ness there was
some cure, some possibility of consolation in the fact that she was
a wife. Why speak of love at all when marriage was so far out of the
question? But now she was a widow and as free as he was,--a widow
endowed with ample wealth; and she was the woman to whom he had sworn
his love when they had stood together, both young, by the falls
of the Linter! How often might they stand there again if only his
constancy would equal hers?

She had seen him once since Fate had made her a widow; but then she
had been but a few days a widow, and his life had at that moment been
in strange jeopardy. There had certainly been no time then for other
love than that which the circumstances and the sorrow of the hour
demanded from their mutual friendship. From that day, from the first
moment in which she had heard of his arrest, every thought, every
effort of her mind had been devoted to his affairs. So great was his
peril and so strange, that it almost wiped out from her mind the
remembrance of her own condition. Should they hang him,--undoubtedly
she would die. Such a termination to all her aspirations for him whom
she had selected as her god upon earth would utterly crush her. She
had borne much, but she could never bear that. Should he escape, but
escape ingloriously;--ah, then he should know what the devotion of
a woman could do for a man! But if he should leave his prison with
flying colours, and come forth a hero to the world, how would it be
with her then? She could foresee and understand of what nature would
be the ovation with which he would be greeted. She had already heard
what the Duchess was doing and saying. She knew how eager on his
behalf were Lord and Lady Cantrip. She discussed the matter daily
with her sister-in-law, and knew what her brother thought. If the
acquittal were perfect, there would certainly be an ovation,--in
which, was it not certain to her, that she would be forgotten? And
she heard much, too, of Madame Goesler. And now there came the
news. Madame Goesler had gone to Prague, to Cracow,--and where
not?--spending her wealth, employing her wits, bearing fatigue,
openly before the world on this man's behalf; and had done so
successfully. She had found this evidence of the key, and now because
the tracings of a key had been discovered by a woman, people were
ready to believe that he was innocent, as to whose innocence she,
Laura Kennedy, would have been willing to stake her own life from the
beg