Ever afterward Bonnibel associated roses with the thought of death. "Died on the 10th of April, at Rome, Italy, of malarial fever, Leslie Dane, in the 24th year of his age. Mr. Dane was an artist and a native of the United States of America. _Requiescat in pace._" CHAPTER XVI. Felise was prepared to see her rival fall fainting at her feet. She expected nothing less from the shock to the girl's already overwrought feelings, and in anticipation she already gloated over the sight of her sufferings. But she was mistaken. Bonnibel neither screamed nor fainted. She sat like one dazed for a moment, her blue eyes riveted to the paper, and her face growing white as death, while the two women who hated her watched her with looks of triumph. The next instant, with a bound like that of a wounded fawn seeking some leafy covert in which to die, she sprang from her seat and rushed from the room, clenching the fatal paper in her hand. They could hear her light feet flying along the hall and up the stairs to her own especial apartments. The two wicked women looked at each other blankly. "I did not expect her to take it that way," said Mrs. Arnold. "Nor I," returned Felise. "I looked for a fainting spell, or some kind of a tragic scene at least." "Perhaps she does not care much after all," suggested Mrs. Arnold. "She is young, and the young are proverbially fickle. She may have ceased to love him." "No, she has not. I am confident of that, mother. Her face looked dreadful when she went out. She is too proud to let us see how she is wounded--that is all. She turned as white as a dead woman while she was reading, and there was a hunted, desperate look in her eyes. Depend upon it she is terribly stricken." "Do you think she will consent to marry Colonel Carlyle now, Felise?" "I rather think she will after the awful alternative you placed before her." "Did you hear our conversation, my dear?" "Every word of it, mother. I must say you sustained your part splendidly. I feared you would not display sufficient firmness, but you came off with flying colors." Mrs. Arnold smiled. She was well-pleased at her daughter's praise, for though her life was devoted to the service of Felise, this scheming girl seldom gave her a word or smile of commendation. She answered quickly: "I am glad you were pleased, my love. I tried to be as positive as you wished me to be. I fancied I heard you under the window once." "I was there," said Felise, with a laugh. "She was very much shocked when I threatened to turn her out of doors," said Mrs. Arnold. "She looked at me quite wildly." "She will be more shocked when she finds you meant every word, for, mother, if she does not accept Colonel Carlyle, you shall certainly drive her away!" exclaimed Felise, and a wild and lurid gleam of hatred fired her eyes as she spoke, that boded evil to the fair and innocent girl upon whom she had sworn to take a terrible revenge. * * * * *