“If I may ask anything, it is that mother may never know the truth.  I will tell her that Nellie could not love me, and I could not bear to stay.”

* * * * *

Some few weeks later that summer Miss Travers stood by the same balcony rail, with an open letter in her hand.  There was a soft flush on her pretty, peachy cheek, and a far-away look in her sweet blue eyes.

“What news from Warrener, Nellie?” asked Mrs. Rayner.

“Fluffy has reappeared.”

“Indeed!  Where?”

“At Mr. Hayne’s.  He writes that as he returned, the moment he entered the hall she came running up to him, arching her back and purring her delight and welcoming him just as though she belonged there now; and—­”

“And what, Nellie?”

“He says he means to keep her until I come to claim her.”

THE END