But in her secret heart she was surprised at Violet, who had always been her favorite cousin, and she was very sorry for Cecil Grant. Her sympathies went out to him because he was poor and unfortunate like herself, and she could not help suspecting that there had been foul play somewhere. “For why need Violet elope with Mr. Castello when her grandfather was willing and anxious for her to marry him at home?” she asked herself; but she did not dare to breathe the thought aloud, although she observed with suspicious eyes the great friendship that had grown up between the judge and Amber. “How did she manage to get on the good side of the old sinner? I am sure he used to regard Violet as his favorite,” she thought, in wonder. But Amber cared nothing for Mrs. Shirley’s suspicions. She was jubilant over the success of her plans for getting rid of her rival. Judge Camden had given her the promised check for twenty-five thousand dollars, and she was now ready to carry out the second part of her scheme, to lend the money to Cecil Grant, and so place him under a heavy obligation that he could only requite by the offer of his hand. Even her grandfather had been surprised at the fertility of her brain in conceiving wickedness, and had almost shrunk at first from her advice to buy the mortgage upon Bonnycastle and turn the Grants out. “The whole county would be down on me, Amber, for the Grants are highly esteemed by everybody,” he objected. “No one would dare to blame you to your face, grandpapa, and what would you care for their inward thoughts? You are the richest man in the county, and it would be a triumph to let that proud Mrs. Grant feel the weight of your power,” cried the wily Amber. “That’s so! I’ll do it!” cried the old man, still smarting under the sting of his rejection by the mistress of Bonnycastle, and thus Amber gained her wish. She waited eagerly all the morning after the elopement for a note from Cecil to tell her he would accept the loan of her money, but none came, and she began to grow alarmed for the success of her scheme. “He shall take it! I will go to his mother and tempt her so that she cannot refuse,” she decided, and set out that afternoon for a stolen visit to Bonnycastle, not daring to let her grandfather suspect her design. It was a chilly afternoon in October, and Amber made herself as charming as possible, putting on her handsomest carriage gown and a stylish new hat just received from New York, hoping to impress Mrs. Grant with her beauty and grandeur. She left the carriage at the gate and walked through the grounds, now glowing in autumnal splendor, up to the splendid old ruin with the ivy draping its battlemented towers, hoping she might perchance meet Cecil loitering about. But Cecil was nowhere to be seen, and when she lifted the rusty knocker at the hall-door, the old black servant who took her card looked at her as angrily as if she had been the old judge himself.