my
sex as to believe that one woman's heart can be won to love and
reverence by the author of another's betrayal! She were less than woman
who could be so false to her sense of right and honour."

"Betrayal!--Nonsense! you are very high-flown."

"So much so, Mr. Bruce, that half-an-hour ago I could have wept that you
should have bestowed your affection where it met with no requital; and
if now I wept for the sake of her whose ears have listened to false
professions, and whose peace has, to say the least, been _threatened_ on
my account, you should attribute it to the fact that my sympathies have
not been exhausted by contact with the world."

A short silence ensued. Ben went a step or two towards the door, then
stopped, came back, and said, "After all, Gertrude Flint, I believe the
time will come when your notions will grow less romantic, and you will
look back to this night and wish you had acted differently." He
immediately left the room, and Gertrude heard him shut the hall-door
with a bang.

A moment after the silence that ensued was disturbed by a slight sound
which seemed to proceed from the recess in the window. Gertrude started,
and, as she went towards the spot, heard a smothered sob. She lifted a
curtain, and there, upon the window-seat, her head buried in the
cushions, and her little slender form distorted into a strange attitude,
sat, or rather crouched, poor Kitty Ray.

"Kitty?" cried Gertrude. At the sound of her voice Kitty sprung suddenly
from her recumbent posture, threw herself into Gertrude's arms, laid her
head upon her shoulder, and though she did not, _could_ not weep, shook
with an agitation uncontrollable. Her hand which grasped Gertrude's was
cold; her eyes fixed; and at intervals the same hysterical sound which
had at first betrayed her in her hiding-place alarmed her young
protector, to whom she clung. Gertrude supported her to a seat, and
then, folding the slight form to her bosom, chafed the cold hands, and
again and again kissing the rigid lips, succeeded in restoring her to
something like composure. For an hour she lay thus, receiving Gertrude's
caresses with evident pleasure, and now and then returning them
convulsively, but speaking no word and making no noise. Gertrude, with
the truest delicacy, refrained from asking questions, or recurring to a
conversation, the whole of which had been thus overheard and
comprehended; but, patiently waiting until Kitty grew more calm,
prepared f