over her; the very depths of her heart had
been stirred. She had been wondering so short a time before if she
should ever meet any one at all approaching the ideal standard of
excellence she had set up in her mind. It seemed like an answer to her
thoughts when he crossed the sands.

"I may never see him again," she said; "but I shall always remember that
I have met one whom I could have loved."

She sat there until the sun had set over the waters and the moon had
risen; and all the time she saw before her but one image--the face that
had charmed her as nothing in life had ever done before. Then, startled
to find that it had grown so late, she rose and crossed the sands. Once
she turned to look at the sea, and a curious thought came to her that
there, by the side of the restless, shining waters, she had met her
fate. Then she tried to laugh at the notion.

"To waste one's whole heart in loving a face," she thought, "would be
absurd. Yet the sweetest of all heroines--Elaine--did so."

A great calm, one that lulled her brooding discontent, that stilled her
angry despair, that seemed to raise her above the earth, that refined
and beautified every thought, was upon her. She reached home, and Miss
Hastings, looking at the beautiful face on which she had never seen so
sweet an expression, so tender a light before, wondered what had come
over her. So, too, like Elaine--

All night his face before her lived,

and the face was

Dark, splendid, sparkling in the silence, full
Of noble things.

All unconsciously, all unknowingly, the love had come to her that was to
work wonders--the love that was to be her redemption.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE STORY OF ELAINE.

Miss Hastings laid down the newspaper, with a quick glance of pleased
surprise.

"I am glad that I came to Omberleigh," she said. "Imagine, Pauline, who
is here. You have heard me speak of the St. Lawrences. I educated Laura
St. Lawrence, and she married well and went to India. Her husband holds
a very high appointment there. Lady St. Lawrence is here with her son,
Sir Vane. I am so pleased."

"And I am pleased for you," responded Pauline, with the new gentleness
that sat so well upon her.

"I must go and see them," continued Miss Hastings. "They are staying at
Sea View. We can soon find out where Sea View is."

"St. Lawrence!" said Pauline, musingly; "I like the name; it has a
pleasant sound."

"They are noble people who bear it," observ