"Your father says he will force you, and I imagine he has full power. You are foolish to resist in this fashion. There is nothing in my character that is objectionable, I am sure." "Nothing?" she echoed. "Nothing! And you did your best to have Howard Sherwood poisoned! Nothing! when you and Captain Nocolo, and a rascally American lawyer have cheated him out of the large estate which formerly belonged to his uncle!" At this torrent of words, so unexpectedly delivered, Lieutenant Mazenas fell back dumfounded. "Who--who told you this?" he managed to gasp, finally. "Never mind who my informant was; it is enough that I told you," she replied. "And you desire my hand in marriage? You plead in vain. If ever I marry, my husband will be a man of honor, not a low trickster!" "My curse upon that American spy!" hissed the lieutenant, savagely. Then a cruel light came into his face, and he stepped close to Estella as if to enjoy the effect his next words would produce. "It is fortunate that he is dead!" "Dead!" All the color left her beautiful face, and she clutched at a chair for support. "You say he is dead? It is a--a lie!" "It is the truth. He was killed in battle yesterday. Your father will tell you the same." Dead! Her lover, the very light of her young life, dead! Had a shaft of steel penetrated her heart she could not have suffered more. The room appeared to go round and round. She started for the doorway, to escape this heartless villain, who appeared to enjoy the grief he had caused. Then she gave one mighty, convulsive sob, fell backward and lay upon the carpet like one whose life had come to an end. CHAPTER XXX. ESTELLA'S PRAYER. "Where--where am I, Cara?" "Be quiet my darling!" murmured the maid, as she smoothed the dark tresses back from Estella's icy forehead. "Thank Heaven you have come to yourself at last. It was a bad spell indeed!" The pale, but still beautiful, girl lay on her bed, to which Cara and another servant had carried her. For three hours she had lain in an unconscious condition, and a local doctor had been in constant attendance. The doctor had just gone, after pronouncing her out of danger. "What has happened?" she asked, slowly, and then the horrible truth suddenly came back to her, and she began to sob piteously. Cara did all she could to comfort Estella, but that was but little. The girl's grief was most intense, and there seemed no way of assuaging it. "He is dead, Cara--dead!" she moaned. "Oh, would to Heaven that I were dead, too! Why was I not by his side, when he fell, to ease his dying moments." She arose slowly and began to move across the floor unsteadily. "And this is the end--the bitter end!" "Won't you drink a little wine, my dear mistress? It will strengthen you, I am sure." "No, no, I could not swallow it! I can't remember what happened after he--after Lieutenant Mazenas told me the sad news."