"For years and years he was robbed by the man I thought the best on earth, and by that man's father. When he was but a boy, travelling with you on the Continent, those two--father and son--were following him from place to place, preying upon him--living upon him. They had nothing of their own. The very money that enabled Brian to fly with me and to marry me--oh, the bitter, bitter shame of it!--was wrung from the man who loved me. I had nothing, and Brian earned scarcely anything at all; I lived in a fool's paradise. The very dress I wore, the food I ate, everything was bought with his money. You have told me how he borrowed a large sum of money, and how you discarded him for it. That money was borrowed when extravagance had taken all that Comethup had and when he feared I might come to want. I have tried to tell you this again and again, although I only knew it from your lips a few weeks ago; they kept me in ignorance until the very last of what the true facts of the case were." There was a long pause. Miss Charlotte Carlaw was rocking herself to and fro and moaning fitfully. "Is this--is this true?" she asked at last in a whisper. "Yes, it's all true," said 'Linda. "And is he dead? Can I never--never take him in my arms again; never whisper to him how sorry I am? Tell me, how did he die?" "He died quite--quite suddenly. He was killed. He was mistaken for--for some one else by a man who was mad, a man who mercifully forgot all about it afterward and whose crime was never discovered. But you will like to know that he died in my arms, that I was able to tell him at the last what had been in my heart so long--that I loved him. I was able to kiss him--and he died in my arms, smiling, and saying that God was very good. I have written--a long time ago--and told his old friend the captain all this, so that the captain might think well of him. And that is all." The old woman was kneeling beside the grave. "Oh, my boy, my boy," she whispered; "dear Prince Charming, if you can hear me now, forgive an old woman who loved you with all her heart and soul, and who did not understand until it was too late.--And, oh, most merciful God," she added, raising her face toward the sky, "I thank thee that Prince Charming lives again--that thou hast given him back to me!" All was quiet and restful about them; the birds twittered softly among the branches, and the scent of the roses floated to them from the garden of the little cottage against the wall of the church--the roses among which poor Comethup had wandered and dreamed his dreams as a little child. THE END. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. APPLETONS' TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. PUBLISHED SEMIMONTHLY. 1. _The Steel Hammer._ By L. ULBACH. 2. _Eve._ By S. BARING-GOULD. 3. _For Fifteen Years._ By L. ULBACH. 4. _A Counsel of Perfection._ By L. MALET. 5. _The Deemster._ By H. CAINE. 5-1/2. _The Bondman._ By H. CAINE. 6. _A Virginia Inheritance._ By E. PENDLETON.