tter was the older, the handsomer, and the
most prosperous (his name is remembered yet in connection with South
American schemes of large importance), but it was Frank she married.

That real love, ardent if unreasonable, lay at the bottom of her choice,
is evident enough to those who followed the career of the young
couple. But it was a jealous love which brooked no rival, and as Frank
Postlethwaite was of an impulsive and erratic nature, scenes soon
occurred between them which, while revealing the extraordinary force of
the young wife's character, led to no serious break till after her son
was born, and this, notwithstanding the fact that Frank had long given
up making a living, and that they were openly dependent on their wealthy
brother, now fast approaching the millionaire status.

This brother--the Peruvian King, as some called him--must have been
an extraordinary man. Though cherishing his affection for the spirited
Arabella to the point of remaining a bachelor for her sake, he betrayed
none of the usual signs of disappointed love; but on the contrary made
every effort to advance her happiness, not only by assuring to herself
and husband an adequate income, but by doing all he could in other and
less open ways to lessen any sense she might entertain of her mistake in
preferring for her lifemate his self-centred and unstable brother. She
should have adored him; but though she evinced gratitude enough, there
is nothing to prove that she ever gave Frank Postlethwaite the least
cause to cherish any other sentiment towards his brother than that of
honest love and unqualified respect. Perhaps he never did cherish
any other. Perhaps the change which everyone saw in the young couple
immediately after the birth of their only child was due to another
cause. Gossip is silent on this point. All that it insists upon is that
from this time evidences of a growing estrangement between them became
so obvious that even the indulgent Andrew could not blind himself to it;
showing his sense of trouble, not by lessening their income, for that
he doubled, but by spending more time in Peru and less in New York where
the two were living.

However,--and here we enter upon those details which I have ventured
to characterize as uncommon, he was in this country and in the actual
company of his brother when the accident occurred which terminated
both their lives. It was the old story of a skidding motor, and Mrs.
Postlethwaite, having been