y life ... and then
I liked to see people all round me being happy too... But I was taken
away from it all, from the sunshine, the gay, happy people, the shops,
the theatres, taken away and shut up like a wild animal in a
cell ... oh ..." She shivered, and all at once his heart melted
towards her.

"Don't think of that now, dear." He put his hand with real kindness on
her shoulder. "It's all over and done with, and there are better things
in store."

"Not for me." Her tone was unutterably forlorn. "My life is spoilt,
broken--and now"--all at once her expression changed and she spoke
vindictively--"now all I can do is to break other lives!"

"Hush, Eva." He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't talk so. And
remember, if Mrs. Rose comes home safely, you must leave her alone for
the future."

For a moment she said nothing, biting her lip as though in thought. Then
suddenly she shrugged her shoulders and moved away without a word.

* * * * *

When daylight came Owen and Herrick resumed their search for the missing
girl, calling to their aid every device which the wit of man could
suggest.

They left no stone unturned; and though Owen shrank from the necessary
publicity Scotland Yard was informed, and a huge reward offered for
information about the vanished Toni.

But the days passed, glided into weeks, which in their turn grew into
months; and Toni was not found.

CHAPTER XXVII

On a sunny afternoon in March of the following year, Toni Rose sat alone
on the slope of an Italian hill-side overlooking the blue Mediterranean,
which lay stretched beneath her like a sheet of living turquoise.

The air was delightfully warm and still, and scented with the fresh
breath of myriads of violets which dotted the short, soft turf here and
there like a multitude of tiny purple stars. Everywhere the almond
blossom was in its full beauty of rose and cream, and the sight of an
orchard away on the hill-side, with the faint blue sky above the
pink-and-white branches, and the bluer sea behind, gave to the beholder
the effect of a delicate Japanese water-colour painting.

The Bay of Naples fully deserved its world-wide reputation for beauty on
this bright spring afternoon. Across its waters rose hill upon hill, the
sombre giant Vesuvius brooding like some dark monster over the ruined
countryside at its base, the lovelier, more hopeful snow-crowned peaks
behind rising like a fairy army beneat