"It is as I feared and suspected. The sly minx has made a fool of you, and you will be insane enough to marry her; but she does not love you. She only angled for you because you are rich! She had a lover in Richmond, poor like herself, whom she threw over as soon as she found she had a chance to win you. Already he has followed her here, and they have had two secret meetings in the grounds at twilight. Even the servants are gossiping about it." His eyes blazed, his face grew ashen, and his teeth clinched, as he stormed in bitter wrath: "It is a hellish falsehood!" "Do you say so? Then here are the proofs--the notes she lost, that were picked up by a servant, and brought to me. Read them, and be convinced!" she cried, in coarse triumph. His eyes flashed on her like sheet lightning, as he clinched them in his hand. "Read them!" she repeated, sharply; and she shrank back in bitter humiliation, as he thundered: "Do you forget I am an Ellsworth--a descendant of that grand old race whose motto is: 'Honor before everything'?" "Well?" she cried, cringingly. "Do you think that an Ellsworth--a born Ellsworth, I mean, not one by the accident of marriage, like you--could stoop to the meanness of invading another person's private correspondence? It is the act of a hound, not a gentleman! No; I will not read these papers; but I will restore them to their owner, and she shall explain or not, as she will, the foul aspersion you have cast upon her honor in declaring she has another lover. I trust in her as I do in Heaven!" and he rushed violently from the room in search of Dainty. CHAPTER IX. "ALL THAT'S BRIGHT MUST FADE." "I believe my faith in thee Strong as my life, so nobly placed to be; I would as soon expect to see the sun Fall like a dead king from his height sublime, His glory stricken from the throne of time, As thee unworth the worship thou hast won." Love found Dainty sitting in a large double swing out in the grounds, gently swaying to and fro, and with the fragment of a little song on her rosy lips as she waited for him to join her there. As the beautiful face turned confidingly to his, Love knew that the sudden love-light in her eyes was reflected from her heart, and that he could not possibly have a rival in her affections. When Dainty saw the pale, agitated face of her lover, she started in alarm, and the sweet song died on her lips as she exclaimed: "Oh, Love, what is the matter? Are you ill, that you look so frightfully pale?" Love took the swinging seat opposite her, and with an effort at calmness, answered: "Do not be frightened, darling. I am not ill. Only very, very angry." "With me?" she faltered, in dismay. "Certainly not, dear little one!" he cried, tenderly; continuing with sudden vehemence: "I am angry with the schemers who are trying to part us from each other, darling."