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their eyes; a rushing as of many waters filled her cars, but through it came her lover's laughing voice:

"Ask her where she got it, Meg, and see if she dare tell you."

With a mighty effort Miss Pulsifer opened her swimming eyes and fixed them upon the face of the girl, still set in that look of merry defiance, still turned toward John Morgan. Commanding a voice which seemed to herself to sound from some far-off icy depth, she spoke:

"It was a true-love token, I suppose, and young maids are not so fond of confessing such."

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'Why, yes, cousin, I have already told Master Morgan that this was a token from a dear friend unknown to him, and I take it ill that he should insist upon talking on it, especially before another."

"I only insisted because, as I said this morning, it is so like another that I wot of. You know the one I mean, Margaret."

"It is very like one that I have sometimes worn," replied Miss Pulsifer, coldly.

"That was my meaning. You do not wear it to-night," and John Morgan looked almost reproachfully at the stately white neck of his betrothed.

No, I have lost it, I believe," replied she carelessly.

my master. Do you mean to play highwayman and rob me outright?"

"No, but here is some strange coil, and it is you only who can explain it. Miss Pulsifer has lost a jewel so like to that upon your neck that—"

"It is of no consequence, none at all,” interposed Miss Pulsifer very coldly. "I certainly have lost a ruby heart, but my cousin has already declared that this upon her neck was a love-gift from some one unknown to us, and I would not insult her by asking proof or explanations of her word. Let the matter rest, it is of no consequence."

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"Lost it! Oh, Margaret, lost my ruby if he would but speak," stammered Ruby heart!"

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helplessly.

"I know! What in Heaven's name does this mean? What snare is laid here to catch me tripping?"

And John Morgan, springing to his feet, glared from one to the other of the young women in angry bewilderment. Miss Pulsifer met his look with one of superb disdain.

"Big words and loud tones are but a coward's refuge," said she, icily. "Ruby Pynsent, if you choose to explain this matter, do it now, and briefly. If you do not choose, or if you do not dare, it shall rest forever, and we shall wish

"Will you let me take that ruby Master Morgan good-night-and goodheart, Miss Pynsent?"

"Marry, no, when you ask in that tone,

by."

"He he gave it me this morning,"

sobbed Ruby, crouched in a heap upon the rug, her golden hair tossed across the blue brocade of her dress as she hid her face upon her knees, while the mocking firelight played over her lissome figure, and the ivory of her arms and the golden curls, and centred at last in one blinding spark deepset in the heart of the ruby lying upon the floor beside her.

Miss Pulsifer rose to her stately height, and pointing down at the lovely picture, turned her eyes upon John Morgan's bewildered face.

"Have you never a word or a kiss to comfort her?" asked she, "or are you already false to her too?"

Then, while he stood reeling beneath the contempt she had hurled at him from lip and eye, and every line of her majestic figure, she drew her dress aside and swept past him and out of the room with never another word or look. As she neared the door, John Morgan sprang after her, stopped abruptly, and striding back seized up the weeping child, and standing her before him, both her hands in his, looked with stern imploring into her face.

"Ruby! What is this all? Have you gone mad, or have I? How could you say that I gave you this accursed bauble? Why, it was my betrothal gift to Margaret, and she thinks I stole it to give again to you."

"And so you did! At least, I knew not whence you had it; but this I do know, that when you came again to the ship, and found me crying because that you had gone and left me, forgetting me so soon, when we had been such friends, and seeing me crying, you felt sorry, and perhaps perhaps, my tears they told you-"

"But the heart, Ruby, the heart! " "Why, when you saw me crying you came to me and put your arms about me and—and—kissed me twice,-nay, why will you make me tell it over? and then you slipped the ruby heart into my bosom and ran away out of the cabin, and I, thinking you gave it in loving jest, and would not that I should speak of it, I hung it about my neck, and when after we were here you asked me

where I got it, I thought again that it was jest, and I told you a story, thinking to make you laugh; and when you asked me before my cousin I did not want to say out that you gave it me, and I did not know what you meant-"

"I see it now, I see it all!" exclaimed John Morgan, dropping the hands het held, and gloomily staring into the fire. "When I came here this morning I embraced Margaret, as I had a right to do, and the ruby heart fell off and lodged in my clothes, and when I went back to the ship and embraced you, as I had no right to do, it fell out into your bosom, and I, stung by remorse to think that even by one kiss I had been faithless to my love, rushed away before I could see what had befallen, and you understood it all wrong, and-all is over between Margaret and me."

"No-why do you say that? I will go and tell her how it was!"

"What! tell her that I took you in my arms and kissed you within the hour after rejoining her!" exclaimed John Morgan bitterly. "Good sooth, I fancy that tale would not mend matters much with a woman like Margaret Pulsifer. Nay, Ruby, the kiss was a sweet one, and I say not that it was so much amiss to have given it, but it is like to cost me dear enough, dear enough."

And with the jewel in his pocket John Morgan left the house right sadly, yet trusting more than he would own to Margaret's love, his own honest purpose, and the cooler judgment of the morrow.

But on the morrow Miss Pulsifer was too ill to see any one, and poor little Ruby went creeping about the house with a weight of vague remorse at her heart, and a fluttering of guilty terror whenever upon the stairs or in the passages she encountered Judith with her stern eyes and cold white face. Judith, who knowing a little and guessing more of the ill-fortune that had befallen her mistress' love-affair, visited all that illfortune in her own mind upon the golden head of Ruby, whom, with woman's justice to woman, she chose to consider as the temptress who had seduced John Morgan into unfaithfulness to his liege

lady, and perhaps induced him to steal the ruby heart whose loss was the beginning of all this sorrow and disturb

ance.

Early in the morning and several times through the day Morgan mounted the sandstone steps, at first confidently demanding admittance, afterward sadly asking news of his betrothed, who was, as Judith curtly informed him, when at last he insisted upon her being summoned to answer his inquiries, "too sick to see strangers."

"But I am no stranger, good Judith," pleaded the lover, trying to slip a gold piece into her hand.

"Better perhaps if you had been, Master Morgan. Thank you, sir, I have no occasion for your money," replied the old nurse, and as he still stood upon the threshold she quietly shut the door in his face, and went back to the darkened chamber where Margaret Pulsifer lay between life and death, the terrible physical pain at her heart deadening the still sharper mental pain that had preceded it.

"Will she get over it, think you, sir?" asked Judith, eagerly following the grave physician to the stairhead, and looking up in his face with the dumb beseeching of an animal who believes in the limitless power of his master,

mau.

"She may indeed, nurse, I think it pretty certain that she will get over this attack, but the next!"

And sadly shaking his head, the old man who had seen Margaret's mother die, and who had closed her father's eyes, dashed something from his arm, and went slowly down the stairs.

A week later, as Judith watched the thin sad face and listless figure of her mistress, who had now for two days sat up for awhile, and always chose to sit in a chair drawn close to the front window of her room, she said,

"Master Morgan has been here twice to-day asking for your health, Miss Margaret."

"Has he? When he comes again I will see him, Judith," replied Miss Pulsifer gently, and the jealous eyes of the

old servant marked well the color which came and went, and the fluttering pulsation which almost choked the sick girl's breath. She saw, and scowled bitterly even while she said with forced screnity,

"And so you shall, Miss Margaret ; but Doctor Eustis says that we must be more than careful about excitement of any sort."

"When Master Morgan calls, show him into the dressing-room, and I will see him there," replied Miss Pulsifer; and Judith had been too long a servant of that house to remonstrate further. She revenged herself, however, by muttering in John Morgan's ear, as she led him up the stairs an hour later,

"The Doctor says it is over-excitement that made her sick, and more of it will kill her. So have a care, young man."

"I will be careful, Judith," replied the lover meekly; and indeed his white face and weary eyes showed that sorrow, and it may be a fiercer tormentor, had been busy with him since last the old nurse saw him.

"What a coil this love-making brings," thought she, eyeing him keenly, yet not so angrily; and opening the door into the little dressing-room, she motioned him to enter, and softly closed it behind him. Mindful of her caution, the lover advanced with a smile upon his face, and as little emotion in his manner as he could contrive, toward the wan figure in the great easy-chair beside the fire, and obeyed without remonstrance the feeble gesture which bade him seat himself at a little distance, without even touching the hand that made the gesture.

"I am very sad at seeing you so ill, Margaret," said he, choking down the torrent of passionate sorrow and love and terror that rose to his lips.

"Thank you, John, and I do not doubt it," replied Miss Pulsifer gently, and then after a little pause went on :

"I sent for you as soon as I could be allowed to see you, John, to say how sorry I am for speaking so that night. It was a bitter insult to your honor,

John, my fancy that you had played me false; I should have trusted you more, and honored you better. If ever you came to loving another woman, you would tell it to me before ever you did to her, I am sure of it. And now, if you like to tell me how all this matter came about, and why that poor child fancied you had given my ruby heart to her, why, tell me; and if you do not wish to, why, say that, and either way I am content, and believe without another word that you have done naught, said naught, thought naught unbecoming a man of honor, and mine own promised husband."

But in hearing those noble and gentle words John Morgan lost all control of his own emotion, and threw himself upon his knees, and hiding his face upon her lap, sobbed out:

"Oh, Margaret, Margaret, slay me with your scorn, despise me, hate me if you will, but do not speak to me like that, for I am not worthy of such trust."

"Not worthy of my trust!" echoed Margaret, pressing her hand upon her tumultuous heart, and sighing wearily, 66 Oh, John, if I had died before I heard you say that!"

"Hear me, Margaret, then judge me, and I swear to abide by your judgment, be it what it may." And rising from his knees and standing with an arm upon her chair, but out of sight of those steady truth-compelling eyes, John Morgan told the story through, not hiding that during the long voyage he had been tempted by Ruby's innocent fondness and childish unreserve to treat her in a familiar, almost caressing manner, which might perhaps have led her to believe that he meant more than he ever did, and to allow her thoughts to rest upon him in a way he had never intended.

well-nigh to loving her, and the ruby heart that pledged you to me dropped away from me and gave itself to her, and you carried it to her, although you knew it not?"

"Oh, Margaret, noble Margaret, priceless Margaret, you do not mean, you do not believe, that I loved her, or could love any woman but you!" And John Morgan, half-crazed with grief and terror and remorseful love, threw himself again upon his knees, and seizing her hands, bathed them with tears and kisses. Margaret looked down upon him, serene and still, as angels look at men still struggling with the sin and sorrow they have left behind. At last she said:

"Dear John, let us say no more, now -perhaps ever. If I had been as I was once, I think it might be that I could not forgive that you, having had my promise and my kisses, should have forgotten them even for a moment; but, dearest, I stand to-day where I can see that pride is but mortal, and love is immortal. While I live, John, you are mine own betrothed, and none shall come between us; no, not until I am laid in my grave shall any other have right to say, 'I took him from you'after that, John, John, help!"

And in her anguish she rose stiffly upon her feet, her whole frame rigid and shaken, one hand clenched upon her heart, and one pressed to her lips, through which gushed a stream of bright blood.

Morgan, horror-stricken, clasped her in his arms and carried her into the next room, at whose door stood Judith white with terror and rage.

"Go, go, you have killed her! Leave her now to me!" cried she, pushing him from the room, and bolting the door upon him.

But Margaret was not dead, nor did she die for weeks, although she and all about her knew that each moment might be her last. White and still and smiling, she lay upon her death-bed, cautious lest by a breath, a word too much, she should snap the attenuated thread still linking her with life and love. Hour by hour,

"I did but think of her as a child until that morning when I found her crying, and reproaching me that I had forgotten her in seeing you," stammered the lover, feeling all the humiliation of his confession, yet glad that it was made, and only anxious now to hear Margaret's reply. "And so she loves you, and you went day and night and day and night again,

John Morgan watched beside her, hardly leaving her for an instant, grudging every act of ministration offered by another, absorbing every look, every word, every sigh that escaped her.

"He will die too," whispered Ruby to Judith, with whom she had made her peace, and gained permission to spend much of her time in the sick-room.

"Very like he may, and why should he, not? When she is gone, what has he to live for?" asked the old nurse; and Ruby, whose bright eyes were always in these days heavy with tears, stole a look at the bed, saw John Morgan's white face set so steadily, so yearningly, so full of passionate and despairing love toward that other face scarce whiter, but more transparent, and so showing yet more plainly the eternal love lighting it from within; and then whispering to her own heart,

"They do not need you, they do not even know that you are here," she stole away to cry herself sick in the dark vastness of her own chamber.

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At last there came a day when the pale lips of the dying girl silently shaped Good-by!" and with their last consciouness pressed a cold, faint kiss upon the trembling lips that feared to press them too closely in return lest that last faint breath, cold as the air from the door of a newly-opened tomb, should be rudely shaken and cease an instant sooner. It ceased, the dark eyes closed with the lovelight not yet faded out of them, a faint sigh fluttered past the lover's cheek, and all was over; over for both of them, as old Judith thought at first, for John Morgan, utterly exhausted and overcome, fell forward from his knees to his face as that last sigh stole past his cheek, and lay with his head upon her hand, to all appearance as lifeless as herself.

But Judith knew no love save for her nursling, and so soon as she found that the young man had only swooned, she ordered him carried away, and sternly turning to Ruby, said,

"And go you after, and nurse him. There are two of you, and here are two of us."

The dead body of Margaret Pulsifer lay in state for a week, as was the regal fashion of her race, and the third day, as she had ordained, her last will was opened and read in the presence of her enshrouded form. This will, carefully drawn by the family solicitor, was somewhat lengthy, and was expressed in all the formal phraseology of such documents, excepting a few clauses inserted at the end, and in the faint and uncertain characters of a woman's dying hand. These we will transcribe:

"And it is my request that my betrothed husband, John Morgan, be at my funeral, all over mourning, and follow next after me.

"And to my cousin, Ruby Pynsent, I leave, besides the estates which are in some sort hers of right, my kind love and best wishes; and if this same John Morgan and Ruby Pynsent do find it in their hearts to marry when I shall have been a full year in my grave, they have my consent and my approval and my prayers both now and then.

"And all my jewels and clothes I leave to Ruby Pynsent, excepting the necklace of rubies and the heart belong

ing to it, which will be about my neck when I die, and these I desire shall be buried with me.

"And if there is any creature in this world who fancies himself or herself in need of my forgiveness, I do now, in the presence of the God to whom I haste, most fully, freely, and solemnly forgive them.

"And so, good-by, world."

The body of the instrument bequeathed nearly the whole of the great Pulsifer property to Ruby Pynsent, with careful provision for all the old servants and dependents of the house, and in especial a handsome annuity to Judith, who enjoyed it for barely two years.

To John Morgan was bequeathed the portrait already described, and the fur niture of Margaret's bed-chamber, with the request that he would himself use it "so long as he shall live a bachelor."

So Margaret, last of the Proud Pulsifers, was borne to the grave, and "John Morgan, all over mourning, followed next after" her who thus clung to her

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