nd laid it on the
table; then she sat down by the window with a feeling of utter
helplessness.

What was the matter with everyone? Why had all her dreams gone so sadly
awry?

She thought of Forrester with a very real pang. If only he had been
here--if only she had allowed him to see her mother first, as he had
wished, all this might have been averted.

When would she see him again? The future loomed before her like a thick
shadow, without one ray of sunshine. She wished wildly that she had gone
with him at the last moment when he had asked her to. She had never felt
so lonely in her life.

It seemed a long time before Mrs. Ledley came downstairs again. She
came into the room where Faith sat, and looked at her with hard eyes.

"This man you say you have married?" she asked. "Where is he?"

"He has gone to America," said Faith. "He went this morning; he won't be
back for seventeen days."

Then the full pathos of her position overcame her and she broke down
into tears.

"I did it for your sake," she sobbed. "I thought you would be so glad. I
hated to see you look tired. I hated to see you work so hard, and he
promised me he would give you a house in the country and send the twins
to school. When he comes back he'll tell you himself."

There was a little silence.

"Faith," said Mrs. Ledley painfully, "do you think he ever will come
back?"

Faith's tears were dried in a scorching flush. She raised her little
head proudly.

"I know he will," she said.

Mrs. Ledley's face softened. She came over to where the girl sat, and
bending, kissed her.

"Tell me all about it," she said.

Faith told her the little she knew--of their first meeting, right down
to the strange marriage that morning in the registrar's dingy office,
but she carefully kept to herself the things that Peg Fraser had said.
They were too preposterous to mention!

She showed the letter for Mr. Shawyer, the lawyer, and Mrs. Ledley's
face cleared a little as she took it and read the few lines.

"We will go and see him," she said. "On Monday we will go and see him,
Faith, you and I."

Faith looked up eagerly.

"And you will believe in him then, won't you?" she asked. "If Mr.
Shawyer tells you that it is all right you will believe in him, won't
you?"

Mrs. Ledley took the girl's eager face in her hands.

"Do you love him--very much?" she asked rather sadly.

Faith echoed the words vaguely.

"Love him? Who do you mean?..."

"I mean this