brain.

Slowly, solemnly, he turned toward his mother.

"So sure am I that I can prove her innocence, that I will accede to your
request, mother dear," he answered, in a clear, firm voice, his eyes
meeting her own.

"I am content," murmured Mrs. Varrick, sinking back upon her pillow.

She said to herself that if he followed that condition he would never
wed Jessie Bain.

Hubert rose quickly to his feet.

"I will take you at your word, mother," he declared promptly, rising
suddenly to his feet. "You shall hear from me in regard to this within
three days' time. I am going direct to Jessie. If your symptoms should
change for the worse, telegraph me."

Kissing his mother hurriedly, and before she could make any protest to
this arrangement, Hubert hurried out of the room and out of the house.

He was barely in time to catch the train for Albany, and arrived there
just as the dusk was creeping up and the golden-hearted stars were
coming out.

He made his way with all haste to the place where he had left Jessie. He
must see her, and have a talk with her. He would not take "no" for an
answer.

The neat little maid who opened the door for him recognized the
gentleman at once.

He had placed a bill in her hand at parting, and she was not likely to
forget the handsome young man.

He was shown into the visitors' sitting-room.

"I should like to be permitted to see Miss Bain," he said. "Will you
kindly take that message for me to the matron in charge?"

The girl looked at him with something very like astonishment in her
face.

"Did you not know, sir--" she asked, somewhat curiously, as she
hesitated on the threshold.

"Know what?" he demanded, brusquely. "What is there to know, my good
girl?"

"Miss Bain has gone, sir," she replied. "She left the place for good
quite an hour ago!"

Varrick was completely astounded. He could scarcely believe the evidence
of his own senses; his ears must have deceived him.

At this juncture the matron entered. She corroborated the maid's
statement-- Miss Bain had left the place quite an hour before.

"Could you tell me where she went?" he asked.

"She intended taking the train for New York. She was very weak, by no
means able to leave here, sir. We tried to keep her; but it was of no
use; she had certainly made up her mind to go, and go she did!"

It seemed to Hubert Varrick that life was leaving his body.

How he made his way out of the place, he never afterward rememb