“How I hate that girl!” Mrs. Varian thought, with secret, irrepressible bitterness. “They are all coming to Newport, and I hope you and Arthur will find them as charming as I do--only Arthur must not fall in love with my princess,” continued Foster, blithely. Arthur only laughed, and just then the carriage drew up at the entrance to their hotel. As Arthur was helping his mother out, she whispered: “If they come to Newport, we will go away the same day.” Meanwhile, the other party, quite as much disconcerted, had sought another hotel. Cinthia lay sobbing on a low couch, and Madame Ray knelt by her side, caressing her and murmuring low words of comfort. “Do not think of him, my darling. He is not worthy of one regret. Only a coward would have deserted you as Arthur Varian did. I am sorry that Fred Foster is his cousin, but that need not matter. He loves you very much, and I would be charmed to see you marry this manly young man.” “Oh, I can never love again! My heart was broken by Arthur’s falsity!” moaned Cinthia, sobbing in unrestrained grief that she would not have shown to any one on earth but this sympathetic friend she loved so well. “Forget him, dear,” the other answered, as she had often done before, laying the golden head caressingly against her breast, and kissing the tears from the sad, dark eyes. When Cinthia had sobbed herself into calmness, she said: “Of course, we will not go to Newport now. I must not meet them again.” “No, we must not go to Newport now,” Madame Ray agreed; adding: “I shall go on from New York to my home in Florida--a pretty estate left to me last year by an old maiden aunt--and, Cinthia, I want you and your father to come with me as my guests.” “But perhaps we ought to go and visit Aunt Flint first,” suggested Cinthia. “No; for you are in danger of meeting the Varians there.” “That is true,” sighed Cinthia. “So you will promise to come with me, dear?” “If papa is willing.” When Mr. Dawn was consulted, he accepted the invitation for Cinthia, saying that he had business that would take him to California for a short while, but would join them later in the South. CHAPTER XXIV. “THE PANGS THAT REND MY HEART IN TWAIN!” Madame Ray despised Arthur Varian so much that she was bitterly chagrined on learning that he was related to her favorite, Frederick Foster, whom she hoped to see Cinthia marry. Foster had frankly confided his hopes to the actress, and elicited her sympathy in his love. She had promised to do all she could to help him win Cinthia, and it annoyed her very much that, for a time at least, the ardent lover would be debarred from seeing the object of his love. Perhaps, too, if he should find out that love episode with his cousin Arthur, he would not wish to marry a girl who had been so cruelly deserted on the eve of marriage. She guessed wrongly that the Varians would very likely use all their influence against Cinthia.