, only let me be quiet now. I know you will,
for you have always been good to me.'

A great dread instantly seized upon those who heard these words, and
Mrs. Fordyce became nervous and apprehensive; but she was obliged to
respect such a request, and they changed the subject, trying dismally to
turn the talk into a commonplace groove. But it was a strain and an
effort on all three, and at last Gladys rose and began to walk up and
down the room, giving an occasional glance out of the window, as if
impatient for her lover's coming, but it was an impatience which made
Mrs. Fordyce's heart sink, and she feared the worst.

George was no laggard lover; within the hour he rang the familiar bell.
Then the nervous restlessness which had taken possession of Gladys
seemed to be quietened down, and she stood quite still on the
hearth-rug, and her face was calm, but deadly pale.

'Shall we go before George comes up?' asked Mrs. Fordyce, involuntarily
rising; but Gladys made answer, with a shade of imperious command,--

'No, I wish you to remain. Mina can go, if she likes.'

Mina had not the opportunity. A quick, eager footstep came hurrying
up-stairs, and the door was thrown open with a careless hand.

'You here, Gladys?' he exclaimed, with all the eagerness and delight he
might have been expected to display, but next moment the light died out
of his face, and he knew that the bolt had fallen. Even those who blamed
him most must have commiserated the man upon whom fell that lightning
glance of unutterable loathing and contempt.

'I have sent for you to come here, because it was here I saw you first,'
she said, and her voice rang out clear and sweet as a bell. 'You know
why I have sent for you?--to give you back these things, the sign of a
bond which ought never to have been between us. How dared you--how dared
you offer them to me, after your monstrous cruelty to that poor girl
from whose death-bed I have just come?'

She threw the rings down upon the table; they rolled to the floor,
sparkling as if in mockery as they went, but none offered to touch them.

Mina opened the door hurriedly, and left the room. Mrs. Fordyce turned
away also, and a sob broke from her lips.

Gladys stood quite erect, the linen at her stately throat not whiter
than her face, her clear eyes, brilliant with indignation, fixed
mercilessly on her lover's changing face. He was, indeed, a creature to
be pitied even more than despised.

'Gladys, for God