might have been vastly different; but he grew morose and taciturn,
and I, accustomed to gay society and the admiration of crowds, was
left to mope alone in a strange country, with no companionship
whatever. What wonder that I hungered for the old life, or that a
casual admiring glance, or a few words even of flattery, were like
cold water to one perishing with thirst! Then new hope came into
my lonely life, and I spent months in dreamy, happy anticipations
of the future love and companionship of my child. But even that
boon was denied me. It was hard enough, believing, as I did, that
my child had died, but to find that I was robbed of that which would
have been not only my joy and happiness, but my salvation from the
life which followed!" She paused, apparently unable to proceed,
and buried her eyes in a dainty handkerchief, while Harold
Mainwaring watched her, the hard lines deepening about his mouth.

"After that," she resumed, in trembling tones, "all hope was gone.
Your father deserted me soon afterwards, leaving me nearly penniless,
and a flew years later I returned to England."

"To find Hugh Mainwaring?" he queried.

"Not at the first," she answered, but her eyes fell before the
cynicism of his glance. "I had no thought of him then, but I learned
through Richard Hobson, whom I met in London at that time, of the
will which had been made in my husband's favor, but which he told me
had been destroyed by Hugh Mainwaring. He said nothing of the clause
forbidding that any of the property should pass to me, and I
immediately sailed for America in search of Hugh Mainwaring,
believing that, with my knowledge of the will, I, as his brother's
widow, could get some hold upon him by which I could compel him
either to share the property with me or to marry me."

"Then you were not married to Hugh Mainwaring in England, as you
testified at the inquest?"

"No," she replied, passionately; "I was never married to him. I
have made many men my dupes and slaves, but he was the one man who
made a dupe of me, and I hating him all the time!"

"And Walter!" he exclaimed, "you stated that he was the son of Hugh
Mainwaring."

"He is Hugh Mainwaring's son and mine," she answered, with bitter
emphasis; "that was another of my schemes which failed. I found I
had little hold upon Hugh Mainwaring, while he had the same power
over me as in the days before I had learned to despise him. When
Walter was born, I hoped he would the