They bore her to her little white bed, and for a week she was very, very ill, the result of shock as much as from her wound. Fever and delirium set in, and sometimes she raved of her lover, Ray, beseeching him to come back to her, but never by the least hint betraying the secret of his terrible crime. When she began to convalesce it was the same way. Annette gave no hint of having seen Ray Dering, even when her mother questioned her, and told her of his going after her to Sea View. Her dark eyes assumed a look of plaintive wonder, and she faltered: “How strange, how very strange, that I did not see Ray! But I suppose he must have been suddenly called away by a telegram. I shall get a letter from him soon explaining everything.” And she pretended to look anxiously each day for the letter, while at heart she wondered what had become of her jealous lover, and if he had really gone in pursuit of Dallas Bain, believing him a successful rival. “What if he should find him and kill him?” she shuddered; and it was no wonder that she convalesced so slowly, with such a terrible weight upon her mind. When Daisie Bell, whose sprain was well now, came to see her, she was shocked at the piteous change in her pale little friend. “Oh, how I hate the wretch who nearly killed you, even though it was a stray shot!” she exclaimed; but the poor girl could not confess to Daisie Bell that it was through espousing her cause and trying to straighten out her tangled love affair that she had incurred Ray’s jealousy, and caused the shipwreck of her own happiness. No, she could not speak, for she must keep the secret now for the sake of her cruel lover. “But not that I love him any more, for I suppose I ought to hate him now, but I should not wish harm to come to him through me,” thought the loyal young heart. She told Daisie of her cruel disappointment in not finding out the address of Dallas Bain, and said: “You will find the letter you gave me in the pocket of the gown I wore that day. It is hanging there in my wardrobe.” But Daisie found the pocket empty. “It is very strange,” cried Annette. “I am sure the letter was in my pocket with my little netted purse.” “Never mind, dear, the letter does not matter now,” Daisie returned sadly, for it seemed to her that Dallas was lost to her forever. She was wretched, too, for, although she had confessed everything to Royall Sherwood, he would not release her from her promise to marry him. CHAPTER X. DAISIE’S DESPAIR. Royall Sherwood’s surprise and chagrin were beyond expression when he returned to Gull Beach and learned all that had happened in the two days of his absence. For Daisie, in her desperation, did not spare herself. She had confessed everything, and taken back her promise. “I never loved you, and it was flattered vanity alone that made me accept you. Forgive me, and release me,” she pleaded, shrinking back from the flash of the beautiful ring he was trying to place on her finger.