More than once during the week that ensued after his proposal of marriage to Madaline, Lord Arleigh looked in wonder at the duchess.

She seemed so unlike herself--absent, brooding, almost sullen.

The smiles, the animation, the vivacity, the wit, the brilliant repartee that had distinguished her had all vanished.

More than once he asked her if she was ill; the answer was always "No." More than once he asked her if she was unhappy; the answer was always the same--"No." "You are miserable because your husband is not here," he said to her one day, compassionately.

"If you had known how much you would have missed him, you would not have let him go." There was a wondrous depth of pain in the dark eyes raised to his.
"I wish he had not gone," she said; "from the very depths of my heart I wish that." Then she seemed to recover her natural gayety.