So in less than a week Sir William left England for, Egypt and the Holy Land, and Lady Linton experienced a feeling of intense relief at his departure.  Time, she reasoned, was a great healer, and she hoped much from this season of travel and change.

It was rather lonely for her at Heathdale during the winter, but she was grateful to be released from the anxiety she had suffered on his account for the last year.

Spring came, summer passed; a year had come and gone since the disappearance of her brother’s young wife, when one day there came an official-looking document addressed to the baronet, and bearing the California postmark.

Lady Linton quivered in every nerve as she saw it, for her heart told her instantly what it contained.

Still, she could not be satisfied until she knew beyond a doubt, and she skillfully opened it for examination before forwarding it to her brother.

It was even as she had hoped.

Virgie had kept her word; she was about to repudiate her husband for his supposed faithlessness to her, and Lady Linton’s lips curled in a smile of exultation as she read the paper notifying her brother that proceedings for a divorce were about to be instituted in the courts of San Francisco by Lady Virginia Heath against Sir William Heath, of Heathsdale, England.

“Everything is working beautifully,” she murmured, triumphantly; “his pride will never let him seek her after this takes effect; it will be conclusive evidence to him that she, at least, desires to have the tie that binds them broken.  Let me see! he is notified to appear on the ninth of next month—­in a little more than four weeks.  Ha, ha! he was in Alexandria when he last wrote, and this could not possibly reach him in season to admit of his obeying the summons in time.  Matters will have reached a crisis before he gets it—­the injured and beautiful little savage will have secured her divorce, and my brother will be free, long before he will know what has been done.  However, I will do my duty, and forward it to him instantly.”

With a lighter heart than she had known for months, the crafty woman carefully resealed the document in a way to defy suspicion that it had been tampered with, inclosed it in another envelope, directed and marked it “important,” and dispatched it by the very next mail to her brother.

Three months passed and she had heard nothing from him.  She began to feel anxious as to how he had received the news of what Virgie was doing, when there came another similar-looking document, bearing the same postmark as before.

“The deed is done!” she cried, joyfully, the moment her eyes rested upon it.  “I do not even need to open this to be assured of the nature of its contents.”

She was filled with triumph over the success of all her plans thus far, and yet she could not forget Virgie’s threat that a day of retribution would surely overtake their proud family.