mother in a drugged sleep that will most
likely last several hours longer. I have examined the dregs left in
their pitcher of ice-water last night, and found a potent drug in it. I
may also tell you that the overhead wire connecting this room with the
bell in yours has been cut, thus making the bell powerless to ring if
Miss Chase had wished to summon you to her assistance. There is evidence
that the malice of Miss Chase's enemies has triumphed at last,"
sorrowfully replied the old doctor, who had in his heart been a true and
stanch friend to the lovers.

A groan of anguish passed Love's pallid lips.

"Oh, my dearest, what have they done to you, my treasure, the ruthless
enemies who hated you!"

At that moment a stately figure in rustling silk crossed the threshold,
and a haughty voice exclaimed:

"Doctor Platt and Mr. Chilton, will you kindly withdraw for a few
moments? I wish to speak privately with my step-son."

She closed the door on their retreating forms, glanced scornfully at the
silent, sleeping face of Mrs. Chase, and exclaimed, eagerly:

"What strange story is this that is being whispered around, Love, that
Dainty has deserted you and eloped with a more favored lover?"

"There is the note I found on her pillow. You are welcome to read it,"
he replied, coldly.

She took it up from the table, glanced quickly over the contents, and
groaned:

"What a wicked girl to throw you over at the eleventh hour like this!
How will you bear the shame of it, my poor boy, jilted like this, at the
very altar, by the poor nobody whom you had stooped to raise to your
side?"

Love answered not one word. He simply rested his head on his elbow, and
stared curiously into Mrs. Ellsworth's eager, excited face with his
dark, penetrating eyes as she continued:

"I am pained for you, my dear Love, but not at all surprised. I feared
something like this, for I knew that Vernon Ashley was Dainty's lover,
not Ela's, and I believed that love would triumph in the end over the
greed for gold. Poor Dainty! she must have loved him well to sacrifice
all her ambitions for a poor man's love. But she will be happier with
him than she could have been with you. The hand without the heart does
not promise well for wedded bliss."

Still without a word, he listened to the fluent tide of her speech, a
strange, mocking light in his eyes, whose portent she could not fathom.

She continued, insinuatingly:

"But Dainty Chase has done you a cru