love
alone."

Ripon looked at her, speechless. As she spoke the glorious lips had a
curl that was above the earth, and the eyes a glory that was beyond it;
and the grand lines of her figure formed and melted and new formed again
as she leaned, restless, upon the fallen stone. She threw her arm about
his neck, and drew him down to her.

"Geoffrey, did you ever love me? You never could have loved me, when you
left me so. See, the broken sixpence you gave me. I have still got it. I
have always kept it." And she tore her collar open, and showed him the
broken silver, hanging on a ribbon of her hair about her neck. "Oh,
Geoffrey, you never knew that I loved you so! See--" and she drew out
the coin and ribbon, and placed it, still warm from her bosom, in his
hand. "Geoffrey, I care for nothing but love--this world is a wreck, a
sham, a ruin--all is gone--all is gone but love--dear love--"

She drew him closer to her breast. For a moment Geoffrey looked into her
marvellous eyes. Then a faint shadow passed across them, and looking
aside he thought he saw Miss Windsor, alone, passing one of the arches.

"Hush!" he cried; and throwing the ribbon down he rose and stepped a
pace or so aside. "Forgive me, Eleanor," he said to her, as she looked
at him, "I loved you once--God knows--but now--it is too late."

CHAPTER VIII.

SPRETAE INJURIA FORMAE.

Mrs. Oswald Carey rose the following morning before anybody was
stirring. She passed down the staircase noiselessly and opened the front
door, when, much to her annoyance, she found herself face to face with
Mr. Jawkins, who was smoking a matutinal pipe on the front steps.

"Whither away so early, Mrs. Carey?"

Her first impulse was to tell a falsehood, but the keen, clever
countenance of her interrogator convinced her of the futility of such a
plan.

"To London," she said, simply; "can I be of service to you there?"

"You know I depend upon you to sing 'My Queen' after the _dejeuner_."

"A matter of imperative importance calls me away. I shall return
to-morrow."

Jawkins looked inexorable, and declared that he could not afford to have
her go. "You are the lodestone of my organization, the influence by
which the various celebrities I chaperone are harmonized. If it is a
question of pounds, I mean dollars--this new currency is very
puzzling--dictate your own terms. I have a valuable diamond here which
once belonged to our sovereign. I shall be happy to make you a pre