on the table
yonder you haven't read yet?"

"I had almost forgotten it," returned Jessie.

One glance as she spread it out at full length, then her face grew white
as death.

"Bless me! I shall be late!" declared her uncle, putting on his hat and
hurrying from the room.

She never remembered what he said as he passed out of the room. Her
heart, ay, her very soul, was engrossed in the printed lines before her.

In startling headlines she read the words:

"A NOTABLE MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE--MR. HUBERT VARRICK AND MISS NORTHRUP
WEDDED AT LAST."

Then followed an account of the grand ceremony; of a mansion decorated
with roses; a description of the marriage; the elaborate
wedding-breakfast served in a perfect bower of orchids and ferns; and
then the names of the guests, who numbered nearly a thousand.

Jessie Bain never finished the article. With a bitter cry she fell face
downward on the floor in a deep swoon.

It was an hour or more ere she returned to consciousness. With trembling
hands the girl tore the newspaper clipping into a thousand shreds, lest
her eyes should ever fall on it again.

"He is married--married!" she murmured; and the words seemed to fall
like ice upon her heart.

How strange it seemed! She remembered but too well the last time she had
looked upon his face.

Captain Carr did not come home for supper, and one of the neighboring
women dropped in to tell Jessie that he might not get home until far
into the night, for there had been a terrible accident on the river the
evening before, and his services were needed there.

Night came on, darkness settled down over the world; then one by one the
stars came out, and a full moon rose clear and bright in the heavens.

The sound of far-off strains of music and the echo of girlish laughter
suddenly fell upon her ears. Then it occurred to her that it must be
near midnight, that her companions of other days were in the midst of
their Halloween games in the big house on the hill.

Only the little brook at the rear of her uncle's garden separated the
grounds. Some subtle instinct which she could not follow drew Jessie's
steps to the brook.

The moon for a moment was hidden behind a cloud, but suddenly it burst
forth clear and bright in all its glory. For one brief instant the heart
in her bosom seemed to stand still.

Was she mad, or did she dream? Was it the figure of a man picking his
way over the smooth white rocks that served as stepping-stone