“He did not mention who this one was?”

“Not he.  But I must be going.  It’s nearly lunch time.  Good morning.”

Trevlyn stopped a few moments with Mr. Harris, and then went back to his rooms.  He was satisfied.  Hard as it was for him to believe it, he had no other alternative.  Margie was false, and she had gone away from him under the protection of Castrani.  He could have forgiven her anything but that.  If she had ceased to love him, and transferred her affections, he could still have wished her all happiness, if she had only been frank with him.  But to profess love for him all the while she was planning to elope with another man, was too much!  His heart hardened toward her.

If there had been, in reality, as he had at first supposed, any misunderstanding between him and her, and she had gone alone, he would have followed her to the ends of the earth, and have had everything made clear.  But as it was now, he would not pursue her an inch.  Let her go!  False and perfidious!  Why should her flight ever trouble him?

But though he tried to believe her worthy of all scorn and contempt, his heart was still very tender of her.  He kissed the sweet face of the picture he had worn so long in his bosom, before he locked it away from his sight, and dropped some tears, that were no dishonor to his manhood, over the half dozen elegant little trifles she had given him, before he committed them to the flames.

There was a nine days’ wonder over Miss Harrison’s sudden exodus.  But her aunt was a discreet woman, and it was generally understood that Margie had taken advantage of the pause in the fashionable season to visit some distant relatives, and if ever any one coupled her flight and the departure of Castrani together, it was not made the subject of remark.  Alexandrine kept what she knew to herself, and of course Archer Trevlyn did not proclaim his own desertion.

For a week, nearly, he managed to keep about, and at the end of that time he called at Mrs. Lee’s.  He wanted to question Alexandrine a little further.  The idea possessed him that in some way she might be cognizant of Margie’s destination.  And though he had given the girl up, he longed desperately to know if she were happy.  He had felt strangely giddy all day, and the heat of Mrs. Lee’s parlors operated unfavorably upon him.  He was sitting on a sofa conversing with that lady and her daughter, when suddenly he put his hand to his forehead, and sank back, pale and speechless.

In the wildest alarm, they called a physician, who put him to bed, and enjoined the severest quiet.  Mr. Trevlyn, he said, had received a severe shock to his nervous system, and there was imminent danger of congestive fever of the brain.

His fears were verified.  Archer did not rally, and on the second day he was delirious.  Then the womanly nature of Alexandrine Lee came out and asserted itself.  She banished all attendants from the sick room, and took sole charge herself of the sufferer.  Not even her mother would she allow to take her place.  When tempted by intense weariness to resign her post, she would take that stained glove from her bosom, and the sight of it would banish all thought of admitting a stranger.