oward her with an imperious gesture.

"Do not come a step nearer," cried the child, bitterly, "or I shall
fling myself from the window down on to the rocks below. I shall never
welcome my father's wife here; and mark me, both of you, I hate her!"
she cried, vehemently. "She shall rue the day that she was born!"

Mrs. Corliss knew but too well the child would keep her word. No
power, save God, could stay the turbulent current of the ungovernable
self-will which would drag her on to her doom. No human being could
hold in subjection the fierce, untamed will of the beautiful, youthful
tyrant.

There had been strange rumors of the unhappiness of Basil Hurlhurst's
former marriage. No one remembered having seen her but once, quite
five years before. A beautiful woman with a little babe had suddenly
appeared at Whitestone Hall, announcing herself as Basil Hurlhurst's
wife. There had been a fierce, stormy interview, and on that very
night Basil Hurlhurst took his wife and child abroad; those who had
once seen the dark, glorious, scornful beauty of the woman's face
never forgot it. Two years later the master had returned alone with
the little child, heavily draped in widower's weeds.

The master of Whitestone Hall was young; those who knew his story were
not surprised that he should marry--he could not go through life
alone; still they felt a nameless pity for the young wife who was to
be brought to the home in which dwelt the child of his former wife.

There would be bitter war to the end between them. No one could tell
on which side the scales of mercy and justice would be balanced.

At that instant, through the raging of the fierce elements, the sound
of carriage wheels smote upon their ears as the vehicle dashed rapidly
up the long avenue to the porch; while, in another instant, the young
master, half carrying the slight, delicate figure that clung timidly
to his arm, hurriedly entered the spacious parlor. There was a short
consultation with the housekeeper, and Basil Hurlhurst, tenderly
lifting the slight burden in his strong, powerful arms, quickly bore
his wife to the beautiful apartments that had been prepared for her.

In the excitement of the moment Pluma was quite forgotten; for an
instant only she glanced bitterly at the sweet, fair face resting
against her father's shoulder, framed in a mass of golden hair. The
child clinched her small hands until she almost cried aloud with the
intense pain, never once deigni