illiam racked his brain in vain to solve the riddle.

He had received no letters from his wife; she had had none from him; and,
with that dreadful scandal and rumor to crush her, to say nothing of
having been driven from the shelter with which he had provided her, what
must she not have suffered?

"Will you read this notice, sir?" Mr. Eldridge asked, pushing the paper
nearer to the baronet, and desiring to intrench himself behind as many
bulwarks as possible.

Sir William bent forward and read it, and he did not wonder then, that
Virgie had felt herself the most wronged of women.

He knew that it had been intended as the announcement of his cousin's
marriage with Margaret Stanhope, but a grave mistake had been made in
prefixing the young man's name with a title, thus making it appear that it
was the baronet who had been married.

Virgie did not know that he had a relative by the same name, so, of
course, taking everything else into consideration, she must have believed
that he had been false to all honor, to his manhood, and to her.

He groaned aloud.

"Oh, what must she have thought of me!" he cried, in despair. Then,
turning to the proprietor of the hotel, he asked, "Where did you get this
paper?"

It was the Hampshire County <i>Journal</i>, and he wondered how it could have
got to New York to accomplish so much mischief.

"I cannot say, sir. I found it in my office here among other papers,
and--and you must confess that such a notice as that was sufficient to
stagger me when I read it."

"Yes," Sir William admitted, white to his lips, "and yet it was heartless
to send her away. It was my cousin--a gentleman bearing the same name--who
was married; but some one made a mistake and added my title. Did <i>she</i>
see that notice?"

"She appeared to know about it, sir."

"It seems as if an enemy had done this to ruin our happiness; but who?"
groaned the miserable husband.

Chapter XX.

Sir William Finds A Trace Of Virgie.

Sir William asked, a little later, when he had succeeded in somewhat
recovering his composure:

"And have you no idea whither my wife went after leaving here?"

"No," Mr. Eldridge said. "I offered to find some nice, quiet place for
her, but she simply thanked me and declined my offer. She then ordered a
carriage and drove away, without giving any definite directions regarding
her destination--at least, in my hearing."

The proprietor was careful not to state that he had b