in the cycle of
years had cropped out in this generation, poisoning the fountain of her
youth. Bart, she realized, had played the villain and the ingrate, but
yet it was also true that Bart, and all his class, would have been
powerless before a woman of a different temperament. Who, then, had
undermined this citadel and given it over to plunder and disgrace? Then
with merciless exactness she searched her own heart. Had it been her
fault? What safeguard had she herself neglected? Wherein had she been
false to her trust and her promise to her dying father? What could she
have done to avert it? These ever-haunting, ever-recurring doubts
maddened her.

One thing she was determined upon, cost what it might--to protect her
sister's name. No daughter of Morton Cobden's should be pointed at in
scorn. For generations no stain of dishonor had tarnished the family
name. This must be preserved, no matter who suffered. In this she was
sustained by Martha, her only confidante.

Doctor John heard the news from Jane's lips before it was known to the
villagers. He had come to inquire after Martha.

She met him at the porch entrance, and led him into the drawing-room,
without a word of welcome. Then shutting the door, she motioned him to
a seat opposite her own on the sofa. The calm, determined way with
which this was done--so unusual in one so cordial--startled him. He
felt that something of momentous interest, and, judging from Jane's
face, of serious import, had happened. He invariably took his cue from
her face, and his own spirits always rose or fell as the light in her
eyes flashed or dimmed.

"Is there anything the matter?" he asked nervously. "Martha worse?"

"No, not that; Martha is around again--it is about Lucy and me." The
voice did not sound like Jane's.

The doctor looked at her intently, but he did not speak. Jane
continued, her face now deathly pale, her words coming slowly.

"You advised me some time ago about Lucy's going to Trenton, and I am
glad I followed it. You thought it would strengthen her love for us all
and teach her to love me the better. It has--so much so that hereafter
we will never be separated. I hope now you will also approve of what I
have just decided upon. Lucy is going abroad to live, and I am going
with her."

As the words fell from her lips her eyes crept up to his face, watching
the effect of her statement. It was a cold, almost brutal way of
putting it, she knew, but she dared not trus