ack eyes like his pappy's? Don't you
want ter kiss him fo' his sweet mudder's sake?" laughing.

"Mammy!" he cried in sudden, wild, suspicious excitement, as he bent
closely to look at the infant.

"Yes, Marse Love, 'tis your own li'l baby boy borned almost two weeks
ago, an' de fines' li'l chap alive! Miss Dainty she come to black mammy,
o' course, in her trubble, an' I cheers her up till li'l Marse Lovelace
Ellsworth he come to laugh at her wid his pappy's sassy black eyes. Hi!
hi! he gone like a shot at de fust call o' her voice!" for Love had
dashed past her wildly at a low, startled cry, from the open door of a
room just beyond.

He dashed wildly across the threshold, glanced around, and there she lay
lovely and pale as a lily among soft white pillows--his lost bride, his
adored wife, the tender mother of his beautiful child!

"My darling!" and he was on his knees with his arms about her, and his
lips on her face.

For a moment, under the shock of joy, Dainty's senses reeled; but he
kissed the life back to her closing eyes and the smiles back to the
quivering lips.

"Oh, my darling, my wife, God has given us back to each other for all
time and eternity!"

CHAPTER XL.

CONCLUSION.

The bolt of Fate falls sometimes like a flash of lightning from a clear
sky.

Thus it came to Mrs. Ellsworth and her scheming nieces in the moment
when they felt themselves most secure.

On that golden May evening, when Love Ellsworth found his happiness
again, they had been busy laying their plans for a summer campaign.

They decided to take an early trip to Europe, and return in August for a
brief tour of the watering-places before the close of the season.

"We will get us some loves of dresses and bonnets while in Paris," cried
Ela, while Olive added:

"And some rare jewels. I think I should like some fine rubies best of
all."

With a slight sarcasm, Mrs. Ellsworth exclaimed:

"Really, for two young girls who were reared in poverty, you two have
developed very extravagant tastes--so extravagant that I could not
afford to gratify them if I had not so opportunely come into my
step-son's fortune!"

"But, Aunt Judith, we thought you were quite wealthy in your own right,"
both cried in concert.

"So I was; but for years I have speculated in stocks, and sometimes I
made large gains, at others lost heavily. To-day I received notice of a
terrible loss by the failure of a bank in Richmond in which the residue
of