way of stern duty, in defending the
character of my wife from those who I was led to believe were her
enemies. I ask your forgiveness and sympathy;" then, without a word of
adieu, groping like one shut from broad daylight into thick darkness, he
passed out from among them, while those who looked on with moistened
eyes knew that this cruel blow had broken his heart.

Old Mr. Garnet drew the back of his rough hand across his eyes. "I'm
a'most sorry I meddled," he said, regretfully. "It's the first and last
woman's quarrel I ever mix up in. But I couldn't have them grieving my
little Daisy to death. What possessed the woman to stir up this piece of
mischief?"

"What's to become of the girl?" interrogated Dr. Little. "I don't want
her left on my hands. And allow me to say, sir, that I consider this
intrusion in my house an unpardonable liberty."

"Very well," was the reply, "our business is ended, and we will
withdraw. As for this unfortunate child, I will care for her until her
proper guardians manifest a disposition to relieve me of the charge."

Not a little to the surprise of all Waveland, the woman who suddenly
found herself the center of observation, and whose haughty spirit could
not brook humiliation, disappeared immediately after this eventful
episode, leaving no clue to her whereabouts.

The unfortunate Richie was provided with a comfortable home, and upon
the death of her mother's husband, which occurred not long after, she
came into possession of a sum sufficient to provide for her maintenance
during the rest of her life.

Years after, a woman haggard and old, with traces of crime upon her
hardened features, passed through the little village, begging her way to
a neighboring city. A simple-minded girl, sitting in a doorway, whom she
accosted for alms, emptied all her little store of pocket money into the
poor wayfarer's outstretched palm. This girl was none other than Richie,
and the woman who failed to recognize the vacant but placid face, was
her own unhappy mother.

CHAPTER XVIII.

It was the eve of the New Year. The snow had folded its white mantle
over the earth, and in the gardens, where the flowers had hidden their
fragile beauty from the ruthless fingers of the Frost King, it gleamed
whitely from amid the sombre foliage of the hardy evergreens. On lawn
and terrace it lay in uneven drifts, tossed at will by the chilling
winter winds. Pendant from tree and shrub hung glittering icicles, an