Kathleen hesitated, her heart throbbing wildly with the blended love and hate she now felt for the handsome lover who had so wickedly deceived and betrayed her girlish trust. Then a sudden temptation came to her to stab his heart as cruelly as he had done hers. Why not go with Teddy, who loved her so dearly, and pretend to return his devotion? "I should be delighted to go!" she said, unfalteringly to Mrs. Stone. CHAPTER XXXIV. ALPINE SOWS THE SEED OF JEALOUSY. They have told you some false story; You believe them--all they say. You are false, but I'll forgive you; But forget I never may. _Song_. "You startle me! Kathleen really alive? Kathleen here, in the same city with us?" exclaimed Alpine Belmont, in genuine surprise. Ralph Chainey had been telling her all about his visit to Mrs. Stone and his unexpected _rencontre_ with his lost love. "Some one has been slandering me to her, and she hates me now. She refused to have anything more to do with me," he ended, with a long sigh. The beauty's lashes fell to hide her blue eyes' exultant gleam. "Oh, how cruel of Kathleen!" she exclaimed. She sighed, and added, in a low, tender voice: "How could any one be cruel to _you_?" He hardly noticed the purport of her speech, he was so absorbed in thought. "You will go to her, Miss Belmont? You will bring her home?" he pleaded. "But perhaps she will not come with me. Is it not a little strange that she did not come here at first, Mr. Chainey?" "Yes, it is strange. There is something very mysterious about this affair. But go to her, Miss Belmont, and no doubt she will give you her confidence. Be her friend, if she needs one," pleaded the lover, forgetting his wrath against Kathleen in anxiety over her welfare. "I will go to-morrow," promised Alpine, soothingly. "And you will bring her home with you?" "If she will come," answered Alpine. Then she gave a violent start, exclaiming: "Oh, I've just remembered something!" "Well?" asked the young man, eagerly. "Mrs. Stone is own cousin to Teddy Darrell, and he was Kathleen's lover last winter. Can there be any connection between her being there with Mrs. Stone--whom I'm certain she used not to know--and Teddy Darrell?" The shaft went home. She saw him pale and tremble with jealous dread. "I know Teddy Darrell," he said, trying to speak carelessly. "Did--did she ever care for _him_?" "Yes, I believe so. There was a flirtation anyway, and we thought once it would be a match; but suddenly it all came to nothing. I don't know who was to blame, but I'm afraid it was Teddy. He's known to be fickle-minded and a wretched flirt." How sweetly and artlessly she spoke; but every word was a sword-thrust in the hearer's heart. Wan and haggard with misery, he rose and began to pace the floor restlessly.