Luttra, the daughter-in-law of Abner Blake, not Holman, his son, is the one who by the inheritance of his millions has the right to command in this presence." With a cry she took from him the will whose purport was thus briefly made known.

"O, how could he, how could he ?" exclaimed she, running her eye down the sheet, and then crushing it spasmodically to her breast.
"Did he not realize that he could do me no greater wrong ?" Then in one yielding up of her whole womanhood to the mighty burst of passion that had been flooding the defenses of her heart for so long, she exclaimed in a voice the mingled rapture and determination of which rings in my ears even now, "And is it a thing like this with its suggestions of mercenary interest that shall bridge the gulf that separates you and me?
Shall the giving or the gaining of a fortune make necessary the unital of lives over which holier influences have beamed and loftier hopes shone?
No, no; by the smile with which your dying father took me to his breast, love alone, with the hope and confidence it gives, shall be the bond to draw us together and make of the two separate planes on which we stand, a common ground where we can meet and be happy." And with one supreme gesture she tore into pieces the will which she held, and sank all aglow with woman's divinest joy into the arms held out to receive her.
* * * * * I was present at the wedding-reception given them by the Countess De Mirac in her elegant apartments at the Windsor.

I never saw a happier bride, nor a husband in whose eyes burned a deeper contentment.

To all questions as to who this extraordinary woman could be, where she was found, and in what place and at what time she was married, the Countess had apt replies whose art of hushing curiosity without absolutely satisfying it, was one of the tokens she yet preserved, of her short sway as grand lady, in the gayest and most hollow city of the world.
As I prepared to leave a scene perhaps the most gratifying in many respects that I had ever witnessed, I felt a slight touch on my arm.

It came from Mrs.Blake who with her husband had crossed the room to bid me farewell.
"Will you allow me to thank you," said she, "for the risk you ran for me one day and of which I have just heard.