lossie he
had never heard, for her letter did not reach him, and he had no thought
that Bessie was alive, and everywhere he went he saw always the dear
face, white and still, as he knew it must have looked when it lay in the
coffin. Sometimes the pain in his heart was so hard to bear that he was
half tempted to tell his aunt of his sorrow and crave her sympathy. But
this he had not done, and Bessie's name had never passed his lips since
he heard she was dead.

At last, alarmed by the pallor of his face, and the tired, listless
manner, so unlike himself, Lucy suggested that they go home, and to this
Grey readily assented. But first he must see Bessie's grave, and at
London he left his aunt in charge of some friends who were going home in
the same ship and would see her to Liverpool. He was going to Wales on
business, he said, and as she knew he had been there two or three times
before, Lucy asked no questions, and had no suspicion of the nature of
the business which took him first to Carnarvon, where a last fruitless
search was made for Elizabeth Rogers or some of her kin, and then to
Stoneleigh, which he reached on an early morning train, the same which
took Bessie to Liverpool! Thus near do the wheels of fate oftentimes
come to each other.

In her hurry to secure a compartment, Bessie did not see the young man
alighting from a carriage only the fourth from the one she was entering,
and as both Anthony and Dorothy, who were at the station with her, went
across the bridge to do some errands before returning home, no one
observed Grey as he hurried along the road to Stoneleigh, and entering
the grounds, stood at last by the new grave in the corner close to the
fence, where he believed Bessie was lying.

Bearing his head to the falling rain, which seemed to cool his burning
brow, he said aloud:

"Darling Bessie, can you see me now? Do you know that I am here,
standing by your grave, and do you know how much I love you? Surely it
is no wrong to Neil for me to whisper to your dead ears the story of my
love. Oh, Bessie, I have come to say good-by, and my heart is breaking
as I say it. If you could only answer me--could give me some token that
you know, it would be some comfort to me when I am far away, for I am
going home, Bessie, to the home over the sea, where I once hoped I
might take you as my wife, before I knew of Neil's prior claim, but so
long as life lasts I shall remember the dear little girl who was so much
to