"You wronged your daughter by your unkind suspicions," he wrote; "she is not with the man you thought. Clarence Stuart left Richmond on the very day of your husband's death, in his own yacht, with his wife and daughter, and a party of friends. They were on a pleasure-trip to Italy. You will no doubt be glad to hear that Elaine is not so wicked as you believed her." Thus the letter closed abruptly. Mrs. Brooke, in a curt note, thanked Mr. Kenmore for his information. She did not dare give way to her indignation at his interference, dreading that it would injure the success of Bertha's husband-hunting. CHAPTER XVII. Lilia Stuart was very much frightened by her father's strange seizure. She was about to scream loudly for help when Irene, with a sensitive horror of scenes, laid her white hand gently but firmly over the parted lips. "Do not be frightened, Lilia," she said. "Get some cold water. That is all that is necessary." Lilia sprang to the ice-flagon and returned with a glass of cold water in her trembling grasp. Irene thrust her white hand into the cold fluid, and deluged Mr. Stuart's rigid white face with it. It produced the desired effect. Mr. Stuart shivered, opened his eyes, and stared blankly around him for a moment. "Oh, papa, you are better," cried Lilia, springing to throw her arms around his neck. "I am so frightened, dearest papa, shall I not call mamma?" Something like dread or fear flashed for a moment into his open dark eyes. "No, for Heaven's sake, don't!" he exclaimed, testily; "I detest scenes! There is nothing at all the matter with me! Say nothing to your mother, Lilia. You understand me?" "Yes, papa," the girl replied, obediently. "But what made you faint?" she continued, curiously. An expression of deep annoyance clouded Mr. Stuart's handsome face. "Pooh, I did not faint," he said, sharply. "A mere dizziness overcame me. Don't let your fancies run away with your reason, Lilia." He rose as he spoke, and without a glance at Irene or the open locket that still swung at her throat, hastily quitted the room. Lilia, forgetting her guest, followed after him. Irene thus left alone, fell into a startled revery. She had not been deceived like Lilia by Mr. Stuart's short assertion of dizziness. She knew that he had actually fainted, and she believed that the bare sight of her mother's face in the locket had been the cause of his agitation. "He recognized the face, and it had power to stay the very pulses of his life for a moment," she said to herself. A terrible suspicion darted into her young mind, chilling the blood in her veins, and driving it coldly back upon her heart. "Can this man be my father, my mother's base betrayer?" she thought.