lor
upon the beautiful face, and Arthur Ferris could not see the sapphire
blue eyes veiled with their fringing lashes. He had started forward,
had stretched out appealing hands, and murmured "Alice," but the
youthful heiress merely glided past him in a stern silence. He
could see her now, her face buried in her thin, white hands, the
coronal of golden hair gleaming out over the black gown.

There was the faint sound of a sob as Ferris turned angrily to the
senior, while Warner bent pityingly over the young girl.

"I demand a private interview with Miss Worthington," the husband
quickly said, as he indicated the unwelcome presence of Witherspoon.

"We are here, Mr. Ferris," said Boardman, in a steady voice, "to
allow you to communicate, properly, with Miss Worthington. As her
legal representatives and the executors of her father's estate, we
are requested to remain by her. You may proceed."

"I insist that Mr. Witherspoon shall, at once, retire. He is an
interloper here," hotly replied Ferris.

"So much so," icily answered Boardman, "that he has been selected
by us as the general managing director of the Western Trading
Company to succeed the late Mr. Hugh Worthington."

The clock, ticking on noisily, seemed to sound the knell of Ferris'
last hopes. But his affections were now only a mirage of the past.
"That gives him no power over me here," stubbornly said the defeated
husband.

"True; but THIS does," quietly said Boardman, handing him a paper.

With a sickening feeling at heart, Ferris read a formal appointment,
signed by Miss Worthington, and countersigned by Boardman and
Warner, appointing John Witherspoon as resident attorney, in law
and fact, for Miss Alice Worthington.

"If that is not satisfactory, sir," gravely concluded the lawyer,
"we have named Mr. Witherspoon as special New York counsel for
the executors, and he will hold the proxy to cast the vote of the
estate in the ensuing special election. I suggest that you now
proceed with the matters in hand."

"One word!" cried Ferris, leaping to his wife's side, and seizing
her wrists. "Do you confirm this outrage?"

"I do," suddenly cried the weeping girl, springing up and facing
him with a defiant brow.

"What have you done with my brother? Where is the man whom you
falsely accused of leading a vile life? You poisoned my father's
mind against Randall. He has been led away and killed among you."

"Before God, I know nothing of his fate!" stammer