d with her apron, and, kissing him
fondly, said to him:

'Poor, tired boy, is your head awful? You look as if you wanted to
vomit? Do you?'

'No, Jerry,' Harold answered, laughingly. 'I am not as bad as that. I
was only thinking and wishing that I were rich and could sometime give
you and grandma a home as handsome as Tracy Park. How would you like
it?'

'First-rate, if you were there,' Jerry replied; 'but if you were not I
shouldn't like it at all. I never mean to live anywhere without you;
because, you know, I am your little girl, the one you found in the
carpet-bag, and I love you more than all the world, and will love and
stand by you forever and ever, amen!'

She said the last so abruptly, and it sounded so oddly, that Harold
burst into a laugh, and taking up the rake she had dropped, began his
work again, declaring that the headache was gone, and that he was a
great deal better.

'Forever and ever, amen!' The words kept repeating themselves over and
over in Harold's mind as he walked homeward in the gathering twilight
with Jerry hip-pi-ty-hopping at his side, her hand in his, and her
tongue running rapidly, as it usually did when with him.

She would 'love and stand by him forever and ever, amen!' It was a
singular remark for a child, and in after years, when his sky was the
blackest, the words would come back to the man Harold like so many stabs
as he whispered in his anguish:

'She has forgotten her promise to "stand by me forever and ever, amen!"'

CHAPTER XXI.

MRS. TRACY'S DIAMONDS.

Mrs. Tracy was going to have a party--not a general one, like that which
she gave when our readers first knew her, and Harold Hastings stood at
the head of the stairs and bade 'the ladies go this way and the
gentlemen that.' Since Dolly had become so exclusive and a leader of
fashion, she had ignored general parties and limited her invitations to
a select few, which, on this occasion, numbered about sixty or seventy.
But the entertainment was prepared as elaborately as if hundreds had
been expected, and the hostess was radiant in satin and lace, and
diamonds, as she received her guests and did the honors of the occasion.

The September night was soft and warm, and the grounds were lighted up,
while quite a crowd collected near the house to hear the music and watch
the proceedings.

Mrs. Tracy would have liked to have had Jerry in the upper hall, where
Harold had once stood.

'It would help to keep the ch