nging her
denunciations were until the next morning, when, upon rising, she found
the jewel-box, in which she kept the jewelry which she commonly wore
(her diamonds and more valuable gems being locked in a trunk,
fortunately) together with all that Violet had possessed, was rifled of
its contents and her husband gone, together with his traveling-bag and a
change of clothes.

The desertion of her husband was the most humiliating of all her
troubles; but her proud spirit would not yield to even this blow. She
calmly stated that her husband had been suddenly called home and that
she was to follow him by the next steamer.

Fortunately she had considerable money with her, and she settled every
bill with a grave front, and finally took her departure from the hotel
with as much pomp and state as she had maintained throughout her sojourn
there.

A week from the day of her husband's flight she was crossing the
Atlantic alone, and immediately upon reaching New York proceeded to
Cincinnati in the hope of saving something by the sale of her house and
furniture. The house had already been disposed of, though she learned
that not much had been realized on it, for it had been heavily mortgaged
and the sale was a forced one.

This fact told her that her husband was in America, although no one had
seen him, for the sale had been made through an agent, and she tried to
feel thankful that he had had the grace to leave her the furniture. This
she turned into money, but it did not bring her a third of its real
value, for she was forced to sacrifice it at auction.

Where now was the proud woman's boasted wealth and position? Where now
her vaunted superiority over the "low-born carpenter" because of his
poverty?

Gone! for she had not--aside from some valuable jewels and clothing--a
thousand dollars in the world, while she had the exceeding mortification
of realizing the stern fact that she would be obliged to seek some
employment in order to live honestly.

It was the bitterest drop in her already bitter cup, and too proud to
remain in the city where she had hitherto been a leader in society, she
suddenly disappeared from the place and no one knew whither she had
gone.

CHAPTER XIX.

A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE.

It was on the fourteenth of May, nearly a year and a half previous to
the sudden downfall and disappearance of Wilhelm Mencke and his wife,
that a curious incident occurred which has an important bearing upon our
s