tten all
about it, and about the girl, too, for that matter.

He scarcely remembered pretty Margery until he happened to see her
again. The girl was fairly stunned by the intelligence that the great
millionaire owner of the establishment had made Lester Armstrong his
heir.

At first her joy was so great that she could not speak. Then a sudden
fright swept over her heart. He was rich now, and she was poor. Would it
make any difference with him. She tried to put the chilling thought from
her, for it made her heart turn cold as ice. Her gentle eyes did not
close in sleep all the long night through. Her pillow was wet with
tears. The one prayer on her lips was: "I pray to Heaven this may make
no change in him; that he will care for me as much as when he sent me
the poem."

She had not seen Lester Armstrong since he had taken his new position as
proprietor of the great establishment, and now, when his bell rang for
her, no wonder the girl's heart leaped into her mouth, and involuntarily
she looked into the long pier glass eagerly. Ah, it was a fair face
reflected there. There were few fairer, with its delicate coloring
framed in nut-brown curls, gathered back so carelessly from the white
brow, and there was a light in the brown eyes beautiful to behold. She
had been wondering only the moment before if the hero of her daydreams
had forgotten her, and lo! the summons of his bell had seemed to come in
answer to the thought.

With trembling, hopeful anticipation, Margery wended her way to her
employer's office, taking the nearer route, not through the main office,
where her father was, but by a more direct narrow passage, which was
seldom used.

All unmindful of his daughter's presence in the main office, the old
cashier had bent his steps thither for instructions regarding the bill
which had just been presented, but he had scarcely reached out his hand
to knock, ere he heard a blood-curdling, piercing scream, in a woman's
voice, from within, and recognized, in horror too great for words, the
voice of his own daughter, his Margery!

CHAPTER XIX.

PRETTY MARGERY'S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY.

Pretty Margery Conway had made her way eagerly enough to Mr. Lester
Armstrong's private office, but her light tap on the door brought no
response, and, as it was slightly ajar, she pushed it open and stepped
across the threshold.

To her great surprise she saw that her employer was deeply engrossed in
the pictures of a comic wee