edging himself. At the end of a year, all
obstacles to our open engagement would be removed. I, of course,
supposed, then, that the 'obstacles' referred to, were business and
financial ones. Don't think, Madeline, that we have been in the habit
of meeting clandestinely. He visited me openly in Baltimore, but not
often enough to excite remark; and we frequently met at other places,
as he went in the best society there."

Claire paused, but Madeline went on with her toilet in grave silence.

"Madeline, darling, I can't thank you enough for opening my eyes
before it was too late, while it was no worse--and I can't explain my
feelings. I despise him, and I despise myself for being thus duped. It
is my pride that is suffering now but, of course, I know that, despise
the man as I may, my heart will be heavier and my life darker, because
of what I believed him to be. Now let us go to Olive."

Madeline Payne threw her arms impulsively about her friend and
murmured, brokenly:--"Claire, Claire! you are braver than I, and far,
far more worthy. You have a right to be happy, and you shall be."

And in that moment the girl renounced a resolve she had taken, and a
hope she had cherished.

As they descended the stairs together Claire fancied that she looked
paler, and a thought sadder than before.

They found Olive and dinner waiting. As they took their places about
the luxury-laden board, three lovelier women or three sadder hearts
could not have been found in a day's journey.

Of the three, Claire Keith was the calmest, the most self-possessed.
All that was to be related by Madeline, all that Olive was waiting in
anxious expectation to hear, she knew already. The best and the worst
had been revealed to her; her own course was clear before her. So she
ate her dinner with composure, and bore a large share in the table
talk that, but for her, would have been rather vague and spasmodic.

Dinner was an ordeal for Olive, at least, on that day, for her mind
was filled with thoughts of Philip, and wonderment as to how the
picture of the man who had been his ruin came into the possession of
Madeline, who was making herself more and more of a mystery.

Madeline, too, was restless. She wished the revelation were made and
done with. She wondered if she could control the future so far as
Olive was concerned, for she had made her plans, and did not propose
to let the work be taken out of her hands.

When Madeline had related to Olive th