a railway
accident; and thus all these circumstances being artfully woven into her
letter had something of truth in them, and helped to serve the scheming
woman's purpose.

Chapter XVIII.

"I Will Prove It."

It was very fortunate for Virgie that she had a little one at this time,
else she would have deemed life scarcely worth the living, so stunned and
crushed was she by the terrible blow that had fallen upon her.

For two long hours, after reading that letter from Lady Linton, and the
paper containing that paragraph of William Heath's marriage, she lay as if
paralyzed upon her bed. One would hardly believe that she lived at all,
but for that look of unutterable woe in her eyes and the expression of
agony about her mouth.

But she was aroused at last to a sense of her duties and responsibilities
as a mother, by the crying of little Virgie in the outer room; and yet
that cry was like another dagger plunged into her heart, for it reminded
her that, if the dreadful things which she had been told were true, her
whole future was dishonored--that she was a betrayed and deserted woman
and her child nameless.

"Oh, Heaven! it cannot be!" she cried, lifting her arms with a gesture of
despair and locking her fingers in a convulsive clasp above her head,
while her mind went back over the past and reviewed every event that had
occurred since the beginning of her acquaintance with Sir William Heath.

She had believed in him so thoroughly, he had seemed so noble and true,
so entirely above all deception and double dealing. He had appeared to
love her so devotedly, had been so proud of her as the future mistress of
his beautiful home, and so supremely happy in the anticipation of the
coming of their little one. He had hoped for a son and heir, and yet he
had expressed no disappointment upon learning that their child was a
daughter; he had welcomed the little stranger most tenderly in his letter
and fondly named her, to please himself, for her mother.

He had seemed so impatient and regretful at the thought of leaving her so
long alone, and had promised to come to her the moment that he could
safely leave his mother.

All this made it very difficult for Virgie to believe in his apparent
perfidy and treachery, and yet the evidence against him seemed so
overwhelming that she was convinced in spite of herself.

She did not dream of a plot against her, for she could not conceive of any
motive for one; but his letters