one."

"Thank you, dear; then we will let the subject drop until we are
stronger. And here is the carriage, and Doctor Vaughan."

Out into the sunny Summer morning went Madeline, and soon she was
established in a lovely little room which, Olive said, was hers so
long as she could be persuaded to occupy it. Here the girl rested and,
ministered unto by gentle hands, she felt life coming back.

* * * * *

And Lucian?

Late in the afternoon of the day that saw Madeline depart from his
elegant rooms, Mr. Davlin arrived, and found no one to deny him
admittance. All the doors stood ajar, and Henry was flitting about
with an air of putting things to rights. The bird had flown.

He gained from Henry the following: "I don't know, sir, where she
went. A gentleman came with a carriage, and the young lady and the
nurse went away with him."

Lucian was not aware what manner of nurse Madeline had had in her
illness. And Henry, having purposely misled him, enjoyed his
discomfiture.

"She told me to give you this, sir," said he, handing his master a
little package.

Tearing off the wrapper, Lucian held in his hand the little pistol
that had inflicted upon him the wounded arm. From its mouth he drew a
scrap of paper, and this is what it said:

When next we meet, I shall have other weapons!

CHAPTER X.

BONNIE, BEWITCHING CLAIRE.

Four months. We find Madeline standing in the late Autumn sunset,
"clothed and in her right mind," strong with the strength of youth,
and beautiful with even more than her olden beauty.

Fair is the prospect as seen from the grounds of Mrs. Girard's
suburban villa, and so, perhaps, Claire Keith is thinking.

She is looking down the level road, and at the trees on either hand,
decked in all their October magnificence of scarlet and brown and
gold, half concealing coquettish villas and more stately residences.

The eyes of Madeline were turned away from the vista of villas and
trees, and were gazing toward the business thoroughfare leading into
the bustle of the town; gazing after the receding figure of Doctor
Clarence Vaughan as he cantered away from the villa; gazing until a
turn of the road hid him from her view. Then--and what did she mean by
it?--she turned her face toward Claire with a questioning look in her
eyes--the question came almost to her lips. But the words were
repressed.

Bonnie Clair was thinking of anything but Clarence Vaughan