whom she was soon to
marry, and he would have to be a much smarter man than she took him to
be if he could find any way out of it.

She had caused the nurse to write a similar letter to her mother; and
when her mother read it, and realized that her daughter had not eloped,
she received her back joyfully and with open arms. If an angel from
heaven had told her that her daughter had stolen back to the city in
disguise, and had been residing under the Varrick roof, she would have
declared that it was false--a mad prevarication.

Mrs. Northrup was overjoyed to have the sunshine of her home, her
darling daughter, back again.

With almost her first breath, after she had kissed her rapturously, she
told her that she had seen very little of Hubert Varrick, and that he
had never crossed the threshold since that fatal night on which he
believed that his bride to be had eloped from him.

CHAPTER XV.

"HUBERT CARES FOR ME NO LONGER," SOBBED THE GIRL.

It seemed to Hubert Varrick, as he clasped his arms around Gerelda, that
he must be some other person than the man who had once loved this girl
to idolatry. Now the clasp of her hand or the touch of her lips did not
afford him an extra pulse-glow.

"Tell me, Hubert," she cried, "that you are as glad to see me as I am to
see you."

"It is a great surprise to me, Gerelda," he answered, huskily, "so great
that I am not quite myself just now. It will take me some little time to
collect my scattered senses."

He led her to the nearest seat.

"My cousin has told you all that has happened to me from the hour that
we parted until now, darling," she whispered. "Now tell me, Hubert,
about yourself. Your heart must have almost broken, dear. I was fearful
lest you might have pined away and died because of my untimely loss."

"Oh, Gerelda!" he cried, starting up distressedly, tears choking his
voice, "do not say any more; you are unmanning me with every word you
utter. I-- I can not bear it!"

"Forgive me, my darling!" she muttered. "You are right. It is best not
to probe fresh wounds. But, oh! Hubert, I am so thankful that the
workings of fate have joined our hearts together at last!"

He could not find it in his heart to tell her the truth when she loved
him so; and yet he felt that he owed it to Gerelda to tell her all; but
it is hard, terribly hard to own up to being faithless; and he said to
himself that he could not tell her now, in the flush of her joy at
meeting hi