ly; I will intimate to Lord Cameron that you are a
little shy of the subject--that it will be just as well for him not to
speak for perhaps a couple of weeks; but--hear me, Violet--if you refuse
to come to my terms at the end of that time, I will take you to France
and shut you up in a convent, where you shall stay until you will
solemnly promise me that you will give up your miserable Yankee lover."

She turned and abruptly left the room without giving Violet a chance to
reply.

Violet stood still a moment, looking wretched enough to break one's
heart; then throwing herself upon her bed, she gave way to a passion of
tears and sobbing.

"Oh, Wallace, where are you?" she moaned, "why don't you write to me? I
feel as if I was being led into a trap, and"--with a sudden light
seeming to burst upon her--"I believe they have been intercepting our
letters, for I know that you would be faithful to me. Oh, I am homesick
for you, and now that Belle and Will have come I know they will not let
me go back at the end of three months. What shall I do? Of course I
cannot marry Lord Cameron, and I shall tell him the truth if he asks
me."

She lay for a long time trying to think of some way out of her troubles.
At last, when she had become more calm, she arose, exchanged her
beautiful evening dress for a wrapper, and then wrote a long letter to
Wallace, telling him all about her perplexity and suspicions, begging
him to send her some news of himself and to address his letter to
Nellie.

Not having received any of his letters, she of course did not know that
he had removed from Cincinnati; therefore she directed her letter as
usual, and, of course, he never got it; although she slyly posted it in
the letter-box on one of the public buildings of the city while she was
out sight-seeing the next day.

At the end of a week Mrs. Mencke sought Violet and renewed the subject
of Vane Cameron's proposal.

"I wish you would let me alone about that, Belle," the young girl
responded, wearily. "It is useless for you to try to change my
decision--my word is pledged to Wallace, and only death will ever
release me from it, for if I live to go home I shall redeem it."

"That is your ultimatum, is it?" demanded her sister, with a face as
hard as adamant.

"Yes."

"Then you oblige me to communicate a fact which, for several reasons, I
should have preferred to withhold from you," said Mrs. Mencke, bending a
strange look upon her.

"What do yo