o Lady Wolfer's room after she had retired, and,
remembering the earl's message, she went now upstairs and knocked at the
countess' door.

A low voice bade her come in, and Nell entered and found Lady Wolfer
sitting on a low chair before the fire. She was alone, and the figure
crouching before the blaze, as if she were cold, aroused Nell's pity.
She crossed the room and bent over her.

"Are you ill, dear, or only tired?" she asked gently.

Lady Wolfer started and looked up at her, and Nell saw that her face was
white and drawn.

"Is it you?" she said. "I thought it was Wardell"--Wardell was her maid.
"Yes, I am tired."

"Lord Wolfer has asked me to beg you not to go out to-night. He saw that
you looked tired," she said.

Lady Wolfer gazed in the fire, and her lips curled sarcastically.

"He is very considerate," she said. "Extraordinarily so! One would think
he cared whether I was tired or not, wouldn't one, eh, dear?"

"Why do you say that, and so bitterly?" Nell said, in a low voice. "Of
course he cares. He is always kind and thoughtful."

Lady Wolfer rose abruptly and, with a short, hard laugh, began to pace
up and down the room.

"He does not care in the least!" she said, in a harsh, strained voice.
"Why did you come in to-night? I wish you hadn't! I--I wanted to be
alone. No, do not go! Stay, now you are here," for Nell had moved to
the door. She went back and laid her hand on the unhappy woman's arm.

"Won't you tell me what is the matter?" she said.

Lady Wolfer stopped and sank into the chair again.

"I'm almost tempted to!" she said, with a reckless laugh. "It might be
useful to you--as a 'frightful example,' as the temperance people say.
Oh, don't you know? You are young and innocent, Nell, but--but you
cannot fail to have seen how wretched I am! Nell, you are not only young
and innocent, but beautiful. You have all your life before you--you,
too, will have to choose your fate--for we do choose it! Don't wreck
your life as I have wrecked mine; don't, don't marry a man who does not
love you--as I did!"

"Hush!" said Nell, startled and shocked. "You are wrong, quite wrong!"

Lady Wolfer laughed bitterly.

"I've said too much; I may as well tell you all," she said, with a shrug
of her white shoulders. "It was a marriage of convenience. We--my
people--were poor, and it was a great match for me. There was no talk of
love--love!" She laughed again, and the laugh made Nell wince. "It was
just a ba