k listened with interest, but he never dreamed how vitally,
in the near future, this catastrophe would concern him.

He thought of his strange visit to that place, and that no doubt the
owner was none too sorry to see it laid to ashes, as he had acknowledged
that it had caused him much annoyance owing to the uncanny rumors
floating about that the place was haunted by a young and beautiful woman
whose spirit would not be laid.

Then, in talking to Jessie during the next half hour he entirely forgot
the fire that had occurred on that far-away island in the St. Lawrence.

He broached the subject that the architect had gone for good, narrowly
watching Jessie's pretty face as he told her.

"Oh! I am so sorry," she declared, disappointedly, "for he was such a
nice young man; and in his spare moments he had promised to teach me to
sketch;" and her lovely face clouded.

"Would not I do as well?" asked Hubert Varrick, gently, as his hand
closed over the little white one so near his own.

The girl trembled beneath his touch. In that one moment her heart went
from her, and she experienced the sweet elysium of a young life just
awakening to love's bewildering dream.

"Would I not make as good a teacher?" repeated Varrick, softly; and he
bent his dark, handsome head, looking earnestly into the girl's flushed
face.

"Perhaps," she answered, evasively; and she was very much relieved to
hear some one calling her at that moment.

Mrs. Varrick heard of the proposed sketching lessons with great
displeasure. Despite all that she had done and said, she saw these two
young people falling more and more in love with each other with every
passing day.

"How can I stop it? What shall I do?" she asked herself night after
night, as she paced the floor of her _boudoir_.

She fairly cursed the hour that brought lovely, innocent little Jessie
Bain beneath that roof, and she wished she knew of some way in which to
get rid of the girl for good and all.

She paced the floor until the day dawned. A terrible scheme against the
life and happiness of poor Jessie Bain had entered her brain--a scheme
so dark and horrible that even she grew frightened as she contemplated
it.

Then she set her lips together, muttering hoarsely:

"I would do anything to part my son and Jessie Bain!"

CHAPTER IX.

GERELDA'S ESCAPE FROM WAU-WINET ISLAND.

The fire at Wau-Winet Island, as the papers had explained, had taken
place during the owner's abs