"He was mistaken," Mrs. Courtney answered placidly. "He was severely wounded, and it was believed that he would certainly die, but he is still alive at Bellevue Hospital, and although nothing but a wreck still, the doctors and nurses say that he will be sure to recover." She never forgot the white horror of the girl's face, nor the anguish of despair in her eyes. "Alive?" cried Nita wildly, "alive? Why, how can that be? I am married to Dorian, you know!" "Yes; and it was a very reprehensible affair, I think," Mrs. Courtney answered stiffly. "An elopement always carries with it the odor of disgrace." But Nita was deaf to her words of blame. With a stifled moan of the bitterest despair, she fell back unconscious. CHAPTER XXIV. THE MISER SENDS FOR HIS BRIDE. "What a nuisance!" muttered Mrs. Courtney, but she bathed Nita's face until she came to herself with a long, low sigh of deepest pain. "I have been dreaming--oh, such a dreadful dream!" she shuddered. "No, it was not a dream, Nita. I was telling you your guardian was alive, and you fainted--from excess of joy, I suppose," added the lady maliciously. Nita sat up and pressed her small hand wearily to her brow. Despair made her brave. "No, Mrs. Courtney, it was excess of sorrow," she answered frankly. "Oh, you cruel, wicked girl!" "Do you think so?" asked Nita, with calmness. "No matter, I was glad when I heard that he was dead. I hated him--oh, I cannot tell you how I feared and hated him." "But why?" curiously. "Can you ask?" cried Nita despairingly. "Who could love that grim, horrible old man? And I told you once--you remember that night--that he would never, never let me marry Dorian!" "Yet you married him, all the same, so what does his life matter? He cannot undo the elopement!" returned Mrs. Courtney, wondering at the girl's strange words and manner. "But I believed that he was dead. Oh, Mrs. Courtney, listen patiently, please. I did not know that my impatient lover had made any plans to elope with me when I went on the yacht for a moonlight trip. Then came the duel, you know, and Dorian was so badly wounded. He sent his friend to ask me to marry him, but at first I refused, for I knew my guardian would never consent, and I did not dare disobey him! Oh, you cannot guess how I fear that horrible old man! Then Captain Van Hise told me he was dead, and I consented to marry Dorian. We were married, and only a few minutes afterward I was swept into the sea by the great wave rolling over the ship. Oh, God! why was I saved from death to meet this awful fate?--to be parted forever from my own love, when happiness seemed so near?" "But your guardian cannot punish you for marrying your lover--these fears are quite groundless, Nita," Mrs. Courtney said, coldly, but decidedly.