o
the spot, and when the figure arose to the surface, he was ready to
grasp it. It was no easy matter to lift it into his boat, but he
succeeded at last, when he rowed with all possible speed back to the
city, where, instead of notifying the police and giving me into their
hands to be taken either to a hospital or to the morgue, as the case
might demand, he procured a carriage and took me directly to his home,
where he felt that his sister could do more for me than any one else."

"Who was this young man?" Gerald Goddard here interposed, while he
searched his companion's face curiously.

"Willard Livermore," calmly replied Mrs. Stewart, as she steadily met
his glance, although the color in her cheeks deepened visibly.

"Ha! the man who accompanied you to Wyoming night before last?"

"Yes."

"I have heard that he has long wanted to marry you--that he is your
lover," said Mr. Goddard, flashing a jealous look at her.

"He is my friend, stanch and true; a man whom I honor above all men,"
was the composed reply; but the woman's voice was vibrant with an
earnestness which betrayed how much the words meant to her.

"Then why have you not married him?"

"Because I was already bound."

"But you have told me that you did not know you were legally bound
until within the last two years."

Isabel Stewart lifted a grave glance to her companion's face.

"When, as a girl, I left my home to go with you to Italy," she said,
solemnly, "I took upon myself vows which only death could cancel--they
were as binding upon me as if you had always been true to me; and so,
while you lived, I could never become the wife of another. I have
lived my life as a pure and faithful wife should live. Although my
youth was marred by an irrevocable mistake, which resulted in an act
of frenzy for which I was not accountable, no willful wrong has ever
cast a blight upon my character since the day that Willard Livermore
rescued me from a watery grave in the depths of the yellow Tiber."

And Gerald Goddard, looking into the beautiful and noble face before
him, knew that she spoke only the truth, while a blush of shame surged
over his own, and caused his head to droop before the purity of her
steadfast eyes.

"All efforts upon the part of Miss Livermore and her brother to
resuscitate me," Mrs. Stewart resumed, going on with her story from
the point where she had been interrupted, "were unavailing. Another
physician was called to their assistance; b