ntation jubilee, for
the darkies shall have a dance at the quarters. You'll like that,
won't you?"

"Anything that expresses the feminine homage to returning heroes,"
replied Judithe, with a little bow of affected humility, at which
Colonel McVeigh laughed as he returned it. She passed out of the door
with his sister and he stood looking after her, puzzled, yet with hope
in his eyes. His impetuousness in plunging into the very heart of the
question at once had, at any rate, not angered her, which was a great
point gained. He muttered an oath when he realized that but for the
Countess Biron's gossip they might never have been separated, for she
did love him then--he knew it. Even today, when she would have run
away from him again, she did not deny _that_! Forty-eight hours in
which to win her--and his smile as he watched her disappear had a
certain grim determination in it. He meant to do it. She had grown
white when he quoted to her her own never forgotten words. Well, she
should say them to him again! The hope of it sent the blood leaping to
his heart, and he turned away with a quick sigh.

Gertrude, who had only stepped out on the veranda when she left the
table, and stood still by the open glass door, saw the lingering,
intense gaze with which he followed the woman she instinctively
disliked--the woman who was now mistress of Loringwood, and had made
the purchase as carelessly as though it were a new ring to wear on her
white hand--a new toy to amuse herself with in a new country; the
woman who threw money away on whims, had the manner of a princess, and
who had aroused in Gertrude Loring the first envy or jealousy she had
ever been conscious of in her pleasant, well-ordered life. From the
announcement that Loringwood had passed into the stranger's possession
her heart had felt like lead in her bosom. She could not have
explained why--it was more a presentiment of evil than aught else, and
she thought she knew the reason of it when she saw that look in
Kenneth McVeigh's eyes--a look she had never seen there before.

And the woman who had caused it all was walking the floor of her own
apartment in a fever of impatience. If the man she expected would only
come--then she would have work to do--definite plans to follow; now
all was so vague, and those soldiers staying over, was it only a
chance invitation, or was there a hidden purpose in that retained
guard? Her messenger should have arrived within an hour of Colonel