woman--almost a
suicide. So I decided that I would never reveal myself to my old
friend, or undeceive her regarding my supposed fate, to disturb her
peace or her enjoyment of the child.

"But, following the advice of my new friends, I finally wrote to my
father and mother, confessing everything to them, imploring their
forgiveness for the grief and shame I had brought upon them, and
asking their counsel and wishes regarding my future. Imagine my joy
and gratitude when, three weeks later, they walked in upon me and took
me at once to their hearts, ignoring all the past, as far as any
censure or condemnation were concerned, and began to plan to make my
future as peaceful and happy as circumstances would allow.

"They had come abroad with the intention of remaining, they told me;
they would never ask me to return to my former home, where the fact
that I had eloped with an artist was known, but would settle in
London, where my father had some business interests, and where,
surrounded by the multitude, our former friends would never be likely
to meet us. We lived there, a quiet, peaceful, prosperous life, I
devoting myself assiduously to study to make up for what I had
sacrificed by leaving school so early, and to keep my mind from
dwelling upon my unhappy past.

"So the time slipped away until, five years ago, this tranquil life
was suddenly interrupted by my father's death. Six months later my
mother followed him, and I was again left alone, without a relative in
the world, the sole heiress to a half-million pounds--"

"A half-million pounds?" interposed Gerald Goddard, in a tone of
amazement.

"Yes; but of what value is money without some one to share it with
you?" questioned Isabel Stewart, in a voice of sadness.

Her companion passed his hand across his brow, a dazed expression upon
his face, while he was saying to himself, that, in his folly, he had
missed an ideal existence with this brilliantly beautiful and
accomplished woman, who, in addition, was now the possessor of two and
a half million dollars.

What an idiot he had been! What an unconscionable craven, to
sacrifice this pure and conscientious creature to his passion for one
who had made his life wretched by her variable moods and selfishness!

"Occasionally I heard from my child," Mrs. Stewart resumed, after a
moment of silence, while tears started into her beautiful eyes. "My
father crossed the ocean from time to time, for the sole purpose of
learn