poor relation of some people here; a teacher, or shop girl from New York, who comes here every summer to visit her kin and rest from work. And they’re all poor, as you can see from the back street and the five-roomed cottage.”

She thought that this explanation ought to settle the subject forever; but Royall persisted:

“Well, she is a daisy, and no mistake, and a belle, too—the rarest beauty I ever saw; and I’m bound to know her soon. I’m in love at first sight.”

Dallas Bain said nothing, but his deep eyes gleamed with a subtle fire, and he resolved that he, too, would make the acquaintance of the lovely[Pg 10] girl whose single earnest glance had thrilled him so deeply that it seemed to him already that she must be his fate.

It was strange how much business the two young men had on Temple Street the next few days, either riding or walking, and always watching eagerly for another glimpse of the fair face that had charmed them so.

Once they saw her again on the porch, and twice at the upper window, and finally they met her coming out of her gate, apparently going for a morning call.

She blushed brightly at their admiring glances, and stepped briskly in front of them, walking along for about two blocks, setting them wild with her graceful carriage, like a young princess, then stopped and went into a house whose occupants they knew as acquaintances of Mrs. Fleming.

“Let us go in and call on that pretty little Miss Janowitz. Then she will introduce us to the beauty.”

“It does not look quite fair to force an acquaintance. Let us try for an introduction in a more proper way.”

“A fig for the proprieties! I’m bound to get up a flirtation with that beautiful creature,” vowed Royall recklessly, opening the gate and going in while nodding a gay farewell to his friend, who turned away with a jealous pang at his heart, though muttering to himself:

Royall Sherwood was cordially welcomed by Miss Annette Janowitz, a charming little brunette, as brilliant and restless as a humming bird.

“I have seen you passing several times this week, and I wondered if you were looking for me,” she said gayly. “But let me introduce you to my friend, Miss Bell.”

They bowed to each other, Royall with empressement, Daisie with reserve; for, having seen him in the vicinity of her home so much lately, she rather suspected the conquest she had made, but resented this way of forcing an acquaintance.

“The impudence!” she thought resentfully, while Annette continued to chatter gayly, flashing her dangerous black eyes at him.

“Dallas Bain? Oh, I asked him to come in, but he refused, and went back to Sea View alone. Fact is, he has no eyes for any woman but my cousin, Lutie Fleming. Most absorbing flirtation I ever saw, really,” returned Royall, trying thus early to make a clever move in the game of love, and checkmate Dallas, whom he knew might prove a dangerous rival for Daisie’s heart.

Miss Bell was very quiet. She sat with downcast eyes, playing with a rose in her belt, the seashell glow coming and going on her cheeks with some secret excitement. Royall wondered if it were emotion at his presence or pique that Dallas had not cared for her society. He decided that it must be the latter, for she soon brought her call to an end without having spoken a dozen words to him, and he did not dare offer to walk home with her, as he longed to do.

He felt a jealous certainty that she was vexed at Dallas, and decided that it would take some[Pg 13] scheming to divert her thoughts from his handsome friend.

“But I’ll do it, for my heart’s gone, and I’m almost tempted to ask her to marry me already, even if she is poor and not in our set, as Lutie says. But, Jove! She’s the grandest beauty in the world! And wouldn’t she make a sensation as my bride, covered with diamonds! Yes, I’ll win her if I can, and I must manage to keep Dallas out of the running, for she could not help showing disappointment when I said that about his flirting with Lutie; but I’ll make her forget him directly, and all the better for her, too, since I’m the better match of the two,” cogitated Royall, who, though he knew that his effeminate blond beauty, so like his cousin’s, could not compare with the dark splendor of tall and striking Dallas Bain, still considered that his golden charms more than counterbalanced the difference.

“All is fair in love or war,” he said coolly; and, pursuant of his scheme to keep Dallas away from Daisie, he said to him that evening:

“Just as well that you didn’t go in to see Miss Bell to-day. She is disappointing, really. Pretty as a picture, of course, but so bread-and-butterish[Pg 14] and schoolgirly, you know. Always posing for effect, as my cousin said, but not much to her, after all, but simpers and giggles.”

Dallas felt a keen thrill of disappointment and disgust, for Daisie’s face had haunted him for many days, and it gave him a shock to think that she was like what Royall said—simpering and giggling like a silly schoolgirl. The young widow had treated him to enough of that, trying to pose as girlish, despite her three years of wifehood and two of widowhood, and he decided that he did not care to know Daisie now, since even the careless Royall was no longer interested.

When Daisie Bell sat reading on the porch next day, a messenger brought her a basket of rare flowers and a note from Royall Sherwood, asking permission to call on her that evening.

“Why, let him come, of course! Daisie Bell, you’re a lucky girl. This Royall Sherwood is a millionaire, they tell me, and your face is pretty enough to win him, or any other man.”

“Then I wish it had been the other man,” thought Daisie sadly, as she went to answer the note.

“The other man” meant Dallas Bain, whose dark, manly beauty and earnest glance into her eyes had made a deep impression on her heart.

His face was haunting her just as hers haunted him. It was a case of mutual attraction—of love at first sight.

Heaven had made these two for each other, but adverse forces were busy driving them apart.

Since Daisie had heard that Dallas was in love with the young widow, she tried to drive his handsome face from her thoughts, and since Dallas had been told that she was a simpering giggler he did not try to see her any more, and regretted that he had anonymously sent her a passionate love poem.

Yet he could not have helped being glad if he could have seen how she read and reread it in blushing solitude, with an unerring conviction that he had sent it—her hero of the brilliant dark eyes and winning smile.

“I must be mistaken, since he did not care to know me, and went past when Mr. Sherwood came in. Oh, why do I care? I do not even know him, unless our souls spoke to each other in our glances when he passed me by. And, of course, he is in love with that lovely little Lutie Fleming. Yet I hoped—and was vain enough to fancy—that he sent me these sweet verses,” half sobbed the girl, yet still reading them over with a thrill at her heart.

“Perhaps Mr. Sherwood sent the verses,” she sighed, in her sad disappointment; but on comparing them with his note she saw that the writing was distinctly different, leaving her still a little fluttering hope that Dallas Bain had indeed sent the poem, bitterly as she was piqued that he had not cared to make her acquaintance.

When Royall called that evening she looked her loveliest, gowned in her favorite white, and she made herself most charming, hoping, dear heart, that he would tell Dallas Bain that she was such a charming girl he really ought to make her acquaintance.

But nothing was farther from Royall’s thoughts. He was delighted to find that she was rarely gifted and intelligent, but he kept his knowledge closely to himself, never letting his friend know that he was pursuing his acquaintance with Daisie, though he contrived to see her every day in the week, and even took her to drive one afternoon when the coast was clear, Dallas having stayed in to write some important letters.

She was very kind and friendly with Royall, but he saw that she took a secret, eager interest in Dallas, listening eagerly when he talked of him, though he was careful never to say anything good, still hoping to turn her heart to himself.

In fact, he pretended to decry the engagement he assumed to be existing between Dallas and his pretty cousin.

“If I had guessed at anything like this, I’d never have brought him to Sea View—never!”[Pg 19] he said. “In fact, I told Lutie so to her face. I said: ‘I haven’t the least idea of his antecedents, and you ought not to encourage him unless he explains everything.’ But she was so infatuated with the fellow she wouldn’t even let me hint such a thing to him, and he’s as reticent over himself as if he were an escaped convict—which he may be, for all we know,” argued Royall.

“But doesn’t he seem very nice? Isn’t he well educated, and—and—doesn’t he write a fine hand?”

“Oh, his manner is charming; that’s what made me take up with him first, you know—so frank and friendly; and he seems to be college bred. As for his writing—see,” and he exhibited to the trembling girl some random papers from his notebook, scribbled over with his friend’s name and some poetical quotations.

He did not notice that Daisie trembled, that the color rushed to her cheek and the light to her eyes, from pure joy.

The writing was identical with the poem. Her heart told her the truth. Dallas Bain had written[Pg 20] her those sweet verses. He loved her, after all.

“I see how it is,” she thought, with keenest pain. “When he first saw me, his heart went out to me, as did mine to him, in the thrilling glance we exchanged. But he was already pledged to another, and could not retreat in honor; so he dared not trust himself to know me better. That was why the verses breathed such hopeless sadness.”

There was balm in the thought, for his avoidance had wounded her cruelly until she thought she had fathomed the cause.

Alas! Alas! Strange decree of fate. Between this pair, who had never even spoken to each other, only looked into each other’s eyes, love had been born full-grown, though each tried to thrust it away—she, believing it was hopeless; he, because he had been told by a false schemer that she was as silly as she was fair.

“I am sorry now that I sent her the poem. I hope she will never find me out, and gratify her vanity by telling her girl friends about it. When girls are very silly they always boast of their conquests,” thought the young man; and it vexed[Pg 21] him sorely that so fair a face should go with a shallow mind—vexed him, too, that her beauty should haunt him so, not dreaming yet that its spell was immortal.

He thought that he must go away, and presently forgetfulness would come. He ought to go away, anyhow, for Royall Sherwood did not seem as friendly as of old—had grown careless and neglectful; and, as for Mrs. Fleming, she was too kind, that was all; and he was afraid that she might assume the supposed prerogative of the new woman, to woo and win.

In a very gray mood, he excused himself from her company one day, saying that he had an engagement to ride with a fellow.

The fellow was himself; but he deemed any subterfuge permissible, since she had made him read poetry to her till he was hoarse as a raven, and he was wild to escape.

So he went to the livery stable, secured a light buggy, and set off for a solitary ride along the beach.

“The only chance a fellow can get to think, with so many women about, always chattering like magpies!” he muttered to himself, as he was[Pg 22] returning at a slow pace along the level sands, and watching the setting sun as it spread long lances of rosy light across the restless waves.

He had quite decided that he would leave Sea View to-morrow, and return to New York.

There would be no trouble in getting away from Royall Sherwood, who seemed already weary of him, and if the little widow got hysterical he could say he had important letters calling him away.

If he had not been so absorbed in half-sad thoughts, and secondarily interested in the sunset on the sea, he would not have forgotten what a timid animal he was driving, and that it was unsafe to leave the reins lying so slack on his back.

The beach was deserted, he thought, although only this morning it had been alive with gay bathers and fearless bicyclists. So, unthinking of danger, he drove on, and the voice of the sea, so solemn and profound, blending with his pensive thoughts, drowned the voices of two fair young girls wheeling toward him on their bicycles, one dark and sparkling, the other very fair and lovely.

Suddenly the spirited pony, looking ahead, saw the shining wheels spinning toward him, and took unexpected fright, and swerved from his course. Whinnying with fear, and plunging forward before Dallas could restrain him, he dashed upon the very object of his fright, his forward hoofs striking the wheel and overthrowing the fair rider before she could turn out of his way, just as Dallas reined him in with a grasp like steel.

Oh, horrors! There lay the poor girl on the sands, beneath her wheel, still as death! And as Dallas sprang from the buggy the other girl jumped from her wheel in grief and reproach.

He answered with a cry of anguish, for there at their feet lay the lovely girl, her sweet eyes closed, her golden curls trailing on the sands, while a thin stream of blood trickled down her cheek from a little cut on her temple.

Dallas and Miss Janowitz—for it was the beautiful brunette again—bent over the prostrate girl, and they saw that she was quite unconscious, stunned, perhaps, by the blow on her temple, received[Pg 24] either from the horse’s hoof or a shell on the sands.

“It was an accident—I would give my life if it had not happened!” he cried wildly, and she saw that his face grew pale as Daisie’s while he felt for her heart, adding: “She cannot be dead, only stunned a little, I think. Oh, if she could but have turned aside as quickly as you did!”

Annette wrung her little hands, and her dark eyes filled with tears as she cried:

“Poor Daisie! She was just learning to ride, and was not skillful enough to get out of the way. Oh, what shall we do now, Mr. Bain?”

“Why, I will take her home in my buggy, and you had better remount your wheel and go for the doctor as fast as you can.”

Annette called a curious urchin loitering near to ride Daisie’s wheel back to town, and the sad procession started on its return, Annette soon leaving the buggy far in the rear in her haste to obtain a physician for her friend.

It was several miles back to the cottage, and Dallas Bain would never forget that ride, nor the love and grief that thrilled his heart as beautiful Daisie rested against it like a dead girl, with the[Pg 25] dark fringe of her lashes prone upon her pallid cheeks. All his thoughts were prayers that she might soon revive, and a little before he turned into Temple Street he saw her breast heave slightly and her eyelids quiver. The next moment they unclosed, while a moan of pain came from her colorless lips.

He could not help pressing her a little tighter in his arms for very joy, as he murmured tenderly:

“Do not be frightened, little Daisie. I am Dallas Bain, you know, and I am taking you home because you fainted.”

“Yes, I remember now. I fell from my wheel—your horse knocked me down!” She shuddered; and then, looking up into his face, Dallas saw her blush as she felt herself in his arms. “I—oh, I can sit up!” she murmured; but the effort made her moan with pain, and he said, with gentle authority:

Daisie was certainly suffering severely, but it was balm for her pain to see the eyes of Dallas Bain rest on her with such tenderness, and though she was thrillingly conscious that his arms held her more tightly than was necessary, even in her weakness, she did not rebel; the sensation gave her a happiness that she had never known before.

Directly they reached the house and found that Annette had the doctor waiting, they carried her tenderly in, and Dallas waited on the porch with an anxious heart for the verdict.

“The accident was all my fault, and every pang of her suffering wrings my heart!” he groaned to himself.

Soon the warm-hearted little Annette put an end to his suspense by running downstairs to tell him that Daisie had no serious injuries. The cut on her brow was superficial; she had some bruises and a sprained ankle, that was all. She would have to keep quiet on a sofa for a few days, then she would be all right again.

What a light of joy flashed into those dark eyes of Dallas Bain at the joyful tidings, as he cried:

“Ah, how happy you make me, for if she had been seriously hurt I never could have forgiven myself for the carelessness that made such an accident possible. Will you tell her for me that I will call to-morrow morning to ask her forgiveness?”

Annette promised freely—she was such a romantic little thing—and she was sure that he had fallen in love with her lovely friend. As she was already engaged herself to the dearest fellow in Cincinnati, she did not experience any pangs of jealousy.

So when the doctor was gone and Daisie resting easily, she whispered his message, and added:

“You have made quite a conquest, I am sure, by this accident, for if ever I saw love in a man’s eyes for a girl, it shone in Dallas Bain’s for you!”

Daisie blushed and demurred, but her heart was full of joy. She forgot all about Royall Sherwood, who had gone to New York last evening to be absent two days. She could think of[Pg 28] nothing but the message and the visit she was to receive next morning. If she spent a restless night, it was not so much from her injuries as from happy suspense.

She had longed so eagerly to know him, and when she had given up hope at last this blessing had come to her so suddenly that it made her forget everything else that she ought to remember.

The next morning she pretended to be feeling much better than she really was, so that the doctor would permit her to be helped down to the parlor to lie on the little blue sofa. When he gave his consent, she insisted on wearing her very daintiest white morning gown, with fluffy lace trimmings, though her aunt said she didn’t see that it mattered how she dressed, seeing that Mr. Sherwood was away.

“It is Mr. Sherwood’s friend that is coming to call on me; so, of course, I want to look nice.”

This satisfied the old lady, and when Dallas Bain came at the earliest permissible hour she simply ushered him into the parlor and left him[Pg 29] alone with Daisie, excusing herself on the plea of domestic duties.

They were alone together—the pair of unacknowledged lovers—in the simple, dainty room, with its blue-and-white hangings that harmonized so exquisitely with the girl’s radiant fairness. The summer breeze swayed the lace curtains at the window and diffused the odor of white roses growing on a bush outside, disposing the mind to thoughts of love and purity.

Daisie, in her soft white robe, with her bandaged foot on a cushion, and the loose curls of her shining hair veiling her form in sunshine, reclined on a sofa, looking very unlike an invalid, so bright were her eyes and so rosy her face from the warm blood that coursed through her throbbing heart.

Dallas bent down and took her soft white hand in a gentle pressure, murmuring audaciously:

“I ought to be repenting in dust and ashes the accident that caused you such pain, I know; but—how can I regret the accident that gave me the delight of knowing you, Miss Bell?”

He had quite forgotten that he had decided two weeks ago that it was not worth his while trying[Pg 30] to know her, forgotten that Royall Sherwood had told him she was silly.

The incidents of yesterday had drawn them nearer together than months of formal acquaintance could have done.

He had held that sweet form in his arms, close to his heart, during a long ride, had feasted his eyes, unreproved, on her beauty, had even dared press reverent lips on her golden hair and one limp white hand.

It seemed to him, in the delirium of love that had come upon him, that all this made her his own, sealed her as his, to have and to hold forever.

He drew a chair close to her sofa, and they began to talk to each other—incoherently, I am afraid, for how could they preserve the formal dignity of strangers?—and very soon he saw that her mind was as lovely as her face, her words well chosen, her voice low and musical, her smile like sunshine, and her laughter a chime of silver bells.

If he had been keeping back a remnant of his heart, he surrendered now at discretion to this adorable creature.

“Do you know that I seem to have known you a long while, although we never spoke to each other till yesterday? Yet it is, after all, only two weeks since I first saw you. Since that day you have never been out of my thoughts.”

His beautiful dark eyes seemed to hold her violet ones in a fascinated gaze. She could not remove them, though she felt the rosy blushes bathing cheek and brow. Their glances mingled caressingly, and, taking her unresisting hand in his, he continued, in low, thrilling accents:

“Forgive me if I seem rash and forward, taking advantage of your gentleness; but, Daisie Bell, I love you with the passion of my life, though it may be madness to avow it, though it may meet your scorn. But the softness of your gaze inspires me with some little hope that you are not indifferent to my love, that I may win you—by long devotion—to be my bride.”

How pale her cheek grew—pale as yesterday, when she lay unconscious on his breast after that perilous accident! What a startled look came into her violet eyes!

Dallas Bain was startled by the young girl’s emotion, and his own cheek paled with sorrow as he cried hoarsely:

“You are angry with me for my presumption? I was too hasty, but my love must be my excuse. Will you forgive me?”

Daisie put out the little hand he had dropped in his alarm, and as he clasped it again he felt the soft pressure of fingers twining about his own as she whispered, in a choked voice:

“You startled me, but—but—I am not angry. For how could I be, when—when——”

What could she mean? he thought. Did she—did she care also, as he had dared to hope?

Trembling with hope, the color rushing to his brow, he bent over the agitated girl, and read hope in the trembling smile of the coral lips.

“Oh, Daisie, will you love me?” he cried impetuously, and she answered, with a broken sob:

And then he dared to kiss her, and for the space of five minutes heaven seemed to come down to earth in that rare bliss of mutual love.

Absorbed in sweet assurances of tenderness, they did not hear the crunching of carriage wheels that stopped at the gate, nor the rustle of a silken robe as a fine little lady came up the steps. But Aunt Alice saw the sight from an upper window, and hurried down to admit the pretty, airy little visitor.

“Mrs. Bell, I presume?” she twittered. “Well, I am Mrs. Fleming, cousin of Royall Sherwood, you know. I came to call on Miss Daisie, having heard she had been injured in an accident.”

And scarcely had Dallas pushed back his chair from its close proximity to the sofa when she was in the room, aflutter with laces and ribbons and flaxen crinkles.

“Why, Mr. Bain, this is a surprise! I—I did not know you were acquainted with Miss Bell,” she broke out, in dismay and alarm.

“I was not until yesterday, when my horse[Pg 34] knocked her off her wheel and nearly caused a fatal accident. So I came this morning to beg her forgiveness.”

“Perhaps Daisie may forgive you if she is very kind-hearted, but I am sure my Cousin Royall never will.”

“Royall!” he exclaimed, in bewilderment; but she fluttered over Daisie’s sofa, cooing in her most gushing way:

“My dear girl, may I kiss you? Royall told yesterday of his engagement to you, and that he was going all the way to New York to get a splendid diamond ring for you. We shall be cousins, you and I—and, I hope, great friends. Why—why, what is the matter? The girl is fainting!”

Dallas had heard every word in surprise and horror, and suddenly he clutched the young widow’s arm in a steely grasp.

“What nonsense are you talking to Daisie?” he exclaimed. “She is nothing to Royall! She has promised to marry me!”

“Impossible, Mr. Bain, impossible; for only the[Pg 35] night before last she accepted my cousin, and he has gone now to buy the most magnificent engagement ring in New York,” cried the young widow, in defiance and amazement at his claim.

“He has lied to you! She belongs to me!” repeated Dallas hoarsely; and she answered:

“Then she is a wretched little flirt, for she surely gave her promise to Royall. Ask her—see, she is reviving—and she cannot deny it.”

He stooped down to look into the girl’s white face, his own just as pallid and startled, crying, with passionate incredulity:

“Dallas! Oh, my love!” she sobbed, in strange affright, covering her face with her lily hands as if in shame.

“Oh, Dallas, yes; but—but—hear me!” she wailed imploringly; but he threw off her hand as if it were a serpent, and rushed from the house.

A cry of the bitterest grief and yearning burst from Daisie’s lips as Dallas angrily shook off her hold and rushed from the house.

“Oh, Dallas, my love, my darling, come back—come back, and I will explain everything!”

She would have followed him, but as she sprang erect a terrible twinge of pain in her sprained ankle made her fall back on the sofa, sobbing with pain; and meanwhile Dallas Bain had rushed from the place in a dazed condition of mind, in which surprise, anger, and wounded love all blended in confusion.

The feelings of the gay little widow, Mrs. Fleming, may better be imagined than described in finding out that the man she adored was madly in love with another.

Grief, rage, and jealousy struggled in her mind, but she gave vent to neither, holding in her emotion firmly while she said, in a cold voice, to the sobbing girl:

“Miss Bell, this is the strangest scene I ever witnessed. I came here this morning to offer my good wishes on your engagement to Royall Sherwood, and find another man making love to you in his absence. Is this fair to my cousin?”

Daisie’s only answer was a heartbroken sob behind the lovely white hands that hid her face, and Mrs. Fleming continued reproachfully:

“I could not have believed that such an innocent face hid the heart of a cruel coquette, playing fast and loose with true men’s hearts.”

“Oh, don’t!” sobbed poor Daisie, flinching as from a blow, and lifting tearful eyes, like violets drowned in rain, to the angry face of her accuser.

“You deserve all I have said, and worse,” retorted the widow vindictively, longing to shake the girl because she had wiled away the heart of Dallas Bain.

With all her money and all her advantages, he had remained cold as ice to her blandishments; but she had seen for herself that he was devoted to Daisie Bell.

And she knew that his acquaintance with her dated only from yesterday, because only last night[Pg 38] she had met Annette Janowitz at a dance, and the excitable little thing, not knowing the harm she was doing, had blurted out the story of Daisie’s accident and the apparent devotion of Dallas Bain.

“Oh, isn’t he grand and handsome! Just the match for lovely Daisie Bell! I declare, if I were not already engaged to the dearest and most jealous fellow in the world, I should have been trying to flirt with Dallas Bain!” added Annette, rearranging the bunch of red roses at her belt, and so failing to see the jealous wrath on the little widow’s pink-and-white face.

She was fairly wild with annoyance, but even then she did not comprehend the full extent of the mischief, for Royall Sherwood, on leaving for New York that day, had confided to her that he was engaged to Daisie Bell, but that she had not wished to make the engagement public yet a while, dreading village gossip and curiosity.

“Now, Lutie,” added Royall, “I do think you ought to do the fair thing by Daisie.”

“Why, call on her and invite her to Sea View on a visit. Of course, I understand that you’ve[Pg 39] been jealous all the while, and wouldn’t have her here on account of Dallas Bain. But now we’re engaged, you needn’t mind.”

“You ask too much, Royall. I won’t have the girl here till I’m sure of Dallas Bain,” she protested, in alarm.

“Yes, I am; and I don’t care to bring him and that girl together, even if she is engaged to you. She’s dangerous, I tell you; and he’s in love with her, I’m certain, though they’ve never spoken a single word to each other. No telling what might happen if they got together.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” said Royall, looking uneasy and remembering that Daisie had betrayed such interest in Dallas that he had been forced into no end of fibs to destroy the romance with which she had invested him. “Perhaps you’re right. Better let well enough alone,” he agreed, and went away to buy the engagement ring.

But chance or fate is above us all and our[Pg 40] petty scheming, as she found out that night at the dance, and in consequence she altered her plan of ignoring Daisie Bell.

What Annette had told her about Dallas going the next morning to beg Daisie’s pardon for the accident made her wild; hence her early call at the cottage and her malicious blurting out of the engagement.

When she found out how far matters had progressed between the lovers, she realized that she had scarcely called soon enough, but she was thankful, anyway, that she had driven Dallas away in wrath, and trusted to her woman’s wit to make the breach final.

Daisie’s wet eyes and quivering red mouth did not make her the least sorry for the wretched girl; she only persevered in her denunciations:

“What will Royall say when he hears of this shocking flirtation? He will want to break the engagement.”

“Well, I never!” sighed the little widow; and added: “Why did you accept him, then, if you didn’t want him, Miss Bell?”

“I will tell you the truth, may I, Mrs. Fleming?” cried Daisie timidly, dashing the tears from her eyes, and blushing with shame as she continued: “I was persuaded into that promise when my heart wasn’t in it, because—because—first, Aunt Alice was wild with foolish joy because I had caught such a rich beau, and kept begging me over and over to accept him. And then, too, Mr. Sherwood was so much in love with me, and begged me so hard that I would marry him. At first I wouldn’t think of it, for—well, I had fallen in love with Mr. Dallas Bain at first sight, and as long as there was any hope of winning him I wouldn’t have listened to any one else—never! But he—Mr. Sherwood, I mean—must have suspected my preference, for he told me things that I found out to-day weren’t true—for instance, that Mr. Bain was engaged to you; but when I asked him about it to-day he laughed at the very idea!”

Mrs. Fleming winced with rage and pain, but the unconscious girl went on eagerly, pathetically, in her earnest self-exculpation:

“But before I knew how he had deceived me, I thought Mr. Sherwood very nice, indeed—for[Pg 42] he is very amusing, really, and very good-looking, too—only, of course, not as handsome as Mr. Bain, who is perfectly grand, and no one else is worth looking at when he is by. But he did not seem to care about me in the least, although I found out that he had sent me an anonymous love poem; and I began to get piqued, and then hopeless, thinking he really did mean to marry you. And Aunt Alice kept coaxing and firing my ambition with your cousin’s riches, and he kept teasing and making himself agreeable—perhaps you know how a sore, aching heart may sometimes take comfort in the devotion of one it does not care for, and find in it some balm for wounded love and pride—so at last I consented, hoping I might learn to love him after, but stipulating that the engagement be kept secret a little while, for I feared that I might change, and, wish to break it, and did not want to make such a sensation public.”

She paused, and fixed her pleading eyes on the other’s face, but it was cold, white, and stony, betraying no sympathy.

“So Mr. Sherwood went away with my rash promise, and—and—yesterday I went out on my new wheel with my friend Annette, and, as I was not a very skillful cyclist, that awful accident happened. I might easily have been killed,” shudderingly. “Well, Mr. Bain brought me home in his buggy, and when I revived from my fainting spell he was holding me in his arms, and—oh, I blush to tell you!—but my heart rushed out to him! I realized I loved him wildly, madly, and could never love another. This morning he came—we could not meet formally—and we talked like old acquaintances. I hinted about his marrying you, but he denied it. I began to see that he—cared for me”—blushing vividly—“and I quickly made up my mind to break with Mr. Sherwood because he had deceived me intentionally, so as to leave me free to accept Dallas when he should propose. Oh, please don’t look as though you think me the vainest girl on earth! Indeed, I am not! And so, all at once, before I expected it, Dallas was impetuously asking me to marry him, and I accepted, meaning, of course, to tell him presently all about that other affair, and that I should break with Mr. Sherwood immediately;[Pg 44] but in five minutes, before I had confessed to him, you came, and—spoiled—everything!” concluded Daisie, with a sob of despair.

Then she caught her breath, and waited; but Mrs. Fleming said never a word, only looked cold and incredulous.

“You see how it was, Mrs. Fleming, don’t you? I was weak, but not wicked. As for flirting, I never thought of it. I execrate it as much as you do, and I am very sorry I ever listened to your cousin. But you must see that he was to blame. Why did he try to prejudice me against the man I loved? He might have guessed I would find it out some time.”

Mrs. Fleming found her voice, and said huskily, trying to remedy Royall’s defeat and her own:

“You misjudge my cousin. He thought I was engaged to Mr. Bain because he knew he loved me, and I was very friendly with him. But when he proposed I refused him, because I couldn’t love a stranger I knew nothing about. It was simply through spite he turned to you, but he is gone[Pg 45] now in anger, so my advice to you is to keep your promise to Royall, and let him go.”

“Could you advise me to act so basely? No, I can never marry Mr. Sherwood now. When he comes I want you to tell him all that happened here to-day, and that I set him free.”

“Indeed, I shall tell him nothing of the kind! I would not give him such pain as to tell him the girl he loves is a cruel little coquette. Think better of it, Daisie Bell, and marry Royall, who is so rich, and can give you a palace for a home and diamonds a princess might envy. He is of a sweet, sunny disposition, too, and will make you far happier than Dallas Bain, who is sullen, violent, and jealous. Besides, he is gone away, and you will never see him again, so I will keep your secret of this morning, and Royall need never know it,” coaxed the little widow.

But all her pleadings could not move Daisie from her resolve to tell Royall everything and break her engagement. She persisted in it, crying pleadingly:

“Oh, if you really want to do me a kindness, you must help me with Dallas. He is at your house, and you will see him when you go back. Won’t you tell him how it all came about, that I love only him, and ask him to forgive me and come back to me again?”

She did not know that she was pleading to a woman who loved Dallas so madly that she would rather have seen him dead than married to another; but somehow she could not believe the story that he had proposed to Lutie Fleming and been refused. Daisie believed that any woman would be glad to accept such a splendid lover. She told herself that the artful young widow was just trying to shield her cousin and to further his cause.

“I decline to speak to Dallas Bain on this subject, or to work against my cousin’s interests in any way, and I believe that when you come to your sober senses, girl, you will be glad enough to keep this affair a secret and marry Royall, after all.”

So saying, she swept from the room and rustled out to her carriage, nodding a careless greeting to Annette Janowitz, who was just entering the gate, and who went in the open doors with a friendly familiarity, and found Daisie sobbing with hysterical grief on her sofa.

“Oh, my poor dear, is your foot so bad?” queried she, with quick sympathy; and presently she drew from her friend the story of the morning’s happenings.

“Oh, Annette, I cannot give him up! I love him so dearly! You will help me to win him back, won’t you, dear?”

“Indeed, I will, if you will only tell me what I can do for you,” responded Annette, the tears of sympathy shining in her bright dark eyes.

“Write him a friendly note, Annette, asking him to call at your house this evening and see you about a very particular matter. Don’t mention my name, or, in his first resentment, he might refuse to come.”

“And when he arrives I must explain your affair to him, and beg him to forgive you, and come and see you?”

“If you will be so kind, dear Annette,” murmured Daisie, whose shining eyes were dried now in the sunshine of hope.

Annette went to the writing desk, and penned a dainty little note, inviting Dallas Bain to call on her that evening, as she wished to consult him about his taking part in some private theatricals they were planning for a village charity.

“I have heard that he is a splendid amateur actor, so he will not refuse,” she said gleefully. “And I can tell him afterward that it was just a ruse to get him to my house to plead your cause. Depend upon it, he will be overjoyed to learn that you intend to throw over Royall Sherwood for his sake,” she added encouragingly.

“Now, Annette, please run out to the post office[Pg 49] at the corner, and post it quickly, so that he will not fail to get it this afternoon,” cried Daisie, with feverish impatience.

“Oh, Daisie, I wish you were as happy as I am! I am engaged, you know, and only think—I had a letter from my dear boy this morning, saying that he is coming to see me to-morrow. He is a commercial traveler, you know, and just perfectly magnificent! The only drawback is that he’s just horridly jealous, and does not permit me to look at any other man.”

“Well, you need not want to, if you love him. I would not care if there were not another man in the world to look at but Dallas!” cried Daisie tenderly.

“Oh, I dare say you may be tired of looking at him some day when you are married to him!” laughed Annette; but she could not persuade Daisie of it. She was in love in the most romantic fashion.

While the girls laid their innocent plans for calling back Daisie’s lover, Mrs. Fleming rode[Pg 50] back to Sea View with fury in her heart—the fury of “a woman scorned.”

Her last hope of winning him was gone now, and jealous anger entered her heart and drove out the sweet guest, Love.

“She took him away from me—came between us with her dazzling face—I might still have won him if they had not met. Very well, I will punish them both most bitterly,” she vowed. “As for marrying, they never shall, if a woman’s wit can prevent it.”

As soon as she entered the house, she ascertained that Dallas Bain had not yet returned.

Her young-lady guests were down at the beach, and she went to her room to rest and plot how to keep the lovers apart for the future.

“I dare say she wrote to him as soon as I came away, explaining everything, and begging him to come back to her,” she thought astutely. “I must make sure of getting that letter.”

And as the village was so small that the letter-carrier service was not yet established, she presently sent her maid, Letty, to the post office, saying:

“Bring everything that is in the Sea View box straight to me, Letty, before you let any one else see it. My cousin, Mr. Sherwood, wanted me to get out of it some private mail for him.”

Letty Green returned in an hour with a budget of letters, books, and papers for her mistress and her guests; but she had made sure, with feminine curiosity, first, that there was nothing for Royall Sherwood; also, that there was one very dainty-looking perfumed letter for Dallas Bain, bearing the town postmark, Gull Beach.

This was what Mrs. Fleming expected, and as soon as the maid’s back was turned she opened and read it, laughing to herself:

“She has planned with Annette to get him back; but Dallas Bain will never see this letter, and the two young misses will be disappointed this evening.”

Words are too weak to describe the feelings of Dallas Bain as he rushed with frenzied haste from the presence of the beautiful girl so lately worshiped as the queen of her sex, only to learn that she was the most heartless coquette in the world.

Never was there such a rapid transition from rapturous joy to the depths of misery—misery and anger, for how could any proud man bear with equanimity to be made a fool of, as Daisie Bell had just fooled him?

To be engaged only two days ago to Royall Sherwood, although of their intimacy he had had no inkling until now, and then to accept another’s suit with the most complacent smile and the sweetest blush, pretending a tenderness she, of course, did not feel—it was the most shocking thing he ever had heard of. He loathed, execrated himself for falling so easily into her wiles.

He was strong, passionate, and proud, and[Pg 53] only twenty-five—this hero of ours—so who could blame him for the pride and resentment that fired his blood as he rushed from the scene of his humiliation, not heeding the piteous cry of woe with which Daisie sought to recall him to her side?

He strode down the village street in hot haste, looking neither to the right nor left until he reached the beach, where he sought a secluded spot by the sea, where none could intrude upon his rocky retreat, and flung himself down to brood over his cruel defeat in love.

And any young man—and there may be several—who has been made the victim of a lovely flirt can better imagine than I can describe the tumult of his feelings.

His pain was cruel, almost unbearable, and the most intense longing came to him to throw himself into the surging sea and end everything for good and all.

“She shall not know how she wounded me. I will not give her that triumph,” he vowed grimly, adding: “I’ll go to Sea View presently, pack up my traps, and leave before Sherwood returns to[Pg 54] laugh with his fiancée over fooling me, although it looks as if there may have been foul play somewhere, for why did he tell me she was a simpering giggler, when she is really charming in her manners? And why did he keep up a clandestine acquaintance with her, not permitting me to suspect it, while all the time he was courting her with such devotion? He must have been afraid of me, jealous somehow, though why I can’t guess, for men like him, with loads of money, have only to throw the handkerchief, and any girl he looks at will jump—only too glad of the chance. This Daisie Bell, with her rare beauty, will be only too glad to marry him, of course—even if she loved some poor man better. Bah! The whole business disgusts me. I’ll go away out of the whole mess before to-morrow.”

Just then, to his intense disgust, for he despised petticoats at that moment, he heard a chatter of feminine voices, which he recognized as belonging to Mrs. Fleming’s guests—the Misses Brown, Miss Nadia Lee, and Mrs. Poyntz, a jolly young matron. They peeped over the ledge of rocks where he was hiding, and the married lady exclaimed delightedly:

“Oh, there’s Mr. Bain hiding from us, the naughty man! Come up here directly, sir, and go with us after shells, and help carry our buckets and spades. I’m going back to Baltimore to-morrow, and my collection of shells isn’t half complete.”

In his gray mood, Dallas would have liked to have sworn at the merry quartet; but as he was a gentleman, he could not afford to indulge his vicious impulse, so, throwing away the cigar with which he was beguiling his gloomy thoughts, he joined the party with secret reluctance, execrating Nadia Lee when she said banteringly:

“How gloomy you looked when we were peeping over that rock at you—so dark and preoccupied—like Byron composing poetry.”

“Pshaw! I never made a rhyme in my life! Wouldn’t be guilty of such nonsense! I was just thinking how confoundedly lazy I felt over going up to the house and packing my things to leave to-morrow,” he replied testily.

“Oh, you’re going away? And so is Mrs. Poyntz. Our party will be quite broken up,” wailed the damsels; but he would not even say he was sorry. He wished them all in the sea, being[Pg 56] angry at the whole fair sex for the fault of one, such being the injustice of man.

However, as he was the soul of courtesy, he could not break away from their blandishments, and they led him such a dance along the beach in search of shells, that it was several hours before they returned to Sea View, Mrs. Poyntz having triumphantly produced a nice lunch with which the housekeeper had provided them. Returning at last, he fled to his room to pack his traps for flitting, though he had to leave out his dinner suit, as he could not conveniently flee without explanations to his hostess.

She waylaid him when he came downstairs, smiling sweetly as she said in an undertone:

“It’s twenty minutes to dinner yet, so come to the library. I have something to say to you in private.”

Dallas thought how fair she looked in her cool, flowing robes of pale green and white, with a pink rose in her crinkles of flaxen hair—how fair—and perhaps had he loved her, instead of false Daisie Bell, she might have been true; but, pshaw! they were all alike, heartless and vain. His bachelor uncle who had raised him—a noble[Pg 57] man whose happiness had been wrecked by a siren’s wiles—had told him so, had instilled into his mind a distrust of the weaker sex.

“I wanted to speak to you, to thank you for your kindness and hospitality, because I have just been packing up, and will leave before morning.”

“Not exactly. I planned to leave a week ago, and should have gone on business, you see,” vaguely; “but the charm of the place held me, somehow. Well, of course, it wouldn’t be pleasant to meet Royall again after what has happened, so I am going before he comes.”

“No, I don’t think so,” brusquely. “He has been distant to me lately, and—and—why,” irately, “did he keep it a dead secret from me that he was courting—that girl? Was it friendly?”

“Oh, I can explain it fully. He meant nothing. He told me you didn’t care to make the girl’s acquaintance, and he somehow was ashamed of his[Pg 58] infatuation with a girl not in his set. He went just to amuse himself at first, but directly she got him in her toils—as she did you—and he proposed, and, of course, was snapped up directly. I was sorry enough, I assure you, for I don’t like the match. She may be in love with Royall, or she may be taking him for his money. They say in the town she’s the most arrant little flirt alive.”

“Yes; and this is what I wished to say to you. She begged me to—intercede with you.”

“Yes. Wasn’t it a piece of impudence? But she got around me with that winning way of hers that makes fools of all the men—and some of the women, too—and I promised to keep her secret myself, and to beg you.”

“Yes; that she flirted with you. She’s afraid for Royall to find out lest he break the engagement. And she cried, and vowed she loved him truly, though I fear it’s just his money. She said: ‘Oh, Mrs. Fleming, no one knows it but you and Mr. Bain. Don’t betray me to dear Royall, please[Pg 59] don’t; and ask him—Mr. Bain, that dear, impetuous fellow—not to tell of me. I did wrong, I know; but he was so much in earnest, and I was only having a little fun. And Mr. Bain owes me something for causing me that accident yesterday.’”

“Very well, then. I will pay my debt by silence. Tell her she need not fear that I shall betray her to Royall. I am as much ashamed of that affair as she is, and I wish I could say, as she does, that I was only having a little fun. But I was in earnest, as she knows, and so—I must suffer,” bitterly.

“But you must not learn to despise true, loving women for the sake of one false coquette,” she murmured, and just then dinner was ceremoniously announced.

So Annette waited in vain that evening for Dallas Bain to call in reply to her invitation, and she could hardly wait till after breakfast the next morning to rush to Daisie and tell her the bad news.

Daisie was still in bed, for her sprained foot was worse this morning from her rash effort to walk on it yesterday. Tears rushed to her lovely eyes, and she sobbed aloud with grief and disappointment.

“I see how it is, Annette,” she cried. “He misunderstands me, and is too proud to give a sign that he cares. He will never forgive me until I explain everything to him.”

“Write him a letter, and I will carry it to him myself, and plead your cause in person. Then his hard heart will surely be melted,” returned the vivacious little beauty.

So Daisie was propped up in bed, and, with a throbbing heart and blushes that came and went[Pg 61] like the roseate glow of dawn, she penned Dallas Bain the sweetest epistle that ever gladdened a true lover’s heart.

She was fighting for her life’s happiness, dear little Daisie, and every word was eloquent with truth and love. Ah, the pity of it that he had gone away too soon to receive it—gone away with that proud, aching heart and that distrust of all fair women for the sake of one cruel misunderstanding.

“Now, cheer up, Daisie, for I shall have him here to call on you this evening,” she predicted brightly. “You see, I owe Mrs. Fleming a party call, and I will go to make it this afternoon. I shall be sure to see Mr. Bain there, and I will give him this letter, and make sure he reads it; then all the trouble will be over.”

She kissed Daisie, and went away smilingly, for Annette’s disposition was bright and sunny; besides, wasn’t her own dear lover coming to see her to-day? And what more could a pretty girl want to make her happy?

As she did not know at what hour he might[Pg 62] arrive, she told her mamma that if he came while she was absent, to ask him to wait till she returned.

And, by a very untoward fate, the big, handsome fellow arrived soon after she started, and when Mamma Janowitz told him where Annette had gone, he said he would go on and overtake her, as he also was acquainted with Mrs. Fleming, and would like to make a call at Sea View.

Meanwhile, Annette, all glorious in her new summer silk and big white lace hat crowning her dark, bewitching face, tripped away to the grand white house, Sea View, only to meet a most cruel disappointment.

The manservant who opened the door to her suavely remarked that Mrs. Fleming and her guests all went up to Baltimore this morning, not to return till to-morrow.

“Oh, no, miss; he went away at daylight this morning—took the Northern train.”

Annette paled with disappointment, and almost burst into tears, as she asked eagerly:

“No, miss; his visit is over, and I’m sorry for that, too. He was a fine, handsome gent, was Mr. Bain, and a liberal one, too,” returned the man affably.

“Where did he go? Can you give me his address?” asked the young girl, thinking disconsolately of poor Daisie’s letter.

The man replied that he did not know for certain. He thought he had gone to New York to join Mr. Sherwood.

So Annette went down the steps, after leaving her card for Mrs. Fleming, and her young heart was very heavy as she walked toward a vine-wreathed arbor in the grounds, thinking she would rest there a while before starting on the long walk home.

And just as she entered the beautiful rose bower her betrothed, Ray Dering, came in at the street gate and saw her going in. His heart thrilled with joy, and he resolved to slip up unawares and give his darling sweetheart a most charming surprise.

But Letty Green, Mrs. Fleming’s sharp little maid, had overheard Annette’s conversation at the door, and, having more than her share of feminine[Pg 64] curiosity, she resolved to find out something more about Annette’s interest in Mr. Bain, thinking it might be a nice bit of gossip to tell her mistress while she was dressing her hair that night, and perhaps be the means of her getting a cast-off silk gown.

Annette turned, and saw such a kind, sympathetic face that she clasped her little hands dramatically, saying:

“Oh, yes, indeed; for I wished very—very much to see Mr. Bain, and I am cruelly disappointed that he has gone away without letting me know. It is very sad, very unfortunate, that he went away so soon; but if I can get his address so as to mail him a letter at once, I shall be very thankful to you!”

Any one not knowing the circumstances of the case might have supposed, from Annette’s impulsive words and tearful eyes, that she was desperately in love with Dallas Bain, and that he had basely deserted her. The artful maid received[Pg 65] that impression, and so, alas! did the jealous lover listening outside the bower.

“Oh, yes, he did; but if I can only get a letter to him soon, I am sure he will come back at once. Can you give me his address?”

“I don’t know it, miss; but I will find it out from Mrs. Fleming and let you know to-morrow.”

“Oh, thank you ever so much; but don’t let Mrs. Fleming know you want the address for a girl, or she might be jealous,” smiled Annette, bestowing a piece of silver on the girl, who thanked her, and skipped away.

Scarcely was she out of sight ere Annette was confronted by the livid face of her jealous and violent lover.

“Oh, Ray, darling!” she gasped, in delight; but the young man caught her arm in a steely grasp that pained her, while he hissed into her little, pink ear:

“Don’t call me your darling, false, perjured girl, for I have heard all you were saying, and I know you have another lover who has deserted you, and whom you love better than me. But you[Pg 66] shall never live to recall him to your side. I will kill you both for deceiving me! Die, then, perjured little coquette, and I will soon send your lover’s soul to join you in Hades!”

There was a flash, a report, and Annette sank down to the ground with a stifled moan, the blood streaming from her breast, while her maddened slayer fled wildly from the scene.

No telling how long Annette might have lain undiscovered in the rose arbor had not Letty Green, as she went up the steps of the great house, heard the sound of the fatal pistol shot.

Cullen, the manservant, had come out on the steps looking after her, for he was sweet on the pert little maid, and as she returned he accosted her with some smiling pleasantry, to which she was about to give a coquettish answer, when the sudden boom of the pistol shot made her jump almost half a yard high, while she clapped her hands over her ears, shrieking:

“Somebody shooting at ye, maybe,” returned the man, whose firmer nerves made him receive the shock more coolly; and he continued: “Come to my arms, honey, and let me protect you.”

She repulsed him with a coquettish fling, and they both turned and looked in the direction of the arbor, from whence the sound had proceeded.

But the thick shrubberies that dotted the grounds hid from sight the figure of the jealous lover running madly from the scene of the crime he had committed in the height of unreasoning passion.

Suddenly Letty Green grew very pale, and clutched at Cullen for actual support, whispering in awestruck tones:

“Cullen, I’m that nervous I can hardly stand on my feet! I—I—have such an awful sus-suspicion! Suppose that pretty young girl has shot herself in the arbor because her lover’s run away?”

“Let us go and see,” he replied, pulling her hand through his arm, for she was really trembling very much. Thus, arm in arm, he very loverlike, she pretending to pull away from him, and protesting that she daren’t look, they proceeded to the arbor, where they found Annette lying like one dead, outstretched on the ground, with a thin stream of blood pouring from her breast, staining her light silk gown and creamy laces with a gory crimson.

“I said so—I told you so! She’s gone and killed herself!” whimpered Letty, clinging to him[Pg 69] for sympathy, the tears welling into her keen black eyes.

“She’s dead, sure enough, I’m afraid,” returned Cullen, jumping to conclusions without examination. Then he cast a glance upon the ground, adding: “But I don’t see the weapon as she done it with.”

They began to search about, but uselessly. It could not be discovered; and the man said then, pityingly:

“She didn’t do it herself; some one else fired that shot. But who could have had the heart to hurt that pretty, young girl?”

“Yes—who could?” echoed Letty, with a sob; and she began to stroke Annette’s little hands, as they lay limply by her sides.

“Why, her dear little hands are warm yet, and, oh, see—see, Cullen! she ain’t quite dead, for her heart beats a little. Just feel,” and she moved his hand over the girl’s side. “Run, run,” she added, “for a doctor—quick! and I’ll stay till you come back!”

Nothing loath, Cullen set off at full speed, and Letty remained crouching beside the unconscious[Pg 70] girl, stroking her hands, her hair, and the soft folds of her shimmering silk gown with soft, pitying touches.

But suddenly a covetous look gleamed in her eyes, and her hand slid furtively along the silken folds till it was lost to sight. Letty had remembered the little netted purse from which Annette had generously given her a silver piece.

She withdrew her hand furtively, having captured a purse and a letter. The letter, she saw, was addressed to Dallas Bain.

“Poor thing! That’s why she wanted his address so bad, to send him this letter. Well, I’ll find it out, if I can, and mail it to him. I’ll do her that good turn, poor, pretty little girl! though I don’t believe that my mistress would like it if she knew, for I fancy she is sweet on Mr. Bain herself.”

Cullen had been so fortunate as to find a doctor driving past the gate, and both now appeared on the scene, much to Letty’s joy, for she was a tender-hearted girl, despite her faults of cupidity and deceitfulness.

The physician made a hasty examination, and[Pg 71] discovered that Annette’s wound was not serious, after all. The bullet had been diverted from its course by her stays, and had inflicted a painful but not dangerous wound. He extracted it very easily just before she groaned and recovered consciousness, staring in alarm at the strange faces bending over her as she lay on the ground.

“There, you will do nicely now,” said the kind old doctor, who had already stanched the flow of blood, and he added: “My coupé is at the gate, and I will just take you home to your mother before she gets frightened to death with some awful report that you are murdered.”

The girl’s eyes dilated in anguish, for at that moment everything returned to her mind, and she remembered that the man she loved more than life—her handsome, blue-eyed Ray—had aimed a murderous bullet at her true heart. She almost wished that she had died, so cruel was the pain of knowing that he was unworthy.

Doctor Bowers saw the gleam of apprehension in her dark eyes, and asked quickly:

“How should I know? It—it—must have been a stray shot, for—for—I was alone the moment this girl, here, left me, and—then—suddenly I heard the sharp report of a pistol. The bullet pierced my breast, and—I fell to the ground, and knew no more.”

“It must be true what she says, for I was here talking to her alone, and it was barely three minutes later that I heard the pistol as I was coming up the steps, and I thought she had committed suicide; so we ran here quick as lightning, but we saw and heard no intruder.”

“It must have been a stray shot,” corroborated Cullen, strong in his conviction that no one could deliberately harm such a pretty young thing.

The old doctor said no more; but in his heart he did not accept the theory of the stray shot.

Something in Annette’s eyes, so startled, so grieved, like a wounded fawn’s, when he questioned her, had half betrayed to him the secret she was loyally guarding.

“The girl is shielding some one—a jealous lover, maybe—but, after the manner of these self-immolating[Pg 73] women, she will never betray her secret,” he thought testily, as he and Cullen carried her gently to the coupé, so that she could be removed to her home.

Poor little Annette, who had started forth so gayly scarce an hour ago, how different was her home-coming, and what a shock the mother’s heart received when they brought her pale darling in with the gory bloodstains defacing her new silk gown!

“Who has done this dreadful thing?” her mother cried; and Doctor Bowers could only tell her what he had heard:

They bore her to her little white bed, and for a week she was very, very ill, the result of shock as much as from her wound. Fever and delirium set in, and sometimes she raved of her lover, Ray, beseeching him to come back to her, but never by the least hint betraying the secret of his terrible crime.

When she began to convalesce it was the same way. Annette gave no hint of having seen Ray Dering, even when her mother questioned her, and told her of his going after her to Sea View.

“How strange, how very strange, that I did not see Ray! But I suppose he must have been suddenly called away by a telegram. I shall get a letter from him soon explaining everything.”

And she pretended to look anxiously each day for the letter, while at heart she wondered what had become of her jealous lover, and if he had really gone in pursuit of Dallas Bain, believing him a successful rival.

“What if he should find him and kill him?” she shuddered; and it was no wonder that she convalesced so slowly, with such a terrible weight upon her mind.

When Daisie Bell, whose sprain was well now, came to see her, she was shocked at the piteous change in her pale little friend.

“Oh, how I hate the wretch who nearly killed you, even though it was a stray shot!” she exclaimed; but the poor girl could not confess to Daisie Bell that it was through espousing her cause and trying to straighten out her tangled love affair that she had incurred Ray’s jealousy, and caused the shipwreck of her own happiness.

No, she could not speak, for she must keep the secret now for the sake of her cruel lover.

“But not that I love him any more, for I suppose I ought to hate him now, but I should not wish harm to come to him through me,” thought the loyal young heart.

She told Daisie of her cruel disappointment in not finding out the address of Dallas Bain, and said:

“You will find the letter you gave me in the pocket of the gown I wore that day. It is hanging there in my wardrobe.”

“It is very strange,” cried Annette. “I am sure the letter was in my pocket with my little netted purse.”

“Never mind, dear, the letter does not matter now,” Daisie returned sadly, for it seemed to her that Dallas was lost to her forever.

She was wretched, too, for, although she had confessed everything to Royall Sherwood, he would not release her from her promise to marry him.

Royall Sherwood’s surprise and chagrin were beyond expression when he returned to Gull Beach and learned all that had happened in the two days of his absence.

For Daisie, in her desperation, did not spare herself. She had confessed everything, and taken back her promise.

“I never loved you, and it was flattered vanity alone that made me accept you. Forgive me, and release me,” she pleaded, shrinking back from the flash of the beautiful ring he was trying to place on her finger.

In that moment he realized fully with what a passion he loved her, and what a pang it would cost to give up the one he adored with all the fervor of his heart.

“Daisie Bell, I will not release you!” he vowed, clinging to the little hand that she strove to withdraw. “You gave me your promise of your own free will, and you shall not break it now.”

“You shall not make me ridiculous, and cause the finger of scorn to be pointed at me as a jilted man.”

“I only told my Cousin Lutie—and I forgot she could not keep a secret—so the whole town knows it now, and if you break your promise, you will be known as an arrant little flirt.”

“I can’t help it. I didn’t mean to flirt, so let them say what they please. I am going away soon, so it cannot hurt me,” she returned, in helpless defiance, the color rushing back into her face, and her eyes growing dark with emotion.

Every swift change in her wonderful beauty only wound his heartstrings more tightly about her; he vowed to himself that any man would be a fool to give her up after her promise had been once gained.

So he persevered. He urged and entreated, played the devoted lover to perfection.

“But I have told you that I love another!” she[Pg 78] cried, with the lovely blushes rising up to her brow.

“He is gone, and you will never see him again. Let that brief dream be forgotten, and give your heart to me,” urged Royall, in painful earnestness that touched her heart.

“Oh, I can never love you, and I feel I have wronged you enough already by my silly vacillation. Leave me now, for indeed all is at an end between us.”

“I know I am. I have been wicked and thoughtless to let you love me. I repent it now; but all I can do is to send you from me, and let you forget. That is the greatest kindness I can show you.”

He saw that there was no use pressing her now. She would only turn stubborn, and command him to go. And he did not wish to anger her, for since his rival had withdrawn from the field, he was determined not to give up hope.

“This is a cruel blow to me, the crueler from being so totally unexpected. I must accept my fate, but I feel that it was undeserved.”

Her generous heart was touched by his apparent humility. She felt a twinge of remorse for her apparent fickleness, and cried eagerly:

“Oh, I am so sorry I wounded you! Believe me, I am grateful for your love, though I cannot accept it. But—but—I will always be your friend.”

“That is better than nothing,” Royall answered, with a mirthless laugh; and, rising to go, he added pleadingly: “Then this does not mean utter dismissal? Though I am unwelcome as a lover, I may come and see you sometimes—as a friend?”

She feared instantly that she had made a mistake, but in the consciousness of his suffering, she could not bear to refuse. She remembered, also, that she would soon be going away, and that would end it all. So she said falteringly:

“Yes, as a friend—but—but—I should think you would be too angry to care to see me again.”

“Angry with you, Daisie, when I have loved you so dearly? How could such a thing be?” he exclaimed, with a thrilling glance, as he bowed himself out, taking with him the rejected ring,[Pg 80] but vowing to himself that she should wear it yet if patient persistence counted for anything.

“When she finds that Bain has gone, never to return, she will be ready to take me back again,” he thought, confident of the ultimate triumph of his golden charms if not of his personal attractions.

As for Daisie, she wept wildly when he was gone, yielding to the cruel strain on her emotions. She felt herself the most unhappy girl in the world. Dallas was gone from her in anger, and she had no hope of ever seeing him again.

Yet Daisie knew in her heart that this was the love of her life, and that she never could forget her handsome, dark-eyed lover. The joy and the sorrow of this brief love dream would stay with her forever.

One bitter drop in the cup of Daisie’s sorrow was the anger of her Aunt Alice at her broken engagement.

The old lady had been so proud of her niece’s rich catch that she could hardly believe it when Daisie confessed to her the truth of the broken engagement.

She became violently angry, but neither scolding[Pg 81] nor reproaches could “bring that silly girl to her senses,” as she termed it, then she relapsed into sullen silence. There was neither pity nor sympathy in that house for poor Daisie.

Worst of all, Royall Sherwood kept coming every day to call, and he let her see quite plainly that he did not despair of winning her yet.

“You will forget Dallas Bain, now that you see him no more,” he said confidently. “In fact, I am not sure that he was worthy of your regard. There was something very mysterious about the fellow, and I have no idea what has become of him.”

Daisie had no answer to give; but she knew that the memory of Dallas Bain would never leave her mind.

When she was alone the music of his voice seemed to echo in her ears, the flash of his dark eyes to light up the darkness, and always, always, she could feel the touch of his hand and the thrill of his lips as they met her own—no, such love as hers could never die. Though she never spoke his name aloud, she would tremble and thrill when it was uttered by another.

After Annette’s accident and the cruel failure[Pg 82] of Daisie’s letter to reach Dallas, there seemed nothing left to hope for now. Daisie determined to leave Gull Beach and return to the city.

When Royall Sherwood came to call the next evening she bid him farewell, saying that she was going to New York the next day.

“You will return to a life of toil and hardship rather than accept my name and wealth?”

“Do not bring that subject up again,” she answered wearily; and he went away in despair, to seek his cousin’s advice.

“She is going away, she will be lost to me in the vortex of the wide world! Oh, Lutie, put your wits to work, you women are so shrewd! Is there no way to detain her longer at Gull Beach till she softens toward me?”

Daisie was very busy the next morning packing her trunk, when Aunt Alice came upstairs, bringing Mrs. Fleming’s card.

“It’s that pretty little lady from Sea View, Mr. Sherwood’s cousin. You must drop everything and go down,” she said, with an authority that admitted no dispute; so Daisie pushed the tumbled lovelocks from her brow with a weary hand, and went down most reluctantly to meet her guest, who had scolded her so vigorously at their last meeting.

“Oh, I’m not very welcome, I know,” laughed the little widow gayly. “I behaved badly to you the last time I was here, and, of course, you haven’t forgiven me. But I had some excuse, you will admit; for Royall was my cousin, and you jilted him shamefully, didn’t you, now, Daisie Bell? But don’t be angry, dear; for I came this morning to beg your pardon for the scolding I gave you.”

Daisie had sunk into a chair near the open window, where the sunlight filtered through the wistaria leaves and flecked her wavy hair, all loose over her shoulders, with gleams of gold.

Mrs. Fleming thought, enviously, that she had never seen any one half so pretty as the girl in her white Empire morning gown. No wonder men raved over her charms, she was so beautiful, and so seemingly unconscious of it all.

“It was very silly in me, I dare say,” continued Mrs. Fleming lightly. “I am quite repentant now. Will you forgive me?”

“You must forgive me, Daisie; for I have come to ask you a favor. Will you help us up at Sea View in a little entertainment we are going to have to-night—some tableaus and charades?”

Daisie opened her lips to refuse, to say that she was going away; but the widow rattled on:

“I have just come from seeing poor little Annette, who helped us the last time, and would now, only she is not well enough yet. And she said she was sure you would be willing to take her place, you were always so obliging. Will you?”

“Oh, I cannot, Mrs. Fleming, thank you. I am just packing my trunk to return to New York this evening.”

“But you can put it off till to-morrow just as well, can you not? Oh, please do, just to oblige me! We have already secured all the available talent about here, but we lack one girl, and had expected Annette to fill that place; so everything is spoiled unless you will oblige us.”

Mrs. Fleming was lying glibly. She had reserved that rôle—a very conspicuous one—for herself; but to further Royall’s plans, she had decided to give it to Daisie.

“Daisie can oblige you just as well as not, if she chooses. She doesn’t have to go home till the first of September, and this is only the twenty-fourth of August. The truth is, she was going off in a huff with me because I scolded her for breaking off with your cousin; so I think she ought to stay and help you to-night.”

Mrs. Fleming quickly discovered that she had a powerful ally in the old lady; so between them they harassed and worried her into consenting to the plan of Mrs. Fleming, little thinking, poor[Pg 86] girl, that she was being cunningly enmeshed in a spider’s web.

The widow was exuberant in her thanks, and begged Daisie to come home with her at once in the carriage.

“Because we have a rehearsal directly after luncheon,” she said; “and, my dear, you must take your prettiest things with you, for, really, I shall keep you with me several days at Sea View.”

In vain were Daisie’s protests, since her delighted aunt joined Mrs. Fleming in a chorus of dissent.

So the unhappy girl, blown hither and thither on the winds of destiny, went upstairs and packed up what they directed; and the triumphant little schemer carried her off in triumph, rejoicing inwardly at her success.

She was, in fact, very anxious to marry the girl off to Royall, so as to rid herself of a rival should Dallas Bain ever reappear.

It was true that a cloud of mystery hung over the young man, and that in his abrupt and hurried leave-taking he had given no hint of his future whereabouts, merely expressing a vague hope that they might some time meet again; but Lutie[Pg 87] Fleming knew that, despite the width of the world, the most unexpected rencounters are always happening, and she by no means despaired of meeting Dallas Bain again.

“Let me but get Daisie Bell married off safely to Royall, then I will find Dallas again, and wind my toils around him,” she mused, as she rode by Daisie’s side, weaving in her busy mind the details of a plot that would have made her spring from the carriage in dismay had she even guessed at her companion’s thought.

But the wondrous X-ray that is to lay bare the secrets of the mind to startled gazers not being discovered yet, Daisie rode on in peace, getting somewhat reconciled now to the prospect of the visit, having, like all healthy young girls, a keen appetite for social pleasures.

She knew that she should not forget for a moment her dream of love and its woeful ending, but she thought that participation in the evening’s amusement might dull the keen edge of her pain. Her pride was aroused, too, and she was determined that Mrs. Fleming should not see that she was pining over Dallas Bain’s desertion.

Daisie did not mean for any one to guess that[Pg 88] her poor heart was broken, so she did her part with the rest, laughing and singing like the happiest girl in the world, though all the while her poor heart was calling tenderly:

Did the strange, mysterious influences ever about and around us, though beyond our ken, bear to Dallas Bain the yearning heart cry of his deserted love? Did they bring him back to her side that night?

Far away, ’mid the busy haunts of the world of men, he had sought forgetfulness, and found it not.

He was a haunted man—haunted by a face, a voice, a wealth of golden hair, a soul—for was not Daisie’s soul always following and seeking his in the mystery that held him from her side? So at last, by the force of her yearning, she drew him back.

He was proud and angry, but insensibly his heart began to soften, he began to invent excuses, to believe that he had been too hasty, had judged her too harshly.

“I did not let her explain. I left too quickly. If I had waited, she might have justified herself,” he thought.

He began to doubt the cunning lies Mrs. Fleming had poured into his ears at their last interview.

“What if her story were false? Perhaps she was trying to turn my heart against the girl, because she wanted to win me herself.”

The more he thought of it, the more he began to soften toward the girl whose beautiful image filled his great, passionate heart.

And because she haunted him so, because he began to realize all the strength of his love, and the pain of their separation, he suddenly determined to return to Gull Beach.

“I will go and hear her story. Perhaps she can justify herself,” he said to his beating heart, as he opened the cottage gate.

All was still and quiet, but a light shone through the parlor blinds, and he hoped that she was there thinking of him in sadness and tears that would change to love and joy when she saw him enter the room.

There was a little delay, then it swung open, and in the glow of the hall lamp he saw a rather[Pg 91] grim old lady in a widow’s cap and gown—Daisie’s Aunt Alice.

She recognized him at once—the disturbing cause in the broken engagement—and stiffened herself implacably.

“Good evening, Mrs. Bell. I see you know me. Is Miss Daisie at home?” he inquired eagerly.

“Certainly. She is up at Sea View, staying with her friend Mrs. Fleming, cousin to the gentleman she is engaged to marry.”

She saw Dallas give a great start of surprise and dismay, then he cried huskily:

The old lady, seeing her opportunity to head him off, and pitiless to Daisie in her desire for the grand match, answered stolidly:

“Certainly she’s engaged to him still. What made you think the match could be broken off when they just dote on each other? Daisie’s been a bit of a flirt, I know, but she’s in dead earnest this time.”

“Good evening!” Dallas answered abruptly, turning from her, and stumbling down the steps,[Pg 92] like a drunken man, so hardly had he been stricken by the remorseless blow of the woman, who banged the door shut after him, chuckling maliciously:

“Guess I paid him out for his meddling with that match I was so set on. ’Twasn’t a story I told, either, for Mr. Sherwood told me he didn’t consider the engagement broken at all, and hoped soon to persuade Daisie to wear his ring. Now I’ve sent that fellow off about his business, I hope, so he won’t interfere any more.”

All hope was dead in his breast now, for the mere fact of Daisie’s presence at Sea View, as the guest of Royall Sherwood’s cousin, seemed to prove the truth of Mrs. Bell’s assertion.

But a dumb longing in his breast made him yearn for a single look at her face again to ease the ache at his heart ere he turned away forever to carry his pain into the heedless throngs of the busy world.

“She is only a wretched little flirt, after all, yet she has wrecked my peace of mind, and I cannot thrust her from my memory,” he groaned, as he[Pg 93] went on to Sea View, meaning to see Daisie, himself unseen, and then depart forever.

As he went into the grounds he saw that the place was brilliantly lighted up, and heard the swell of music blending with the murmur of the sea as the tide rolled in to the shore.

“Madam must be holding one of her gay receptions. I wonder what she would say if she knew I was so near?” he muttered, as he dragged himself up the steps and hid on a balcony, where he could peer, unseen, into the room.

He saw the brilliant drawing-room gleaming with lights, adorned with flowers, and crowded with guests sitting about as if waiting for something. What?

And was not that a wedding march that rose on the air from the screen of plants yonder where the band was hidden?

His wandering eyes suddenly discovered a white dais erected at one end of the room, over which swung from broad white ribbons a magnificent floral wedding bell.

A bridal party entered the room and advanced toward the dais, on which suddenly appeared a[Pg 94] tall, pale young man in clerical garments, with an open book in his hand.

Louder and louder rose the strains of the joyous wedding march while Dallas looked on with dazed eyes and a numb pain at his heart, wondering what would happen next.

He saw Mrs. Fleming and Daisie Bell advancing to meet Royall Sherwood and his best man at the altar.

Something—a grinning demon—seemed to clutch at the gazer’s heart and stop its beating, for Daisie was the bride—a wedding veil hid the dazzling sheen of her golden hair.

Dallas Bain watched with straining gaze that scene within Mrs. Fleming’s brilliant drawing-room, and his heart was wrung with a pain more bitter than death.

The vague belief and hope that had brought him back to Gull Beach were dashed to earth now, and despair reigned in its stead.

She had not loved him, after all; she had but played on his credulity to gratify a coquette’s vanity. The proof was here before him as she stood there all in bridal white, speaking the solemn words that bound her for aye to another.

“Fool that I was to return,” he muttered, in fierce self-scorn; and just then he caught a flutter of drapery near him, and a shrill voice giggled:

“La, me! if this ain’t Mr. Bain come back again! Howdydo, sir? Looking at the play, are you? But it does seem awful real like, don’t it? They got their parts well, certain! He’s even putting the ring on her hand, and now the women are kissing the bride. Ha! ha!”

Dallas grasped Letty Green’s arms so convulsively that she winced with the pain.

“Oh, it’s a play, sir, of course, and they’ve been practicing on it for a week. Though, for certain, them two principals are engaged; but I don’t think the wedding day is set. ’Tis whispered they have quarreled, and Miss Bell won’t wear his ring; but my mistress says ’tisn’t true at all. But, la, sir, what are you doing out here peeking through the window like us servants? Why don’t you go into the drawing-room along with the quality?”

“I don’t care to go in yet, Letty. I just came unexpectedly, and I want to look on for a while unseen,” returned Dallas, with a long sigh of relief as he glued his face to the window and watched the scene within, singling out the beautiful form of Daisie with renewed hope and love.

“So they have quarreled? About me, of course.[Pg 97] She is true, after all, my own sweet love! Ah! what a weight of woe is lifted from my breast! Oh, I must manage to see her presently, and beg her to forgive me for my rash flight, jealous fool that I was! As for Royall, I am not sorry for him, since he acted in a mean, underhand way to gain her love. Well, he had his day, and failed; now comes mine.”

Meanwhile, Letty was watching him with some compunction, owing to a guilty conscience.

Her first womanly pity for Annette had prompted her to mail to Dallas the letter she had stolen from the young girl’s pocket, but on trying to get the address from Mrs. Fleming, the latter’s suspicions had been aroused, and she had persecuted Letty till she found out everything. This done, she exchanged a gold piece with the covetous maid for poor Daisie’s love letter.

“However,” thought Letty, “there’s no harm done, for I can tell him all about his pretty sweetheart, and maybe his cruel heart will turn back to her again.”

So, getting close to his ear, Letty poured out in moving terms the story of Annette’s accident, though she did not tell him the fate of the letter.

“Poor girl! I’m sorry for her; but there’s some mistake, surely, Letty, for little Annette was never my sweetheart—never! I never loved any girl in my life but Daisie Bell, and I want you to slip in there and get her to come out here and see me. Won’t you?”

Two big silver dollars pressed into her hand clinched the argument, and Letty tripped blithely away on her errand, leaving Dallas waiting with wild impatience for the coming of his little love.

And presently she came with a look of wonder on her fair face, for the maid had simply whispered to her that some one wanted to see her on the balcony, and she must just slip out without any fuss.

Daisie thought it might be a messenger from Aunt Alice about something, so she stole away, pretending she wished to lay aside the bridal veil.

In the hall she gave it to Letty to carry upstairs, and then glided out to the balcony, all unconscious of the joy that awaited her there.

When Dallas heard her coming he stepped back from the window into the screen of a climbing[Pg 99] vine, where there was a seat for two, and waited.

She came close to him, and the moonlight shone on her fair face and white gown and waves of golden hair. Oh, how beautiful she was in evening dress, with her neck uncovered, and her perfect arms, so white and rounded, bare to the shoulders!

She saw the dark form sitting in the shadow so silently, and as the hem of her white gown brushed against his knee, she faltered:

“I want you, Daisie, darling! I want you to forgive my folly and madness! I want you to be my little love still, as you promised that day before I left you! I want——”

But then his arms closed around her yielding form, and his last words were smothered in the kiss he pressed on the top of her shining head.

Dallas Bain drew her down to the seat beside[Pg 100] him, and in the shadow of the rose vines he kissed her lips, and she kissed him back again, dear little Daisie, forgiving everything in a moment, forgetting all the past, thinking of nothing else on earth but that he was her own again.

Inside the drawing-room, now that the last act of the entertainment was over, all was joyous confusion, people flitting about in merry converse, while over all rose low strains of music, now sad, now joyous, each finding an echo in some tender heart.

But Daisie Bell was too beautiful not to be missed, even in that brilliant throng, even had not Royall Sherwood impatiently questioned his cousin as to her absence.

“She has gone upstairs to remove the wedding veil that she was so reluctant to don, and will return presently,” answered Mrs. Fleming; but though Royall loitered near the stairway for half an hour, she did not come.

Half an hour of the keenest impatience and longing for him, of the most exquisite joy for Dallas and Daisie.

Between the two lovers there had been full explanations of everything, and renewed trust and confidence.

As they lingered there in the moonlight beneath the fragrant rose vine, with the voice of the sea blending in their ears with the lilt of merry music, their hands entwined, their hearts in unison, there came to them a foretaste of heaven, if ’tis true, as poets tell us, that——

“And you will give up your fine, rich lover for me, my Daisie—for me, with love in a cottage?” cried Dallas fondly.

“Can you doubt it?” she whispered back, blushing beneath the kiss with which he rewarded her devotion.

“You will be my own sweet bride! Oh, what joy—what bliss! How—how have I deserved such a boon from Heaven!” he cried, remembering his agony just now, when he believed she was giving herself away to his rival. “Oh, Daisie,” he continued, “you shall never repent your sweet trust in me! I will make your life a dream of love and happiness. You say Royall Sherwood told you that my life was clouded with mystery, and that all mystery hid dishonor. Well, all shall[Pg 103] be explained to you, and you shall know better, my precious love!”

But at that moment they heard a light, grating laugh, and saw before them Mrs. Fleming leaning on Royall Sherwood’s arm.

Royall had grown so impatient of Daisie’s long absence that he had insisted on having Mrs. Fleming find out the cause.

So the unsuspecting lady called Letty Green, who was flirting with Cullen at the end of the hall, and demanded to know what Miss Bell was doing upstairs so long.

Letty tossed her pert brown head, and replied that Miss Bell hadn’t gone upstairs at all.

“Didn’t she go with you to remove her veil, girl?” cried Royall impatiently.

“No, sir; she sent me upstairs to take it, and went to meet her beau,” returned the saucy maid.

“What do you mean, Letty? Explain yourself, without any more trifling!” exclaimed her mistress, in a tone of sudden, sharp anxiety.

Perhaps Letty had a grudge against her mistress, and knew that she could pay it off now, for she proceeded to recount, with sly enjoyment, her rencontre with Dallas Bain.

“He actually thought at first that ’twas a real marriage, and I almost feared the man would drop dead at my feet, he was so upset,” she cried. “But when I explained all to him—oh, what a change! His eyes just flashed with joy, and he crammed my hands full of money, saying: ‘I never loved any girl in my life but Daisie Bell, and I want you to slip in there and get her to come out here and see me, won’t you?’”

Letty thought her mistress would drop down dead, too, she clung so tightly to Royall Sherwood, and turned so deathly white, while she muttered, in impotent wrath:

Royall Sherwood went quite white, too, but he uttered no word; and Letty, with an air of innocence, tossed her head, twittering:

“You should have come to me first,” muttered Mrs. Fleming angrily; and the girl answered, with mock humility:

“Silence, girl!” cried Royall, interpreting her[Pg 105] mood; and he drew Mrs. Fleming aside into a deserted anteroom to discuss the situation.

“Get me some wine, Royall; this is a terrible shock to my nerves!” she panted.

She drank, and the ruby liquid coursed through her veins like fire, inspiring her with new courage.

“How very fortunate!” echoed Royall; but his blond face was ashy pale, and dismay lurked in his eyes.

“No; I must keep a clear head,” he answered, in a shaking voice, pushing her hand aside, and adding: “This is a terrible complication that one shrinks from meeting.”

“Courage!” she answered gayly, slipping her hand through his arm, and leading him, half unwillingly, down the hall toward the door that opened on the balcony.

“I—I—hadn’t you better break it to her first alone? I dread a scene,” he muttered tremblingly.

“Pshaw! don’t be a coward, Royall. You know your rôle. Just stick to it like a man, and all will be well. Her fate is sealed, and their anger cannot change it, however they rage. Come;” and, drawing him with her, the crafty schemer confronted the happy lovers on the moonlit balcony.

Her low, grating laugh startled them from a happy dream, and they sprang apart in confusion as she cried:

“Daisie, we have been searching for you everywhere! And here you are hiding from us like this, forgetting that your flirting days are over now! Why—Mr. Bain!” this in tones of profound surprise.

“Yes, Mrs. Fleming, I am back again—just now returned—and meant to go in presently to greet you. Good evening, Mr. Sherwood. We are well met, all of us, for I wish to ask your congratulations on my engagement to Miss Bell.”

He saw quite plainly, despite their seeming[Pg 107] nonchalance, that the announcement would not wait, hence his haste.

Daisie, shrinking into the shadow of the vines, waited for her lover to explain the situation.

“You seem surprised, Mrs. Fleming, and yet you should not be. You knew quite well that I was Miss Bell’s lover, though I was foolish enough to be frightened off that day when you came to her house and found us together. Well, I repented my haste, returned to-night, and sought an explanation. All is satisfactory, and we will soon be married.”

“Why is it terrible, madam?” demanded Daisie, with sudden fire; and as the little widow looked at the handsome, spirited couple before her, she longed to strike them dead at her feet because of their love for each other.

But at least she had an awful dart for their[Pg 108] hearts—an arrow tipped with deadly poison—so, throwing a baleful glance at both, she answered venomously:

“It is terrible, Daisie Bell, because, through my fault, a great mistake has been made. The marriage to-night was not sham, but real, and you are legally the wife of my Cousin Royall!”

A bolt from heaven could not have stricken Daisie Bell more suddenly from her feet than the words Mrs. Fleming had spoken in such venomous triumph.

The poor victim tottered, moaned, and fell; but Dallas caught her in his arms ere she touched the floor, lifting her up tenderly and pressing her close to his breast.

“Daisie, my darling, speak to me!” he cried, in wild alarm, for her head fell heavily like a broken flower.

“Give her to her husband! It is his right to hold her now! Why do you not take her, Royall?”

“Hush, Lutie! I do not understand what you mean. Explain yourself,” Royall replied, with stern brevity, though, if angry, jealous looks could have killed, Dallas might have dropped dead then and there.

“Ah! true, true, you do not know what I have done, Royall; you do not guess that Daisie Bell is really your wife. I must confess the deceit I have practiced on you both. But wait—wait till Daisie revives; for she must hear it all, too.”

And even at that moment Daisie trembled in the clasp of her lover, and opened her dazed, blue eyes.

“I—oh, what is that matter?” she began; and, gently soothing her, Dallas placed her in her seat, and stood by her side, offering the other seat to Mrs. Fleming.

She took it, for the story she had to tell was enough to make her too nervous to stand.

Royall stood at the back of her chair, and Dallas by Daisie’s side, in a protecting attitude, but pale as death with dread of what was coming.

“Do you feel better? For Mrs. Fleming has a confession to make, if you are strong enough to bear it.”

Mrs. Fleming, strengthened by the wine she had taken, answered, with glib readiness:

“Let no one blame Royall Sherwood for what has been done. The plot was mine, and I did not know I was making a grave mistake. Of course, I knew that Daisie and Royall had broken their engagement, but I thought it was made up again, as he was going to see her the same every day. So when I knew that Daisie would help us with the entertainment to-night, and take the bride’s part in the mock wedding, I thought what a joke it would be—and not an unwelcome one, either—to marry them really. So I impulsively, without due thought, employed a real minister to read the ceremony, and—now they are tied fast, man and wife, as tight as law can bind them to each other.”

There was a moment’s blank pause; then Royall Sherwood bent the knee humbly before silent, stricken Daisie, crying out in pleading accents:

“She speaks truly; the plot was hers, unknown to me; but, Daisie, she read my heart aright, if not yours; for never had bride such a cordial welcome to a husband’s heart, and never would a loyal husband strive more patiently to win a wife’s love, if you will give yourself to me in truth, as you are mine already by to-night’s vow.”

But she shrank from his extended arms, with a cry of woe that made Dallas Bain soothe her with warning words:

“Do not let him frighten you, Daisie; for who knows but that he was in the plot which he disclaims so glibly? If you do not want him as a husband, do not take him; for the law will free you from this fraud that has been perpetrated on you. Your friends will join with me in taking your part.”

“‘Whom God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,’” quoted the widow flippantly.

At that moment Daisie sprang to the window and gazed with straining eyes into the thronged drawing-room.

They followed her—the anxious three—and presently they saw her force her way through a pleasant group surrounding the clerical-looking young man who had performed the marriage ceremony.

She rushed up to him, and, clutching his sleeve[Pg 113] with her little hand, cold and white as a snowflake, she cried shrilly, not caring if the whole world heard:

“Is it true that you are a real minister? That that marriage was real, and not a sham, as I thought?”

He turned on her with dignified eyes of surprise and disapproval, saying stiffly:

“But it was meant for a sham. I never would have given my consent to the reality,” she cried, in breathless dismay.

“Yes, it was my fault. I knew Royall and Daisie were engaged, and thought it would be great fun to marry them offhand, believing they would be pleased to have it so. But Daisie’s dignity is offended, I’m sorry to see. Royall, I know you can soon bring her around to forgive me!” chirped the widow, suddenly making herself mistress of the situation.

But Daisie’s eyes blazed with anger as she turned and placed her hand on the arm of Dallas Bain.

“Mr. Bain, will you please take me home to Aunt Alice?” she exclaimed; then bitterly: “I will never forgive you, Mrs. Fleming, for this outrage, and to-morrow I will call in the law to free me from your cousin’s fetters.”

With those words, she swept from the room with Dallas, and no one was bold enough to try to arrest her exit.

Mrs. Fleming, pale with secret wrath and chagrin, sent a venomous look after the retreating forms of Dallas and Daisie, then set herself the task of making everything right with her guests.

“It was all my fault. I am too fond of a joke,” she said plaintively. “But, as they were already engaged, I thought they would be rather pleased than otherwise. But Daisie chose to be offish about it, and I’m sorry now that I did it, of course.”

“Oh, I shall persuade her to forgive you to-morrow,” Royall said, with pretended carelessness; adding: “Good friends, do not let this awkward little contretemps spoil your pleasure.”

No one hinted, no one guessed, that the bride’s heart belonged to another man. No one took the affair au serieux, thinking it would all come right to-morrow when Daisie had had her little pouting spell.

So the gayeties of the evening went on, and[Pg 116] Dallas and Daisie, both so sorely stricken down from joy to woe, wended their way to her little cottage home, sad at heart and indignant over the cheat that had been practiced on her confidence, yet both believing that the unwelcome fetters might soon be broken.

Both felt quite certain that Royall Sherwood had been in the plot to deceive her, and Daisie’s pity for him had changed to hate and indignation.

“I would die now before I would become his wife in reality!” she vowed, in passionate resentment; and Dallas pressed her little hand tenderly, feeling that the joy of his life would be blotted out were he to lose his darling.

But he did not mean to lose her—not he; and he resolved to visit a noted lawyer to-morrow, and place the case in his hands, so that Daisie might be freed as soon as possible.

“Then, darling one, our wedding shall follow soon, and in our happiness we will soon forget this brief shadow,” he said fondly, as he stood on the steps looking up at her just as he had seen her first beneath the drooping wistarias—the picture that stayed in his heart till he died.

“What has brought you home to-night, Daisie? I thought you meant to stay several days?” she exclaimed, glowering at the girl’s companion.

“I will tell you all presently, Aunt Alice,” the girl said, over her shoulder, then gave him her hand.

“Good night, Dallas. I shall expect you to-morrow,” she said; and, in spite of the old woman’s angry looks, he kissed the little hand, and his dark eyes beamed on her in the moonlight with the love that thrilled his heart.

She stood and watched him out of sight—her handsome lover—then went into the house with her aunt, and poured out the story of all that had happened at Sea View.

“So you are Mrs. Royall Sherwood—a rich man’s bride! I congratulate you, Daisie!” she exclaimed eagerly.

“You will not be so foolish, Daisie Bell. You,[Pg 118] a poor school-teacher, an orphan girl forced to earn her living in that wretched city where the lives of so many young girls are worn out in the struggle for bread! Oh, Daisie, do not be so foolish as to throw away this splendid chance! And you so beautiful, my dear—so fitted to take your place in the finest society!”

“Auntie, you forget that I have another lover—handsomer, nobler than Royall Sherwood. As soon as I am free I shall marry him.”

“Never, never, with my consent! I have heard all about him from Mr. Sherwood, and he is no match for you. No one knows aught about him. He is poor, of course, and some dreadful disgrace may possibly be attached to him. You must give him up now, and my advice to you is to make up your quarrel with Royall, and be thankful to get him.”

“Ah, how cruel it is to have not a friend on earth! To get such advice from you, who ought to fill the place of my poor, dead mother!” sobbed Daisie, heartbrokenly; but the old woman, who could be very hard and coarse when she chose, retorted sharply:

“Your poor mother would be alive now if she[Pg 119] hadn’t married a poor man, and broken her heart because her parents disinherited her and refused ever to see her again. She was as pretty as you, and had her pick of lovers; but she fell in love with that poor artist, Vivian Bell, my husband’s brother. And what came of it? You know their struggles, for they died one after another only two years ago in New York, and left you, their only child, to fight the battle of life alone. So how you can throw away this splendid chance fairly beats my time.”

“But I am used to poverty, Aunt Alice, so it does not daunt me. And I am sorry you have arrayed yourself in the ranks of my persecutors, for it makes me feel so friendless. True, you are not really my aunt; but, as Uncle John’s wife, I have loved you just the same, and now”—sobbingly—“you have turned against me, and I must go away alone and unpitied, unless by my true little friend Annette.”

She dragged herself wearily upstairs, and, throwing off, with a shudder of disgust, her white gown, donned a loose robe, and sat down beside the window to keep a vigil that was sad and strange for a new-made bride.

How long she sat there she never knew, so confused were her thoughts; but it could not have been more than an hour, when she heard carriage wheels grating on the stillness of the street, then pausing before the house, and a man sprang out and came into the porch, ringing a furious peal on the doorbell.

But just then Mrs. Bell jerked open the front door, and held an anxious colloquy with the young man.

“It is all true, Daisie. That young man is a preacher, so, of course, he wouldn’t tell you a lie! Royall Sherwood was shot to-night—shot in the back as he was walking along with his cousin—and they think he is dying. He begs for you, and, my dear, you can’t refuse to go.”

But her lips trembled so with the shock that she could hardly stand upright. Aunt Alice helped her to put on a warm, dark gown suited to[Pg 122] the chilly midnight hour, and supported her feeble steps down the stairs.

“You will come with me?” she said, in a dazed way, and the old woman assented readily.

The young minister helped them into the carriage, entered himself, and the door was closed. The driver whipped up his horses, and then Mrs. Bell asked, in a tone of awe:

“I do not suppose any one knows. It was all very sudden. Mrs. Fleming and her cousin were walking in the grounds, discussing his marriage, when the shot was fired from behind by some one who must have been concealed in the shrubberies. Instantly all was confusion, as there were other parties also out in the moonlight. A crowd gathered instantly. It was found that Mr. Sherwood was shot through the body. A physician was by, fortunately, and, on a hasty examination, he pronounced the wound mortal. He was removed to his room, and, on recovering consciousness, asked for his wife to be summoned. Mrs. Fleming begged me to come with the carriage and urge her to return with me.”

Daisie sobbed aloud in grief and pity for the[Pg 123] man suddenly stricken down in youth’s early dawn, and the young minister thought:

“Mrs. Fleming was right: She loved him, after all, and they would have been reconciled to-morrow. What a calamity it is that sunders their wedded lives so soon.”

But he did not attempt to offer any condolences to the sobbing girl. It seemed to him that she had been rude to him all through in her pettish anger.

A silent, miserable cortège, they filed into the hall, where so lately mirth and joy reigned, now still and lonely, with scared servants gliding to and fro, turning down the brilliant lights, and removing the traces of festivity.

Letty Green was waiting with Cullen at the door to conduct them to the dying man, and as they went along the corridor Mrs. Fleming herself came to meet them, her eyes dim with tears, that made her festal robes look strangely out of place.

“You will soon be free now. Poor Royall cannot live long. It is his love for you that has caused his death. That wretch killed him!”

“That wretch?” Daisie sobbed uncomprehendingly; and Mrs. Fleming hissed in her ear:

Daisie would have sunk to the floor but for the widow’s supporting arm, and she moaned, in distress:

They were almost at the door, the minister and Mrs. Bell in advance, when, pausing a moment, Mrs. Fleming muttered:

“Compose yourself. I have told no one the truth, and perhaps I never shall. That will depend on you, Daisie Bell. But listen: When the fatal shot was fired, I looked around quickly, and saw the cruel murderer rushing from the scene. He was tall, and dark, and handsome, and I knew him at once; and I shrieked out his name, but I think no one heard it. So presently, even while they were all crying out to know who did it, I feigned swooning, and answered nothing, for a thought came to me, that——But come, let us go in to Royall now, poor boy!” dragging her over the threshold.

Half dazed with horror, Daisie followed Mrs. Fleming over the threshold into the darkened room, where a grave-faced physician watched by the bedside of the dying man.

She saw Royall Sherwood lying among the pillows, his delicate blond complexion changed to a purplish pallor, his eyes closed, lying as still as if already dead.

“He has fallen asleep, and it might be better not to disturb him until he awakes naturally.”

“Oh, yes, I think so. You may withdraw into another room, and I will call you as soon as he opens his eyes.”

They obeyed him, going softly to another room, where Mrs. Fleming left Daisie alone a few moments, saying:

“I must go and see to your aunt’s comfort; then I will return, for I have something very serious to say to you.”

Daisie was left alone in the luxurious boudoir, where the electric lights, filtered through rosy globes, shed a warm, pink glow on her pallid face. But she did not think of envying the rich widow her wealth and splendor. Her heart sped on the wings of love to Dallas, from whom she had been so cruelly parted, and, with a sudden feeling that she was powerless in the grasp of the untoward fate that beset her, she fell on her knees, praying humbly:

That was all, for she was too wretched to add another word; but in her despair she remained upon her knees, her golden head bent low in the attitude of prayer, and thus Mrs. Fleming found her when she presently returned.

The sight might have moved a tender-hearted woman to pity, but Lutie Fleming was as hard as the nether millstone.

She would rather have seen her successful rival crushed with grief and woe than happy in the[Pg 127] love of Dallas Bain, as she had seen her such a little while ago.

“Their triumph was short-lived,” she smiled to herself, as Daisie dragged herself up to a sitting posture, showing her wild, white, woeful face, from which all the light of joy had been stricken out by sorrow.

“Well, your aunt has retired, as there was really nothing to be gained by her sitting up, so you and I will keep our vigil together,” the widow said, and Daisie bowed coldly, without answering. What, indeed, could she say? She felt herself caught in the toils of a terrible fate from which she could see no escape. “As I was saying to you a little while ago, Daisie, the outcome of this matter depends on you,” continued Mrs. Fleming. “My position is a very delicate one. My cousin, whom I dearly love, has been murdered in cold-blooded malice by the man you love—by your lover!”

“Ah, no, no—never; he did not do it! Dallas would not be so cruel. You have made a mistake,” sobbed Daisie piteously.

“There is no mistake. I saw the murder done—saw Dallas Bain flying from the scene of the[Pg 128] crime. And the motive is plain. It was murderous wrath because Royall had married you. He did it to set you free for himself, forgetting that even you could hardly dare to brave public opinion by marrying your husband’s murderer.”

Daisie shuddered, without answering, and watched the light-blue orbs of Mrs. Fleming as if they were a basilisk’s eyes, feeling the while as if a serpent’s folds were tightening around her, slowly crushing her to death.

“Of course,” continued her tormentor, “my duty is plain. I should denounce Royall’s cowardly murderer to the law, and let him suffer for his crime. But that would not restore my poor cousin to life.”

“No,” faltered Daisie, almost appealingly, in her horror of the woman’s trying to fasten such a crime on Dallas, for she felt in her heart he was innocent.

“But my first thought is to soothe my cousin’s dying hours. The doctor has told me that he may die to-night or to-morrow, or linger for days in misery. There is even one single chance of his recovery—the chance of a strong constitution[Pg 129] triumphing over his terrible wound. You see, I am quite frank with you, Daisie.”

“Yes, and I see you have some faint hope of your cousin’s recovery. I hope, indeed, that he may live.”

“You need not wish that, Daisie. He would rather die than live without your love.”

There was a brief silence. The midnight hour was very still. They could hear the tide booming in upon the shore, the solemn, mysterious voice of the sea. To poor Daisie it seemed to murmur of despair.

“Do you see what I am trying to get at, Daisie? Do you understand me? In my regret for the terrible mistake I made in uniting your fate to Royall’s, in my sorrow for my poor boy, and my wish to secure his happiness, I am willing to make a bargain with you—the strangest bargain ever made—to shield a cruel murderer for the sake of his victim. Grant me this boon, Daisie: Be true to Royall for the brief span of his life—whether long or short—give him the obedience of a wife, and I, on my part, will keep your lover’s terrible secret, and let him go[Pg 130] free, his only punishment his accusing conscience.”

Again silence, and Daisie felt as if the last fold of the serpent were wound around her, crushing her to death.

“I saw him with my own eyes,” Mrs. Fleming returned, with cold malice, and waited for the answer.

Meanwhile, Daisie asked herself, in anguish, if she could bind herself by such a terrible promise—to give up her lover, whom she believed innocent; her lover, whom she loved with the passion of her life—and bind herself to Royall Sherwood for the time that he should live.

“And who knows but that he may recover? This woman may be deceiving me to gain her point,” whispered her heart; and she remained silent so long that Mrs. Fleming exclaimed impatiently:

Daisie’s beautiful violet eyes, now dark with emotion, brimmed with tears as she cried piteously:

“You wish to warn Dallas Bain that his crime is known, that he may escape!” sharply.

“No—no, for he is innocent, and if accused can no doubt prove it!” the girl cried proudly.

“How? By an alibi? How long had he left you when you were called here?” demanded the widow suspiciously, fearing the failure of her scheme.

“No, I could not prove an alibi for Dallas, because he left me at my door as soon as he had taken me home; but of course he went straight to his hotel, and can no doubt prove where he was at the time you thought you saw him here. Oh, believe me, you have made a terrible mistake in imputing this deed to him. Why should he wish to kill your cousin to set me free, when he knew that the law would break my fetters so easily?” pleaded Daisie wildly.

“It was jealous malice. He feared that Royall might persuade you to remain his wife.”

“Ah, no; for Dallas knew my love too well,” began Daisie; but they were interrupted by a tap[Pg 132] on the door to summon them to Royall, who had awakened.

“Oh, Daisie, be kind to my poor cousin. Tell him you will stay with him as long as he lives.”

“I will be kind to him, yes; how could I be harsh with him now? But I will make no rash promises,” the young girl returned, with sudden spirit.

“At least, promise not to hold any communication with Mr. Bain until to-morrow.”

“I can make no promise,” Daisie reiterated, so resolutely that the arch schemer had to give up her point, and proceeded in sullen silence to the presence of the dying man.

He was awake and conscious, his eyes turning to the door with a look of yearning.

Daisie’s tender heart was touched with pity as she gazed on the pallid, pain-drawn face, and she softly touched his hand while she whispered:

Then she saw that they had all gone out into the hall, except the widow, leaving them alone with the sufferer.

“Be kind to me,” echoed Royall faintly, as his cousin withdrew to the window, and his sunken blue eyes searched her face wistfully for some sign of tenderness.

It was a cruel position for any girl to be placed in. Daisie felt its pathos in the depths of her tender heart, that ached for the dying man, who had given her his love in vain.

“No,” she answered solemnly, out of the depths of her pity. “Do we not forgive everything to the dying?”

“Bless you!” he murmured, in that faint voice, and added: “You will stay with me to the end?”

It was the same petition Mrs. Fleming had offered, and she started and trembled with the same alarm.

And if they extorted from her this ambiguous promise to stay till the end, and he lived, what then? Would they hold her to this promise?

She knew in her heart that he would do it; that he would hold her forever against her beloved. So she dare not promise.

“But, dear one, I may not die to-morrow. The physician says I may go out like the flame of a candle to-night, or I may linger on for days. Can you deny me the comfort of your presence till the last hour? Can you be so cruel, when I have loved you so?”

His strained voice broke in a gasp, and he lay looking at her pitifully, love and sorrow in his anguished eyes.

It pierced her heart with pity, but she dared not yield, for fear of the uncertain future.

Yet she had a tender heart, and it ached with sympathy, though she had to steel herself against his prayer.

“How can you be so hard and unfeeling?” demanded his cousin, approaching. “Do you not see how you excite him by your refusals? And it is so little that he asks—simply to stay by him till the last hour, that may come sooner than any one expects. See how humbly he sues, when, as your husband, he has a right to command your obedience.”

“Nor do I urge it,” Royall Sherwood faltered quickly. “I waive all rights, if I have any, and ask your stay for sweet pity’s sake.”

That humility touched her heart as no arrogant demands could have done, and it made it all the harder for her to withstand their appeals.

“I—I really cannot stay any longer than to-morrow. I am compelled to return to New York to my work. I—I—have written that I am coming.”

“That makes no difference,” began Mrs. Fleming, but paused in consternation as a slight young figure dashed across the floor to Daisie, and a tremulous voice cried excitedly:

“Cruel, hard-hearted girl! You shall not refuse his prayer! Will you let a man die of heartbreak when your kindness would save his life?”

It was the little, dark-eyed beauty, Annette Janowitz, who had been listening by the door for some minutes, and now, unable to restrain her excitement, rushed to Daisie’s side with a passionate protest:

“Would you let a man die of heartbreak when your kindness would save his life?”

Her slight frame trembled with emotion, and her large black eyes gleamed like stars out of her pale face, wasted and worn from recent illness. Her expression was one of the keenest anguish.

“Oh, Annette, how came you here at this midnight hour? Who told you what had happened?”

She gasped for breath, and turned as ashen pale as the dying man on the bed, seeming as if about to sink to the floor, until Mrs. Fleming hurriedly forced her into a chair.

“Royall Sherwood must not die! He must not die, for then the man that shot him would be a cruel murderer! And I am sure he would not wish it. He did not mean it. He made a terrible mistake, and—but what am I saying?” fearfully. “I don’t know anything about this, except that I’m so sorry—so sorry—and Mr. Sherwood’s life must be saved, no matter by what sacrifice! Listen to me, Daisie Bell: You must not refuse anything he asks you to do, for if you leave him he will surely die, and you will be his murderer, not that other one. No, not that other one, for I’m sure he made an awful mistake, and—and——Oh, stay here to nurse Mr. Sherwood; do, dear Daisie, and I will stay and help you all I can.”

They scarcely knew what to make of her incoherent words, and both women united in trying to calm her, Daisie stroking her little dark head tenderly, while Mrs. Fleming said kindly:

“Be more quiet, dear, lest you excite Royall too much. See how wild he looks.”

“No, no—let her say what she will. I see that she is on my side,” he faltered, with half-closed eyes and a quivering smile.

“Yes, yes; I am on his side! I want him to get well! So, will you promise what he wishes, Daisie?”

“Annette, come away with me a while, dear, and let us talk this over,” Daisie answered, taking the girl’s burning hand in her own and leading her away to Mrs. Fleming’s boudoir. “Now, calm yourself, and let us understand each other. Do you know who shot Mr. Sherwood?” she asked suspiciously.

“No, no—of course not, Daisie! What a very foolish question!” panted Annette in visible alarm.

“Well, then, tell me how you found out so quickly that this had happened, and how came you here at this gloomy midnight hour—you, who have been too ill to leave your bed?”

“I—I——Oh, Daisie, wait till I think a bit![Pg 140] My head seems dazed with it all. Yes, yes; this is the way: Our servant girl brought the news. She had been up here looking on at the play, and stayed very late. So it happened—that ghastly thing—before she came away. I was awake and restless when she came back, so I called to her for some ice water. She came in and told me all, and that Mrs. Fleming had sent for you. I wanted to come and help you, so I made Lucy come with me, and then sent her to break it to mamma, who will be terribly angry at me, I know. But I don’t care—I don’t care for anything, so that Royall Sherwood gets well.”

“Of course not, you silly girl! Don’t you know that I have a splendid lover in the West?” laughing hysterically.

“Oh, yes; I had forgotten. But you told me he was coming to see you, Annette—has he come yet?”

A strange light gleamed in the dark, uplifted eyes, and Annette’s hand was pressed convulsively on her heart while she answered:

“No, he could not come——Oh, what am I saying? He came, but his visit was very short,[Pg 141] for he was called away by a telegram. I was so sorry, for I wished to bring him to call on you. He was so tall, and dark, and handsome, like your noble Dallas. Oh!” and suddenly Annette broke down and wept in wildest grief.

“Yes—oh, yes—everything. And so Dallas came back to you, after all? I wish my lover could come back to me,” sighing. “But, Daisie, you cannot help yourself now, since Royall is your husband; and if you desert him now it will seem so heartless, as if you wished him to die! And, oh, he must not die! That would be too dreadful. Let him get well by your help, and then leave him, if you wish, Daisie.”

Daisie sighed to herself that every one was in league against her. She had not a friend in the world but Dallas. Oh, if only he were by her side now!

“Do not tease me any more to-night, dear, for I cannot make up my mind until I see Dallas to-morrow.[Pg 142] He must advise me what to do, for I am all at sea. Of course, I wish to be kind to the dying, but I cannot, must not, do anything that will hinder me from getting a divorce from him should he live. So you see how hard my position is, dear, and must not urge me to anything that will wreck my life’s happiness.”

“No, I will not. But, ah, I cannot bear for Mr. Sherwood to die! He must live—he must live!” cried Annette, relapsing into wildness again.

Daisie begged her to be quiet, promising to do what she could to help on Royall’s recovery.

“I shall stay anyhow until to-morrow, if you will stay with me, Annette,” she said; and this the young girl readily promised to do.

When Mrs. Fleming came to them presently, they told her this; and as she saw that all her threats could not force Daisie into acquiescence she had to be content with what the girl offered.

“Perhaps you will both wish to retire now, as Royall cannot bear any further excitement to-night. In fact, another physician has been telegraphed[Pg 143] for from Baltimore, as an operation will have to be performed to find and remove the bullet.”

A sob from each girl showed how deeply the words moved them. Then Annette said pleadingly:

“Daisie, you must let me share your room, for I’m so nervous I shan’t be able to sleep a wink, and I’ll feel better if I have company.”

“So shall I,” returned Daisie sadly; and they were shown to a beautiful room, whose soft white couch invited sound repose.

But, alas! In Daisie’s heart there was grief that murdered sleep, so that she spent the hours till dawn in a dreary vigil, wondering what the morrow would bring to her, not daring to hope for Royall Sherwood’s death, since that would be a sin, yet conscious that such a catastrophe would mean freedom and happiness for her and Dallas. As for Mrs. Fleming’s terrible accusation, she believed it was only a ruse to force her into terms, and determined not to let it influence her decision.

Annette, too, must have had some hidden sorrow[Pg 144] aching at her heart, for she did not even lie down, but remained for hours sitting at an open window, staring out into the darkness with big solemn eyes that saw nothing but despair in the unknown future.

“May I speak to you alone a few minutes, Doctor Burns?” murmured Daisie, following the physician out from breakfast the next morning.

“Certainly, Mrs. Sherwood,” he returned deferentially; but she turned back from the threshold of the little morning room they were entering, with a passionate gesture and heart-wrung cry:

He bowed, and followed her across the threshold, closed the door, and placed a chair for her, sitting down opposite, and surveying her critically through his gold-bowed glasses, thinking, perhaps, that her wonderful beauty was all the more striking for the deadly pallor it wore.

The violet eyes flashed and darkened, and[Pg 146] Daisie’s golden head crested itself with sudden anger.

“Perhaps you are aware of the circumstances of that marriage?” she asked, with icy hauteur.

“Yes; an ill-timed joke on the part of our hostess; but, unfortunately, binding until the law is invoked to release you. So you are really Mrs. Sherwood.”

“Do not remind me of that fact unless you wish to drive me mad!” she exclaimed entreatingly; and he gazed at her in simple wonder, replying:

“Perhaps, then, I am mistaken in believing that you were engaged to Mr. Sherwood, and only angry because the marriage was a premature one?”

It was the face of a man of sixty years, genial and open, with a sympathy that encouraged her to exclaim:

“Doctor Burns, I am in sore trouble, and I need a friend’s advice. Will you be that friend?”

“Most gladly, my dear young lady,” he replied,[Pg 147] so kindly that she was emboldened to sketch for him, in few but moving words, her brief love story.

“Now you see where I stand, Doctor Burns—married to one man and in love with another. Could anything be more distressing?” she cried appealingly; and he agreed with her that it was most unpleasant, while he thought within himself that the world had far too many such distressing cases.

“Mr. Bain promised to secure a lawyer to-day to take my case, so of course I should not even be here under the same roof with Mr. Sherwood; but——” She paused, and he added pityingly:

“The circumstances of the case made it impossible for you to decline returning here last night. Common humanity would have been outraged by a refusal. But why trouble yourself over the ethics of the case, my dear young lady? Divorce proceedings are not likely to be needed, since you may soon be a widow.”

She shuddered at the bluntness of the words; then rallied her courage, and said frankly:

“Doctor, that is why I wished to speak with[Pg 148] you, to ask you for the plain truth. Is Royall Sherwood going to live or die?”

“But you are skilled in reading the signs, and you told Mrs. Fleming that he had one chance of life.”

“Yes, I told her so; but it is so very slight, and life hangs on a thread. The operation to remove the bullet was very exhausting, but successful. He lies now in a comatose condition, from which he may rally to make a struggle for renewed existence, or he may sink soon into the sleep of death.”

“Death!” What an awfully solemn word it was! How it shook her nerves! She burst into hysterical sobs, and Doctor Burns hastily prepared a sedative, and forced her to swallow it.

“You have promised to be my friend, so tell me what to do. You understand, I mean to be free of this marriage, whether Mr. Sherwood[Pg 149] lives or dies? Then what must I do? Leave the house to-day?”

“Most certainly not! To do so would destroy his one chance of life,” he exclaimed, with the anxiety of a physician.

“It would be impossible to keep him from it, since in his waking hours he calls often for you. It would be harsh and cruel to destroy his one chance to live by the shock of such a desertion,” Doctor Burns replied, telling her the truth without disguise, in his anxiety over his patient.

He thought she was going to faint, she turned so white as she clasped her hands on her heart, where pity for Royall Sherwood struggled with passion for her absent lover.

His dark, tender eyes, his noble face, rose before her mind’s eye, and she sobbed:

“Then I will do so this morning, and if he is[Pg 150] the noble man I take him for he will bid you stay and save his rival’s life, even though you desert him afterward—although, if my advice were asked, I should say make the best of a bargain, and keep the husband you have already won, since, after all, it’s not a bad match. Sherwood has loads of money, and isn’t at all a bad fellow.”

“I know—I know; but Love goes where it is sent, and I could never care for him as he deserved. Oh, Doctor Burns, don’t you turn against me, too, for all are in league to break my heart!” wildly.

“Poor girl—poor girl! Then I’ll take your part by going at once to bring Mr. Bain to consult with you. Where shall I find him?”

“At the hotel, I suppose,” she returned, adding: “May God bless you for your kindness to a poor, friendless girl!”

“Thank you. I have need of His blessing. And now go, like a good girl, and take a nap until I return with Dallas Bain.”

She returned to her room to follow his advice, thinking that, indeed, she would like to look a little fresher when Dallas came.

“Be kind to him, Daisie, so that he may get well. I will help to nurse him; indeed, I will.”

The nurse who was watching by the patient quickly left the room at a gesture from the mistress of the house.

Royall, whose ghastly pallor made him look as if death had already claimed him for its own, smiled feebly on the visitors, and murmured:

They were alone—the beautiful, wretched girl and the husband who loved her so vainly and was slipping away from her so fast into the darkness of death.

“You did not leave me, Daisie. I am so glad, for I do not expect to live long, and I will die happy if you stay by me to the last.”

Her heart was touched by his fervent love, and impulsively she smoothed his cold hand caressingly.

“I do not deserve your kindness, and I would not dare to accept it—only that I believe I am—slipping away from life.”

“I understand, and I will not tease you by begging for your love—for I have a confession to make to you—my dying confession—and when you have heard it I cannot blame you if you hate me.”

How she pitied him now—she who had hated him only last night. But death cancels all resentments.

She wiped the dew from his cold brow with her soft and gentle hand. She stroked his fair curls softly, thinking how handsome he was in his fair style—only no one could approach her splendid lover, Dallas.

“I shall pray God to let you live,” she whispered; and a sudden hatred came to her for the fiend whose cowardly bullet had laid low this promising life.

“Wait till I tell you all,” he sighed remorsefully. “Ah, Daisie, I have done you a cruel wrong, but I cannot go down to death without confessing it, and then you will hate my very memory.”

“Ah, you don’t know it yet,” Royall Sherwood cried, half accusingly, and added: “I told you last night that I did not know what Lutie had done, but it was false. I was in the plot to deceive you. I went to her with my troubles, and my fear of losing you, since you were going away, and she suggested the plan to get you to help us last night, and make the wedding a real[Pg 154] one. I agreed to it, and won you for my bride by a fraud, a hideous lie.”

“Ah, I knew you would hate me! But I could not die without making my peace with God,” he moaned faintly. “I told the preacher about it last night, and he prayed for me, and said I must tell you all, so as to win God’s forgiveness and yours. You can forgive me, can’t you, since I was so soon cut down in my wickedness, and forced to repent? And, Daisie, I have sent for my lawyer. I shall leave you my whole fortune in atonement, so that you may one day be happy with Dallas Bain.”

“I will not accept it—I do not want it!” she cried hastily, adding: “Take my forgiveness freely. You sinned against me through your great love, so I cannot hate you.”

A glad smile irradiated his features, and he was about to thank her for her goodness when Doctor Burns entered softly, having returned from his mission into the town.

He expressed his pleasure at seeing Royall “getting on so nicely,” as he expressed it. Then[Pg 155] he called in the nurse, and beckoned Daisie from the room.

Her heart gave a wild throb of joy, and she followed him eagerly, expecting to behold Dallas the very next moment.

Daisie Bell followed the kindly old physician back to the little room where they had spoken together a while ago, her heart throbbing wildly, her eyes gleaming brightly, her color coming and going with the delightful anticipation of soon meeting her darling.

Doctor Burns held open the door, and she stepped eagerly across the threshold, flashing her eyes brightly around in search of Dallas Bain.

But the room was untenanted by the splendid form she had expected to see, and the old doctor said gently:

“Yes; he left the hotel a little before daylight this morning, telling the clerk he was returning to New York. But sit down, my dear young lady, and call up all your fortitude, for I fear I have most unpleasant news for you,” exclaimed[Pg 157] Doctor Burns solicitously, and as she sank nervously into the nearest seat he continued: “I almost fear that this Dallas Bain is unworthy of your regard. Has there not always been something mysterious about the young man?”

“Oh, Doctor Burns, do not you also join the ranks of his traducers!” Daisie faltered, clasping her little hands together, tears welling into her beautiful eyes.

Then she looked up into his benevolent old face, and was startled at the fatherly pity that beamed from his kind gray eyes.

“I have something very strange to tell you, but perhaps you will be able to explain the mystery of it, since you know Mr. Bain so well.”

His voice was so grave that she felt an icy chill run over her frame, and her lips refused to utter a word, so he continued:

“About two hours after midnight a young woman dressed in black, and so heavily veiled as to be unrecognizable, called at the hotel, and insisted on having Dallas Bain called up, as she had very important news for him.

“The clerk sent the porter upstairs for Mr. Bain, and he was found up and dressed, not having retired yet. He came down quickly, and the young woman insisted on having a private interview with him. He yielded, and they were alone some moments in the clerk’s private office. They came out, and the woman hurried away, and the man, looking as though he had seen a ghost, went quickly upstairs to his room again. In half an hour he came down, paid his bill, and said he was returning to New York by the first train. He had no baggage, having only arrived the evening before, and said he would walk to the train.

“Well, the curious part of the story is, the hotel porter, prompted by curiosity, followed the veiled lady in black. She went directly to the station, and the porter, remaining to watch her, saw her finally board the train for New York. Directly Dallas Bain came hurrying up, and leaped on the train just as it was pulling out of the station.

“So there is my story as brief as I could make it. Can you make anything out of it, my dear?”

She was pale as death, her great eyes black[Pg 159] with emotion, her hand pressed convulsively upon her heart as she faltered, through trembling lips:

“No. I know nothing of his past. She may have been his mother, his sister,” she breathed hopefully.

“Perhaps so,” he replied; then paused and regarded her with tender, pitying eyes.

“Why do you look at me so strangely? I will not be pitied!” the girl cried, with sudden anger. “You have something more to tell me. Go on, then. Say your worst. I don’t think it will kill me,” proudly.

“That’s right, my brave girl! No man is worth dying for, and there’s as good fish in the sea as ever were caught,” cried the old doctor jovially, glad of her pride.

But in a minute he looked away from her to the window, and asked, in a lowered voice:

“Have you happened to hear that—Mrs. Fleming’s maid, pretty little Letty Green, eloped last night?”

“No.” She stared at him in wonder, then[Pg 160] laughed unnaturally. “She went with Cullen, of course?”

There was an awful silence for a few moments. She broke it with a scornful laugh, asking coldly:

“Do you wish me to believe that—that—my noble, handsome lover, Dallas—went off with Mrs. Fleming’s servant, that pert little Letty?”

“That is what the jealous Cullen is saying. I don’t ask you to believe it, but he seems to be sure of his facts.”

He saw the golden head droop, and the face fall into the hands, and he guessed the awful humiliation that made her hide it from his gaze.

“My poor child, you don’t know how it pained me to come to you with this horrible story to shake your faith in your lover; but it could not be withheld, you know,” he said.

She lifted her face, and it was like a death mask, so cold, so stony, the light and beauty all stricken from it at a blow.

“I am not blaming you,” she said, in a cold voice that matched her face. “But—will you bring that man here to me?”

“And I loved him so!” she murmured, with an ineffable pathos, throwing her arms to the empty air, as if throwing from her the broken love dream that had fooled her heart.

The door opened, and the servant, Cullen, stood before her—a stocky, red-headed man, with a merry, good-looking face—sullen and red with anger now.

“If you want me, miss, say your say quick, for I’m in a devil of a hurry to catch the next train for New York, and if I get on their track I’ll kill ’em both, certain!”

Daisie shuddered with dread, for the deserted lover looked both ferocious and bloodthirsty, and was glowering upon her now as if he held her personally responsible for the miscarriage of his love affair.

“Yes, miss, and with that darn rascal—begging your pardon; the words slipped out—yes, she went with that fine gentleman, Mr. Bain, who[Pg 162] wasn’t too fine to be courting Mrs. Fleming’s maid on the sly while he courted her mistress in the parlor. Oh, he was a flirt, was that fellow, and could fool any woman with his deceitful black eyes! Letty was fairly crazed with them till he up and went off without a good-by to her; then her pride was up in arms, and she made believe she didn’t care. I was fool enough to believe her, and made her promise to marry me. A good enough match I was for her, too, if her silly head hadn’t been turned by soft sawder before. D—n him!”

“Lord, sir, I know it, and I humbly ask the lady’s pardon for cussing. But I ain’t myself at all, that I ain’t, and all along of that humbug Letty that I was saving my wages to marry. And I give her my money to keep, too, and she’s off with it along of that scamp, and sent me back from the station a sassy, impertinent note, the baggage, that—I’d like to cram down her throat!”

Her first impulse was to cast it from her with[Pg 163] loathing, but feminine curiosity prevailed, and she read these words:

It’s an ill wind blows nobody good. Miss Bell’s marriage was good luck for me.

She had lured Dallas Bain from me, but as soon as he found out she was married and he couldn’t get her, his thoughts turned back to me. After Mr. Sherwood was shot, and his bride came back to him, I found Dallas wandering half crazy about the grounds, and set myself to comfort him. It was easier than I thought, for he owned to me that if he hadn’t taken that sudden infatuation for Daisie Bell, he’d have married me weeks before. So I told him it wasn’t too late, and he jumped at the idea, and in short, he said if I’d come with him to New York on the first train, he’d marry me soon as we got there. You can guess how quick I consented, Cullen, for you knew all along I loved him, though you was foolish enough to take me on any terms. But you’ll never get me. I’m born for your betters, though Dallas did own that he warn’t no fit match for Miss Bell, as he lived by his wits, and had served a burglary term in the penitentiary. But I can overlook everything, I love him so, with his soft white hands, and sweet smiles, and solemn black eyes! So I’m writing this at the station while we wait for the train to come.

Good-by, old friend. I’ll keep your savings for a wedding present. You’ll have to find another sweetheart, and that spiteful cat, Mrs. Fleming, another maid.

Letty Green—soon to be Letty Bain—Mrs. Dallas Bain! Don’t that sound grand? Maybe I’ll be back to Gull Beach some time flying in high society. Tra, la!

Letty.

The letter slipped from Daisie’s trembling hand to the floor, and the jilted lover caught it up, muttering:

“I’ll keep it till I find her, and cram it down her sassy throat, the impertinent jade! Keep my savings for a wedding gift, indeed! We’ll see about that! Most likely they’ll buy her a coffin, if I swing for it—yes, and him, too, the sneaking dude! You are well rid of him, miss—or missus, I ought to say—for you’ve got a noble husband, by good luck, and——”

“It is horrible. I would rather die than believe it—but there seems no room for doubt.”

The anguish of a broken heart was in her face and voice, and all his manhood rose in arms in her defense.

“Curse the villain! I’d like to horsewhip him for you, and I hope Cullen will find him and do it on his own account!” he exclaimed angrily, adding: “But, my dear, you’ve had a lucky escape from his toils, and I wouldn’t wear the willow if I were you. You’ve made a grand match, if it was brought about by a joke, and Royall loves you madly. Take my advice, and stick to him. He may get well and catch your heart in the rebound yet, so you may save your pride from this downfall.”

Poor Daisie Bell! Everything and everybody seemed to be against her, and the old doctor’s specious reasoning appealed to her pride, if not her heart.

What was any proud, sensitive girl likely to do, confronted with such conditions—to wear the willow, on the one hand, for a fickle, faithless lover, or to “take the goods the gods provided”?

She was young, beautiful, and possessed of superb health, besides an overweening pride that would not permit her to pine away and die for a faithless lover who had fled with so contemptible a rival.

“I would rather return to my teacher’s desk in[Pg 167] New York, and to a life of poverty and toil, than remain here in luxury as the wife of a man I do not love.”

“I believe you, my dear young lady; but you are hedged in by circumstances you cannot break through. The condition of the man you have married appeals to your pity, if not your heart.”

“If you turned against him now you would, by the shock of your desertion, destroy his slight chance of life. Can you bear to do it?”

“And if he lives,” she said, “I am bound for life to a man I cannot love.”

He shrank before the despair in her eyes, not knowing how to urge her further, and for a moment there was a blank silence.

The next moment something happened that turned the wavering scales in Royall Sherwood’s favor. The sick nurse came to the door, saying:

“Mrs. Fleming wants you to come at once, Doctor Burns; Mr. Sherwood has a sinking spell.”

He could not bear to lose his patient. As for her—who pitied her? Who considered for a moment whether her life was to be wrecked or not, poor Daisie Bell?

He was rich, and she was poor—that made all the difference in the world. They all thought she should be proud of her good luck.

She was like a solitary leaf blown hither and thither by the winds of destiny, with no volition of her own. Why struggle against overwhelming fate?

She looked appealingly into the old doctor’s stern, questioning eyes, and faltered despairingly:

Then, before he could put out an arresting hand, she swayed like a broken flower, and fell unconscious at his feet.

Meanwhile, Dallas Bain—an equal victim with Daisie in the diabolical plot that had sundered two devoted hearts—had gone away, indeed, fooled by the cunning of an unscrupulous woman, who, angered by his scorn, had sworn to wreck[Pg 169] his hopes by parting him from his beautiful young love forever.

She had succeeded but too well, and could laugh now at the success of her treacherous schemes.

Letty Green had, indeed, visited him at the hotel that night, but it was as the tool of her wicked mistress, bought over to evil by a tempting bribe.

She had carried to Dallas the first news of the attempted murder of Royall Sherwood, and also a note purporting to be from Daisie, in which she stated that she felt it her duty to remain with her husband, as the physician represented that his only chance of life lay in her forgiveness.

Mrs. Fleming was an adept at counterfeiting penmanship, and it was a very fair sample of Daisie’s in which she wrote:

Dallas Bain was almost stunned by the weight of his misfortunes, but all his cross-examination of smiling Letty did not trip the clever little maid, who had been well tutored by her mistress, and did not forget her part.

With a smile on her treacherous lips, Letty told glib stories of how the young bride had clung to her wounded husband, beseeching him to live for her sake, that she would never leave him again, et cetera, until the listener’s heart sank like a stone in his breast.

“And he will live?” Dallas asked presently, in a husky voice that she scarcely knew as his own, it was so changed by grief.

“Oh, yes, sir—or, at least, the doctor hopes so, and thinks it likely; but he told Mrs. Sherwood flatly that if she left him he was sure to die. She said she shouldn’t think of such a thing; so then Mr. Sherwood was delighted, and said he didn’t mean to die, in spite of the cruel rival who had meant to kill him.”

“No names were called, but everybody is saying that the deed was done by some lover of the lady who was mad about her marriage.”

“Meaning me?” he asked, with a scornful glance; and Letty giggled, without answering.

“Go back to—the lady that sent you here, and tell her it shall be as she wishes. I am leaving for New York on the first train, and I shall never cross her path again.”

“Yes, sir—and I make no doubt she will be glad to hear it. Old sweethearts are just in the way when a girl is once married,” Letty uttered mockingly, as she flounced out of the presence of the man she had deceived to carry on her nefarious work.

The next step was to go to the station and board the same train with Dallas, so as to lend color to the story of her elopement, as related in the letter that Cullen had shown to Daisie, it also having been written by the clever little schemer, Mrs. Fleming.

So the cruel deed was done, and two loving[Pg 172] hearts forced asunder to tread divided paths in a wretched life made desolate in its dawning by the tragedy of hopeless love.

The jealous pain of Dallas was, indeed, beyond expression, but no angry thought of Daisie mixed with his grief.

He could understand from Letty’s garbled story what an influence had been brought to bear on the young girl’s heart, and how she had almost been forced into submission.

His grief for her was as bitter as for himself, and he knew it was better to go away, as she had said, and never see her again, since they were sundered by so insurmountable an obstacle.

One thing racked his heart in her letter. It was the hope she expressed that she might forget him and learn to love her husband.

“That was cruel, but she did not mean it so, poor little Daisie, my lost love!” he sighed; and he resolved that he would try to forget her also, since to remember was but pain. “Let her forget me if she will. I, too, will forget—if I can.”

The end of it was that presently he went away to New York with the heaviest heart in the world,[Pg 173] leaving behind him the scene of his brief love dream, with its blended joy and sorrow, to take up in sadness the burden of a life whence hope had fled, and to try to drown memory in Lethe’s tide.

Though Letty Green conspicuously boarded the same train that he took, she was very careful not to occupy the same car, lest he should see her and have his suspicions aroused. Indeed, her concern with him ended here, for she had a fat roll of money with which to enjoy herself in the great city, and she now gave herself up to joyful anticipations of triumphs awaiting her in the near future.

As for Dallas, he threw himself moodily into a seat, and became a prey to such unpleasant reflections that it would have taken little less than an earthquake to attract his attention. The nearest thing to it, however—a collision with another train—suddenly brought him back, with a terrible shock, to things sublunary.

All at once there was a terrible rumble, then a shock that telescoped the train and made it a jumble of broken, flying timbers and crushed and bleeding humanity, on which the gray light of[Pg 175] early dawn shone with dim gleams through a drizzle of summer rain.

Dallas felt himself hurled violently somewhere—to death, he hoped, in that brief moment before he landed with a dull thud on the soft grass in a field close by the railroad.

He lay still a few moments, feeling as if every bone in his body were broken, and just waiting languidly for death to still his fluttering breath.

The thought came to him of Daisie. Would she be sorry when she heard he was dead? That he had met his death obeying her wish, that he should go away forever?

Then he became conscious of groans, and cries, and anxious voices. People were going about among the dead and wounded, helping them out from the awful wreck.

“Look at this fellow, hurled through the roof of the car out into the hay field. Is he dead, or just stunned?”

“Not dead, you see, thanks to this shock of hay I fell on. I thought at first my bones were all[Pg 176] broken, but give me your hands, and let’s see if I can stand up. So! Why, I’m as sound as a dollar!” in amazement.

It was true. Death had passed him by, to take others not as willing to go as this unhappy lover.

Several persons had been killed outright, and as many more wounded, so Dallas joined the relief corps that was so busy, and in his anxiety over others forgot for a while his own grief.

Hearing painful groans from beneath a pile of timbers, he set to work removing them, when he was arrested by the groaning voice muttering:

“Don’t try to help me—let me die in this trap! It’s as good as I deserve!”

“We might all be dead, friend, if we got our just deserts,” replied Dallas, and did not desist until he dragged out the imprisoned man from the obstructions that had pinned him down.

“Your arm’s broken, my poor fellow,” he said sympathetically to the dark, handsome young man, who opened his eyes, stared at him a moment in pallid wonder, then fainted dead away like a girl.

This did not surprise Dallas, who feared that the man might be internally injured.

But he borrowed a flask of whisky from the porter, and set to work to revive him with fine success.

“So I’m dead, and yours is the first shade to greet me in the infernal regions, Dallas Bain?”

“I don’t know where we’ve met before, friend, but that’s my name, and I hope you’ll pardon my short memory in forgetting you. But really you’ve made a mistake. We are both on top of the ground yet, and you seem likely to survive your accident.”

“So much the worse! I deserve death, and desired it!” groaned the wounded man, adding: “But you, Dallas Bain, aren’t you dead?” resentfully. “Didn’t some one shoot you last night?”

“Oh, no—it was another fellow, an acquaintance of mine—Royall Sherwood, down at Gull Beach, and he isn’t dead, but going to get well, they say. What do you know about it, anyway?” with sudden suspicion.

“Not much matter if I had been. When a fellow’s sweetheart has just married another man he doesn’t cling to life for a while,” Dallas murmured cynically.

“Your sweetheart—married—to another? Her name?” demanded the other, in such tragic earnest that Dallas could not help confiding in him, so he said sadly:

“I had the dearest, prettiest sweetheart in the world—blue-eyed Daisie Bell—and last night there was a mock wedding at Sea View, and two arch plotters made it a real marriage, and snared my Daisie in a web from which she could not free herself, save by divorce. But we intended to try it, anyhow, and she came away with me, poor dear! And then some one shot Royall Sherwood, the man she married, and she had to go back to him. But here comes a doctor to see you, and——Heavens! He has fainted away again!”

A curious crowd came round, and a drummer from the rear coach that had escaped with little injury, exclaimed:

“Let me look at this fellow! Why, it’s Ray Dering, from Cincinnati, one of the finest traveling salesmen on the road. But he’s been on a[Pg 179] frightful tear for days, owing to some woman. Sweetheart jilted him, I expect.”

“Poor fellow!” exclaimed Dallas Bain, a responsive chord touched in his sore heart, and he immediately resolved to care for Ray Dering in his illness, and cheer him when he recovered, perhaps on the principle that “misery loves company.”

He had him removed to a farmhouse near by, and engaged board and attendance for both, remaining there for tedious weeks while the invalid’s broken arm knitted together, and finding him an interesting study, for while at times he was genial to the point of fascination, he was subject to mysterious moods of remorseful melancholy verging on despair.

Dallas Bain saw that something was preying heavily on his mind, and one day he said coaxingly:

“You had better tell me all about that love affair, Dering, and maybe I can help you to fix it up better. Anyway, you know it is said that ‘a sorrow shared is half cured.’”

Ray Dering was gazing moodily out at the October woods changing to red and gold beneath the autumn sky, and, with a violent start, he looked at his friend, exclaiming:

“Why do you say I have a love affair? It is not true! I hate all women for the sake of one who has been false to me.”

“She has ruined my life and made me a remorseful sinner, this cruel little coquette that I loved so dearly.”

He leaned his face down on the window sill, and his form shook with emotion too strong for words.

Dallas Bain was not surprised, for in his month’s association with this man he had become convinced that a rooted sorrow, coupled with strange remorse, lay at the bottom of his heart.

Ray Dering had heavy, restless nights, and[Pg 181] strange, wild dreams, in which he often talked aloud, so that Dallas had conceived suspicions that he would not have breathed aloud.

But he believed that Ray Dering was good and noble at heart, and longed to help and comfort him.

Hence his kind words that had stirred the other’s nature to such wild emotion.

Dallas waited till the storm had spent itself and Ray’s heaving shoulders grew calm again; then he said gently:

“You ask why I know you had a love affair? A drummer on the train, when your arm was broken, told me so, and said you were throwing yourself away for her sake. Now, why should you wreck your noble manhood for the sake of a heartless little coquette?”

“Ah, why—why?” groaned Ray Dering bitterly. “Ah, Dallas Bain, you do not know me, do not guess at the sleeping devil in my nature, or you would not ask me such a question! Listen: I loved my bright, beautiful little sweetheart with all the fire of a jealous, passionate nature, and I thought I had her whole heart in return. We were to have been married this winter, and I[Pg 182] intended to leave the road then, and settle down to a quiet life on a legacy left me by my maiden aunt last spring. Well, I went to see her in August, full of love and pride—and, well, I found out that my pretty little sweetheart was in love—with another man.” Ray Dering shot a fiery glance at Dallas Bain, and added: “You ought to know the girl and the man. She was Annette Janowitz—he was——Ah, you start! No wonder!”

“Do you mean Miss Janowitz, of Gull Beach, a little brunette beauty? Why, she was an intimate friend of my own love, Daisie Bell.”

“And perhaps a friend of yours, too?” Ray Dering cried, with a harsh, grating laugh and a penetrating glance that tried to pierce Dallas through and through.

“I do not know Miss Janowitz very well, having only met her twice at crowded receptions; but I have a great esteem for her because she was Daisie’s true friend, and tried to forward our love affair in many ways.”

So Dallas told him the simple story Daisie had whispered to him, of how she had tried to win him back to her by artless artifices, and how Annette had helped her all she could by taking the letter she had written up to Sea View.

“But I never received it, for I had gone away before, and it was a sad mission for little Annette, for while returning through the grounds at Sea View she was hit by a stray shot that nearly cost her her life—poor girl!” he added.

“Yes; that was the story that Annette told the doctor and every one else. Some believed her, and others doubted, declaring that out of her noble heart she was shielding some one she would not betray,” said Dallas, gazing straight at him with accusing eyes.

“Yes, from your own admissions, your guilty looks, and words you have whispered in restless dreams.”

“So she was true, after all—dear little Annette! True as steel to the fiend that doubted her and even tried to kill her! And she would not betray me! She kept that hideous secret of my crime. Oh, the matchless constancy of woman!” cried Ray Dering; and, carried away by his keen remorse, he confessed what he had done to Dallas, saying:

“When I heard her talking so anxiously about sending you that letter, it made me wild, for I believed she was in love with you, and the jealous devil in my nature prompted me to take her life. As soon as the maid left the scene, I rushed upon Annette, uttered some wild words, and fired straight at her tender young heart.”

“And you would have killed her but for the steel of her stays that turned aside the bullet,” added Dallas.

“Thank God for that! Thank God that in my frenzy I was spared the crime of murder! Oh, Heaven! To think how true, and sweet, and noble she is, and that I have lost her forever!” groaned Dering.

“Perhaps she will make it up with you, since she has shown such a forgiving spirit toward you. Shall I write to her for you?”

“Ah, Dallas Bain, you are heaping coals of fire on my head! You who have been so good to me, who rescued me from that awful wreck, who have so faithfully cared for me since. You do not guess what a fiend I have been, and that—I tried also to murder you!”

“Yes, I will confess all, and throw myself on your mercy. I thought you had won Annette from me, and I swore to her I would kill you also. It was my guilty hand that fired the shot that laid Royall Sherwood low—but I thought it was you, Dallas Bain. I had followed you to Sea View, but my brain was dulled with liquor, and I missed you somehow when you went away. Then I thought I saw you walking in the grounds with Annette, as I thought, and I fired recklessly, and escaped. Well, the man is not dead yet, but if he dies I am his murderer, and you may denounce me if you choose, for my life, by reason of my mistakes and crimes, has become almost too great a burden to be borne.”

Dallas Bain was shocked into momentary silence by the revelation just made to him.

He had not thought of connecting Ray Dering with the attempted murder of Sherwood until this explanation made it clear to his mind.

And it did not give him a very pleasant feeling to know how narrowly he had escaped death at the hands of an impetuous lover driven mad by jealousy.

Had this been their first meeting he must have shrunk from Dering in horror and repulsion.

But weeks of intimate companionship had shown him the real worth of the young man’s nature, marred only by the jealous passion that had driven him to crime. He knew that he was capable of noble things, understood also that he was the victim of an undying remorse. His revenge had recoiled upon himself, and the serpents of remorse were coiled in his heart to sting him to death.

All this rushed over the mind of Dallas as he gazed at the pale, handsome face and the somber, dark eyes, where the fires of remorse and regret smoldered under the heavy lashes.

“You despise me!” exclaimed Ray Dering hoarsely. “Who can blame you? I, for one, do not. I am even glad I told you, for it made me restless, your kindness, when I knew I did not deserve it. I have sinned so deeply against you that your goodness has heaped coals of fire upon my head. I can only give you my miserable secrets, suspected by no one on earth before, except Annette, and thank you before we part.”

He scarcely expected anything but reproof and desertion, and cowered before the thought, for he had grown to love Dallas Bain, and coveted his good opinion; but the manliness within him would not permit him to claim it unworthily, so he bowed his head and waited sadly enough for the end.

“You call me your friend—you offer me your[Pg 188] hand, Dallas Bain—after what I have told you! Good heavens! I did not dream there was any man so noble!” cried Ray Dering, choking with emotion as he received the offered handclasp, adding: “I swear to you that this shall make a new man of me. I will deserve this confidence by some great deed that will condone the hateful past.”

“Your first step must be to control your jealous, fiery temper. He that is ruler over his own spirit is greater than a king.”

“Ah, Dallas, I am cured of all that madness, believe me. My spirit is crushed within me, and my remorse for the evil I have wrought is almost greater than I can bear. Think of my poor little love, Annette, unjustly accused and wounded, perhaps hating me in her heart, for which, indeed, I could not blame her, but must agree that she is right. Then, too, that poor fellow wounded unto death by my hand. Yet he never did me any harm. What if he dies? I shall be a wretched murderer!”

“Not die! Thank the good God who has spared[Pg 189] me that remorse! Then you have heard from Gull Beach?”

“Not directly, but through the newspapers. Of course, a man as rich as Royall Sherwood must get due attention from the press.”

“This: That poor Royall Sherwood is doomed to such a fate that even I, whom he has supplanted in Daisie’s heart; even I, whom he has robbed of the dearest treasure on earth, can afford to pity him. He will be a hopeless cripple for life. The shot in his back affected the spinal column, so that from his waist down he is hopelessly paralyzed—a lifelong wreck.”

“My God! And this was my fiendish work!” The man’s face sank on the window sill, his strong frame shook with remorseful sobs that did not shame his young manhood.

Dallas did not know how to offer any comfort[Pg 190] in the face of this remorse. The whole affair was, to him, very terrible.

He pitied Royall Sherwood with the greatness of a noble nature, forgiving all his own wrongs because of the other’s affliction.

For it seemed to him that the young man’s affliction was more cruel than death.

To have all the best gifts of life at command—youth, health, wealth, love—and to be struck down like this at one fell blow into worse than nothingness, to be looking into heaven, yet always lying outside the beautiful gates. Ah, what refinement of cruelty, what living torture!

Of her—his lost love, his bonny Daisie—lured from him by a hideous cheat, kept away by her pity and her sense of duty, a pitiful sacrifice to a cruel plot, he scarce dared think. That way lay madness.

So he did not know how to offer comfort to the broken man before him, crushed by remorse for his hideous sin.

“What must I do to atone?” groaned Ray. “Shall I go to him, confess my crime, and offer him my service through life, to make up for his loss?”

“My poor fellow, I do not think you can make it up to him. It is too great, and he will not need you. He is so rich he will not lack loving service. No, your part is to bear your cross in patience and to lead such a life hereafter that the blackness of past sins shall be blotted out in refulgent light.”

“Yes, and will try to help you to lead a new life. I am going to cross the sea next week. Will you come with me as my guest? I did not tell you I was English-born before—did I—though I have spent much time in America, for my mother is a native of this land. Well, come with me, and we will seek new scenes a while, to dull the pain in both our hearts. You will? That’s a good fellow! Your hand on it, Ray; we are true friends till death!”

The scene shifts from the quiet country under the low-hung October skies to New York, in the following March, when the crisp snow covered the ground, sparkling like jewels under the pallid electric lights.

A gentleman who read that want in an evening paper became so excited over it that he canceled an engagement for the opera to present himself that same evening at the Fifth Avenue mansion of the invalid.

The sleek servant who opened the door to him looked supercilious when he heard his errand.

“Really, you should ’ave waited till the mornin’,” he said, trying to hide an Irish brogue under an English accent. “Mrs. Sherwood is going hout to the opera, and me master does not see strangers.”

Mrs. Sherwood at that moment was in the library, bidding her husband good evening before she went out.

What a contrast there was between them—the man crouching there in his low-wheeled chair, wasted and worn with illness and a tortured mind, a helpless paralytic, and the beautiful bride in the bloom of youth and health, gowned in white silk and lace, her golden hair an aureole about her graceful head, the fire of diamonds girding her round white throat, pale roses breathing out perfume against her breast.

“Gods! How beautiful you are, my Daisie!” breathed the man, with a gesture of despair. “How I envy the men who will dance with you at the ball to-night!”

She fluttered into a chair beside him, putting her hand on his arm caressingly, as she cried:

“You forget your guest, who has set her heart on this grand function,” he replied, half longing to take her at her word.

“Why, Lutie will be glad to chaperon Annette,[Pg 194] and bring her home after the ball,” cried Daisie.

“But I know what Lutie would say—that I am a selfish wretch, and don’t want my wife to go out and enjoy herself. Others will say the same. And it is true, I know. I am jealous, and selfish, and wretched, and miserable—oh, more miserable than words can tell!” wildly.

“Let me stay with you to-night, Royall, and charm away this gray mood. Indeed, I’m not anxious about the opera. And you used to be happier, didn’t you, when I stayed by you more, and didn’t go into society so much?”

“Yes, yes; but Lutie said it was a shame, that the confinement was breaking you down, and you were as pale as a lily and as patient as an angel. No, no—I must not be selfish. You must not neglect your social duties, as Lutie says.”

“Ah, there is the bell! She has come!” exclaimed Daisie, starting up, for she and her friend were to be Mrs. Fleming’s guests at an opera party that night.

“Tell Lutie to come in and show me her new gown,” Royall said, dreading to be left to his loneliness.

Daisie swept out into the hall, where her obsequious maid was waiting to throw the white opera cloak over her shoulders, and thus she interrupted the colloquy between Patrick and the caller, catching enough of the conversation to understand its import.

“Show the gentleman in, Patrick. I have time to see him,” she exclaimed, leading the way to a reception room.

She saw that the caller was a very fine-looking man—young, tall, handsome, clean-shaven, and wearing protecting glasses over penetrating dark eyes.

“I am Reed Raymond, madam, and I called in answer to your ad in the evening paper,” he said, with a very courtly bow.

“It is fortunate you came at this time, for my husband feels very dull this evening,” she answered, adding: “It is for him a companion is desired. He is a helpless cripple, who chafes always against his fate, and I must own that at times he is a most irritable person. But who could blame him—condemned to so sad an existence in the bloom of manhood! What he needs is[Pg 196] a bright, cheerful young man, cultured, acquainted with the world.”

“I can furnish unexceptionable references from Lord Werter, with whom I have traveled the past five months,” the handsome applicant assured the lady.

“I think I will introduce you to—my husband, as he, after all, will be the one to decide on your availability,” said Daisie, rising and motioning the young man to come.

He bowed, and followed her into the hall, thinking to himself that she was certainly the rarest beauty that had ever dawned on his horizon.

“How cruel to lose such a woman! No wonder!” he was thinking, when his eyes were arrested by another vision of beauty, trailing down the grand staircase toward him—no less a person than Annette Janowitz, sparkling, radiant, in rose-pink satin and pearls.

“I am all ready, Daisie, dear!” she cried, in her musical young voice, and the listener reeled backward against the wall, with his hand upon his heart.

“I beg pardon—it is nothing. I am—subject—to slight spasms of the heart.”

And he staggered on with her into the library, not daring to glance back at the radiant vision on the stairway, while he groaned to himself:

“Who would have thought of meeting her here? Yet now I remember that Dallas Bain once told me she was Daisie Bell’s dearest friend.”

“Come, Annette, let us follow, and see if he will suit Royall,” cried the volatile little widow, snatching Annette’s hand and dragging her along.

“Mrs. Fleming, Miss Janowitz, Mr. Raymond,” said Daisie, and they all bowed formally, the gentleman[Pg 198] standing at the back of Royall’s chair, superb in manly dignity.

“Stunning!” whispered the widow to Annette. But the young girl had grown suddenly very pale and still. She waited silently, her bosom heaving under its pearls, her eyes downcast beneath their jetty fringes, until Mrs. Fleming tittered:

“Well, we must be going, girls. Ta, ta, Royall; so glad you like my new Paris gown. You must try to exist without Daisie a few hours, will you?”

He threw her a bitter smile, and Daisie waited to clasp his cold hand and kiss his brow, heedless of the stranger’s presence, ere she followed the others from the room.

“Is it not enough to make a man curse God to be the husband of so rare a creature, yet a helpless cripple from his bridal hour?”

“Yes, it was in all the papers last year, you[Pg 199] know. I have always felt the strangest sympathy for you, and if I can brighten one lonely hour, God knows I shall be glad.”

“I thank you. But do not think I am neglected. My wife has been all devotion, only her health could not bear the strain. She had to have some recreation, hence my wish for a companion. In fact, all three who have just left me have been angelic in their ministrations. My cousin, Mrs. Fleming, is untiring in her kindness. As for little Annette Janowitz, my wife’s dear friend, she is the kindest-hearted girl in the world. On the night I was shot she came to help Daisie and Lutie nurse me. She was as kind as a sister. When the doctor said I would live, she wept for joy. A week later, when the first hope of recovery was wrecked by my sudden shock of paralysis, she was inconsolable. She cried out that it must not be so, God would not be so cruel; and in her excitability she almost went into hysterics. She remained for weeks, and when her mother insisted on her coming home, we all missed her like a dear little sister. But since then we have her often with us, and her sympathy is very sweet and dear. She has been with us now a month, and Daisie[Pg 200] says she has become a great belle and has many lovers.”

“Does—she show—any preference for any?” Reed Raymond asked, in a voice that was husky in spite of his efforts to make it careless.

“I do not know about that. But why are you standing all this while, my dear fellow? Sit down, and let us be sociable. Will you smoke?” ringing the bell. “Wine and cigars, Pierre,” to the attendant. “And now, do you really think you want to be my companion?”

“I wish it, above all things, Mr. Sherwood. Stern necessity forces me to apply for this place, and if you accept my services I shall do my best to deserve your patronage, believe me.”

“I have been a companion for Lord Werter several months, in fact, traveled with him all over the world, arriving in New York only a few days ago, and he permits me to refer you to him as to my reliability.”

“I should fancy that your position with him is more tempting than this with me?” Royall asked tentatively.

“It was very pleasant. I am very fond of his lordship. But—I am weary of travel, and he is a nomad. I am an American, too, and prefer to settle down for a while in my native country,” Reed Raymond rejoined eagerly, in his anxiety for favorable consideration.

In his keen remorse for the evil he had wrought in madness, in his longing to expiate it, in so far as he could, by devotion to his victim, Ray Dering had decided on this step, and nothing could turn him aside from what he believed his duty.

By such disguise as the change of his name by a slight transposition, the shaving off of his luxuriant dark hair, and the adoption of eyeglasses, he felt himself safe from recognition by former friends, and his winning manners at once secured him the boon he craved.

Mrs. Hill-Dixon, the famous society leader of New York, was so proud of her titled cousin, Lord Werter, that she fastened him by metaphorical chains to her triumphal car, and dragged her cynical victim whithersoever she would.

It had been a little different in past days, when Dallas Bain paid several visits to America.

But when his elder and only brother was drowned in crossing the Channel last year, and Dallas Bain succeeded to the title of Lord Werter, and stood in direct succession to the earldom, oh, that was quite another thing—yes, indeed.

Dallas must be fêted and lionized now, although he said frankly that it went against the grain with him.

He might have told her as frankly that his good looks had won enough adulation from women already, and that he did not care for the surfeit he[Pg 203] would have now with his title and prospects added, but he did not wish to seem conceited. It was easier to give her her way for a few days, then to slip away when he grew too weary of the passing show.

But the second day after his arrival, when she was talking about the social queens, and mentioned Mrs. Royall Sherwood, he betrayed a sudden interest.

“The most beautiful and winning girl society has seen in years,” she said. “But at first some would have liked to put her down, you know, because she was only a poor girl—a New York teacher—though she looks like she was born to the purple. But, of course, her marriage to a Sherwood changed all that. And, really, Lutie Fleming stood by her grandly, and directly made her the fashion. I never liked the little widow, I own; but she has the true Sherwood grit, and never gives up what she sets her mind on. They say she helped Royall in his love affair, and he married the girl at her summer home down in Maryland last August. There was an awful tragedy about the case, you see, because Royall was shot in the grounds on his wedding night, by[Pg 204] a jealous rival, it is supposed, though it never could be traced directly to him. Well, the young husband did not die; but he had better, for he has been paralyzed ever since, waist downward, and lives in a roller chair.”

“Why, they say that she is quite touching in her tenderness, and did not leave him at all for months until her health failed under the strain. So they made her go out with the widow, and she seems very gay, only there is something in her face at times—in repose, you know—that hints at secret grief. And, no wonder, with her husband struck down, almost the same as dead, on their bridal night, and she, poor girl! wedded, but a maiden wife, watching his slow descent into the grave, with what torture who can tell!”

“It is supposed not. Poor fellow, it is such a shame! He used to be one of the best dancers in New York.”

“You will see his wife to-night, if you come[Pg 205] with me to see Calvé. Mrs. Fleming will have a box party that includes Daisie Sherwood and her guest, Miss Janowitz; and we will meet them at the Morton ball afterward, for they told me they were coming.”

Lord Werter resolved at first that he would not attend either of these functions, not caring to renew the impression Daisie made on him first under the drooping wistarias—that picture that was graven on his heart.

He hoped that time was effacing it now, since she was another’s wife; but insensibly there grew on him a wild longing to see her again.

He explained it to himself on the score of curiosity as to how she would look in the garb of wealth and fashion—beautiful Daisie, who had been irresistible in the simple white gown with lavender ribbons.

So he went with his cousin to hear Calvé, and in the opposite box he saw his old love sitting—Daisie, in her white silk and misty lace and costly jewels, and that crown of golden hair—golden hair that had once lain on his breast, in that time that seemed so far away. And people kept going in and out of the box to speak to the three[Pg 206] beauties; but he saw quickly that she attracted always the most admiration. She must enjoy it, too; for her face wore the most enchanting smiles, as if no care disturbed her mind.

“Yet she pretended that it grieved her to give me up. Was it not true? Has she forgotten so soon? Is she happy?” he mused angrily.

In his heart he was bitterly angry that she could be happy without him, though that was selfishness, he knew.

By and by he saw Mrs. Fleming looking over at their box, and the start she gave as she recognized him.

“What! a real live lord? Let me have a good look at him. Oh, dear me; he’s the living image of Dallas Bain! Do look, Daisie!”

Daisie looked, and Dallas met her glance and waited for recognition, but none came; and he[Pg 207] could not see how pale she grew as her eyes wavered and fell.

“Snubbed!” he said to himself indignantly; and it aroused the keenest anger in his breast. What had he done, that neither of the three would recognize him?

And, to add to his injury, Daisie never even looked at him again, though the eyes of the other two strayed to him often in wonder at his likeness to one they had known in the past.

He wondered cynically if Mrs. Fleming had got over her fancy for him as easily as Daisie seemed to have done.

“I will go to the Morton ball and see,” he resolved, in a spirit of audacity.

So, when the opera was over and they were in the crush of the ball, he asked the hostess for an introduction to Mrs. Fleming, and the little blonde beamed with delight when he asked her to dance.

“Lord Werter, I could not keep my eyes off you at the opera. You must have noticed it, and thought it strange. But I was almost certain you were an old friend of mine named Dallas Bain.[Pg 208] When Major Mays told me your name, I could hardly believe it,” she twittered.

So that explained her failure to bow? It lifted something from his heart; but he took a whim not to undeceive her yet, not to own his identity, to masquerade under his new splendor.

So he danced with the gay little widow, but his eyes wandered often to Daisie, who was Major Mays’ partner, and danced divinely. It vexed him that she would not even look at him, though she might have done that much for the sake of the likeness to her old love.

“She is heartless. Prosperity has spoiled her,” he thought bitterly, as he leaned against the wall and watched the clear-cut, smiling face so fair and flowerlike.

“She might have done me that poor grace, to remember a little while,” he muttered, in his pain.

Then it came to him what his cousin had said, that though she seemed to be gay, there was sometimes a strange sadness on her lovely face.

“Perhaps it is for me. She is playing a part, as I am,” he thought, with a quickened heart throb.

Mrs. Fleming made herself just as charming as she knew how; but she could not help seeing how his gaze wandered, and she exclaimed, with something like pique:

“The lady you are looking at is my cousin, Mrs. Royall Sherwood. Would you like to be presented?”

“Yes, thank you,” he replied, although he knew it was not wise to risk it. His heartache was too keen already.

Mrs. Fleming was secretly piqued, for she had fallen in love with Lord Werter as madly as she had loved Dallas Bain, and was determined to marry him if she could.

But she did not dread Daisie as a rival, for she knew the girl was too pure and honest to flirt, so when the dance was over she led the handsome young nobleman over, and presented him to her cousin.

Daisie had been watching them furtively, and she was sure in her heart that it was Dallas Bain.

Her heart grew hot within her as she thought of the indignity he had put upon her in his elopement with Mrs. Fleming’s silly maid, Letty.

Daisie saw them coming, and braced herself for the rencontre. She was determined he should not see her flinch.

Stately as a young princess, and cold as ice, she received him, and he could not but admire her perfect self-poise and grace, though he wondered at such a reception.

“She knows me—her heart is not deceived. Then why not give me a kinder welcome?” he thought, not knowing of the false stories she had been told to turn her heart against him.

“Where is Letty? Did he really marry her? And why is he masquerading under a false title?”

Fortunately for the embarrassment of the occasion, Annette’s partner brought her back at that moment to her chaperons, and Mrs. Fleming, with an air of proprietorship, presented Lord Werter.

Annette flashed her great black eyes at him[Pg 211] with so friendly a smile that he took refuge with her at once from the hauteur of Daisie’s manner.

“Will you dance with me?” he asked; and the gay little brunette, seeing a chance to tease the jealous little widow, replied carelessly:

“Oh, dear, no; I’ve almost danced my slippers off already. But I’ll sit out the next waltz with you in the conservatory.”

“You are looking tired yourself, my dear, and as pale as if you had seen a ghost. It is wonderful, is it not, that man’s likeness to Dallas Bain?”

“But we had better not mention it to Royall, poor fellow; for I think he is still jealous of the very memory of Dallas Bain.”

“He need not be!” Daisie cried, with a flash of spirit. “My husband need never be jealous of the man who could stoop to elope with your maid!”

But she knew that her whole soul was shaken to its depths by this rencontre. Oh, those dark, dark eyes, how their glance could wound and dazzle still! How that smile could thrill her very soul!

“I’m glad you have learned to despise him! Of course, he wasn’t worth a thought of yours; and it was fortunate you married Royall and escaped him, wasn’t it? I wonder what became of him, though, and if he really married Letty.”

“The subject is not worth discussing,” Daisie returned, with her loftiest air.

Meanwhile, Annette, sitting out the waltz in the cool, odorous conservatory with her elegant partner, exclaimed artlessly:

“Do you know it gave us all quite a start when we saw you to-night at the opera? You are so like a gentleman we met at Gull Beach last summer.”

“Mrs. Fleming has been telling me the same thing, and I am very curious over my double. Tell me about him, do,” said Lord Werter, fixing his large, magnetic, dark eyes on her brilliant face, and smiling his most persuasive smile.

“I am very curious to hear about my double,” repeated Lord Werter; and then she blurted out:

“It will not flatter you to hear the truth about Dallas Bain. He—he turned out badly.”

“Why, he—he eloped with Mrs. Fleming’s maid, a pert little wretch, and—and Daisie and I had to help her do up her hair for a week before she got another girl to suit.”

“Oh, yes; it’s the honest truth, Lord Werter. He was Mrs. Fleming’s guest, and flirted with the maid. And on the night Daisie married Mr. Sherwood he eloped with Letty Green. Oh, yes; it’s true. They were seen to board the New York train just before daylight. Besides, the girl left a note to her old beau, a servant at Sea View, confessing the truth, and saying Mr. Bain was going to marry her in New York. So, you see,[Pg 214] your double was no credit to you, and——Why, Lord Werter, are you angry at my nonsense, or are you ill? Your face is as pale as a dead man’s, and your eyes are like fire. What is the matter with you?”

It was no wonder that Annette cried out in alarm, for a most startling change had come over the handsome face of Lord Werter.

His splendid dark eyes fairly blazed with indignation, and his face went death-white, while his whole frame trembled with emotion.

“Yes; but I did not expect that it would affect a stranger so greatly,” the young girl returned significantly.

“Yes—by your emotion—of being Dallas Bain himself,” she returned frankly.

“I am very much surprised,” she owned; adding: “Royall Sherwood tried to make every one believe you were a nobody.”

“That was my fault. Just for a whim, I kept up a mystery over my past, and, of course, he thought I had something to hide. Then I fell in love with Daisie Bell and wanted to win her on my own merits.”

“And you did. She loved you madly!” cried Annette, but she added: “It nearly broke her heart, I know, when you ran away with Letty Green.”

“But I did not run away with Letty Green. There is some terrible mistake here. It is not possible that she—that Daisie—believed it?”

“There was no room for doubt,” said Annette; and, between eager questions and answers, he presently knew the whole story of that night and day, whose adverse influences had goaded Daisie Bell into acquiescence with the fate that had made her Royall Sherwood’s wife.

Then he told his own story of the letter Daisie had sent him that night by the maid.

“She did not send that letter,” Annette assured him; and he said, with bitter anger:

“Then we were both the victims of a dastardly plot. Who was the instigator?”

“I cannot tell. Of course, Royall Sherwood was much benefited by it; but in his almost dying condition it was not possible for him to carry it out.”

“I have heard that his loving cousin, Mrs. Fleming, helped him with his marriage. Doubtless this was her way.”

“I do not know for certain; but I believe that you are right,” acquiesced the young girl; but she added: “Daisie stood firm against everything until Royall had that sinking spell, and even the doctor believed he was dying. Then she yielded for pity’s sake. We all persuaded her, I don’t deny it. But I always stood your friend until that night.”

“I know that, and I thank you,” he said; and was rising when she put out her hand to arrest him.

“Oh, for pity’s sake!” she cried, seizing his arm, and gently forcing him back into his seat.

“But I shall not make a scene. I shall tell her quietly, before that wicked woman’s face, how we both have been deceived.”

Annette’s face became like a rose at his angry exclamation, but she repeated again, low and firmly:

“I say that I will!” the angry young man exclaimed, endeavoring to go; but he could not break away without rudeness from the white, jeweled hand that grasped his arm.

“Wait! Let us talk it over first!” entreated the girl, and most unwillingly he assented, for he was wild with anger, and eager to remove from Daisie’s mind the false impression that had turned her heart against him.

“What is to be gained by telling poor Daisie the truth? She is already Royall Sherwood’s wife. Nothing can alter that.”

It was true, and the realization of it forced a stifled groan from his pallid lips.

The majority of people thought that Annette Janowitz was only a pretty, frivolous girl, with not an idea in her head beyond dressing and flirting; but she showed herself to be very sensible in her advice to the angry lover.

“I want you to consider Daisie now, and not yourself. She believes now that you are a wretch, unworthy her love and confidence.”

“But yes, she shall; for, Lord Werter, it would but make our poor Daisie more unhappy to tell her the truth.”

“I will tell you the truth, for it is your due. Daisie is bitterly unhappy—yes, I know it, for I am her confidante—and her only comfort is in feeling that she acted for the best in everything;[Pg 220] that she saved Royall’s life by staying with him, and that she had a lucky escape in not marrying such a wretch as you are supposed to be.”

“If she learned the cruel truth—that she was duped into the marriage, and that you were loyal all the while—I believe that her heart would break with the agony of the knowledge.”

“My poor lost love!” he sighed; and his grief for her seemed even greater than his own.

He remembered how dearly she had loved him, how she had clung to him the night of their parting. And the cruel woman whose prattling had forced them asunder, he cursed her in his heart.

“If you could see Royall Sherwood, who won her from you, in the desolation and hopelessness of his life, in his secret, jealous pain over Daisie, I believe you could find it in your heart to pity him,” exclaimed Annette, with tears in her brilliant eyes.

“Then have mercy on him and on her—the girl you love. Keep this miserable secret, that could[Pg 221] but add to their misery, and leave them in peace!” she implored.

“Yes; for both their sakes. Some day, when he is dead, poor fellow!”—she shuddered as with a chill—“let the truth come out, take Daisie, and be happy.”

“I am not waiting for dead men’s shoes; and he may live to be an old man.”

“You would not think so, if you could see what a wreck he is—so wasted and worn that you would scarcely know him again.”

“You seem to have a great sympathy for him,” Lord Werter said, guessing perhaps at its source, from what Ray Dering had told him.

“Yes,” Annette answered, and her lips trembled with the sob that ached in her throat for the poor victim of her lover’s jealous wrath.

“Oh,” she thought distressfully, “he is to blame for the misery of all these lives. How will he ever atone to offended Heaven?”

Suddenly she realized that she had been monopolizing Lord Werter for more than an hour, and[Pg 222] that people would be thinking she was a most outrageous flirt.

“I dare not detain you longer!” she exclaimed. “But how can I let you go without your promise of silence—for Daisie’s sake?”

“It almost seems to me that it would make her happier to know that I was true and loyal all the while,” he answered bravely.

“No, no; it could but torture her with a hopeless regret. It were wiser, better to keep her in the dark. ‘Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.’”

“You are a woman. You should know best,” said Lord Werter, with a mirthless smile of consent; and she exclaimed gladly:

“Thank you, and may God bless you. I know you will never regret this promise.”

“I am not so sure of that,” he answered, sighing; though he added: “But my word is given, and the motto of our house is Toujours fidèle.”

“I must go back to my chaperon now. I dare say Mrs. Fleming will scold me for monopolizing the lion of the hour.”

“And must I—be civil to that woman?” he exclaimed, with a man’s horror of duplicity.

“Yes; you must be very clever, and not let her know I have betrayed her—especially do not let her trap you into an admission of your identity,” cautioned Annette anxiously.

“And I hope you will be going away from New York soon. It would be very embarrassing to have you about long.”

“I shall not promise you that, my little friend, for now that I know Daisie Bell was true to me, I shall like to remain near her for a little while to gladden my eyes with a sight of her beauty. And to do this I shall wish to be very friendly with you, Miss Janowitz, so that I may sometimes call on you at Mrs. Sherwood’s house.”

“Oh, but that would be very wrong. Please do[Pg 224] not!” she exclaimed. But all her entreaties were of no use.

“You may trust my honor that she shall not find me out!” was all he would say.

When he led her back to Daisie, Mrs. Fleming was dancing, and he was glad he did not have to encounter the wicked little schemer yet until he was calmer and could act the part he had set for himself.

How his heart thrilled as he met the gaze of Daisie again, and he gave her such a penetrating look that she blushed in confusion! Poor Daisie, who could not help her heart from beating faster, though her manner to him was cold as ice.

They went home presently, and Annette soon found from Mrs. Fleming’s manner that she was both angry and jealous because of her long stay in the conservatory. This only amused her, and she said saucily:

“Really, I couldn’t get away any sooner! I declare, I have made quite an impression on his lordship, and he is going to call on me to-morrow!”

It is quite safe to say that Annette’s slumbers after the ball were not very peaceful. The startling events of the evening banished repose.

For one thing, she had instantly recognized in Mr. Sherwood’s companion, Reed Raymond, her old lover, Ray Dering.

She was at a loss to know why he had entered the house on that footing, and she leaped to the angry conclusion that in his mad jealousy of her he had done so to spy upon her actions.

Anger and resentment filled her outraged heart, and she determined to seek an interview with him on the morrow, and threaten to denounce him to his victim unless he took leave.

Then, too, the reappearance of Dallas Bain upon the scene filled her with anxiety.

The startling discovery of the mysterious plot to separate Dallas and Daisie filled her with dismay when she contemplated what effect it would produce if it became known to the latter.

That the young girl was already most unhappy, she knew. She doubted not the knowledge of the truth would drive her to despair.

She was certain that it would cause an unalienable rupture between Daisie and Mrs. Fleming, and what part in it Royall Sherwood must play she could not conjecture. That it could only result in added unhappiness to the wedded pair she knew.

So she had done what she believed the wisest thing in persuading Lord Werter to suffer his wrongs in silence for his old love’s sake.

But the failure of her effort to get him to leave New York filled her with alarm.

While he remained there and chose to seek the society of the girl he loved, and of whom he had been so cruelly cheated, she could not tell what would happen.

But Lord Werter was obdurate in his refusal to go, and she could not force his obedience.

“Oh, what a muddle it all is! I do not know where to turn for comfort!” sobbed the poor girl; and her pillow was wet with tears when she sank into troubled sleep, so that her eyes were heavy[Pg 227] and her cheek pale when she entered the breakfast room next morning.

She found Daisie and Mr. Sherwood, with his new companion, already waiting; but as the latter was entertaining them with some witty narration of an event of foreign travel, they did not seem impatient.

She bowed a subdued good morning to all, and was very quiet when they took their places at the table with Reed Raymond for her vis-à-vis.

She did not speak to him, did not notice him, and he comprehended with trouble that he was recognized.

“What does she mean to do? That icy demeanor is ominous and threatening. Oh, if I had guessed she was here I should never have presented myself under this roof,” he thought, with alarm, and just then Royall Sherwood exclaimed banteringly:

“Doubtless she is thinking of the grand conquest she made last night—the new social lion, Lord Werter.”

Annette had another surprise, so great that she almost fell out of her chair. Ray Dering, the companion for five months of Dallas Bain, whom in his jealousy he had sworn to kill! What could it mean?

In her surprise she could not help flashing him one swift look of wonder, and caught, in return, through the young man’s glasses, a look of such sorrowful deprecation that she was more and more mystified.

Royall’s spirits seemed brighter than usual this morning, perhaps owing to the cheerful influence of his new friend, and as he trifled with the dainty viands on his plate, he kept up the conversation with Annette, plying her with questions about her conquest.

Annette blushed again, and Daisie, who seemed quite gay this morning, interposed:

“If you had been there you would have thought so. They were together an hour or more in the conservatory, and Lutie and all the other women were madly jealous.”

“Lord Werter is a prize worth winning,” Reed Raymond remarked, joining in the conversation. “For himself alone any woman might love him, for his nature is most noble and winning, and his standard of honor the highest. His rent roll is twenty thousand a year, and his accession to the earldom when his father dies will make him one of the wealthiest peers in the realm.”

Then surely she had made a mistake in suspecting that the handsome nobleman was Dallas Bain himself, masquerading under a spurious title.

Yes, she had made a grave mistake, and acted almost rudely toward Lord Werter, under the angry[Pg 230] assumption that he was her old lover, the unworthy Dallas Bain.

She crimsoned with mortification at the remembrance of her icy hauteur to the unconscious young man, and resolved to make amends by real cordiality when he came to call on Annette.

“I am so interested in this wonderful Lord Werter that I intend to be present when he calls on Annette, so that I may cultivate his acquaintance.”

Annette’s fluttering heart sank to the heels of her little French slippers as she thought:

“Heaven forbid the acquaintance! For he could scarcely help from recognizing his old rival. And what then?”

Poor Annette’s thoughts were nothing but a jumble of what thens; for all her recently acquired knowledge made her heart very heavy.

Perhaps Reed Raymond also felt rather alarmed at the prospect of Lord Werter’s call, but he made no sign. He could only trust to the discretion of Dallas Bain, and he did not believe it would fail him in his hour of need.

As was usual in the household, Daisie spent the[Pg 231] hour after breakfast alone with her husband in a pleasant morning room, giving him an account of her evening’s pleasures, so Annette braced herself to “have it out,” as she phrased it, at once with the offending companion.

When breakfast was over she assumed a saucy air to mislead her companions, and exclaimed:

“Mr. Raymond, I wonder if you are a good accompanist. I want to try some new songs this morning; but Mr. Sherwood will monopolize his wife for several hours, so I must beg you to become her substitute.”

“I am at your service, Miss Janowitz,” he replied, with a slight tremor in his rich voice, and followed her to the music room.

Then the valet came to wheel him into the morning room for the precious hour with Daisie; and while she tells him of last night’s pleasures, and asks him if he spent a comfortable night, and if he is not greatly pleased with Mr. Raymond, we will follow the other couple to their interview in the music room.

Annette kept up the pretense of her request at first, and soon Daisie and Royall heard their voices chiming very sweetly together in one of the latest songs of the day—not a sentimental one, though, for at first she could not trust herself to that.

It made her heart ache to hear their voices mingling together so sweetly, as in old days when they had been true lovers, ere his jealous madness parted them forever, and she wondered how he felt over this strange meeting—this singing, that was just a farce to lead up to something serious.

Yet it was perilously sweet to her heart, although she told herself she hated him for that little crimson scar on her white breast, the witness of his attempted crime. It was not his fault that she was alive this moment, instead of lying in a grassy little grave with “Annette, ætat 18,” carved on the marble above her dreamless head.

With that thought, Annette steeled her heart, that had been softening in spite of her anger, and suddenly exclaimed:

“I know you, Ray Dering, and my asking you to accompany me in my songs was just a pretext[Pg 233] to secure an interview with you. Now that we have fooled the others, we can talk a while.”

His white hands fell with a crash from the piano keys, and he was about to spring up; but she added:

“Sit still; it will look more natural thus if any one comes in. I can stand here and say what I wish.”

His handsome face whitened and his glance sought hers, full of remorse and pain as he cried:

“Annette, there is but one word I can say to you all my life long hereafter, and that is, ‘Forgive! forgive!’”

“And you would say it in vain!” she breathed stormily. “Do you think I can forgive you that you tried to kill me? Or, if I could forgive that, since I was fortunate enough to escape your murderous fury, could I forgive you for the blighting of Royall Sherwood’s life?”

“Do you think I did not guess the truth—that you made a mistake, and wreaked your fury on[Pg 234] Royall Sherwood instead of Dallas Bain, of whom you were mistakenly jealous? Remember, you had threatened me you would kill him.”

He made no answer, and the sorrowful droop of his dark head attested his remorse and repentance.

“What I wish to ask you is, why did you thrust yourself into this home, whose inmates would shrink from you in loathing did they guess the fatal truth? Was it to spy upon my actions? How dare you, when you are nothing to me—nothing but an abhorred memory I would fain banish!”

“I did not know you were here, Annette, or I should never have presumed to enter the house, believe me,” he murmured, low and deprecatingly, his very soul reeling before her wrath and scorn.

Had she ever dreamed of seeing that dark head, once so proud and erect, bowed so low with shame and sorrow and repentance? It touched her even in her anger, and she said, a shade more gently:

“Then why are you here at all? Can it be a pleasure to you to look on the suffering you have caused?”

“A pleasure! Oh, God!” and his husky voice almost broke as he continued: “Let me speak; let me tell you my real motive, and then you will see that I am not quite a fiend!”

Without waiting for her permission, he went on with his reasons in such an eloquent voice that she could not doubt his truth.

“Do you think it does not stab me to the heart to look on my accursed work? Do you think I am so vile I cannot repent and wish to expiate the deed by a life’s devotion? Yes, I am a changed man, Annette. My former madness would not be possible to me now. I am a crushed and broken man, sin-stricken, sorrowful, repentant. I wish to devote my life to Royall Sherwood, so as to alleviate as far as possible the sufferings I have caused. Could remorse and repentance further go? I ask nothing of you or any one but the privilege to remain near him and give up the best that is in me for his comfort. Will you grant me that longed-for boon?”

“Yes,” she murmured, very low; then added: “But you and I, Ray Dering, must meet hereafter as the careless strangers we appear to our friends.”

“Oh, yes; I understand all that. I shall not presume, believe me, although,” with stifled bitterness, “there might be women tender enough to forgive even such sins as mine when a man was driven mad by love of them.”

“I am not one of them,” Annette answered, with cruel frankness. “You were not worthy of my love; you distrusted it, and now it lies cold and dead in my bosom, never to awake again!”

“I deserve your contempt and scorn. I cannot resent it,” he answered humbly; adding: “And you were noble enough to keep my secret. It was great in you. Let me thank you.”

“I did it because—I had loved you once!” she murmured, hastily leaving him to his own unpleasant reflections.

That afternoon the sun came out as bright and warm as in April, and tempted Daisie and Annette to go out for a spin on their bicycles.

“And let us call for Lutie. Perhaps she will like to join us,” said Daisie, who had grown almost fond of the deceitful little widow who had chosen to be very kind to her since her treachery had succeeded so well.

As they pedaled along on their shining wheels, both so beautiful, though as different as night and morning in their dark and light types, they attracted much attention and admiration; but their thoughts were too busy with recent events to notice it. Daisie seemed to be charmed over the knowledge that her afflicted husband had secured so suitable a companion.

“He will have no more lonely hours now, with this delightful man to amuse him. Oh, what a burden it lifts from my mind!” she cried gladly.

“I love Royall as a friend or a brother—that is all; but I pity him so—I pity him so!” she sighed.

“Perhaps, if he should grow strong and well, some time you might learn to love him as a husband?”

A sudden pallor drifted over the blooming face, flushed by the exercise of wheeling.

“I—I—am afraid not,” Daisie answered sadly; adding: “Oh, Annette, all my love was given once, and thrown back upon my heart! After such a shock I can never love again.”

And her thoughts flew back in anguish to that night when she had been so cruelly sundered from Dallas Bain by the plotting of Royall and his cousin—plotting that she never could have forgiven had it not been proved to her afterward that Dallas Bain was unworthy of her love.

Oh, the bitterness of that knowledge! Could she ever forget the anguish of the first days after she woke to the truth—the crushing struggle between love and pride—the humiliation of knowing[Pg 239] that he had deserted her for silly, chattering Letty, Mrs. Fleming’s servant?

As they wheeled around the corner, toward Mrs. Fleming’s elegant brownstone mansion, they came face to face with a man loitering on the corner as if waiting for some one, and—the man was James Cullen!

Yes, it was Mrs. Fleming’s old servant, whom no one had heard of since he left Sea View, swearing that he would find Letty and her lover, and kill them both.

Impulsively Daisie flung herself from her wheel, Annette following her example, and beckoned the man to approach.

He slouched toward them sullenly, looking as if he had far rather run away. He was well dressed, in a loud, flashy style, with rings on his stubby fingers, and a thick gold watch chain ostentatiously paraded across his plaid vest.

“How do you do, Cullen? I’m glad to find you looking so prosperous. Did—did—you ever find Letty Green?” demanded Daisie breathlessly.

Cullen turned red and pale by turns, and[Pg 240] shuffled his feet confusedly, giving a rapid, furtive glance down the street toward Mrs. Fleming’s mansion; then he blurted out eagerly:

With that, he turned quickly from them, and hurried around the corner, losing himself in the crowds on Fifth Avenue.

“The man looked as if he were lying!” exclaimed Annette, as they remounted their wheels.

A few more turns brought them to the widow’s house, and, to their amazement, they saw Letty Green coming down the marble steps, gayly dressed, and looking quite as prosperous as Cullen, a look of satisfaction on her pert little face.

Daisie and Annette looked at each other with a vague suspicion in their eyes, and the latter cried, in a troubled voice:

But again Daisie sprang from her wheel in front of the approaching girl, exclaiming sharply:

“Letty, we saw Cullen waiting for you at the corner. So you married him, after all?”

Imposed on by the quietly assertive tone, and supposing Cullen had confessed the truth, Letty answered falteringly:

“And,” pursued Daisie gaspingly, her face death-white, “perhaps—perhaps—you didn’t elope with Mr. Bain—after all. It—it—was a lie you wrote to Cullen, was it not?”

“Come away, Daisie,” pleaded Annette; but she shook off the gentle hand impatiently.

“Answer me,” she said imploringly, to Letty, a wild hope springing in her tortured heart. “Did you go away with—him—or not?”

But falsehood was written on her face and in[Pg 242] her eyes that she dare not uplift to the girl she had wronged.

“Then where is he now? Why are you with Cullen instead of——” Her voice broke with emotion, and the crafty Letty rejoined meekly:

“Oh, Mrs. Sherwood, can’t you understand? He—that Dallas Bain, was a—betrayer of innocence! After he persuaded me to go away he wouldn’t marry me. He got tired of me in a month, and then he disappeared, the wretch! Then I was starving—I tried to find him, but I could not, and I was going to drown myself when I chanced to meet Cullen, who had come to the city to look for me—to kill me, as he said. But my misery melted his heart. He forgave me, and agreed to make an honest woman of me if I would behave myself. So I married him, the good, kind soul, and—oh, there he is waiting for me now. Excuse me, ladies;” and Letty darted away to join her husband, who had sneaked back to the corner.

Annette felt like a criminal before her friend that she did not cry out that Letty’s story was a falsehood, that Dallas Bain was true and good,[Pg 243] and that his sweetheart had been lured away from him by the most dastardly plot in the world.

She could have wept as she saw the white agony of Daisie’s face—poor Daisie, whose springing hopes had been so cruelly dashed to earth again, for it did not occur to her to cast doubt on Letty’s specious story.

But again Annette said to herself that in this case ignorance was bliss. She dare not speak, for Daisie’s own sake.

But she put her arm around the girl’s trembling form and supported her up the steps.

“Oh, my poor dear, you are almost fainting! I wish you had not spoken to that hussy!” she lamented.

“No; she has seen Cullen and his wife, Letty, outside your door,” explained Annette, as she held Daisie’s head against her breast and patted her cold cheek.

“No wonder she is unnerved, poor child!” she[Pg 244] said. “I suppose they told you their romantic story—that Mr. Bain deserted Letty, and Cullen found her about to drown herself, and married her offhand. Well, this is the second time that they have come here begging to be taken back into my service. Of course, I refused, although they were very good help when I had them. But I knew Daisie would not wish to see them about. Drink a little of this wine, dear, it will help you. Now, tell me how Royall likes his new companion. Finds him charming, does he? I am very glad of that. He is very handsome and distinguished-looking, is he not? Do you know there is something familiar about him, as if I had seen him before? And it almost seems to me it was at Gull Beach? Can you recall anything familiar about him, Annette?”

Mrs. Fleming was not looking straight at Annette when she asked her question, or she would have seen a deep crimson mount to the young girl’s brow as she answered evasively:

“Perhaps it was only my fancy that I had seen him before,” Mrs. Fleming answered carelessly, dismissing the subject—in which, indeed, she took but little interest, her anxious fears being centered on the alarming rencounter of Daisie with the Cullens.

She was terrified at the thought of her finding out at this late day the wicked part she had played in estranging her from Dallas Bain.

And yet she knew that it was possible, and even highly probable, that Daisie might become acquainted with her treachery at no distant day.

It had taken a large bribe—no less a price than enough money to marry on and set up housekeeping[Pg 246] in New York—to induce Cullen and Letty to carry out the hasty plot she had formed on the night when Royall’s accident had made it possible to summon Daisie to his side and keep her there. Mrs. Fleming had paid the pair a thousand dollars; but she did not regret it, seeing that such success had crowned her efforts.

She had succeeded in parting Daisie and Dallas—a glorious triumph for a woman who loved the latter as madly as she did, and she did not despair of meeting him at some future time and winning him yet.

In the meantime, it was part of her policy to make friends with Daisie, and, after overcoming the girl’s first natural resentment over the part she had played in marrying her to Royall, she found it easy to do. Poor Daisie was so sad and lonely with her wounded heart, in the midst of her new splendor of wealth and place, that she could not repulse any offered kindness.

So an intimacy, if not a real friendship, grew up between the pair, and she was loath to have it broken off now by the risk that confronted her in the attitude of her whilom maid and her rapacious husband.

Spoiled by the taste of wealth, the pair had begun a system of blackmail that threatened to bankrupt the lady if permitted to continue.

In vain she offered to take both of them back into her employ and pay the most liberal wages; they had grown too high and mighty to work, and intended to be furnished with ample means to pursue a life of idleness and luxury.

They threatened to betray the whole thing to Daisie unless she complied with their insistent demands.

After a stormy scene this morning with Letty, in which she had been remorselessly mulcted of several hundred dollars, it was most embarrassing to find that Daisie had just met the pair outside, and that only her payment of the money had prevented the injured girl from finding out the whole truth.

She knew that Letty would return ere long for more money, and that her persecution would never cease while the pair lived.

“Oh, I wish they would drop dead this day! I wish the trolley cars would run them down and kill both the wretches!” she thought vindictively.

She was thoroughly frightened and angry, too,[Pg 248] at having to lose so much money, and she took a sudden resolution to confess everything to Royall, and get his advice.

After all, Royall had profited more than she had by the successful plot. He had won Daisie for his wife, but she had lost Dallas Bain, for whom she had dared and risked so much. Almost seven months had flown, and she had never heard of him again since he had left Gull Beach in the gray dawn, driven away by her cruel scheming. He might be dead and buried, for all she knew.

And for all her beauty and pride and wealth, no one need have envied Lutie Fleming, she was secretly so unhappy over the aching pain of her wild and hopeless love.

True, the meeting last night with Lord Werter had turned her thoughts in his direction; but she did not really suspect his identity with the man she loved, despite the wonderful likeness. It was no wonder, for she had been accustomed to think of Dallas as poor and obscure, tutored thereto by Royall Sherwood.

But the fact remained that she could have found consolation very quickly with Lord Werter, had she been given the chance; but Annette[Pg 249] Janowitz appeared to her in the light of a dangerous rival.

So her mood of to-day was certainly not a pleasant one, and the temptation came to her to seek consolation in her troubles by sharing them with her Cousin Royall. It was only fair that he should bear his part, especially in paying the price of the deception, since he had profited by it more than she had done.

So when the girls told her what a bright, sunny day it was, and how the warm sun had melted away all the snow in the streets, and begged her to go wheeling with them, she readily consented, saying she would like to go and see Royall about some tiresome business.

Donning her becoming bicycle suit, the pretty blonde joined them on their pleasant spin, and they remained out for something over an hour, when an increasing chilliness in the air warned them that the treacherous spring weather was not to be depended on for long.

They had had many such pleasant trips together last fall, but this one stayed in their memory[Pg 250] ever afterward. They remembered it so well, because it seemed like the calm before the storm, like the last bright gleam of day before the gloom of night.

“Lutie, you may stay and talk to Royall while I go upstairs to change my dress,” said Daisie, when they had gone in to see her husband, and found him very bright and animated, listening to his companion’s spicy reading of some political news.

Mrs. Fleming beamed on Reed Raymond presently with her kindest smile, and observed:

“If you have been cooped up here all day with Royall, you had better go out for a stroll and some fresh air while I amuse him.”

He thanked her, and went, deciding that he would call on Lord Werter and tell him how well he was succeeding in his mission.

Mrs. Fleming chatted on indifferent subjects a while longer, then cautiously led up to the subject nearest her heart, and presently blurted it all out to her silent, startled listener.

“Oh, Royall, forgive me for telling you! but I could not bear the burden any longer.”

“I am not finding fault with you, Lutie; it’s too late for that; and the burden must have been heavy on your conscience as well as your purse. But you must not have that expense any longer.”

“You mean you will help to bear the expense of their extortions—that we cannot put the wretches off?”

“No; we dare not incense them. It is worth the whole of my fortune to keep this thing from Daisie. The Cullens must be paid to keep the secret still. When they come again, draw on me for the amount of their demands; and you must let me reimburse you, Lutie, for all you have spent.”

“No, only just; for, as you say, I am the only one who profited by your treachery. It won sweet Daisie for me, my peerless wife. Ah, Lutie, you do not dream how madly I love her, and how[Pg 252] I dream of winning her love in return when I get well!”

“No; it is only sweet womanly pity. I would like to cheat my heart with the thought that it is love, but I know better. She does not try to deceive me. It is the tenderness of a sister she lavishes on me. What better could I expect, helpless cripple that I am? But I still have hopes of recovering, Lutie. I am trying every eminent doctor that I can hear of; and when I am restored to health and strength again—you know I was a handsome man once, Lutie—then surely, surely she will give me her heart.”

It was the same hope that had possessed him from the hour that Daisie Bell had first dawned on his vision, in her innocent, girlish beauty—the longing to win her for his own.

To accomplish this he had stooped to every treacherous art that could beguile her from her preference for another. He had succeeded in a fashion; she wore his name and his jewels. She had been tricked into that much by a hideous lie; but the craving of his heart was not yet satisfied. Her love was yet to win.

“We had better change the subject now. She will be coming down presently, poor, deceived darling!”

Alas! neither one of them had remembered the pretty little alcove divided from the library only by heavy silken curtains, where there was a cozy divan at the pleasure of the indolently inclined.

Daisie had come down long ago—almost immediately after Reed Raymond went out; but the heaviness of heart that had seized on her after meeting the Cullens made her disinclined for conversation just yet. She slipped into the alcove from the hall, and lay down on the divan, thinking she would go in presently, when conversation began to languish between Royall and his cousin.

She did not mean to play the eavesdropper. She had no idea at first that they were speaking of private matters. She was just tired, and her head and her heart both ached. Poor Daisie, and she lay listening dreamily, not caring at all what they were saying.

But suddenly a sentence caught and fixed her attention, because it held the name of Dallas Bain.

She listened, spellbound, her heart beating[Pg 254] wildly in her fair breast, her face growing pale as death.

So she knew at last—Royall Sherwood’s unloving wife—how she had been tricked and cheated out of happiness by that shameless scheming of Lutie Fleming.

Should she stretch out her hand to draw back the curtain and denounce the plotters for the shipwreck of her life—for the lies she had been told when her lover was true as steel?

No, she would not speak now. What could reproaches avail? She had walked into the spider’s web. She could not get free. What need to proclaim her misery to the wretches who had caused it?

She got up, with a corpselike face, and dragged herself out into the hall, thinking that she would go back to her own room and lie down, she felt so strangely ill; but with her foot on the first step she reeled and fell backward to the floor, crushed by the weight of her soul’s despair.

Patrick was just admitting some callers—Mrs. Hill-Dixon and her cousin, Lord Werter—when the sound of the fall drew their attention, and the gentleman rushed to the prostrate form.

He saw her lying there like one dead, his life’s love, and, with a wild rush of tenderness, lifted the beautiful form in his arms, exclaiming:

“Just carry her up to her own room, Dallas. Patrick will lead the way,” said Mrs. Hill-Dixon, who had a very practical mind, and saw that Daisie had fainted.

Who could tell what thoughts rushed through his mind as he mounted the stairs with his lovely unconscious burden? The strongest one was a longing to crush her fondly against his breast and fly with her to the uttermost parts of the earth, his beautiful love, of whom he had been so cruelly cheated.

He could not bear to lay her down, when the frightened maid came to his assistance, but his cousin reminded him of the proprieties by gently whispering in his ear:

“I will not go until she opens her blue eyes and[Pg 256] smiles on me, my lost love, of whom I was cheated by cruel lies!”

But at that moment Annette entered and touched his hand warningly, as she exclaimed:

“I am so glad to see you both. But now let us go down and leave Emma to care for Daisie. It is only a simple fainting fit. See, she is already opening her eyes.”

It was true; and as they left the room Dallas could not resist the temptation of looking back. Yes, her eyes followed him with a wistful pain that pierced his heart to its center.

First, there was the host, who had insisted on being wheeled into the room when he learned of Lord Werter’s call.

And there was Mrs. Fleming, who had entered with him, looking like a little girl in her jaunty bicycle suit, her fair locks gleaming under a sealskin cap, her eyes beaming and her cheeks rosy, as she declared that she must go directly, it was really getting too cool to ride the bicycle home, but she really could not resist stopping a minute for a chat with dear Mrs. Hill-Dixon. That lady knew quite well that her titled cousin was the real attraction, but, of course, she was too polite to say so.

Then there was Reed Raymond, who had returned just a moment ago, and was watching Lord Werter devote himself to Annette with a sudden secret heart pang at what might possibly[Pg 258] happen. To him, Annette was a queen among women. What if Lord Werter’s heart wound should be healed by the glance of those saucy black eyes? What if he won her for his cherished bride?

“Hush! What is that to you? She was yours once, and you could not trust her true heart! You outraged her loving faith. Now she hates you. It is the part of some nobler man to make her happy.”

He sighed, and tried not to watch them talking over there in that friendly undertone, nor to wonder what they were saying.

And there was Daisie, who had entered a little while ago very pale and lovely, making light of her sudden attack, and saying it was nothing but a swimming in the head, not a real fainting spell; she had scarcely been unconscious a minute, and she thought perhaps she had stayed out too long on her wheel, et cetera, all very vivaciously to Mrs. Hill-Dixon, but never once meeting the anxious[Pg 259] glance of a pair of dark eyes that she felt burning on her face.

She could not meet his look, lest the crimson should fly to her face, for her form thrilled yet with the close pressure of the arms that had borne her so tenderly upstairs while consciousness was returning swiftly enough for her heart to recognize him, even if she had not heard Mrs. Hill-Dixon address him familiarly as Dallas.

Yes, she knew him now for her lost love, her true love, and she longed to cast herself on his broad breast and die there of her mingled joy and despair—joy that he had never been false, but had loved her truly—despair for the bond that held them asunder, the tie that made her Royall Sherwood’s wife.

But she must not yield to her longing—she must not let them know the fire that consumed her heart. Her part was silence and patience—patience even at the cost of heartbreak.

What could anything avail now? They were parted forever. Perhaps he could console himself with the little witch Annette, who was smiling so sweetly on him now; and at the thought she, too, felt the arrow of love’s jealous pain pierce[Pg 260] her heart as it pierced that of Reed Raymond sitting yonder so pale and self-possessed, like a soldier under fire.

Yes, it was a strangely assorted group, and there was an element of tragedy in the very air. All felt it except Mrs. Hill-Dixon, the handsome, middle-aged woman who did not happen to be in the secret.

But they had all been talking for half an hour on careless society subjects quite as if everything was as it seemed on the surface, when suddenly the lady exclaimed:

Dallas was not a common name, and, coupled with his startling likeness to Dallas Bain, carried instant conviction of his identity to all.

Lutie Fleming uttered a little cry of surprise and dismay, and Royall Sherwood, paling to the very lips, exclaimed:

They saw him give Annette one swift, deprecating look, then he turned to Royall and said:

“I meant to preserve my incognito among you all, but I forgot to caution my cousin not to call me Dallas, so she has betrayed me unwittingly—yes, I am Dallas Bain.”

“Last year, when I crossed the sea, I made Mr. Sherwood’s acquaintance, and was afterward his guest at Mrs. Fleming’s summer home. Just for a whim I kept up a mystery about myself, and it rather amused me to find that my new friends believed me ashamed of my origin, on the principle that ‘where there is secrecy there is guilt.’ So when circumstances terminated our friendship so abruptly that when we met again, after my brother died, and I succeeded to his title, I did not think it worth while to enlighten them as to my identity.”

His voice was cold, proud, almost stern, and for a moment no one could find a word to say.

The weight of a guilty conscience kept Mrs. Fleming speechless, and Annette was struck dumb with fear of what might happen next. It was a tragic moment for all, even Mrs. Hill-Dixon, who began to see, from all those blanched faces and frightened eyes, that there was something uncommon in the air.

Royall Sherwood, his wan and wasted face as ghastly as a dead man’s, stole a furtive glance at his wife.

Daisie did not return the anxious glance. She was lily-white, and her great blue eyes, dark with suppressed emotion, dropped to the little hands that were tightly clasped in her lap. The quivering red lip was held in by the convulsive pressure of pearly teeth.

Reed Raymond, pallid and alarmed, looked on in silence, like the rest, dreading, like Annette, what might happen next.

The silence was so profound and embarrassing that Mrs. Hill-Dixon had to come to the rescue with a tinkling little society laugh, as she exclaimed:

“Lord Werter, I saw through your flimsy disguise last night, and was only waiting for you to declare your identity and renew old friendships.”

He laughed absently, without answering, and she saw that he was stealing a furtive glance at Daisie, who still did not look up from the little hands she seemed to be inspecting beneath her lowered lashes. She appeared indeed cold and indifferent.

But it was not hard to guess that she was putting the sternest restraints on herself, fighting down her rebel heart, lest she should cry out before them all that she had been tricked and deceived, torn asunder from the love of her life, and the cruel truth was breaking her tender heart.

Again Mrs. Hill-Dixon, seeing and wondering at the strange pallor on every face, came to the rescue, rising, with a rustle of silks and laces, and saying:

“Indeed, Dallas; we must be saying good-by, for I am due at a reception within ten minutes.”

Every one rose with suppressed sighs of relief to see them go, and then Lord Werter said quietly:

“Give me five minutes of your time, Cousin Elinor, to shake hands with my friends, for I am leaving to-morrow for California, and shall not see them again before my return to Europe.”

It was a promise to go out of their lives forever, and all understood it so; but did they guess that he touched hands with all just for the privilege of holding one minute in his own those cold fingers of his dear lost love, sweet Daisie? If they did, who could grudge him that small boon, when he had been cheated of so much?

She was the last one to whom he spoke, and his farewell words to her were brief as to the rest. Only the lingering handclasp, close and meaning, told to her own heart a story plain as words of a love that, though hopeless, would last forever, and their swift farewell glance had in it all the pathos of life’s despair.

Reed Raymond followed the departing guests to the door, anxious for a private word with his friend Lord Werter; and then Mrs. Fleming exclaimed jauntily:

She was anxious to get away, for she felt frightened of Daisie, somehow, though undreaming that the girl had learned the secret of her treachery.

But, to her alarm and surprise, Daisie stretched out an imperative hand, saying sternly:

“No;” and Daisie’s outstretched white hand motioned her to a seat, as she added: “You know so much of my story, Annette, that I want you to hear the rest.”

These three, who knew in their secret hearts[Pg 266] how cruelly Daisie had been wronged, and how much they were responsible, waited in the greatest wonder and fear to hear what she might say.

They were prepared for something startling from the awful pallor of her lovely face and the tragic ring of her sweet voice.

She stood up, with her arms folded on the back of her chair, the long train of her blue silk gown trailing behind her on the floor, the rich color bringing out the waving gold of her hair and the lily white of her face—stood up and said to them in clear, unfaltering tones:

“I thought it as well, Royall, to tell you and your cousin that it will not be necessary for you to pay Letty and her husband any greater price for my misery. I know it all.”

They were unable to utter a single word. They[Pg 267] could only wait shrinkingly for her to continue her scathing arraignment.

“I know all!” she repeated, and the note of despair in her voice scathed their hearts, it was so pathetic. “I know the plot that was laid to part me from my lover, how we both were tricked and cheated by lies and forged letters that turned our hearts to ice. Letty and Cullen played their parts well from beginning to end—aye, until this very day; but——”

“Dallas Bain, Lord Werter, has found out, and told you this!” hissed Mrs. Fleming fiercely.

“No; I doubt if the story is yet known to him. By your own lips you are condemned. Lutie Fleming, from your own lips I heard the cruel story of my wrongs.”

“Ah-h!” cried Royall, in a sharp voice of comprehension, and she went on, in that deep, accusing voice:

“When I left you with Royall this afternoon, I hurried upstairs to change my dress, and came back and lay down on the sofa in the alcove to rest. I did not mean to eavesdrop. I was only tired, and wanted to rest while you chatted with Royall, so—I heard all!”

There was nothing to be said, no defense possible, they could only hang their heads like detected felons.

Then the scheming widow, stealing a furtive glance at her cousin’s face, was startled at its ghastly pallor.

“Lay the blame on me!” she cried defiantly. “If you heard all, as you say, you know that he was not in the plot, that it was mine alone—all the fault mine. I dare say you would like to forsake poor Royall and run after Lord Werter now, but you cannot do it, for you stayed with my cousin of your own free will, and you cannot leave him now.”

“Hush!” breathed Royall hoarsely; and Daisie turned from her with a glance of contempt.

“You know I never professed anything but pity for you. My love was given elsewhere before I was drawn into that mockery of a marriage[Pg 269] that chained me, an unloving wife, to your side.”

“Yes, yes,” he cried, in a tone of infinite relief. He had feared that she meant to apply for a divorce, and in the madness of his love he was too selfish to bear such a suggestion. “You would not leave me, Daisie—ill and crippled? It would be heartless!” he cried weakly, in his agitation.

All his pity was for himself—none for her, so beautiful, so helpless, so cruelly wronged by every additional hour of this bondage of a loveless marriage.

“I must leave you, Royall, for a while—a little while—because I should go mad just now without a change of some sort. I shall go to-morrow down to Gull Beach for a few weeks with Aunt Alice. You must do without me while I wrestle in silence with a grief beyond all telling, and gain strength by prayer to take up my burden and face[Pg 270] the world again.” A pause to gather courage, and she added: “Annette tells me she has a letter from home to-day. Her mother is sick, and begs her to return. She goes to-morrow, and I shall accompany her on her journey.”

It was true. Annette had seized on the first excuse that offered to leave New York. It seemed to her that she could not breathe the same air with Ray Dering—he had come, and she must go.

“Tell me—if you could have known what she was doing that night, would you have joined in that infamous plot against my happiness?”

No matter what he would have done, he knew, at this moment that his only salvation lay in denying it now.

“Then I will return,” she answered, from the depths of her true womanly pity, and swept from the room without another glance at the cruel woman who had wrought all her woe.

The sky was as blue as summer, the air was soft and bland, and the little, laughing wavelets at Gull Beach, rippled by the April breeze, rolled softly in upon the yellow sands.

It was three weeks now since Daisie and Annette had come away from New York back to Maryland—three weeks since the morning when Daisie had stooped over Royall while he held her hands, and kissed him with cold, unresponsive lips, while she said:

She could not hate him, or be angry with him, because his love and his affliction made her generous heart very kind and pitiful, and she realized that the cross of suffering lay heavy on them both.

So her beautiful eyes grew dim with tears as she gave the kiss his eyes entreated, and whispered pitifully and prayerfully:

“If you would only try to love me!” he groaned[Pg 272] entreatingly, and Daisie answered, with gentle patience:

“I have been trying ever since—that night when you were hurt. I will keep on trying.”

“You are an angel, my wife!” he cried passionately, realizing remorsefully how unworthy he was of her noble sacrifice, yet not wishing himself dead and out of the way so that she might be happy. He was too selfish for that, and madly jealous in his heart of the reappearance of Dallas Bain in so enviable a position.

So when Mrs. Fleming came to see him, after the girls had gone away, he wished her godspeed when she told him frankly that she intended to follow Lord Werter to California, and try to win him in spite of all that had passed.

“He is the only man I ever loved, though I have always had plenty of lovers,” she said; “and I was willing to take him, in spite of his seeming obscurity. Now, with his title, he is more desirable than ever, and I mean to throw myself in his way and win him yet if woman’s wit can accomplish it. It will be a relief to you, too, if I get him, for you can never be safe over Daisie until he is married to another.”

“No, never; and I am very sorry he ever turned up again. I hoped in my heart that the fellow was dead. Go in and win if you can, Lutie, and I’ll give you a diamond sunburst worth fifty thousand dollars for a bridal gift!” cried Royall, who felt that the price would be small to pay for security over Daisie; for he was always dreading that she might secure a divorce from him in order to marry her old lover.

Meanwhile, Daisie and Annette had traveled to Gull Beach, and although Aunt Alice was taken by surprise, she was very glad to see her niece, and made her very welcome.

“I thought you would be so fine and gay in your grand New York mansion that you would never care to visit my humble cottage again,” she exclaimed; and Daisie answered evasively:

“I have been leading too gay a life, Aunt Alice, in the whirl of social life, and now I am threatened with nervous prostration; so I must keep very quiet for a few weeks, and I knew your home was the very best haven of rest I could find.”

“Dear knows you’ll find it quiet enough here, and I’ll do my best to make you well again,” replied[Pg 274] the old lady cordially, for she was very proud of Daisie and the grand match she had made.

But she soon found that wealth does not always confer happiness; for, day by day, Daisie drooped like a strangely blighted flower, until at last she found that the girl was threatened with a serious illness.

“I don’t like the look of you, Daisie. You’ve been failing steadily ever since you came here, ten days ago. I don’t believe you’ve ever smiled since you came, and you don’t eat as much as a bird. Now you don’t feel well enough to rise from your bed, your face is red and feverish, and your pulse fairly frightens me. I’m going to send for Doctor Burns, and write for your husband to come.”

“No, no—you must not let Mr. Sherwood know unless I should be dying, and—there’s no such luck as that. The wretched are long-lived,” bitterly. “But you may send for Doctor Burns, Aunt Alice, for I believe you are right. I am going to be ill.”

She fell back among her pillows, shut her eyes, and seemed to sleep; then, before the doctor[Pg 275] came, she had lapsed into delirious babblings. While he sat by the bed, watching her with the greatest uneasiness, she had a lucid interval, in which she begged him not to let Royall know of her illness.

“He is not strong, and the shock might kill him. You can take care of me,” she said pleadingly.

The anxious days came and went until Daisie had been ill almost two weeks, with scarcely a conscious moment; but still no word went to Royall Sherwood of her illness, because of the promise she had extracted not to let him know unless she was actually dying.

And, though the fever rose to its greatest height, and her delirious ravings made their hearts ache with the fear that she could not live, still the crisis had not come yet, and the letter was not sent.

There was no lack of skillful nursing, no lack of medical care, no lack of love, for Aunt Alice and Annette gave her all their time; but it almost seemed as if nothing could hold Daisie back from the land of shadows to which she was hastening. She had no hold on life, because she was weary of it.

On that beautiful day when the sun came out so brightly, and the blue waves lapped the golden[Pg 277] shore at Gull Beach, Doctor Burns thought he saw a subtle change in his patient, whether for better or worse he could not yet say, but he told them that the crisis would come that night.

“No; I would wait the result of the crisis,” Annette answered, so decidedly that he hesitated and gave in.

About sunset he came again, but he found no change in his patient, who still remained in the stupor that had fallen on her at noonday.

The trained nurse had gone out for a breath of fresh air, and Annette sat by the window, watching the sunset lights upon the sea, her eyes sad and her bright face pale with anxiety.

“I have news for you. Royall Sherwood’s Fifth Avenue residence was burned to the ground just before daylight this morning.”

“Thank Heaven!” she breathed, clasping her little hands in joy; and the doctor continued:

“He was saved by the heroism of a gentleman staying in the house, who carried him out through smoke and flame, in his arms. But here is the paper. You can read it for yourself. Very short, but I suppose the morning papers will give us full particulars.”

The tears sprang to her eyes, almost blinding her, as she grasped the paper and devoured the short paragraph from New York:

“Oh!” gasped Annette; and there rushed over her memory the last words she had heard from Ray Dering’s lips.

It was when they were leaving New York that day when Daisie had turned to him in the hall and begged him not to let Royall miss her, but to try to make him happy, he had answered so earnestly:

To Annette he had bowed, without a word, feeling that she preferred it so; but the sad, yearning glance of his fine dark eyes had haunted her painfully ever since.

“I will devote my life to him,” he had promised; and in those two words, “fatal injuries,” Annette read the story of that devotion.

Freely, gladly he had sacrificed himself in atonement for the wrong he had unwittingly done Royall Sherwood in a moment of jealous rage and madness.

Something seemed to snap asunder in Annette’s tortured heart, and she astonished the good old doctor by sinking back unconscious in her chair.

“Good gracious, what a nervous little thing!”[Pg 280] he ejaculated, hastening to apply restoratives; and when she opened her eyes presently he exclaimed:

“Oh, you do not know—you do not understand,” shuddered Annette, leaning her little dark head against the windowpane.

At that moment the rumble of carriage wheels stopping at the gate drew her attention down into the street.

She started in wonder, and swept her hand across her eyes, as if to clear their vision, exclaiming:

“Bless my heart! If that is not Royall Sherwood stepping out of the carriage, too, with two strong legs as limber as mine. It’s a miracle!”

But their eyes had not deceived them. It was indeed Royall Sherwood, stepping with old-time grace and lightness, and Aunt Alice met him at the door and led him in.

Royall Sherwood did not seem to see any one[Pg 281] but the wreck of beautiful Daisie, lying so still and silent on the bed. He went and stood by her, gazing in horror at the wasted face and form, and the shorn head whence all the golden curls had been clipped away so as to apply ice to the burning brain.

“Can this be Daisie—my wife, Daisie!” he muttered, in grief and dread, and fell on his knees, his arms clasping the unconscious girl, his slight frame heaving with emotion.

They stood around in reverent silence till the storm of grief spent itself, and he looked up indignantly, crying:

“Why was I not told of this? How dared you keep it from me that she was dying?”

They could pardon his anger for the sake of his grief, and very gently they explained the reason.

But Royall Sherwood would not be pacified. He insisted that he had been badly treated—that they should not have listened to a sick girl’s ravings—that his place was by her side.

But, as if disturbed by his complaints, Daisie moved restlessly, threw her wasted arms about, and called pleadingly:

Royall Sherwood started as if stung, and stifled an oath between his blanched lips, while Annette bent and whispered in his ear:

“You see now why it was better for you not to come. She is always calling for him.”

“I am afraid there is too much excitement for my patient. Please leave her alone with me.”

They led Royall most unwillingly into the next room, and then Doctor Burns exclaimed:

“But, my dear fellow, we are just dying to hear about your recovery from your paralytic state. When you arrived we were just reading of your rescue from your burning house, and——”

“That was it, doctor; that was what wrought the miracle of my recovery,” exclaimed Royall radiantly, and he went on to explain: “You see, I woke up in the midst of blinding smoke and flame. I shrieked for my valet, who usually slept in a little room opening off from mine. There was no answer. The wretch had escaped, leaving me to perish. In my agony, I tried to spring from bed. My crippled limbs refused assistance, and[Pg 283] I hung face downward, stifling, dying, in that hell of fire and smoke, shrieking and cursing, I am afraid, too, in my despair. After an eternity of waiting, till I was almost dead, I heard a voice in the room calling and praying: ‘Sherwood, where are you? I am coming. God, help me to save him if I perish myself! God, be good to me—let me atone by a noble death.’ It was Raymond, my companion. He got to me somehow, clutched me, wrapped me in bedclothes, and staggered away with me. Oh, it was so long before he got me to the outside! I thought we both must perish in the fire, but he battled on, praying, always praying, that same prayer: ‘God, let me save this man, if I perish myself!’ But I must not harrow up your feelings. His prayer was granted. He staggered to the door with me, and fell. When they got us up, he—poor fellow!—had such horrible burns on his legs and shoulders he could not live. But for me—oh, for me, a miracle had been wrought. The shock, something—perhaps the fellow’s prayers—had cured my paralysis, restored me to myself—I could walk!”

“I cannot tell you what joy I felt, what triumph; it is beyond words,” he cried. “My first thought was for Daisie—to go to her, to hear her rejoice over my restoration. But they sent for me to Raymond, who had been taken to the hospital. I had to go. He wished to tell me something before he died—a—a secret—so I cannot tell you any more,” he added, with a meaning look at Annette.

“No—not when I came away. He might linger some time. It was impossible for the doctors to say.”

“And you deserted his dying bed, Royall Sherwood, when he had given his life for yours? Cruel!” she cried, with passionate indignation.

“Poor fellow! I could do him no good staying till the last, and I was eager to see Daisie, of course. Who could blame me?”

“Let me go home!” the girl cried chokingly, rushing from among them to seek her mother’s sympathetic arms.

Passionate sobs, a meek confession, eager entreaties, and mother and daughter set out on the first train for New York.

“Oh, yes; and there is the barest chance he may pull through, in spite of his awful injuries. So glad that some of his friends are come at last. Poor fellow! He seemed so lonely,” said the kind nurse.

“Oh, my darling, how noble of you to come to me before—I died! I have done all I could to atone. It is for you to forgive,” the weak voice murmured.

“Oh, Ray, you will not die. I will pray, pray, pray, as you did when you brought Royall through the fire to safety. God will let you live for me, my own love, and we will forgive each other everything and be happy at last.”

There were long and weary weeks of patient suffering, but love and care brought him back at last from the dark borders of the grave to life and happiness.

Annette’s precipitate flight created such consternation in the minds of the doctor and Mrs. Bell that Royall felt called on to explain.

“Poor fellow! He was Annette’s sweetheart, and I would give half my fortune to save his life as he so nobly saved mine. But they said at Bellevue that it was impossible for him to live.”

“Doctor, you must not let my wife die now, when I am so miraculously restored to her as from the grave. No expense must be spared. Have you had consulting physicians?”

“Two of the best in Baltimore. Everything that is possible has been done. We can only await the issue with hope and prayer. The crisis will almost certainly come to-night.”

“Yes, if the good nurse will consent, though she is very arbitrary. But we cannot afford to go against her wishes. She is from the Baltimore Hospital, and the best nurse procurable.”

He went into the sick room to look at the patient again, and to ask leave for her husband to stay in the room.

“He may try it, but she is very susceptible to the influence of any one who enters the room,” replied the clever nurse, whose patient had again relapsed into seeming stupor.

So by and by Royall went in and sat by the window to watch the night out in mingled hope and fear.

How deathly his wife looked, as if the grim King of Terrors had already claimed her as his own. She lay so still and so seemingly lifeless that it was almost a relief when she began to toss and turn again, and to mutter wild, incoherent words.

“I beg your pardon, Mr. Sherwood, but it would almost seem as if your presence had some disturbing influence on her, and not for the best,[Pg 288] either. Will you kindly retire a while, and let me see what effect it may have on her restlessness?”

Bitterly chagrined, he left the house and went down to the sea to pace the yellow sands for an hour, brooding bitterly over his sorrow.

With what sanguine hopes he had left New York this morning, expecting to find Daisie bright and beautiful as ever, and believing that it might not be hard to win her love at last, now that he was well and strong again.

But to see her stricken so—her beauty faded, her golden glory of tresses shorn away, her life ebbing out, it seemed, so fast. Oh, it was cruel, unbearable.

The wish came to him that he had never seen the fair face that he had determined to make his own in spite of opposing obstacles.

“She was not for me—Heaven never meant it so—she will die to punish me for my masterful will,” he groaned to himself, in passionate rebellion against his untoward fate.

He went back to the house, and they told him she had been lying quietly for some time, almost ever since he went out.

He went in to look at her, to press a tender[Pg 289] kiss on her damp, white brow; but again she became restless, tossing wildly, and calling:

“It is quite evident that your presence disturbs her, sir, so you had better go to bed and rest. You can do no good here,” the nurse said candidly.

“After your thrilling experiences of last night, you must be very weary, and a night’s sleep will refresh you. Have no fear for Daisie. We will do our best,” she said kindly.

He retired, but it seemed to him at first that he could never rest again, so keen was his humiliation that Daisie, even in unconsciousness, could never endure his proximity, and kept calling on the name of his hated rival.

But at last weariness overpowered him, and he fell into a heavy, dreamless sleep that lasted till the morning sun peeped in through the shutters.

He rose in a tumult of fear, and began to dress, but almost immediately Doctor Burns came in, exclaiming:

She was better, sweet Daisie—with care and good nursing her life would be preserved to her friends.

But that obdurate nurse, so clever and opinionated, would not permit Royall Sherwood to see his wife for a week. She said:

“I don’t profess to understand it, doctor, not at all, but facts are stubborn things, and I know that the presence of her husband has a distinctly injurious effect on Mrs. Sherwood’s health. Perhaps they had quarreled before she left home; I don’t know; but if he wants her to get well tell him to stay out of the sick room for a week, at least.”

“A week is not long,” encouraged the sympathetic old doctor. “And we have to humor the whims of nurses as well as invalids, you know. After all, it will do you more good to exercise your newly gained strength in the open air than pottering about a sick room.”

Royall grumbled, but he obeyed, taking rooms at the hotel, and calling each day at the cottage.

And he managed to kill time and enjoy himself in many ways, despite his solicitude over Daisie. He boated, drove, and walked with some congenial friends he made at the hotel, and his strength and his good looks returned fast. The days flew fast and pleasantly.

When the week was up, the grim nurse herself came to meet him when he called to inquire for Daisie.

“She is improving every day, but very slowly, and I have let her sit up in an easy-chair to-day for the first time,” she said.

“I broke it to her gently this morning, but still the shock was great. Perhaps it was from joy at hearing you were well again,” said the nurse, who could not understand a fact that she easily perceived—that the invalid seemed to have a secret shrinking from him.

As she knew none of the circumstances of the strange marriage, she felt convinced that the[Pg 292] young wife must have had a quarrel with her husband before she came to visit her aunt.

How could she gauge the strange despair of Daisie when she learned that her duty would be harder than ever now? That instead of playing the rôle of friend and sister, as heretofore, she must assume the real status of a wife?

No wonder that she fainted, and that the nurse was sadly frightened ere she restored her to consciousness.

“My dear young lady, if you could bear to see him a little while it would make him very happy.”

Daisie was silent a moment, then she said gently and hopelessly, it seemed to the attentive nurse:

“Of course I will see my husband. It is his right and my duty—I mean, my pleasure.”

So the woman let her sit up after a while, and made her as pretty as she could—poor, pallid, wasted Daisie, with her shorn head, where the golden locks were just peeping out again, covered with a soft lace scarf; and so she awaited his coming.

She had been so sorry for his affliction that she was unselfishly glad of his restoration to health, and the tears came to her eyes when he entered, stepping with the free grace of old.

She held her face up bravely for the kiss she knew he wanted, and the nurse, just leaving the room, thought it was a reconciliation.

Daisie fought with herself for power to seem glad and kind. As she read in his eyes the love that filled his heart she determined that she must try to forget and forgive the fraud by which he had won her, because of his great love. She would pray Heaven as she had never done before to let her forget a pair of haunting dark eyes, lips that were sweeter than honey, a voice like music, and to put in her tortured heart a wife’s love for her husband.

“They will grow again, just as beautiful as[Pg 294] ever, and you could never be hideous to me, anyway.”

“Thank you. But I know I look wretched. My cheeks so thin, my eyes so big and hollow! But I have been very ill. It is a wonder I did not die.”

“I was afraid that you would, dear. I began to feel that fate was against me in everything, and that you would be taken from me in punishment for the fraud by which I won you. It was wicked, I know, but perhaps God will forgive and let me find happiness with you at last—because I love you so.”

It was pathetic, pitiful—this mad love that had broken the barriers of Right and Duty for its own sake. But would Heaven indeed forgive?

Royall Sherwood never considered any one but himself in the struggle for Daisie’s love—not even Daisie herself. Still less the man he had robbed of his love and cheated of his happiness. Would he indeed prosper at last on the wreck of another’s hopes?

“Glad? Oh, thank you for that sweet word! If you had been sorry, darling, it must have broken my heart. Now you will be truly mine! I have been making such plans, dear, for our future. As soon as you are well enough to travel, I want to take you abroad on our real bridal tour. Will you come with me?”

Her cheeks were ashen, and the light of her eyes grew dim, but the promise was made, and he thanked her so eloquently, adding proudly:

“Before long I shall make you love me as fondly as I love you. Will you try, Daisie?”

But it startled her to find that she did not feel as tender over him as she used to do. It was only pity then, and now he was well and strong, he did not need it, and there was nothing to take its place.

“When you get really fond of me, dear Daisie, perhaps you will forgive poor Lutie’s sins—will you?”

“Poor Lutie, I feel sorry for her, because she was so madly in love with Dallas Bain, and could stop at nothing to win his heart in return. Why, she has even followed him to California, still hoping to catch his heart in the rebound.”

“Do not let us speak of either of them. I hate her—and I must forget him,” Daisie faltered valiantly.

He stayed with her an hour; then the nurse came in to say she had talked long enough to-day; Mr. Sherwood might stay longer to-morrow.

He took the hint, and rose, though he grumbled that it was very hard to drive a man away so soon from his own sweet wife.

The nurse went to the window so as not to embarrass the parting, and then Daisie whispered, with a kindling blush:

“We had better begin all over again, Royall—like sweethearts, you know. You may come and court me every day, but we will pretend we are[Pg 297] not married till—we go away—on our bridal tour.”

“It shall be as you wish, my angel,” he answered tenderly, in the great happiness of feeling that she would soon be all his own. Who could not be patient, having gained so sweet a promise?

So the April days came and went, till it was three weeks since the fire and his coming to Gull Beach.

Annette had written to say that Ray Dering—all knew him by his own name now, for when he believed himself dying he had confessed his sin to Royall and won his forgiveness—was convalescing fast, and would soon be well again. She was busy buying her wedding clothes in New York, and mamma had consented for her to marry Ray in June, when they would go abroad for a trip.

“But we must never betray the poor fellow’s secret to any one else—not even Lutie. He saved my life so nobly that his confidence shall be sacred.”

Daisie was more glad to hear this secret than he guessed, for she had been tormented by the mystery of who had wounded Royall ever since Mrs. Fleming had told her she had seen Dallas Bain commit the crime—not that she believed the story, but she feared the wicked woman might dare to accuse Dallas of it to gain revenge for his scorn.

The first day of May—would Daisie ever forget it?—Royall remained all day with his “sweetheart,” as he gayly called her, humoring her whims; and on kissing her good-by, he said tenderly:

“A dozen kisses this time, sweetheart, because I am going to New York to-night, to be gone a few days, to meet poor Lutie, who has written me that she has come home, disappointed, from California, and wants to see me about pressing business matters.”

How glad Daisie was afterward that she let him take all the kisses he wanted, and that she even clasped her white arms tenderly about his neck, and sent him away happy, confident that he was winning her love at last.

Was it true? Was she going to find happiness[Pg 299] with him at last, or was it only a pitiful playing at love?

Between the dark and the dawn, his train broke through a trestle, and crashed down into a raging hell of swollen waters. The twoscore souls among whom he perished were hurled in an instant from life to death.

Full of hope and joy, dreaming of his love—Daisie—Royall Sherwood went to death through the gates of sleep.

The waters gave up his bruised body the next morning, and on his lips was a smile—the smile that Daisie’s caress had left shining there.

Two days later he had a grand funeral, at which Mrs. Fleming was the chief mourner, for his young widow was too ill to attend it. She had a relapse from the awful shock of the news, and hovered for days between life and death.

When she was well enough to sit up again, she found two very tender letters awaiting her perusal. One was a very fond and tender note from Annette, proffering her sympathy, and telling her of the grand funeral, and how beautiful[Pg 300] the new mound looked in Greenwood, all banked with fragrant flowers.

The other letter was from Mrs. Fleming, whose pride, crushed and broken by the death of the cousin she had truly loved, stooped now to crave forgiveness of her she had wronged.

Think kindly of his memory, now that he is gone; for indeed I am most to blame, and I feel that Heaven has punished me for my sin in taking him away, when we were always so fond of each other, having no nearer kin. I know you can never be real friends with me; but won’t you pretend to be friends, so that the world—Royall’s world and mine—need never know how that marriage came about? I would like to come and see you, so that people might say we love each other for Royall’s sake. May I? And, Daisie, will you please me by wearing black for him? It would please him if he could know. Of course you will marry Lord Werter after a while; it is only right you should. I have not a word to say. I loved him myself—perhaps Royall told you that—but Dallas cared only for you, and you two will be happy together at last, despite all my wicked scheming. It is the will of Heaven. Oh, if you could find it in your tender heart to pity and forgive me!

The next mail carried the repentant woman an envelope sealed in black, and one tear-blotted line:

Many times had a beautiful form, robed in somber black, knelt by that low, green mound; many times had Daisie hung flowers upon the broken marble shaft, and watered them with her gentle tears.

For “pity is akin to love,” and Daisie did not have to pretend a sorrow she did not feel. Her grief was deep and fervent for the hopeful life cut off in its morning.

Once, when Lutie Fleming had come with her to the grave, she had said mournfully:

“Oh, if he had lived I must have learned to love him by and by—he must have won me by the strength of his own love. Now I will always live single for his sake.”

“No, Daisie, do not say that in your grief and remorse, for there was another who was so cruelly wronged in the past that you must soon begin to[Pg 302] think of his claims. You know whom I mean, dear.”

Yes, Daisie knew. Soon after Royall’s death he had sent her one sympathetic line:

And so noble and gentle was his heart that he did not, for more than a year, intrude on the quiet mourning for the dead by recalling himself to her memory.

When a year had passed, Mrs. Fleming showed how much her heart had changed by saying:

“You ought to lighten your mourning now, Daisie. Lord Werter has been very patient and forgiving, but he will be coming soon.”

Pretty Annette was married long ago, and had made her wedding tour to Europe. When she[Pg 303] returned she had much to tell of the glories of Lord Werter’s ancestral home, and of the month she had spent as his guest.

“Oh, Daisie, how dearly he loves you, and what a happy bride you will be! Almost as happy as I am with Ray!” she added, with a fond glance at her adoring husband.

Ray Dering was a changed man—purged of his worst fault by sorrow and suffering, and humbly grateful to Heaven that had permitted him to atone for the evil he had wrought.

And from hating Daisie Bell with the passion of a jealous rival, she had grown to love her as a sister.

“Who could help from loving you, Daisie? You are so noble and good! No one but an angel could have forgiven me my sins,” she cried over and over.

So when Lord Werter crossed the sea to claim his bonny bride, she was unselfishly glad that the long-parted lovers would be happy at last.

All due respect had been paid the memory of[Pg 304] her cousin, who had been dead two years, and Daisie had a right to her happiness. Even Aunt Alice, who was the most censorious of mortals, agreed that it was so, and she and Doctor Burns came from Gull Beach to the grand June wedding that took place from Mrs. Fleming’s home, where Daisie had lived the most of the time since Royall’s death, to please the repentant woman.

Ah, what a meeting they had, those two fond lovers, once so cruelly parted, now united till death by the marriage vow!

Sorrow had only intensified their love and made their trust in each other’s constancy more perfect. With hearts full of joy they clasped hands at God’s holy altar, and sailed away, leaving sorrowing hearts behind them, but sure of a glad welcome awaiting the bonny bride in her new home.

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CHAPTER I.	RIVALS IN LOVE.
CHAPTER II.	THE OTHER ONE.
CHAPTER III.	THE SPELL OF LOVE.
CHAPTER IV.	FALSE.
CHAPTER V.	A CRUEL COQUETTE.
CHAPTER VI.	“I CANNOT GIVE UP MY LOVE.”
CHAPTER VII.	TEMPTED TO END IT ALL.
CHAPTER VIII.	A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
CHAPTER IX.	SHE MUST KEEP THE SECRET.
CHAPTER X.	DAISIE’S DESPAIR.
CHAPTER XI.	SHE COULD NEVER FORGET.
CHAPTER XII.	AN UNBIDDEN GUEST.
CHAPTER XIII.	“HER OWN AGAIN.”
CHAPTER XIV.	“LOVE IS HEAVEN.”
CHAPTER XV.	“THE FAULT WAS MINE!”
CHAPTER XVI.	FAITHFUL.
CHAPTER XVII.	HIS CRUEL RIVAL.
CHAPTER XVIII.	“BE KIND TO ME.”
CHAPTER XIX.	STRANGE EMOTION.
CHAPTER XX.	HIS CONFESSION.
CHAPTER XXI.	SHE LONGED FOR DEATH.
CHAPTER XXII.	“THE DIE WAS CAST.”
CHAPTER XXIII.	“MISERY LOVES COMPANY.”
CHAPTER XXIV.	COALS OF FIRE.
CHAPTER XXV.	MORE CRUEL THAN DEATH.
CHAPTER XXVI.	EXPIATION.
CHAPTER XXVII.	TO REMEMBER A LITTLE WHILE.
CHAPTER XXVIII.	“A SHOCKING LITTLE FLIRT.”
CHAPTER XXIX.	“FOR DAISIE’S SAKE.”
CHAPTER XXX.	REMORSE AND REPENTANCE.
CHAPTER XXXI.	THE CRUEL TRUTH.
CHAPTER XXXII.	THE SPIDER’S WEB.
CHAPTER XXXIII.	LOVE THAT WOULD LAST
CHAPTER XXXIV.	UNMASKED.
CHAPTER XXXV.	“GOD HELP US!”
CHAPTER XXXVI.	THE STRENGTH OF LOVE.
CHAPTER XXXVII.	FOR ROYALL’S SAKE.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.	“LOVE IS LORD OF ALL.”

710—	Ridgeway of Montana	By William MacLeod Raine
711—	Taken by Storm	By Emma Garrison Jones
712—	Love and a Lie	By Charles Garvice
713—	Barriers of Stone	By Wenona Gilman

714—	Ethel’s Secret	By Charlotte M. Stanley
715—	Amber, the Adopted	By Mrs. Harriet Lewis
716—	No Man’s Wife	By Ida Reade Allen
717—	Wild and Willful	By Lucy Randall Comfort

718—	When We Two Parted	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
719—	Love’s Earnest Prayer	By Geraldine Fleming
720—	The Price of a Kiss	By Laura Jean Libbey
721—	A Girl from the South	By Charles Garvice
722—	A Freak of Fate	By Emma Garrison Jones

723—	A Golden Sorrow	By Charlotte M. Stanley
724—	Norna’s Black Fortune	By Ida Reade Allen
725—	The Thoroughbred	By Edith MacVane
726—	Diana’s Peril	By Dorothy Hall

1—	Queen Bess	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
2—	Ruby’s Reward	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
7—	Two Keys	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
12—	Edrie’s Legacy	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
44—	That Dowdy	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
55—	Thrice Wedded	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
66—	Witch Hazel	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
77—	Tina	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
88—	Virgie’s Inheritance	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
99—	Audrey’s Recompense	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
111—	Faithful Shirley	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
122—	Grazia’s Mistake	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
133—	Max	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
144—	Dorothy’s Jewels	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
155—	Nameless Dell	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
166—	The Masked Bridal	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
177—	A True Aristocrat	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
188—	Dorothy Arnold’s Escape	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
199—	Geoffrey’s Victory	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
210—	Wild Oats	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
219—	Lost, A Pearle	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
222—	The Lily of Mordaunt	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
233—	Nora	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
244—	A Hoiden’s Conquest	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
255—	The Little Marplot	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
266—	The Welfleet Mystery	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
277—	Brownie’s Triumph	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
282—	The Forsaken Bride	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
288—	Sibyl’s Influence	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
291—	A Mysterious Wedding Ring	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
299—	Little Miss Whirlwind	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
311—	Wedded by Fate	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
339—	His Heart’s Queen	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
351—	The Churchyard Betrothal	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
362—	Stella Rosevelt	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
372—	A Girl in a Thousand	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
373—	A Thorn Among Roses Sequel to “A Girl in a Thousand”	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
382—	Mona	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
391—	Marguerite’s Heritage	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
399—	Betsey’s Transformation	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
407—	Esther, the Fright	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
415—	Trixy	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
419—	The Other Woman	By Charles Garvice
433—	Winifred’s Sacrifice	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
440—	Edna’s Secret Marriage	By Charles Garvice
451—	Helen’s Victory	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
458—	When Love Meets Love	By Charles Garvice
476—	Earle Wayne’s Nobility	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
511—	The Golden Key	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
512—	A Heritage of Love Sequel to “The Golden Key”	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
519—	The Magic Cameo	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
520—	The Heatherford Fortune Sequel to “The Magic Cameo”	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
531—	Better Than Life	By Charles Garvice
537—	A Life’s Mistake	By Charles Garvice
542—	Once in a Life	By Charles Garvice
548—	’Twas Love’s Fault	By Charles Garvice
553—	Queen Kate	By Charles Garvice
554—	Step by Step	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
555—	Put to the Test	By Ida Reade Allen
556—	With Love’s Aid	By Wenona Gilman
557—	In Cupid’s Chains	By Charles Garvice
558—	A Plunge Into the Unknown	By Richard Marsh
559—	The Love That Was Cursed	By Geraldine Fleming
560—	The Thorns of Regret	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
561—	The Outcast of the Family	By Charles Garvice
562—	A Forced Promise	By Ida Reade Allen
563—	The Old Homestead	By Denman Thompson
564—	Love’s First Kiss	By Emma Garrison Jones
565—	Just a Girl	By Charles Garvice
566—	In Love’s Springtime	By Laura Jean Libbey
567—	Trixie’s Honor	By Geraldine Fleming
568—	Hearts and Dollars	By Ida Reade Allen
569—	By Devious Ways	By Charles Garvice
570—	Her Heart’s Unbidden Guest	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
571—	Two Wild Girls	By Mrs. Charlotte May Kingsley
572—	Amid Scarlet Roses	By Emma Garrison Jones
573—	Heart for Heart	By Charles Garvice
574—	The Fugitive Bride	By Mary E. Bryan
575—	A Blue Grass Heroine	By Ida Reade Allen
576—	The Yellow Face	By Fred M. White
577—	The Story of a Passion	By Charles Garvice
578—	A Lovely Impostor	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
579—	The Curse of Beauty	By Geraldine Fleming
580—	The Great Awakening	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
581—	A Modern Juliet	By Charles Garvice
582—	Virgie Talcott’s Mission	By Lucy M. Russell
583—	His Greatest Sacrifice; or, Manch	By Mary E. Bryan
584—	Mabel’s Fate	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
585—	The Ape and the Diamond	By Richard Marsh
586—	Nell, of Shorne Mills	By Charles Garvice
587—	Katherine’s Two Suitors	By Geraldine Fleming
588—	The Crime of Love	By Barbara Howard
589—	His Father’s Crime	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
590—	What Was She to Him?	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
591—	A Heritage of Hate	By Charles Garvice
592—	Ida Chaloner’s Heart	By Lucy Randall Comfort
593—	Love Will Find the Way	By Wenona Gilman
594—	A Case of Identity	By Richard Marsh
595—	The Shadow of Her Life	By Charles Garvice
596—	Slighted Love	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
597—	Her Fatal Gift	By Geraldine Fleming
598—	His Wife’s Friend	By Mary E. Bryan
599—	At Love’s Cost	By Charles Garvice
600—	St. Elmo	By Augusta J. Evans
601—	The Fate of the Plotter	By Louis Tracy
602—	Married in Error	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
603—	Love and Jealousy	By Lucy Randall Comfort
604—	Only a Working Girl	By Geraldine Fleming
605—	Love, the Tyrant	By Charles Garvice
606—	Mabel’s Sacrifice	By Charlotte M. Stanley
607—	Sybilla, the Siren	By Ida Reade Allen
608—	Love is Love Forevermore	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
609—	John Elliott’s Flirtation	By Lucy May Russell
610—	With All Her Heart	By Charles Garvice
611—	Is Love Worth While?	By Geraldine Fleming
612—	Her Husband’s Other Wife	By Emma Garrison Jones
613—	Philip Bennion’s Death	By Richard Marsh
614—	Little Phillis’ Lover	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
615—	Maida	By Charles Garvice
616—	Strangers to the Grave	By Ida Reade Allen
617—	As a Man Lives	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
618—	The Tide of Fate	By Wenona Gilman
619—	The Cardinal Moth	By Fred M. White
620—	Marcia Drayton	By Charles Garvice
621—	Lynette’s Wedding	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
622—	His Madcap Sweetheart	By Emma Garrison Jones
623—	Love at the Loom	By Geraldine Fleming
624—	A Bachelor Girl	By Lucy May Russell
625—	Kyra’s Fate	By Charles Garvice
626—	The Joss	By Richard Marsh
627—	My Little Love	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
628—	A Daughter of the Marionis	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
629—	The Lady of Beaufort Park	By Wenona Gilman
630—	The Verdict of the Heart	By Charles Garvice
631—	A Love Concealed	By Emma Garrison Jones
632—	Cruelly Divided	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
633—	The Strange Disappearance of Lady Delia	By Louis Tracy
634—	Love’s Golden Spell	By Geraldine Fleming
635—	A Coronet of Shame	By Charles Garvice
636—	Sinned Against	By Mary E. Bryan
637—	If It Were True!	By Wenona Gilman
638—	A Golden Barrier	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
639—	A Hateful Bondage	By Barbara Howard
640—	A Girl of Spirit	By Charles Garvice
641—	Master of Men	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
642—	A Fair Enchantress	By Ida Reade Allen
643—	The Power of Love	By Geraldine Fleming
644—	No Time for Penitence	By Wenona Gilman
645—	A Jest of Fate	By Charles Garvice
646—	Her Sister’s Secret	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
647—	Bitterly Atoned	By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
648—	Gertrude Elliott’s Crucible	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
649—	The Corner House	By Fred M. White
650—	Diana’s Destiny	By Charles Garvice
651—	Love’s Clouded Dawn	By Wenona Gilman
652—	Little Vixen	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
653—	Her Heart’s Challenge	By Barbara Howard
654—	Vivian’s Love Story	By Mrs. E. Burke Collins
655—	Linked by Fate	By Charles Garvice
656—	Hearts of Stone	By Geraldine Fleming
657—	In the Service of Love	By Richard Marsh
658—	Love’s Devious Course	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
659—	Told in the Twilight	By Ida Reade Allen
660—	The Mills of the Gods	By Wenona Gilman
661—	The Man of the Hour	By Sir William Magnay
662—	A Little Barbarian	By Charlotte Kingsley
663—	Creatures of Destiny	By Charles Garvice
664—	A Southern Princess	By Emma Garrison Jones
665—	Where Love Dwelt	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
666—	A Fateful Promise	By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
667—	The Goddess—A Demon	By Richard Marsh
668—	From Tears to Smiles	By Ida Reade Allen
669—	Tempted by Gold	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
670—	Better Than Riches	By Wenona Gilman
671—	When Love Is Young	By Charles Garvice
672—	Craven Fortune	By Fred M. White
673—	Her Life’s Burden	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
674—	The Heart of Hetta	By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
675—	The Breath of Slander	By Ida Reade Allen
676—	My Lady Beth	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
677—	The Wooing of Esther Gray	By Louis Tracy
678—	The Shadow Between Them	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
679—	Gold in the Gutter	By Charles Garvice
680—	Master of Her Fate	By Geraldine Fleming
681—	In Full Cry	By Richard Marsh
682—	My Pretty Maid	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
683—	An Unhappy Bargain	By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
684—	True Love Endures	By Ida Reade Allen
685—	India’s Punishment	By Laura Jean Libbey
686—	The Castle of the Shadows	By Mrs. C. N. Williamson
687—	My Own Sweetheart	By Wenona Gilman
688—	Only a Kiss	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
689—	Lola Dunbar’s Crime	By Barbara Howard
690—	Ruth, the Outcast	By Mrs. Mary E. Bryan
691—	Her Dearest Love	By Geraldine Fleming
692—	The Man of Millions	By Ida Reade Allen
693—	For Another’s Fault	By Charlotte M. Stanley
694—	The Belle of Saratoga	By Lucy Randall Comfort
695—	The Mystery of the Unicorn	By Sir William Magnay
696—	The Bride’s Opals	By Emma Garrison Jones
697—	One of Life’s Roses	By Effie Adelaide Rowlands
698—	The Battle of Hearts	By Geraldine Fleming
699—	Sworn to Silence	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
700—	In Wolf’s Clothing	By Charles Garvice
701—	A Lost Sweetheart	By Ida Reade Allen
702—	The Stronger Passion	By Mrs. Lillian R. Drayton
703—	Mr. Marx’s Secret	By E. Phillips Oppenheim
704—	Had She Loved Him Less!	By Laura Jean Libbey
705—	The Adventure of Princess Sylvia	Mrs. C. N. Williamson
706—	In Love’s Paradise	By Charlotte M. Stanley
707—	At Another’s Bidding	By Ida Reade Allen
708—	Sold for Gold	By Geraldine Fleming
709—	Lady Gay’s Pride	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller

727—	His Willing Slave	By Lillian R. Drayton
728—	Her Share of Sorrow	By Wenona Gilman
729—	Loved at Last	By Geraldine Fleming
730—	John Hungerford’s Redemption	By Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
731—	His Two Loves	By Ida Reade Allen

732—	Eric Braddon’s Love	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
733—	Garrison’s Finish	By W. B. M. Ferguson
734—	Sylvia, the Forsaken	By Charlotte M. Stanley
735—	Married for Money	By Lucy Randall Comfort

3—	The Love of Violet Lee	By Julia Edwards
4—	For a Woman’s Honor	By Bertha M. Clay
5—	The Senator’s Favorite	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
6—	The Midnight Marriage	By A. M. Douglas
8—	Beautiful But Poor	By Julia Edwards
9—	The Virginia Heiress	May Agnes Fleming
10—	Little Sunshine	By Francis S. Smith
11—	The Gipsy’s Daughter	By Bertha M. Clay
13—	The Little Widow	By Julia Edwards
14—	Violet Lisle	By Bertha M. Clay
15—	Dr. Jack	By St. George Rathborne
16—	The Fatal Card	By Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson
17—	Leslie’s Loyalty (His Love So True)	By Charles Garvice
18—	Dr. Jack’s Wife	By St. George Rathborne
19—	Mr. Lake of Chicago	By Harry DuBois Milman
20—	The Senator’s Bride	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
21—	A Heart’s Idol	By Bertha M. Clay
22—	Elaine	By Charles Garvice
23—	Miss Pauline of New York	By St. George Rathborne
24—	A Wasted Love (On Love’s Altar)	By Charles Garvice
25—	Little Southern Beauty	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
26—	Captain Tom	By St. George Rathborne
27—	Estelle’s Millionaire Lover	By Julia Edwards
28—	Miss Caprice	By St. George Rathborne
29—	Theodora	By Victorien Sardou
30—	Baron Sam	By St. George Rathborne
31—	A Siren’s Love	By Robert Lee Tyler
32—	The Blockade Runner	By J. Perkins Tracy
33—	Mrs. Bob	By St. George Rathborne
34—	Pretty Geraldine	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
35—	The Great Mogul	By St. George Rathborne
36—	Fedora	By Victorien Sardou
37—	The Heart of Virginia	By J. Perkins Tracy
38—	The Nabob of Singapore	By St. George Rathborne
39—	The Colonel’s Wife	By Warren Edwards
40—	Monsieur Bob	By St. George Rathborne
41—	Her Heart’s Desire (An Innocent Girl)	By Charles Garvice
42—	Another Woman’s Husband	By Bertha M. Clay
43—	Little Coquette Bonnie	By Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
45—	A Yale Man	By Robert Lee Tyler

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The strength of love

Table of Contents

The Strength of Love;

THE STRENGTH OF LOVE.

CHAPTER I. RIVALS IN LOVE.

CHAPTER II. THE OTHER ONE.

CHAPTER III. THE SPELL OF LOVE.

CHAPTER IV. FALSE.

CHAPTER V. A CRUEL COQUETTE.

CHAPTER VI. “I CANNOT GIVE UP MY LOVE.”

CHAPTER VII. TEMPTED TO END IT ALL.

CHAPTER VIII. A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.

CHAPTER IX. SHE MUST KEEP THE SECRET.

CHAPTER X. DAISIE’S DESPAIR.

CHAPTER XI. SHE COULD NEVER FORGET.

CHAPTER XII. AN UNBIDDEN GUEST.

CHAPTER XIII. “HER OWN AGAIN.”

CHAPTER XIV. “LOVE IS HEAVEN.”

CHAPTER XV. “THE FAULT WAS MINE!”

CHAPTER XVI. FAITHFUL.

CHAPTER XVII. HIS CRUEL RIVAL.

CHAPTER XVIII. “BE KIND TO ME.”

CHAPTER XIX. STRANGE EMOTION.

CHAPTER XX. HIS CONFESSION.

CHAPTER XXI. SHE LONGED FOR DEATH.

CHAPTER XXII. “THE DIE WAS CAST.”

CHAPTER XXIII. “MISERY LOVES COMPANY.”

CHAPTER XXIV. COALS OF FIRE.

CHAPTER XXV. MORE CRUEL THAN DEATH.

CHAPTER XXVI. EXPIATION.

CHAPTER XXVII. TO REMEMBER A LITTLE WHILE.

CHAPTER XXVIII. “A SHOCKING LITTLE FLIRT.”

CHAPTER XXIX. “FOR DAISIE’S SAKE.”

CHAPTER XXX. REMORSE AND REPENTANCE.

CHAPTER XXXI. THE CRUEL TRUTH.

CHAPTER XXXII. THE SPIDER’S WEB.

CHAPTER XXXIII. LOVE THAT WOULD LAST

CHAPTER XXXIV. UNMASKED.

CHAPTER XXXV. “GOD HELP US!”

CHAPTER XXXVI. THE STRENGTH OF LOVE.

CHAPTER XXXVII. FOR ROYALL’S SAKE.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. “LOVE IS LORD OF ALL.”

Transcriber’s Notes

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

CHAPTER I.
RIVALS IN LOVE.

CHAPTER II.
THE OTHER ONE.

CHAPTER III.
THE SPELL OF LOVE.

CHAPTER IV.
FALSE.

CHAPTER V.
A CRUEL COQUETTE.

CHAPTER VI.
“I CANNOT GIVE UP MY LOVE.”

CHAPTER VII.
TEMPTED TO END IT ALL.

CHAPTER VIII.
A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.

CHAPTER IX.
SHE MUST KEEP THE SECRET.

CHAPTER X.
DAISIE’S DESPAIR.

CHAPTER XI.
SHE COULD NEVER FORGET.

CHAPTER XII.
AN UNBIDDEN GUEST.

CHAPTER XIII.
“HER OWN AGAIN.”

CHAPTER XIV.
“LOVE IS HEAVEN.”

CHAPTER XV.
“THE FAULT WAS MINE!”

CHAPTER XVI.
FAITHFUL.

CHAPTER XVII.
HIS CRUEL RIVAL.

CHAPTER XVIII.
“BE KIND TO ME.”

CHAPTER XIX.
STRANGE EMOTION.

CHAPTER XX.
HIS CONFESSION.

CHAPTER XXI.
SHE LONGED FOR DEATH.

CHAPTER XXII.
“THE DIE WAS CAST.”

CHAPTER XXIII.
“MISERY LOVES COMPANY.”

CHAPTER XXIV.
COALS OF FIRE.

CHAPTER XXV.
MORE CRUEL THAN DEATH.

CHAPTER XXVI.
EXPIATION.

CHAPTER XXVII.
TO REMEMBER A LITTLE WHILE.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
“A SHOCKING LITTLE FLIRT.”

CHAPTER XXIX.
“FOR DAISIE’S SAKE.”

CHAPTER XXX.
REMORSE AND REPENTANCE.

CHAPTER XXXI.
THE CRUEL TRUTH.

CHAPTER XXXII.
THE SPIDER’S WEB.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
LOVE THAT WOULD LAST

CHAPTER XXXIV.
UNMASKED.

CHAPTER XXXV.
“GOD HELP US!”

CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE STRENGTH OF LOVE.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
FOR ROYALL’S SAKE.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
“LOVE IS LORD OF ALL.”