e of old!"

Dainty dragged her trembling limbs as fast as her strength would permit
toward the great house, lifting her large blue eyes eagerly up to the
windows in search of some familiar face, though hope was very weak in
her trembling heart.

It was two long, weary months since the first day of August, and what
might not have happened in that time?

If Sheila Kelly had told her the truth, her young husband must be dead
and buried long ago, and the only friend left to her in the wide, cruel
world would be her mother, if indeed that dear mother lived, for what
more likely than that she had died of heart-break at her daughter's
mysterious disappearance?

Dainty, who knew so well her mother's devotion, feared that such a
calamity was but too possible.

But she realized that even if her mother lived she was very unlikely to
be found at Ellsworth now. Her bitter enemies would have driven her away
long ago.

Still a subtle yearning drew her to the home of her beloved, though, as
she drew near to the scene of her hopes or fears, her keen emotion
almost overwhelmed her, driving the faint color back from her wan cheeks
to her weak heart, and making her tremble so that she could scarcely
advance one foot beyond the other.

How changed and lonely everything seemed since she had gone away? She
did not even meet one of the servants as she hurried on, wrapping
closely about her shivering form a thin cashmere scarf that kind Sairy
Ann Peters had pressed on her to protect her, in her light summer dress,
from the cold autumn winds. Thus panting, trembling, starting, and
alternately hoping and despairing, she came close enough at last to gaze
at the upper windows of the handsome suite of apartments that belonged
to Lovelace Ellsworth.

She paused with a suppressed sob of excitement, and swept her glance
rapidly from window to window.

Suddenly, with a cry of ecstatic joy, the girl sank to her knees with
clasped, upraised hands.

"God in Heaven, I thank Thee!"

On her pallid, hopeless face had come such a light of joy and gratitude
and boundless surprise as can only shine after long grief and pain when
the grave seems to give up its dead and our beloved live again.

Her wistful, yearning eyes had been granted the most joyful sight that
Heaven could have given--the sight of Lovelace Ellsworth sitting at the
open window of his room, gazing with a strange, intent look at the
setting sun as it sank below the mountain-tops