art beating rapidly with
fear lest she should encounter some rude fisherman or peasant who would
stop and question her.

She was foot-sore and weary long before she came in sight of the
village, for a mile was a long distance to her unaccustomed muscles,
while Lisette's heavy shoes hurt her tender feet sorely.

But, guided by the lights along the railroad track, she found her way to
the crossing the girl had told, her about, and, sinking down upon a pile
of sleepers by the road-bed, she uttered a sigh of relief that she had
reached the end of her long walk.

She did not have a great while to wait, for presently the cars came
thundering along, and soon she was on the train for Nice, whence she
took an express for Paris. Now she felt safe from pursuit, as she was
being whirled northward at the rate of forty miles an hour.

CHAPTER XX.

VIOLET RETURNS TO AMERICA.

Meanwhile the kind-hearted peasant girl, Lisette, feeling as if she had
suddenly been changed into another being by some good fairy--and she
certainly looked like a different person, clad as she was like a
lady--was walking at a swinging pace toward Mentone, and--her doom.

She intended to walk until the day began to dawn, and then beg a ride to
Monaco in one of the market-carts which made daily trips from the
country to that city.

It was still very dark, and the road, which lay up a steep hill, was
very narrow, and ran dangerously near the cliffs which overhung the sea.

The girl had worked very hard the previous day, while she had slept none
that night, for she had been too much excited, over the thought of
leaving her home, to rest, and she now began to experience a feeling of
weariness and languor stealing over her. It was the reaction coming on,
while added to that was a feeling of dread and loneliness over the
uncertainty of the future.

More than this, she found the boots, which Violet had insisted must go
with the rest of her costume, were too tight to be comfortable, and this
greatly impeded her progress.

She climbed to the top of the cliffs and there sat down by the road-side
upon a huge bowlder, where she had rested many a time before, to recover
herself a little before going on.

The stone was an irregular one, with a projection which formed a support
for her back, and leaning against this, she was overcome by weariness
before she knew it and fell into a sound sleep.

It did not seem as if ten minutes had elapsed since she sa