She did so with nervous, fluttering fingers, and then she saw staring her in the face these words: “MY DARLING DAUGHTER: If I had not thought I was destined to perish in the cruel sea that day, I should never have given you the clew to find your proud mother who wrecked my life with her relentless scorn. “If I had not been sure of death, I never should have intrusted you with those messages of remorse and forgiveness and love at which she laughed, perhaps, in her undying resentment against me. I could hope now that you forgot to tell her, for it might be better so. “You are with your mother, no doubt, so I address this letter to her house. Oh, Jessie, darling, how I blundered when I gave you back to her! My heart cries out for you, my darling child, the only treasure I have in the world! I cannot give you up. Will you come back to me, darling? She has troops of friends, and does not need you, but I have only my dark-eyed Jessie. “If she laughed and mocked at the tender messages I sent her when I believed I must die, never tell me of it, darling. I cannot bear the pain. “Choose between us, quickly, Jessie, and come to me at once, if you can, at the Hotel Supremacy. “LEON DALRYMPLE.” The great, hollow, dark eyes devoured every word with surprise and joy, for nothing he could say against her mattered much now that she knew he lived, the man she had loved hopelessly through years of alienation and separation with the terrible barrier of divorce between their wedded hearts. And no matter how far they had drifted apart, their hearts must share one common sorrow--the loss of their darling. She bowed her head upon the letter, and the wild, hysterical sobs of an overburdened heart shook her frame. CHAPTER XXXIX. HEARTS UNITED. Then she seized a pen and wrote falteringly: “Leon, she has never come home to me, so I read your letter, hoping to find some clew to my lost Darling. “I have been seeking her vainly for days, but she is lost to me in this great, wicked city! “There is much to tell, but I am weak and ill, I cannot write more. Will you come and hear the story from my lips? “VERNA.” Calling a messenger, she dispatched the note to the Hotel Supremacy, and waited his reply in the wildest impatience. Then she bade Suzanne dress her in a becoming negligee. “Make me look as young and as well as possible, for I expect a visit from an old friend who has not seen me for years--he will be shocked at the change in me, I know.” “Madame is more beautiful still than any young girl--only just a little too frail looking now from recent illness, but judicious dressing will disguise much of that,” cried the affectionate maid, applying herself with ardor to her task. And a little later the result fairly justified her prediction.