PTER X.

On the evening which followed the one just described in our last
chapter, Pluma Hurlhurst sat in her luxuriant boudoir of rose and
gold, deeply absorbed in the three letters which she held in her lap.
To one was appended the name of Septima Brooks, one was from Rex's
mother, and the last--and by far the most important one--bore the
signature of Lester Stanwick.

Once, twice, thrice she perused it, each time with growing interest,
the glittering light deepening in her dark, flashing eyes, and the red
lips curling in a scornful smile.

"This is capital!" she cried, exultingly; "even better than I had
planned. I could not see my way clear before, but now everything is
clear sailing." She crossed over to the mirror, looking long and
earnestly at the superb figure reflected there. "I am fair to look
upon," she cried, bitterly. "Why can not Rex love me?"

Ah! she was fair to look upon, standing beneath the softened glow of
the overhanging chandelier, in her dress of gold brocade, with a
pomegranate blossom on her bosom, and a diamond spray flashing from
the dark, glossy curls, magnificently beautiful.

"I was so sure of Rex," she said, bitterly; "if any one had said to
me, 'Rex prefers your overseer's niece, Daisy Brooks, with her baby
face and pink-and-white beauty,' I would have laughed them to scorn.
Prefers her to me, the haughty heiress of Whitestone Hall, for whose
love, or even smile, men have sued in vain! I have managed the whole
affair very cleverly!" she mused. "John Brooks does not return before
the coming spring, and Septima is removed from my path most
effectually, and if Lester Stanwick manages his part successfully, I
shall have little to fear from Daisy Brooks! How clever Lester was to
learn Rex had been to the Detective Agency! How he must have loved
that girl!" she cried, hotly, with a darkening brow. "Ah, Rex!" she
whispered, softly (and for an instant the hard look died out of her
face), "no one shall take you from me. I would rather look upon your
face cold in death, and know no one else could claim you, than see you
smile lovingly upon a rival. There is no torture under heaven so
bitter to endure as the pangs of a love unreturned!" she cried,
fiercely. She threw open the window and leaned far out into the
radiant starlight, as the great clock pealed the hour of seven. "Rex
has received my note," she said, "with the one from his mother
inclosed. Surely he will not refuse my request. He w