he cast her eyes
fearfully in his direction. To her intense amazement, she saw him
leaning back comfortably in his seat.

"Hubert!" she gasped, "are you not bitterly angry with me? Speak!"

"I was very angry, I confess, mother, when this was first known to me;
but I have had time since to think the matter over calmly. You acted
under the pressure of intense excitement, I concluded, and pride, which
was always your besetting sin, mother; and that gained the ascendency
over you to the extent that you would rather have seen Jessie in a
prison cell, though she was innocent, than see her my wife!"

"You knew it before I told you?" she exclaimed. "But how did you find
out?"

"That must be _my_ secret, for the time being, mother," he returned. "Be
thankful that no harm came from your nefarious scheme. If Jessie had
been thrown into a prison cell and persecuted unjustly, I admit that I
should never have forgiven you while life lasted. Now, every thought is
swallowed up in the fear that her illness may terminate as yours did,
mother. But this I say to you: if she were the most-scarred creature on
the face of the earth, I should still love her and wish to marry her."

"I should not oppose it, my son," said his mother.

The terrible calamity which Mrs. Varrick had so long dreaded had not
happened--her son had not turned against her.

We will pass over the fortnight that followed. Heaven had been merciful.
Despite the fact that she had nursed Mrs. Varrick day and night, she
herself had suffered but a slight attack of the dread contagion, and
there were tears in both Hubert's and his mother's eyes when the doctor
informed them that there would be no trace of the dread disease on the
girl's fair face.

The road back to health and strength was but a short one, for Jessie had
youth to help her in the great struggle. When she found that Mrs.
Varrick had become reconciled to her, and had even consented to her
marriage with her idolized son, and was laying plans for it, her joy
knew no bounds.

It was the happiest household ever seen that gathered around Jessie Bain
when she was able to sit up. All the old servants were so glad to see
Jessie her bright, merry self once more, and to have their young master
Hubert and pretty Jessie reunited. They talked of their coming wedding
as the greatest event that would ever take place there, and they made
the greatest preparations for the coming marriage.

Again cards were sent out, and t