opportunity had come. Walter Dinsmore, with many
sickening protestations of love, wrote of his accident, and said it would
be some time before he should be able to return to Paris, but he wished
that she would take a comfortable carriage the next day, and come to him
if she felt able to do so. Of course I never delivered the letter, but
the next day I went to Mona Forester, and told her that her lover had
deserted her; that she was no wife, for their marriage had been but a
farce; that he had not even given her his real name; that he was already
weary of her, and she would never see him again, for he was pledged to
marry me as soon as he should return to America.

"At first she would not believe one word of it--she had the utmost
confidence in the man she idolized; but as the days went by and he did
not return she began to fear there was some foundation for my statements.
Then a few cunning suggestions to the landlord and his wife poisoned
their minds against her. They accused her of having been living in their
house in an unlawful manner, and drove her out of it with anger and
scorn.

"She left on the fifth day after Walter's accident, and I hired the
butler of the house to go with her and make it appear as if she had
eloped with him. He carried out my instructions so faithfully that their
sudden flitting had every appearance of the flight of a pair of lovers.
When Walter received no answer from his wife, and she did not go to him,
as he requested, he became very anxious, and insisted upon returning to
Paris, in spite of his injury. Immediately upon his arrival he was told
that his lady had eloped with the butler of the house, and the angry
landlord compelled him to quit the place also.

"I did not set eyes on him again for more than two years, when he
returned at Miss Dinsmore's earnest request, for she had not long to
live. He did not seem like the same man, and apparently had no interest
in life. When Miss Dinsmore on her death-bed begged him to let her see
the consummation of her one desire he listlessly consented, and we were
married in her presence, and she died in less than a month. Then he
confessed his former marriage to me, and told me that he had a child;
that her home must be with us, and to escape all scandal and remark we
would go to the far West. I was furious over this revelation, but I
concealed the fact from him, for I loved him with all my soul, and I
would have adopted a dozen children if by so d