gony, not to understand this one. The alchemist, who wasted
his life in vigils over his crucible, but stood uncognizant of the gold
when it gleamed lustrously before him, was not more a dolt. Thrice
afterward I beheld that light in her glorious eyes. To my spiritual
sight I can ever recall it. When you asked me her history, those orbs of
beauty beamed out upon me with that same fascinating light.

* * * * *

I went immediately to America. My ruin was entire. I had greatly
embarrassed my fortune in wild extravagances for Evelyn, and the
remainder I surrendered to my partners. Their criminations were somewhat
assuaged, and our partnership relations being dissolved, the business
was reorganized, and I was engaged in a humble clerical capacity. Moody
and taciturn, I was regarded simply as the ordinary victim of a
recklessly spendthrift wife, and was ridiculed and pitied as such. What
cared I for ridicule or pity?

A letter came from Evelyn, stating that she designed resuming her
profession, and would appear immediately in London. Sometime in the
Spring I should hear from her again.

Accompanying the letter was a formal legal surrender of such property as
she possessed by my gift or otherwise, and a demand that I should apply
it to cancel my obligations. She would hereafter, she said, provide for
herself. Except a small reservation for the benefit of the children, I
complied with her direction. No mandate of hers would I disobey.

So existence dragged on. I resided in a humble dwelling with my two
children. Their presence did not soothe me,--their infantile affection
made no appeal to my heart,--but their dependence claimed my
care.--Memories of Evelyn alone possessed me. I secured full files of
London papers, and watched for notices of her appearance. At last they
came. A new star, the papers said, had suddenly appeared, unheralded, in
the theatrical firmament, and rapidly culminated in the zenith. She was
understood to be an American lady, formerly an actress, who had returned
to the stage on account of domestic difficulties. Some papers intimated
that her husband was a brute, who had forsaken her; others, that by a
series of mischances she had been compelled to the stage to support a
husband and numerous dependent relations. Lengthy criticisms on her
various performances were inserted, most of them stuffed with the
pseudo-taste and finical ostentation of knowledge prevalent in that
depa