that intervened
between the notification and the day set for the hearing of the case. Day
after day she waited and watched for some tidings from her husband
starting at every unusual sound, growing almost faint at the opening and
shutting of a door, and even imagining she saw a familiar form as she sat
at her window and eagerly scanned every passer-by.

She grew thin and pale with this dreadful suspense; she seemed to be
consuming with fever, and was so restless and nervous that her friend, Mr.
Knight, feared that her mind might suffer from such tension.

She hoped until the last moment, although she tried to conceal it, but
when the dreaded day arrived, when her case was presented and there was
no one to contest it; when the judge rendered his decision, declaring that
her marriage was null and void, that henceforth in the eyes of the law and
the world she was free from the man to whom she had solemnly promised to
cling until death should part them, her courage and strength forsook her,
and she was carried lifeless from the court-room, while for three weeks
afterward she lay weak and ill, and almost indifferent to life.

The only grain of comfort in this time of woe was derived from the fact
that the child had been given to her, and she had no fear of ever having
it taken from her, even if Sir William should ever be moved to a desire to
have her.

For a time she seemed wholly unlike herself; but the kind-hearted
publisher knew that the best antidote for all kinds of trouble is work,
and he kept her crowded with orders, until she felt obliged to rally her
failing energies and to take up the burdens of life once more.

Thus the winter passed; but, when summer came again, little Virgie began
to droop in the noisome atmosphere of the city, and the physician said she
must be taken where she could have purer air and country living; so Virgie
went to a quiet little place a few miles out of the city, where she
remained the entire season, not returning to San Francisco until late in
October, and thus a cruel fate again seemed to mock her, for during her
absence Sir William Heath had come to seek her again, and not finding her,
he, too, had grown heart-sick with despair and hope deferred.

Chapter XXV.

Sir William Becomes Guardian.

Very distressing were the thoughts of the young baronet, who had so
suddenly returned to his home and been stricken with illness.

He had been sick at Alexandria when he received