hour named, Dorothy stood ready, and a few minutes later Mr.
Garner appeared in the corridor.

Taking Jessie's arm, he led her down to the carriage, seated her, helped
in the little dark figure, and then proceeded carefully to tuck Jessie
in with all the robes.

They were only ordinary attentions bestowed upon her companion, but they
rankled deeply, like the thrust of a sharp sword, in the heart of the
girl who sat there witnessing it all.

They talked upon indifferent subjects, but it seemed to Dorothy that
every word held a double meaning.

Oh, how solicitous he was for her comfort! how he gathered the wraps
about her, anxiously inquiring if she felt the cold air! how low and
tender his words seemed to the girl sitting opposite them, and both
seemed entirely oblivious to her presence.

The curtain was up when they reached their box, but all through the
opera the little dark figure who shrank back behind the silken hangings
saw nothing, heard nothing; she was watching so intently the old lover
who was so near, and yet, alas! so far from her.

In the old days she had loved Jessie Staples, but now, as she saw her
old friend and Jack Garner all in all to each other, she grew in a
single hour to almost hate her for usurping her place in his heart.

True, there was not the same devotion that he had been wont to pay her;
but then, Jack was older now and graver. How he had come by this sudden
wealth puzzled her. Then, by degrees it all came back to her--how he
used to say that some day there was a bare possibility of his being
wealthy---that he had some expectations from a distant relative. Surely
those expectations must have been realized, or he could not be in the
position which he was now enjoying. How strange that the Garners had
lifted Jessie Staples out of the old life, and that she now was Jack's
betrothed bride. And she wondered vaguely if he had forgotten the
Dorothy he had loved so well.

Suddenly he turned toward her, and at that moment Jessie rose hastily to
her feet.

"We will get home as quickly as possible," he said, hurriedly. "Miss
Staples is indisposed."

Jessie leaned heavily on his arm, and they went quickly out of the
building and into the carriage.

All the way home his arm supported her, and her head leaned helplessly
on his shoulder.

Dorothy followed with her wraps up to Miss Staple's _boudoir_.

"Thank you--that will do," she said, wearily, dismissing her at her
door, and Dorothy tu