“I hope--I pray--that she is blest; but, oh, I pine to see Once more the pretty pleading smile she used to give me! “I pine to hear the low, sweet trill with which, whene’er I came, Her little soft voice called to me, half welcome and half blame. “I am so weary of the world, its falsehood and its strife, So weary of the wrong and ruth that mar our human life. “Oh, God! give back--give back my child, if but one hour, that I May tell her all my passionate love for once before I die!” Arthur Varian was somewhat startled by Madame Ray’s emotion. He looked at her in gentle sympathy as she dashed the fugitive tears from her eyes. She read his thoughts, and after a short silence said gravely: “You are surprised at my emotion, and you think me a very mysterious woman. Perhaps you are even curious over my history.” “You have read my thoughts,” he answered. “But, believe me, it is not vulgar curiosity, but the keen interest awakened by one so charming, we would fain know more.” She acknowledged the pretty compliment by a grateful smile, and the words: “I am tempted to gratify your wish by giving you a brief synopsis of my life.” “I should be proud to be thus honored with your confidence,” he answered, gratefully and truthfully, for he found her most interesting, and guessed that some sad story lay masked behind the occasional pathos of her smile. “‘If I dared leave this smile,’ she said, ‘And take a moan upon my mouth, And tie a cypress round my head, And let my tears run smooth, It were the happier way,’ she said.” It was not often that Madame Ray bestowed confidence on any one. She was naturally a reserved woman, but she had grown fond of Arthur, and read his friendly curiosity over her past. She determined to gratify it, perhaps hoping for a like confidence from him. Glancing toward the open door of the drawing-room, where they sat to see that no one was near, she began: “I was born in Macon, Georgia, about thirty-nine years ago, and was married at eighteen to Richard Ray, a young man I had known from childhood, and who had been my school-boy lover. We were devoted to each other, and never had any girl better reason for devotion; for, besides being magnificently handsome in a dark and manly style, he was one of the noblest of men. “To refer briefly to our family history, Richard was the only son of a Georgia planter ruined by the late war, and at the time of our marriage both his parents were dead, while my father and sisters had died of fever in my childhood, leaving mother and I alone in the world almost save for her rich aunt who lived at Lodge Delight, and took scant notice of our existence. “My mother had but a small property, and Richard was not rich; but at his business--a real estate agency--he earned a fair competency, and when we were married, we three, mamma, Richard and I, lived together very happily until--alas!” she bowed her head and wept bitterly.