n imprudence that the astute step-mother, seeing her opportunity,
proposed the only reparation possible,--marriage. Cecil was a bright,
pretty, wilful girl, and he liked her, yet he had a strong feeling of
being outgeneralled.

That she loved him he could not doubt, and they were married, as he
intended to return to England. But her fondness was that of a child,
and sometimes grew very wearisome. She was petulant, but not
ill-tempered; the thing she cried for to-day she forgot to-morrow.

She had one sister much older than herself, married to a clergyman and
settled in Devonshire. Floyd sought them out, and found them a most
charming household. Mr. Garth was a strongly intellectual man, and his
house was a centre for the most entertaining discussions. Mrs. Garth
had a decided gift for music, and was a well-balanced, cultivated
woman. They lingered month after month, gravitating between London and
the Garths', until Cecil's child was born. A few weeks later Cecil's
imprudence cost her life. Floyd Grandon came down from London to find
the eager, restless little thing still and calm as any sculptured
marble. He was so glad then that he had been indulgent to her whims and
caprices.

He was quite at liberty now to join an expedition to Africa that he had
heroically resisted before. Mrs. Garth kept the child. Announcing his
new plans to his mother, he set off, and for the next four years
devoted himself to the joys and hardships of a student traveller.

He was deep in researches of the mysterious lore of Egypt when a letter
that had gone sadly astray reached him, announcing his father's death
and the necessity of his return home. Leaving a friend to complete one
or two unfinished points, he reluctantly tore himself away, and yet
with a pang that after all it was too late to be of any real service to
his father, that he could never comfort his declining years as he had
Aunt Marcia's.

He had some business in Paris, and crossing the channel he met Madame
Lepelletier. She was a widow and childless. The title and estate had
gone to a younger son, though she had a fair provision. She had
received the announcement of Mr. Grandon's death and the notice of
settlement, and was on her way to America. A superbly handsome woman
now, but Grandon had seen many another among charming society women. He
was not in any sense a lady's man. His little taste of matrimony had
left a bitter flavor in his mouth.

She admitted to herself that