lightning."

Norman's eyes were on her with a strange inquiring look in them.

"How did you hear?" he asked.

"Mr. Keith--he came to me and told me."

"I wish he had not done it. I mean, I did not want you troubled. You
were not to blame. You were deceived."

"Oh, don't say that! I shall never cease to thank him. He tore the veil
away, and I saw what a heartless, vain, silly fool I have been." Norman
put his hand on her soothingly. "But I have never forgotten that I was
your wife, nor ceased to love you," she went on vehemently.

"I believe it."

"I have come to confess everything to you--all my folly--all my
extravagance--my insane folly. But what I said just now is true: I have
never forgotten that I was your wife."

Norman, with his arm supporting her, reassured her with comforting
words, and, sustained by his confidence, she told him of her folly in
trusting Ferdy Wickersham: of her giving him her money--of everything.

"Can you forgive me?" she asked after her shamefaced recital.

"I will never think of that again," said Norman, "and if I do, it will
be with gratitude that they have played their part in doing away with
the one great sorrow of my life and bringing back the happiness of my
youth, the one great blessing that life holds for me."

"I have come to take you home," she said; "to ask you to come back, if
you will but forgive me." She spoke humbly.

Norman's face gave answer even before he could master himself to speak.
He stretched out his hand, and drew her to him. "I am at home now.
Wherever you are is my home."

When Norman came out of his private office, there was such a change in
him that the clerks who had remained at the bank thought that he must
have received some great aid from the lady who had been closeted with
him so long. He had a few brief words with the cashier, explaining that
he would be back at the bank before eight o'clock in the morning, and
saying good night, hurried to the door after Mrs. Wentworth. Handing her
into the carriage, he ordered the coachman to drive home, and, springing
in after her, he closed the door behind him, and they drove off.

Keith, meantime, had not been idle. After leaving Mrs. Wentworth, he
drove straight to a detective agency. Fortunately the chief was in, and
Keith was ushered into his private office immediately. He was a
quiet-looking, stout man, with a gray moustache and keen dark eyes. He
might have been a moderately successful merchant or