“Am I mad, or do my ears deceive me? Are you really championing the cause of the girl who has betrayed you so shamefully? made your name, of which you were so proud, a byword for the sensational press when they learn what has happened? Most men would resent her action with all the pride in their natures, and despise her accordingly; being glad to be rid of such a----” “Again I cry hold!” cut in John Dinsmore, in ringing, sonorous tones. “I will not hear another disparaging word of the girl who bears my name!” “I suppose that you will search for her, and when you have found her, you will forgive her freak of mad folly, take her back to your heart and home, and be happy ever afterward, as the story-books say.” “That is precisely my intention,” announced John Dinsmore, coolly, and in a determined voice. “The fault was mine. I alone am to blame for what has transpired. I wedded her, and instead of cherishing the impulsive child as I should have done, I sent her from me--cast her out a prey to just such vipers as the one who has crossed her path, and led her from the right path. She was young, and craved and needed love and protection, neither of which she received from me; the lesson I have learned is a most bitter one. I will spend my life in trying to find my little Jess, and when I have found her, I will atone to her for my fatal mistake in sending her from me.” As Queenie listened, all in a moment the realization that he meant that he would never be anything to herself swept with full force over her heart. “John Dinsmore,” she cried, pantingly, “you must not search for her; let her go where she will!” and with a flame of crimson rushing over her face from chin to brow, she whispered: “If you will you shall have me--and my love! Fate parted us two, who were intended for each other, once before; let us not let her part us a second time!” “I am sorry to speak harshly to a lady,” he returned; “but you force the words from my lips, and therefore you must hear them; and not only hear, but heed them. “You can never be any more to me than you are at the present moment, madam. I acknowledge that there was a time when such words as you have just uttered would have filled me with the keenest rapture; but that time has long since passed; for you no longer fill the remotest niche in my heart. My love died for you long ago, and to-night my respect goes with it; for the woman who would counsel me to turn from my wedded wife, no matter what she has done, and find consolation with her, is one whom I do not desire even to know.” As he uttered these words he strode from the room, leaving Queenie staring after him, the very picture of a fiend incarnate, with her eyes blazing like two coals of yellow fire, and her face and lips bloodless. “Foiled!” she shrieked. “Foiled! and I had set my heart and soul upon winning him, and the way seemed so easy!”