. The cutting and
arrangement of the stones is peculiar, and there's not another like it
in Warwick." She arose to her feet, the ring gripped in her hand till
the edge of the cross almost cut her tender palm. "And one thing more,
Lena. I have a reason for asking it. Do you love Mr. Emmet?"

There was no need to answer, and indeed the girl could not utter a
word, so intense was her misery, so overpowering her assurance of
impending disaster.

"And do you suppose he loves you, just because he has kissed you and
given you this ring which he picked up in the car?"

There was still no answer, and the next words came like the voice of
fate.

"Well, I feel it my duty to tell you that a man in his position can
only be amusing himself when he pays attention to a girl in yours. You
must have nothing more to do with him. It's better for you to know it
now, and to have done with this infatuation, for I tell you plainly, he
means nothing that an honest girl can accept."

Left alone, Lena tottered as if she would have fallen; then sank upon
her knees and crept to the window. With trembling fingers she raised
the sash and let in the cool night air upon her bare neck and
shoulders. She let in also a fuller burst of music and cheering, and
through her tears she saw the lights dancing wildly, like a procession
of fallen stars. Somewhere in that stream of splendour and sound he
sat in his carriage, proud and triumphant, and with no thought of her.

In her own room Miss Wycliffe stood before her mirror, looking now at
the white reflection of her face, and now at the recovered ring which
she had tossed upon the bureau, while in her splendid eyes blazed the
light of a great and implacable anger. For the man who was at that
moment passing by in the street, who had taken her gift and bestowed it
upon a servant, had been her husband for more than two years.

CHAPTER XI

AT THE OLD CONTINENTAL

One snowy afternoon, shortly before Christmas, Mayor Emmet came out to
his sleigh from the City Hall, drawing on his gloves with a sense of
release from unaccustomed confinement. While others hurried along,
shrinking into their coats as if they would withdraw as far as possible
from the nipping cold, he strode slowly and breathed deep, showing a
strong man's conscious enjoyment of Nature in one of her sterner moods.
His manner displayed a consciousness of something else also, of the
position he meant to grace. He was already