The sound of Tony's laughter and shouting soon re-echoed through the garden and stables; the ring of his pony's hoofs could be heard along the avenue. Pansy's invalid chair set out upon the terrace the following summer, where Virgie had once lain, watched secretly by her husband from the shelter of his den. Even the Rosenbergs came for a week's motoring, when Gerald had practically recovered from his hideous accident. Boys, girls, dogs, cats--a perpetual stream of youth ebbed and flowed about the erstwhile silent place. But Virginia the elder came not. Even when Osbert the second made his glorious appearance--when bonfires were lit in the village, and Lord and Lady St. Aukmund stood sponsors at a stately baptismal ceremony--the mother still held aloof. Virginia's unhappiness she could have borne. Virginia the radiant young wife and mother, central point of attention, mistress of Gaunt's heart and all that he possessed, was a perpetual reminder of what she herself had flung away. With her daughter's life as the price, she had purchased freedom from want. Yet, from the time when it dawned upon her that the girl was miraculously saved, she never knew a moment free from the gnawing tooth of jealous bitterness. The joy which these two had so perilously snatched from the jaws of destiny was more than she dare contemplate. THE END _The greatest pleasure in life is that of reading. Why not then own the books of great novelists when the price is so small_ _Of all the amusements which can possibly be imagined for a hard-working man, after his daily toil, or, in its intervals, there is nothing like reading an entertaining book, it calls for no bodily exertion. It transports him into a livelier, and gayer, and more diversified and interesting scene, and while he enjoys himself there he may forget the evils of the present moment. Nay, it accompanies him to his next day's work, and gives him something to think of besides the mere mechanical drudgery of his every-day occupation--something he can enjoy while absent, and look forward with pleasure to return to._ _Ask your dealer for a list of the titles in Burt's Popular Priced Fiction_ _In buying the books bearing the A. L. Burt Company imprint you are assured of wholesome, entertaining and instructive reading_ _THE BEST OF RECENT FICTION_