Mrs. Alexander sighed heavily, and did not reply; but she secretly resolved that if it was in her power to prevent it, Virgie and her English admirer should never meet again. April passed and May came, and Virgie began to grow expectant. She was blooming into brighter beauty with every day, and seemed to become more womanly, so that her mother felt, with something of sadness, that she no longer had her little girl, but a lovely and winsome maiden, who would doubtless soon be won from her sheltering care to grace the home of another. She had been a beautiful child, but she was far lovelier now, possessing her mother’s refined and delicate features and graceful figure, while her eyes were so like her father’s that her mother often suffered keenest pain as she looked into them, and seemed to be gazing again through them into the heart of the man whom she had loved so fondly in her youth. Of late she had pined anew for the affection which had guarded her so tenderly in those early years. Perhaps it was because her health had not been as firm as usual during the last few months. She felt weary and depressed. She longed for some one to lean upon—some one strong and true to shield her from the cares and worry of life. Every day, during the first two weeks of May, Virgie watched for the coming of Rupert Hamilton. She knew that he expected to return to New York about this time, and she felt sure that he would seek her at once, while she believed that his coming would mean a great deal to her. There was an eager, expectant look on her young face, a deeper flush in her cheeks, a bright and hopeful light in her eyes. Mrs. Alexander read the signs of the time well, and realized that the hour for her to act had come. The warm weather was very enervating to her. She drooped visibly, and calling her physician she asked his advice regarding some change of residence. He advised her to leave the city immediately; to go to some quiet country place where she could have pure air, fresh, rich milk, and a nourishing diet. Consequently she decided to seek a lovely place on the Hudson, where she had spent a summer several years previous, and where she could be as quiet as she chose, and rest the livelong day if she wished. Miss Knight decided to accompany her, for her brother feared that the woman whom he still regarded with far more than mere friendly feelings, was more frail than she acknowledged herself to be, and he thought she ought to have some one more experienced than Virgie with her in the event of any more serious illness. Mr. Knight himself was contemplating a trip through the New England States, but promised to join them and spend the remainder of the summer with them upon his return. Poor Virgie was made very unhappy upon learning of these plans, for it destroyed her hope of meeting Rupert Hamilton, who, she believed, was even now upon his way back to New York.