eeling sure that we should find her. The
train had started, so we had to go on without her. My grandfather
concluded that she had accidentally missed it and would follow by the
next one."

"And what did you think, Cora?"

"I thought that, for some antecedent and mysterious reason, she had fled
from before the face of the Dean of Olivet at the railway station, even
as she had done at the church."

"When and where did you find her?"

"Not until our return to New York city. My grandfather was in a fine
state; kept the telegraph wires at work between West Point and New York,
until he got some clew to her, and then, without waiting for the closing
exercises at the military academy, he hurried me back to the city. We
found the missing woman at St. L----'s hospital, where she had been
conveyed after having been found in an unconscious condition in the
ladies' room of the railway depot. She was better, and we brought her
away to the hotel. The Dean of Olivet went to Newport, and Mrs.
Stillwater recovered her spirits. A few days later she married Mr.
Rockharrt at the church where the dean had preached. You know everything
else about the matter. And now, Uncle Fabian, tell me that woman's
story, or at least all that is proper for me to know of it."

"Cora, you read Rose Stillwater aright. She did on both these occasions
fly from before the face of the Dean of Olivet. I will tell you all
about her, for it is now right that you should know; but you must
promise never to reveal it."

"I promise."

CHAPTER XXI.

WHO WAS ROSE FLOWERS?

"Well, my dear Corona, I must ask you to cast your thoughts back to that
year when you first came to Rockhold to live, and engrossed so much of
your grandmother's time and attention that your grandfather grew jealous
and impatient, and commissioned me to 'hire' a nursery governess to
look after you and teach you the rudiments of education. You remember
that time, Cora?" inquired Mr. Fabian, as he held the reins with a
slackened grasp, so that the horse jogged slowly along the wooded road
between the foot of the mountain and the banks of the river, under the
star-lit sky.

"I remember perfectly," answered the girl.

"Well, business took me to New York about that time, and I thought it a
good opportunity to hunt up a governess for you. So I advertised in the
New York papers, giving my address at an uptown office, while my own
business kept me down town.

"The first letter I opened