New York, Aug. 10, 18—.

  “To Sir William Heath, London: 

“Lady Heath left the ------- House on the 2d instant.  Do not know her
address.

  Eldred Edlbridge.”

Mr. Eldridge, as we know, was the proprietor of the hotel where Virgie had been boarding during her husband’s absence, and we can imagine something of his consternation when he received Sir William’s cable dispatch inquiring for his wife, and realized, all too late, the enormity of the insult he had offered to that lady.

Lady Linton, however, had hard work to conceal her joy over the contents of the message.

Virgie had been gone for more than a week, leaving no clew to her whereabouts, which was evidence enough that she believed the very worst of her husband, imagined herself a dishonored and deserted woman, and had doubtless buried herself in some remote corner where no one would be likely to discover her.

Lady Linton’s plot had worked thus far beyond her most sanguine expectations and she accepted her success as an omen of good for the future.

But she hid all this under a mask of well-assumed surprise.

“What can it mean?  Why should she leave the hotel where you left her?” she inquired of her brother.

“Oh, I do not know.  There is something wrong—­very mysterious—­about it.  Oh, why is there not a steamer ready to sail this instant?  I believe I shall go mad with this delay!” cried the baronet, in an agony of fear and suspense.

But he had to wait until Saturday in spite of his suffering though he had not even gone from Heathdale two hours when Lady Linton received a letter bearing the United States postmark.

Of course it was from Mrs. Farnum, who gave a detailed account of all that had transpired regarding Virgie’s sudden departure, and assuring her that no one in the hotel suspected her agency in the matter, or had any idea that she knew anything regarding the girl previous to her coming there.  They did not even know that she was from England; she confided that fact to Virgie alone, simply to further her schemes regarding her.

Lady Linton uttered a sigh of relief over this letter.  Her brother would not find his wife in New York, and his journey would be all in vain, she told herself, and yet she would not feel at ease until she had him safely at home again.

Sir William thought the voyage across the Atlantic would never end, and yet it was a very quick and prosperous passage.  When the steamer touched her pier in New York he was the first of all the eager passengers to spring ashore, and rushing for a carriage, without even stopping to attend to his baggage, he gave orders to be driven directly to the hotel where he had left Virgie.

Mr. Eldridge quaked visibly and grew deadly pale when Sir William suddenly presented himself in his office and demanded of him the reason of his wife leaving his house.