If Ella suffered, she had the consolation, so dear to the nobler sort of
women, that she was a sacrifice. If Windgall suffered, he had a solid
compensation locked in the drawers of his library table. But Kimberley
had no consolation, and knew only that he was expected somehow to be
happy, and was, in spite of his prosperous wooing, more miserable than
he had ever been before.

As time went on, Kimberley grew no happier. The gulf between Lady Ella
and himself had not been bridged by their betrothal. She was always
courteous to him, but always cold. She had accepted him, and yet----

The first inkling that something was wrong came through the altered
demeanour of Alice. The girl was furious at her father for sacrificing
her sister, and furious with her sister for consenting to the sacrifice;
her former half-humourous comradeship for Kimberley was changed into
chilly disdain.

The suspicions that were thus suggested to him were confirmed by a
meeting with Ella outside the castle lodge. As he approached, he caught
sight of her face as she was nodding a smiling good-bye to the old
gate-keeper. She saw Kimberley, and the smile fled from her face with so
swift a change, and left for a mere second something so like terror
there, that he could scarcely fail to notice it.

He returned home possessed with remorse and shame. There was no doubt
what the end should be. Ella must be released.

"She never cared about the money," he said, pacing the room with
tear-blotted face. "She wanted to save her father, and she was ready to
break her heart to do it. But she shall never break her heart through
me. No, no. What a fool I was to think she could ever be happy with a
man like me!"

_IV.--The Renunciation_

Jack Clare, with a heart burning with rage at what he deemed Ella's
treachery, had resigned his commission and bought an estate in New
Zealand with a sum of money that had been left him. He became possessed
of a desire to see Ella once more. He wrote to her that he was about to
start for New Zealand, and wished to say good-bye to her. This letter he
brought to the castle gate-keeper, and caused it to be taken to Ella.
Then he paced up and down the avenue, impatiently awaiting her.

Destiny ordained that Kimberley should come that way just then on his
fateful errand of releasing Ella from her engagement. As he entered the
park his resolve failed him; he wandered unhappily to and fro, until he
became aware of a strange ge