Transcriber’s Notes: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=). Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. * * * * * SELECT LIBRARY No. 232 NEVA’S CHOICE _By_ MRS. HARRIET LEWIS [Illustration] NEVA’S CHOICE A Sequel to “Neva’s Three Lovers” BY MRS. HARRIET LEWIS AUTHOR OF “Adrift in the World,” “The Bailiff’s Scheme,” “The Belle of the Season,” “Cecil Rosse,” “The Haunted Husband,” “Sundered Hearts,” and numerous other books published in the EAGLE, NEW EAGLE, and SELECT Libraries. [Illustration] STREET & SMITH CORPORATION PUBLISHERS 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York * * * * * Copyright, 1871 and 1892 By Robert Bonner’s Sons Neva’s Choice SYNOPSIS OF “NEVA’S THREE LOVERS.” A beautiful young widow, Mrs. Octavia Hathaway, with the connivance of her admirer, Craven Black, succeeded in marrying the wealthy widower, Sir Harold Wynde, who had a daughter, Neva, at school in France, and a son, George, with his regiment in India. A hurried call to the deathbed of his son frustrated the design of the two adventurers to poison the baronet, who, after his son died, was reported to have been killed by a tiger in India, instead of which he was kept prisoner by a treacherous native servant. After fifteen months of outward mourning Lady Wynde married Craven Black, and in order to secure the large fortune of her stepdaughter, she determined that Neva should marry Black’s son, Rufus. The latter, however, although in fear of his father, was not unscrupulous. He had married a young girl named Lalla Bird, but as both were under age he was persuaded that the marriage was illegal. Lalla was reported to have thrown herself into the river on learning this, but the body recovered was not hers. She found employment as governess to the children of a Mrs. Blight. Rufus, believing her dead, proposed to Neva, but was refused, and the young heiress became betrothed to Lord Towyn. Copyright, 1871 and 1892, by Robert Bonner’s Sons (All rights reserved) Neva’s Choice * * * * * NEVA’S CHOICE. CHAPTER I. NEVA’S ANSWER TO LORD TOWYN. Mr. and Mrs. Craven Black, summoning the indispensable Mrs. Artress to a private conference, passed some hours in their own room in anxious deliberation upon their future course in regard to Neva. It was necessary to the full success of the daring game they were playing, that Neva should marry Rufus Black; but she had rejected him, completely and finally, in obedience to her instincts of duty to God and to herself, and her enemies began to believe that they would have serious trouble in forcing her into the marriage.