e words and drew her closer still, with
intimate understanding.

"I don't believe he will care so much," she went on, comfortingly.
"Perhaps the note isn't so important as we think. I suppose we should
have destroyed it at once."

"Yes," said Nell, drearily, "I suppose we should. But who could have
foreseen anything like this!"

"The best thing to do now is to go to bed," added Sue, practically, and
she raised her sister and led her back to her room. "In the morning we
can make a thorough search for the note. Perhaps, after all, you
overlooked it."

"I couldn't have overlooked it," answered Nell. "I remember perfectly
placing it in this drawer," she continued, going to the desk and opening
it, "here, just under this pile of note-paper."

"Perhaps it slipped in between the sheets," suggested Sue.

"I thought of that," said Nell, but nevertheless she began mechanically
to open sheet after sheet. As she opened the third one, a little slip of
paper fluttered to the floor.

She sprang upon it with a cry of joy, opened it, glanced at it.

"Thank God!" she said, thickly. "It's all right--it's--"

And she fell forward into Susie's arms.

CHAPTER XIII

The Second Promenade

Again the sun rose clear and bright, and again, having dispelled the
mist and chill of the early morning, it lured forth for the inevitable
promenade such of the sojourners at Weet-sur-Mer as had managed to get
to bed before dawn. Prince Markeld, descending with the earliest, left
nothing this time to chance, but took his station at the stairfoot, and
waited there with a patience really exemplary. From which it will be
seen that Princes in love are much as other men.

And presently, descending toward him, he descried the Misses Rushford;
Susie radiant as the morning, Nell a trifle paler than her wont, but
more beautiful, if anything, because of it. The Prince hastened forward
to greet them.

"Which way shall we go?" he asked, with the comfortable certainty of
including himself in their plans. "Good-morning," he added, to the
occupant of an invalid chair which was standing just outside the door.

"Good-morning," replied Lord Vernon, his eyes on Nell's. "My outing
yesterday was such a pleasant one that I was hoping it might be
repeated."

"Going or coming?" queried Sue, with a quizzical curve of the lips.

"Both ways," answered Vernon, promptly; but his eyes were still on Nell.

Markeld also looked excellently satisfied.

"Very