LADY CLARA QUARRELS WITH HER STEPMOTHER. 101

XII.--THE OLD PRISONER. 107

XIII.--THE OLD COUNTESS. 116

XIV.--THE OLD COUNTESS AND HER SERVANT. 122

XV.--THE EARL'S RETURN. 133

XVI.--THE WIFE AND THE DAUGHTER. 143

XVII.--HUSBAND AND WIFE. 152

XVIII.--THE STORMY NIGHT AND SUNSHINY MORNING. 159

XIX.--AFTER THE FAILURE. 167

XX.--LORD HILTON TAKES SUPPER WITH OLYMPIA. 176

XXI.--ON THE WAY TO HOUGHTON CASTLE. 184

XXII.--THE OLD COUNTESS. 191

XXIII.--EXPLANATIONS AND CONCESSIONS. 197

XXIV.--DOWN BY THE BROOK AMONG THE FERNS. 203

XXV.--HOW LADY CLARA GOT HER OWN WAY. 208

XXVI.--THE QUARREL AND THE LETTER. 214

XXVII.--MAGGIE CASEY MEETS HER OLD LOVER. 220

XXVIII.--JUST FIFTY POUNDS. 224

XXIX.--OLYMPIA'S DEFEAT. 232

XXX.--THE FAMILY MEETING AT HOUGHTON. 240

XXXI.--DOWN AMONG THE FERNS AGAIN. 247

XXXII.--OUT AMONG THE TREES. 253

XXXIII.--THE BALL AT HOUGHTON. 263

XXXIV.--THE OLD WOMAN WANDERS BACK AGAIN. 269

XXXV.--LADY HOPE IN THE CASTLE. 274

XXXVI.--DEATH IN THE TOWER-CHAMBER. 280

XXXVII.--THE NEMESIS. 289

THE OLD COUNTESS; OR, THE TWO PROPOSALS.

CHAPTER I.

LOVE-LIGHTS IN TWO HEARTS.

During fourteen years Hepworth Closs had been a wanderer over the earth.

When he was carried out from the court-room after Mrs. Yates' confession
of a crime which he had shrinkingly believed committed by another, he
had fainted from the suddenness with which a terrible load had been
lifted from his soul.

In that old woman's guilt he had no share. It swept the blackness from
the marriage he had protested against as hideously wicked. The wrong he
had done was divested of the awful responsibilities which had seemed
more than he could bear.