op to bottom, the letter could not be found. In
consequence, the property passed to George Bartram, who, two months
later, married Norah Vanstone.

Magdalen gave up the struggle in despair, and not daring to return to
her people, sunk lower and lower until she reached the depths of
poverty. At last, in a wretched quarter in the East End, she came to the
end of her resources. Ill and almost dying, the people from whom she
rented her one miserable room determined to send her to the workhouse. A
crowd collected to watch her departure. She was just about to be carried
to a cab, when a man pushed his way through the crowd and saw her face.

That man was Captain Kirke, who had seen her at Aldborough. He at once
gave instructions for her to be taken back into the house, paid a sum
down for her proper treatment, and secured the services of a doctor and
a nurse. Every day he came to inquire after her, and when at last, after
weeks of suffering, her strength returned, it was he who brought Norah
and Miss Garth to her.

After the long separation the two sisters had much to tell one another.
Norah, who had bowed patiently under her misfortunes, had achieved the
very object for which Magdalen had schemed in vain. She had obtained,
through her marriage with George Bartram, the fortune which her father
had intended for her. Among other things which she related to Magdalen
was the account of how she had discovered the secret trust simply by
chance. By the discovery of this document, Magdalen became entitled to
half her late husband's fortune; for, the secret trust having failed,
the law had distributed the estate between the deceased's next of
kin--half to Magdalen and half to George Bartram. Taking the paper from
her sister's hands, Magdalen tore it into pieces.

"This paper alone gives me the fortune which I obtained by marrying Noel
Vanstone," she said. "I will owe nothing to my past life. I part with it
as I part with these torn morsels of paper."

* * * * *

To Captain Kirke, Magdalen wrote the complete story of all she had done.
She felt it was due to him that he should know all. She awaited the
inevitable result--the inevitable separation from the man she had grown
to love. When he had read it he came to her.

Near to tears, she waited to hear her fate.

"Tell me what you think of me! Tell me the truth!" she said.

"With my own lips?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered. "Say what you think o