"I have heard the news of your good fortune, and of your intended marriage, and I can bear to write and congratulate you on both. From what I could not have endured I have been preserved; and you?--few have such a rescue to remember with gratitude. If I intrude its memory ungracefully on such an occasion, forgive me; it is because I would make you realise thankfully that three lives have been saved. As the wife of another, a happier and worthier man, as the mother of his children, I can think of you with resignation for myself, and the rejoicing of a true and unselfish love for you; and though I do not think I shall ever love any woman in all my life again, I can wish you joy, and say from my heart, God bless you!" Daisy stood with the letter in her hand, pale and thoughtful, tears shining in her brilliant eyes. "There's nothing wrong, is there, dear?" asked Annette softly. "Nothing; it is only a greeting from an old friend." After a pause, she said thoughtfully: "It is good to have had such knowledge of life as I have had--I mean for one like me--knowledge which would have done _you_ nothing but harm, and made you wretched; good to have the means of measuring one's happiness by what one has escaped." Soon after, and with Daisy's grave manner unaltered, the girls parted for the night. * * * * * On the heights above the broad stream formed by the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone there are many beautiful villa residences, whose classic architecture harmonises well with the associations with the ancient Roman rule, which invest the spot with a charm even beyond its picturesqueness. From the lofty-pillared façade, and deep cool porticos, terraced gardens, thick set with trees of southern growth, descend to the verge of the height, arrested there by crenulated walls, overgrown with a glorious tangle of roses and laurels, of jasmine and clematis and passion-flower--the luxuries of our northern clime, but common there. The long ranges of windows in the front of these scattered mansions look out upon the dim distant Alps; those to the back upon the vineyards of the Lyonnais, and the rich and spacious plains of Dauphine". The scene retains the historic interest of the past in the midst of the refined and cultivated beauty of the present. Amid this beauty George Wainwright and his wife were to make their home; and thither they turned their steps within a week after their marriage. They had travelled by carriage-road from Dijon, George taking pleasure in pointing out to his wife the scenes, which were all familiar to him--all equally novel and delightful to her.