Laurance's eyes fell on the cottage front, and upon
the face under that cloud of dark elfish locks, he caught his breath,
and his eyes seemed almost starting from their sockets. His hand fell
heavily on his father's knee, and he groaned audibly.

General Laurance turned and whispered:

"For God's sake, what is the matter? Are you ill?"

There was no answer from the son, who tightened his clutch upon the
old man's knee, and watched breathlessly what was passing on the
stage.

The scene was shifted, and now the whole facade of the college rose
before him, with a pretty picture in the foreground; a tall handsome
student, leaning against the trunk of an ancient elm, and talking to
the girl who sat on the turf, with a basket of freshly-ironed shirts
resting on the grass beside her. The identical straw hat, which
Cuthbert had left behind him when summoned home, was upon the
student's head, and as the timid shrinking girl glanced up shyly at
her companion, Cuthbert Laurance almost hissed in his father's ear:
"Great God! It is Minnie herself!"

General Laurance loosened the curtain next the audience, and as the
folds swept down, concealing somewhat the figure of his son, he
whispered:

"What do you mean? Are you drunk, or mad?"

Cuthbert grasped his father's hand, and murmured:

"Don't you know the college? That is Minnie yonder!"

"Minnie? My son, what ails you? Go home, you are ill."

"I tell you, that is Minnie Merle, so surely as there is a God above
us. Mrs. Orme--is Minnie--my Minnie! My wife! She has dramatized her
own life!"

"Impossible, Cuthbert! You are delirious--insane. You are----"

"That woman yonder is my wife! Now I understand why such strange
sweet memories thrilled me when I saw her first in 'Amy Robsart.' The
golden hair disguised her. Oh, father!"

The blank dismay in General Laurance's countenance was succeeded by
an expression of dread, and as he looked from his son's blanched
convulsed face to that of the actress under the arching elms of the
campus, the horrible truth flashed upon him like a lurid glimpse of
Hades. He struck his hand against his forehead, and his grizzled head
sank on his bosom. All that had formerly perplexed him was hideously
apparent, startlingly clear; and he saw the abyss to which she had
lured him, and understood the motives that had prompted her.

After some moments he pushed his seat back beyond the range of
observation from the audience, and beckoned his son t