xt
mistress might be as cruel, though she couldn't be any worse."

Her diligent efforts were soon rewarded by seeing Jessie Bain open her
eyes.

"You are faint and weak. Come to the window and get a breath of air. A
breath of the cool, crisp air will do you a world of good."

Jessie made no attempt to resist her when she took her in her arms and
carried her to the window, and threw open the sash. Jessie inhaled a
deep breath of the cool morning air. Ah, yes! the air was refreshing.

"Don't lean so far out," cautioned her companion, "Miss Rosamond might
see you! She is standing in the bay-window of the library with handsome
Mr. Hubert; and to see her smile, so bland and child-like, any one would
declare that she had no temper at all, but, instead, the disposition of
an angel."

Jessie gave a startled look, intending to get quickly out of sight ere
Rosamond Lee should observe her; but that glance fairly froze the blood
in her veins. Yes, Rosamond Lee was standing by the window, looking as
sweet and bland as a great wax doll.

But it was on the face of her companion that Jessie's eyes were riveted.
It seemed to her in that instant that the heart in her bosom fairly
stood still, for the face she saw was Hubert Varrick's!

"He has had ever so much trouble," the girl went on. "He has been
married, but his young wife died, and he is now a widower, free to marry
again if he finds any one whom he can love as he did the one he lost."

With that, the girl left the room, and then Jessie Bain gave vent to the
grief that filled her heart to overflowing.

"I must go away from here," she sobbed; "I must not meet him again, for
did I not give his mother my written word that I would not speak to him
again, nor let him know where I was, and I must keep my solemn pledge."

CHAPTER XXV.

"AH! IF I BUT KNEW WHERE MY TRUE LOVE IS!"

Hubert Varrick felt excessively bored at the beauty's persistent efforts
to amuse him during the afternoon that followed, and he experienced a
great relief when he made his escape to his own room.

He had come there to visit his aged relatives and have a few days of
quiet and rest from the turmoils and cares of a busy life, not to dance
attendance on a capricious society girl. He had been back from Europe
only a month. Directly on his return, he went to Fisher's Landing, there
to be met with the intelligence that Jessie's uncle had died a fortnight
ago, and that she was thrown penniless on t