The cause of estrangement between the lovers remained a mystery to every one.  To all questions on the subject, Clara was silent.  But that she was a sufferer every one could see.

“I wish that girl would fall in love with somebody and get married,” Mears remarked to his friend, about two years after they had passed off upon Clara their good joke.  “Her pale, quiet, suffering face haunts me wherever I go.”

“So do I. Who could have believed that a mere joke would turn out so seriously?”

“I wonder if he is married yet?”

“It’s doubtful.  He appeared to take the matter quite as hard as she does.”

“Well, it’s a lesson to me.”

“And to me, also.”

And, with this not very satisfactory conclusion, the two friends dropped the subject.  Both, since destroying, by a few words spoken in jest, the happiness of a loving couple, had wooed and won the maidens of their choice, and were now married.  Both, up to this time, had carefully concealed from their wives the act of which they had been guilty.

After returning home from a pleasant company, one evening, at which Clara was present, the wife of Mears said to him—­

“You did not seem to enjoy yourself to-night.  Are you not well?”

“Oh, yes; I feel quite well,” returned Mears.

“Why, then, did you look so sober?”

“I was not aware that I looked more so than usual.”

“You did, then.  And you look sober now.  There must be some cause for this.  What is it, dear?”

Mears was by no means ignorant of the fact that he felt sober.  The presence of Clara distressed him more, instead of less, the oftener he met her.  The question of his wife made him feel half inclined to tell her the truth.  After thinking for a moment, he said—­

“I have felt rather graver than usual to-night.  Something brought to my recollection, too vividly, a little act of folly that has been attended with serious consequences.”

His wife looked slightly alarmed.

“It was only a joke—­just done for the fun of the thing; but it was taken, much to my surprise, seriously.  I was innocent of any desire to wound; but a few light words have made two hearts wretched.”

Mrs. Mears looked at her husband with surprise.  He continued—­

“You remember the strange misunderstanding that took place between Clara Grant and young Fisher, about two years ago?”

“Very well.  Poor Clara has never been like herself since that time.”

“I was the cause of it.”

“You!” said the wife, in astonishment.