y to be real or to
be borne in one day!"

"I think we can manage to endure it," returned her lover, with a fond
smile. "I confess, however, that it seems like a day especially
dedicated to blessings, for I have other good news for you."

"Can it be possible? What more could I ask, or even think of?"
exclaimed Edith, wonderingly.

Roy smiled mysteriously, and returned, with a roguish gleam in his
eyes:

"My news will keep a while--until you give me the pledge I crave, my
darling. You will be my wife, Edith?" he added, with tender
earnestness.

"You know that I will, Roy," she whispered; and, lifting her face to
his, their mutual vows were sealed by their betrothal caress.

The young man drew from an inner pocket a tiny circlet of gold in
which there blazed a flawless stone, clear as a drop of dew, and
slipped it upon the third finger of Edith's left hand.

"I have had it ever since the day after your arrival in New York," he
smilingly remarked, "but coward conscience would not allow me to give
it to you; however, it will prove to you that I was lacking in neither
faith nor hope."

"Now for my good news," he added, after Edith had thanked him, in a
shy, sweet way that thrilled him anew, while he gently drew her to a
seat. "I met Giulia Fiorini on the street this afternoon."

"Oh, Roy! did you?"

"Yes; she is here, searching for Correlli. I recognized her and the
child from your description. I boldly resolved to address her, as I
feared it might be my only opportunity. I did so, asking if I was
right in supposing her to be Madam Fiorini, and told her that I was
searching for her, at your request. She almost wept at the sound of
your name, and eagerly inquired where she could find you. I took her
to my office, where I told her what I wished to prove regarding her
relations with Correlli, and that, if I could accomplish my purpose,
it would give her and the child a claim upon him which he could not
ignore. She at once frankly related her story to me, and stated that
when they had first arrived in New York from Italy, Correlli had taken
her to Madam ----'s boarding-house, where he had made arrangements for
himself, wife and child--"

"Oh, then that settles the question of her claim upon him!" Edith here
interposed, eagerly.

"Yes--if we can prove her statements, and I think we can; for when I
told Giulia of my visit to madam, and how I had failed to elicit the
slightest information from her, she said that she