the orchard and left her there alone, with
the apple-blossoms dropping on her head and the wild bees' hum in her
ear.

"I can at least do right in that respect," she said; "I can undo the
past to some extent and lessen the load of sin rolling upon my
shoulders. I will write to Arthur Leighton. I surely need tell no one
else; not yet, at least, lest he has outlived his love for Anna. I can
trust to his discretion and to his honor, too. He will not betray me
unless it is necessary, and then only to Anna. Edward would bid me do
it if he could speak. He was somewhat like Arthur Leighton."

And so, with the dead man in Strasburgh before her eyes, Mrs.
Meredith nerved herself to write to Arthur Leighton, confessing the
fraud imposed upon him, imploring his forgiveness and begging him to
spare her as much as possible.

"I know from Anna's own lips how much she has always loved you," she
wrote in conclusion; "but she does not know of the stolen letter, and
I leave you to make such use of the knowledge as you shall think
proper."

She did not put in a single plea for the poor, little Lucy, dancing
so gayly over the mine just ready to explode. She was purely selfish
still, with all her qualms of conscience, and thought only of Anna,
whom she would make happy at another's sacrifice. So she never hinted
that it was possible for Arthur to keep his word pledged to Lucy
Harcourt, and, as she finished her letter and placed it in an envelope
with the one which Arthur had sent to Anna, her thoughts leaped
forward to the wedding she would give her niece--a wedding not quite
like that she had designed for Mrs. Thornton Hastings, but a quiet,
elegant affair, just suited to a clergyman who was marrying a Ruthven.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LETTER RECEIVED.

Arthur had been spending the evening at Prospect Hill. The Hethertons
had returned and would remain till after the fifteenth, and since they
had come the rector found it even pleasanter calling there than it had
been before, with only his bride-elect to entertain him. Sure of Dr.
Bellamy, Fanny had laid aside her sharpness, and was exceedingly witty
and brilliant, while, now that it was settled, the colonel was too
thoroughly a gentleman to be otherwise than gracious to his future
nephew; and Mrs. Hetherton was always polite and lady-like, so that
the rector looked forward with a good deal of interest to the evenings
he usually gave to Lucy, who, though satisfied to have him in h