XXVIII. A TROUBLED HEART, 236 XXIX. AN AWAKENING, 243 XXX. TOO LATE! 250 XXXI. 'WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN,' 259 XXXII. THE WANDERER, 266 XXXIII. A FAITHFUL FRIEND, 274 XXXIV. WHAT WILL SHE DO? 283 XXXV. A REVELATION, 291 XXXVI. TÊTE-À-TÊTE, 299 XXXVII. CHUMS, 307 XXXVIII. IN VAIN, 315 XXXIX. GONE, 323 XL. THE MATRONS ADVISE, 331 XLI. A GREAT RELIEF, 338 XLII. A DISCOVERY, 345 XLIII. A WOMAN'S HEART, 352 XLIV. THE MAGDALENE, 361 XLV. THE BOLT FALLS, 369 XLVI. THE WORLD WELL LOST, 377 [Illustration] THE GUINEA STAMP CHAPTER I. FATHERLESS. It was an artist's studio, a poor, shabby little place, with a latticed window facing the north. There was nothing in the furnishing or arrangement of the room to suggest successful work, or even artistic taste. A few tarnished gold frames leaned against the gaudily-papered wall, and the only picture stood on the dilapidated easel in the middle of the floor, a small canvas of a woman's head, a gentle Madonna face, with large supplicating eyes, and a sensitive, sad mouth, which seemed to mourn over the desolation of the place. The palette and a few worn brushes were scattered on the floor, where the artist had laid them down for ever. There was one living creature in the room, a young girl, not more than sixteen, sitting on a stool by the open window, looking out listlessly on the stretch of dreary fenland, shrouded in the cold and heavy mist. It was a day on which the scenery of the fen country looked desolate, cheerless, and chill. These green meadows and flat stretches have need of the sunshine to warm them always. Sitting there in the soft grey light, Gladys Graham looked more of a woman than a child, though her gown did not reach her ankles, and her hair hung in a thick golden plait down her back. Her face was very careworn and very sad, her eyes red and dim with long weeping. There was not on the face of the earth a more desolate creature than the gentle, slender girl, the orphan of a day. At an age when life should be a joyous and lovely thing to the