shaped glass door leading out upon the
iron veranda; and at an oblong table in the middle of the floor, the
figure of a man, who rose, taller and taller, until he seemed a giant,
drawn to his full height, and resting for support on the hand that was
rested upon the table. Intensity of emotion arrested her breath, as she
gazed at the silvered head, piercing black eyes, and spare wasted framp
of the handsome man, who had always reigned as a brutal ogre in her
imagination. The fire in his somewhat sunken eyes, seemed to bid
defiance to the whiteness of the abundant hair, and of the heavy
mustache which drooped over his lips; and every feature in his
patrician face revealed not only a long line of blue-blooded ancestors,
but the proud haughtiness which had been considered always as
distinctively characteristic of the Darringtons as their finely cut
lips, thin nostrils, small feet and unusual height.

Unprepared for the apparition that confronted him, Luke Darrington
bowed low, surveyed her intently, then pointed to a chair opposite his
own.

"Walk in, Madam; or perhaps it may be Miss? Will you take a seat, and
excuse the feebleness that forces me to receive visits in my bed-room?"

As he reseated himself, Beryl advanced and stood beside him, but for a
moment she found it impossible to utter the words, rehearsed so
frequently during her journey; and while she hesitated, he curiously
inspected her face and form.

Her plain, but perfectly fitting bunting dress, was of the color,
popularly dominated "navy-blue," and the linen collar and cuffs were
scarcely whiter than the round throat and wrists they encircled. The
burnished auburn hair clinging in soft waves to her brow, was twisted
into a heavy coil, which the long walk had shaken down till it rested
almost on her neck; and though her heart beat furiously, the pale calm
face might have been marble, save for the scarlet lines of her
beautiful mouth, and the steady glow of the dilated pupils in her great
gray eyes.

"Pray be seated; and tell me to whom I am indebted for the pleasure of
this visit?"

"I am merely the bearer of a letter which will explain itself, and my
presence, in your house."

Mechanically he took the preferred letter, and with his eyes still
lingering in admiration upon the classic outlines of her face and form,
leaned back comfortably against the velvet lining of his armchair.

"Are you some exiled goddess travelling incognito? If we lived in the