eath-blow.

She did not know how to credit the startling story, for she knew that
her fair daughter never had a lover before coming to Ellsworth; but she
did not know how to contradict the letter they showed her that seemed to
be written in Dainty's own hand. She could only weep incessantly, and
wonder why Heaven had dealt her so cruel a blow.

Then followed the attempted murder of Ellsworth; and rousing herself
from the hopeless despair into which she was sinking, the noble woman
gave all her time and attention to caring for the sufferer, trying to
lose her own keen sense of trouble in care for another.

And Love owed much to her tender care; for the hired nurse proved very
incompetent, and the ladies of the household gave no help, Mrs.
Ellsworth continuing so ill for days as to engross the attention of
Olive and Ela.

In fact, they took no further interest in Lovelace Ellsworth, now that
he lay unconscious and dying, for what could be gained by kindness to
him now? It was better to cling to Mrs. Ellsworth, for she would inherit
all her step-son's money by his failure to marry, and perhaps they might
come in for a share through her favor.

So Mrs. Chase devoted herself to the sick man, weeping, hoping, and
praying for him to recover and help her to find Dainty; for in
struggling back to consciousness that morning, she had heard vaguely, as
in a dream, Love's assertion to his step-mother that he was already the
husband of her daughter.

This very day, a week after Dainty's disappearance, she had sought an
interview with the now recovered Mrs. Ellsworth, and begged her to use
some of her abundant means, as Love's agent, in searching for Dainty.

"It can not be true--that story that Dainty eloped with another for she
never had any lover but Mr. Ellsworth. Besides, when I was awakening
from my strange sleep that morning, I heard him telling you he had
married my daughter two weeks before," she said, wondering why Mrs.
Ellsworth gasped and grew so deathly pale before she burst into that
strange laugh, declaring that Mrs. Chase had dreamed the whole thing.

"Nothing of the kind was said by my step-son," she declared, firmly;
adding, with a sneer: "Your trouble must have turned your brain, causing
you to imagine such a ridiculous thing; and I hope you will not mention
it to any one else, for Lovelace Ellsworth was the soul of honor, I
assure you, and the last person in the world to lead an innocent young
girl into an