pite of his instinctive faith in the girl he loved, he knew there
must be some foundation for what had been told to his father. Mrs.
Montague had come home alone. Louis and Mona had been left behind!
What could it mean?

His heart felt as if it had been suddenly cleft in twain. He could not
believe the dreadful story--he would not have it so--he would not submit
to having his life and all his bright hopes ruined at one fell blow. And
that, too, just as he had learned such good news for his darling--when he
had been planning to give her, upon her return, the one thing which she
had most desired above all others--the indisputable proof of her mother's
honorable marriage; when it would also be proved that she was the heir to
the property which Homer Forester had left, and could claim, if she
chose, the greater portion of the fortune left by her father.

Ray had been very exultant over the finding of that certificate in Mrs.
Montague's boudoir, and had anticipated much pleasure in beholding Mona's
joy when he should tell her the glorious news.

But now--great heavens! what was he to think?

Then the suspicion came to him, with another great shock, and like a
revelation, that it was all a plot; that Mrs. Montague had perhaps
discovered Mona's identity and possibly the loss of the certificate,
which, she might think, had fallen into the young girl's hands. He had
felt sure, from the quizzing to which Louis Hamblin had subjected him at
Hazeldean, that that young man's suspicions had been aroused, and
possibly this sudden flitting to the South had been but a plot, from
beginning to end, to entrap Mona into a marriage with the young man in
order to secure the wealth they feared to lose.

"When did Mrs. Montague leave New Orleans?" he inquired, when his father
had concluded, while he struggled to speak in his natural tone.

"On Tuesday evening."

"And you say that the Havana steamer sailed that same day?"

"Yes."

"What was the name of the steamer?"

"I do not know. I did not ask," Mr. Palmer replied. He was thinking more
about his own affairs than of the alleged elopement of the young people,
or he must have wondered somewhat at his son's eager questions. "And,
Ray," he added, as the young man suddenly laid down his paper and arose,
"there is one other thing I wanted to mention--Mrs. Montague has
consented to become Mrs. Palmer on the thirtieth of next month. I--I
hope, my dear boy, that you will be prepared to receiv