that he had repented, and her blood beat faster as she thought
of his consternation on hearing of this marriage. She felt eager that
he should hear of it at once.

And so indeed he did. On the heels of his receipt of Bettina's letter
her marriage to Lord Hurdly was announced by cable--not to him, but
through the newspapers.

Then into his heart there entered also the exceeding bitterness of a
lost ideal. She became to him, as he had become to her, the image of
broken faith, capricious feeling, and overweening worldly ambition.

Yet in the heart of the man, who had loved completely and supremely,
as Bettina never had, there was a feeling which made him say to
himself, with a conviction which he knew to be immutable, that
marriage was not for him. The present Lord Hurdly had said the same,
and had changed his mind. For himself he knew that he should not, for
all of love that he was capable of feeling had been given to the
woman who had cast him off.

CHAPTER IV

Bettina had gone through her first London season as Lady Hurdly, and
certainly no girl's ambitious dreams could have forecast a more
brilliant experience. She had been far too ignorant to imagine such
subtle delights of the senses as resulted from the wealth and
eminence which she had attained to in marrying Lord Hurdly. And
beyond the mere sensuous appeal which was made to her by the wearing
of magnificent clothes and jewels, and the being always surrounded
with objects of beauty and means of luxury, she had the greater
delight of having her feverishly active mind continually supplied
with a stimulus, which it now more than ever needed. This was
furnished by the innumerable social demands made upon her, and the
complete power which she felt within herself to respond to them not
only creditably, but in a way that should make even Lord Hurdly
wonder at her.

True, she had had no social training, and in a less powerful position
she might have shown her ignorance and incapacity, for she would then
have had to take a personal supervision of the things which she now
left utterly alone, and which, being essential to be done, were
done--how and by whom she did not ask. Lord Hurdly had so long done
the honors of his house without a wife that it was natural to him to
continue the direction of household affairs, with the aid of the
accomplished assistants who were in his employment; so Bettina had no
more to do with such matters than if she had become the mi