, when
I was about to leave her, took from her pocket a small slip of paper.

"'Read that, Mr. Vaughn,' she said.

"I did so. It was a marriage notice of a Mr. Legrange to a Miss C.
Elizabeth Graystone."

"A distant relative," said Clemence. "We were not intimately acquainted,
and this is the first intimation that I have gained of Cousin Lottie's
marriage."

"Being somewhat confused at the time," continued Mr. Vaughn, "I
supposed, of course, that this was the lady I sought, and that farther
search was fruitless. There seemed now no more to be done. Of my
feelings of disappointment and regret, I will speak hereafter.

"Having now nothing to occupy my attention, I mingled more in society,
at my sister-in-law's earnest solicitation, though I cared little for
the strangers whom I met. More than a year passed in this aimless way.

"One evening, however, at a brilliant soiree, I met an elderly lady,
with whom I got quite well acquainted in the course of an agreeable
conversation. She was a woman of keen intellect, and it seemed to me
rather a masculine mind. I was astonished to find such an one amid this
idle crowd of gay worldlings, and I spoke at some length of the pleasure
I had enjoyed. She told me, then, that we were not such entire strangers
as I seemed to suppose, but that we had a mutual friend, a young lady
who was then absent from the city.

"This, of course, piqued my curiosity, and, upon asking an explanation,
she told me all she knew of the one whom I had so long been vainly
seeking.

"In return, I gave her my whole confidence. She invited me to call at
her residence the following day, which I did. It was the home where you
had spent those long months of seclusion, and the lady was, as you must
have guessed, Mrs. Linden.

"I learned from her everything that I wished to know save your present
place of residence, which she refused to divulge.

"'I expect my pet will return to me, when she has wearied of her present
mode of life,' she said, 'and then you can renew your acquaintance under
more favorable auspices.'

"It was in vain I pleaded for farther confidences. She was inexorable. I
had, therefore, only to exercise patience, and, as I had now everything
to hope for, I was happier than I had been for many long months.

"To while away the time, which, in my present mood hung heavy on my
hands, I started, in company with my sister-in-law and a party of
friends, on a pleasure excursion. We took passage