er.

The second morning after matters had been thus settled, Vane Cameron was
told that he might pay his betrothed another visit.

This he was, of course, only too glad to do, and his face lighted with
positive joy when, upon entering her presence, he saw a cluster of
bluebell flowers fastened upon her breast among the folds of her dainty
white _robe-de chambre_.

He went forward and took both her hands in his, pressing his lips first
to one and then the other, in a chivalrous, reverent way that touched
Violet deeply, and smote her, too, with a sense of guilt and shame.

"God is good to me in granting my heart's desire," he said, in a low,
earnest tone. "May His richest blessings be yours in the future, my
Violet."

The fair girl could not utter one word in reply. Her heart was beating
so rapidly and heavily that for a moment she thought she must suffocate,
while that mute cry again went up from its wounded depths:

"Oh! Wallace, Wallace, did I promise?"

Lord Cameron saw that she was deeply agitated, and, seating himself
beside her, he began to talk of subjects to distract her mind from
herself and their new relations to each other.

He possessed great tact and a wonderful fund of anecdote and incident,
and before he left her presence he had actually made her laugh over a
droll account of an experience of the previous day.

After that he enticed her out for a drive about the beautiful bay, and
having once achieved this much, it was comparatively easy to plan
something for her pleasure and amusement every day.

While Violet was with him she could not fail to feel the charm of his
presence, and she would, for the time, forget herself and her trouble;
but the moment she was alone, the old aversion to the thought of
becoming his wife, together with all her love and grief for Wallace,
would revive to make her wretched.

One day, as they were nearing their hotel after a longer drive than
usual, and Violet had seemed to enjoy herself more than she was wont to
do, Lord Cameron ventured to broach a subject that lay very near his
heart.

"Mrs. Mencke informs me that she and her husband are contemplating a
tour of the Alps this summer," he remarked, by way of introduction.

Violet looked up surprised. She had not heard her sister say anything
about such a tour, and there was nothing that she dreaded so much, in
the present weakened state of her mind and body, as being taken about to
various fashionable resorts and