CHAPTER XIII.
"THE BABIES' CORNER." A glorious summer was once more brooding over sea and land, when one morning, in Nance's cottage, a feeble wail was heard; a sound which brought a flood of happiness to Valmai, for nothing could wholly crush the joyous welcome of a mother's heart.

For a little while the past months of sorrow and weariness were forgotten.

The bitter disappointment caused by Cardo's silence, lying deep below the surface, was of so mysterious a nature that she scarcely found words to express it even to herself.

That he was false, that he had forgotten her, never entered her mind.

Some dire misfortune had befallen him; some cruel fate detained him.