“I do not believe he will, for he evaded the question when I urged him to do so. Indeed, I even hinted how sorry you were over the quarrel, and he said, quite amiably, that it was all past now and he hoped you and he might be good friends again.” “Friends, bah, he shall be my husband yet! I will win him back again; his millions shall not slip through my fingers this time, I promise you, mamma, and woe to any girl that dares try to rival me! But, really, I am not jealous of anybody, for I think I see his little game. He wants to make up, or he would not have come. It was easy enough to return the pictures by mail, now, wasn’t it? But he probably came because he wanted to see me, and that chat about Leola was only to make me uneasy and jealous, don’t you see?” “I hope so, dear, but really I was quite frightened the way he talked of the lovely pictures he had made from the negatives.” “Lovely nonsense!” Jessie cried, sharply, with an angry gleam of her blue eyes, and a vicious snap of her white teeth as she added: “I believe I would try to murder Leola if she came between us, for I cannot believe his love for me is dead so soon. If it is, I’ll soon warm over the old coals again. I’ll write him a note right away, saying how sorry I am that I was out this afternoon, and asking him to come this evening or to-morrow.” “Pray do so,” cried the scheming mother, whose small means were dwindling away so fast in the effort to keep afloat in fashionable society till her daughter’s beauty won a rich husband. Jessie wrote and dispatched her pleading note before she removed the dainty hat from her fluffy blonde hair, and when evening came she was waiting for him, gowned in dainty white, befitting the warm June weather. To her amazement and anger there was no reply, and the next morning she read, in the society columns of her favorite daily, that Chester Olyphant had left New York the previous evening on a yachting trip with several other young men, and would be absent two weeks. “Well, thank Heaven, there are only men in the party, so he will not be exposed to any other girl’s fascinations on the trip, and I’ll be waiting for him when he comes back,” cried Jessie, swallowing her chagrin the best she could. CHAPTER II. ALL FOR LOVE. Leola Mead sprang to the back of her mettlesome pony and almost flew down the mountain road, her great, dark eyes flashing with anger, her cheeks glowing crimson, her wealth of golden locks streaming like a ruddy banner on the breeze. Against the tight bodice of her riding habit her young bosom heaved tumultuously with the angry throbs of her heart, for Leola had just had a bitter quarrel with her guardian, and now gave vent to her excitement by giving free rein to Rex in a breakneck ride.