y hands with glee when Miss
Oliver told her of her mother's decision, and then the governess took
the child for a stroll around the rosery while husband and wife sat
together chatting.

Bracondale sat with his wife's hand in his, looking into her eyes, and
repeating his good wishes for many a happy return of that anniversary.

"I hope you are happy, Jean," he said at last. "I am trying to make you
so."

"I am very happy--happier now than I have ever been before in all my
life," she answered, looking affectionately into his face. "But do you
know that sometimes," she added, slowly, in an altered voice, "sometimes
I fear that this peace is too great, too sweet to last always. I am
dreading lest something might occur to wreck this great happiness of
mine."

He looked at her in surprise.

"Why do you dread that?" he asked.

"Because happiness is, alas! never lasting."

"Only ours."

"Ah!" she sighed, "let us hope so, dearest. Yet this strange presage of
coming evil, this shadow which I so often seem to see, appears so real,
so grim, and so threatening."

"I don't understand why you should entertain any fear," he exclaimed. "I
love you, Jean; I shall always love you."

She was silent, and he saw that something troubled her. Truth to tell,
the shadow of her past had once again arisen.

"Ah! But will you always love me as fondly as you now do?" she asked,
rather dubiously.

"I shall, Jean. I swear it. I love no other woman but yourself, my dear,
devoted wife."

"Many men have uttered those same words before. But they have lived to
recall and regret them."

"That is true," he said. "Yet it is also true that I love you with all
my heart and all my soul, and, further, that my love is so deep-rooted
that it cannot be shaken."

"We can only hope," she said in a low voice, sighing again. "Though my
happiness is so complete, I somehow cannot put this constant dread from
me. It is a strange, mysterious feeling that something will one day
happen to sweep away all my hopes and aspirations--that you and I might
be parted."

"Impossible, darling!" he cried, starting to his feet; and standing
behind her, he placed his arm tenderly around her neck. "What could ever
happen that would part us?"

Then the thought flashed across his mind. Her past was enveloped in
complete mystery, which, true to his word, he had never sought to probe.

"We never know what trials may be in store for us," she remarked. "We
never know wh