“The happiness you speak of could not be mine, for if I left you for Norman the thought of you would always sadden me so that I should suffer from remorse and anxiety. I love you, though not with the wild passion I felt for my first love. But this deep, steady affection, born of admiration for your manliness and your many virtues, is so strong that it would divide the allegiance I should owe to Norman. You would be ever in my thoughts, for you need me so much, and would miss me so much, while he has long believed me dead and could bear the shock of losing me better. Therefore, if you will help me about the divorce, I will be your wife again as soon as possible.” “I will send the most clever lawyer in New York to you, Pansy, and you can commit your case to him. Bless you for your noble decision! I did not dare hope for such a sacrifice on your part, but I love you so well that I have not courage to refuse it.” She bowed her head in silence, and he continued: “Of course you understand, darling, that I must leave you to-day and remain away from you until the divorce is procured. Do you wish to remain here quietly with Phebe, Charles, and the other servants, or have you any other plans?” She was silent a few moments, then she answered: “I will remain here.” He left the mountains for New York City that day, and on the next she was visited by an eminent lawyer, who took her case in hand, and assured her that he believed there would be no difficulty in securing a divorce. When he had gone she fell sobbing on the floor of her chamber, crying out: “Oh, my lost love, my lost love!” Colonel Falconer wrote her in a few days, saying that he would go to White Sulphur Springs, to try to make some arrangements for the future of Juliette Ives. “I shall never care for her in the same fashion as I did before I learned her treachery to you and Norman Wylde,” he wrote. “But she has no living relative but me, and she is dependent on me for support, and, for her mother’s sake, I will not shirk the responsibility.” He found his pretty niece cool, impudent, defiant. She utterly denied her complicity in Mr. Finley’s crime. “I did not even know the man. Never saw him in my life!” she affirmed. He was staggered by her effrontery and scarcely knew what to say, and she went on eagerly: “Dear uncle, please tell me the truth: You have found out at last that your wife is really Pansy Laurens, have you not?” “Nonsense!” he answered sharply; and she opened wide her pale-blue eyes, exclaiming: “Is it possible she can still deny it, after finding out that she was really Norman’s wife? Ah, I see it all now! She will stay with you because you are rich and her legal husband is poor.” Colonel Falconer’s eyes flashed wrathfully. “Beware, Juliette, how you try me too far! Remember that you are helpless and penniless, except for my bounty!”