Nothing she could do to Violet seemed too cruel to satisfy her thirst for revenge. She would have liked to see her cousin dead in her coffin, and stand by and hear the clods rattling harshly down upon her grave. The sound would have been music in Amber’s ears. From a beautiful, imperious, loving girl, she was transformed into a jealous, angry, revengeful woman. Blighted love had changed the current of her thoughts, her hopes, her very life. She had but one aim now. It was to sweep her lovely rival from her path, and win Cecil Grant’s heart at last. CHAPTER III. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH. Fate itself seemed to play into Amber’s hands. Judge Camden had been away two months, leaving his granddaughters in charge of their chaperon, a distant widowed relative, and he was expected home that evening. Indeed, when Amber came down stairs presently, she found that he had already arrived. She met him fondly, not through excess of love, for the judge was a stern old man, but because she hoped he had brought her a gift from the great city. “Oh, grandpapa, welcome home! I have missed you so much!” she cooed, sweetly. “Umph!” he grunted, ungraciously. “But where is Violet, eh?” A sullen light gloomed in Amber’s eyes as she answered, quickly: “She is down at the river with a young man, sir!” “A young man! Why, what the duse----Mrs. Shirley, madame!” thumping his cane loudly on the floor to frighten the meek little widow. “Now what do you mean by letting that child Violet go gallivanting around with a young man?” he cried, violently. Mrs. Shirley cowered before his black looks and murmured, deprecatingly: “Dear me, Judge Camden, Violet is quite seventeen years old, and old enough to walk out with a young man, I suppose, considering that her mother was married at sixteen.” “Don’t throw her mother up to me, you spiteful creature! Wasn’t it a runaway match, I want to know? And didn’t that wretch, Lieutenant Mead, break my poor girl’s heart in two years with his dissipations? A disgrace to the navy he was, and a good riddance when he died, I say! And what must have become of that poor baby Violet if I hadn’t brought her here and raised her--eh? And now, while I’m away, you let her begin to follow in her mother’s footsteps, you careless woman! But I’ll settle Violet’s future. She shall not elope like poor Marie! I’ve picked out a nice husband for her myself, and she is to be married in a month!” “Oh, dear! oh, dear!” whimpered the simple little widow, dismayed at this bold declaration, while Amber exclaimed, maliciously, scenting a chance for mischief: “But, grandpapa, Violet’s engaged already to Cecil Grant!” Judge Camden sprang from his chair, his handsome old hazel eyes glaring under the beetling white brows. He thundered, furiously: