iately after came the
startling intelligence of the disaster in which he had lost his bride.
And again Rosamond Lee said that Gerelda was not to have him, that Fate
intended him for her; and she timed her visit to her guardian's when she
knew he would be there.

Rosamond tried hard to take an interest in the dinner, but everything
seemed to go wrong with her. The tea was too weak, the biscuits too
cold, and the tarts too sweet.

She did her best to keep up the conversation with her guardian and his
chatty old wife, but it was a dismal failure. At every footstep she
started. Why did he not come?

It was a relief to her when the meal was over. She walked slowly into
the drawing-room, angry enough to find old Mr. Bassett and his wife had
preceded her, and that they had settled themselves down there for a long
evening. Up and down the length of the long room Rosamond swept to and
fro, stopping every now and then to draw the heavy curtains aside, in
order to strain her eyes out into the darkness of the night.

Ah, what a terrible storm was raging outside! What a wild night it was!
The snow drifted in great white mountains against the window-panes, and
as far as her eyes could reach, the great white snow-drifts greeted her
sight. The bronze clock on the mantle struck the hour of eight in loud,
sonorous strokes. With a guilty thrill of her heart, she thought of
Jessie Bain. Hastily excusing herself, she hurried to her room.

Of course the girl would be there--there was no doubt about that. With a
nervous hand Rosamond flung open the door, crossed the handsome
_boudoir_ with swift step, and looked into the little room beyond. But
the slender form which she had expected to see was not there.

"Janet!" she called, sharply, "where is that Jessie Bain? I sent her on
an errand--hasn't she returned yet? What in the world do you think is
keeping that girl?"

"Look out of that window, ma'am, and that will tell you," returned
Janet, laconically. "I tell you, Miss Rosamond, your sending the girl
out on such a night as this is the talk of the whole house."

"Did she go round tattling in the servants' hall?" cried the heiress,
quivering with rage.

"I'll tell you how it came about," said Janet. "One of the maids, who
was at the window, called to her as she was going out. I heard it all
from another window.

"'Why, where are you going, Miss Bain?' she called, 'you are mad to step
out-of-doors in the face of such a storm as this!