Irving Stanley understood better than Hugh, and he merely raised her cold hand to his lips, saying as he did so: "Just this once; I shall never kiss it again." He was in the carriage when Hugh came up, and Alice stood leaning against one of the tall pillars, a deep flush now upon her cheek, and tears filling her soft blue eyes.

In another moment the carriage was rolling from the yard, neither Irving nor Hugh venturing to look back, and both as by mutual consent avoiding the mention of Alice, whose name was not spoken once during their journey together to Cincinnati, where they parted company, Irving continuing his homeward route, while Hugh stopped in the city to arrange a matter of business with his banker there.

It was not until Irving was gone and he alone in his room that he opened the little note given him by Alice, the note which would tell him of her approaching marriage, he believed.

How then was he surprised when he read: "DEAR HUGH: I have at last discovered the mistake under which, for so many years, I have been laboring.

It was not Irving Stanley who saved me from the water, but your own noble self, and you have generously kept silent all this time, permitting me to expend upon another the gratitude due to you.
"Dear Hugh, I wish I had known earlier, or that you did not leave us so soon.