that you were not
really lost, after all. Do you make a long stay in the city?"

"Don't waste unnecessary effort to appear cool and freezingly polite,
Mrs. Randall," said La Salle, calmly. "I am here on a matter of
business. I want Pauline's present address, as it is highly important
that I should see her at once."

"Dear Pauline resides at No.--Crescent Avenue, and is now, as you are,
of course, aware, the wife of Mr. Reginald Ashley, who is, as you know,
closely connected with some of our first families."

"Yes, I know he is first cousin to Green, the rich broker, who sometimes
invites him to dinners and parties, and makes it twice as hard for poor
Ashley to make his small salary at the custom-house pay his way."

"Well, I dare say Pauline has done as well, and even better than she
might have done, had not the poor girl had some one to advise her, who
knew the world and--"

"Threw away an heiress worth fifty thousand dollars on a clerk with
eighteen hundred dollars a year," interrupted La Salle, with a smile. "I
beg leave, Mrs. Randall, to introduce to you Regnar Hubel, her
half-brother, who comes to return to her her moiety of the fortune left
by her father. I did not come here," continued he, more gravely, "to
bandy bitter words, for you will ere long hear news from Newfoundland,
which, I hope, will teach you that hidden sin is never safe from
discovery, and that all injustice meets with its meed of punishment.
Adieu, madam."

Later in the day they called at the hotel, where the young couple were
passing the honeymoon. Slipping a _douceur_ into the hands of the
waiter, he introduced them into the suite without the usual presentation
of visiting cards. As the young bride swept into the boudoir in her
reception dress, La Salle stepped forward; for he knew that she had
already heard of his arrival.

"Charley--Mr. La Salle! Why--that is, how do you do? I was glad to
hear--"

La Salle interrupted the fair speaker, for the awkwardness and pain of
the interview were but too apparent.

"I did not come, Mrs. Ashley, to give you pain, or annoy you by my
presence. I come to fulfill a prophecy."

"To fulfill a prophecy? You speak in riddles, and I have never delighted
much in anything of that kind since I was a child."

"I may say, then, that I come to offer my congratulations, and to bring
you my bridal gift."

"A gift? and from you? Surely you do not mean to offer, and I cannot
accept it."

Regnar arose, an