Year: 1876

really rel1ef 10 ner 10 open her ears tC
the rumors and suspicious which circu.
lated among those who did not know
Mark as we did. 1t justified her in cast
ing aside the show of sadness, which had
already ceased to be anything but a
show, and when doubt was once enter
tanned, it was easy for it to become a
settled, angry conviction.


Well, time passed on, as IL always
does, whether its foot falls ON roses or
on breaking hearts. We were all col
lected in the drawing room. How well L
remember the scene The room was
lighted only by the wood fire, which
sent its fine flickers wavering over floor
and ceiling. George sat on low otto
man. How thin her face looked as the
bright lights and deep shadows chased
each other across it ! She was dressed
in black, put on, perhaps, poor child
as Il silent emblem of the sorrow that
had almost died into hopelessness. Ida
was at the other side of the room, talk
ing to young Somerby, who had dropped
in, just as she used to talk to Mark,
with the same pretty gestures, the same
arch infections, the same soft, ringing
laughter. How could she2 But it was
the child's nature. I dared not forget
that, or should have hated her for her
fickleness and heartlesshess.


Suddenly the door into the hall open
ed. And who stood there, a black fig
IRE sharply defined against the glare of
light For an instant we all sat mute
and motionless, uncertain, 1 think,
whether it was ghost or not. For we
had become so sure, George and /, that
he was dead, you see, though neither of
us had breathed the suspicion to the
other, nor would we have acknowledged
it had we been taxed with it. For an
instant we sat so, and then with q low
cry of "Mark oh, Mark is it you at
last ?" George sprang forward, her face
all lighted up with eager joy and tri-
umph.


But he2 He scarcely noticed her
my poor little George just took her
hand mechanically as he peered into the
shadows.


"Ida I" exclaimed, sharply, for the
child had never stirred, though she saw
him well enough.


Then she came forward, slowly and re-
luctantly. L think she was frightened,
for she hated tragedy with every fiber of
her nature, and she had been living in
the midst of it for two weeks, and now
its elimination in bodily shapes TODD be-
fore her. She did not know what to do.
The kitten had nothing in her nature to
enable her to rise to the level of such a
crisis as this. She could neither cast
away her suspicious nor avow them bold
ly to his face. She just stood before
him, with eyes half downcast, half avert
ed, but with fear and suspicion and dis
trust written so legibly on every feature
that the young man must have been
blind indeed not to read that silent Ian
guage. Not word of welcome, not a
question as to where he had been, moth
ing but that confused, blushing silence
which the most easily deluded lover
could never have mistaken for the timid
ity of love and Joy. l think Mark was
bewildered at first, but as he stood and
gazed at her, gradually the meaning of
it all grew plain to him, and his express
sion changed. saw the pride and calm
contempt slowly rise and overflow his
face, as it were, as wave may spread
slowly over flat when the tide comes
in. There was no anger in his look, no
resentment. He seemed only like one
who wakens slowly from pleasant
dream. And then-then he turnel to
my George at last, and over his face
there came glow and light such as L
had never seen there before, as he said,
simply:


"But George believed in me-"


And she went to him and wept her
heart away in his encircling arm, and
drew Ida softly away and left them.
Young Somerby had had sense enough
to take himself off before. So George
had won not much of prize, after all,
to my thinking I; but if she was satisfied,
that was all that was necessary.


OF course / was dying to hear Mark 8
story, bat had not the heart to intrude
upon them then. When he did tell it at
last, it seemed more like crazy dream
than sober, matter-of-fact episode of
| the nineteenth century. When he got
into the carriage with Mrs. D'Arleton,
she, it seems, began to talk in so bril-
! liant and fascinating a manner that he
I'd not notice the direction in which


.ey were driving until they stopped be-
lore large building, which he recogniz-
edas the lunatic asylum. Requesting him
to wait few minutes, as she had bust
ness inside, she left him. Shortly after
he was greeted politely by the doctor in
charge, who came to the carriage, and,
addressing him as Mr.. D'Arleton, re-
quested him to step out for minute.
Mark disclaimed the name, but for this
DIR. Langley was prepared, as Mrs. d.
Arleton had told him that her husband
was the victim of a strange hallucination,
believing himself clerk in the house OF
Morton & Co., and giving his name as
Mark Drayton. Recognizing the trap
set for him, Mark by his own account,
lost his head for the moment, knocked
down one or two of the men who ad.
vanced to seize him, and conducted
himself generally so like lunatic that
there was no room for doubt of Mrs.
D'Arleton's story in any mind. Oh
course he was overpowered at last and
taken into the building, catching @
glimpse as he passed of Mrs. D'Arletor
in an attitude of bitter and most becom
ing grief. She had taken the precau
tion to pay his board month in ad
vance, thus securing his detention lone
enough to allow her to escape with hel
booty. As time went on and he became
calmer his entreaties TO be confronted