of his young wife, but as for help, there was none.

The only bright side to it was this, he could remarry her on the day he
came of age. Of that there was and could be no doubt, he said, but he
was bent on finding some loop-hole, and marrying her at once, if it were
really needful for the ceremony to be performed again. It could not be,
and there was nothing for it but to resign himself to the inevitable. He
did not know that Leone had heard the terrible sentence, and he dreaded
having to tell her. He was worn out with sorrow and emotion. In what
words was he to tell her that she was not his wife in the eyes of the
law, and that if they wished to preserve her character unspotted and
unstained she must leave him at once?

He understood his mother's character too well to dare any delay. He was
sure that if Leone remained even one day under his roof, when the time
came that he should introduce her to the world as his wife, his mother
would bring the fact against her, and so prevent her from even knowing
people.

There was no help for it--he must tell her. He wrote a letter telling
her he would be at River View for luncheon on the following day; he knew
that he must leave that same evening for the Continent.

He would have given the world to have been able to renounce the royal
favor, of which he had felt so proud, but he could not. To have done so
would have been to have deprived him not only of all position, but to
have incurred disgrace. To have refused a favor so royally bestowed
would have been an act of ingratitude which would have deprived him of
court favor for life.

He must go; and when the first pain was over, he said to himself it was,
perhaps, the best thing that could have happened. He could not have
borne to know that Leone was near him, yet not see or speak to her.

It was all for the best, painful as it was. If for these long months
they must be parted, it was better for him to be abroad--he dare not
have trusted himself at home. He loved Leone so well that he knew his
love would have broken down the barriers which the law had placed
between them. He would go to River View, and, let it pain him as it
would, he would tell her all, he would leave her as happy as was
possible under the circumstances. He would stay away until the time was
over; then, the very day he came of age, he would return and remarry
her. He laughed to scorn his mother's prophecy. He prove untrue to his
darling! The heavens must fa