"You have loved and lost?" she said, looking at him in great surprise. "Yes, pet. Did you think I was a crusty, forlorn old bachelor from choice? No, no; I was betrothed to a sweet and lovely girl in my early youth, but she went away to live with the angels, and I have been true to her memory ever since." "Poor uncle! I did not know you had so sad a secret in your life," she said, with the dew of sympathy shining in her beautiful blue eyes. "Every heart knoweth its own bitterness," answered the kind, old man, sadly. The next day he took her away to the seashore, hoping that the change of air and scene might divert her mind from its sorrows. It was a vain hope. Her terrible trouble was too deeply graven on her mind. She became ill the day they took possession of their cottage, and for several weeks lay tossing with fever, closely attended by a skillful physician and two careful old nurses, while Mr. Lyle veered to and fro, his gentle heart nearly broken by this unexpected stroke of fate. But at length, when they had almost begun to despair of her recovery, her illness took a sudden turn for the better. She began to convalesce slowly but surely, and one day she turned the nurses out of the room and sent for her Uncle Robert. "I want to ask you something," she said, putting her feverish, wasted little hand into his strong, tender clasp. "I am listening, dear," he answered, kindly. "Has--has that divorce been granted yet?" she inquired, flushing slightly. "Oh, no, my dear. Your husband has applied for it, but they have been waiting since your illness to know what steps you will take in the matter--whether or not you would engage a lawyer and contest the divorce. I would not give them any satisfaction while you were sick, for I thought you might change your mind." "I _have_ changed my mind, Uncle Rob," she said. "I mean to contest the divorce. There is a reason now" (she blushed and drooped her eyes from his perplexed gaze) "why I should try to save my fair fame as much as I can. Not that I wish to live with Lawrence again, whether there is a divorce or not, but I wish to defend my own honor and leave behind me as pure a name as I can. You will secure an able lawyer for me, will you not, Uncle Robbie?" "Yes, darling, you shall have the best counsel that money can procure," he answered, deeply moved at her earnest words. CHAPTER XXXIX. Captain Ernscliffe sat alone in the spacious library of his elegant mansion. The windows were raised, and the rich curtains of silk and lace were drawn back, admitting the bracing October air. The playful breeze lifted the dark, clustering locks from his high, white brow, and wafted to his senses the delicate perfume of roses and lilies that filled the vases on the marble mantel. The evening sunshine lay in great, golden bars on the emerald-velvet carpet. But none of these beautiful things attracted the attention of the master of this luxurious mansion.