n
instantaneous revulsion of feeling.

"'What care I how fair she be, if she be not fair to me?'" he cried out,
bitterly, to himself. "What a fool I was, to be duped by her so long!
The iron has entered deep into my soul, but she shall see that she can
not quite crush me. I will live to be revenged upon Iris Vincent if it
costs me my life! If Dorothy inherits the million, I will marry her
before the sun sets to-night. I only wish that I had known the way that
affairs were shaping themselves. I--I should not have treated Dorothy so
harshly."

It seemed as though all in an instant his heart went back to her in the
rebound.

He rushed hurriedly down into the dining-room, there to be met by Mrs.
Kemp, who advanced toward him with a white, startled face.

"Oh, Mr. Kendal," she gasped, breathlessly, "you can never in the world
guess what has happened!"

"I rather think I can," retorted the young man, harshly: "your niece,
Miss Vincent, has eloped with the millionaire's son across the way."

"That--that is not what I had reference to," said Mrs. Kemp, with a sob.
"I--I admit that Iris has eloped, but it is not she whom I meant, but
Dorothy."

"What of her?" cried Kendal, sharply, little dreaming the truth.

CHAPTER XXIII.

For an instant Kendal looked at the housekeeper in amazement.

"What of Dorothy?" he repeated, breathlessly.

"She has disappeared too!" returned the housekeeper, faintly, adding:
"She did not go with Iris, as you may imagine."

"No?" he echoed, faintly, inquiringly.

"No," she responded; "she went alone. She said to Katy, last night, 'If
you wake up on the morrow, and do not find me here, do not weep. I shall
be where I will be better off. No one will miss me--no one will know or
care whither I have gone.' Katy thought them idle words, and paid little
heed to them; but this morning, when she awoke and found that Dorothy
was not in her room, in the greatest of alarm she came to me and told me
what had occurred. At that moment I was just smarting under the blow of
Iris' elopement, and words fail to describe my feelings at this second
and most terrible catastrophe, for I realized how it would affect you,
my poor boy."

Kendal had sunk down into the nearest chair, white as death, and
trembling like an aspen-leaf.

He could hardly grasp the meaning of her words. "Dorothy gone--Iris fled
with another!" His lips twitched convulsively, but he uttered no sound.

"I made diligent search f