u mean?" Violet inquired, startled by her manner.

"Death has released you from your promise to that fellow. Read that,"
was the stunning reply, as the woman drew a paper from her pocket, and,
laying it before Violet, pointed to a marked paragraph.

"Belle!" came in a low, shuddering voice from the blanched lips of the
beautiful girl before her, as she seemed instinctively to know what was
printed here.

"Read," commanded Mrs. Mencke, relentlessly.

With hands that shook like leaves in the wind, Violet picked up the
paper. It was the Cincinnati _Times-Star_, and she read with a look of
horror on her young face:

Died, on the 28th instant, Wallace Richardson,
aged 23 years and 6 months.

The next moment a piercing shriek rang through the room, and Violet lay
stretched senseless at her sister's feet.

"Heavens! I did not think she would take it to heart like this," cried
the now thoroughly frightened woman, as she threw herself upon her knees
beside the motionless girl and began to loosen her clothing and chafe
her hands.

That heart-broken cry had been heard in the adjoining room, and Mrs.
Hawley and Nellie came rushing upon the scene to ascertain the cause of
it.

They assisted in getting Violet to bed, and a physician was immediately
sent for.

"She has had some sudden and violent shock," he said at once, while he
regarded Mrs. Mencke searchingly.

"Yes," she confessed, with as much composure as her guilty conscience
would allow her to assume; "she read an account of the death of a--a
friend, in an American paper."

"Hem!" was the medical man's brief comment, as he again turned his
attention to his patient, whom, it was evident, he considered to be in a
critical state.

It was long before he could restore suspended animation, and even then
Violet did not come back to consciousness; fever followed, and she began
to rave in the wildest delirium.

"It's going to be a neck-and-neck race between life and death," the
doctor frankly told her friends, "and you must be vigilant and patient."

This unforeseen calamity, of course, put an end to all gayety.

It was thought best that Nellie should at once repair to Milan, and Mrs.
Hawley left two days later to see her safely and comfortably settled at
her work, after which she returned to London to assist Mrs. Mencke in
the care of her sister.

It was more than a month before Violet was pronounced out of danger; and
then, as soon as she was able to si