d in low feeble tones, with long pauses between, Cecil
was wrought into an agony of suspense and interest.

The communication was to be addressed to an uncle, and began abruptly:--

"I was married to Theodora Leigh at a register office at Liverpool in
November, 1853, and I make it a dying request to you to acknowledge my
widow, who will otherwise be destitute both of money and friends.
Forgive, if you can, my deception, and the poor return made for all the
benefits lavished on your, notwithstanding, grateful nephew,

"HARRY DUTTON.

"P.S.--My wife is a governess in the family of Mr. Markham,
Heatherbrae, Wimbledon."

It was sealed, directed, and the patient had sunk into a heavy stupor;
but Cecil felt her heart stirred as she had never expected to do again.

Here, if she had required it, was complete exoneration of any subsequent
intercourse having taken place between Du Meresq and Bluebell. The latter
evidently had been far otherwise engaged, and, for the first time, she
felt her long-cherished resentment melting away.

She gazed with some curiosity at the man who could so soon supplant
Bertie, and smiled with irrepressible bitterness at the singular
coincidence that she should be striving to preserve a husband to
Bluebell, who had deprived her of her own early love.

But where could she have met this man, whom she had married almost
immediately on landing in England? Cecil looked again at the
address--"Right Honourable Lord Bromley." She had heard that name
somewhere, but could not recall any connecting associations.

Harry lingered some time, his life frequently despaired of; and he would
probably have succumbed had it not been for the untiring energy and care
of the hospital nurse. Her anxiety could not have been exceeded by
Bluebell herself, for Cecil's disposition was generous, and she never
more truly forgave her _ci-devant_ enemy than when thus labouring to
return good for evil.

At last the turning-point was reached and Dutton lifted from the very
gates of the grave. A wound in his leg was now the chief retarding
circumstance; and as it seemed incapable of healing at Scutari, he was
ordered on sick leave to England.

In the mean time, a lively friendship had arisen between him and Cecil.
Directly she admitted her name and former intimacy with Bluebell, Harry
took her entirely into his confidence, and, encouraged by the evident
interest with which she listened, related how he had firs