s led, and, though you may not believe me, I shall never rest until
you say that you have forgiven me."

Lady Darrell was not a woman given to strong emotion of any kind; the
deepest passion of her life was her love for Aubrey Langton; but even
she could give some faint guess as to what it had cost the proud,
willful Pauline to undergo this humiliation.

"I do forgive you," she said. "No matter how deeply you have disliked
me, or in what way you have plotted against me, I cannot refuse you. I
forgive you, Pauline."

Miss Darrell held up her face.

"Will you kiss me?" she asked. "I have never made that request in all my
life before, but I make it now."

Lady Darrell bent down and kissed her, while the gloom of the evening
fell round them and deepened into night.

"If I only knew what to believe!" Lady Darrell remarked. "First my heart
turns to him, Pauline, and then it turns to you. Yet both cannot be
right--one must be most wicked and most false. You have truth in your
face--he had truth on his lips when he was talking to me. Oh, if I
knew--if I only knew!"

And when she had repeated this many times, Pauline said to her:

"Leave it to Heaven; he has agreed that Heaven shall judge between us,
and it will. Whoever has told the lie shall perish in it."

So some hours passed, and the change that had come over Lady Darrell was
almost pitiful to see. Her fair face was all drawn and haggard, the
brightness had all left it. It was as though years of most bitter sorrow
had passed over her. They had spoken to her of taking some refreshment,
but she had sent it away. She could do nothing but pace up and down with
wearied step, moaning that she only wanted to know which was right,
which to believe, while Pauline sat by her in unwearied patience.
Suddenly Lady Darrell turned to her.

"What is the matter with me?" she asked. "I cannot understand myself;
the air seems full of whispers and portents--it is as though I were here
awaiting some great event. What am I waiting for?"

They were terrible words, for the answer to them was a great commotion
in the hall--the sound of hurried footsteps--of many voices. Lady
Darrell stood still in dismay.

"What is it?" she cried. "Oh, Pauline, I am full of fear--I am sorely
full of fear!"

It was Frampton who opened the door suddenly, and stood before them with
a white, scared face.

"Oh, my lady--my lady!" he gasped.

"Tell her quickly," cried Pauline; "do you not see that susp