ving a very reasonable preference for the illustrated
papers of his own country; otherwise--there is no telling--he might
have observed the resemblance and escaped the State prison, whither he
assuredly never would have gone had he married Madeline Anderson--as
he fully intended to do when Miss Forde came over. He was worth at that
time a great deal of money, besides being more personable than any one
would have believed who knew him as '1596.' His fiancee was never too
obtrusively in evidence, and if Miss Forde thought of Miss Anderson with
any scruple, it was probably to reflect that if she could not take care
of these things she did not deserve to have them. This at all events was
how her attitude expressed itself practically; and the upshot was that
Miss Anderson lost them. There came a day when Frederick Prendergast,
in much discomfort of mind, took to Violet the news that Madeline had
brought their engagement to an end. She, Violet, gave him some tea, and
they talked frankly of the absurd misconception of the relations between
them upon which his dismissal was founded; and Prendergast went away
much comforted and wholly disposed to respect Miss Anderson's startling
wishes. She, with what both the others thought excellent taste,
persuaded her mother and sister to move to Brooklyn; and so far as the
thoroughfares and social theatres of New York were concerned, the city
over the river might have been a nunnery which had closed its gates upon
her. It was only in imagination that she heard Frederick Prendergast's
wedding-bells when, two months later, he was united to Miss Forde in
Grace Church, and that after the fact, their melody being brought to her
inner sense next day by the marriage notice in the 'Tribune'.

It would be painful, in view of what we know of Frederick Prendergast,
to dwell upon what Madeline Anderson undeniably felt. Besides her
emotions were not destructively acute, they only lasted longer than
any one could have either expected or approved. She suffered for him as
well; she saw as plainly as he did the first sordid consequences of his
mistake the afternoon he came to solicit her friendship, having lost
other claims; and it was then perhaps, that her responsibility in
allowing Violet Forde to spoil his life for him began to suggest itself
to her. Up to that time she had thought of the matter differently, as
she would have said, selfishly. He was not permitted to come again; but
he went away lightene