cable experiences of this vale of tears.

"You will find her in the study," continued Mr. Alwynn. "She is
expecting you. I have told her nothing, according to your wish. I hope
you will explain everything to her in full, that you will keep nothing
back."

"I will explain," said Dare; and he went, trembling with excitement,
into the study. Fired by Charles's example, he had made a sublime
resolve as he skimmed across the fields, made it in a hurry, in a moment
of ecstasy, as all his resolutions were made. He felt he had never acted
such a noble part before. He only feared the agitation of the moment
might prevent him doing himself justice.

Ruth rose as he came in, but did not speak. A swift spasm passed over
her face, leaving it very stern, very fixed, as he had never seen it, as
he had never thought of seeing it. An overwhelming suspense burned in
the dark, lustreless eyes which met his own. He felt awed.

"Well?" she said, pressing her hands together, and speaking in a low
voice.

"Ruth," said Dare, solemnly, laying his outspread hand upon his breast
and then extending it in the air, "I am free."

Ruth's eyes watched him like one in torture.

"How?" she said, speaking with difficulty. "You said you were free
before."

"Ah!" replied Dare, raising his forefinger, "I said so, but it was an
error. I go to Vandon, and she will not go away. I go to London to my
lawyer, and he says she is my wife."

"You told me she was not."

"It was an error," repeated Dare. "I had formerly been a husband to her,
but we had been divorced; it was finished, wound up, and I thought she
was no more my wife. There is in the English law something extraordinary
which I do not comprehend, which makes an American divorce to remain a
marriage in England."

"Go on," said Ruth, shading her eyes with her hand.

"I come back to Vandon," continued Dare, in a suppressed voice, "I come
back overwhelmed, broken down, crushed under feet; and then,"--he was
becoming dramatic, he felt the fire kindling--"I meet a friend, a noble
heart, I confide in him. I tell all to Sir Charles Danvers,"--Ruth's
hand was trembling--"and last night he finds out by a chance that she
was not a true widow when I marry her, that her first husband was yet
alive, that I am free. This morning he tells me all, and I am here."

Ruth pressed her hands before her face, and fairly burst into tears.

He looked at her in astonishment. He was surprised that she had any
feel