“And yet,” with gentle sympathy, “I believe she might have been happier still with her first love, had not a cruel fate forced you apart.” “She was wrong; she had no right to throw me over so coldly and unforgivingly. All my fault was love of her, and even the law acquitted me of blood guiltiness in her cousin’s death. As for that foolish vendetta between our families, it were best that we had ended it by marriage. Oh, how it all comes back to me--our love, the broken marriage! I must not dwell on it; that way madness lies,” the poor fellow cried, giving way to passionate vehemence long repressed. “You do not know how I feel for you,” she sighed from the depths of her own kindred pain. “Can you bear to come to the wedding?” He laughed bitterly. “I shall not fail to be there. She has bidden me come to the sacrifice, honored me by writing the address with her own fair hand. She wishes it. I will come. I shall even send her a wedding gift. Will you come with me to select it to-morrow?” “With pleasure.” “Thank you.” When he went away she wept for him in his proud despair. She was reading his heart by the light of her own. “He loves her with the most constant love in the world, and she does not deserve it,” she thought. “As for her, love is all merged in pride, and pique, and despair. She is jealous of me. She would have him love no one else, though she will not take him herself. Will she learn to love her splendid husband at last, or find out too late that she has made a terrible mistake? Oh, how strange is a woman’s heart!” The next morning she said to Eva: “Doctor Ludington called last evening, and I am to go out with him this morning.” Eva gave a strange little laugh. “Reggie and I had a lovely time at the opera last night,” was her only answer. CHAPTER XXXIV. “ONE KISS PAYS FOR ALL.” Patty Groves had her ardent desire to know Reginald Hamilton granted at last. In her occasional outings with the patronizing Mrs. Putnam, pending the arrival of the lady who was to introduce her to fashionable society, the new chaperone beckoned up Reggie and presented him. Patty quickly played her best card to win his favor--she was Eva’s cousin. When he politely expressed his pleasure in the meeting and hinted at his surprise in not seeing her in Fifth Avenue, she tossed her head and said airily: “Oh, our families were at outs in West Virginia, you know. Maybe I will tell you why when we know each other better.” This was a cordial invitation to continue the acquaintance, but Reggie did not take the hint to call; he was too much engrossed in his sweetheart and his coming happiness. But Patty so persistently crossed his path, each time manifesting such delight in the rencontre, that she at least impressed herself sufficiently on his memory to make him mention her in Fifth Avenue.