with her elbows on her knees and her
clutched fists supporting her chin. Her lips were drawn back from her
clinched teeth and her black eyes gleamed like fire from the deathly
whiteness of her face.

And so she sat and brooded and brooded over her mortification, and
studied and studied how she might pull down ruin upon the heads of those
hated young people who were loving each other and enjoying life at the
cost of her humiliation.

And of course the foul fiend very soon entered into her counsels and
assisted her.

"I have one devoted slave--one willing instrument left yet," she
muttered to herself: "he would pay any price--yes, the price of his
soul--for my love! He shall pay _my_ price down! He shall be the means
of drawing destruction upon all their heads! Yes, Miss Cavendish, marry
Alden Lytton, if you _will_, and afterward look honest men and women in
the face if you _can_! Yes, Stephen Lyle, become the husband of Laura
Lytton, and then hold up your head in the pulpit--if you dare! Ah, if my
plot succeed! Ah, if my plot succeed, how terribly will I be avenged!
And it _shall_ succeed!" she hissed through her grinding teeth, with a
grim hatred distorting her white features and transforming her beautiful
face for an instant into demoniac hideousness.

She started up and commenced traversing the floor, as a furious tigress
her den.

When she had raged herself into something like composure she opened her
writing-case and wrote the following letter:

"RICHMOND, VA., Aug. --, 18--.

"TO CRAVEN KYTE, ESQ.

"_Dear Friend_:--My wanderings have come to a temporary end here
in this city, where I expect to remain for some weeks, even if I
do not conclude to make it my permanent residence.

"Shall I trouble you to do me a favor? Some time ago I left in
the hands of the jeweler at Wendover a little pearl brooch, which
I forgot to call for when I left, and have neglected to send for
ever since.

"The brooch in itself is of small intrinsic value; but as it is
an old family relic I should like to recover it. Will you,
therefore, please go to the jeweler's and get it and send it to
me in a registered letter by mail? and I shall be very much
indebted to you. And if you should happen to come to this city
during my stay here I hope you will call to see me; for I should
be very glad to see any old friend from Wendover.

"Yours truly,