ontrol. Since our first
meeting, I have felt a deep interest in you. What you have suffered
has pained me seriously; but the pain has given way to pleasure, for
out of the fire you have come up pure and strong, Fanny! I have but
one word more--there is a sacred place in my heart, and your image
has long been the inhabitant. Here is my hand--will you lay your own
within it, that I may grasp it as mine for life?"

Willet extended his hand as he spoke. There was only a moment's
hesitation on the part of Fanny, who stood with her head bent so far
down that the expression of her face could not be seen. Raising her
eyes in which joy shone through blinding tears, she extended her
hand, which was seized, grasped tightly for an instant, and then
covered with kisses.

CHAPTER XLIII.

NO sooner was Lyon completely in the power of the men he had wronged
to an extent that left no room for mercy, than he made offers of
compromise. A public trial involved not only public disgrace, but he
had too good reasons to fear conviction and penal retribution. This
was the greatest evil he had to dread, and so he made up his mind to
part with at least a portion of his ill-gotten gains. Interview
after interview was held with the parties representing the Company
for which he had been agent, and a final arrangement made for the
restitution of about two hundred thousand dollars--his release not
to take place until the money, or its value, was in the hands of his
creditors. Nearly three months passed in efforts to consummate this
matter, and at last the sum of one hundred and eighty thousand
dollars was obtained, and the miserable, disgraced man set free. He
went forth into the world again with the bitterness of a
life-disappointment at his heart, and a feeling of almost murderous
hate against the men whose confidence he had betrayed, and who
obtained from him only a partial recompense.

Of the sum restored, there fell to Mr. Markland's share about
twenty-five thousand dollars. Its possession quickened in his heart
the old ambitious spirit, and he began to revolve in his thoughts
the ways and means of recovering, by aid of this remnant of his
fortune, the wealth which a scheming villain had wrested from his
grasp. Mr. Willet, whose marriage with his daughter was on the eve
of taking place, had made to him certain proposals in regard to
business, that promised a sure but not particularly brilliant
return. All the required capital was to