"Forgive me, Paul. I am weak and miserable. I dread to reveal my heart's secrets. A mother ought not to make a confidant of her son; but I am wretched! and who can sympathize with me but you? Who can comfort me, but you? You were angry when I married your step-father. But I loved him, and I could not resist his pleading. He confessed his faults, his past love-affairs, fully to me, and I, in my foolish vanity, thought I could change his life; thought his love would keep him pure and loyal to me. For four years his conduct has been above reproach. Is he deceiving me now? I do not know. I do not wish to know. His disloyalty, if it exists, has not taken him away from home; but I feel that he is drifting away from me. He is no longer mine. For two months has this terrible truth been slowly forcing itself upon me. I have a rival, a pitiless rival, whose iron will and stony heart are coming between me and my husband. "I am losing his confidence, as well as his affection. I no longer reign supreme. If you knew how I have suffered! Many a time have I spent the whole night in tears and misery! When we met again in the morning, you knew not that my smiling face was only a mask to cover the sorrow and despair within." "Dear, dear mother! why did you not appeal to me for sympathy long ago? Love is as cruel as it is blissful. I can imagine what I should suffer, if Odette were to drift away from me. But I do not think you need be so hopeless. Claude is true and good. You will always be his guiding star, as you have been in the past. We must forgive much to these excitable, artistic natures. That is where you have always shown such tender wisdom. Who knows but what he may return to you to-morrow, more loving, more devoted than ever?" She continued, with more energy, "No! this time he is caught in a strong net. This rival, whoever she may be, is dangerous. Claude has always before been incapable of dissimulation or falsehood, but she has tainted him with her poisonous hypocrisy. Do you not see how careful he is to spend as much time as possible at home with us all; he is either with us four, or with dear Odette all the time." "Can it not be that you are mistaken? When and where could he meet her, as he is so seldom out of our sight?" "Ah, Paul! Must I tell you every thing? You ask me where he meets her. Here, in my house! He dares to make love to her at my very side. Why, not half an hour ago, I surprised him and some woman in the drawing-room; and he said----" "I know," interrupted Paul, smilingly. "What?" "He was with Odette." Elaine stood turned to stone. She closed her eyes, on the point of swooning. She heard again Claude's exquisite, soft tones, "I love you more than life and honor." And he had said that to Odette!