top, affording a momentary view of the little town
grouped compactly on the rocks with the blue-green cataract rushing
by--but they are bound for Schaffhausen or the Black Forest or
Constance, and cannot break the journey--so the hosts of personally
conducted ones pass Laufingen by, and Laufingen seems upon the whole
resigned to its obscurity. But Mark Ashburn, at least, had felt its
gentle attractions, having come upon it almost by accident, as he
returned alone from the Black Forest after the tour with Caffyn. His
thoughts were constantly of Mabel Langton at that time, and he found a
dreamy pleasure in the idea of coming to Laufingen some day when she
should be his companion, which made him look upon everything he saw
merely as a background for her fair face. It had seemed a very
hopeless dream then, and yet a few months more and the dream had come
to pass. He was at Laufingen once again, and Mabel was by his side.

The long nightmare of those days before the wedding was over at last.
He had not dared to feel secure, even in the church, so strong was his
presentiment of evil. But nothing had happened, the words were spoken
which made Mabel his own, and neither man nor angel intervened. And
now a week had gone by, during which nothing from without had
threatened his happiness; and for a time, as he resolutely shut his
eyes to all but the present, he had been supremely happy. Then by
degrees the fox revived and began to gnaw once more. His soul sickened
as he remembered in what a Fool's Paradise he was living. Unless
Holroyd decided to leave England at once with this young Gilroy of
whom Caffyn had spoken--a stranger--he would certainly learn how he
had been tricked with regard to Mabel's marriage, and this would lead
him on to the full discovery of his wrongs. In his mad determination
to win her at all costs, Mark had disregarded everything but the
immediate future. If shame and misery were to come upon him, he had
told himself, he would at least have the memory of a period of perfect
bliss to console him--he might lose all else, but Mabel could not be
taken from him. But now, as she took no pains to hide the content
which filled her heart, he would scarcely bear to meet her sweet grey
eyes for the thought that soon the love he read in them would change
to aversion and cold contempt, and each dainty caress was charged for
him with a ferocious irony. He knew at last his miserable selfishness
in having linked her lot wit