nd in fact
confirmed, by an additional report that valuable diamonds had been sent
by the same officer from Tiffany's to the lady, who is stopping somewhere
on Central Park. There, Alfonso, I have given you the story and the whole
may be true or false."

It was now Alfonso's turn to be shocked; he could not believe what the
marquis had told him. Next day he visited the office of the American
Line, found that Christine De Ruyter was a passenger on the last steamer,
and the purser gave him her New York address. Then the marquis
volunteered to call, in Alfonso's interests, upon Miss De Ruyter who
seemed glad to see him, and was amazed with the story which he had to
tell, not only of himself, and his good fortune, but that of Alfonso.
That the latter was alive and wealthy was news almost too good to
believe.

The marquis reported to Alfonso that Christine was overjoyed to have a
bygone mystery so fortunately cleared up, and that she sent him an urgent
invitation to call at once.

Christine congratulated herself over her good luck at the very threshold
of the new world. "Strange romance, indeed, it would be," she mused to
herself, "if, after having refused the poor artist, he having gained
riches should prove loyal, and lay his heart and fortune at my feet!
Would I reject him? No, indeed! He has gold now." Thus musing to herself
before the mirror, she gave final touches to her toilet, and stepped down
into her sister's sumptuous parlor to wait for a lover, restored from the
depths of the sea.

Promptly at 9 o'clock Alfonso was ushered into Fredrika's parlor. For a
second, Christine stood fixed and pale, for Alfonso it really was, and
she had believed him dead; then extending her hand she gave him greeting.
For a full hour Alfonso and Christine talked, each telling much of what
had transpired in the intervening years. Alfonso said he was quite as
much surprised to find that she was still unmarried, as she seemed
surprised that he was still alive.

"Alfonso, I have waited long for you," Christine replied.

"Ah, yes, Christine, but have you been true all these years?"

As Alfonso spoke these words, he sat with Christine's hand in his own,
looking inquiringly into her blue eyes for her answer. Her face flushed
and she was speechless.

Alfonso, dropping her hand, said in a kindly voice, "For years I have
kept pure and sought to be worthy of you, and fortune has smiled upon me;
I could now match gold with gold, but when