“There is no mistake,” replied his niece, coldly, and fixing a merciless glance upon Star, “for Lord Carrol has just had an interview with my husband, during which he told him the whole story. He says his first meeting with Stella was caused by an accident, and that she appeared so bright and intelligent that whenever he met her afterward he spoke with her and treated her kindly. He did not even have the least idea where she lived until to-night, after dinner. He went out for a quiet smoke, when she presented herself before him, accused him of coming here as Josephine’s lover, and denounced him as a traitor in the strongest terms and most unmaidenly manner, and telling him, greatly to his surprise, that she was an inmate of the house where he was a visitor. Of course, after such a denouement, he could do no other way than to seek Mr. Richards and explain everything, lest this rash girl should, out of a spirit of revenge and disappointment, destroy all his prospects with Josephine.” It was a cunningly distorted story, and Star, as she listened to it, bowed her head and covered her face with her hands, while a low cry of despair broke from her lips. She had not _dreamed_ that the man whom she had learned to love, who, with his open, handsome face, his frank, manly ways, had won her deepest respect, her strongest affections, could be guilty of so cowardly an act as to betray her thus. And yet he must have done so, else how could Mrs. Richards have known anything about the matter? Yes, without doubt, he had feared that she would openly denounce him before the family where he had so unexpectedly found her, and so had given this version of the great wrong that he had done her in order to shield himself. His own prospects of winning the rich heiress must not be interfered with, so he adopted this _coup d’etat_ of going to Mrs. Richards and, with apparent frankness, confessing that his trifling attention to a silly girl had resulted in leading her to believe she had won a wealthy and titled husband. This was just what Mrs. Richards had wished to make Star believe, and she succeeded only too well, for the young girl was well-nigh crushed to the earth with a sense of shame, and humiliation, and wounded love. And yet, even while she felt that Archibald Sherbrooke—she could not think of him in any other character—had been guilty of a most cowardly and treacherous act, had steeped his soul in sin by winning her heart to break it, and thus ruining her whole life, _she loved him still_. CHAPTER XX. STAR’S DETERMINATION. “Star, my dear child, what does this mean?” Mr. Rosevelt ejaculated, in a tone of wonder, as his niece concluded.