there was a sullen, resolute expression on her
face which told of some purpose that she was determining to carry out at
all hazards.

When Sir William's trunks were at length emptied, she rang for a servant
to take them to a storeroom, after which she repaired to her own
apartment, where she wrote steadily and rapidly for more than an hour.

At the end of that time she folded and sealed her letter, and directed it
to "Mrs. Sara Farnum, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Cal.," and the very
next post from Heathdale carried on its way the missive that was destined
to help accomplish one of the greatest wrongs that had ever been
perpetrated.

The reader will doubtless remember that when the dowager Lady Heath and
Lady Linton were discussing Sir William's sudden marriage the name "Sadie"
was mentioned in connection with the baronet.

Sadie was a beautiful English girl of two or three-and-twenty and the
youngest child and only daughter of Mrs. Sara Farnum, to whom Lady Linton
had just written.

Sadie Farnum had said and thought a great deal upon learning of Sir
William's union with the American maiden, for the news had been a terrible
death-blow to her own hopes and ambitions.

She had long entertained the desire and intention of one day becoming the
mistress of Heathdale; it had been the dearest wish of her heart, and for
years she had used every art in which she was skilled to bring the man
she loved to her feet, and thus accomplish her purpose.

Mrs. Farnum and Lady Linton had been intimate friends from girlhood, and
it had also been a darling scheme of theirs to marry the daughter of the
one to the brother of the other, thus securing a fine position and title
to Sadie, and adding to the already well-filled coffers of Heathdale the
handsome fortune which the young girl would bring to her husband.

But Sir William had never appeared to be particularly fond of the society
of ladies, at least he was not what would be termed a ladies' man,
although he went frequently into company, and did not fall in with those
plans for his future happiness as readily as their projectors desired.

He liked Sadie well enough as a friend, and had been in the way of seeing
a great deal of her, as Lady Linton frequently invited her to spend
several weeks with her. He even promised to correspond with her when he
left England to travel in America, and at the time of his first meeting
with Virgie, he had in his pocket a voluminous letter indited