ve comprehended the almost
fierce kiss on her cheek nor the hot drops that wet it.

"I said that I believed that if you saw me commit murder," Clorinda
cried, "you would love me still, and be my friend and comforter."

"I would, I would!" cried Anne.

"And I believe your word, poor, faithful soul--I do believe it," my lady
said, and kissed her hard again, but the next instant set her free and
laughed. "But you will not be put to the test," she said, "for I have
done none. And in two days' time my Gerald will be here, and I shall be
safe--saved and happy for evermore--for evermore. There, leave me! I
would be alone and end my work."

And she went back to her table and sat beside it, taking her pen to
write, and Anne knew that she dare say no more, and turning, went slowly
from the room, seeing for her last sight as she passed through the
doorway, the erect and splendid figure at its task, the light from the
candelabras shining upon the rubies round the snow-white neck and
wreathed about the tower of raven hair like lines of crimson.

CHAPTER XIX--A piteous story is told, and the old cellars walled in

It is, indeed, strangely easy in the great world for a man to lose his
importance, and from having been the target for all eyes and the subject
of all conversation, to step from his place, or find it so taken by some
rival that it would seem, judging from the general obliviousness to him,
that he had never existed. But few years before no fashionable gathering
would have been felt complete had it not been graced by the presence of
the young and fascinating Lovelace, Sir John Oxon. Women favoured him,
and men made themselves his boon companions; his wit was repeated; the
fashion of his hair and the cut of his waistcoat copied. He was at first
rich and gay enough to be courted and made a favourite; but when his
fortune was squandered, and his marriage with the heiress came to naught,
those qualities which were vicious and base in him were more easy to be
seen. Besides, there came new male beauties and new dandies with greater
resources and more of prudence, and these, beginning to set fashion, win
ladies' hearts, and make conquests, so drew the attention of the public
mind that he was less noticeable, being only one of many, instead of
ruling singly as it had seemed that by some strange chance he did at
first. There were indeed so many stories told of his light ways, that
their novelty being worn off and