e is more than I can
bear, though no more than I deserve. You have heard that my college days
were wild, and that after repeated warnings my father drove me from
home, sending me to Wyoming to embark in the cattle-business. I
preferred gambling, and lost what he gave me. There was nothing then
left but to enlist; and I joined the ----th. Mother still believed me in
or near Denver, and wrote regularly there. The life was horrible to me
after the luxury and lack of restraint I had enjoyed, and I meant to
desert. Chance threw in my way that temptation. I robbed poor Hull the
night before he was killed, repacked the paper so that even the torn
edges would show the greenbacks, resealed it,--all just as I have had to
hear through her pure and sacred lips it was finally told and her lover
saved.

"God knows I was shocked when I heard in Denver he was to be tried for
the crime. I hastened to Cheyenne, not daring to show myself to him or
any one, and restored every cent of the money, placing it in Mrs.
Clancy's hands, as I dared not stay; but I had hoped to give it to
Clancy, who had not arrived. The police knew me, and I _had_ to go. I
gave every cent I had, and _walked_ back to Denver, then got word to
mother of my fearful danger; and, though she never knew I was a
deserter, she sent me money, and I came East and went abroad. Then my
whole life changed. I was appalled to think how low I had fallen. I
shunned companionship, studied, did well at Heidelberg; father forgave
me, and died; but God has not forgiven, and at the moment when I thought
my life redeemed this retribution overtakes me.

"If I may ask anything, it is that mother may never know the truth. I
will tell her that Nellie could not love me, and I could not bear to
stay."

* * * * *

Some few weeks later that summer Miss Travers stood by the same balcony
rail, with an open letter in her hand. There was a soft flush on her
pretty, peachy cheek, and a far-away look in her sweet blue eyes.

"What news from Warrener, Nellie?" asked Mrs. Rayner.

"Fluffy has reappeared."

"Indeed! Where?"

"At Mr. Hayne's. He writes that as he returned, the moment he entered
the hall she came running up to him, arching her back and purring her
delight and welcoming him just as though she belonged there now; and--"

"And what, Nellie?"

"He says he means to keep her until I come to claim her."

THE END

End of