pirit; in fact, he left Bloomsbury Place earlier than usual, because he
longed to be alone. He could think of nothing but Dolly,--Dolly in the
white merino, shining like a stray star among her employer's guests, and
gladdening the eyes of Ralph Gowan. He knew so well how she would
look, and how this fellow would follow her in his easy fashion, without
rendering himself noticeable, and manage to be near her through the
evening and hold his place as if he had a right to it, and he knew, too,
how natural it would be for Dolly's eyes to light up in her pleasure
at being saved from boredom, and how her innocent gladness would show
itself in a score of pretty ways. And it was as Mollie said,--it was for
Dolly's sake that Ralph Gowan was there to-night.

"She must know that it is so herself," he groaned, dropping his head
upon the table; "but she cannot help it. She would if she could. Yes,
I 'll believe that. She could never be false to me. I must hold fast to
that in spite of everything. I should go mad if I did n't. I could never
lose you, Dolly,--I could never lose you!"

But he groaned again the next moment from the bottom of his desperate
heart. He had become tangled in yet another web of misery.

"It is only another proof of what I have said a thousand times," he
cried out. "My claim upon her is so weak, that this fellow does not
think it worth regarding. He thinks it may be set aside,--they all
think it may be set aside. I should not wonder," clenching his hand and
speaking through his teeth,--"I should not wonder if he has laughed
many a time at his fancy of how it will end, and how easy it will be to
thrust the old love to the wall!"

At this moment-, in the first rankling sting of humiliation and despair,
he could almost have struck a murderous blow at the man whom fortune
had set on such a pinnacle of pride and insolence, as it seemed to his
galled fancy. He was not in the mood to be either just or generous, and
he saw in Ralph Gowan nothing but a man who had both the power and will
to rival him, and rob him of peace and hope forever. If Dolly had been
with him, in all probability his wretchedness would have evaporated in a
harmless outburst, which would have touched the girl's heart so tenderly
that she would have withheld nothing of love and consolation which could
reassure him, and so in the end the tempest would have left no wound
behind. But as it was left to himself and his imaginings, every thought
held i