ve seen it," she muttered, angrily. "She must
have passed it by a dozen times. No one can tell me that she did not
open it--those girls are so prying. And now for spite she'll take as
much time as she wishes to go and come. She ought to be back by this
time. When she does come I shall scold her."

One, two hours passed. The clock on the mantle slowly chimed the hour of
seven. Still the girl had not returned. Rosamond Lee was in a towering
rage. She had sent for her own maid to help her dress, and she was
obliged to wear a dress which was not near so becoming to her as the
blue cashmere which she felt sure would fascinate handsome Hubert
Varrick.

When the dinner-bell rang she hurried to the dining-room. Only the old
gentleman and his wife were at the table.

"Where is Mr. Varrick?" she asked. "Surely, he has not dined yet?"

"Oh, no," said the old lady, complacently sipping her tea. "He went out
for a walk some two hours ago, and he has not yet returned."

Rosamond started. Some two hours! Why, that was just about the time that
Jessie Bain had left the house.

She wondered if by any chance he had seen her. What if he should have
asked the girl where she was going, and learn that she had been sent by
her so long a distance, and in the deep snow, on such a trifling errand!
The girl might tell it out of pure spite. Laughing lightly, Rosamond
shook off this fear.

She had never seen a man whom she liked as well as she liked Hubert
Varrick. She always had her own way through life, and now that she had
settled it in her mind that she would like to have this same Hubert
Varrick for her husband, she no more thought it possible for her will to
be thwarted than she deemed it possible for the night to turn suddenly
into day. Rosamond was almost beside herself with excitement when that
wedding was so summarily broken off.

"It was the hand of Fate!" she cried. "He was intended for me. That is
why that marriage did not take place."

She had made numerous little excuses to go to Boston with her maid, and
always called at his mother's house, making herself most agreeable to
the haughty mother, for the sake of the handsome son.

Rosamond had quite wormed herself into the good graces of Hubert's
mother. She had not been there for over six months, however, and
consequently had never heard of Jessie Bain.

She had been waiting long and patiently, when suddenly she had read of
his marriage to Geralda Northrup, and almost immed