g to the recital of the fine things the
man enjoyed, for Satan kept his promise well; but the boy's hair had
stood on end as the story neared its close, and he heard how, when the
probation was ended, the devil came for his victim down the wide-mouthed
chimney, scattering bricks and fire-brands over the floor, as he carried
the trembling soul out in the blackness of the stormy night.

Strangely enough this story came back to him now, and notwithstanding
the horror of the thing he laughed aloud as he glanced up at the tall
oak fire-place, wondering if it would be that way he would one day go
with his master, and seeing in fancy Dolly's dismay when the tea-cups,
and saucers, and vases, and plaques, came tumbling to the floor as he
disappeared from sight in a blue flame, which smelled of brimstone.

It was a loud, unnatural laugh, but fortunately for him it came just as
Grace Atherton had set the guests in a roar with what she was saying of
the Peterkin's final struggle to enter society, and so it passed
unnoticed by most of them. But that night in the privacy of his room,
where Dolly delivered most of her lectures, she again upbraided him with
his taciturnity, telling him that he never laughed but once, and then it
sounded more like a groan than a laugh.

'You have hit the nail on the head this time, for it was a groan,' Frank
said, as he plunged into bed; and Dolly, as she undressed herself
deliberately, and this time put her diamonds carefully away, little
dreamed what was passing in the mind of the man, who, all through the
long hours of the night, lay awake, seldom stirring lest he should
disturb her, but repeating over and over to himself, the words:

'Lost now forever and ever, but if Maude is happy I can bear it.'

CHAPTER XXIV.

JERRIE--NINE YEARS LATER.

She spelled her name with an _ie_ now, instead of a _y._ She was
nineteen years old; she had been a student at Vassar for four years,
together with Nina St. Claire and Ann Eliza Peterkin, and in July was to
be graduated with the highest honors of her class. In her childhood,
when we knew her as little Jerry, she had been very small, but at the
age of twelve she suddenly shot up like an arrow, and had you first seen
her, with her back to you, you might have said she was very tall, but
had you waited till she turned her face toward you, or walked across
the floor, you would have thought that if an eighth of an inch were
taken from her height it would