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LEONIE LOCKE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF A BEAUTIFUL 
 NEW YORK WORKING GIRL. 
 
 BY 
 
 LAURA JEAN LIBBEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "Parted on Her Bridal Tour," or "Miss Middleton s Lover," 
 
 " When His Love Grew Cold," "He Loved, But Was 
 
 Lured Away," "When Lovely Maiden Stoops 
 
 to Folly," " The Crime of Hallow E en," 
 
 "Lovers Once, But Strangers 
 
 Now," Etc., Etc. 
 
 C 
 
 Dramatic Rights Reserved b; 
 LAURA JEAN 
 
 33 S, Main St. 
 Los Angeles 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 57 ROSE STREET. 
 
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In compliance with current copyright 
 
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 1984 to replace the irreparably 
 
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 1998 
 
LEONIE LOCK 
 
 "" *** > i 
 
 S. Wain St, 
 
 CHAPTEH L 
 
 SEVEN o clock on a crisp December morning. 
 
 One of the Fulton Fsr^y boats bt:d just reached the Naw 
 York dock. The chain which had kept the eager, restless 
 throng back had been tossed aside, and hundreds of rosy- 
 cheeked, nimble-footed lassies were hurrying forward to 
 catch the stage up Broadway, or, perchance, one of the 
 eJevated trains, or the horse-cars, as the case might be, 
 while others, who could not afford the luxury of riding, 
 gathered their wraps more closely about them that crisp, 
 cold morning, setting off for their various destinations on 
 foot. 
 
 Among the latter was Leonie Locke, the heroine of our 
 story: a small, petite young girl of perhaps some seven 
 teen years, dressed in a neat dark-blue dress, with jacket 
 of the same material, and cloth cap to match. 
 
 Her blue veil was tossed carelessly back, revealing a 
 rosy, dimpled face, large brown eyes, and a wealth of 
 glossy bro ^n hair that fell to her slender waist in heavy 
 curls. 
 
 In one neatly gloved hand she held a copy of the " Ker- 
 ald," at which she glanced eagerly as she hurried along. 
 
 " What if 1 were too late!" she gasped, and something 
 very like a sob issued from the red, half -parted lips, as she 
 thought of her father who lay sick unto death awaiting in; 
 auch painful anxiety the issue of that morning s visit the 
 father whose sudden illness had left them both destitute. 
 
 970395 
 
*> .. LEONIB LOCKE. 
 
 Poor girl! she was face to face for the first time in he* 
 young life with the hard, bitter world; and she must find 
 work or starve. 
 
 No wonder the sob broke tremulously from Leonie 
 Locke s quivering lips as she thought of all this and 
 quickened hei^ pace, glancing nervously at the following 
 advertisement ..she held in her hand: 
 
 " WANTED. A few more fur-sewers; experience un 
 necessary. To "the right parties, work all winter. All 
 applicants must call bnf.ore 8 A. M. Lincoln & Carlisle, 
 Furriers, Xo. Broad r ,vay. " 
 
 So intently was the young girl scanning the advertise 
 ment she did not observe the handsome, dark-eyed man 
 who had followed her from the ferry, his boM eyes drink 
 ing in every lineament of that lovely, innocent young face 
 as he kept pace beside her, noting with a wicked smile of 
 satisfaction by the paper she was glancing over that she 
 was evidently in search of work. 
 
 The clock from an adjacent belfry slowly tolled the hour 
 of eight, and Leonie glanced around her with a little 
 frightened cry, urging her tired little feet onward with 
 greater speed over the slippery ice-covered pavement. 
 
 " You seem to be in an outrageous hurry this bitter cold 
 morning, my dear," cried a voice at her elbow. 
 
 Leonie glanced around abruptly in surprise and anger 
 at being thus rudely accosted. 
 
 ; At that instant her flying feet slipped o: the icy pave 
 ment, precipitating her directly under the stranger s feet, 
 her veil flying in one direction and the paper in another. 
 
 In a moment two strong arms were clasping her more 
 closely than the occasion demanded, and a pair of wicked 
 dark eyes were gazing down into the frightened brown 
 ones, and a voice tha.t struck subtile terror to Leonie s 
 heart whispered, mockingly: 
 
 ",Many thanks to fate for pasting so pretty a little dar 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 7 
 
 ling into mj arms! I must have a kiss for my trouble, 
 though." 
 
 Like a flash, Leonie tore herself free from the man s de 
 taining grasp, her brown eyes blazing, and her fair young 
 face flushed to a deep crimson. 
 
 ** You are no gentleman, sir," she cried, fairly trem 
 bling with emotion, " to insult an honest, unprotected girl 
 in this manner! Hand me back my veil and my paper." 
 
 " I propose to. keep your veil, }i replied the bold-eyed 
 young man, with an insolent laugh; " it will be highly 
 prized by me, I assure you, because it has rested upon so 
 fair a cheek. And as for the paper, toss it aside; a young 
 girl with such a glorious face as yours need never look for 
 work." 
 
 A mist seemed gathering before the poor girl s eyes, and 
 her heart seemed bursting with the taunting insult of the 
 stranger s mocking words. 
 
 She was too indignant to answer; and with the great 
 pearly tears falling like rain from her flashing eyes, Leonie 
 turned and fled. 
 
 "Adieu for the present, my pretty one!" cried the 
 stranger, with a cruel laugh. " I shall know where to find 
 you when I have leisure to search for you. If I mistake 
 not, this is your address penciled upon the margin of this 
 paper. Adieu, fair Leonie, I promise you we shall meet 
 again/ 
 
 Leonie heard him, but she never turned her head. In 
 her intense, eager desire to put as much space as possible 
 between herself and the bold stranger, she fairly flew up 
 the street. 
 
 The loss of the paper was a serious inconvenience to her, 
 and the loss of her veil a still greater one; but she had no 
 time to waste in thinking over it 
 
 Leonie had a good memory, and she had not forgotten 
 the number; and fr^-tew moments, panting and breath- 
 
8 LEONIB LOCKE. 
 
 le*, he found herself standing before Messrs. Lincoln & 
 Carlisle s marble building. 
 
 As Leonie had expected, hundreds of applicants were 
 there before her; yet, among the many, Leonie was the 
 only one selected. 
 
 " It s all on account of her pretty face!" cried the 
 chagrined, disappointed girls, brushing angrily past Leonie. 
 " Pretty faces are always passports to favor!" 
 
 Meanwhile, Leonie had followed the clerk into the work 
 room beyond. 
 
 Dozens of girls raised their heads from their work as 
 Leonie, shrinking and trembling, was ushered into their 
 presence. 
 
 In every workshop, or where there are a number of 
 young girls, there is always one one whose word is law 
 among the other girls who generally takes the lead of her 
 companions, and in the workshop of Messrs. Lincoln & 
 Carlisle, Kate Hardy reigned supreme. 
 
 The girls all glanced toward Kate to see what she 
 thought of the lovely young stranger, who quietly took her 
 seat among them ere they dared express an opinion of 
 their own in regard to Leonie. 
 
 ** Do you like her?" whispered the girl who sat next to 
 Kate. 
 
 For several moments Kate Hardy studied Leonie s fair 
 face; then a laugh that was not pleasant to hear broke 
 from her lips as she answered, harshly: 
 
 " Like her? No; I bate her!" 
 
 " I know why," retorted the other, with a shrill laugh; 
 " you re afraid she ll cut you out with our handsome fore 
 man, Charlie Hart. Come, own up, Kate; you know 
 you re only jealous of her because she s pretty and styl 
 ish, too." 
 
 Kate Hardy s black eyes blazed ominously, and she grew 
 white to the very lips. 
 
 " Then I would kill hrl" she cried, hoarsely. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 9 
 
 The girls all laughed, considering the speech quite a 
 joke. But there came a day when those startling words 
 came back to them with cruel significance. 
 
 Suddenly the door of the work-roor\ opened, and a 
 young man entered. It was Charlie Hart, the foreman; 
 and immediately all whispers were hushed, and all the 
 girls bent their heads quickly over the piles of work before 
 them, glancing up curiously, however, to note what effect 
 Leonie s pretty face would have upon the susceptible Char 
 lie, and to see, too, if Kate Hardy s slumbering jealousy 
 would be aroused. 
 
 Leonie did not raise her eyes from her work. 
 
 A low exclamation of intense surprise broke from the 
 foreman s lips, and a gleam of intense satisfaction and tri 
 umph shone in his bold black eyes as his gaze rested upon 
 Leonie. 
 
 In another moment he had crossed the room and stood 
 by her side, and under pretense of examining the fur 
 trimming Leonie had just finished stitching, he leaned 
 down and whispered, exultantly: 
 
 " Ah, my defiant fairy! how little I dreamed that my 
 prophecy of a few hours since would be fulfilled by kind 
 late so very soon!" 
 
 Leonie started to her feet with a low cry, scattering the 
 strips of fur she held in her lap in all directions. 
 
 As the iirst word fell from his Itps, Leonie had recog 
 nized, with sudden terror, the voice of the bold stranger 
 who had so rudely accosted her that morning the man 
 who dared insult her because she was unprotected and 
 searching for work. 
 
 " Don^t make a scene before the rest of the girls," he 
 whispered, angrily; " for if you do I shall turn you off 
 without a moment s notice. I have full power to do it, 
 and it is not easy to get into work in the dead ci winter 
 Sit down again, I sayj jou are attracting the attention of 
 the rest of the : girls. 
 
10 LEONIE LOCKS. 
 
 Great flashes of color swept over Leonie s cheeks in crim 
 son waves; every impulse in her heart urged her to turn 
 and fly from this man; but a still stronger power held her 
 spell-bound the power of sordid gold! She dared not 
 give up this chance of earning bread; if she did the loved 
 one at home would suffer, and she sunk back into her 
 seat again with something very like a groan breaking over 
 her quivering lips. 
 
 He saw how she shrunk from him, and the look of hor 
 ror in the brown eyes, and his face darkened with an 
 angry frown. 
 
 44 You are in my power, my little beauty!" he whis 
 pered. " You will only succeed in breaking your own 
 wings if you attempt to fly from me." 
 
 He turned on his heel and left her, whispering " that 
 he would return her veil to her if she would step into his 
 office when work was over, and she was ready to go home. " 
 
 Five o clock! The deep gloom of the oncoming night 
 was fast settling down upon the great city as Leonie 
 emerged from the cloak-room and was making her way 
 down the narrow stairway that led to the street. 
 
 Suddenly the loud calling of her own name arrested 
 her steps. 
 
 " I wish you to step into my room, Miss Locke/ cried 
 the foreman, angrily, from the landing above. " You 
 have spoiled the whole of the work intrusted to you to-day. 
 I will point out where your mistake lies, and if you think 
 ;you can remedy it, well and good; if not, it shall be 
 charged to your account Step this way, please/ he add 
 ed, authoritatively. 
 
 For one moment only Leonie hesitated. 
 
 " You can do your worst, sir," she cried out, angrily. 
 " What you say about the work is all false. I shall not go 
 to your room. You insulted me, an unprotected girl, on 
 the street this morning, and I shall take good care you 
 shall never have the^opDortunitv to repeat it." 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 11 
 
 " You need not trouble yourself to come here to-mor 
 row, Miss Locke, called the foreman, mockingly. 
 " Henceforth, consider your services dispensed with. If 
 you wish settlement for to-day s work, step into my 
 office." 
 
 Like one half stupefied by the cruel words she had just 
 heard, Leonie groped her way out of the building, and out 
 into the bitter cold and intense darkness. Little dreaming of 
 the strange, thrilling scene in which she was to play such a 
 prominent part before the morrow s sun would rise, Leonie 
 Locke walked on to her fate. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 LIKE one in a dream, Leonie made her way toward the 
 Fulton Ferry again, heartsick and discouraged. 
 
 As night had fallen a blinding snow-storm had set in; 
 yet Leonie pushed bravely on, questioning herself over and 
 over again as to whether it would be advisable to weary 
 her father by the recital of the trials through which she 
 had passed that day, or to meet his eager eyes with the 
 words that had fallen from her lips every day for the past 
 week: "I was not successful to-day, father; but who 
 knows what to-morrow may bring forth?" 
 
 With a heavy heart Leonie made her way into the 
 cabin of the ferry-boat, and as she sunk into a seat, the 
 first person whom she saw, standing smiling mockingly be 
 fore her, was her dreaded foe the man who had persecut 
 ed he- so cruelly, Charlie Hart. 
 
 " 1 ought to be very angry with you for repulsing me so 
 stubbornly," he whispered, bending down so close to her 
 she could feel his scorching breath burn her cheek; " yet 
 your ?ery obstinacy has made me all the more determined 
 that you shall care for me, whether you will or not, my de 
 fiant Mttle beauty. You made a mistake in quitting out 
 place to-day. Whvj *** *mi? jittle girl, I had it in my 
 
12 IBONIB LOCKE. 
 
 power to auiow you a princely b*Iary that would have kept 
 YOB like a queen in silks and diamonds. You have stood 
 in your own. light; but it is not too late yet. You shall 
 come back to-morrow, and it will be all right; I can ar 
 range it for you." 
 
 A tall, handsome, fair-faced young man, with- kindly 
 blue eyes and a frank, open countenance, who had entered 
 the cabin unobserved, and stood so near the scheming 
 foreman that he could not help but hear the whispered 
 words that fell from the villain s lips, gave a sudden start 
 of surprise, then turned and gazed keenly into the white, 
 angered face of the young girl to whom the words had been 
 addressed. 
 
 " May God forgive you for your cruel persecution of an 
 honorable girl, for I never can!" cried Leonie, trembling 
 with suppressed horror and mortification. " Your very 
 presence is contaminating. Go your way, sir, and let me 
 go mine in peace!" 
 
 She sprung from her seat, and would have pushed her 
 way through the crowd into the forward cabin, but Charlie 
 Hart placed himself mockingly directly before her; but 
 he never uttered the retort that sprung to his lips, for a 
 strong arm thrust him suddenly back, and with a low, 
 courteous bow, the fair-haired stranger turned to Leonie, 
 saying kindly: 
 
 " You are free to go your way in peace, young lady. I 
 will see that this fellow does not trouble you any longer. " 
 
 A tremulous " Thank you, sir," was all Leonie said; 
 but the intense gratitude hi the eloquent brown eyes spoke 
 volumes. 
 
 The sudden change that had come over Charlie Hart s 
 face was laughable to see. His face had grown ghastly as 
 he muttered the stranger s name Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 "You shall answer to me for this to-morrow," added 
 Mr. Carlisle, sternly. " The firm of Lincoln & Carlisle 
 can well do without such a, foreman as you have proven 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 13 
 
 yonrself to be. Call at the office to-morrow morning for 
 a settlement. If I followed the dictates of my heart 1 
 would not let you depart t>j quietly, but give you the 
 thrashing which your insult to this unprotected girl so 
 richly merits. Leave my presence at once before 1 repent 
 of my leniency toward you. " 
 
 Charlie Hart needed no second bidding to take himself 
 eff, but there was. a look on his white face terrible to be- 
 hold. 
 
 " It is all mp with me now/ he muttered; " that little 
 prude s tongue has cost me my situation, in the dead of 
 whiter, too; but 1 swear that I will be revenged upon her 
 before the sun rises on the morrow; I will take such a re 
 venge as will follow htr to the end of her life. * 
 
 And in his fertile brain a plan was already forming, so 
 cruel that even he, dastardly villain though he was, shrunk 
 at first from contemplating such a wicked plot against the 
 peace and happiness of poor innocent Leonie Locke. 
 
 Meanwhile the boat had touched the Brooklyn wharf, and 
 Leonie, considerably frightened and trembling with excite, 
 ment, was making her way out with the crowd, when the 
 gentleman who had so nobly come to her rescue kindly 
 touched her upon the arm. 
 
 " I beg your pardon/ he said, earnestly; " but if you 
 will permit me to see you safely home, 1 shall be much 
 pleased. You may safely trust me," he added, noting 
 how shyly she shrunk from his proffered escort because he 
 was a stranger. " I recognized your face at once as the 
 young lady one of our clerks eiigaged this morning. I am 
 Gordon Carlisle, junior member. of the firm." 
 
 As he spoke he produced one of his business cards, 
 which he handed her with another bow and with as much 
 deferential courtesy as though she bad been a queen instead 
 of a poor little working-girl who had been turned that very 
 day from his doors. 
 
 He did not wait ior_Lfconie/ji renly,Jait quietly drew he* 
 
14 LEO*fE LOCKE. 
 
 arm within his own with gentle authority, starting off with 
 her at a rapid pace toward the nearest cab-stand. 
 
 "I would much prefer walking," said Leonie, " as I 
 love only a few blocks from here, on Henry Street, 
 No. ." 
 
 " It is too cold to walk/ he protested, smiling gravely 
 down into the beautiful face. " Kindly oblige me by get 
 ting into the cab, and yon shall find yourself at your own 
 door in a very few moments." 
 
 Silently Leonie obeyed. She never knew how it hap 
 pened, but during that never-to-be-forgotten drive home 
 ward she had told him the strange story of her life the 
 story that seemed more like a romance than a reality: 
 How all of her life, up to one short month ago, had 
 been spent at a lonely, isolated school in the wilds of the 
 Orange Mountains, and, quite unexpectedly, the father 
 whom she had not seen since her infancy had come for 
 her. Since then her life had been a whirl of excitement 
 from city to city, until her father had been stricken ill 
 with a disease the doctors pronounced fatal. 
 
 " I do not care for myself, Leonie," her father had 
 groaned out, " but for you, my child; for, God help us, 
 we are both penniless penniless." 
 
 Gordon Carlisle turned away his head that she might nob 
 see the tears that stood in his honest eyes at this pitiful, 
 touching recital. 
 
 4 It was then that I started out in search of work, * 
 continued Leonie, plaintively; "for I knew if I did not 
 find something to do, papa and 1 would starve. You 
 know the rest, Mr. Carlisle; how happy I was when I 
 thonght I had secured a position in your employ, and now 
 I have lost it." 
 
 " I think I can offer you a far better position than the 
 one you had," returned Mr. Carlisle, thoughtfully; " it i& 
 in our correspondence department, _ I shall not need you 
 
LEONH LOCKE. 15 
 
 for a week, nowever, but I will pay you a week s salary in 
 advance, that 1 may be sure that I have you engaged. " 
 
 ^Before Leonie could reply, so great was her intense as 
 tonishment and delight, the cab had stopped before the 
 house in which she and her father had secured lodgings. 
 Mr. Carlisle had placed a bank-note in her hand, swiftly 
 re-entered the coach, and was rapidly driven away ere she 
 had time to refuse the money so strangely thrust upo 
 her. 
 
 " God must have sent him/ sobbed Leonie, looking 
 wistfully after the retreating cab. " He not only saved 
 me from the toils of a villain, but he has given me a 
 chance of winning bread for papa and me." 
 
 Leonie ran up the stairs two steps at a time, she was so* 
 anxious to break the good news to her father. 
 
 Allan Locke lay on the bed, propped up by pillows to a 
 sitting posture. In one hand he held a pen slightly poised 
 over a half-written page, and on the other hand his head 
 rested heavily, and his writing-desk lay on the bed beside 
 him. 
 
 " Father!" called Leonie, softly, " dear father!" but 
 the man lying there so quietly neither spoke nor moved. 
 
 " Poor papa!" sighed Leonie, softly; " he is fast asleep^ 
 1 must not disturb him, the doctor says sleep is so benefi 
 cial to him; my good news will not spoil by keeping i 
 until he wakes." 
 
 With deft fingers Leonie tied on her dainty ruffled white- 
 apron and set about tidying their suite of rooms. " Papa 
 did not even eat his lunch," thought the young girl, 
 curiously, as she noticed with wonder the repast she had 
 spread for him before leaving that morning lying quite 
 untouched beside his couch. 
 
 " Poor papa, he needs wine to strengthen him, and he 
 shall have it," decided Leonie, tying on her hat and catch 
 ing up her sacque. _jj.i can set it at the corner grocery, 
 
16 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 no doutir, and it will be such a pleasant surprise to him to 
 iind it on the table before him when he awakes. " 
 
 Poor Leonie, she little dreamed Allan Locke would 
 never awaken again in this life. 
 
 It was too true. Allan Locke was dead, with the great 
 secret which had shadowed his whole life, and that which 
 would shadow the life of the child he loved so well, but 
 half told on the page before him. 
 
 Yet, all mnmindful of death s presence, Leonie stole 
 softly on tiptoe toward the door on her errand, but as she 
 placed her hand on the knob she was startled by a low, 
 cautious rap. 
 
 " Dear me, I wonder who it can possibly be," thought 
 Leonie, all in a flutter, as she opened the door. 
 
 A small boy, with keen, ferret-like eyes, stood on the 
 threshold, with a square white envelope in his hand. 
 
 " Are you Miss Leonie^Locke?" he asked, shifting nerv 
 ously from one foot to the other. 
 
 " Yes/ replied Leonie. " What do you want? Is that 
 letter you have in your hand for me?" 
 
 " Yes, miss," he replied, handing her the missive, which 
 sfoe hurriedly opened. 
 
 It read as follows: 
 
 " DEAR Miss LEON-IE LOCKE, Will you kindly call and 
 see me far a few moments on urgent business? I can not 
 esplain what it is in my note. I will not detain you five 
 minutes. 1 pray you, do not refuse me. The bov who 
 brings this will show you the way. I live only a block 
 from you. Please come. I am one of the girls you saw 
 to-day in Lincoln & Carlisle s work-room. 
 
 " 0. D." 
 
 Leonie did not recognize the initials indeed, all the 
 girls were strangers to her; but little dreaming of treach 
 ery or fraud, poor Leonie followed the boy down to the 
 pavement 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 17* 
 
 \ .The snow was falling steadily in great blinding flakes^ 
 quite obliterating surrounding objects from view. A caV 
 was drawn close to the curbstone, but Leonie scarcely 
 heeded it, nor did she observe the sign the driver made to< 
 the boy beside her. 
 
 * This way, miss," whispered the lad. 
 
 Leonie was abreast of the cab now, and in an instant the 
 driver had leaped from his box, grasped the startled girl in. 
 his arms, thrust her into the coach, whipped up his horses,, 
 and dashed onward at break-neck speed through the terri 
 ble storm and the darkness. There was a quick, sharp- 
 cry from the interior of the coach, which was suddenly 
 hushed, and the cab proceeded leisurely then to its destina 
 tion, past the patroling policemen, who little knew what 
 a dread secret it held. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 ON through the blinding snow-storm and the intense 
 darkness the carriage dashed with the speed of the wind r 
 stopping at length before a red-brick structure on the 
 banks of the East River; and, too thoroughly frightened 
 to make any resistance, Leonie was lifted hurriedly f rom 
 the coach and conveyed into the building. 
 
 At that moment a door at the top of the stairs was 
 thrown open, and a nood of light penetrated the darkness 
 of the hallway below; and on the threshold of the open 
 door-way stood Charlie Hart 
 
 In an instant the full peril of the terrible position in 
 which she found herself placed burst upon Leonie s scat 
 tered senses; and with a wild, startled cry she wheeled 
 suddenly about, and would have sprung over the baluster 
 and down into the hallway below had not a strong hand 
 tightened its grasp upon her arm, and a rough strange 
 voice cried, angrily: 
 
 " You needn t attemot that j^ime. Come along peace- 
 
18 LE02STIE LOCKE. 
 
 ably and quietly, or I have my orders how to silence you if 
 you give me any trouble. " 
 
 " Have you brought the girl?" called Charlie Hart, anx 
 iously. " Ah, good-evening, my dear," he cried, exult 
 antly, as his eyes rested upon Leonie s white, angered face. 
 * Allow me to welcome you to my bachelor paradise. I 
 have been expecting you. I was sure my urgent little 
 note would bring you to me. What do you think of my 
 clever little ruse which has so successfully entrapped you, 
 my dear? * 
 
 Leonie was a brave girl; yet in the face of a danger like 
 this which menaced her the stoutest heart would have 
 quailed; but for a moment her anger overruled her deadly 
 fear. 
 
 " So it is you whom I have to thank for this outrage/ 
 she cried, flushing hotly. " It was you who decoyed me 
 away from my poor sick father s side with a written lie, 
 and brought me here against my will," she demanded, 
 pantingly. " Let me go, I say, at once, or 1 will cry out 
 for a policemen and have you arrested ! 
 
 A low, taunting, jeering laugh was Charlie Hart s only 
 answer, as he forcibly clauped her wrists and attempted to 
 force her within the room. 
 
 " Then I appeal to you," cried Leonie, freeing herself 
 from the villain s clasp, and turning frantically to the 
 man who still stood on the upper seep. " It was you who 
 brought me here at this man s bidding/ she cried, wildly; 
 u and I pray you to take me away again, and I will forgive 
 you for what you have done, and my poor father will bless 
 you for repenting and rescuing his child/ 
 
 " I reckon that s contrary to that there gentleman s 
 plans," replied the man, grimly; " that s the man you 
 want to talk to/ he added, with a coarse laugh, pointing 
 toward Charlie Hart. " I m working under his orders in 
 <this affair." 
 
 "Bat if you ha^_sisters of your own, and they were hi 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 auch pern as I am in now, and pleading with some one to 
 save them, would you not bless the man that listened to 
 their prayer and saved them?" she pleaded, piteously. 
 
 " Don t listen to her/ exclaimed Hart, angrily, as he 
 passed over a roll of bills to his companion. " You may 
 go now, Jim; if I need you for that little affair to-morrow 
 I know where to find you." 
 
 In vain Leonie attempted to stay the man s steps; he 
 was deaf to her cries, and in another moment she heard 
 the street door below close after him with a bang, leaving 
 her alone Heaven help her? and at the mercy of the man 
 who had sworn to take such a cruel revenge upon her. 
 
 Almost fainting from sheer fright, Leonie was drawn 
 forcibly into the room and the key turned upon her. 
 
 " Sit down, my dear," Hart said, coolly, " and now 
 that you find yourself in my power, let us talk the matter 
 over amicably. The treatment you receive at my hands 
 rests entirely with yourself. " 
 
 " Open the door," cried Leonie, frantically, " or I shall 
 cry out for help;" and suiting the action to t the word, 
 Leonie uttered a succession of piercing screams, until at 
 last, weak and spent, she was forced to desist from sheer 
 exhaustion; but not one of those pitiful cries pierced the 
 muffled walls of her prison-house. 
 
 ; When you find out how useless it is to expect help to 
 reach you here you will sit down and listen to reason," said 
 Charlie Hart, seating himself in a cushioned arm-chair and 
 lighting a cigar as he spoke, and watching her through the 
 rings of smoke that circled around him. 
 
 In an agony of fear and increasing horror Leonie turned 
 and faced him. 
 
 4< What have I ever done, sir, that you should torture 
 me like this!" she cried, " I, a perfect stranger, whom 
 you never saw until this morning? I beseech you to open 
 the door and let me go back to my papa, my poor sick 
 papa, who is lying jo HI death JHU&u come to him at any 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 moment. If you have one spark of human pity in you! 
 breast you will listen to the prayer of an unprotected girl 
 and let me go free. Open the door, and I will forget your 
 cruelty. Please, sir, let me go at once/ she implored. 
 
 "What have you ever done?" repeated Charlie Hart, 
 rising from his chair and pacing hurriedly up and down 
 the length of the room. " Listen and I will tell you what 
 you have done, Leonie Locke. You have changed the 
 whole course of my life in a few short hours done what 
 no other girl on the face of the earth could have done 
 made me love you," he cried, with passionate earnestness. 
 
 So great was Leonie s astonishment, she quite forgot her 
 fright and her great anxiety to get home. She could not 
 even answer him through sheer surprise that held her 
 epell-bound. 
 
 As no answer came from the girl s white lip c , he went 
 on, triumphantly: 
 
 " I knew I could never win you by fair means, and I 
 nave resorted to a clever little stratagem to make you 
 mine all mine. All is fair in love and war, remember. " 
 
 He saw the look of horror in the biown eyes raised to 
 ois, and the deepening pallor of the beautiful young face, 
 and he added, hastily: 
 
 " Do not misunderstand me, my pretty Leonie. I mean 
 well by you. I intend to make you what 1 never thought 
 I should care to make any woman my wife!" 
 
 Leonie s intense anger quite overcame her fear. 
 
 " Your wife!" she cried, with flashing eyes and scornful 
 lips. "I am only a poor unprotected working-girl, but 
 let me tell you this, sir: I would rather die : yes, die 
 than become your wife. If that was your design in bring 
 ing me here, you have utterly failed, for I shall never 
 marry you never! 1 despise you; words fail to express 
 how much." 
 
 A low, taunting laugh answered this outburst of indig 
 nant feeling. 
 
LOOKS. 21 
 
 " Your obstinacy and aversion make yon all the more 
 charming and desirable in my eyes," he answered, coolly; 
 " but let me tell you, my defiant little beauty, there are 
 more ways than one of bringing you to terms. Why, if 
 any one knew of your presence here your reputation would 
 be blasted forever. " 
 
 "Oh! no, no, no/ gasped Leonie. " I would tell how 
 I was duped by .your false note, and forcibly brought here; 
 and the whole world would rise up against you for tortur 
 ing me like this. " 
 
 " No one would believe your clever little story, my fair 
 Leonie. The world shows women little mercy when scan- 
 dal s breath attacks them. Who would believe that yon 
 did not come to me to-night of your own free will, if I 
 chose to give it out so? A man can always find plenty of 
 friends to substantiate such statements, where the young 
 girl is obliged to battle with the world for her living and 
 has no protector to vindicate hex." 
 
 "God can take care of unprotected working - girls/* 
 cried Leonie, " and I defy you! I would die before I 
 would marry you." 
 
 " Then let me tell you the consequence," he replied, 
 striding toward her with a flushed and angry face; but the 
 rest of the sentence was cut short by an imperative rap at 
 the door at that opportune moment. 
 
 Something like a muttered imprecation burst from Char 
 lie Hart s lips as he hesitated an instant, then turned on 
 hie heel and flung open the door, taking good care, how 
 ever, that Leonie should not take advantage of it to make 
 her escape. 
 
 " Is it you ?" exclaimed Charlie Hart, excitedly, as hia 
 eyes fell upon his unexpected visitor a tall, heavy-sef 
 man, whose face was scarcely visible he was muffled so 
 closely. There was a moment of low, whispered consulta 
 tion which Leonie cpuld^cawaelv,itt3hK then Charlie Hari 
 
22 LEWIE LOCKS. 
 
 hastily took the key from the look and placed it upon faa 
 outside. 
 
 " Make DO attempt to escape," he cried. " Remember, 
 I warn you. If you do, it will be at your peril." 
 
 The next moment the door had closed with a bang and 
 f he key was turned hi the lock with a loud click. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALMOST fainting with terror, Leonie heard the sound of 
 his footsteps die away. Then a terrible stillness reigned 
 throughout the house in which she found herself an un 
 willing prisoner. 
 
 In vain she tore at the lock with her slim white fingers 
 useless, useless. Then she fell upon her knees, rocking 
 herself to and fro in an agony of fear. 
 
 Suddenly, like an inspiration, she lifted her eyes and her 
 gaze encountered the window at the further end of the 
 apartment; and in an instant she had reached it and flung 
 back the heavy curtain, and was pressing against the sash. 
 
 It yielded to her touch, and she quickly raised it; and 
 as she did so a heavy gust of wind and blinding snow- 
 flakes swept into the room, extinguishing the lamp on the 
 mantel -leaving Leonie in utter darkness. 
 
 " Oh, Father in heaven!" cried Leonie, tremulously, 
 " guide me and protect me. Shall I leap from this win* 
 dow into unknown dangers which may await me below, or 
 shall I remain here in this room until my enemy returns? 
 Oh, no, no, no! a thousand times no!" she cried; "bet 
 ter death than that!" 
 
 Leonie leaned far out of the window as she spoke,, 
 stretching her arms appealingly out into the terrible stonrj 
 and impenetrable darkness of the night 
 
 At that moment her hand struck against something 
 resting against th^^utfiide^wuU.^wMcb. seemed to be fast* 
 
LEONIE LOOKE. 23 
 
 f 
 
 ened quite securely, and in a moment Leonie realized that 
 it must be a fire-escape. 
 
 At that instant the sound of returning footsteps smote 
 upon her ear. In moments of great peril resolves are in* 
 stantly made and acted upon, and scarcely daring to think 
 of the great peril to which she might be committing her- 
 seif, Leonie climbed out upon the window-sill, and with 
 another sobbing, piteous appeal for protection, firmly 
 grasped the rounds of the ladder and began her perilous 
 descent. 
 
 Down, down, through the terrible storm, the intense 
 cold, and the darkness, Leonie made her way with wonder* 
 ful rapidity born of fear. She had not made her exit one 
 instant too soon, for a moment later Charlie Hart entei ed 
 the room. 
 
 She could hear his exclamation of intense surprise and 
 anger upon finding the room in total darkness, and the 
 draught from the open window hurling papers indiscrim 
 inately about the room. 
 
 Leonie gasped in terrible fear as she heard him call hex 
 name; a moment later a lantern appeared at the window, 
 and she saw him holding it out at arm s-length, attempt 
 ing to pierce the intense darkness below with its feeble 
 light. 
 
 Leonie knew that he could not see her, yet the situation 
 was a thrilling one. 
 
 Her little hands relaxed their hold, and with a stifled 
 3rv Leonie lost her balance, and was precipitated headlong 
 to the ground below; but owing to the deep drift of snow 
 Leonie was comparatively unhurt. 
 
 The sudden fall had stunned her for a moment only. 
 
 In an instant she had gained her feet, and was hurrying 
 rapidly toward the nearest lamp-post to determine, if pos 
 sible, in what locality she was, and to her surprise she 
 iound she was scarcely ten minutes walk from her home. 
 
 " Poor dear papaAska sighed*, as she crept up the stairs 
 
34 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 that lad to their lonely lodgings. " I wonder if he awakened 
 
 and missed me?" 
 
 She pushed open the door and entered noiselessly. 
 
 Allan Locke lay just as she had left him, still clutching 
 the pen in one hand, and his head resting heavily on the 
 other. 
 
 A chill foreboding of coming evil crept over Leonie a& 
 she gazed upon him, advancing slowly toward the bed. . 
 
 44 Papa, dear papa/ she called softly, yet with a thrill 
 of fear in her voice. 
 
 The dark eyes did not unclose, and the cold lips did not 
 smile upon her, or the hands give back one answeriDg 
 caress. 
 
 Leonie bent over him and gazed down into the white 
 face, over which a grayish pallor lay, and pressed her lips 
 to the cold brow. 
 
 Then a terrible wailing cry rang out on the night air: 
 
 " Oh, father, father! Heaven help me, he is dead!" 
 
 and Leonie fell to the floor in a death-like swoon. 
 
 * * * * * * * 
 
 For a week Leonie s hovered between life and death, and 
 when at last she returned to consciousness she found that 
 her father had already been laid at rest, and she had been 
 removed to the house of a kindly neighbor. 
 
 " 1 am all alone in the world now/ sobbed Leonie, lay 
 ing her curly head back upon the pillow. " Oh, papa, 
 why did you leave me here to battle alone with the pitiless 
 world? I wish that 1 had died too. " 
 
 Poor Leonie, so young, so utterly friendless, and so 
 beautiful, with a beauty which was destined to prove so 
 cruel a curse, it would have been better if she had died 
 then and there, than lived to face the fate that was so soon 
 to overtake her. 
 
 Mrs. Williams, the kind neighbor who had taken charge 
 of Leonie, was delighted when she was able to ait up in 
 the big arm-chair ]& th window*. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 2$ 
 
 "* Here is a letter that came for yon, my dear, the next 
 day after you were taken so ill," she said, placing an en 
 velope into her hand. " I hope it will bring you good 
 news." 
 
 A crimson flush crept over Leonie s pale cheek as she 
 saw at a glance the cut upon the envelope representing the 
 importing house of " Lincoln & Carlisle. " 
 
 " It is from Mr. Carlisle," she murmured, and the 
 beautiful pink tint in the girl s face deepened as she re 
 membered how nobly handsome Gordon Carlisle had res 
 cued her from Charlie Hart s insult, and how kind and 
 considerate he had been during that homeward ride. 
 
 " He has sent for me to come back now," thought 
 Leonie; " he said he would not need me for a week, and 
 it has just been one week to-day. How thankful I am 
 that I have a situation awaiting me this cold, dreary wintei 
 morning." 
 
 Leonie hastily tore open the envelope, little dreaming of 
 the disappointment in store for her. 
 
 There were only a few cold, curt lines, which read as 
 follows: 
 
 " Miss LEONIE LOCKE: 
 
 " DEAR MADAME, We have concluded not to use a cor 
 respondent in our office at present, therefore your services 
 will not be required. It is unnecessary for you to call at 
 the office in reference to the matter, as this is our final 
 decision. Yours very respectfully, 
 
 " LINCOLN & CARLISLE." 
 
 No cry issued from Leonie s white set lips, she only sat 
 and stared at the letter with the most miserable expression 
 in her beautiful eyes that ever expressed the cruel torture 
 of crushed hope and deathless despair. 
 
 Heaven help her! she had staked her all upon Gordon 
 Carlisle s friendship and pity, and she had lost 
 
 what s the matter. Leonie?" cried Mrs. Will- 
 
26 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 iams, as she entered the room a moment later with he* 
 daughter Emma. " I hope you haven t had bad news, 
 and you just getting over the worst spell of sickness that I 
 ever saw. 3y 
 
 " I have had the worst possible news, Mrs. Williams/ 
 sobbed Leonie, putting the letter in her hand. " I have 
 lost the situation I was telling you about yesterday, and 
 now I am left destitute, houseless, homeless, penniless!" 
 
 " I wonder what made them change their mind so sud 
 denly about taking you?" said Mrs. "Williams, suddenly. 
 
 " I don t know," replied Leonie, drearily; " he says he 
 won t need me." 
 
 "Pshaw!" exclaimed Mrs. "Williams, "don t yon be 
 lieve that; let me tell you there s something back of it; 
 when you get a short, curt note of dismissal like that, 
 there s some other reason, you can depend on it. Cheer 
 up, poor child, the Lord will find you another place." 
 
 " I ll try and get you into our shop, Leonie," said 
 Emma, stooping over her and smoothing back the disor 
 dered brown curls. " There s a rush of work just now, 
 and I shouldn t wonder if I could get you right in; and 
 when you do get in you stand a chance of working up in 
 the business, and the pay is splendid; just think of it 
 eight dollars a week." 
 
 " What kind of a shop is it, Emma I mean, what kind 
 of work is it you have to do?" asked Leonie, brightening 
 up considerably from her utter despair at a prospect of re- 
 lel 
 
 " It s a hat factory," replied Emma; " we sew in the 
 linings and bind the felt hats. The girls in our shop are a 
 jolly set, every one of em, and I know you d like it 
 there." 
 
 Leonie looked out of the window with a weary sigh. 
 
 " I ll go with you and try to get in, Emma," she said. 
 
 Both to the delight of Leonie and Emma, her services 
 *ere accepted, and^thejirst week rolled rapidly by, bring- 
 
LEOHTE LOCKE. 2 
 
 ing that day which is always looked forward to so eagerly 
 by every working-girl Saturday. 
 
 Six o clock came, and as the factory bell commenced 
 striking the boy came around with the little envelopes 
 which contained the week s wages. 
 
 " I never open mine until I get home, for fear I might 
 be tempted to spend some," said Emma, gayly, " but 
 you can open yours, Leonie, just for fun, to see how muci 
 they have given you for the first week; new hands don t 
 get much the first week, it takes em that long to learn. " 
 
 Leonie opened the envelope; it contained a five-dollar 
 bill and a folded paper upon which was printed with s 
 type- writer: 
 
 " Miss Leonie Locke is herewith discharged. We have 
 
 concluded to dispense with her services." 
 
 ******* 
 
 Meanwhile, at the very moment Leonie stood in tht 
 work-room of the hat factory reading her dismissal, Goi* 
 don Carlisle, in seal-bound overcoat and gloves, and a 
 jaunty sealskin cap pushed back on his fair curling hair, 
 emerged from his carriage and ran lightly up the steps of 
 the house in Henry Street where he had left Leonie on thq 
 evening he had taken her home, and after consulting a 
 card which he held in his hand to make sure that he was at 
 the right number, hastily touched the bell. 
 
 " Can I see Miss Leonie Lo*ke, please?" he asked 
 politely of the woman who answered the summons. 
 
 "No such person lives here," she answered, eying the 
 handsome, stylish young man before her suspiciously. 
 < We have just moved in, and that was not the name of 
 the family who moved out last week. Plenty of young 
 girls in the city are up to just that sort of a dodge, giving 
 numbers they have never lived at. You can read of serv* 
 ant-girls doing it in every paper you pick up. Excuse me> 
 but I rather think you re bean tricked, sir," added tk* 
 woman, closing the 
 
28 LEOXIE LOCKE. 
 
 Too astonished to make further comment, the 
 young merchant turned, ran lightly down the steps, and 
 re-entered his carriage. 
 
 " Heavens! can it be possible that a young girl with a 
 face as pure and innocent as hers could have willfully de 
 ceived me?" he thought, with grave, troubled eyes. 
 
 All that week he had been expecting her to put in an 
 appearance, and at last his anxiety reached that point that 
 he determined to see for himself what had detained her. 
 
 All that week, in the midst of his business, in crowded 
 parlors, and even in his dreams, a sweet girlish young face 
 framed in a mass of curling brown hair had been constant 
 ly before him the beautiful, pleading face of Leonid 
 Locke. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " LOOK, Emma," cried Leonie, in a low, gasping voice, 
 " I am discharged. Oh, what have 1 done, Emma, to de 
 serve this? I tried so hard to please them. An evil fate 
 seems to be following me. " 
 
 " Just you stay here a minute, Leonie/ cried Emma 
 Williams, indignantly, " and I ll go to the office myself 
 and see what they discharged you for. I can find out, if 
 any one can!" and away she went, leaving Leonie faint 
 and trembling, standing in the deserted work-room until 
 she returned. 
 
 When Emma came back, her face was flushed with 
 mortification, and there were tears in her honest blue eyes 
 which flashed so indignantly. 
 
 " What was it for, Emma?" cried Leonie, anxiously. 
 " Tell me how 1 displeased them." 
 
 But the girl turned away with something like a sob. 
 
 " I don t want to tell you what it was for, Leonie, un 
 less you actually insist upon it; for it will grieve me as 
 much to tell it as it oilLvoi* 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 3ft 
 
 "Never mind my feelings/ replied Leonie, drearily ? 
 " go on, Emma, tell me all. I am used to rebuffs and 
 hardships of late. It will not matter much. " 
 
 Emma Williams turned away and hid her face with 
 painful embarrassment, as she answered, slowly: 
 
 " Oh, Leonie, they say you are not quite respectable 
 enough to be among the other girls here; for above all 
 other things they must and will have respectable em 
 ployes in their establishment." 
 
 They had reached the pavement while they were talk 
 ing, and Leonie stopped short, her face as white as the 
 snow-drifts lying so coldly around her. 
 
 ** What do they say I have done, Emma?" she asked; 
 and her voice sounded scarcely human, there was such. 
 a pitiful wail of agony in it. " Never mind my feel 
 ings, Emma. I have suffered so much they are deadened 
 now. Tell me what it is they accuse me of doing. " 
 
 " They said they had positive and reliable proof that you 
 were seen at midnight where no respectable young girl 
 would have been on the night your father died. I indig 
 nantly denied such a base falsehood for you, Leonie; and 
 our proprietor told me, at last, that if you could prove, 
 beyond a doubt, that the story was untrue, he would take 
 you back but not unless you could do so. You can sure 
 ly prove it was false, can t yon, Leonie?" cried Emma, 
 earnestly. " I knew you could prove differently, and I 
 triumphantly told him so. " 
 
 A dead whiteness had slowly settled over Leonie s face, 
 and she would have fallen if Emma had not put out her 
 arm and caught her, whispering words of sympathy that 
 brought back new life to poor Leonie s breaking heart. 
 Still, she knew Emma was waiting in painful anxiety for 
 her answer. Heaven help her, what was she to say or do? 
 
 A troubled look had crept into Emma s eyes; and a)- 
 though she was perfectly loyal to Leonie in thought an<? 
 action, she could not help but admit to herself that 
 
30 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 Leonie s silence certainly looked suspicions. Any young 
 girl who was innocent would have contradicted such a 
 story at once, and would have been anxious to prove her 
 words and clear all shadow from her fair name. 
 
 Leonie had been stopping with Mrs. Williams since 
 ;hat fatal night. Soon after they reached home, Leonie 
 could hear Emma relating the whole story to her mother 
 in a low whisper in an adjoining room, and when moth 
 er and daughter called hex in to supper a few moments 
 later, she saw at a glance their feelings had changed to 
 ward her, and, as she expected, Mrs. Williams soon 
 broached the dreaded subject. Hiding her face in her 
 hands, Leonie, through her sobs, told them the whole piti 
 ful story. 
 
 But the story had little weight with the worldly Mrs. 
 Williams. Alas, in moments of trouble women are always 
 the first to turn against their sister women; men, thank 
 God, are humane and pitying. 
 
 The very fact that Leonie admitted having been in Char 
 lie Hart s apartments, at the time specified, convicted poor 
 Leonie in the eyes of Mrs. Williams. She did not believe 
 the story of the note which had been used as a decoy, antf 
 the still stranger story Leonie had told of her thrilling <f 
 cape. 
 
 " She can not prove her innocence and she is getting out 
 of it the best way she can/ muttered Mrs. Williams un 
 her breath. 
 
 " I am sorry for you/ said Mrs. Williams, coldly, " you 
 are so young, and you look so beautiful and innocent. 
 Beauty is a curse sometimes. 1 thank God my Emma is 
 plain; she don t attract the attention of men as pretty 
 faces do. And I had rather know she is an honest, re 
 spectable, God-fearing working-girl, than to know she was 
 a queen on her throne if dishonor gained it for her. I am 
 sorry to turn you away from the house, Miss Locke, but, 
 ot course, if yoc. could go to another place as soon as possi- 
 
LOCKE. 31 
 
 foi e 1 should like it. 1 am very caref nl what kind of people 
 I allow my Emma to associate with; I " 
 
 " You have said enough, Mrs. Williams/ cried Leonie, 
 rising from the tea-table, her untasted supper still lying 
 on her plate. " 1 shall go at once anywhere anywhere 
 away from here. I could not eat a mouthful of your 
 food; it would choke me. You have done cruel injustice 
 to an innocent girl. Appearances are against me, I know, 
 but God knows I am as innocent of ever having committed 
 ft wrong as your own daughter. I believed you were my 
 friends, but I find when trouble besets an unprotected girl, 
 those who should have been her friends in her darkest hour 
 of sorrow are often the first to turn coldly from her. 
 Good-bye, Mrs. Williams; good-bye, Emma; I am going 
 now;" and as neither mother nor daughter sought to stay 
 her steps that cold bitter night, Leonie took down her hat 
 and sacque, put them on, and with weary feet and a still 
 wearier heart poor Leonie, the child of misfortune, made 
 her way out into the street. 
 
 Poor, tender-hearted Emma was quietly crying for the 
 wretched girl; but she dared not disobey her mother s 
 orders " not to interfere, as she must be gotten rid of at 
 once. " 
 
 " I know she is a good, innocent girl," sobbed Emma, 
 * and I believe her, too/ 
 
 " Hush!" replied Mrs. Williams, turning suddenly 
 around upon her daughter. " What do you know of the 
 ways of the world? It s always these innocent-appearing 
 ones that are the worst. Don t talk to me of the inno 
 cence of a girl who leaves her old father alone at midnight 
 and is seen where no respectable girl would have been in 
 a bachelor s apartments." 
 
 Emma sighed and turned away. Leonie Locke had 
 seemed to her as pure and good as she was beautiful, and 
 the tender-hearted pW iniild h&*e .been willing to have 
 
52 LBOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 given her the benefit of the doubt if her mother had not so 
 persistently settled the subject. 
 
 "Oh, Hearen help me! Where shall I go now?" 
 thought Leonie, desperately, gazing up and down the cold, 
 drear, lamplit street. 
 
 She had not one friend in the great, cold, cruel world to 
 turn to for sympathy. 
 
 Should she wander up and down the cold street until 
 daylight? she asked herself. If she did, would she lire 
 through the long, bitter cold night? Perhaps they would 
 find her, on the monow, lying stiff and cold in the snow, 
 as they had found the body of poor Gretchen that cold 
 Christmas morning. Then, perhaps, those who had show 
 ered such pitiless suspicion on her innocent head would 
 know that they had driven her to it driven a young soul, 
 by their cruel persecutions, through the gates of death! 
 
 Suddenly, in the midst of all her sorrow, the face of 
 Gordon Carlisle rose up before her with its grave, earnest 
 smile, so gentle and so kind, and a strange resolve oc 
 curred to her to go to him to-night and plead with him to 
 take her back again in his employ. 
 
 She remembered Emma had pointed out a magnificent 
 residence on the Heights, telling her that was the home of 
 young Mr. Carlisle who had so cruelly turned her adrift; 
 and in that direction Leonie turned steps. 
 
 Perhaps it will be as well to explain now what the 
 reader has already surmised. The cruel, curt note of dis 
 missal which Leonie had received from the fur establish 
 ment of Lincoln & Carlisle had been the cunning work of 
 Charlie Hart, the enraged, discharged foreman, who readily 
 imagined his handsome young employer would, through 
 pity, re-engage the young girl whom he had interest 
 enough in to protect. 
 
 Like a dark, evil shadow, Charlie Hart had dogged 
 Leonie *s footsteps, vowing to himself he would have full 
 revenge upon her for escaDing. from hi so cleverly. 
 
LEONTE LOCKE. 33 
 
 Me would drive her from place to place, securing her 
 dismissal by eorne pretext, until, heart-broken and utterly 
 discouraged with her valiant attempt to earn her own liv 
 ing, she would turn to him at last, too weary to struggle 
 against the coils of the fatal web he had woven around her. 
 
 Weary, faint, and numb with cold, Leonie at last 
 reached the house, timidly ascended the marble steps and 
 rang the bell, which was answered by a liveried servant, 
 who smiled rather broadly as Leonie made known her 
 errand. 
 
 " Lord bless you, miss, Master Carlisle wouldn t see you 
 if you came here with your coach-and-four to-night! I ve 
 my orders never to disturb him after business hours. You 
 can see him at his office, over in New York, on Monday. 
 
 4 Tell him I must see him/ cried Leonie, desperately 
 " I am sure he will see me, if for only a moment, if you 
 go and tell him it is Leonie Locke who wishes to see him." 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ** TELL Mr. Carlisle I must see him," repeated Leonie, 
 faintly, * I will detain him but a moment, my case is very 
 imperative." 
 
 At that moment a handsome young girl in shimmering 
 Bilk, with an opera-cloak lying over her white, rounded 
 arm came tripping lightly down the corridor. 
 
 John/ she called, imperatively, giving her golden 
 oead such a toss, that the diamonds in her ears twinkled 
 like stars, "go at once and tell Gordon that I am ready 
 now; we must make haste or the first act of the opera will 
 be over before we get there." 
 
 Quite heedless of what she did in her intense excitement, 
 Leonie pushed past the servant toward where the young 
 girl stood. 
 
 " She is young like I am/ thought Leonie; " she wffl 
 have pity on me apdJet.me seeJxim/ 
 
84 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Leonie, with a brave attempt 
 to stifle the sob that seemed to almost choke her utterance. 
 * fc 1 wanted to see Mr. Carlisle so badly I could not take a 
 refusal; you at least will pity me and obtain for me an in 
 terview with him. " 
 
 Dora Lancaster s keen gray eyes expanded coldly h) 
 wU-bred surprise. 
 
 ** I must refer you to the servant at the door," she re 
 plied, icily, drawing her silken robe from contact with the 
 blue merino dress with her white jeweled fingers. " John 
 is no doubt acting in accordance with his master s wishes 
 in refusing to grant you an interview with him. I am sur 
 prised that you should have taken the liberty of insisting 
 upon it; 1 am more than surprised, I am amazed. Kindly 
 allow me to pass, if you please. " 
 
 Dora Lancaster was naturally kind of heart, and if 
 Leonie had been old and plain, coming to her with such a 
 piteous appeal, the chances are that she would have inter 
 ceded in her behalf at once; but the girl before her was 
 young, with a face as beautiful as a poet s dream. She was 
 pleading for an interview with Gordon Carlisle, the man 
 this haughty beauty loved with such a mad, passionate, 
 jealous love, and she instantly decided Gordon should not 
 see her if she could prevent it. 
 
 With a look of unutterable misery on her face Leonie 
 turned away, but in a moment Dora Lancaster was beside 
 her again with luridly flashiDg eyes. 
 
 44 Why do you wish to see Gordon Carlisle so particular 
 ly?" she asked, eagerly. " What is he to you that yon 
 dare take the liberty of insisting upon seeing him? Answer 
 me at once 1 will know who you are and what you want 
 of him." 
 
 " I am Leonie Locke," replied the poor girl, with a 
 weary sigh; " but as to why I am here it would be useless 
 to explain to you^yoU- wto have so little pity. Ma? 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. & 
 
 Heaven be more merciful to you in your hour of need than 
 yon have been to me." 
 
 "You impudent creature!" cried Dora, stamping hey 
 foot, white to the lips with anger; " how dare you come 
 into my guardian s house and insult me. If Gordon or his 
 father knew it they would throw you out into the street. 
 Put that girl out at once, John," she screamed; " and if 
 you ever allow an insulting beggar like that to get as much 
 as a foothold in the house again, it will be as much as your 
 place is worth!" 
 
 " He need not put me out," responded Leonie, with 
 calm dignity. " 1 will go myself and I shall never darken 
 your door again;" and drawing her cloak still closer aboufc 
 her shivering form, Leonie turned from the warmth, the 
 elegance, and brightness of that home out into the drea/ 
 cold of the frozen night again. 
 
 But fate did not intend that Leonie should leave thai? 
 home so soon. Numb with the cold and her eyes blinded 
 by tears, Leonie missed her footing and went whirling 
 down the marble steps, striking the pavement with a dull 
 thud just as a haughty, stern-faced elderly gentleman was 
 preparing to ascend them. 
 
 John, who still stood with the door open, as he saw his 
 master, John Carlisle, coming up the steps, immediately 
 rushed to Leonie s rescue. 
 
 " "Who is that girl, and what did she want here?" asked 
 Mr. Carlisle, frowning deeply. 
 
 " I don t know, sir," replied the man; "she said she 
 wanted to see your son Gordon; but, of course, I didn t 
 call him, because I saw by her clothes she must be only a 
 working-girl, and 1 thought she could wait and see him afc 
 the office on Monday. Besides, Miss Dora was in <* hurry 
 for Master Gordon to go to the opera with her. " 
 
 " Take her down to the servants hall," commanded 
 Mr. Carlisle, " and let me know when she returns to con- 
 Bciousnea&" 
 
86 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 And with these words the crusty old millionaire walked 
 up the marble steps and into the house, closing the oatei 
 door of the vestibule with a bang. 
 
 " What a terrible thing to be annoyed by these working- 
 people after business hours, and at one s own house, too,"" 
 he muttered, angrily, drawing off his fur gloves and over 
 coat and sinking down into the depths of a soft cushioned 
 chair before the grate. 
 
 "What could she have wanted of Gordon?" he mused, 
 st Surely," he cried, striking his hand heavily on the arm 
 of his chair, " the boy hasn t been getting into any in 
 trigues with the girls in his employ." 
 
 Then another thought still more startling seemed to 
 occur to him as he remembered the rare beauty of the 
 white young face, framed in the soft, brown curls as the 
 servant had borne Leonie away. 
 
 * Surely the boy kas not been hot-headed enough to fall 
 in love with the girl s pretty face, and been rash enough to 
 propose marriage to her," he cried, starting up from hia 
 chair and pacing the luxurious room hurriedly to and fro. 
 "No, no," he muttered, beneath his breath, "Gordon 
 must marry Dora Lancaster whether he will or nofc, and be 
 secure in the possession of a fortune. Secure!" he re* 
 peated, dwelling long and earnestly upon the word. 
 " Heavens, what a blessed feeling ifc is to feel secure. For 
 fifteen years I have stood on the edge of a precipice, defy 
 ing fate itself, and I have dared and accomplished what no 
 living man has ever accomplished before. Ah! if Gordon 
 only knew all he is so hot-headed and with such a foolish 
 sense of honor, there is no telling what steps he might 
 take. He shall never know, 1 will carry the secret with 
 me down to the grave. Yet, in case anything should hap 
 pen in after years, it would be well if Gordon still had a 
 socure fortune in his possession. And for that reason he 
 shall marry Dora Lancaster, no matter what the cost 
 be in bringing it about." 
 
LEONTE LOCKE. 8? 
 
 At that moment John stack his head in at the door-way. 
 
 * I knocked, but 1 guess you didn t hear me, sir. The 
 gik l s come to; but there s a pretty bad cut on her head, 
 sir, and her ankle s either broken or sprained. The house 
 keeper thinks she s too bad to be moved. If she were taken 
 out into the cold, she thinks the girl might die." 
 
 " Where is she down-stairs? Well, lead the way. 1 
 wiJl go down and see who she is and what she wants. The 
 hospital is the place for such people; but, of course, if she 
 can not be moved, I suppose I shall have to submit to the 
 annoyance. Say nothing to my wife or son about this 
 affair." 
 
 Leonie was lying back among the snowy ruffled pillows 
 ti the housekeeper s room, pale as a snow-flake, yet won- 
 drously fair and delicate in the softened shaded light of 
 the night-lamp, and John Carlisle could not help but no 
 tice how pretty she was as he advanced toward the bed. A 
 little bundle, which Leonie had carried in her hand, lay on 
 fcho bed beside her. At the sound of approaching foot 
 steps, Leonie s beautiful brown eyes flashed wide open, 
 and at that instant John Carlisle reached the bedside and 
 mot their inquiring gaze. 
 
 The effect upon the old millionaire was electrical. His 
 faoe turned an ashen, livid hue, his knees shook under 
 him, and he fairly gasped for breath, and his burning 
 eyes seemed fairly devouring with concentrated and intense 
 fury the beautiful young face turned so innocently and 
 wonderingly toward him. 
 
 But with a great effort he recovered something like his 
 old self-possession. 
 
 * Who are you?" he cried, hoarsely, steadying his 
 shaking hand against the back of a chair. " Shut your 
 eyes don t look up at me with them and tell me what 
 brings you here across my threshold. What did you want 
 of my son?" 
 
 " I am Leonie Locke*" cried the girl, shrinking closer 
 
48 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 down among the pillows, terrified to faintness at tbs 
 gathering fury she read on the stern, angered face bending 
 over her. 
 
 * I knew it I knew it! Allan Locke s daughter!" he 
 shrieked, quite forgetful of his haughty pride. " And you 
 have dared to cross my threshold. If I could turn you 
 out into the streets this very moment, I would do it! But 
 there is one thing I warn you against/ he hissed, menac 
 ingly, leaning nearer toward the frightened, fainting girl. 
 " 1 warn you to make no attempt to see my son Gordon! 
 If you do" 
 
 Alas! it was too late for warnings, Gordon Carlisle was 
 already on the threshold. 
 
 CHAPTER VU. 
 
 As Leonie had stepped out into the darkness, Dora 
 Lancaster had turned quickly and gone directly toward 
 the library where she knew she would find Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Yes, he was there, sitting by the table, his handsome 
 nead resting idly on his slim, white hand, upon which a 
 handsome solitaire diamond gleamed like a coal of fire, 
 restlessly turning over the leaves of a book; yet for all 
 that Dora could see he was not reading one line of it. 
 
 She stole up softly betide him, and peeped over his 
 shoulder at the open page. 
 
 It was a poem. She could read but a portion of it: 
 
 " We met only once, little darling 
 Only once in the crowd, you and I." 
 
 Gordon s white hand was lying idly over it, and beneath it 
 dhe read the closing: lines: 
 
 " I ve searched for you since, like a bird for its mate 
 Oh, where hast thou flown to, my beautiful fate?" 
 
 Gordon Carlisle did not dream of Dora s presence, and he 
 murmured half aloud:. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 39 
 
 " If that poem were a new one, I would think it had 
 been written for my especial benefit, for it fits my case ex 
 actly;" and he repeated the lines in his deep, rich, musical 
 voice: 
 
 " * I ve searched for you since, like a bird for its mate 
 Oh, where hast thou flown to, my beautiful fate? " 
 
 He sighed and murmured a name that made Dora start 
 back with a little angry cry that she had tried in Yam to 
 suppress. It was the name " Leonie!" 
 
 " Did I interrupt some pretty day-dream, Gordon?" she 
 asked, biting her red lips in a cruel sort of way. " What 
 were you reading that made you so solemn and morose!" 
 
 Gordon Carlisle flushed a little and closed the book 
 abruptly, as he answered, dreamily: 
 
 " It was only a poem; but it seemed to hit my case 
 exactly." 
 
 * 6 Was it a poem of some hero who was very hard 
 hearted?" asked Dora, softly, laying her white hand very 
 near his on the table. 
 
 4< Am I to infer from that remark you think me hard 
 hearted, Dora?" he asked, taking the little white hand in 
 his own, just as a brother would have done. " That is 
 really quite unkind of you. What have I ever done to de- 
 eerve such an opinion?" 
 
 * It is what you have iwt done," Dora mutters, under 
 her breath. But she changes the thought as it leaves her 
 lips, and she says, with an arch glance of coquetry, as she 
 tosses back her crimped golden curls: 
 
 " I have set you down as more than hard-hearted and 
 very forgetful, too. You do not seem to remember you 
 invited me to attend the opera this evening, and 1 have to 
 come and remind you of it or stay at home." 
 
 In a moment Gordon was on his feet. 
 
 " It was clearly an oversight, Dora; you must pardon 
 me this time, And I promise .vou I shall never be so remiss 
 
4L LEOXIE LOCK*. 
 
 again. 1 was lost in my own thoughts, and I quite forgot 
 the flight of time/ 
 
 " Then yon were not thinking of me," said Dora, blush 
 ing redly, as she glanced at him from beneath her long 
 lashes as he rose and commenced putting on his overcoat 
 
 " Could it have been that girl he was thinking of? Her 
 name was Leonie, too," thought Dora, with a twinge of 
 keen jealousy. " I may as well find out at once. Gor 
 don/ she said, turning around toward him suddenly and 
 looking him searchingly in the face, " do you know a 
 young girl named Miss Locke Leonie Locke?" 
 
 In an instant all the listless indolence had vanished from 
 Gordon Carlisle s handsome face. 
 
 " What do you know of Miss Locke, Dora?" he asked, 
 flushing eagerly. " Why, I was just thinking of her as 
 you entered the room. " 
 
 " Who is she, Gordon? Some millionaire or senator s 
 daughter, isn t she?" asked Dora, with a keen touch of 
 spitefulness. 
 
 " Miss Locke has no fortune that I know of," responded 
 Gordon, gravely; "she is dependent upon her own exer 
 tions for a livelihood. You certainly know her, Dora. 
 How did you happen to have such a happy thought as to 
 mention her to me to-night?" 
 
 Dora Lancaster sprung from her chair with a shrill little 
 laugh. 
 
 " Do you mean to insult me, Gordon Carlisle!" she de 
 manded, fairly quivering with rage; " to insinuate that I 
 choose my acquaintances from among working-girls? I, 
 the last of one of the wealthiest and noblest families that 
 ever graced New York society! I shall never forgive you 
 for thinking so little of me as that! Never, while 1 live!" 
 she went on, recklessly, her bitter jealousy of Leonie in 
 creasing with every breathless word. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle gazed at the indignant, wrathful beauty 
 in grieved amazement too deeo for words, and in that one 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 41 
 
 moment all the brotherly liking he had ever entertained for 
 Dora Lancaster died out of his noble, chivalrous heart. 
 
 " Stop, Dora/ he said, with stern reproof in his voice. 
 " God forbid that you should consider as a disgrace the ac^ 
 quaiutance of so pure and noble a young girl as Leonie 
 Locke, because she is what you term a working-girl." 
 
 "That s right! champion the cause of the working 
 girls/ 7 sneered Dora, tapping her foot nervously on the 
 relvet carpet. 
 
 " I will, just as long as 1 live, Miss Lancaster," replied 
 Gordon, with cutting severity that struck straight home to 
 Dora s heart; for he had never before called her Miss Lan 
 caster, and she felt it keenly. " My sympathies always 
 have been, and ever will be, with those noble young girls 
 who earn their bread by their own honest labor/ replied 
 Gordon, gravely; "and every true gentleman will voice 
 my sentiments. My respect and admiration for those 
 young ladies is profound, and a king on his throne might 
 be proud to win a noble working-girl for a wife. And, 
 whenever I hear any one speak illy of a working-girl, I lose 
 my respect for that person, for I know that they are shal- 
 low of heart and silly of head. 1 am sorry you have ex 
 pressed yourself as you have to-night, Miss Lancaster. 
 You have changed my estimate of your tenderness of heart 
 entirely." 
 
 " Instead of the opera, 1 have been treated to a lecture 
 at home/ replied Dora, spiritedly; " but I don t choose to 
 take up with your advanced ideas. And now that you 
 have finished, I will inform you how I met Leonie Locke, 
 the working-girl." 
 
 Gordon Carlisle s handsome face darkened and he took a 
 step forward, but Dora did not pretend to notice his rising 
 indignation, and she went on: 
 
 "As 1 was going through the corridor half an hour ago, 
 1 saw John at the door refusing some one admittance, and 
 at that moment the designing creator^ saw me, and witb 
 
42 LEOHIE LOCKE. 
 
 the coolest and most ill-bred familiarity imaginable actual 
 ly pushed rudely past John and dared to address me me ! 
 It appears she would not take a refusal and had the au 
 dacity to ask me to bring her to you; but, of course, I re 
 fused indignantly to do it, and ordered John to show her 
 the door." 
 
 Something like an inkling of the truth was flashing 
 through Gordon Carlisle s brain, and he asked, hesitating 
 ly, and with strong emotion: 
 
 " And that young girl was ?" 
 
 " She said her name was Leonie Locke," said Dora, v/ith 
 a little wicked tantalizing laugh that made the blood leap 
 to Gordon Carlisle s face in a rush of vivid color as he re 
 plied, angrily: 
 
 " Then you have taken an unwarrantable liberty with 
 my affairs, Miss Lancaster. May Heaven forgive you for 
 turning that young girl away from my door on such a 
 bitter night as this;" and as he speaks the blood recedes 
 from his refined, aristocratic face, leaving it deathly pale. 
 
 "It is not your door, Gordon; it is your father s," re 
 turns Dora, saucily, cresting her golden head and looking 
 at him in a way that has never failed before to bring him to 
 her side. 
 
 But it fails now; Gordon Carlisle is bitterly angry. He 
 rises from his seat like a flash and has donned overcoat, 
 hat, and gloves. 
 
 He has forgotten the opera and the beautiful, scornful 
 girl sitting before him. His heart is full of a mad pain. 
 Leonie Locke, the young girl whom he has been searching 
 the whole city for for more than a week, has just been 
 turned away from his very door, and he knew nothing of it. 
 
 A desperate thought occurs to him to go out upon the 
 street, where perhaps he may overtake her, and tell her he 
 had no hand in tk* cruel treatment she had received. 
 
 And Gordon Carlisle, usually so quiet and gentlemanly, 
 quits the library with something very like an imprecation 
 
LEOfcTE LOCKE. 41 
 
 on his lips, never deigning one backward glance at Dora, 
 who still sat there equipped for the opera. 
 
 He little dreamed that Leonie at that moment was lying 
 beneath that very roof. 
 
 Dora laughs a little, cruel laugh as she goea slowly up to 
 her room and flings off her wraps. 
 
 " 1, a beauty and an heiress, insulted and slighted for 
 the sake of Leonie Locke, a working-girl," she cries, 
 clinching her small, jeweled hands. " Woe betide this girl 
 if she ever crosses my path. I will be revenged upon Gor 
 don for this a terrible revenge if I live a life-time to ac 
 complish it. " 
 
 CHAPTEE VIIL 
 
 As John Carlisle uttered those threatening words, " You 
 must not meet my son," he strode angrily from the room 
 by one door while Gordon himself entered by another. 
 
 When Gordon Carlisle had left Dora he had encountered 
 John in the corridor, and called him to account in severe 
 terms for not bringing Leonie s message directly to him in 
 stead of obeying Dora s orders to turn her from the house. 
 
 " The poor girl didn t go far, Master Gordon," replied 
 John; " she fell down the steps and hurt herself powerful 
 bad, and 1 picked her up and took her to the house 
 keeper s room until " 
 
 Gordon did not wait to hear the rest of the sentence, but 
 turned like a flash in the direction of the housekeeper s 
 room. 
 
 His heart gave a strange, tumultuous throb as he hurried 
 breathlessly toward the couch upon which Leonie lay, and 
 looked down upon the lovely childish face and the timid 
 brown eyes that were raised to his with such a frightened 
 expression in their velvetv depths, as afae whispered, faintly 
 
 11 Mr. Carlisle, I 1^- 
 
44 LEONIS LOCKS. 
 
 A twinge of pain convulsed the pretty face, and the 
 sentence was lost in a little sobbing cry. 
 
 "You must not attempt to talk now, child," inter 
 rupted Gordon, drawing up a cushioned chair close by thu 
 bedside, and putting one firm white hand over her trem 
 bling lips. " You can tell me what you wanted to see me 
 for when you are well and strong enough. You have fallen 
 into excellent hands, Leonie," he went on, eagerly, " and 
 tt will be my greatest pleasure to see that you have every 
 care and attention. " 
 
 The eloquent brown eyes thanked him better than any 
 words could have done, and at that moment the doctor ar 
 rived, and as there was not the faintest shadow of an excuse 
 to linger near Leonie one moment longer, Gordon reluc 
 tantly took his leave. 
 
 " I shall call in to see how she is in an hour from now, 
 Mrs. Stuart/ he said to the housekeeper; " and I hope in 
 the meantime you will see that she has every possible com 
 fort and attention." 
 
 " Certainly, sir/ said Mrs. Stuart, nodding; " I will 
 take the best of care of her, you may depend on it." 
 
 She looked after him with a quizzical expression in her 
 gray eyes. 
 
 " How interested handsome Master Gordon is in this 
 pretty young thing/ she muttered, reflectively, smoothing- 
 out the stocking she was knitting over her knee. " "Well, 
 young people will be young people, and if they see a face 
 that attracts em they are head over heels in love at first 
 sight." 
 
 Her meditations were suddenly cut short by the entrance 
 of Dora Lancaster Mrs. Stuart knew it was Dora by the 
 strong wave of " crushed violets " that heralded her com 
 ing and if there was one person on earth Mrs. Stuart de 
 spised more than another it was Dora Lancaster, so she did 
 not look up from ber knitting:, and Dora flounced into the 
 room and nr t.o the bed. wilii rhct liHle eneeripcr Jan?h of 
 
LEONIE 
 
 here that always made the housekeeper shiver. She had 
 just heard of the accident, and curiosity and jealousy had 
 worked her up to a pitch of keen excitement as she 
 thought of Leonie being under the same roof with her~ 
 this Leonie of whom Gordon had spoken so warmly. 
 
 " You will have your hands full for the next week or so, 
 I fancy," she said, scrutinizing closely the pale face 
 among the pillows; " if she has no home she will be glad 
 enough to stay here as long as she possibly can." 
 
 She says the last words for Leonie s particular benefit, 
 for she knows by the trembling of the eyelashes on the 
 pale cheek that she is not asleep. 
 
 And with those words for Leonie to reflect upon at her 
 leisure, Dora turns and quits the room, asking herself over 
 and over again how it would end. Gordon pitied the beau* 
 tiful girl who had been thrown so strangely into their 
 household, and the words " pity is akin to love ** rang in 
 her ears like a voice of warning. " They must be sepa* 
 rated before he sees much of her," she thought; " but 
 how can it be done, unless she is removed from this house 
 at once, and that seems to be impossible. " 
 
 Fate decided the momentous question for her. 
 
 On the morrow numerous letters were received from 
 friends out of the city for the family to spend Christmas 
 with them. 
 
 " We shall go," decided Mr. Carlisle, briefly, much to 
 Dora s delight and Gordon s intense annoyance. Mrs. 
 Carlisle usually decided as her husband did, and accepted 
 the fact as settled. 
 
 " We may as well stay until after New-year s," said 
 Mr. Carlisle, grimly adding to himself, " this girl shall be 
 got out of the house in the interim, and then I shall be able 
 to breathe freer." 
 
 Among the many invitations, Mr. Carlisle decided thai 
 he would accept that of the Fords, of Philadelphia. 
 
 4 * You will go with us. Gordo** of Bourse," he aaid, ad 
 
46 LBOKIE LOCKS. 
 
 dressing his son, and keenly watching the expression of hit 
 face over the rim of his gold eyeglasses. 
 
 * No/ replied Gordon, quietly, " you must excuse xne, 
 father; I would have preferred spending Christmas at 
 home, but as the case stands I think 1 shall accept an invi 
 tation from one of my college chums to go up to Albany 
 with him/ 
 
 " Well, suit yourself, by all means," returned Mr. 
 Carlisle. 
 
 In vain Dora coaxed and pleaded, and Mrs. Carlisle en* 
 treated Gordon to go with them to Philadelphia; he wa 
 inexorable. 
 
 " There will be one great satisfaction, and that is to know 
 he is not at home, where this girl is/ thought Dora, 
 triumphantly. And it was a great relief to her when sh^ 
 saw Gordon take his departure; and that same afternoon 
 Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle and Dora were whirling rapidly to 
 ward Philadelphia. 
 
 Alas! how useless it is to attempt to sever hearts that 
 fate has determined shall be attracted toward each other. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle had scarcely reached the depot when he 
 changed his mind completely, and obeying the impulses of 
 his heart, came directly home again. Mrs. Stuart s aston 
 ishment knew no bounds when she saw him coming up the 
 sidewalk. 
 
 " You seem surprised to see me back again so soon, Mrs. 
 Stuart/ he said, with a gay laugh; " but the fact is I con 
 eluded I could pass a much more enjoyable Christmas with 
 you and your charge. It is well enough for those who 
 have no home to spend Christmas with their friends/ he 
 added, smilingly. 
 
 And that one incident, dear reader, was the beginning of 
 the most pitiful story that ever was portrayed. 
 
 If Gordon Carlisle had not changed his mind so .suddenly 
 and returned home, this story of the romance of beautiful 
 Leonie Locke woujd^never h&lfc been iven to the world. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 47 
 
 *. That was a Christmas dinner that was destined never te 
 be forgotten, with only those three to enjoy it, Gordon, 
 Mrs. Stuart, and Leonie. 
 
 Leonie s injuries were by no means as serious as was at 
 first supposed; the soft, clinging, babyish-brown curls con 
 cealed the little bruise on her forehead which her fall had 
 given her, and her ankle, which had only been dislocated, 
 was doing nicely. 
 
 " She must have rest for a couple of weeks, then she will 
 be all right," the doctor had said. 
 
 The Christmas dinner was served in Mrs. Stuart s sitting* 
 room, and this arrangement just suited Gordon. He was 
 used to seeing young girls dressed in the height of fashion, 
 smiling coquettishly at him from over their fruits and ices, 
 but this pretty, shy Leonie, in her plain blue merino dress, 
 so timid and so sweet, charmed him as no young girl had 
 ever charmed Gordon Carlisle before. 
 
 Mrs. Stuart and Gordon did all the talking, and when 
 Leonie shyly raised her dark eyes, bright as stars, timidly 
 to Gordon s face and found him looking at her, they 
 would instantly veil themselves beneath the long lashes in 
 a way that was sweetly bewitching, and the blushes that 
 would dye the fair young face in her embarrassment and 
 confusion charmed Gordon more than ever. 
 
 The days that followed flew by on golden wings, and 
 each day found Gordon by Leonie s side. 
 
 The housekeeper, good old soul, never dreamed of the 
 danger; and Leonie, poor innocent child, was too guileless 
 to check the great delight that shone in her face when 
 Gordon was present. In those few days that fate had 
 thrown them together, Leonie had learned the sweet be 
 wildering lesson of love the sweetest, and yet, dear 
 Heaven, the cruelest lesson some hearts ever learn! 
 
 It was all very natural, still it was all very wrong that all 
 hr girlish thoughts should cluster around him as they did 
 
 Gordon Carlislej^s thexml^iriend she had in the whole 
 
48 LEONIE LOCKS. 
 
 wide world, save poor old Mrs. Stuart the housekeeper, 
 and no wonder she clung to him with all the trustfulness 
 tf an innocent child. His fair Saxon face and the light 
 clustering hair that crowned his noble head, the tall, 
 broad-shouldered, manly figure, were types of stalwart 
 beauty that would have touched the heart of any young 
 girl whose feelings were not dead to the subtle influence vt 
 love s witchery. 
 
 But such sweet bewildering dreams can not last forever, 
 and the end came all too soon in the shape of a letter from 
 Dora to Mrs. Stuart, announcing that the family would 
 arrive home some time the following day. Mrs. Stuart put 
 the letter in her pocket, but alas for the fickle memory of 
 old age, she forgot to mention the fact to Gordon, and the 
 storm burst all unexpectedly in consequence upon him at 
 an inopportune moment. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EVERY hour that Gordon Carlisle passed in Mrs. Stuart s 
 pleasant sitting-room which was so wonderfully comfort" 
 able, cozy and home-like seemed to draw him nearer to 
 Leonie. 
 
 As the days flitted by she began to lose something of her 
 shy, startled manner and would talk to him in her timid 
 way that amused and charmed him so. 
 
 He would spend hours each day reading to her, and the 
 deep rich music of his voice thrilled her to the very soul. 
 
 He liked to watch the blushes on her face, and the glad 
 light that lighted up those pretty dark eyes when he ap 
 peared suddenly before her. Gordon Carlisle had seen 
 much of the world, aud he readily guessed the secret that 
 Leonie believed no human being could ever discover that 
 she cared for him. 
 
 At first he had only thought of passing a pleasant hour, 
 bat insensibly his own heart had .become interested; and 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. . 4fr 
 
 when a handsome young man is once interested in a lovely 
 young girl, it is very natural that interest should deepen 
 into love, for young hearts are always susceptible to its 
 tender influences the whole world over when they meet the 
 right one. 
 
 A hundred times the words were on his lips, and as fate 
 or luck would have it, Mrs. Stuart would always make her 
 Appearance at just such moments, and Gordon would be 
 obliged to pick up his book again and attempt to tell her 
 the story that trembled on his lips in the beautiful language 
 of some love poem, telling the rest with his eloquent 
 eyes; but at last he gave up in despair. Leonie could not 
 or would not understand him. Mrs. Stuart always had 
 some excuse to offer for never leaving them alone to 
 gether; and the very romance of the whole proceeding had 
 a double charm for Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 One day he found Leonie sitting, with her hands clasped, 
 looking dejectedly out of the window, while Mrs. Stuart, 
 like the veritable thorn that guarded the rose, sat near her, 
 knitting away, with a face fully as thoughtful as Leonie s. 
 Gordon s gay bantering conversation, or the book which he 
 had chosen, failed to bring back the lovely color to her 
 cheek, or hide the wistful gaze of the dark eyes. 
 
 Gordon tossed his book aside in despair. 
 
 " There is little use in reading if you are not listening, 
 Leonie," he said, laughingly. " I shall save this delightful 
 romance for another time," he added. 
 "Indeed I was listening," responded Leonie, in a 
 tremulous voice, " and perhaps the thought that my life is 
 so much like that of the heroine of the story you are read 
 ing is what makes me look so sad. " 
 
 " In what way?" asked Gordon, amusedly. 
 
 " Why, I, too, must soon be looking for work again. 1 
 can remain a burden upon the kindness of strangers but a 
 day or so longer, and the doctor says it will be safe for me 
 to go out of the house day after to-morrow. For the* 
 
$0 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 last week I have been trying to get enough courage to asfc 
 you if you would please take me back in your employ 
 again, Mr. Carlisle; that was what I came to ask you that 
 night.- 
 
 She was asking him for employment. How the words 
 grated on his ears. He could not endure the thought. 
 
 " Never mind discussing that subject now, Leonie/ he 
 replied, evasively. " You can talk to father about it when 
 be comes back. It will be all right, anyhow. " 
 
 * Oh, no!" cried Leonie, in sudden fright; " your father 
 is so stern. I would ever so much rather talk with you 
 About it It is your store, isn t it?" 
 
 " Well, it will be mine if father does not change Lis 
 mind about signing it over to me January 1st, as he has 
 promised to do," replied Gordon, smiling; " but I do not 
 care to mix you up with my business affairs, Leonie; I ha?e 
 quite enough of it at the office." 
 
 A strange whiteness crept over Leonie s face as she re 
 membered how fiercely Gordon s father had spoken to her 
 when he found her beneath his roof. 
 
 " If I have to talk to him about it, I shall surely faint/* 
 thought Leonie, a desperate fear chilling her heart. 
 
 It was quite a different thing talking with this handsome, 
 fcindly young man, and making the same request of his 
 stern father. 
 
 Gordon could have settled it for her then and there in a 
 highly satisfactory way, had it not been for Mrs. Stuart s 
 presence. 
 
 As it was, he bade Leonie " Good-night," and went up 
 fc> his room with a light, buoyant step and a smile on his 
 lips, as he thought to himself: " How surprised Leonie 
 would be when he told her that if he could help it she 
 should never seek employment again that he loved her 
 And wanted her to stay where she was as his wife." 
 
 Meanwhile, Mrs. Stuart had left Leonie to her own 
 thoughts, and had gone back to her work in the kitchen. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 5J 
 
 Was it only fancy, or did she hear some one topping 
 stealthily against the window-pane? 
 
 "It couldn t possibly be that gracelesi nephew of mine, 
 Charlie Hart," thought Mrs. Stuart, nervously, as she 
 opened the door. " Can it be possible he has the effront 
 ery to be seen around here after Master Gordon has turned 
 him off? Why, it would be as much as my place is worth 
 if Master Gordon were to see him here in the house! 
 
 The housekeeper s surmise proved quite correct it was 
 Charlie Hart, her graceless nephew. 
 
 " You do not give me a very cordial welcome, Aunt 
 Stuart," he said, coolly, shaking the snow from his coat, 
 advancing into the room, and inviting himself to a chair 
 before the fire. 
 
 Mrs. Stuart was not in the least deceived by his friendly 
 greeting. . 
 
 " What in the world brings you here at this time of 
 night, Charlie Hart," she inquired, suspiciously, " when 
 all honest folks are in their beds? What if Master Gordon 
 were to see you?" 
 
 "If all honest folks are in their beds, that don t speak 
 rery well for you, Aunt Stuart," he remarked, dryly. 
 " And as for Gordon Carlisle, I do not think you will tell 
 Mm I am here; and what he don t know will not hurt 
 him. But how does ifc happen that the fashionable, fastid 
 ious Gordon Carlisle has spent the holidays here, instead 
 of toasting the occasion with his friends abroad? I mean 
 with the rest of the family at Philadelphia." 
 
 " Who told you so much of the affairs that are going on 
 jn this house, I d like to know?" 
 
 " Well, to be frank with you, 1 saw Mrs. Carlisle and 
 her husband and Miss Lancaster steaming away toward 
 Philadelphia some two or three weeks ago, and I also saw 
 Gordon Carlisle on the same day start in quite an opposite 
 direction; and wha_pBBtad w * xvot a little was to see hin? 
 
62 LBONIE LOCKE* 
 
 suddenly change his mind and order the coachman to tnm 
 directly home again. " 
 
 " Well, hadn t he a right to change his mind if he 
 wanted to?" said Mrs. Stuart, testily. 
 
 44 Ah, but there was a good reason for it. There was a 
 strong attraction at home for him," suggested Charlie 
 Hart, with a laugh that was not pleasant to hear. " An 
 Attraction in the shape of a pretty little dark-eyed beauty 
 who has been an inmate of this house since the family went 
 away, or rather since the night before. " 
 
 " You are a perfect wizard!" cried Mrs. Stuart, in as 
 tonishment. " How did you know so much about it?" 
 
 " I was passing the house when the accident occurred, 
 and I know the doctor who attended the little beauty; 
 he was my informant that she would not be able to leave 
 the house for a couple of weeks or more. There s nothing 
 very remarkable in that, is there?" 
 
 * She may never leave this house at all," remarked Mrs. 
 Stuart, with a confidential little nod. " If I can read signs 
 and tokens right, I would wager a new pair of gloves 
 against a silk bonnet that she will be mistress of this 
 house some day. Why, Master Gordon is just head over 
 heels in love with her. " 
 
 " What does Dora Lancaster think of it?" asked Charlie 
 Hart, crushing something that sounded strangely like an 
 oath between his white teeth, his dark face drawn into an 
 angry frown. 
 
 " Bless you, she doesn t know it yet; but when she does 
 tind it out there will be terrible goings-on about it, for she 
 has always made boasts of what she would do when she 
 married Gordon Carlisle. " 
 
 " She is a dangerous girl, 1 should imagine. Her deep- 
 rooted love for Gordon Carlisle would tempt her to almost 
 any crime rather than suffer a rival to win him from hen 
 Is it not e-* 9 " he asked, in a s range, low whisper. 
 
 " J believe she i *^***>-nftngh to almost commit mar* 
 
,-^^ .. - , **.-- "5 - 
 
 LEONIE LOCKE. 08 
 
 dcr, if she could win Gordon Carlisle by it," replied Mrs. 
 Stuart. 
 
 And she little dreamed of the thrilling plot those few 
 words suggested to the man who sat before the fire with 
 his dark, wicked face turned partially from her into the 
 shadow. 
 
 " I had almost forgotten my errand here, Aunt Stuart/ 
 he said, hastily. " I have a letter here for Miss Lancaster, 
 and you must manage to deliver it to her in person. No 
 one must know of it!" and as he spoke he put a square 
 white envelope in her hands. 
 
 " Why, this is your writing, Charlie Hart!" she cried, 
 wonderingly. " Why, she would throw this in my fa<je. 
 I wouldn t dare do it." 
 
 " No she won t," he answered, with a strange, peculiar 
 smile. " She will not only read it, but answer it, wid 
 send it by you. " 
 
 " What have you to write to proud, haughty Dora Lan 
 caster about?" she asked, with growing wonder. 
 
 " Perhaps it may be about a situation. She has great 
 influence with old Mr. Carlisle. Rest assured she will an* 
 swer it, and I will come for it to-morrow night" 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THERE was only one bitter drop of sorrow in LeomVs 
 cup of joy, and that was the thought that she must leave 
 that luxurious home as soon as she was sufficiently re 
 covered; and with that thought came a still more bifcte* 
 one she would see no more of Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Leonie never spoke of the curt letter she had received; 
 pride kept her silent. 
 
 " I shall never mention it to him," she thought; " he 
 has regretted it, I am sure, and it is useless to recall un 
 pleasant subjects." 
 
 What should she-^a wh^n. aha .went^ away, and where 
 
54 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 should she go? she would ask herself; and she always ai> 
 swered it by hiding her face in her hands, and sobbing as 
 though her heart would break; and in this way Gordon 
 found her one evening. 
 
 It was not in human nature to look at those dark, lovely, 
 velvety eyes drowned in tears without doing his best to 
 comfort her, and in a moment Gordon had crossed tht 
 room and was kneeling beside her. 
 
 " What is the matter, Leonie?" he asked, anxiously, 
 drawing the little trembling hand from her face and firm- 
 ly imprisoning it in his own. 
 
 " Nothing I do not know. 1 was just wishing some 
 thing/ she sighed. 
 
 " What were you wishing? Better to tell me than to 
 sigh over it in secret what is it?" 
 
 " I have been so happy here with you, Mr. Carlisle, .in 
 your beautiful home! I am crying because I must go away 
 now, and 1 do not know where to go, for 1 have not one 
 friend but you in all the whole world. " 
 
 She was looking with wistful eyes up into his face with 
 a look such as one sees in the eyes of an innocent child. 
 
 * You are very happy here, then, Leonie?" he asked, In 
 a low voice, while his face flushed slightly and one arm 
 stole quite unconsciously around the slender waist. 
 
 "Yes/ she replied, pathetically, "1 have been very 
 happy here, and that makes my future seem so desolate 
 that 1 dare not think of it." 
 
 "Poor, lonely, desolate child," he sighed, compassion 
 ately, " you need never leave this home if you so will it 
 for I love you, Leonie, and I can never part from you!" 
 
 The next moment he was on his knees by her side, 
 pouring forth such passionate words, so freighted with 
 love, that they fairly took her breath away. 
 
 " You you frighten me," she whispered. " Oh, Mr. 
 Carlisle, I could ne. believ.e-fchat YOU who are so fax 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 60 
 
 aDove me could love me me only a poor, simple working, 
 girl!" she cried, tremblingly. 
 
 " Yet more precious to me than a queen on her throne,* 
 he added, eagerly. " You are all the world to me ? Leonie. 
 Try to love me try to care for me! Give me only one 
 kind look from those beautiful dark eyes, and I can read 
 my answer there/ 
 
 He took the beautiful blushing face in his hands and 
 held it there until she was compelled to look up at him; 
 then those lovely eyes told their own story of a suddenly 
 awakened girlish heart, to which love was a new, sweet, be 
 wildering dream. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle laughed a low, happy, musical laugh. 
 
 " You can never recall what your eyes have told me. 
 Leonie/ he whispered. " They have told me that you do 
 love me, you coy little darling!" 
 
 " I I never thought much about lovers, and 1 did not 
 know that I looked at you in that way/ she faltered, rosy 
 red with confusion. 
 
 " But now that you do think a little about them, make 
 me happy by telling me that you do not find it quite dis 
 agreeable. You must look upon me aa your true lover, 
 Leonie your lover who would not think life without you 
 worth living your lover who cares more for pure little 
 Leonie in all her sweet, girlish simplicity than all the 
 world besides. Can you understand me, do you realize it, 
 dear? Will you try? Will you say to yourself. * Gordon 
 Carlisle is my lover? You will grow accustomed to the 
 idea in time, and then, my timid Little love, you will grow 
 accustomed to liking me." 
 
 Mrs. Stuart had come to the door- way, but neitner Gor 
 don nor Leonie had heard her like all lovers, they had 
 forgotten the existence of every one save themselves. 
 
 " God bless them/ muttered the housekeeper, ** I knew 
 if he saw much of her it could end in but one way he 
 would love her. I was ai raid it waa^Dora Lancaster that 
 
56 LEONIi LOCKE. 
 
 > 
 
 he liked. It is just as the Lord intended it the rich 
 should wed with the poor. That will be a romantic ending to 
 the accident that brought pretty Leonie Locke here where 
 Master Gordon was. I shall always believe in fate after 
 this." 
 
 She slipped away quite noiselessly, thinking to herself 
 what a pretty love-story Leonie would have to tell her 
 when Gordon went up to his room that night. 
 
 " And now, Leonie, if you are to care for me, you must 
 seal the compact with a lover s kiss," said Gordon, eagerly, 
 and he was just about to add, " for I want you for my little 
 wife;" but the sentence never was spoken. A low, taunting 
 tough, that had the bitterness of death in it, rang through 
 the room, freezing the glowing words on his lips, and 
 glancing up he saw Dora Lancaster aiid his father and 
 mother standing in the door-way, and the intense anger on 
 their faces was more terrible thau words. Gordon sprung 
 to his feet, proudly erect, with kis handsome head thrown 
 back, an angry light in his fearless blue eyes, and his 
 strong arm clasping tenderly the little figure clinging to 
 him in such abject fright and trembling so violently. 
 
 " I am sorry to interrupt such a pretty love-scene/ said 
 Mr. Carlisle, entering the room, and walking up to his soa 
 with measured strides and white, wrathful face, "but I 
 was under the impression you were still at Albany. How 
 is it, sir, that 1 find you at home, may I ask?" 
 
 " I did not go away, father," returned Gordon, calmly. 
 ;t I changed my mind and returned home again." 
 
 What did you do that for?" thundered Mr. Carlisle, 
 m rising fury. " Did you take an unfair advantage of 
 your mother and me by coming back here to see that 
 girl?" he cried, casting a scathing, withering glance -upon 
 Leonift. 
 
 " 1 must confess that I did return for that purpose and 
 no other v " responded Gordon, flushing Jiotly, " but 1 den? 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 5< 
 
 the accusation of taking unfair advantage. I do not lool 
 upon it in that light " 
 
 " Oh, I dare say/ sneered Mr. Carlisle. " Step into th< 
 library and we will discuss this matter more fully there, 
 he said, sternly. 
 
 " Oh, do not go, Gordon; do not leave me," sobbec 
 Lieonie in terror, hiding her face on his shoulder; " I shall 
 die if you do." 
 
 The strong arm clasped her still closer. 
 
 " I will soon settle this matter, my darling/ he an 
 swered, reassuringly, unclasping the clinging trembling 
 white arms. " You need fear nothing, Leonie." 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle still stood in the door-way, sobbing audibly 
 behind her lace handkerchief. Dora had vanished. 
 
 " Mother," said Gordon, crossing over to where she 
 stood, " I shall leave Leonie here with you, while I go to 
 the library with father and settle this affair. Be kind to 
 her for your son s sake, mother," he whispered, eagerly, 
 " for I intend to make Leonie Locke my wife. "Wait for 
 me here, Leonie," he said, " I shall have something very 
 important to say to you when father is done with me." 
 
 He did not stoop down- to kiss Leonie, strong as the im 
 pulse was upon him to do so, but turned and walked 
 haughtily from the room and into the library, where his 
 father impatiently awaited him. 
 
 Mr. Carlisle sits back in his cushioned chair, and there 
 is a look on his face that Gordon has never seen there be 
 fore, and his face is deathly white and his eyes have a 
 glassy stare. 
 
 The calm eyes of the son look steadily down into the eyes 
 of his father, and he reads a gathering storm in them. 
 
 " You wanted to see me, father," he said, " and I am 
 here." 
 
 " How long has this thing been going on?" interrupted 
 Mr. Carlisle, harshly*, fixing his keen gaze steadily on hia 
 
5$ LP0?* J& -60CKE. 
 
 (Bon s face. " flow long have you been making love to this 
 working-girl, /^onie Locke?" 
 
 Gordon Carlisle s face flushed a deep red. 
 
 " I mupt decline to answer that question, father, and 1 
 beg, for zny sake, you will speak more respectfully of 
 Leonie, and think more kindly of her, for I love her, 
 father, and I intend to make her my wife/ he answers. 
 
 The last two words he had uttered exploded a volcano of 
 wrath which his father had been vainly trying to control. 
 
 44 Your wife!" he gasped " this girl whose very face 
 taunts me to madness this girl whom I abhor from the 
 bottom of my heart 1" he cried, hoarsely. " I had rather 
 see you lying dead at my feet than married to Leonie 
 Locke. 1 know ^iiy 1 know why. You must choose be 
 tween us. I will never give my consent for you to marry 
 her while I live. Never, sir, never!" 
 
 " Do not be so hard upon me, father," pleaded the 
 young man. * 4 Remember you were young once yourself, 
 jmd loved my mother as I love Leonie. I " 
 
 " Stop! stop right where you are," cried Mr. Carlisle. 
 " I will not hear it. This is but a mad infatuation you 
 Jiave for this girl, who has come to this house with the 
 full purpose of entrapping you into a marriage with her, 
 and you fall as easily into the net as a rabbit into a trap." 
 
 " You are mistaken, father, indeed you are," cried Gor 
 don. " Little Leonie Locke is as free from all design in 
 that way as an angel from heaven, and she is as guileless 
 as a little child. Eemember when you speak slightingly of 
 her it is an insult to me, your son." 
 
 " You must choose between us, Gordon," cried Mr. 
 Carlisle, fiercely, "between your father and his wealth 
 and this working-girl. You are deciding your own fate. 
 1! von choose this girl, you shall never have a dollar of my 
 money; I will make a bonfire of it first. In every way in 
 which 1 can forget you, I shall do it. In every way in 
 which I can blot your memorv out. ij^hall be blotted out." 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 89 
 
 " Father, " cried the unhappy young man, with tears in 
 his eyes, "ask anything but that I can not giye up 
 Leonie Locke, not even for your sake. Your wealth is as 
 nothing when weighed against Leonie s love, I can not 
 and will not give her up!" 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THERE was terrible anger upon John Carlisle s face as 
 he turned suddenly and met the proud, unflinching gaze of 
 his son. 
 
 " Have I heard aright?" he demanded, hoarsely; " to 
 you dare defy me by declaring to my very face you will not 
 give up this girl?" 
 
 " 1 have not attempted to defy you, father," replied 
 Gordon, slowly; " do not put it in that way. I said that 1 
 could not give Leonie up, and I say so still. Love such a 
 I feel for her comes to a man but once in a life-time \ it 
 either makes or mars his life." 
 
 " Have done with such nonsense!" cried the old million 
 aire, hotly. " After you have seen as much of the world 
 as I have, all such notions will evaporate. You are in 
 fatuated with the girl s pretty face; six months from now 
 you will wonder how you could have made such a fool of 
 yourself. Be reasonable, Gordon; do not let this working- 
 girl come between you and me, for if you do not give her 
 up I will never look upon your face again so help me 
 Heaven! You have been a rash, wayward boy, Gordon, 
 but you have always heeded your father s words they have 
 been your law. I have done pleading with you," he added, 
 harshly; * and now I demand you to have done with this 
 romantic love-nonsense. You must give up Leonie Locke. 
 What do you say?" 
 
 " I can only say what 1 have said from the first, father. 
 I can not give Leonie up; God knows it would wreck my 
 whole life if I should Ir^a herl-^It-Js not a romantic 
 
oO LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 fancy, father, but the deep love of a life-time. Atr any. 
 thing else of me, and I wfll gladly do it!" 
 
 How handsome and noble Gordon Carlisle looked as h* 
 stood there defending his love so manfully! 
 
 His face was pale as death, but there was a determined 
 look in his flashing blue eyes that showed a fixed resolve. 
 
 A sudden thought came to Mr. Carlisle. On the table 
 before him lay several popular magazines of the day. . He 
 carefully selected one, and laid it open before his son, 
 pointing to the caption that headed one of the articles, and 
 Gordon read the startling words: " He cursed him by 
 giving him his heart s desire!" 
 
 " Let those words teach you a lesson, Gordon. If I were 
 to give my consent to a marriage with this girl, you would 
 bitterly censure me for it in after years. You are not the 
 first young man who has rashly followed a pretty face and 
 lived to rue it all his life. " 
 
 " I am willing to stand all the consequences," returned 
 Gordon, hotly. " Do not try to persuade me, father; it ia 
 quite useless. 1 will respect your wishes in every othajf 
 case but this, and try to follow them. Every man should 
 rule his own love affairs; you have no right to interfere fo 
 such matters." 
 
 " I have the right of a father over a son. I shall sav 
 you from yourself, Gordon, no matter what the cost may 
 be. Do you think this Leonie Locke would smile upon 
 yon if you were a beggar instead of a millionaire s son?" 
 he added, harshly. 
 
 * I believe Leonie loves me for myself, father," returned 
 Gordon, haughtily. " The pure love of such a girlish 
 heart is not measured by gold. You can disinherit me, if 
 you see fit, father; but Leonie and I will still be happy. 1 
 can work for her, if necessary, and toil will be sweet for 
 her sake." 
 
 Was it only fancy, or was it the skirts of a woman s 
 dress rustling against . 
 
LEOK1E LOCKE. 6 
 
 ^M 
 
 He remembered closing the door tightly; now it was 
 open an inch or so. *~^~ 
 
 " You are headstrong, and you shall suffer for it; you 
 hare made your choice, and you must abide by it. You 
 shall have all the * sweet toil you want, for the sake of 
 your romantic, foolish love, and the sweetnesss will tun 
 to wormwood on your lips. Go to Leonie Locke, and tel 
 her you have nothing but poverty to give her, and you wil 
 take your first lesson in the fickleness of woman s Jove. 
 You have been reared amidst wealth and luxury, and if 
 you are willing to turn your back on it all for a designing 
 working-girl, go, I say, but never expect one dollar from 
 me. I shall not make over the store to you now. 1 
 may as well tell you now, you need not return to it; I can 
 get clerks to take your place. " 
 
 "It was unnecessary to add that taunt/ replied Gor 
 don, flushing. * 1 had no intention of returning to it, nor 
 flhaL. I ask shelter of you for a single nigbt; I shall leave 
 this house within an hour, and take Leonie with me to the 
 parsonage across the way, where she shall be made my 
 wife. But there is one thing that grieves me, father: 1 do 
 not like to part from you like this. Say one kind word of 
 farewell to me to lighten my heart. " 
 
 He took his hat He was very pale, and his eyes had a 
 pleading look. He held out his hand. 
 
 " Come, father," he said, " we can not part like this. 
 1 can not put into words how badly 1 feel " 
 
 He broke off and drew nearer; but Mr. Carlisle waved 
 kirn back. 
 
 " Any other parting would be a farce. You have choseb 
 Jjeonie Locke in preference to your mother and me uuu 
 your luxurious home, and I shall teach you a lesson that 
 will serve you a life-time. The sooner you end this scene 
 the better pleased I shall be." 
 
 " Then, good-bye, father, since it must be so!" sighed 
 Gordon. 
 
tf$ LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 He turned, opened the door, lingered yet one moment, 
 fn hope of some sign of relenting. 
 
 Mr. Carlisle turned his back upon the handsome, manly 
 form in the door-way turned with a bitterly angry face to 
 the books and papers scattered about the table. 
 1 ** Fat her," cried Gordon, with tears in his eyes, " say 
 just one kind word; touch my hand at parting! Remem 
 ber yon. are sending your only son out of your life, for- 
 erer!" 
 
 " Go!" thundered the irate millionaire. " Go to Leonie 
 Locke and poverty! You have made your own choice; 
 don t whine for mercy now!" 
 
 "Without another word, Gordon Carlisle turned and 
 walked slowly out of his father s presence, and the sound 
 of the firm, retreating footsteps fell like a knell upon John 
 Carlisle s stony heart. 
 
 " Poverty will not kill. 1 am young and strong, and I 
 shall still have Leonie s love. Could a king on his throne 
 ask more?" he thought, as he walked rapidly in the direc 
 tion of the room in which he had left his mother and 
 JJeonie. 
 
 A door opens as he passes it, and Dora Lancaster s face, 
 red and tear-stained, peeps out 
 
 " Oh, Gordon, is it you at last?" she cries, panting- 
 ly, catching up to him, and clinging to his arm. * I 
 heard such terrible loud voices in the library, 1 knew that 
 my guardian must be fearfully angry with you, Gordon 
 What did he say? Let me be a friend to you, Gordon/ 
 cried the deceitful Dora, * and perhaps I can help you/ 
 
 " He has only turned me away from the house," re 
 turned Gordon, trying to speak lightly. * i But 1 can stand 
 it, Dora; perhaps it naay make a man of me. I am not 
 discouraged at the outlook." 
 
 " Was it on account of that girl, Leonie Locke?" asked 
 Dora, in a low, sobbing voice. 
 
 " Father forced me to choose between wealth and love, 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 48 
 
 and I chose love/ he responded, slowly; " and I am sure 
 I shall never regret it Be kind to Leonie, Dora, and 1 
 shall give you my deepest gratitude. You have been iike 
 a sifter to me all my life; do not fail me now. Try and 
 win father and mother over to love Leonie for my sake; 
 will you, Dora?" 
 
 " I would promise almost anything for your sake, Gor 
 don. I can only say that I can try," she answered. 
 
 " Heaven bless you, Dora!" ne cried, fervently. " You 
 ATQ a true friend to me, after all." 
 
 On the spur of the moment he clasped Dora in his 
 Arms and kissed her in a grateful, brotherly fashion not 
 the burning kisses of passionate love, but the calm, mean 
 ingless kisses of gratitude. But those fatal kisses only fed 
 the flame of Dora s mad, reckless love for him. 
 
 " Do not go yet, Gordon," she sobbed, clinging to him 
 m childish abandon ; " I could not bear it Stay until I 
 am able to bear it. The blow has been so sudden, so 
 sharp, it has broken my heart!" 
 
 She turned away from him, sinking down upon a sofa 
 tiear at hand, covering her face with her hands. 
 
 ^ Are you so sorry as this, Dora?" he asked, trying to 
 cake her hands away. 4< I did not think, I did not 
 know " 
 
 Then he stopped short, not knowing what else to say to 
 her. 
 
 There is only one sort of consolation in a scene like this 
 that Gordon knew of, namely, to sit down beside her and 
 lo his best to comfort her; and that is exactly what he did. 
 
 " Don t, Dora!" he said; * what if auy one came what 
 wou.d they think?" 
 
 fie took out his handkerchief, and attemjjj,edfr) wipe 
 ft\vuy the tears from the red, swollen cheeks, impatiently -* 
 wishing each moment that she would let him break away t7J> \ 
 from her o.nd returii to Leonie. . airi fc ^ , 
 
64 L1ONIE LOCKE. 
 
 "Good-bye, Dora/ he said, unclasping the cfingrag 
 viands. * You at least will miss me!"" 
 
 And little dreaming of the grievous disappointment 
 which nearly unmanned him, Gordon Carlisle hurried to 
 ward the room where he had left his mother and Leonid. 
 
 CHAPTER Xtt 
 
 WHEN Gordon Carlisle had quitted the room to follow 
 his father to the library, Dora Lancaster had entered it by 
 another door, and had beckoned Mrs. Carlisle out into the 
 corridor. 
 
 There was a hurried consultation between the two in 
 breathless whispers; then, with a strange look of determi 
 nation on her face, Mrs. Carlisle re-entered the room, 
 where Leonie stood before the fire, pale, trembling, and 
 terrified. 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle could well understand why her handsome 
 son, who might have chosen from among the highest and 
 best-bred in the land, should have chosen this simple little 
 working-girl when she looked at the wondrous beauty of 
 the peerless face that was turned timidly toward her as she 
 approached her. 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle had always lived in the world of fashion, 
 and to her work was little less than a sin, and poverty the 
 keenest disgrace. 
 
 Those who toiled for their daily bread were completely 
 out of her world she had no sympathy with them. 
 
 " Sit down, Leonie," she said. * 1 want to have a talk 
 with you. I am exceedingly glad to have this opportunity, 
 for 1 have much to say to you. " 
 
 Silently Leonie obeyed. 
 
 Although Mrs. Carlisle had tried to make her voioe 
 sound as sweetly as possible, there was a subtle harshness 
 inTii that frightened Leonie. 
 
 I must lose no, time ui coming to the point at once, if 
 
 " 
 
LEON IE LOCKE. 65 
 
 1 am to succeed in carrying out Dora s clever scheme before 
 Gordon returns/ she thought, hurriedly. "You must 
 give me your full attention, Leonie," she said, " and an 
 swer my questions without reserve. The first thing J 
 want to know is, where did you first meet my son, and 
 how long have you known him?" 
 
 In a few hesitating sentences Leonie explained the whole 
 matter, all that the reader is already familiar with, adding, 
 in conclusion, " that she had come there that night she 
 had met with the accident for the sole purpose of pleading 
 with young Mr. Carlisle to give her work." 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle shuddered as the last words fell from the 
 girl s quivering lips; but she recovered her composure, and 
 asked, slowly: 
 
 "Do you know what construction the world would put 
 upon your actions, my good girl?" 
 
 There was no answer. 
 
 The fear and wonderment seemed to deepen in the dark, 
 velvety eyes regarding her so shyly. 
 
 " I will tell you, then, the story that is whispered about. 
 They say that you came here that night for the sole pur 
 pose of forcing your way into this household by a pre* 
 tended fall, which was the excuse you had planned to ac 
 complish it, for it is a well-known fact that business people 
 do not, and would not, transact business at their private 
 residences. The very excuse was quite absurd; you knew 
 where his office was. " 
 
 " I did not thiiik of that, madame," said Leonie, flush 
 ing a burning crimson; "when 1 fell down the marble 
 steps, I fainted outright. I did not know I would be 
 brought into your house. The terrible pain I was suffer 
 ing shut out everything else from ray mind. I had not 
 thought about business hours at his office. I was cold and 
 homeless, and the only thought that occurred to me was J 
 Qiust find work or starve, and I made up my Hiinci to see 
 young Mr. Carlisle^boot i 
 
 & 
 
66 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 " Then you say you did not come here to entrap my son. 
 because you knew he was young, wealthy, and easily influ- 
 enced by a pretty face? Then how can you account for the 
 scene which we just witnessed upon our unexpected ar 
 rival?" 
 
 Leonie had arisen and stood before her; her face was 
 pale as a snow-drop, and great pearly tears forced them 
 selves from the white lids upon the long, dark, curling 
 lashes. 
 
 k I never would have been guilty of anything wrong, 
 Mrs. Carlisle," replied Leonie, with a brave effort to keep 
 back the great choking sobs and scalding tears. " I never 
 even dreamed that that Gordon loved me, until he said 
 so to-night. " 
 
 A harsh laugh broke from Mrs. Carlisle s lips. 
 
 The words, " Gordon loves me," had taunted her ta 
 something very like desperation and fury. 
 
 " Loves you!" she repeated, harshly; " and were you 
 indeed so devoid of reason that you believed such a thing 
 could be possible?" 
 
 " Gordon told me so, and I believed him," replied 
 Leonie, piteously. "He is so good and noble he would 
 say nothing that was false. " 
 
 " I say that it certainly is false, then. Gordon Carlisle 
 does not love you. There is nothing in common between 
 my son and a working-girl. Some men have a weakness 
 to make love to a pretty girl, and they can not resist it. J 
 am sorry to say that is Gordon s fault. You say that he 
 told you he loved you; but tell me this," she added, breath 
 lessly, " did he ask you to become his wife?" 
 
 All the beautiful color seemed to drift from Leonie s 
 face as her lips truthfully framed the words: 
 
 " No; he did not speak of marriage." 
 
 She had not thought of it before; but now that the 
 question was put to her direct, it quite startled her. 
 
 How was she to know that -tto- entrance of his relatives 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 .. -.i 
 
 bad frozen those very words, " Will you be my wife, 
 Leonie?" on Gordon Carlisle s lips. 
 
 Only those six little words had been omitted at that 
 critical moment, and what a world of misery was to ensue 
 because they had not been spoken! 
 
 "I knew it!" declared Mrs. Carlisle, triumphamtly. 
 " You say he told you he loved you, yet you admit that 
 He said nothing of marriage. Now, if you are as sensible^ 
 a young girl as 1 take you to be, you will ky.ow that when. 
 a young man has a deep, true love for a lady, and tells her 
 of it, he says something about marriage; does he not?" 
 
 " I think he should," said Leonie, tremulously. 
 
 The terrible truth was forcing its way into her heart 
 through the persuasive arguments of Gordon s worldly 
 mother, 
 
 " IE Ji not clear to you?" argued Mrs. Carlisle. " My SOIL 
 would not woo you openly before the family, but when he 
 knew we were away, he returned stealthily to his home 
 again, and passed three weeks here with you. And now 
 the question arises, which of you is at fault? Was Gordon 
 merely flirting with you, or were you attempting to inveigle 
 my son into an alliance with you because you believed him 
 the son of wealthy parents?" 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle never forgot the look of the intense, dark, 
 velvety eyes turned so proudly upon her, or the great 
 waves of crimson that dyed both cheek and brow of ilia* 
 lovely young face. 
 
 " I would give my love to no man unsought," she an^ 
 awered, simply. " You do me great injustice, madam? 
 I forgive you for your cruel suspicions, though, because 
 you are Gordon s mother." 
 
 * Then prove your disinterestedness by leaving the house 
 at once without seeing Gordon again!" cried Mrs. Carlisle, 
 earnestly. " I may as well tell you the plain truth my 
 eon loves Dora Lancaster, and he is engaged to be married 
 to her; he was onlv triflinjr with you, because you are 
 
OB LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 well, only a working-girl 1 can prove this by Dora he*, 
 self. I can not see you rushing on in a path that can 
 mean only ruin to an innocent girl, such as you appear to 
 be, without trying to save you, if you will but heed my 
 words. You shall not lack money. All that 1 ask is for 
 you to leave the house and the city at once, and keep out 
 f Gordon s way. I appeal to you to save yourself." 
 
 " Let me see Gordon again just once, and I will do as 
 you say. 1 will go away from him forever and it seems 
 easier to die than to do that. Oh, I have learned to love 
 Gordon so; I was miserable enough before, but I am a 
 thousand-fold more so now, and I can not think why God 
 ver let us meet only to part/ 
 
 * No, you must not see Gordon again; that looks as if 
 you were desirous of making an appointment with him 
 elsewhere. If you are innocent of conspiring to entrap 
 him, you can prove it in no other way than by leaving the 
 house at once. " 
 
 " Let me see Gordon only once more," pleaded Leonie, 
 ** just for one little minute my life is so cold, so dark 
 and dreary, and it is for the last time. " 
 
 "Why should you wish to see another young lady s 
 affianced husband?" demanded Mrs. Carlisle, with cutting 
 sarcasm. "You astonish me. A young girl of spirit 
 Would not have made such a request. " 
 
 " Then can 1 see the young girl he is engaged to?" 
 asked Leonie, with a pitiful choking sob. 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle arose, with a stiff nod leading the way, and 
 Leonie followed her out into the corridor; but she did not 
 liave need to take a single step forward to see Dora Lan 
 caster, for there she was at the other end of the corridor, 
 aeated side by side on a divan with Gordon Carlisle, his 
 arms were about her, and his kisses were raining down 
 apon her face. 
 
 "" 1 will go away now, Mrs. Carlisle," panted Leonie, in 
 low, stifled, piteous Yoice. "T Bee^jtall now. It was 
 
"*LEOSIR LOCKE. 6fr 
 
 Duly a few fleeting pleasant hours he was spending with 
 me s poor, lonely, homeless working-girl; and it is she 
 in the costly trailing silks yonder whom he would make 
 his wife. I gave him my whole heart, and now it lies 
 broken beneath his feet. I am going, but I shall not 
 touch one penny of your money. Your son shall never 
 look upon my face again ;" and the next moment she was 
 gone, and, with a little exultant laugh Mrs. Carlisle re 
 turned to the room again, wondering how Gordon would 
 take Leonie s sudden flight. At that moment he came 
 rapidly down the corridor and into the room. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIIL 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the terrible ordeal with his father 
 through which Gordon Carlisle had so lately passed, his 
 step in the corridor was buoyant, and there was a smile on 
 his lips as he opened the door, which changed to a look of 
 blank surprise upon not seeing Leonie. 
 
 " Come in, Gordon, my son," said Mrs. Carlisle, "and 
 tell me what happened in the library. I think I can guess 
 what it was. " * 
 
 " Bring Leonie in and I will tell you both together/ he- 
 replied, flinging himself down upon a sofa opposite her 
 and leaning his handsome head back among the crimson 
 velvet cushions. "I am out with father for good/ he 
 went on; " but 1 know you will stand by me, mother, and 
 your gentle woman s heart can understand these delicate 
 matters better." "S 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle did not move from her chair, but twisted 
 the diamonds around on her fingers in a nervous way, quite 
 dreading to break the news to him of Leonie s absence, he 
 seemed so thoroughly in earnest about it. 
 
 " I hope Leonie has not retired yet, for I must see her, 
 to-night, mother; it is quite important, I assure you."* ? 
 
 Still Mrs. Carlisle did not move from her position er 
 
70 LEONTl LOCKE. 
 
 peak, and there was something in her set face that startled 
 Gordon more than he would have cared to admit. 
 
 * Come to me to-morrow, my son, and we will talk this 
 matter over; it is late now and I fear I am not equal to 
 the task of listening to a long recital." 
 
 " But 1 must tell you at once," replied Gordon, eagerly, 
 * and I must see Leonie to-night it is imperative. I can 
 tell you the truth in a very few words. Father has seen 
 fit to turn me out of the house, and I shall go to-night. 
 But I shall take Leonie with me, and I shall make her my 
 wife without delay. Yon have known what love is, moth 
 er, and you can not blame me for giving up the whole 
 world for love s sake." 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle arose and crossed over to where he sat. 
 
 " Gordon," she said, laying her white jeweled hands on 
 his fair curling hair and smoothing it back from his broad, 
 white brow, " 1 have something to tell you, but you 
 must bear it like a noble man. " 
 
 No inkling of what she had to tell him occurred to him, 
 and he drew down the white jeweled hand and kissed it 
 with a low, musical laugh, as he answered : 
 
 " Why do you make such a mystery of what you have to 
 tell me? Does it concern Leonie?" 
 
 " Yes, it concerns Leonie Locke," replied Mrs. Carlisle; 
 " she Jias gone. " 
 
 " Gone! Why, what do you mean?" exclaimed Gordon, 
 in surprise. 
 
 " She has left this house rather thai\ see you again," she 
 replied, gently. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle rose to his feet like one who had been 
 stunned by a sudden and terrible blow. He could scarce 
 ly believe that he had heard aright. In a single instant he 
 was a changed man, all the happy light died from his blue 
 eyes, and his face was set and white. 
 
 " There is some terrible mystery behind this," he cried, 
 seizing his hat and hurrvinff toward the door. " I shall. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 71 
 
 never rest night or day until 1 have found heY. I left hoi 
 in your care, mother, and you have betrayed the trust. 
 My God! the thought of that pure young girl oat alone on 
 the streets at this time of night is enough to drive me 
 mad!" 
 
 " Listen, Gordon, just for one moment," cried Mrs. 
 Carlisle, fairly drawing him by main force into the room 
 again. " You must know why this girl has left so sud 
 denly she left because the power of gold outweighed her 
 love for you. " 
 
 "It is false!" cried Gordon Carlisle, hotly. "If an 
 angel from heaven told me that 1 should still say it was 
 false. You are my mother, and I refrain from giving 
 full vent to my feelings. " 
 
 "It is true," cried Mrs. Carlisle. "I said to myself 
 when you told me you loved her and wished to make her 
 your wife: * 1 will test her love for Gordon if she loves 
 him for himself alone, I will love her as only your mother 
 could, but if she loves gold better, Gordon must know it. 
 I confess that I tempted her, Gordon, and she yielded she 
 loved gold better than she did you. Shall I tell you how 
 it was, Gordon?" she asked, timidly, trying to draw him 
 down to the sofa beside her. 
 
 "Yes," he said, huskily; " tell me the truth of this 
 matter, that I may be more able to determine where to 
 commence my search for Leonie. I can not and will not 
 believe she willfully fled from me she loved me too well 
 for that. Make the recital brief, please. " 
 
 " 1 used a little strategy to prove her affection for you. 
 I told her that your father would disinherit you at once if 
 she married you. I pictured the life of poverty you would 
 be obliged to lead with her, and the portrayal disenchanted 
 the ambitious working-girl who had aimed for the million, 
 aire s son and heir." 
 
 " Mother," said Gordon. " speak illy of me if yon 
 
55 LE01TCB 
 
 choose, but 1 pray you to spare Leonie s name. I can not 
 bear it she is too dear to me for that. " 
 
 " I gave her her choice/ continued Mrs. Carlisle, slow 
 ly, " of accepting a thousand dollars cash and going her 
 own way, or staying and marrying a portionless husband. 
 I I think I do not love your son well enough to marry 
 kim, Mrs. Carlisle/ she said, and I think I will take the 
 money. " 
 
 No sound issued from Gordon Carlisle s white lips, and 
 she went on, slowly: 
 
 "I gave her the money, Gordon, and, thrusting it 
 quickly into her pocket, she caught up her hat and sacque, 
 saying, eagerly: * Forgive me for making the choice I have 
 made, and ask Gordon to forgive me, too. 1 could not en 
 dure poverty with him; he will not search for me when you 
 tell him my decision; his pride will keep him from it. 
 And with these words on her false, fair lips, the beautiful 
 young girl who had sold her heart for gold turned and left 
 the house, and I was just trying to nerve myself to the ter 
 rible task of telling you when you came into the room. " 
 
 Gordon sunk down upon a chair and covered his face 
 with his shaking hands. Strong, blinding tears forced 
 themselves from his eyes, but they were no disgrace to his 
 noble manhood. 
 
 " Talk not of grief till ye have seen 
 The tears of warlike men." 
 
 It never occurred to him that his mother, of all people 
 in the world, would deceive him on such a vital point as 
 this. It never once entered his mind that many a mother 
 would peril her very soul, if it were the price, to save her 
 child from a marriage which she considered unequal. 
 
 And while she looked on at her son s intense anguish? 
 she comforted herself with the thought: "Although it is 
 hard upon him now, the time will come when he will thank 
 me for this, * 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 73 
 
 " You will not have to leave the house now, Gordon," 
 she said. " You have had a hard lesson, bat you are 
 brave. You will soon get over your infatuation. I will 
 leave you by yourself to think this matter out calmly. I 
 am going to my room now; good-night, Gordon." 
 
 He arose and clasped her in his arms and kissed the lips 
 that had dealt him such a cruel blow with no shadow of 
 suspicion. 
 
 " Good-bye, mother/ he said, hoarsely. But the words 
 were spoken so softly she quite thought he had said " good 
 night." 
 
 Quickly tearing a leaf from a memorandum-book, he 
 penciled the following lines upon it, addressed to his 
 mother: 
 
 " After what has passed between father and I, I can no 
 longer call his home mine. I shall do my best to find 
 Lebnie Locke again, for life without her would be simply 
 unendurable. No doubt you meant well by your test 
 to prove Leonie s love for me, but it would have been a 
 thousand times better if you had left me to work out that 
 problem myself. Good-bye, mother. 
 
 " Your unhappy son, 
 
 " GORDON CARLISLE." 
 
 And a few momenta later " he had crossed that thresh 
 old forever," he told himself. It was well for Gordon 
 Carlisle that he did not know under what thrilling circum 
 stances he was to enter that house again. 
 
 As he reached the pavement, he passed a tall, heavy-set 
 man, who wore a long, heavy overcoat, with collar turned 
 up and a slouch hat pulled low over his face. If Gordon 
 Carlisle had taken the second glance at the man, he would 
 have recognized his discharged foreman, Charlie Hart 
 
 A dark, evil gleam flashed from his eyes as they rested 
 upon the white, thoughtful face of Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 u He has started ooktosearcn for Leqnie," he muttered 
 
?4 LEONIE LOCK*,. 
 
 under his breath, * but he will not find her. I nave taken 
 too good care of her for that " 
 
 What would handsome, courteous Gordon Carlisle say 
 if he knew where pretty Leonift was at this particular mo 
 ment? 
 
 Charlie Hart paused an instant, looking up at the grand 
 old mansion home of the Carlisles, standing so grim and 
 dark against its wintery background, under the pale> 
 flickering light of the stars. 
 
 "No wonder Leonie chose the millonaire s son," he 
 muttered, with a hoarse laugh. " I could never have 
 given her a h >me like this, yet she shall be mine; she shall 
 share my fortunes just as they are. " 
 
 He opened the gate noiselessly, and with stealthy steps 
 gained the rear of the house just as Mrs. Stuart, the house 
 keeper, was locking up for the night 
 
 He opened the door and walked in without ceremony. 
 
 " Good-evening, Aunt Stuart/ he said. " Have you an 
 answer to that letter yet that I gave you for Miss Dora 
 Lancaster?" 
 
 " She said she would see you in person when you called." 
 
 " Then go and tell her I am here," he said, impatiently. 
 
 " You must certainly be as mad as a March hare to 
 think I d tell Dora Lancaster you wanted to see her at this 
 time o night," replied Mrs. Stuart, angrily. 4t You are 
 either a fool, or you must take me for one." 
 
 "By no means, my dear aunt," he replied, coolly 
 * But all the same I am determined to see Dora Lancaster, 
 She will not object to the hour. Go *ell her I am here. " 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DORA LANCASTER was sitting by the fire in her exquisite 
 pink and gold boudoir when M.rs. Stuart delivered the 
 strange message. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 * Tell him I will be down directly," said Dora, never 
 
 if ting her eyelids from the glowing coals. 
 
 " It was terribly presumptuous of my nephew to make 
 such an outlandish request at this time o night, and I m 
 sure it is very good of you to see him," said Mrs. Stuart, 
 apologetically. 
 
 Dora frowned slightly, but made her no answer, and 
 Mrs. Stuart went down to her sitting-room again, where 
 she had left Charlie Hart, strangely puzzled ovsr the 
 affair. 
 
 " You need not wait until she comes, Aunt Stuart; 1 
 will make myself comfortable," he said; " don t let me 
 keep you up." 
 
 ** Be sure to shut the hall door tightly after you, Charlie; 
 it has a spring lock," she called, as she took up her small 
 night-lamp and entered her own room across the halL 
 
 He had not long to wait. In a very few moments the 
 door opened, and Dora Lancaster glided into the room. 
 
 He arose with a low bow, proffering his hand, which 
 Miss Lancaster entirely ignored. 
 
 " I received your letter," she said, coldly, " and in it 
 you state that you are in possession of several secrets con 
 cerning Gordon Carlisle, which you will divulge to me if I 
 will make it wortjj your while. Those are your words, I 
 believe; but I am at a. loss to know why you should write 
 in that manner to me. What have I to do with the secret 
 affairs of Gordon Carlisle?" she asked, eying him sharply 
 with her glittering blue eyes. 
 
 " If that be the case, 1 beg a thousand pardons. I waa 
 under the impression that you were engaged to him. 
 Kindly forgive me for giving you annoyance when I 
 thought only of rendering you a service." 
 
 As he spoke he started toward the door. Dora saw at 
 once that she had been too hasty; she must temporize with 
 him. 
 
 " You have aroused HUE curiosity now," she said, smit 
 
LEONTE LOCKE. 
 
 ing sweetly; "and I am determined to hear what yon came 
 Jiere to say. * 
 
 A curious smile flickered under Charlie Hart s dark 
 mustache, and he congratulated himself with knowing just 
 how to bring her to terms. All her imperious, haughty 
 mannerism was utterly lost upon him. 
 
 " I will tell you why you care to hear what I have to 
 tell," he said, advancing a step nearer her. " You love 
 Gordon Carlisle with a love that will overpower all ob 
 stacles to win him in the end a love that will prove his 
 blessing or a curse. " 
 
 For a moment the audacious words of the housekeeper s 
 graceless nephew fairly staggered the haughty young heir 
 ess; he saw it, and cleverly followed up his momentary 
 advantage before she could recover her composure. 
 
 " You love him/ he reiterated, " but he does not care 
 for you, Miss Lancaster, for the simple reason that he has 
 wasted the love you would die to gam upon a common 
 working-girl Leonie Locke." 
 
 The very boldness of his words seemed to strike Dora 
 Lancaster dumb. He had gained complete mastery over 
 her by his daring assertions. 
 
 " He would love you if it were not for Leonie Locke/ 
 he said, softly; ki and 1 should think you would be glad to 
 have her safely put out of his way if you saw a safe chance 
 of doing it," he added, slowly, meeting her keen eyes un 
 flinchingly. 
 
 " That is strange language for you to use to me, Mr. 
 Hart," she answered, at length; " but I can not under 
 stand why this subject should interest you in the least; 
 what could you gain or lose by it either way?" she asked. 
 
 A harsh laugh that was terrible to hear burst from his 
 lips. 
 
 " 1 will tell you why I am equally interested with you in 
 this affair," he replied. * You love Gordon Carlisle, while 
 1 love to the verjje of nv.*Hnsa oretty Leonie Locke, and if 
 

 LEOKIE LOCKE. 7? 
 
 Lo Bni/uid ever win her from me I would have his heart s 
 blood for it; 1 am a desperate man, and I swear no one 
 shall come between me and Leonie Locke. " 
 
 In a single instant Dora Lancaster had changed; she 
 took in the exact situation of affairs at a single glance, and 
 ihe knew this man would be the one above all others in the 
 whole wide world to help her concoct some deep scheme to 
 separate Gordon Carlisle and Leonie Locke. 
 
 She forgot her haughty pride, forgot everything, in the } 
 exultation of the thought that she had some one to help 
 her to separate the lovers. 
 
 " We may as well understand each other/ she whis 
 pered, motioning him back to his seat again. " You are 
 right I do love Gordon Carlisle, as woman never loved 
 man before, and there is nothing a desperate woman would 
 not attempt to thrust a rival from the arms of the man she 
 loves. Deep as your love is for that girl who has won him 
 from me, it is nothing, 1 say, compared to mine for Gordon 
 Carlisle. You must have had some plan fixed upon when 
 you came to me to-night/ she went on, eagerly searching 
 his face as she spoke; " if so, do not stand upon ceremony, 
 as it seems we are both equally interested here; and if it is 
 money you want to carry out your scheme, whatever it 
 may be, you shall not feel the want of it, if you can only 
 get this girl out of the way. She left this house an hour 
 or so ago/ she went on, excitedly; " and Gordon left soon 
 after, openly declaring, in a note I found on the table in 
 the library, * that he was leaving the house forever, and 
 that he would search for Leonie Locke until he found her, 
 and when he did find her he would make her his wife with 
 out delay. You must follow him and put a stop to it in 
 some way," she cried, eagerly. " Go quick! every moment 
 you are losing is precious, a half hour more and you may 
 be too late, she may be his wife by that time. " 
 
 " Do not excite yourself unnecessarily, my dear Miss 
 Lancaster/ he replied, with aororra^ating coolness; " I do 
 
78 tEOHIE LOCKE. 
 
 not anticipate any such catastrophe as that. Gordon Car* 
 lisle could not find Leonie if he were to search all New 
 York for her; she is a guest of mine, or rather a prisoner 
 under lock and key, if you do not mind the harshness of 
 the expression at this particular moment," replied Charlie 
 Hart, complacently. 
 
 " I do not quite understand," said Dora, wonderingly? 
 " make it clear to me, tell me how it came about?" 
 
 " I will explain it with pleasure," he answered. " I 
 can not go into details. You are a clever young lady, and 
 you can grasp the thread of my narrative if I skim over 
 the details. "Well, I followed Leonie Locke here the night 
 she first came here, and I witnessed the accident. 1 knew 
 the doctor who attended her, and from him learned how 
 long she would be detained here. I haunted this house like 
 a veritable shadow, lest she should escape me, and the con 
 sequence was, when she rushed out of this house onto the 
 street to-night the little fairy rushed pell-mell into my 
 arms. There was no chance for an outcry 1 was too 
 clever for that. A little chloroform which I happened to 
 have by me, came in handy, and I had no difficulty what 
 ever in removing her to my bachelor den, as I call it. She 
 will not come to for an hour or so, and I thought I would 
 come and see which of you I could make the best terms 
 with. Shall I go to Gordon Carlisle and demand a good 
 sum for telling him of the whereabouts of his pretty sweet 
 heart, or can I make terms with you to keep her hidden 
 away forever from the gaze of mortal man?" 
 
 " You said a moment since that you wanted to separate 
 this girl and Gordon Carlisle, and now you say you would 
 give her up to him for gold," said the shrewd, suspicious 
 Dora. 
 
 * 4 It would be an easy matter to abduct her again the 
 very next hour, if I had his money to work on," replied 
 Charlie Hart. 
 
 " You did well to nrnue to m* tot," she responded, 
 
LEONH8 LOCKE. 79 
 
 shaking her red-gold curls. " I will pay you well to keep 
 them apart. " 
 
 As she spoke she put her hand into the pocket of her 
 dress and drew out a roll of bills, which Charlie Hart ac 
 cepted without comment. 
 
 " You must help me with this affair, Miss Lancaster/ 
 he said. " I have a most ingenious plan to propose, but it 
 will take a young and handsome, as well as persuasive 2 
 woman to help me carry it out successfully." 
 
 " I am to have nothing to do with it that is, nothing 
 except furnishing the money, " she replied, haughtily, 
 " that was the contract." 
 
 " I will explain what 1 want you to do, and I know you 
 will agree to it; remember, it is to part Gordon Carlisle 
 and Leonie Locke effectually/ 
 
 For an hour or more Charlie Hart talked low and 
 rapidly, while Dora Lancaster listened breathlessly to the 
 cruel plot which was to bJight the pure young life of Leonie 
 Locke. 
 
 Jealousy, that demon that makes fiends of men and 
 women, deadened her heart to all womanly pity or mercy. 
 
 " I will do it," she said, hoarsely; " we could not trust 
 so terrible a secret to a third disinterested party. " 
 
 " Good!" replied Charlie Hart. " With your co-opera 
 tion I shall be sure of success. " 
 
 And when the midnight bells tolled the hour, the schem 
 ing, discharged foreman and the wealthy heiress who was 
 selling her very soul and conscience for the sake of her 
 xnad, hopeless love parted, ready to set on foot the follow 
 ing day the cruelest plot that ever was woven. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARLIE HAKT had spoken the truth. As Leonie had 
 rushed frantically from the house, she had rushed pell-mell 
 into the arms of Jhe treacherous f oe whom she dreaded 
 
$0 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 above all others, and the shock almost took her breath 
 *way. 
 
 " We meet again at last, my charming Leonie/ ex 
 claimed Charlie Hart, exultantly; " and this time I shall 
 take more care in securing the little wild bird I hare taken 
 such pains to recapture." 
 
 With beating heart, and almost faulting from sheer 
 Bright, Leonie tore herself from his grasp, crying out, in- 
 ^Ugnantly: 
 
 1 " Let me pass, sir! How dare you persecute a friendless 
 girl like this? Remember, we are on a crowded street 
 now, and if you do not go your way and let me go mine, 1 
 shall call for help, and some one will come to my rescue; 
 so I do not fear you." 
 
 She tried to wrench her hand from his grasp; but the 
 firm fingers closed over her arm like bands of steel. 
 
 " Listen to me, Leonie Locke," he whispered, drawing 
 step nearer and tightening his hold upon her arm. " I 
 ask you again, and once for all, will you be my wife? 
 There is nothing I would not do to win you. I have often 
 heard that love made men desperate, and I laughed at the 
 motion; but I do not laugh at it now I can understand 
 now why it is so." 
 
 " Your love and your hatred are all the same to me/ 
 cried Leonie, spiritedly, the swift color kindling her pale 
 face with its crimson glow, and her lovely dark eyes blaz 
 ing like stars. " Your very presence is an insult, and 
 unless you release my arm at once 1 shall do just as I said 
 call help to rid myself of your unwelcome society." 
 
 "Take care, my spirited beauty, lest you try my 
 patience too far," lie cried, warningly. "What is your 
 strength compared to mine, if I choose to exert it in 
 silencing you? You think I am not as rich or handsome 
 s Gordon Carlisle is," he went on, recklessly; " but let 
 me tell you I have found another position in the New York 
 Custom House, wj^eia I. shall make a solid fortune, and 
 
LEOKIB LOCKE. 81 
 
 you shall have silks and diamonds and everything yo 
 want if you will only marry me, Leonie." 
 
 The superb scorn on the beautiful young face angered 
 him as much as her words had don. 
 
 " I despise you, Charles Hart," she cried; " mere words 
 can not tell how much! and I would not marry you if you 
 had all the wealth in the world. I shall ask you jus* this 
 once: Will you let me go my way in peace?" 
 
 He did not notice the last part of her sentence. 
 
 " You do not love me because you have given your heart 
 to Gordon Carlisle, the millionaire s son," he hissed^ 
 cruelly tightening his clasp on Leonie s arm "you, a 
 working-girl, whom the handsome young heir might flirt 
 with in secret if he thought no one would know it, but 
 who would pass you by with a haughty stare if you pre 
 sumed upon your acquaintance by speaking to him before* 
 any one in his own set," he added, tauntingly. 
 
 He could see that his malicious taunt had struck home 
 by the fears that struggled through the long, curling lashes 
 that lay like a fringe of jetty silk on the beautiful crimsoiL 
 cheek. 
 
 Like a flash, Leonie wrenched her arm free from In* 
 grasp and darted down the street with the speed of a 
 hunted deer, and with a muttered oath Charlie Hart dashed 
 after her in close pursuit. 
 
 As usual, when policemen are needed in moments of 
 great peril, they are nowhere to be seen, and it happened 
 so in this case. 
 
 Onward, pantingly, block after block, dashed Leonie, 
 with Charlie Hart scarcely an arm s-length behind her. 
 The terrified girl noticed that he was gaining upon her 
 every instant; her red lips parted to call out shrilly for 
 help, but before she could utter one sound Charlie Hart s 
 arm was thrown quickly around her neck and his hand 
 pressed down tightly over her tremulous lips. 
 
 " It is not quite so eaav to escape me as you seem to inr 
 
8xJ LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 agine, my scornful little beauty," he cried, exultantly. 
 " You see you are as much in my power on the street as 
 you were when I had you under lock and key; and there is 
 one thing I have to thank you for like the moth who flut 
 tered straight into the flame of the candle, you have headed 
 for the very street where 1 thought I should be obliged to 
 carry you by main force. You see what an immense 
 amount of trouble you have saved me. Look up at the 
 house toward the left there and see if you recognize it. " 
 
 He held his hand so closely over her mouth she could 
 -not utter a sound, but the horror expressed in the dark, 
 .frightened eyes told him plainly enough that she recog 
 nized the house as the one from which she had made her 
 escape that memorable night. In a moment he had raised 
 the slight, girlish figure in his powerful arms, and bore her 
 quickly into the house and up into the room in which she 
 had once before been imprisoned. 
 
 " I have a little business to transact just now, and I 
 think I will take extra precautions to find you here when 
 I return," he exclaimed, producing a sponge and a small 
 vial from his pocket as he spoke, and quickly removing his 
 hand from her mouth he placed the dampened sponge to 
 her nostrils. 
 
 In a single instant the horrible truth rushed over poor 
 Leonie it was chloroform!. 
 
 " Oh, Father in heaven, do not desert me now!" she 
 wailed out, sharply. " Save me! save me! save me!" 
 
 The last word ended in a gasp, and that horrible drug 
 which has figured prominently, alas! so often in the his 
 tory of terrible crimes, and which has so often proved a 
 curse instead of a boon and a blessing, was already com 
 mencing its fatal, deadly work upon Leonie a confused 
 senses. 
 
 Charlie Hart s face, which was bending over her, seemed 
 to be whirling around her, a deathly sweetness seemed to 
 stifle her, stars seemed to fall thickly about her like ? 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. 83 
 
 shower of scorching, suffocating balls of blazing fire; then 
 t&e exultant, fiendish face of her persecutor seemed to fade 
 into the red glow of the flames, and the darkness of death 
 closed in about her. The chloroform had done its work 
 Leonie was powerless and at the villain s mercy. 
 
 There are strong healthy natures which quickly counter 
 act the drug s deadening influence, and Leonie s happened 
 to be one of them. Charlie Hart had not been away from 
 the room in which he had placed the unconscious girl safe 
 ly under lock and key fifteen minutes before Leonie s scat 
 tered senses returned to her, and she struggled to her feet 
 with a suppressed cry of terror, looking eagerly around 
 her, fearful lest she should see the dark, evil face of 
 Charlie Hart, and his exultant, wicked eyes gazing upon 
 her from the dense shadows which wrapped the further end 
 of the room. 
 
 "Where is he?" thought Leonie, almost fainting with 
 fear, as she gazed around the well-remembered room. 
 
 As she had expected, the door was securely locked, as 
 was the window from which she had made her exit down 
 the fi?-escape. 
 
 " I am lost lost lost!" cried Leonie, falling on her 
 kneea. " There is no escape for me now. Oh, angels up 
 in heaven, listen to the prayer of an unprotected orphan 
 girl, and show me some means of escape from this man 
 who is hunting me down." 
 
 No appeal from pure lips was ever made in vain to the 
 God who watches over the innocent and unprotected, and 
 the sound of those passionate, pitiful words had scarcely 
 died away on her quivering lips ere her glance fell upon a 
 bright brass key hanging on a nail close by the door. 
 
 Trembling so that she could scarcely walk, Leonie crept 
 toward it and took it down. Would it give her freedom, 
 or would it doom her to despair more cruel than death? 
 One breathless moment, and the trembling fingers had in 
 serted the key. Ob* jovl.jiovl -God had heard her praye* 
 
84 LEOKIE LOOSE. 
 
 i 
 
 The key turned in the lock, and the door swung open, ft 
 was a pass-key, which Charlie Hart had quite forgotten the 
 existence of, which had hung unnoticed there for a year or 
 more, and which Heaven had destined for this very use. 
 A moment more and Leonie was on the street again; but, 
 alas! Heaven help her, which way should she go? 
 
 It is well for those whom Heaven has blessed with homes 
 fchat they know not the awful despair that settled over that 
 forlorn young heart as she stood irresolutely gazing up and 
 down the snow-covered street, not knowing which way to 
 turn for shelter. 
 
 At that moment a woman s figure flitted hurriedly up 
 the street on the opposite pavement, and stopped short 
 directly opposite the shadowy door-way in which Leonie 
 stood, and after a moment s hesitation she crossed the 
 street, and walked deliberately up to the door-way in which 
 Leonie was attempting to conceal herself in the dense 
 shadows. 
 
 There was something familiar in the red plaid shawl and 
 brown ruffled dress of the girl who crossed the street so 
 rapidly, and as the light of the gas-lamp fell full upon her 
 face Leonie recognized her instantly as Kate Hardy, one 
 of the girls who worked in the fur-trimming department 
 of Messrs. Lincoln & Carlisle. 
 
 In her present state of misfortune, Leonie never ques 
 tioned herself as to what Kate could possibly be doing there 
 at that late hour of the night, but hurried eagerly out of 
 the shadows, exclaiming, piteously: 
 
 " Miss Hardy, I am so glad to see you; please stop just 
 one moment. 1 am not a stranger to you; I ain Leonie 
 Locke, the girl who was in your work-room, and sat at the 
 same table with you only a short month ago. I am house 
 less, homeless, Miss Hardy, and 1 beg you to take me 
 home with you just for to-nigbt. " 
 
 " I know you, Leonie Locke/ cried the girl, with supi 
 pressed fury, " I could >ew_ f urtf et ..YOU, for you stole mj 
 
;...-. HOWIE LOCKE. 85 
 
 lover, Charlie Hart, from me. Bat I will forgive you foi 
 it," she cried, with a itrfll laugh. * Come along with 
 me, pretty Leonie to teur death/ 5 she added, below hei 
 breath. 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 No lurking thought of evil intent crossed Leonie s mind 
 as Kate Hardy -uttered the last words; and she gladly 
 availed herself of the opportunity of accompanying Kate 
 to her humble lodgings. 
 
 " What were you doing near Charlie Hart s room to 
 night?" asked Kate, after they had proceeded together 
 some distance. 
 
 " I was brought there by force," answered Leonie. 
 " All I can tell you of that terrible affair is this, Kate: 
 Charlie Hart has vowed that I shall marry him; and he 
 locked me up in the room, from which I have just now 
 escaped." 
 
 " Does he love you?" asked Kate Hardy, scarcely above 
 a whisper, as they walked along together arm in arm. 
 
 "He says so," answered Leonie, with a shudder. She 
 dicl not see the sudden pallor that crept into the face of 
 the girl who walked beside her or the terrible fire of jeal 
 ousy that blazed in her black eyes. 
 
 Kate Hardy s heart was so bitter against Leonie at that 
 moment that she could have murdered her; and she hated 
 with all her strength the beautiful girl who had come be 
 tween her and her fickle lover. 
 
 They crossed the river to New York, and taking a car ( 
 rode to the end of the route, when they alighted and walked 
 along in silence for several blocks; then suddenly Leonie 
 turned to Kate, exclaiming: 
 
 " 1 never knew you lived as far out as this, Kate. Why, 
 we are on the outskirts of the city!" 
 
 " It isn t much fini:hftr."~renliad J^ate, in a hard, coir 
 
8$ LEONIE LOOSE. 
 
 strained roioe. " I guess we had better cross over and 
 follow the railroad track up. I live on the Harlem road, 
 you know, and it s nearer that way/ 
 
 Never dreaming of the fatal web which was closing in 
 around her, Leonie followed the girl without the least sus 
 picion. They walked upon the railroad track for a mile or 
 more, until they had reached a narrow gorge or ravine. 
 Toward the right was a steep projection of ice-covered 
 rocks, around which the track curved abruptly. It wai 
 the most dangerous portion of the Harlem road, owicg to 
 the fact that any object which might obstruct the track 
 could not be seen by the engineer until the train had 
 rounded the abrupt curve. 
 
 " This is the place, above all others," muttered Kate 
 3Iardy, hoarsely, to herself, as she wheeled suddenly about 
 and grasped Leonie by both shoulders. " I ve got you 
 just where I want you now, Leonie Locke!" she hissed. 
 " When you crossed my path, and stole away my lover, I 
 put a black cross against your name, and that meant that 
 your days were numbered! I shall take a glorious revenge 
 upon you; you shall never see the light of another day! 
 Say your prayers, if you know any, for your last hour has 
 come!" 
 
 "You frighten me, Kate!" gasped Leonie. " Don t 
 clasp my shoulders so tightly; you hurt me! I have been 
 very, very ill, Kate; and 1 am too weak for such a joke." 
 
 " A joke! Ah-ha !" cried Kate Hardy, fiercely. " Did 
 you think it a joke to steal Charlie Hart from me, when 
 you knew he was my lover mine, all mine before he saw 
 
 you?" 
 
 * I never meant to take away any one s lover," answered 
 Leonie, gazing up into the girl s rage-distorted face. 
 
 " It s a lie! Yes, a lie!" hissed Kate, her intense rage 
 growing more fierce with every word. * You did mean to 
 do it; and you try to cheat and hoodwink me, pretending 
 you do not want hizn.1 w ^*fc war* *<ui^doing up in that 
 
IEONIE LOCKE. 3? 
 
 loom to-night, if not to see him whom you have stole* 
 from me?" 
 
 ** You are mad, Kate, to accuse me so cruelly," gasped 
 Leonie. 
 
 Another horrible laugh interrupted her. 
 
 " Yes, I am mad mad, that s the word! and you 
 have driven me to it, Leonie Locke! But 1 shall take a 
 fearful vengeance on you here and now; for you shall die 
 right here! Then he will be mine all mine again!" 
 
 With a fear too horrible to be frame in words, Leonie 
 gazed up into the girl s rage-distorted face. It was no 
 joke, no delusion, but a fearful truth! She read murder 
 in the black, lurid eyes gazing down into her own. 
 
 " I never meant to harm you by word, act, or deed, 
 Kate!" cried Leonie. " I do not want your lover. Have 
 pity on me, and show some signs of forgiveness! You 
 terrify me, Kate! For one little moment I almost believed 
 you meant to murder me here in this isolated place!" 
 
 No answer came from the girl s hard-set lips; but the 
 deadly purpose in her eyes grew more intense in the white, 
 solemn moonlight. 
 
 " Say your prayers, if you know any, Leonie Locke, for 
 your hour has come!" she hissed, hoarsely; and before 
 Leonie had a moment s time to think or act, Kate Hardy 
 had suddenly raised her slight form in her strong arms 
 and deliberately kid her across the track. 
 
 A wild, piercing cry for help rang out on the night air, 
 Jying away in a low moan in the ravine beyond. In vain 
 -Leoiiie struggled and pleaded; there was no mercy in the 
 fiendish face bending over her, and despite her struggles, 
 Kate Hardy succeeded in pinioning her hands and feet and 
 securely fastening her io the track. 
 
 No one heard the piercing cries for help that fell from 
 the lips of the terrified girl, as she realized the full horror 
 of her terrible position. 
 
 * Now you saxudi* time*. Leonie Locke!" cried Kate, 
 
88 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 with ft horrible laugh. " A few minutes more and the 
 New York train will pass this point. I leave you to your 
 fate. There won t be much left of your pretty faoe half 
 An hour from now! You came between me and my lover, 
 and now you shall pay for it with your life!" 
 
 And with the cries of poor, frantic Leonie ringing in hei 
 cars, Kate Hardy, whom raging jealousy had rendered a 
 fiend incarnate, turned deliberately and left Leonie Locke 
 to her horrible fate. 
 
 And as the steps of the inhuman girl died away over the 
 crusty snow in the distance, the sound of an engine-bell, 
 heralding the approach of the down-train, fell like a knell 
 of doom upon the ears of Leonie, who was almost fainting 
 with horror. 
 
 Never had life seemed so sweet to her as now! She was 
 so young to die! Oh! it was bitterly cruel to think of the 
 horrible death that awaited her so soon! 
 
 Her long, brown, silky curls swept the cold steel track 
 like a dusky signal of warning, and her white face and 
 horror-stricken eyes were turned toward the starry domt* 
 above her the starry heavens, from which God looked 
 down and saw her peril, and listened to that wild appeal 
 for deliverance from the certain death that was sweeping 
 down upon her! 
 
 In vain she struggled to free herself from the thongs 
 that bound her; useless, useless! the cruel cords but cut 
 the deeper into her tender flesh. 
 
 Suddenly the sound of horses hoofs fell upon her ear* 
 and the next moment a horseman dashed in sight. Had 
 God answered her prayer? Was deliverance at hand? 
 Leonie made a desperate effort to cry out; but the hoarse 
 cry upon her lips died away, leaving no sound, for at that 
 instant the man had spoken to his horse, urging it to 
 greater speed, as he patted its arched, glossy neck. 
 
 What was there in that kind, gentle tone that held 
 Leonie spell-bound fta~ba-liataDi&~. Her brain seemed 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 89 
 
 whirling, and her heart, for an instant, ceased to beat II 
 was the voice of Gordon Carlisle. He touched the mettle 
 some horse with his riding-whip. 
 
 " We must cross the track before the train reaches us, 
 Hero," he cried, impatiently, again touching the flank of 
 the steed with his whip. 
 
 But Hero had noticed that strange, dark object lying 
 motionless across the track, and swerved aside with a sud 
 denness that nearly unseated his rider; and the next in 
 stant both horse and man had cleared the intervening 
 space to the main road, and were far beyond the hearing 
 of the wailing, piteous voice that the night winds seemed 
 to mock in the intensity of its thrilling despair. 
 
 " God has forgotten me!" she wailed; " and I am left 
 to die!" 
 
 A few fleeting seconds more and the ponderous engine 
 would crush her. How little Gordon Carlisle knew that 
 the young girl whom he would have sheltered with his very 
 life, for whom he had given up home and luxury Leonie, 
 whom he loved so madly, so passionately lay at that mo 
 ment in such horrible danger, while he had been almost 
 within reach of her. 
 
 And every instant the clang of the engine-bell that 
 drowned out that wailing, horrible cry for help sounded 
 nearer and nearer! 
 
 One moment more and the curve would be reached, 
 and the next instant Leonie Locke would be crushed be 
 neath the wheels. The rails shook, and tht ponderous en 
 gine dashed up to the curve and rounded it. Leonie lay in 
 a dead faint, unconscious of the awful doom rushing down 
 upon her! 
 
 CHAPTER XV1L 
 
 THE train for New York was twenty minutes behind 
 
 time. The fireman hAns more coal into the furnace^ 
 
90 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 watching covertly out of the corners of his eyes the en 
 gineer, Bill Harris, who stands thoughtfully before the 
 window, with his hand on the lever, while the train, puffing 
 and panting, dashes on through the darkness of the night 
 
 " I hope you re not thinking yet of that nonsense we 
 were talking about when the train started/ said the fire 
 man, throwing down his shovel with a hearty laugh, and 
 crossing over to the window where Bill Harris the engi 
 neer still stood in the same thoughtful position. * You re 
 fche most superstitious man I ever saw!" he went on; " you 
 see, we are almost at the end of the route now, and noth 
 ing has happened," he added, triumphantly. 
 
 No answering smile broke the gravity of the engineer s 
 swarthy face. 
 
 " We re not at the end of the route yet, and 1 sha n t 
 breathe freely until we slack up in the New York depot. 
 I ve been running on the road twenty odd years now, and 
 we old railroaders know what signs mean when we see em. 
 You can talk about superstition, and all that sort of thing, 
 but when an engineer sees a white rabbit leap across the 
 track when the sun is going down, let him look out for his 
 train a terrible accident follows. * 
 
 A cold shudder ran over the fireman s sturdy frame; 
 although he laughed and ridiculed the idea, somehow the 
 solemn words of the engineer impressed him strangely. 
 
 " Why didn t you shoot the rabbit then to-day when 
 you saw it making for the track? Run slow, and keep a 
 sharp lookout, and I guess we ll pull through all right," 
 said the fireman, cheerily. 
 
 " I ve run so slow I ve lost twenty minutes now," re 
 torted the engineer; * and I must turn on more steam at 
 once. And there, another reason I have for fearing some 
 startling calamity: a woman was the first to board the train 
 when we took on the passengers at Albany. " 
 
 " Is there a sign about that?" asked the fireman, laugh- 
 
1EONIB LOCKE. 91 
 
 Sng outright at the notion. " That s the worst I eve* 
 heard of!" 
 
 " There s many a conductor that would have prevented 
 a woman from entering his car first, if it cost him his posi 
 tion; there s just that much to it," replied the engineer, 
 sighing. " And when I saw the rabbit cross, I said to my 
 self, Bill Harris, old boy, look out for yourself, for you 
 may never see Nancy and the babies again. This may be 
 your last trip!* But I didn t try to find a substitute. I ll 
 stick to the old engine like a soldier at his post." 
 
 " I guess Fll shake the railroad business after this trip!" 
 ayclaimed the fireman, nervously; " you ve worked me up 
 to such a pitch, I d get to be a raving luny dreaming of 
 white rabbits and women after these night runs." As 
 he spoke, the engine whirled with lightning rapidity round 
 the fatal abrupt curve around the rocks. 
 
 There was a terrible hoarse cry from the engineer: 
 
 "My God! my prediction has come true!" he cried; 
 * there is a log across the track to wreck the train!" 
 
 With an effort, born of intense horror, he whistled 
 down-brakes. "Would it be too late? All the agony of a 
 life-time was crowded into the awful moment that followed. 
 A single instant more and the engine would sweep across 
 the dark object lying so motionless across the track. With 
 a flying leap, the old engineer had gained the cow-catcher, 
 and at that instant the speed of the engine slackened per 
 ceptibly, it quivered an instant, and then stood still. 
 
 " It is a woman!" cried the engineer. " And, my God! 
 she is bound fast to the track!" 
 
 In an instant the greatest excitement prevailed. Pas 
 sengers had left the coaches, and were hurrying breathless 
 ly to the spot. The bright, glaring light from the engine 
 fell full upon the pallid face, beautiful as a dream, and the 
 sweeping veil of glossy, brown hair. 
 
 " A beautiful young girl, found bound fast to the track!" 
 ras the startling QT..V that raiur from lip to lip of the 
 
93 LEOFIE LOCKE. 
 
 startled passengers. "Another moment, and the traia 
 would have passed over her. " And more than one prayer 
 of thankfulness that the life of the lovely young stranger 
 had been so miraculously saved trembled on the lips of the 
 gentlemen and ladies present. 
 
 " Who is she? * asked a pompous old gentleman, step 
 ping forward. " Is there no clew to her identity?" 
 
 Yes; there was a little velvet purse in her pocket which 
 contained a few coins and a card bearing the name of 
 Leonie Locke. 
 
 The effect produced upon the pompous old gentleman 
 was wonderful 
 
 " Leonie Locke! Was that the name I understood you to 
 say?" he inquired, excitedly. " Why, good heavens! ladies 
 and gentlemen, that is the name of a young girl I have 
 been searching for for a year or so. I am William Barrett, 
 attorney, and a client of mine, who died some time ago, 
 has left a solid fortune of a million of dollars to his grand 
 daughter, Leonie Locke. Well, now, I really wonder if 
 this pretty little creature will turn out to be the one I am 
 looking for!" 
 
 " It would be just too lovely for anything, and just like 
 a romance!" said the ladies. "Oh! I do hope she will 
 turn out to be the one she is so exquisitely lovely!" 
 
 The question was soon settled. The great, dark, velvety 
 eyes flashed open, and the crimson lips parted in an audible 
 sigh, as those starry eyes wandered mutely over the sea of 
 strange faces around her. 
 
 " Where am I? Oh, save me, save me!" cried Leonie, 
 as the train into which they had borne her began to move 
 on again. "Oh! I remember all the horror of the great 
 engine looming above me and " 
 
 * And you were saved saved by the wonderful presence 
 of mind of the engineer of this train!" said the old lawyer, 
 Mr. Barrett, seating himself beside her; " and we found a 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 9* 
 
 card in your pocket/* he went on, excitedly, " bearing the- 
 name Leonie Locke. Is that your name?" 
 
 " Yes," said Leonie, quietly, wondering at the breath 
 less interest of the passengers, who crowded around her. 
 
 " And was your father named Allan Locke?" ques 
 tioned the lawyer. 
 
 Leonie bowed in the affirmative, clutching her little 
 white hands nervously together, wondering what new mis 
 fortune was about to befall her. The excitement of the 
 old gentleman in the seat beside her frightened her he was- 
 peering at her so curiously over the rim of his gold eye 
 glasses. 
 
 " You are the daughter of Claire and Allan Locke, and 
 your grandfather was Morris Locke?" questioned the 
 lawyer. 
 
 " Yes, sir," answered Leonie, timidly, the frightened 
 wonder deepening in her dark eyes. 
 
 " Where are you going where do you live?" he asked, 
 suddenly. 
 
 Leonie s fair face flushed a deep burning red at the ap 
 parent impertinence of the question; the old gentleman 
 quickly noticed her embarrassment, and hastened to apolo^ 
 gize. 
 
 " I have a startling disclosure to make to you, my dear 
 young lady," he went on " a disclosure that would turn 
 the head of almost any young girl. It can be told in a 
 very few words. A year ago your grandfather, Morris 
 Locke, died, and in the will which he left he named you, 
 his granddaughter, Leonie Locke, sole heir to his estate, 
 which is worth a million of dollars. A.llow me to be the 
 first to congratulate you, my dear, upon the great good 
 fortune that has fallen to your lot. " 
 
 The beautiful, dark, velvety eyes were expanded in the- 
 greatest surprise, and all the color had faded from her 
 face. He quite believed she had not comprehended what 
 te had said, and he rented: 
 
94 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 " You are an heiress, Miss Locke neiress to a million 
 of dollars in your own right, which I am to hold in trust 
 for you until you are eighteen. " 
 
 "Oh, .sir, do you really believe it?" queried Leonie, 
 breathlessly. " Is there no mistake? Surely there must 
 be! Fate has been so unkind to me all my life, it must be 
 playing some trick upon me now." 
 
 " There is no mistake, " returned the lawyer. " In our 
 profession we do not deal with fate, as you phrase it; it is 
 Our business to get down to facts; and it is settled in my 
 mind beyond all doubt that you are the heiress I have 
 been in search of. " 
 
 Leonie sprung to her feet, trembling with emotion. 
 
 " I can scarcely believe that I, Leonie Locke, whom the 
 world has used so cruelly, am really an heiress," she cried, 
 pushing the dark, curling rings of hair back from her white 
 forehead in a bewildered sort of way. " I am only a 
 working-girl whom nobody cares for/ she went on, 
 piteously. "I have never had any money; lam unused 
 to wealth and comfort; my life has been hard and lonely, 
 dreary and dull. I should not know what to do with it." 
 
 " After you have seen a little more of the world you 
 won t say that, my dear child/ laughed the lawyer, up 
 roariously. " Why, women know how to make money 
 fairly fly. I am not surprised at your agitation; perhaps 
 no young lady ever had more cause; but you must bear 
 prosperity as you have borne adversity. From this time 
 out your whole life will be changed, your future will be 
 brilliant, for with wealth and beauty combined, life is full 
 of golden promise. " 
 
 A dazzling smile parted the beautiful crimson lips, and 
 the color rushed back to Leonie s face in a sweeping tide. 
 In her great excitement, she forgot that the old lawyer was 
 explaining all the circumstances to her. She did not hear 
 one word he was saying. Leonie s thoughts had drifted 
 back to Gordon Carlisle, and her heart was crying out: 
 
E30X1E LOCKE. 9ft 
 
 " Oh, Gordon, my love my love! with wealth and my 
 great love, perhaps I may win you yet. All the wealth in 
 the whole wide world would be valueless to me if I were 
 shut out from your heart." 
 
 How little Leonie dreamed of the terrible price her love 
 for Gordon Carlisle was to cost her. 
 
 CHAPTER XV1IL 
 
 THE sudden change from earning her own living to the 
 luxury in which Leonie found herself would have dazzled 
 almost any young girl older and wiser than Leonie. 
 She wondered how she had ever lived through that cold 
 dark past, that held but one gleam of sunshine in it that 
 supremely happy moment when Gordon Carlisle had 
 clasped her in his arms and told her that he loved her. 
 
 In that one moment, with her head resting upon his 
 shoulder, she was a thousand times happier as Leonie 
 Locke, the dependent little working-girl, than she was now 
 without him, though surrounded by every luxury wealth 
 could command. 
 
 Poor little hungry heart, she would have bartered every 
 dollar to have lived over again tnat sweet short hour. 
 
 Gordon was her first love, and there is no love that can 
 ever equal the first sweet love-dream that creeps into a 
 young girl s heart. 
 
 Like the maidens of whom the poet sings so sweetly: 
 
 " They never know they have a heart 
 Till they are conscious of its loss." 
 
 " What would Gordon Carlisle say when he heard of it!*" 
 Leonie asked herself; " and his lady mother who had saia 
 her handsome son could never love a working-girl.*" 
 
 An indignant flush crimsoned Leonie s cheek as sna 
 thought of it.. 
 
 As Leonie had no relatives to nr.m and live witti ae* & 
 
96 LBOS1E LOCKB. 
 
 the elegant mansion on Lexington Avenue that had been 
 prepared for the young heiress, Mr. Barrett, the lawyer, 
 and his wife, a plump little society lady, took up their 
 abode with h^r. 
 
 Leonie had left the old life behind her; she could scarce 
 ly realize that the radiant little figure which her mirror re 
 flected, robed in shimmering silk, in whose tiny shell-like 
 ears and on whose small white hands costly diamonds glit 
 tered was the same Leonie Locke who had toiled so hard 
 for her daily bread, who kne,w all the horrors compressed 
 into the words, " Work will be slack this week/ and the 
 still greater horror of opening her slim -envelope when 
 Saturday night came around and finding the little slip of 
 paper in it that meant " discharged." 
 
 Now all the world was changed for her; she was courted, 
 petted, and flattered. But she never quite realized the full 
 power of money until an amusing little incident happened 
 to her. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett had made all possible haste in attending to 
 Leonie s wardrobe. 
 
 " You must not be seen in that blue merino dress of 
 yours, my dear; the neighbors hereabouts would never for 
 get it; it savors too much of the workshop, and to use the 
 expression my husband often uses, more comical than 
 polite, it quite * gives you away/ my dear." 
 
 So the neat-fitting blue merino dress and the jacket and 
 cloth cap were quickly discarded, and the stylish, pretty 
 little creature in her costly sealskin and jaunty crimson 
 plush hat and drooping plumes who sat in the phaeton be 
 side Mrs. Barrett as they drove toward Macy s was a widety 
 different appearing personage from the timid little Leonie 
 whom we first introduced to our readers; but all the ele 
 gance of her apparel could not add to the .beauty of the 
 sweet young face framed in those babyish rings of soft 
 brown hair, or add one luster to those dark wondrous eyes 
 fringed by their lone lashes, or to the charm of those rose- 
 
LEQVIE LOCKE. 9? 
 
 bod lips curved like a Cupid s bow, over whose smiles men 
 were to contest so bitterly. 
 
 " I am proud of you, Leonie," said Mrs. Barrett, com 
 placently. " Your beauty will create quite a commotion 
 in society; you will turn the heads of all the marriageable 
 young fellows. Young girls of your age generally have 
 some ideal hero pictured in their minds. But when you 
 Prince Charming comes along, you must not be in a hurry 
 to marry. A year or so will be plenty of time for that. " 
 
 " I shall never marry," said Leonie, paling to the very 
 lips, and a look of keen distress in her deep, dark eyesr 
 " Please never mention marriage to me. I shall never 
 marry/* 
 
 " No one but old maids, whom nobody wants, or some 
 creature who has been crossed in love, ever make such a 
 remark as that. It sounds ridiculous on the lips of a pretty 
 girl. You can not rule your own heart, my dear. Love 
 goes where Heaven intended it should go, and when the 
 right one comes along you will say to yourself, 1 can never 
 be happy without him, and then it will end just as it 
 should in a marriage. 
 
 Before Leonie could frame a reply the phaeton drew up 
 before Macy s, and Mrs. Barrett and Leonie alighted just 
 as a gentleman, whom Mrs. Barrett evidently knew, was 
 passing. 
 
 One glance at his face, and in an instant all Leonie s 
 self-possession had vanished. She recognized him instantly 
 as the proprietor o^ *he factory in which Emma Williams 
 worked, and as the bcern, haughty man who had said " he 
 would not have her in his employ an hour longer unless she 
 could prove beyond a doubt she had not been seen at mid 
 night, when her father lay dying, where no respectable 
 young girl would have been. " 
 
 " Would he recognize her?" Leonie asked herself, " and 
 would that horrible story, that Jay in the dark past, leak 
 oat and blast the bjilliftnf nrosDecte el her future?" 
 
98 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 A deathly faintness stole over Leonie as Mrs. Barrett 
 went through the formula of introducing them. Then she 
 raised her eyes to his, expecting to read surprise and even 
 contempt in them as he recognized in her the poor little 
 working-girl whom he had turned from his door that 
 stormy December night. She was prepared to see him 
 (urn to Mrs. Barrett with that cruel story on his lips. 
 
 A moment of silence ensued, and then Leonie raised her 
 fjes to his; but in them, much to her intense astonish- 
 ident, she read only undisguised admiration and profound 
 respect. 
 
 " He did not recognize me/ she thought, catching her 
 breath quickly. " Thank Heaven for that!" 
 
 Leonie turned hurriedlv toward the entrance, while Mrs. 
 Barrett ana Mr. Alcot followed more leisurely, and every 
 word of their conversation reached Leonie s ears. 
 
 " What a beautiful ^?ng girl," Mr. Alcot was saying, 
 " I iave never seen ts i*ce thaf- attracted me so at first 
 fight. I shall be only too pleasea to d^ail myself of your 
 kind permission to call upon you *) n early date, with the 
 hope 1 may also be permitted to see Miss Loc&e: and bow 
 ing profoundly to the two ladies, and with a lingering 
 glance at Leonie, Mr. Alcot left them at the entrance door 
 
 " My face attracted him at first sight/ thought Leonie, 
 fith a bitter smile. " How little he knows under what 
 circumstances we have met before ! What a difference clotho* 
 can make in one s appearance! He admires the heiress \- 
 her silks and jewels, while he despises the poor little work 
 ing-girl who was dependent upon him for work." 
 
 She was just beginning to learn the power of sordid gold. 
 
 " All this is because I have money," she thought, with 
 bitter contempt. " If wealth had only come to me sooner, 
 I might have won Gordon Carlisle. He could speak to the 
 poor little working-girl of love; but when it came to mar 
 riage, that was quite another question ; he must marry one 
 m his own circle nne whose wealth w*g equal to his own." 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 9ft 
 
 That night Lawyer Barrett and his wife held quite a 
 lengthy debate in their own apartments in reference to 
 Leonie, and, as usual, the determined little lady carried 
 the point. 
 
 " Leonie is all that is pretty, that I grant; but she lacka 
 the grace and culture that fit one for society/ declared 
 Mrs. Barrett, energetically, " and it nust be attended to 
 without delay; we must engage competent persons to 
 remedy this defect at once a professor for the languages, 
 and one for music. " 
 
 And so they settled it; and their decision changed the 
 current of two lives. The next day, in answer to an 
 advertisement which appeared in the " Herald/ * a young 
 man called and was shown at once into Lawyer Barrett s 
 library. 
 
 Mr. Barrett glanced at the card, which bore the name 
 " Paul Rexford/ and placed a chair for his visitor. 
 
 " In answer to the advertisement? ah, yes; be seated, 
 please/ exclaimed Mr. Barrett, examining his visitor with 
 his keen, critical eyes, and forming an opinion of him at 
 first glance. 
 
 Mr. Eexford bowed with a haughty grace, taking the 
 proffered seat. Although Mr. Barrett, the sharp little 
 lawyer, had always prided himself upon being able to read 
 character in faces, this time he owned to himself he was a 
 little puzzled in regard to the young man before him. 
 
 The low, modulated voice and graceful bearing of Mr. 
 Eexford proclaimed him to be a gentleman. Yet, Mr. 
 Barrett would have been better satisfied if he could have 
 seen more of his face. 
 
 His hair was intensely dark and abundant, drooping ovei 
 his forehead in clustering waves in a way that concealed 
 the greater portion of it, and the heavy mustache seemed 
 to perform the same service for the lower portion of hia 
 face; a pair of dark-blue double glasses concealed the 
 bright, restless eyes, and the lawyer could not determine 
 
100 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 whether they were black or blue, but judging from hfe 
 dark hair and mustache, thought them to be dark. 
 
 At length the young professor s services were engaged, 
 a fact which the old lawyer had cause to regret to the last 
 day of his life. 
 
 " Your pupil is not acquainted with even the rudiments 
 of music," said Mr. Barrett, in conclusion. " Her history 
 is a peculiar one: her wealth has been but recently ac 
 quired, and up to the present time her education in the 
 higher branches has been, of a consequence, neglected. 
 She is graceful, as a wild flower is graceful, but she is not 
 fitted for society. You understand the case, I hope?" 
 
 Young Mr. Eexford bowed, and the lawyer went on: 
 
 " We shall require your services three days of the week, 
 Mr. Rexford, and you can name your own compensation/ 
 
 " When do you wish the young lady s studies to com 
 mence?" asked the young professor, rising to depart. 
 
 " I must consult Leonie in regard to that/ replied Mr. 
 Barrett 
 
 " 1 beg your pardon; did you call the young girl 
 Leonie?" asked the professor, hoarsely. 
 
 ** Yes," replied Mr. Barrett, wonderingly. " Her nanw 
 is Leonie Locke a pretty name, which suits her exactly^- 
 Why, good heavens, Mr. Rexford, are you ill?" he cried hi 
 alarm as the young man sunk back upon his seat, hoarsely 
 repeating the name, " Leonie Locke." 
 
 By a great effort he controlled his emotion, answering 
 calmly: 
 
 * 4 It was but a momentary illness. I regret exceedingly 
 the alarm I have caused you. I was startled by an old 
 memory. " 
 
 Thus assured, Mr. Barrett felt relieved, and immediately 
 touched the bell-rope, summoning Leonie, who appeared a 
 moment after. 
 
 She was a beautiful vision of girlhood in the pale-blue 
 nun s- veiling dress, which set oE jtha fair loveliness of hei 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 101 
 
 dainty bean* 90 perfectly, her dark, starry, sparkling eyea 
 outrivaling the gems that twinkled in her tiny ears. 
 
 No wonder the young professor gazed at her from behind 
 his blue glasses, his whole soul in his eyes, his face paling 
 strangely. 
 
 "Fool! mad fool that I was to come ncre!" ho mut 
 tered. " Fate seems to conspire against i^c." 
 
 Leonie acknowledged the introduction to the tall, grave 
 young professor in her timid fashion, mentally wondering 
 where she had seen just such a person before. 
 
 There was something strangely familiar in the white, 
 aristocratic hand lying carelessly against the marble mantel, 
 and in the haughty bow with which he stepped forward 
 when she was presented to him, and his low, winning* 
 melodions voice strengthened the belief that she had seen 
 ome one strangely like this handsome young professor be 
 fore, and she asked herself, wonderingly, where it could 
 have been. 
 
 Then like a sudden flash it occurred to her why she was 
 eo strangely attracted toward this stranger there was 
 something about him that reminded her of Gordon Car 
 lisle. Yes, although this young man was dark almost to 
 swarthiness, he reminded Leonie strangely of Gordon 
 Carlisle, who had the fair, golden beauty of King Olaf. 
 
 "I know I shall like him," she thought, "for that 
 reason, if for no other. " 
 
 And she looked forward to the morrow, which would 
 bring the mysterious stranger, with a flutter at her heart 
 which puzzled her to account for, and on the morrow the 
 first link in the chain of fate would be forged, and it 
 would slowly coil around her, and there would be no escape. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THREE weeks had passed since the young professor piid 
 bis first visit to ih.3 Lexineton -Arenue mansion three 
 
102 LEONIE LOCK!. 
 
 weeks which were to have such a thrilling acqueL Leonii 
 was an apt pupil, and progressed wonderfully with her 
 studies, and quite unconsciously she began to look forward 
 to her * lesson days " as the brightest moments in her life. 
 He was young and fascinating it might have been ex 
 pected. 
 
 The grave young professor seemed to possess some magic 
 inlaence over Jier. If his hand touched hers on the page, 
 she would tremble, and her heart would beat so loudly she 
 was sure he must hear it. Every action reminded her so 
 constantly of Gordon Carlisle, and she found herself wish 
 ing more than once " that he would take off those horrible 
 blue glasses that disfigured his face so, that she might see 
 just what color his eyes were." She half fancied they 
 might be blue, like Gordon s. 
 
 There was one incentive above all others that urged 
 Leonie on in her desire to fit herself for the social world 
 that lay before her she would be sure to meet Gordon 
 Carlisle there; that was the beginning and the end, the 
 goal of her ambition. 
 
 She told herself she must see him just once, then she 
 would be willing to shut herself away from the world for 
 ever after that one hour of triumph. 
 
 No timid young girl likes to discuss those vague, sweet 
 heart thoughts of love or lovers to a matter-of-fact old 
 lady, and Leonie shrunk from even mentioning that piti 
 ful, broken love-dream to practical Mrs. Barrett. Nothing 
 can touch the heart of youth so deeply or so cruelly as to 
 be ridiculed about their love affairs. 
 
 It was quite natural, with no companion to whom she 
 could turn for sympathy, that Leonie should turn to the 
 young professor, making quite a confidant of him. But 
 there was one subject she carefully avoided, and that was 
 all reference to Gordon; and it was quite evident young 
 Mr. Rexford encouraged these impulsive outbursts of con 
 fidence that sprung so thougrhtles&ly to Leonie s lips. 
 
LEONIE LOCK1. 103 
 
 Receptions, parties, balls followed each other in rapid 
 succession, and pretty Leonie was queen of them all; yet 
 she always came home with the same piteous pain in her 
 lovely childish eyes. It had been another evening lost out 
 of her life, for she had not met Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 One evening Leonie stood before the fire in the library 
 with a puzzled gleam in her eyes, reading for the twentieth 
 time a little note which she had drawn from the pocket of 
 her dress a note which had been hidden deep in the heart 
 of a rare bouquet of crimson passion-roses which the servant 
 had brought her that afternoon, and read as follows: 
 
 " There is to be a masquerade ball at to-night, at 
 
 eight o clock sharp. May I beg you will kindly accept the 
 ticket inclosed, and grant the prayer of an adoring un 
 known admirer by being present? Wear the red roses 
 clasped above your heart with a diamond star, that I may 
 know you. Although my request is romantic in the ex 
 treme, 1 can only hope you will grant it and let no one 
 know. Yours ever, 
 
 " INCOGNITO/ 
 
 The word romantic had settled the question in Leonie s 
 mind. She was only an impulsive young girl, and young 
 girls never settle anything which borders on romance as 
 the cautious and worldly wise are apt to do. 
 
 The fire in her eyes deepened until they glowed like 
 stars. 
 
 " Mrs, Barrett would be sure to forbid my going if she 
 only knew," thought Leonie, twisting the crumpled bit of 
 paper around on her jeweled fingers hesitatingly, " and I 
 don t think there will be any harm in going just to find 
 out who it is who adores me so much." 
 
 A clever ruse had occurred to Leonie. She could take 
 Aimee, her French maid. Aimee should wear the roses, 
 and Leonie would not tell her what significance they bore, 
 and she could watci. 4gi* this unknown. adorer who would b 
 
10ft UBONIE LOCKE. 
 
 sure to single out the wearer of the crimson roees. 
 
 could leave before it was time to unmask, and no one 
 
 would ever be the wiser. 
 
 " I wish Professor Eexford had come to-day," she 
 sighed. " I would have shown it to him, and told him I 
 was going to keep the appointment How shocked he 
 would have been. Perhaps it is just as well that he does 
 not know it. " 
 
 She laughed a little jolly laugh that sounded like the 
 rippling murmur of a mountain brook. 
 
 She was all dressed for the ball. Mr. Barrett and his 
 wife had gone to a reception, and Leonie, pleading fatigue, 
 had been left behind. The clock on the mantel pointed to 
 a half after seven, and as there was plenty of time to 
 spare, Leonie sat down in one of the cushioned chairs be 
 fore the fire waiting for Aimee. 
 
 Five, ten minutes passed, then some one turned the knob 
 of the door and entered. It was Professor Eexford, who 
 had come in person to apologize for not being able to give 
 Leonie her lesson that day. 
 
 He hesitated an instant in the door-way as he saw the 
 slender figure in her glittering golden robe before the red 
 glow of the fire, and he saw at once by the closed eyes and 
 regular breathing that she slept. Her glittering robe 
 trailed over the crimson carpet, and around her white 
 throat and pretty plump arms diamonds glowed like a vein 
 of fire. She looked so brilliant, so beautiful in the midst 
 of the crimson gleam, that he stopped abruptly, bushing 
 the cry of admiration that sprung to his lips. 
 
 Near the tiny feet, incased in rose-colored slippers, rest 
 ing on the polished fender, was the ticket or admission 
 lying on the floor where it had slipped from her hands. 
 
 Paul Eexford stooped and picked up the card, and as he 
 did so the blue glasses he was always careful to wear fell 
 from his face. 
 
 " Can she be going there*" he muttered, in breathless 
 
jLEONIE LOCKE. 10S 
 
 astonishment, noting the street and number that it bore. 
 Good Heaven, I can not understand it, I " 
 
 He did not finish the rest of the sentence aloud, his brain 
 seemed in a whirl as he glanced back again from the card 
 to the beautiful unconscious sleeper. 
 
 " Why should I go just yet?" he asked himself, with 
 his whole heart in his longing gaze. 
 
 It seemed quite a mockery to cover such brilliant eyes as 
 Paul Rexford possessed witn such disguising blue glasses 
 that hid so much of his handsome face. 
 
 He had prided himself on his wisdom and the manner in 
 which he could control the mad love that had sprung up in. 
 his heart for beautiful Leonie Locke. He laughed bitterly 
 at the cruel irony of fate that caused him, an humble tutor, 
 to fall in love with a bewitching heiress. 
 
 He might just as well wish for one of the stars up iix 
 heaven; he would cure himself of his mad presumption, ha 
 vowed to do it. A mad impulse seized him to kiss thoua 
 beautiful white arms, to kneel at her feet and worship her, 
 but he drew back in sudden fear. 
 
 " You love wealth and position, 5 he thought, "love 
 would be as nothing without wealth to you/ 
 
 He folded his arms across his broad chest and watched 
 her, the brooding pain growing deeper in his brilliant, rest 
 less eyes. 
 
 Paul Rexford was young. At two-and-twenty we are all 
 more or less impulsive; it is given to youth to be so. He 
 had thrown prudence to the wind in the mad reckless im 
 pulse of the moment. 
 
 He went softly around behind her chair, leaned over and 
 pressed his lips to hers in a kiss light as a zephyr, and at 
 the same instant taking his penknife from his pocket and 
 severing one of the soft brown love-locks that curled over 
 her forehead. 
 
 * It will be found. eg^mY heart .when I die, my darling, " 
 
106 LEONIE LOCKS. 
 
 he murmured, hoarsely; " and the memory of this stolen? 
 caress I shall never forget. " 
 
 Leonie stirred in her sleep, and with a guilty thrill in his 
 heart Paul Kexf ord retreated softly toward the door, thank 
 ful that the dense shadows obscured him; he had not been 
 discovered. 
 
 Leonie started up from her chair with a little gasping 
 cry. 
 
 " Even in sleep my heart turns to Gordon Carlisle," she 
 sighed, piteously. <fc I have wealth, beauty, the whole 
 world at my feet; yet with all 1 am poor, because I have 
 missed Gordon s love. Ah, Heaven, if dreams were bafe 
 realities I thought he stooped over me and kissed me; and 
 why, what is this?" she cried, as her hand struck the sharp 
 edge of something lying in her lap; " why, it is a piece of 
 broken blue glass, a piece of Mr. Kexf ord s eyeglasses. 
 But how came it in my lap?" she mused, then she laughed 
 a little low careless laugh as she placed it upon the mantel, 
 " How silly I am/ she thought; " this is the chair the 
 professor usually takes, and it dropped down among the 
 cushions. " 
 
 A half hour later, with a long dark cloak entirely con 
 cealing her dazzling golden robe, Leonie entered a close 
 carriage in which Aimee, her maid, was already seated, 
 and the next instant they were whirling rapidly away. 
 
 And at the same moment a young man standing on the 
 pavement opposite the house, hailed a passing coupe. 
 
 " Keep that close carriage ahead in sight," he said, 
 liberally feeing the driver. 
 
 The light from a neighboring gas-lamp fell full upon his 
 face, revealing the handsome, pale, anxious face of the 
 young professor, unobstructed by the heavy double blue 
 glasses which he had thrust hurriedly into his pocket. 
 
 " I shall be there to watch over you, my fair queen/ 
 he murmured; 4< for something tells me I shall be needed/ 
 
 Attending this masked ball x^a certainly obnoxious to the 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 107 
 
 jrefined young man, and he could not understand why 
 Leonie had gone there; yet, young girls had often been 
 known to do just such things. Leonie was little more than 
 a child after all. 
 
 It was only a girl s thoughtless prank, yet he meant to 
 follow and watch over her from a distance. How little he 
 knew his prophetic words would come true he would in 
 deed be needed. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IN the midst of a large and brilliant throng of maskers 
 that had assembled in the grand parlors of a brown-stone 
 mansion in the heart of the city stood a plumed knight, 
 impatiently watching the entrance door with keen ex 
 pectancy in his glittering black eyes that his tawny mask 
 could scarcely conceal. Suddenly a murmur of admiration 
 ran from lip to lip as the eyes of the brilliant throng were 
 turned toward the figure of a young girl in a robe of daz 
 zling, trailing gold, who stood shrinkingly in the door-way, 
 pleading with a piquant, dashing peasant, who wore a 
 cluster of crimson roses on her breast, clasped with a glit 
 tering star, " to turn back and go home/ 
 
 For, from the moment Leonie had crossed the threshold, 
 she had regretted her heedless folly. 
 
 " Let us turn back, Aimee," she said. 
 
 " That is not so easily done/ replied the French girl, 
 angry at the thought of having her evening s enjoyment 
 so ruthlessly spoiled. 
 
 "I must get away," cried Leonie, faintly, struggling 
 through the throng toward the door. 
 
 The plumed knight at that instant reached her side, just 
 in time to hear the terrified remark. 
 
 * No one can leave before twelve to-night, miss, he 
 said, eying them searchingly; " at that hour, all unmask; 
 after that, any one caajaave who so desires; but up to thai 
 
108 LEONIB LOCKE. 
 
 time, the doors are locked against you. Make the best ol 
 it, ladies. Allow me to escort you to seats. " 
 
 Almost fainting with fear, Leonie made no resistance; 
 while Aimee, who was in her glory, bowed with elaborate 
 politeness. 
 
 " Excuse my impertinence," said the knight, glancing 
 keenly from one to the other; " did you two come here to 
 gether?" turning toward the wearer of the crimson roses. 
 
 Aimee simpered, coquettishly. 
 
 " Yes, we both came together," she answered. 
 
 That one word, " together," had settled some unspoken 
 thought in the mind of the plumed knight. She had 
 spoken in a low, murmuring voice, but his quick ears had 
 detected the never-to-be-mistaken roll of the French "r," 
 which the people of no other nation can imitate. 
 
 He could have torn the red roses from her breast, and 
 trampled them under his feet in his hot rage; for it was 
 plainly evident to him that some trick had been played 
 upon him. She was not Leonie Locke, to whom he had 
 sent those roses. Then something like the truth flashed 
 across his active brain. 
 
 " This other one must be Leonie Locke; she has decked 
 out her maid in my flowers to deceive me!" 
 
 The more he looked at the little figure in trailing gold 
 with the gauzy, golden veil twined in heavy folds over head 
 and face, the more he became convinced of her identity. 
 
 Hastily finding a partner for the wearer of the red roses, 
 and thus ridding himself of her presence, he coolly seated 
 himself beside Leonie. 
 
 * The next is a waltz. Will you kindly favor me by al 
 lowing me to put down my name for it? I designate my 
 self as the Knight of the Scarlet Plume." 
 
 "No," replied Leonie, faintly; " I shall not dance." 
 
 At that moment, the music struck up witk a bewildering 
 crash. The maskers sprung to their feet, and, in an in 
 stant, the soene tva 13 ot> * f Hitter::::? splendor kings and 
 
peasants, nuns and harlequins, fairies and knights whirling 
 around in glittering splendor beneath the glowing lights of 
 the chandeliers. 
 
 And, almost fainting from excitement, Leonie would 
 have sprung from her seat and made her way to the dress- 
 mg-room, but it seemed that the knight had divined her 
 intentions; for, in an instant, before she could even remon 
 strate, he had clasped her in his arms, and, panting and 
 struggling, he whirled her down the length of the room to 
 the mad music of the waltz. f 
 
 " How dare you? Let me go!" cried Leonie, struggling 
 fiercely. 
 
 But the sound of her voice was lost in the crash of the 
 music and the laughter of the revelers. She was powerless 
 to move, the bold knight held her in such a vise-like clasp. 
 
 They had circled the room, and, as they reached an 
 arched door-way, the knight whirled Leonie through ifc, 
 and she found herself standing, flushed and out of breath, 
 in a conservatory; while the impertinent knight stood 
 humbly before her, craving a thousand pardons for what 
 he had done. 
 
 " I shall never forgive you for this never!" cried Leo 
 nie. " You are no gentleman! Step aside, sir, and allow 
 me to pass!" 
 
 " It was my revenge upon you for allowing some one 
 else to wear the roses I intended for you," he said, quietly. 
 " You see, I know you; you are Leonie Locke, whom I 
 came here to-night expressly to see. You will not be angry 
 with me when I explain why. " 
 
 As he spoke, although his roice was disguised, the 
 thought flashed across Leonie s mind that this knight was 
 not altogether a stranger to her. 
 
 " You will wonder why I asked you to come here to 
 night," he went on, in the same disguised tone; " and 1 
 will explain, if you will ke so ki*4 as to sit down on the 
 
 HOLME BOOK co., 
 
 333 S M.I. ex i 
 
110 LEOSIE LOCKE. 
 
 seat I placed for you, and give me your attention for five 
 minutes only." 
 
 Scarcely realizing what she did, Leonie obeyed, a strange } 
 nervous sense of fear creeping over her. 
 
 " This is my home, and these are my guests," he said, 
 waving his hand toward the glittering ball-room. " The 
 company is very exclusive each one a millionaire and J 
 have invited each one for a special reason, or, rather, a 
 benevolent reason. A week ago, a building which was be 
 ing erected fell and entombed a number of workmen, who 
 were removed from the debris dead; their families are in 
 want, and their helpless little children crying for bread; 
 and 1 have gathered my friends here to-night to raise a 
 subscription for them. Over half have already signed the 
 paper. You are rich, and generous as you are beautiful, 
 Miss Locke, and I trust you, too, will add your name to 
 the list." 
 
 In a moment Leonie s tender heart, which had been ap 
 pealed to, was reached. She forgot her auger for this bold 
 knight in the sympathy she felt for the homeless oneg 
 whose sorrows he depicted. She was only a young girl of 
 seventeen and at seventeen we are not very wise in the 
 ways of the world. It never occurred to Leonie that the 
 stranger had deliberately uttered a clever falsehood to 
 secure her signature to the paper he carried in his breast- 
 pocket. He had laid his plan carefully, and had rehearsed 
 his part many a time in secret, with a diabolical smile on 
 his lips, thinking what the future held in store for him if 
 he could get Leonie Locke s signature to the fatal paper he 
 had in his pocket. 
 
 " "Will you sign for whatever amount you think best?" 
 he asked, producing several sheets of paper pinned together 
 from his pocket; " and then you may leave the house if 
 you wish. Remember 1 do not wish to insist upon your 
 generosity in relieving those sufferers unless your own heart 
 prompts the 
 
LJSUM US 1/UUAJC. XXI 
 
 " Certainly, 1 will help those poor, helpless people," 
 oried Leonie, with all a young girl s thoughtless impulse. 
 " Where is the paper, sir? I will put down my name for 
 one hundred dollars, I am very sorry I haven t the money 
 rith me; I would so gladly give it to-night for those poor 
 widows and their little fatherless children." 
 
 The knight took what appeared to be a blank sheet from 
 his pocket, and also a pocket ink-case and pen. In her 
 excitement, this did not appear strange to Leonie; but in 
 after years, when she was older and wiser, and looked back 
 at the awful horror of that moment, when she held her 
 own fate in her hands, and put love and happiness away 
 from her by one fatal dash of the pen the memory of thai 
 hour was more bitter to her than death. 
 
 About midway on the page was a slight black cross in 
 pencil mark. 
 
 " Sign there, please/ he said; " just your name only, 
 never mind putting the amount opposite it, for it is un 
 necessary/ 
 
 Little dreaming of the fatal consequence which was to 
 ensue, Leonie took the pen and wrote her name. 
 
 Heaven help her! As innocent as a babe of what she 
 had done, she had signed her own death-warrant! 
 
 And as she handed it back to him, the most diabolical 
 laugh that ever broke from a man s lips echoed through 
 the conservatory. 
 
 " Many thanks, my beautiful Leonie!" he cried, tearing 
 the mask from his face as he spoke. " I have outwitted 
 you this time, my scornful beauty!" and gazing up into the 
 mocking face above her, Leonie uttered a sharp cry of hor 
 ror, while her white lips murmured hoarsely: 
 
 " Oh, Father in heaven! it is Charles Hart, my mortal 
 foe!" 
 
 "Make no outcry!" he muttered, threateningly; "if 
 you do, I will be comoclied tcv * 
 
" To murder me!" gtsped L&ome, reading the terrible 
 truth in his eyes. 
 
 " Exactly/ he replied; " you have destroyed all my love 
 for you, girl, and now I live only for revenge; for it is true, 
 Revenge is a thousand times more sweet than love! 
 Look, what you have signed !" he cried, holding the paper 
 ever the heat of the gas-jet; and immediately the white 
 ink upon the paper, which had been chemically prepared, 
 turned black, and, with the intense horror and f aintness of 
 death stealing over her, Leonie read the words which were 
 written on the paper she had signed, which were as follows: 
 
 " I hereby enter into a marriage contract, on this date, 
 with Charles Hart. "We have further agreed to consider 
 this agreement binding; that we shall be known henceforth 
 as man and wife, to keep and to hold, for better or for 
 wcrse, until death do us part. 
 
 " (Signed) CHARLES HART. 
 
 LOCKE." 
 
 The paper bore the date of the night Leonie s father had 
 died the night she had been decoyed from her home by 
 this relentless foe. 
 
 Leonie uttered a piteous cry of mortal fear: 
 
 " God help me! I am lost! lost! lost!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 " You are mine now/ said Charlie Hart, triumphantly, 
 * You see how useless it was to oppose me from the very 
 first. I vowed that I would win you, my scornful beauty, 
 and you see I have kept my vow!" 
 
 " You have cheated, duped, and deceived me!" gasped 
 Leonie, making a desperate effort to tear the fatal paper 
 from his hand. 
 
 ** All is fair in love and revenge," he replied, coolly 
 placing the letter.^pja^oCJier reachJ>Y restoring it to hi 
 
LEO1S1E LOUKE. 113 
 
 breast-pocket " 1 admit that the story I just told yon. 
 was a clever ruse which gained your sympathy and your 
 signature. Now, let me explain to you what you have 
 done. You have signed this paper, which recognizes me as 
 your husband, the sharer of your wealth which gives 
 your beautiful self to me, and " 
 
 " Oh, it is false false!" shrieked Leonie, the pallor of 
 death on her beautiful face. * I thought it was a subscrip 
 tion-paper I was signing a blank paper and my name 
 was to head the list! It was a trick to dupe me, worthy of 
 a fiend!" she moaned, wringing her white hands in most 
 intense agony. 
 
 " It does not matter how I obtained the signature; the 
 world will readily believe you knew what you were signing, 
 that you were entering into a contract which would make 
 you my wife, * he answered, triumphantly. 
 
 11 But there can be no marriage without a minister, * 
 cried Leonie, a gleam of hope struggling through the 
 deathly despair on her face. " You are a base coward, to 
 frighten me into believing there could be!" 
 
 " This contract will hold good, my pretty one. I know 
 what I am doing, depend upon that," he replied insolently. 
 * I have plenty of proof. You were with me when your 
 father died. 1 have dated the paper back; and I can get 
 plenty of my friends to swear that they saw you sign this 
 document then and there, and in the eyes of the law it 
 binds you legally to me as my wife. " 
 
 " Oh, God! why did you let me come here to-night !" 
 sobbed Leonie, sinking down on her knees, and uttering, a 
 sharp, piteous cry. " This man has tracked me down," 
 she wailed, lifting her white, horror-stricken face toward 
 Heaven; " he has tracked me down, and there is nothing 
 Ise left for me to do but to die!" 
 
 " You shall not die!" exclaimed Charlie Hart, fiercely. 
 " You shall live, and every hour shall be a torture to you. 
 I will wring your proud, scornful heart, as you have wrung 
 
214 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 mine. I loved you once with a love that was my 
 yon trampled upon it, and crushed it. Your love might 
 have made an angel of me; but you chose to make a fiend 
 of me instead. You are bound to me for life, until death 
 parts us. If you refuse to accept me as your husband, 1 
 will give the whole story to the world. You loved mo 
 when you where Leonie Locke, the poor working-girl; and 
 we entered into this secret contract because your father was 
 opposed to it, yet you loved me too well to give me up; 
 and when wealth came to you, you renounced me, and you 
 would have broken the bonds that held us together if it 
 had not been for the contract, which I had luckily kept. 
 Nothing can take you from me, sweet Leonie. I have 
 taken your fate, your future into my keeping." 
 
 His passionate eyes devoured her fair loveliness as he 
 spoke. The beautiful, crouching, kneeling figure at his 
 feet, with her glossy-brown, disheveled curls falling about 
 her like a mantle, and the dumb agony of death on her 
 white lips, and in the depths of her dark, despairing eyes. 
 Yes; he hated her with all the passionate strength of his 
 nature, because he knew she had given her love to Gordon 
 Carlisle ^ and she loathed him, and, as he had said, " Next 
 to love, revenge is sweet!" 
 
 " What would the world say if they knew the strange 
 *Gory of beautiful Leonie Locke, the heiress?" he repeated^ 
 mockingly. " Society would be shocked if they knew 
 where you were on the night your father died. This bit of 
 paper alone can save your fair name and honor this paper 
 that acknovvtedges you as my wife. If you denied yourself 
 AS such, it would be all the worse for you in the eyes of the 
 world; men would shun you, and women would scorn you; 
 tnd, let me tell you another thing: if society knew you had 
 been here to-night, its doors would be forever closed against 
 you. I will tell you where you are. " 
 
 He leaned over and whispered but a few words hi Leo- 
 aid s eer, yet they shocked her to th very aoul; and, witi 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 1U 
 
 a desperate? cry, she struggled from her knees and dashed 
 wildly past him toward the entrance door. 
 
 But his strong arms drew her back. 
 
 " I am your master now, imperious Leonie; and I elect 
 that you shall remain where you are; my word shall be 
 four law. There is no Gordon Carlisle to step in between 
 as this time, my lovely, scornful bride! I have you all to 
 myself. No cry from your sweet lips could reach the eart 
 of the mad revelers yonder. Many a woman, fair as you 
 are, has cried out for help in this gilded palace, and it has 
 been denied them. There is no one to help you here, and 
 the kisses you have denied me twice before, you shall pay 
 toe now with interest. Struggle as much as you please, 
 *ay love; there is no one near to protect you." 
 
 " There is some one here to protect this young lady from 
 the insult of a wretch like you!" cried a clear, ringing 
 foice; and, in an instant, a tall young man in a black 
 domino had gained Leonie s side, and with one powerful 
 blow from his muscular arm felled the astounded coward 
 to the floor. " If we were not in the presence of a lady, I 
 would give you the thrashing you so richly deserve!" cried 
 the stranger, \rith a voice trembling with indignation, and 
 his eyes flashing luridly behind his mask as he spurned his 
 fallen foe with the heel of his boot. " Do not fear, Miss 
 Locke/ whispered her preserver; " I am here to protect 
 you, and I will do it with my life, if need be. Have con 
 fidence in me I am Paul Rexford!" 
 
 It was pitiful to see how Leonie clung to him sobbing,; 
 and with a world of gratitude in her beautiful eyes a sight 
 that turned the boiling blood in Charlie Hart s veins to 
 fire, as he struggled to his feet and confronted them. 
 
 " One word with you first, and then I will allow you to 
 pass with the girl." 
 
 " Oh, don t go: please, don t go," sobbed Leonie, fran*- 
 tioally. " He is. a bad man. Mr. Rexford: he would mar* 
 der you i J he coakf 
 
116 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 * I will soon settle with the fellow," he answered! 
 Jiaughtily, unclasping her clinging arms, and following 
 Hart a little distance from where Leonie stood. Was it 
 fancy, or did she hear the word " satisfaction " pass be 
 tween them? 
 
 Then Charlie Hart turned on his heel, and the youn 
 professor stooping down and rearranging the golden veil, 
 which had been torn from Leonie s face in the struggle, 
 drew her trembling little hand within his arm, and literally 
 forced his way with her toward the door, placing her in her 
 carriage, where Aimee, scarcely less frightened than Leonie 
 berself, was already seated. 
 
 As Leonie had passed through the entrance hall, a boy 
 bad thrust a wisp of paper into her hand, and, quite insen 
 sibly, scarcely knowing what she did, Leonie thrust the 
 note into her pocket, not daring to open it there, and not 
 daring to refuse to accept it, for she felt that it must be 
 from Charlie Hart 
 
 Paul Rexford calmly placed Leonie on the seat beside her 
 maid, and ordered the coachman to Lexington Ave 
 nue, taking a seat opposite Leonie. 
 
 What it cost him to resist taking the lovely shrinking 
 form in his strong arms and pillowing that brown, curly 
 nead. on his throbbing breast, and whispering to her that 
 jhe was safe, only Heaven knew. He was too thorough 
 a gentleman to take advantage of the situation, or the 
 service he had rendered, by word, act, or deed. Yet he 
 could not help asking himself over and over again, what 
 had induced Leonie to attend that ball. He well knew that 
 Mr. Barrett or his wife knew nothing of it, or they never 
 #ould have permitted Leonie to have gone. 
 
 It was only a young girl s prank. Yet, Heaven alone 
 knew what LeomVs folly might have cost her if he had not 
 been there to protect her. As for Leonie, her fair face was 
 burning with very shame. What must he think of her? 
 What excuse could she oiler for being where she was to* 
 
night? He must keep her secret; if the world knew of it 
 she would surely die of shame. Aimee, her maid, did not 
 know there was anything amiss. Paul Kexford, whom she 
 bad recognized at once, had come to her, saying Leonie felt 
 ill with the heat of the room and the stifling, heavy odor of 
 roses and wished to go home. 
 
 She could not confess to him before Aimee why she had 
 gone, of the romantic note and ticket in the heart of the 
 crimson roses. No, no! a thousand times no! She would 
 wait until he came to give her a lesson on the morrow, and 
 then she would tell him all; she would tell him too of the 
 terrible conspiracy that had been formed against her to 
 sign that horribe paper, and perhaps he could advise her 
 what to do. 
 
 He had removed the domino and mask, and sat opposite 
 her, the same thoughtful, grave professor, behind his im 
 penetrable blue glasses. 
 
 " I have lost his respect forever," she sighed, shrinking 
 back among the cushions; and that thought was harder 
 than all others to bear, for the startling truth had come 
 suddenly upon her she loved Mm ! 
 
 At first she had deluded her heart into the belief she wa 
 interested in him because he was so like Gordon Carlisle, 
 the young lover that had won her girlish heart, but now 
 for the first time she realized that she loved him for him* 
 seit alone, poor and obscure though he was. What did h 
 matter whether he had wealth or not; she had enough for 
 both. 
 
 He held her one sweet thrilling moment in his arms at 
 parting as he assisted her to alight. Dear Heaven, how 
 little he dreamed under what thrilling circum^tpnces he 
 was to look upon Leonie s face again, or what the morrow 
 was to bring forth. And with a softly breathed " good 
 night/ Leonie sped up the marble steps and to her own 
 room, where, hastilxJe<*^ th dfleoiLshe drew a chair up 
 
118 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 before the grate and took the mysterious note from 
 
 pocket. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXTT. 
 
 ALL in a heap before the glowing embers of the grafa 
 Leonie sunk down with the note clutched tightly in hei 
 nervous fingers. 
 
 " What had he to say to her that he had not already 
 said?" she asked herself vaguely, as she smoothed out the 
 bit of paper and held it toward the fire-light. 
 
 There were but a few words: 
 
 " LEONIE, I shall give you until Wednesday next to 
 think over what 1 have said; if you do not send for me at 
 the expiration of that time, I shall call in person at your 
 home and demand an interview with my wife. If you 
 doubt my power, consult with Mr. Barrett in reference to 
 it, and he will, of course, inform you that the document to 
 which your signature is attached makes it legally binding. 
 If you are wise you will make the best of it and send 
 for ma Your devoted husband, 
 
 " CHAELIE HART/ 
 
 Like some beautiful bird whose breast had just been 
 pierced by a cruel arrow and had sunk down to die in aE 
 its youth and gorgeous beauty, Leonie sunk down in hei 
 dazzling golden robe, which she had not taken time to re 
 move, before the glowing coals, with the bitterest cry or 
 her lips that ever welled up from a young girl s tortured 
 soul. 
 
 She tore the slip of paper into a thousand shreds and 
 ground them beneath her heel into the hearts of the lilies 
 on the velvet carpet; but the letters were written in her 
 brain with a brand of lire, and she could not tear them 
 thence. 
 
 She was just beginniac to realiss.,the full horror of what 
 
LOCKE. 
 
 She had done. She had read of young girls who had been 
 pierced to the heart by the keen sharp thrnst of a dagger 
 by their own hand, but she had never heard of a young 
 girl whose heart had been slain by one dash of the pen- 
 no, not one. "Was it true Charlie Hart could claim her? 
 If she defied him would he not give that cruel story to th& 
 world of where she was on the night her father died? 
 
 Others had believed that cruel story before, and the 
 scandal had followed her about until every avenue of earn 
 ing her bread had been closed against her. 
 
 Now she was Leonie Locke the heiress, and it would be 
 fc thousand times worse. The cruel world never loses a 
 chance to drag a young and beautiful woman down from 
 her proud height to the verge of madness and despair 
 when it can. 
 
 Oh, the shame of it the bitter, cruel shame of it! She 
 remembered how all the working-girls in the shops had 
 turned against her when they found she could not prove 
 false the wicked charge that Charlie Hart had brought 
 against her, and it would oe tne same way now. Men and 
 women would shun her, although she was as innocent as a 
 babe, because she could not prove that she was guiltless. 
 
 But, on the other hand, could she keep her lips sealed 
 and acknowledge this man, in whose hands she had placed 
 the weapon of power that was turned against her, as her 
 husband? 
 
 Leonie s very soul shrunk from the horrible thought. 
 
 "No! no! a thousand times no I" she cried. "Better 
 ieath than that; it would end in a tragedy I would kilt 
 myself first, or or I would kill him!" 
 
 In such a cruel dilemma as this, the most pitiful in 
 which an innocent young girl ever found herself placed, no 
 wonder her poor brain was stung to madness, look which 
 way she would. How long she sat there in her trailing 
 golden robe before the fire, Leonie never knew. At length 
 she started to her fet with a wailing, piteous cry. 
 
44 Another boor like this would drive me mad! I must 
 see Paul Bexford at onoe; he, above all others, can advise 
 
 me." 
 
 The hands of the gilded clock on the mantel pointed to 
 uidnight, but in the great stress of her agony Leonie neves 
 stopped to consider it. 
 
 She had not forgotten his address Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
 He would surely come down to the parlor for a few mo 
 ments if she sent up her card. 
 
 " I can not live through all the dark hours of the night 
 with this terrible weight of sorrow on my heart. I would 
 go mad." 
 
 And hastily going to her wardrobe, she selected a thick, 
 dark robe, which she quickly donned, and, twining a heavy 
 veil over her dark, plumed hat, she softly quitted the 
 room, fastening the door after her, crept through the 
 dimly lighted corridors as swiftly as a shadow, and gained 
 the street. 
 
 Although there were equipages of every description in 
 her own stables, Leonie knew it would only cause comment 
 to arouse the coachman at that hour of the night, and 
 hastily walking a block or so from the house, she hailed a 
 passing coach. 
 
 " I want you to take me to the Fifth Avenue Hote!, 
 please, without a moment s delay," she said, in a low, 
 stifled voice, drawing her veil more closely over her face as 
 she spoke. 
 
 Perhaps there is no class of men who see as much of the 
 rough and dark side of life as New York cabmen. No 
 mystery surprises them. Every night brings its own thrill 
 ing adventure after the curtain of darkness is drawn over 
 the great, wicked city. 
 
 " Fare in advance, ma am," replied the man, drawing 
 rein. " It s our rules." 
 
 Without, a word, Leonie complied with the request, 
 Hurriedly entering tlwjBoach and sinking back pale and 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 19! 
 
 exhausted among the cushions. How she clung to the 
 thought his words had inspired in her heart " I will pro 
 tect yon, Leonie, with my very life if need be. " 
 
 Could he save her from the awful danger that hung like 
 a sword over her head? Oould he save her from the conse 
 quences of her own mad reckless folly? 
 
 If he decided there was no hope for her, she would fall 
 down at his feet and die, rather than live as the wife of 
 Charlie Hart. 
 
 At last the coach stopped before the hotel, and, at that 
 moment, one of the officious night-clerks made his appear 
 ance to welcome the benighted traveler. 
 
 " I do not wish to alight, unless unless a gentleman, 
 vho is stopping here, will see me for a few moments only 
 ill the parlor," said Leonie, timidly, and with a childish 
 tremor in her voice. " The gentleman s name is Rexford, 
 Mr. Paul Eexf ord, professor of music and languages. " 
 
 " I do not know of any such person stopping with us, 
 etill 1/11 go in and look over the books and make the in 
 quiry. " 
 
 " If you please, sir," replied Leonie, gratefully. 
 
 " Have you a card? the gentleman will no doubt 
 wish it. " 
 
 " I have no card," replied Leonie, .painfully embarrassed. 
 
 "Your name will do, then," said the clerk, with his 
 pencil and note-book in hand. 
 
 " I do not wish to give my name," replied Leonie, in a 
 low voice; " simply say a lady wishes a short interview with 
 him in the parlor. I will await his answer here/ 
 
 The clerk bowed, politely, and re-entered the office. 
 
 " There s some mystery here," he muttered, taking a 
 backward glance at the little white hand, which was ablaze 
 with diamonds she had forgotten to remove, lying idly ic 
 her lap. " Some deep mystery on hand. There s alwayt 
 a woman at the bottom of every deep-laid scheme younj 
 and beautiful women ^enerallv. .1 wonder if I ought fo 
 
1.EOKIE LOCKET 
 
 give the affair away to the detective dozing in the rea* 
 office? 1*11 consider the matter by the time her interview 
 js over with this professor. " 
 
 Patiently the clerk ran his finger np and down the list of 
 names on the register. No such name appeared there. A 
 second clerk was called to his aid with no better success, 
 and at length the clerk stepped out to the anxious dark- 
 robed figure in the coach with the startling intelligence 
 that no such person as the one named was stopping there, 
 nor had such a gentleman ever stopped there to their 
 knowledge and they were authority on that point; in fact, 
 it was their business to know just who was stopping there. 
 
 " Oh, sir, are you quite sure there is no mistake?" 
 sobbed Leonie; "it is a matter of great importance to 
 me," 
 
 " Quite sure, miss/ replied the clerk. " I made sure of 
 that fact by calling my assistant to aid me in the search, 
 and my report is correct. No such person has stopped 
 here this month. No such name appears on our files. " 
 
 " Thank you/ returned Leonie. 
 
 " Shall I drive on, miss?" inquired the cabman, im 
 patiently. ** What street and number?" 
 
 " Drive slowly up the avenue a block or two, and I will 
 Jhink where to go by that time. " 
 
 The door closed with a bang, and the coach whirled up 
 Broadway at a rattling pace, while Leonie with a deathly- 
 white face like one dazed by a sudden shock, sunk back 
 into the coach. 
 
 " No such person has ever stopped there? Oh, Heavenly 
 father, is he false, too?" she moaned. " In all the whole 
 wide world, is no one true?" 
 
 There was no mistake. She had often heard him say he 
 was stopping at the " Fifth Avenue," and once one of the 
 translations from her French lesson had been written o* 
 ane of the sheets of paper that bore that caption. 
 
 "Gordon was false^and now wa are too, Paul?" she 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 123 
 
 \ 
 
 gasped. " Erery one in the whole world seems conspiring 
 against me to make me lose faith in all mankind. " 
 
 " Where shall I drive to now?" asked the driver, stop 
 ping short. 
 
 44 1 must go to some lawyer s office, the best one in New 
 York; take me there," cried Leonie, distractedly. 
 
 " Lawyers are not found in their office at this time o 
 night," frowned the driver, muttering to himself, " She 
 must be daft or crazy. 
 
 " Then drive up and down, block after block, until day 
 light breaks and the lawyers are in their offices. I have 
 money. I will pay you whatever you ask. Don t interrupt 
 my thoughts. Drive on quickly anywhere. " 
 
 " This is an adventure," chuckled the cabman, cracking 
 his whip. " She has plenty of money, has she, hey? Well, 
 then she shall fork over an even twenty not a penny less. 
 She has glittering gems on her fingers, they will be security 
 enough for the pay. " 
 
 Daylight broke at last, and the bright, sweet sunshine 
 dispelled the grim shadows of the night. The heart of 
 the great metropolis commenced to throb; and, at length, 
 the coach that had rolled up and down the streets of Nev 
 York the long dreary night through, with its jaded foam- 
 flecked horses, drew up before the office of New York s 
 most famous criminal lawyers. 
 
 " Here we are, miss," said the driver, drawing rein. 
 " Will you stop here, or go on?" 
 
 There was no answer. The stillness of the tomb reigned 
 within the coach, and the curtains were closely drawn. 
 
 " My God!" cried the cabman, excitedly, " I ll bet my 
 life the girl has killed herself, and in my coach, too!" 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 IN a moment the driver had leaped from his box and 
 wrenched open the qoach door in the most intense excite* 
 rnent * 
 
X24 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 Leonie had not vanished into thin air. A food of bright 
 invigorating sunshine fell upon the white face nestling back 
 among the cushions, on the tangled brown curls and white 
 lids with their long curling lashes, and he saw at a glance 
 she had fallen fast asleep, like a tired child. 
 
 The rough jolting of the coach had wooed her to slumber 
 that panacea that shuts out all pain and sorrow balmy 
 sleep. 
 
 A look of intense relief swept over his face as he touched 
 the little white hands lying in her lap. 
 
 " You wanted to be taken to a good lawyer; here you 
 are, miss." 
 
 The dark eyes flashed open in an instant. 
 
 " Thank you. I will not trouble you to wait/ and r 
 paying the exorbitant sum the cabman charged, Leonie 
 turned and entered the lawyer s office. 
 
 Mr. Sharp, one of the most successful lawyers in the 
 profession, sat before his desk glancing over the columns 
 of the morning papers. He certainly looked every letter of 
 hia name, as his keen gray eyes swept over the page, noting 
 the items of interest at a single glance. 
 
 Suddenly a shadow fell between him and the sunshinu, 
 And glancing up, he saw a young lady, heavily veiled, 
 standing in timid hesitation in the door-way. 
 
 Lawyer Sharp was never abrupt in his actions. He aro&e 
 deliberately from his seat, and, bowing politel^ invited 
 her to enter. 
 
 " Thank you," said Leonie, taking the seat he placed 
 for her. " I I wish to consult you about a very important 
 matter, sir, if you can spare me a few moments?" 
 
 Lawyer Sharp consulted his watch. 
 
 " I have a case in court at ten; it wants an hour to that 
 time. 1 can give you until then." 
 
 He Baw that she was young and beautiful and slightly 
 timid, The gossamer folds of the veil could not quite conr 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 125 
 
 ceal the pretty, childish face and the lovely, wistful, dark 
 eyes. 
 
 He folded the morning papers, carefully laying them 
 aside in order to give her time to recover her composure. 
 
 " I came to you to ask advice for a friend of mine/ 
 faltered Leonie, " a young girl, upon whom a terrible 
 shadow has fallen; and if there is no ray of sunshine, no 
 glimmer of hope that she can be extricated from it, she will 
 surely die; her heart will break. You must give me your 
 best advice. Oh, sir, you must find some way of escape 
 for her. 
 
 " It is her own story, and the friend is herself/ thought 
 the keen-witted lawyer, but he answered, simply: 
 
 " I will certainly give you my best advice, after 1 hear 
 the story, but I must beg that you will give me the full de 
 tails in the case if I am to try to help you. " 
 
 " It is a pitiful story/ said Leonie, choking down the 
 sobs that threatened to betray her, and hushing the musical 
 voice that was- struggling so desperately to tell the sad 
 story, " of a young girl, who was made the innocent victim 
 of a terrible plot, and she does not know whether she is a 
 legal wife or not " 
 
 Leonie was prepared to hear an exclamation of intense 
 surprise fall from the lips of the man of law, but instead, 
 he answered, simply: 
 
 * There are thousands of just such cases that are entered 
 in the courts daily the story of woman s love and man s 
 baseness. I have a heart-felt sympathy for all such young 
 girls, who have drained to the dregs the bitterness in love s 
 cup." 
 
 " But this young girl did not love this man/ inter 
 rupted Leonie, eagerly; " he was her mortal foe; he vowed 
 to destroy her because she scorned his offer of marriage." 
 
 Mr. Sharp knit his brow, reflectively; it was evident thif 
 case would develop new features. 
 
\ 
 
 126 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 "Go on with your story, madame; I am all attention,* 
 he said, kindly. 
 
 " She was only a working-girl when this man first met 
 her, but she was none the worse for that/ continued Le- 
 Dnie, spiritedly. 
 
 " Certainly not," assented the lawyer, energetically. 
 ; * I hold all working-girls in the highest esteem; there can 
 be no greater proof of their honor and purity of heart than 
 the fact they can earn their own living. I married a 
 working-girl myself, and I often tell Mrs. Sharp, when I 
 see her arrayed in her silks and jewels, that in my eyes, 
 with all her adornments, she looks no fairer than on the 
 first day I saw her in a neat print dress and white apron, 
 when she came to me with tears in her eyes, to tell me the 
 cruel story of an employer who had withheld the mere 
 pittance she had earned during the week, and begged me 
 to collect it for her. I collected it for her, and that pretty, 
 humble working-girl is now Mrs. Sharp. Forgive me for 
 the digression, or rather interruption. You can under 
 stand now, why my heart is always tender toward working- 
 girls." 
 
 Leonie had more courage to proceed, and she cleared her 
 voice and went on: 
 
 " This man was the most bitter foe of this poor working- 
 girl, he dogged her footsteps and ruined her fair name by 
 slanderous stories, until she was driven from place tc 
 place, for no one would give her work. He meant to make 
 it impossible for her to earn her own living, believing she 
 would have to turn to him at last. He haunted her down 
 to the verge of madness, he tortured her so." 
 
 " I see, I see/* replied the lawyer. " Hanging is too 
 good for such scoundrels. If 1 am elected senator I 
 shall do everything in my power to pass a bill, imposing 
 the highest and most rigid penalty the law allows upon a 
 man who dares attempt to persecute a defenseless woman, 
 and who dares attack hor with the breath o* slandec 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 13? 
 
 When such men have daughters of their own I have 
 always taken notice the blow falls hack on their own 
 heart in after years, through their own children; it is the 
 vengeance of an angry God. But go on, child go on." 
 
 " Suddenly a great good fortune was showered down 
 from heaven upon this young girl. A great deal of money 
 was left her. She had no need to work any more, for she 
 was an heiress. She thought she had left the old life far 
 behind her; but, when this man heard of the wealth that 
 had fallen to to my friend, he renewed his vow of making 
 her his wife for the sake of her gold as well as revenge. " 
 
 Leonie drew her breath with a quick sob; but the lawyer 
 pretended not to notice her deep agitation. He was more 
 convinced than ever that she was telling him the story of 
 her own life. 
 
 " She was young, and knew nothing of roguery; and, 
 not long ago, a paper was brought to her which, she sup 
 posed, was a subscription-paper to help the needy poor, 
 and quite thoughtlessly oh, sir, I assure you she was inno 
 cent as a babe that she was doing that which was to cause 
 her such a world of bitter woe she thoughtlessly signed 
 the paper, and oh, the horror of it! the next moment 
 she found what she had done signed a contract of marriage 
 with the man she hated with all the strength of her soul 
 And now, sir, I ask you the question that must blight a life 
 or brighten it: Can the man hold her to that contract she 
 so unwittingly signed? Oh, sir, is it legal? Is she this 
 poor broken-hearted friend of mine the wife of this man 
 or not?" 
 
 Lawyer Sharp could see the little white hands clutch to 
 gether as Leonie half arose from her seat in the agony of 
 her entreaty. The veil she had worn so carefully to screen 
 her identity had fallen unheeded from her face and slipped 
 to the floor, yet Leonie, in her intense sorrow, had not 
 noticed it; and the lawver was *fc~with the cold, frozen 
 
138 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 agony written on every lineament of the most bcaatifm 
 girlish face he had ever beheld in all his life. 
 
 " Oh, sir, think quick, and tell me, I beseech you, is she 
 his wife or is she not?" she pleaded, taking a faltering step 
 aearer the lawyer, her face growing so pallid he feared she 
 would fall in a deathly swoon at his feet. He had read the 
 mock-marriage stories with which all the New York papers 
 had been teeming, and marriages which had been forced; 
 but, in all his practice, he had never met with a case which 
 involved such a delicate point of law as this. How was he 
 to answer her? She had signed the document of her own 
 free will. Still, all depended upon the delicate details 
 which surrounded this peculiar case. 
 
 " When and where did this man make your friend the 
 first proposal of marriage?" asked the lawyer. 
 
 He was hardly prepared for the startling answer she 
 made him. 
 
 " At midnight, in the suit of rooms he he " 
 
 " His apartments," said the matter-of-fact man of the 
 law, coming quickly to the rescue. 
 
 She was too painfully embarrassed to continue, and she 
 nodded her head in shame. It was pitiful to see the burn- 
 ing flush that mantled her fair brow. Yet, matters were 
 beginning to look dark against her in the eyes of Mr. 
 Sharp. Beautiful and guilty women always have the trick 
 of looking the most innocent. Her face had all the inno 
 cent frankness of a little child about it; but the story she 
 told weighed heavily against her. 
 
 " Where was she when she signed that document?" con 
 tinued Mr. Sharp. 
 
 " Oh, I can not tell you!" sobbed Leonie, shuddering, 
 as she sunk back in her seat. . " But tell me, kind sir, do 
 you think he could hold her to that contract she so bitterly 
 repents signing? Remember, all the after happiness of a 
 yaung girl s life hangs on your reply." 
 
 For a moment silouce more solemn than the stillness of 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 12ft 
 
 the grave tell between them. He could hear Laome s 
 heart throb spasmodically from where he sat 
 
 " Taking all the details into consideration, her very 
 presence at the hour of the night where no young gir* 
 should have been, and the signature written by her own 
 free will, under the laws of this state would, in my opinion, 
 give this man the right to claim her lawfully as his wife. 
 Circumstances, of course, alter cases, and e*ery state 
 differs in its opinion in summing them up. There is n</t 
 the least doubt in my mind, according to the facts yon 
 have stated, his claim to her as his wife can be made ou/ 
 quite legal. There is no loop-hole of escape for yom 
 friend, as I can see. " 
 
 Her red lips opened with the most piteous cry that ever 
 broke from a young girl s lips, and pierced the sunlit 
 heavens a cry that rang in the lawyer s ears to the lajt 
 day of his life. 
 
 There was the dash of a dagger in her white, jewekd 
 hand, and the next moment she fell, with face upturned to 
 the morning sunshine, at Lawyer Sharp s feet. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 IT was a moment of thrilling horror never to be forgot 
 ten. 
 
 The instant Lawyer Sharp had seen the upraised dagger 
 in Leonie s white fingers, he sprung forward with the 
 rapidity of lightning, dashing the dagger aside with all his 
 force against the heavy oaken desk, and it snapped in 
 twain at the hut just as Leonie made a desperate effort to 
 strike at her hearc. 
 
 He had averted a tragedy he was thankful for that; 
 but the woe on the lovely, despairing young face was the 
 most poignant he had ever witnessed; it would have wrong 
 tears from hearts of stone. 
 
 She had not fainted: onls cowered down at his feet in 
 
 6 
 
 CO. i 
 
190 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 the intensity of her mad, passionate sorrow, and he 
 raised her and placed her in her seat again. 
 
 " Why did you not let me die?" she gasped, covering 
 her face with her hands. " I wanted so much to die. li 
 life is so hard to bear when I am young, how would it be ii 
 1 were forced to live through the dark years of the future. 
 Ro*t can the sunshine and the world seem bright while the 
 bitterness of death shrouds a life a human life?" shs 
 moaned. 
 
 The lawyer knew he must do something to arouse her. 
 
 "You should not take your friend s case so much tc 
 heart. Your grief could not be more intense if it had been 
 your own story you had been relating." 
 
 The effect of his words was magical upon Leonie. 
 
 4< The young girl who has suffered so is the only friend 
 T have who cares for me," faltered Leouie; " her sorrovf 
 touched my heart. I will tell her what you have told me, 
 sir." 
 
 She paid him his consultation fee, and bade him good- 
 morning; but he noticed her step was not quite steady aa 
 she left the office, and she clasped her little white hand* 
 over her heart, as though there was a pain there greater 
 than she could bear. 
 
 Mr. Sharp rang his bell hurriedly for his confidential 
 clerk. 
 
 " I want you to follow that young girl," he said, " for I 
 have an idea she will attempt to make away with herself. 
 She has had a great trouble so great a trouble death 
 would be a relief to her. Be near enough to prevent any 
 thing like that. Watch over her until you see her safe 
 among friends. Overtake her and hand her this veil, that 
 f ou may get a good look at her face. Tell her she dropped 
 it It may be necessary for you to remember her face dis 
 tinctly and the tone of her voice." 
 
 Like one in a dream, Leonie walked out of the lawyer s 
 office and into the street, bot^ihe sweet, warm sunshine 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 181 
 
 blotted out She was the wife of Charlie Hart; 
 nothing could change it; and she had done it all by on* 
 reckless, thoughtless dash of the pen. She had brought 
 down a curse upon her own head that only death could free 
 her from. 
 
 All life and brightness was over for her now. She was 
 the wife of one man, while her heart with all its yearning, 
 passionate, pent-up love was given to Paul Rexford, who 
 was, ah, so like Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Every young girl knows when she is loved; she can read 
 it in a thousand ways; the clasp of a hand, the tremor in 
 the voice, and the language of the eyes that never passes- 
 the lips. And in that one moment at the masked ball, 
 when he had clasped her so passionately to his throbbing 
 heart and murmured: " I will defend you with my very 
 life if need be," Leonie knew that Paul Rexford loved her; 
 but his love bad come to her too late. 
 
 At the telegraph office, Leonie hesitated, and finally 
 ended by sending a> telegram to Mrs. Barrett, that she had 
 been detained at the house of friends and would not be 
 home for a day or so. 
 
 " 1 could not look on the face of any one I knew/ she 
 sighed, as she trod aimlessly the sunlit streets. " I must 
 be all alone with this terrible sorrow of mine." 
 
 How eagerly she watched the faces that passed her, in 
 the vain hope that she would meet Paul Rexford. Her 
 ne thought was: 
 
 " Oh, Heaven, if you could only show me some means oi 
 escape!" 
 
 She had never committed any sin. Yet no guilty felon 
 was ever hunted down more cruelly than she was. Had 
 Heavai *io mercy on her that she was so cruelly tried? 
 
 At every corner she turned Leonie noticed the face of 
 the man who had handed her her veil. 
 
 44 He is a spy Charlie Hart has set upon meift watch 
 me," she gasped, with gudden **m>r. i -uufcisfifl BSOjf Cfl 
 
 I 333 <? M... ~ 
 
182 LBOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 Street after street, and block after block Leonie trod he* 
 way, but she could not escape the man. She dared makt 
 no outcry to the police for protection, she must outwit him 
 in some way. She would not go home; anywhere any 
 where but there. 
 
 The sun went down, and night fell over the city. "Was 
 it fate or the last link in the chain of ill luck that was clos 
 ing in around our unhappy heroine that bent her wander 
 ing footsteps toward Manhattan Beach that starless night? 
 Oh, who can tell! 
 
 The grand hotels were silent and deserted, and the closed 
 rows of windows, and the porches where gay throngs 
 promenade in midsummer, were quite covered with snow 
 drifts and the shutters creaked to and fro on their hinges. 
 The flowers lay dead, and the pavilion looked dreary 
 enough in the waning winter night. The snow-drifts had 
 aiot been brushed away from the broad plank walk that 
 overlooks the sea the great dark sea, rocking itself to and 
 iro, and sobbing like a hungry heart. . 
 
 Leonie leaned over the railing, and looked down into the 
 white-tipped waves. 
 
 * I have outwitted this man who has been dogging my 
 footsteps/ she sighed. " No one would think of search 
 ing for me here. I will stay here until " 
 
 Hark! was it the sound of stealthy footsteps stealing 
 Boftly behind her over the crispy snow-drifts? 
 
 A few of the gas-lamps were lighted along the pier 
 quite far apart; not for the sake of passengers, few people 
 stopped there in the dead of winter, and the lights on the 
 pier were more for the protection of vessels sailing along 
 the coast than for anything else. 
 
 Leonie raised her head from her clasped hands that were 
 lying on the cold snow-covered railing and listened. 
 
 It was no dream, no delusion, a dark form sprung from 
 the shadows, and a mocking voice cried derisively in her 
 ear: *" 
 
HEONIE LOCKE. 133 
 
 ; * Am 1 mad, or do my senses deceive me? What can 
 beautiful Leonie, the petted heiress whom society worships, 
 be doing in this isolated place, at night and alone? 
 Heavens! how fortune favors me; we shall have quite an 
 uninterrupted tete-a-tete alone by the sad sea waves, as the 
 song goes " and Charlie Hart (for it was he) made a low, 
 mocking bow as he spoke, and his hands firmly grasped 
 the cold, icy hands lying on the rail. 
 
 " Stand back, do not touch me!" she cried, " or I shall 
 throw myself over this railing down into the sea. Yon 
 have hunted me down, but I had rather die than live, il 
 your face was to darken the brightness of my life." 
 
 Charlie Hart laughed a loud, boisterous, blood-curdling- 
 laugh that froze the blood in Leonie s veins as she heard it, 
 and, with a thrill of horror, she noticed by the flickering 
 light of the gas-lamp that his face was greatly flushed, and 
 his bold, black, restless eyes shining like ebony fires; and 
 there were fumes of wine upon his hot breath that scorched 
 her cheek, as he leaned nearer toward her, with a diabolical 
 leer on his face. 
 
 * You have no doubt learned that I can claim you, my 
 lovely bride," he cried. " But what a perverse little dar 
 ling you are, to be sure, to stand out so bravely and defy 
 me! But from the very first, your deep-rooted dislike only 
 made me the more anxious to tame you and clip your 
 wings, my daring, beautiful queen. The more desperate 
 the struggle to win the golden prize, the more a man. 
 prizes it. You are my wife, Leonie, and I shall never let; 
 you leave my arms again. You would not have escaped; 
 me the night of the ball if it had not been for that fellow, 
 who stepped between us. Curse him! I shall soon settle 
 with him for it I would kill any one who came between 
 as. You are mine," he repeated, in a low, hoarse, mock 
 ing voice, drawing the fatal paper from his pocket that she 
 had so unwittingly sjfifBefl. and waving ^triumphantly, ovet- 
 
i34 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 her head. No wonder the sight of it maddened her poor 
 brain and made her desperate, she had suffered so. 
 
 With a low, frenzied cry, she flung off the hand that 
 clasped hers, and made a desperate dash for the fatal paper 
 lie held up so mockingly at arm s length. She had always 
 been so timid and shrinking, he was taken by surprise. 
 There was but one escape for her only one. If she could 
 wrest the paper from him, she would be free free to defy 
 him! It was a matter of life and death to her. 
 
 In an instant he seemed to collect his scattered senses. 
 Scarcely realizing, in her awful frenzy to grasp the paper, 
 she was pressing him back against the railing with almost 
 superhuman strength, while he seemed nearly paralyzed at 
 the suddenness of the attack. 
 
 There was a crash, a terrible cry, and the thin boards 
 that formed the railing parted, and Charlie Hart was pre 
 cipitated down, down toward the seething waters that 
 lashed the beach in their relentless fury, with the paper she 
 had periled her soul in the most horrible of crimes to wrest 
 from him still clutched in his hand. 
 
 The thrilling, awful cry of * Murder!" rang out on the 
 .-night air, quickly followed by the splash of a heavy falling 
 body; and, in the awful despair of that terrible moment, 
 Leonie realized what she had done. She had hurled him 
 down into the sea, and she was free! 
 
 With bated breath, Leonie peered down into the dark, 
 angry waves. 
 
 * I did not mean to do it," she gasped, " but he drove 
 me to it. One of our lives would have ended in a tragedy; 
 what does it matter that it was his instead of mine?" 
 
 But she had not wrested the paper from him, and, on 
 the morrow, would the angels up in Heaven take venge 
 ance upon her by washing his dead body on the cold, sandy 
 shore, with the paper clutched triumphantly in his hand, 
 that would tell the world that she, Leonie Locke, had 
 _, signed a contract that made her his lawful wife? And 
 
LBOIHE LOCKE: 185 
 
 would they accuse her of making away with him? Would 
 the paper he held in his hand point to her, when the gray, 
 angry sea cast him up, as a terrible, silent witness against 
 her? And, as Leonie gazed down, as if fascinated, into the 
 dark depths, suddenly the waves parted, and, in the flick- 
 ermg light, she saw his white, horrible face, and the piero 
 jig cry t of " Murder!" rose up from the waves. 
 
 A hurried step was answering the call. It was too late 
 to save him; but she would be discovered there and, if her 
 very life had depended upon it, she could not move hand 
 or foot to fly! 
 
 Nearer, nearer came the swift footsteps, and again the 
 ]K>rrible cry of " Murder!" was faintly repeated. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE morning after the masked ball Dora Lancaster sat 
 in her boudoir twining a note which she had received an 
 hour before around her whi^e, jeweled fingers. 
 
 A low, triumphant laugh burst from her lips as she slow 
 ly reread it, a laugh that was not pleasant to hear. 
 
 And these were the words the page contained: 
 
 " Miss LANCASTER, I am delighted to inform you that 
 our plan has proved entirely successful. 1 wrote out the 
 article with the chemically prepared white ink (which turns 
 instantaneously black upon being held over the heat of a 
 lamp or gas-jet), and as it showed no trace of its presencv 
 />n tha white paper, I readily obtained Leonie Lock s signa 
 ture. She thought it was a subscription-paper she was 
 signing, and the blow nearly killed her when, after obtain 
 ing her signature, I held it up to the light, and the terrible 
 olack letters flashed out in bold relief, and she found 1 
 had duped her into signing a contract of marriage with 
 me. I have now removed her effectually from yorr path. 
 Gordon Carlisle can uot-filL andJWO. one upon whom an- 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 
 
 Other has claims. TSo two lorers were ever more complete* 
 Ij sundered. I hare successfully carried out the work lot 
 which you engaged me; and now in regard to the recom 
 pense. Five hundred dollars is altogether too small a sum 
 for removing Leonie Locke, your lovely rival, from youi 
 path; I must have five thousand for it, or I shall go to 
 Gordon Carlisle and confess all I must have Che money 
 by Wednesday. 
 
 "Yours, etc., 
 
 "CHARLIE HAST. " 
 
 4 The impertinent wretch," cried Dora Lancaster, hot. 
 ly; " how dare he call upon me for more money! but 1 
 shall have to pay it, I suppose. My hated rival is out of 
 my path forever; thauk fortune for that! Heavens! how 
 Gordon Carlisle loved that girl/ she cried, hoarsely, cross 
 ing over to a writing-desk which rested on a table of pearl 
 and gold in the furthest end of the room, and unlocking it 
 as she spoke and drawing from it a diary which bore Gor 
 don Carlisle s monogram upon it. " He lavished a world 
 of love upon her," she repeated, hoarsely, seating herself 
 in the crimson velvet arm-chair again, and turning the 
 leaves recklessly with her jeweled fingers. 
 
 The penciled words in the diary Gordon Carlisle had lost 
 that night he had left held a strange fascination for her, 
 and every word roused a demon that was slumbering in 
 Dora Lancaster s throbbing heart, and these were the words 
 3he read! 
 
 " The beautiful face and soft appealing dark eyes of the 
 young girl I met to-day haunt me. Leonie Locke what 
 a beautiful, fanciful name I I must see more of her; when 
 a man is bewitched by a pretty girlish face, and a pair of 
 roguish, sparkling eyes, what does it matter to him whethei 
 she is a working-girl or a princess? * 
 
 \PAO\fO I iX. M 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 13? 
 
 * I have searched the whole city tnrough with the hope 
 of tracing the whereabouts of beautiful Leonie, but it 
 seems to be useless; 1 could have loved her with all my 
 souL Oh, fair Leonie, where art thou now? * 
 
 The next was replete with hope: " Fate, or rather the 
 merciful hand of Providence, has thrown Leonie and me 
 together again. " Here it broke off suddenly, and the next 
 one was still more abrupt: " Leonie, good Mrs. Stuart, and 
 I have had the kouse all to ourselves for three weeks, and 
 time seems to flit by all too quickly. How young and in 
 nocent Leonie is; if she were more worldly she could read 
 my great love for her in a thousand different ways. How 
 the love of such a dainty little treasure brightens a man s 
 life. I shall win Leonie for my wife if 1 can. My advice 
 to every young man, after this, will be: if you meet a 
 young girl like Leonie Locke marry her at once, for the 
 love of such a darling little creature is heaven upon 
 earth." 
 
 The last entry was made upon the night Gordon Carlisle 
 had given up wealth, position, home everything, foi 
 love s sweet, alluring sake. 
 
 " It is all over between father and me; he has forbidden 
 me the house because I would not give up my beautiful 
 love. But a still greater sorrow was in store for me; 
 Leonie has fled rather than share poverty with me. Gold, 
 gold, sordid gold how you sway the hearts of women! My 
 heart tells me there is some terrible mistake somewhere. I 
 shall never rest night or day until I have found Leonie 
 again and learned the truth from her own lips, that with 
 the loss of wealth her heart grew cold toward ma Great 
 God! it drives me mad to think of it; yet I am not the 
 first man that has been befooled by a beautiful girlish face, 
 a pair of dark, winning eyes, and a tremulous rose-bod 
 mouth. 1 shall find_Leaie and projr^Jber love for 
 
|88 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 There was an irregular dash of the pencil, and here thi 
 pathetic story of Gordon Carlisle s love-dream ended. 
 
 " How little he dreams that it was I who planned thai 
 affair, and, with the help of Charlie Hart, carried it out so 
 successf idly. I have put Leonie Locke forever beyond his 
 yearning heart, but I am no nearer the goal of my ain- 
 Jition winning Gordon s love than I was before. How 
 was I to know he would take his foolish old father at his 
 firord, quit the house, and take up his abodo at a hotel? 
 We are drifting further apart than ever. If Gordon was 
 only at home again, thrown more into my society, I might 
 have more chance 01 winning him. 1 will go to the hotel 
 again, and make one more attempt to see him. I believe 
 that porter lies when he says He is out, miss/ every 
 time I send up my card. I will see what virtue there is in 
 feeing the miserable black wretch, to find out what time 
 he will be in. Ah, I have it I will watch for him when 
 he is leaving. I shall haunt the betel like a spirit until 1 
 do see him." 
 
 She threw the diary into her desk, and quite thought 
 lessly, in her excitement, tossed the note Charlie Hart had 
 written her beside it, forgetting to lock the desk that held 
 such strange secrets and restore the key to her bosom. 
 
 " What is beauty for if one can not win the heart of the 
 man whom one loves?" she cried, fiercely, pausing before 
 the mirror and sc&nning her own face closely. 
 
 It was rather a faded Dora the mirror reflected, upon 
 whom the sunlight drifted through the parted curtains. 
 The pale-green silk dressing-robe, although it was filled in 
 at the neck and wrists with the softest lane, made her 
 complexion look a little yellowish, especially as she was 
 not <4 made up " for the day, and her pale yellow hair, 
 still in its white curl papers, certainly did not add to her 
 appearance. The picture did not satisfy her. 
 
 " Why do men love dark-eyed women best?" she mused. 
 * What was thereJ-tfTO** tac& of Leonie Locke to 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 139 
 
 aarry the heart of a fastidious young man like Gordon 
 Carlisle by storm?" she asked herself, fiercely. " Why 
 did the poets never rave of passionate blue eyes?" she 
 never remembered having read such a sentence; it was al 
 ways passionate, soulful, dark eyes glorious, dark, mag 
 netic eyes that swayed the hearts of men. 
 
 The glass told Dora Lancaster the truth, but like many 
 another woman, she would not believe the story it told. 
 But an hour later, when she stood before the mirror, it 
 was certainly a fascinating picture it reflected: a wiK 
 lowy, graceful girl in a crimson plush jacket and garnet 
 skirt, a broad-brimmed hat and drooping garnet plumes, 
 and a soft, dotted, rose-colored veil over the pearl-pow 
 dered cheeks. 
 
 4 You shall learn to love me, Gordon Carlisle/ sh<5 
 cried, fiercely; " to be your wife has been the golden dream 
 of my life. I have never looked at any other man, I was 
 so sure of winning you; and do you think I will stand 
 tamely by and see Leonie Locke s babyish face steal the 
 heart away from me that has been the aim of my life to 
 make mine? I will give Charlie Hart the five thousand 
 dollars, but he must agree to take her out of the country. 
 He must put the whole wide world between Gordon Car 
 lisle and Leonie Locke. If he does not, I will kill her, or 
 worse I can do worse I can spoil her beauty, as the great 
 French actress spoiled the glorious beauty of her rival on 
 the stage last night; and it was a glorious revenge, a thou 
 sand times more thrilling than her death would have been. 
 It is beauty that holds the hearts of men, and when youth 
 and beauty are gone, their mad passionate love lies dead. 
 What man could love a hideously distorted and seam- 
 drawn face, with shrunken and withered lips? Yes, I will 
 strike Leonie Locke through her glorious beauty, that stole 
 from me the love of the man I would steep my soul in 
 the blackest of crimes to win." 
 
 Dora Lancaster had matter*^ t.ha Wo*ds half aloud, aoj 
 
240 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 Bt that self-same instant some one touched the guilty 
 woman on the arm, and the jewel-case she held in her hand 
 fell to the floor with a crash, scattering the flashing jewels 
 about in all directions. 
 
 How long had she been standing there? What had she 
 heard? " How dare you come in upon me so unceremoni 
 ously?" cried Dora, stamping her foot, and white with 
 rage. " What brings you here, anyhow?" 
 
 Mrs. Stuart, the housekeeper, drew back in affright as 
 she said: 
 
 " I knocked twice, but you did not hear me. Mrs. Car 
 lisle says to please come to her room at once; she has some 
 thing startling to tell you." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DORA LANCASTER S red lips curled scornfully, as Mrs. 
 fitnart, the housekeeper, repeated, hurriedly: 
 
 "Mrs. Carlisle wants to see you right away, miss: she 
 nas something startling to tell you, she says. If you ll let 
 me, I ll help you pick up your diamonds. I m sorry I 
 frightened you. " 
 
 ** Hold your tongue, will you?" commanded Dora, 
 sharply. "I don t believe you rapped; you stole in as 
 quietly as you could, to see and hear all you could." 
 
 It was as much as the housekeeper could do to control 
 herself, she felt so much like turning around, giving Dora 
 Lancaster a piece of her mind, and telling her just what 
 she thought of her. Prudence forbade, however, and Mrs. 
 Stuart bridled her tongue. 
 
 The diamonds were soon replaced in the casket and 
 locked in the dressing-case. 
 
 " I would like you to arrange those flowers hi the vase, 
 and put the screen before the fire. I ll be back by that 
 time," said Dora, gathering up her silken skirts, and 
 irbisking out of the 
 
LEOXIE COCKB. 141 
 
 She left Mrs. Stuart alone, and the housekeeper turned 
 with a bitter gleam in her eyes toward the rase of rare 
 
 exotics on the mantel. 
 
 Aa she passed the writing-desk, which was open, the 
 crumpled note Dora had tossed into it caught her eye. 
 
 Mrs. Stuart was a good, honest soul, but, being a woman 
 and a descendant of Mother Eve, she could not help the 
 streak of curiosity that was bred in the bone. _^ 
 
 " Bless me, if it isn t another letter from Charlie Hart!" 
 she gasped, staring down at the note; and, as Eve was 
 anxious to get a taste of the apple, Mrs. Stuart was dying 
 of curiosity to get a look at the letter. " There is some 
 thing amiss here/ she muttered, " and I may as well find 
 out what s going on." And, suiting the action to the 
 word, Mrs. Stuart, ensconced her ample self in the cush 
 ioned arm-chair, and proceeded to examine minutely the 
 contents of the desk. 
 
 An hour and a half had passed; still Dora had not re* 
 turned, and Mrs. Stuart, hastily transferring a package of 
 papers to her bosom, quitted the room. 
 
 " So it wac. you, Dora Lancaster, that cheated young 
 Master Gordon out of marrying that poor, pretty, dimpled 
 little darling he was so fond of. The Lord bless us! if I 
 knew where Master Gordon was I d go to him this minute 
 and let him know the whole affair, if it wasn t for bring 
 ing out the rascality of that graceless nephew of mine. 
 Poor, pretty Leonie Locke, how fond she was of Master 
 Gordon! The Lord intended them for each other, just as 
 sure as the sun shines!" 
 
 But would Fate bring them together or drift them 
 apart, as so many loving hearts have been drifted ah, 
 who could tell? 
 
 " If I could only find Leonie Locke!" cried Mrs. Stuart, 
 " I m sure I could find some way of bringing those two 
 lovers together. Ill make the rounds of all the factories 
 and workshops in .* Vftrk r ^fev nntil I find her," sha 
 
142 LB01OB LOCKS. 
 
 thought, determinedly, <e and I ll force the truth from 
 Charlie Hart s lips. He shall make a clean breast of thil 
 whole affair, or my name is not Abigail Stuart! Gordon 
 shall have his pretty little dark-eyed love, and the whols 
 world shall known the villainous scheme the haughty heb> 
 ess dared lend herself to to win handsome young Gordon 
 Carlisle/ 
 
 Meanwhile Dora tripped lightly down to the library 
 where Mrs. Carlisle awaited her in the utmost impatience, 
 pacing up and down the room. 
 
 " You re ready for a drive, I see, Dora," said Mrs. Car 
 lisle, stopping short, and twisting the lace handkerchief she 
 held nervously in her hand; " but you must put it off, my 
 dear, for I want to have a long talk with you." 
 
 " I guess it will keep until after I return," replied Dora; 
 " Fm going to drive over to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and 
 if I am lucky enough to find Gordon, I shall insist upon 
 having him return with me to lunch." 
 
 " I have just dispatched a messenger there myself foi 
 Gordon," returned his mother. " 1 have just made a very 
 startling discovery, which will no doubt change Gordon * 
 affairs in a great measure, for it is about that young girl 
 be is so fond of pretty Leonie Locke." 
 
 In an instant all the blood in Dora Lancaster s veins 
 seemed turned to ice, and her cheeks paled to a dead white 
 under the rose-colored veil and the rouge. 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle was looking at her with an odd light in her 
 eyes, and an expression on her face she bad never seen it 
 wear before. 
 
 She knew she must say something it was expected of 
 her. 
 
 " Leonie Locke," she repeated, with a shrill laugh, " J 
 am sure you have heard nothing particularly favorable 
 about the girl," and her voice sounded so hoarse and un 
 natural she was frightened. 
 
 Her guilty conflcjejiGe needafLno accuser. A miserable 
 
LEONIfi LOCKE. 143 
 
 fear tnrflled her heart Had Gordon found the girl after 
 all and married her? A greenish glare terrible to see 
 flashed into her pale-blue eyes at the bare possibility. 
 
 To give our readers an insight into the true state of 
 affairs, we must inform them that Charlie Hart had been 
 too clever to inform Dora Lancaster of Leonie s escape, 
 and of the vigilant search he had instituted to discover her 
 whereabouts. 
 
 Like Mrs. Stuart, the thought had occurred to him to 
 search the workshops and factories, but it had proved 3 
 fruitless task; and at last, cursing his luck, he was about to. 
 give up the search when fortune favored him; he saw 
 Leonie and Mrs. Barrett alight from their coach one day 
 in front of their Lexington Avenue home. 
 
 There had not been the shadow of a mistake he had 
 jecognized her face instantly. 
 
 A few well-directed remarks to the coachman elicited all 
 joe cared to know; and fuming with intense rage at the 
 great fortune he Had missed, he entered heart and soul into 
 Dora Lancaster s plan of separating her effectually from 
 Gordon Carlisle, and by some bold stroke winning the 
 beautiful golden prize for himself. 
 
 He knew nothing of Kate Hardy s attempt on Leonie s 
 life; it had been kept a profound secret, for the managers 
 of the road had kept ic from the papers. 
 
 He had carefully kept all knowledge of Leonie s social 
 position from Dora Lancaster, upon whom he drew for 
 heavy sums each week ; declaring he held Leonie a prisoner 
 Ijafe under lock and key, until she should come to terms 
 by singing the marriage contract, which had been the 
 clever scheme that had originated in Dora Lancaster s 
 fertile brain. 
 
 And as Dora sat there the thought flashed across her 
 mind: " Had Charlie Hart dared betray her to Gordon s 
 toother?" 
 
 " Why do you si^ staring, at mo in that blank fashion, 
 
144 taoirn LOOKS. 
 
 Dora? Why don t yon ask what the startling news abort 
 this Leonie is?" asked Mrs. Carlisle, gazing into the girl s 
 white, startled, guilty face. 
 
 " I thought you would go on and relate it of your OWB 
 accord," replied Dora, in that same intense voice thai 
 Bounded scarcely human. 
 
 "I hare had a caller to-day, and you could scarcely 
 guess who it is," pursued Mrs. Carlisle. 
 
 " It would be a terrible task to go through the list ol 
 your dear five hundred friends^ be kind and do not keep 
 me in suspense. "Was it Gordon?" 
 
 " Oh, dear, no. I just told you I have sent for him/ 
 
 * Perhaps it was the girl we were just speaking of, 01 
 some one whom she has sent?" said Dora, in a low voice. 
 
 " Wrong again," laughed Mrs. Carlisle; " it was a lady 
 whom 1 used to meet quite frequently in society last sea* 
 aon; she has returned from Europe but a few months 
 Mrs. Barrett, the lawyer s wife/ 
 
 " Well," said Dora, vainly trying to curb her intense 
 curiosity, " what does she know of the working-girl who so 
 boldly attempted to entrap your son into marrying herj?" 
 
 " Leonie Locke is a working-gh/no longer," returned 
 Mrs. Carlisle, slowly. " I am sorry now that I did not let 
 the boy have his own way, for Leonie is an heiress now 
 worth a million of dollars in her own right; is not that as- 
 founding news, Dora?" 
 
 A horrible shrill laugh broke from Dora Lancaster s lipa 
 " The grub has emerged into the butterfly," she said, 
 scornfully. " I do not believe Mrs. Barrett; it is some 
 trick of the girl some scheme. " 
 
 " It is quite true," declared Mrs. Carlisle. " My friend 
 Mrs. Barrett is stopping with her; it is a wonderful ro 
 mance. If some clever novelist were to hear of it, the story 
 of Leonie Locke would create an intense sensation she 
 would find herself famous. There is no mistake; Mrs 
 
LBOKIE LOCKE. 14& 
 
 Barrett wears LeomVs portrait in a locket; it is her face 
 J saw it and recognized it instantly/ 
 
 " It is false!" cried Dora, springing to her feet and fling 
 ing prudence to the winds in the intensity of her excite 
 ment, " all false!" she repeated. * She is not living h* 
 Mrs. Barrett s Lexington Avenue home in New York. 
 She is living right here in Brooklyn, 1 say, and is the wife 
 of one of your discharged foremen, Charlie Hart AIL 
 heiress J bah! 1 wonder that you could have given credence 
 to such a wild story as that. The girl has some design 
 upon Gordon; perhaps she has instituted a suit for breach 
 of promise, or something as terrible, and this Mr. Barrett 
 is her attorney, and sent his wife around to glean what in 
 formation she could?" cried Dora, fairly trembling with 
 excitement, and livid with rage, as she sprung from her 
 Mt 
 
 " My dear Dora, how absurdly you talk/ responded- 
 Mrs. Carlisle, calmly; " lawyers never permit their wives 
 fco get mixed up in their business affairs. Who told yon, 
 Leonie Locke was married to Mr. Mr. Hart?" she in 
 quired. 
 
 "Hart told me so himself/ declared Dora, with a 
 thoughtless slip of the tongue, " or rather wrote me ta 
 that effect this very day/ she panted. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 DORA saw instantly that she had made a terrible 
 take. 
 
 Mrs. Carlisle was looking at her in the utmost astonish 
 ment. 
 
 " Did 1 understand you to say that a foreman from our 
 store a discharged foreman had written to you?" asked 
 the haughty woman, scarcely believing she had heard 
 aright 
 
& LB0HIE LOCKE. 
 
 Dora was altogether too clever to be caught in that 
 j/en though she had made a terrible slip of the tongue. 
 
 " That is just what I said," replied Dora, coloring to 
 jfae very roots of her pale frizzes. " The impudent creature 
 &ad the audacity to write to me asking if I would use my 
 influence to have him reinstated as foreman in Lincoln & 
 Carlisle s fur emporium, adding in the postscript that he 
 Itad made Leonie Locke his wife and there was more need 
 than ever to find employment. I tossed it into the fire and 
 would probably have never given the letter a second thought 
 if the matter had not been brought to my mind. You see, 
 now," she added, triumphantly, " it was all a myth about 
 ;* million of dollars being left to the girl " 
 
 " I really can not understand; there must be some mis- 
 ake about it," declared Mrs. Carlisle in bewilderment. 
 " I do not imagine Mrs. Barrett capable of a downright 
 /alsehood. 1 should be more apt to think the man Hart 
 had imposed upon you. I shall see Mrs. Barrett at a re 
 ception the last of this week, and she promises to bring the 
 young girl with her, and then we can see for ourselves 
 where the mistake lies. Gordon has accepted an invita 
 tion, and you will go, of course, Dora," continued Mrs. 
 -Carlisle, complacently. 
 
 For a moment the room seemed whirling around Dora, 
 her heart seemed to cease beating and turn icy cold. Gor 
 don had accepted an invitation, and Leonie Locke, the girl 
 whom she would have thought it no crime to murder, to 
 remove her forever from Gordon s path, she would be 
 ihere too. 
 
 Had Charlie Hart played her false? 
 
 " I ll think about the reception and let you know," she 
 said, drawing on her gloves. 
 
 " Oh, very well, just as you please, of course, my dear 
 returned Mrs. Carlisle, turning to her novel again, as Dora 
 hurriedly quitted the room. 
 
 * 1 will see Charlie Hart at once," she muttered, 
 
 ," 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 fcoarsely, " and if I can find that he has deceived me about 
 this girl, woe be to him!" She knew his number and 
 drove there straightway. 
 
 Private coaches in that locality were a rarity, and the 
 woman who answered the bell of the grkn red-brick house 
 with closed blinds, looked in open-eyed astonishment at 
 the fashionably dressed young lady who stood on the steps, 
 and who must have alighted from the coach. 
 
 " I would like to see Charlie Hart a moment, please, if 
 he is within/ said Dora, haughtily. 
 
 " He isn t in, miss," replied the woman, eying her vis 
 itor curiously from under her heavy eyebrows. " Mr. Hait 
 don t work any more, he s a gentleman of leisure now, and 
 comes and goes when he likes." 
 
 " Perhaps you can give me the information I want," 
 said Dora, reading the woman s face carefully in one swift, 
 keen glance. " I will make it worth your while to answer 
 me truthfully a few questions. " 
 
 " La, miss," replied the woman, dropping her insolent 
 tone at once and falling into a whining, wheedling one. 
 " I m a poor body, to be sure, but I m honest. Why, 
 Lord bless your pretty face, I ll answer any question, or as 
 many as you put to me. Won t you step into the sittin - 
 room?" 
 
 "Thank you, no," said Dora. "I prefer remaining 
 where I am. I suppose you live in this house, do you 
 not?" she inquired. 
 
 " La, no, miss, this is a club-house, and I take care of it 
 for the young gents," replied the woman, grinning. 
 
 " But Charlie Hart has rooms here," insisted Dora. 
 
 * Yes; he rooms here, and takes his meals out," ab 
 sented the woman; " 1 take care of his rooms." 
 
 " Ah!" thought Dora, triumphantly; " this woman can 
 tell me all I care to know. " 
 
 She took a five-dollar gold ;nio*-fcvvu fce r purse and slip* 
 
_* LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 ping it into the clumsy hand that held the door-knob, 
 asked: 
 
 " Is there not a young girl in this house at the present 
 moment under lock and key? Do not mistake the motive 
 that prompts the question, the girl I speak of is my most 
 bitter foe. A great load would be lifted from my heart if 
 J knew she was here out of my way. 1 came here to ask 
 this question of Charlie Hart, but you can answer me quite 
 as well." sf 
 
 " There s no young girl here, miss/ declared the wom 
 an. "As 1 told you before, it s a club-house. * The 
 Working Men s Union is the name of the club. No wom 
 an except myself ever comes across this threshold. Nor 
 has there ever been a woman inside this house for five years 
 or more. You can depend upon what I say, miss, or if 
 you doubt my word you can take a look through the rooms 
 and satisfy yourself that I ve told you the plain truth." 
 
 * I believe 1 will look through the rooms with you," 
 said Dora, white to the very lips with baffled rage. 
 
 Every door was throw open in turn from cellar to garret, 
 even Charlie Hart s rooms were opened with a pass-key. 
 
 .There was not the slightest evidence of a woman s pres 
 ence there, nor in fact anywhere about the house. 
 
 She had been sadly tricked. Leonie Locke was not 
 there. 
 
 Charlie Hart, who had dared demand such extravagant 
 mms of money from her under pretext that Leonie was 
 iere, a prisoner, had deliberately lied to her. Yet she 
 3ould not expose the traitor s villainy, because it would 
 only betray herself. 
 
 A horrible fear possessed her that perhaps t&ere might, 
 after all, be some truth in Mrs. Barrett s story. 
 
 She had played for high stakes; was she to lose now? 
 
 * You are very kind to take so much trouble to show me 
 aoout," said Dora, patronizingly; then she turned around 
 suddenly faced th* **w-hrowed_woman, " Could * 
 
LBQBTIB LOOKS. 143 
 
 depend upon yon in a matter of great importance, involv 
 ing the strictest secrecy?" she asked, slowly. " I will pay 
 you handsomely for it. ; 
 
 " I m very poor/ flsplied the woman, significantly; 
 " and poor people can * be particular as how they turns a 
 nimble penny. If you*fe got anything on hand that pays 
 well you can count on me, and you can depend I ll never 
 drop even a whisper about it " 
 
 ** Very well, I will come here again to-morrow at this 
 time, and we will talk the matter over. You will suit my 
 purpose exactly. 
 
 A moment later the coach whirled away. 
 
 " How deceitful these grand ladies are," muttered the 
 woman, " more than half of em lives double lives. Some 
 terrible deed is in her brain, but what need I care if she 
 pays well for the job. A woman who calls here for Charlie 
 Hart, the worst scamp in all New York, can t be much, 
 if she does wear diamonds as big as a bird s egg. * 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 DORA did not drive direct to the Fifth Avenue Hotel aa 
 she had intended, but, on the contrary, after she had 
 crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, she gave the order: "To 
 Lexington Avenue." 
 
 " I must see if this heiress is Leonie Locke," she cried, 
 fiercely, " and if it is, it will be a bitter struggle between 
 us for Gordon Carlisle s love. If he loved her when she 
 was a mere nobody, her sudden elevation to wealth and 
 position would not lessen it; even his mother, who would 
 have rather seen her handsome son lying dead at her feet 
 than wedded to a working-girl, has changed her estimate 
 of her when she hears she has wealth. " 
 
 As the coach passed the office of one of the leading 
 dailies, a sudden thought occurred to Dora, and bidding 
 the driver stop she entered the office. 
 
150 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 The papers were on file for a month back, and toward 
 ikese Dora made her way. 
 
 She remembered that the criticism of the French play 
 she had seen appeared in the columns of the next morn 
 ing s journal, together with a synopsis of the incidents, 
 laming the drug which the great actress was supposed to 
 have used to mar the glorious beauty of her rival. 
 
 Long and diligently Dora searched the file. Was fate 
 conspiring against her? It was not there. 
 
 * Perhaps I can help you find the paper you are search, 
 ing for?" said a keen-eyed, pleasant-faced young max* 
 who stood near her. 
 
 " Thank you, 1 was looking for the paper bearing date 
 of the 16th instant; it contained a few society notices 1 
 would have been pleased to see. " 
 
 The young man accommodatingly stepped to the desk. 
 
 " Have you a paper of the 16th?" he asked, carelessly; 
 * it seems to be missing from the file. " 
 
 As he spoke a meaning look passed between him and the 
 clerk, and immediately the paper was handed out, and he 
 handed it to Dora with a low bow. 
 
 4> Thank you, sir, " she replied. 
 
 Although the young man had stepped around to the 
 other side of the room, and the way she was holding the 
 paper was quite upside down from the position in which he 
 stood, the keen-eyed, innocent-appearing young man was 
 watching intently which column she was searching. 
 
 The smile that flickered a moment around her lipfc 
 showed him she had found what she wanted. 
 
 She read it carefully through twice. 
 
 " I shall be sure to remember the name of the drug 
 now/ she told herself, passing out of the office. 
 
 The next instant, the young man, who was one of the 
 keenest reporters on the paper, was bending over the col 
 umns which had attracted the stylish young lady. 
 
 " Society notes; .thra is nnOaina of. the kind here/" ho 
 
LEONIE LOCKE, 5 
 
 muttered, "her eyes were fastened abont midway down 
 the third column. Ah, here I have it; why, she has torn 
 & slip out of the paper;" a line or so of the article was miss 
 ing, the article which referred to some French play. 
 
 Hastily procuring another paper of the same date, h 
 quickly discovered the missing words, which were as follows: 
 
 " She was supposed to have used the famous French 
 drug A , whose contact with the human skin imme 
 diately shows its presence in deep crimson scars; but, 
 strange to say, it acts in this manner upon the human skin 
 only." 
 
 In a moment the reporter had whipped out his note-book 
 and jotted down the incident, together with a full descrip 
 tion of the pretty young girl (who had been so interested 
 in that strange item), from the tip of her dainty No. 2 kid 
 boot to her pale frizzes waving coquettishly beneath the 
 drooping crimson plumes. 
 
 " 1 may need this item some of these days," he mut 
 tered, transferring the book to his pocket. " A fellow can 
 find more startling incidents if he hangs around the office 
 than he could pick up in a week tramping up and down 
 the muddy streets. If anything does come of this affair, 
 I ll have a first-class lead, much to the envy of the rest of 
 the drivers of the quill. " 
 
 The young reporter laughed and whistled softly to him 
 self as he walked out of the office, sauntering slowly up 
 Broadway, telling himself " he must run across some start 
 ling sensation, or he must write one up, making it out of 
 whole cloth, before the paper went to press that night; for 
 the paper was getting dull and prosy for the want of some 
 spicy scandal involving a young and lovely woman and ap 
 enraged jealous husband or a lover. 
 
 Meanwhile Dora was whirling rapidly up Broadway, and 
 the coach stopped once more before a large drug-store 
 few blocks from Lexirurton Avenue* and Dora alighted. It 
 
LXOXIE LOCKE. 
 
 was just at tke hour of noon, and there were no customers 
 in ike store. 
 
 For an instant Dora wavered, but the good impulse died 
 as the beautiful innocent face of Leonie Locke rose up be 
 fore her. 
 
 With a firm step she walked up to the counter and called 
 for the drug; but here a startling dilemma confronted her 
 the clerk would not let her have it without an order from 
 some doctor. The disappointment was so intensely keen 
 Bora grew white to the very lips. 
 
 " Have the drug she must, at any cost/ she told her 
 self. 
 
 The clerk was young and impressible she would try all 
 her pretty coquettish blandishments upon him, and coax 
 him into breaking the rules and letting her have it 
 
 "Won t you make this an exceptional case, please?" 
 persisted Dora. " I want it so much I want to use it to 
 touch up some very valuable oil paintings/ 
 
 " I am very sorry to refuse you, miss," replied the clerk, 
 blushing up to the very roots of his hair under the fire of 
 her bright eyes. " If it was my store I would let you have 
 it in a minute. Our proprietor is very strict about selling 
 poisons of all kinds. I never heard of its being used for 
 that purpose, though." 
 
 " Very few of the old masters divulge the hidden secrets 
 of their art," laughed Dora. " You look like a very ac 
 commodating young man, and I do not see how you can 
 find it in your heart to refuse me," said Dora, softly. 
 I m sore I will never let any one know if you would only 
 reconsider and let me have it" 
 
 The pretty little white jeweled fingers, from which the 
 dainty kid glove had been removed, unconsciously touched 
 against his in her intense eagerness, and the thrilling, 
 magical touch of those caressing little fingers made the 
 blood leap throug^Jhe bashful young clerk s veins like 
 el/a^tric fire. - 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 153 
 
 "* 1 know you will be so kind as to please let me have 
 it," pleaded Dora, noticing, with a thrill of exultation, 
 that he wavered. 
 
 He was young and easily influenced, as many another 
 man has been before him, by the sweet, seductive persua 
 sions of a beautiful, willful woman. 
 
 He knew it was wrong to listen to her entreaties, but he 
 was utterly powerless to resist her. The thrilling, fasci 
 nating touch of those fingers, that was a caress in itself, 
 seemed to steep his senses in a bewildering, happy maze. 
 
 Hearts that are young are not supposed to be crafty, 
 world-hardened and soured against love s sweet thrill, for, 
 of all the temptations in the whole wide world, there is 
 none so hard for a man to resist as the blandishments of a 
 lovely woman. 
 
 " You will get me the drug?" persisted Dora, and, 
 scarcely conscious of what he was doing, and white to the 
 very lips, without another word the young clerk obeyed. 
 
 " You must give me your name and residence," he said, 
 bashfully, handing her the fatal package. 
 
 A diabolical idea entered Dora s brain. 
 
 " Certainly/ she replied. " My name is Leonie Locke, 
 aod I live at No. , Lexington Avenue. " 
 
 She did not tarry a moment longer than was necessary, 
 and once more the coach started off at a rapid pace. 
 
 " Leonie Locke what a beautiful name!" murmured 
 the drug-clerk, penning down the name, with a smile on, 
 his lips. " I think she must have bewitched me!" he 
 cried, shudderingly. * Heavens, what a risk I have run 
 in letting her have that drug! If it was to be done over 
 again, I 1 would stand out against her entreaties. What 
 if anything should come of it? But no; what a fool I am 
 to give myself unnecessary trouble about the affair! I wilt 
 try and forget it." 
 
 And then the youmt drnar-clerk did what he had never 
 
 I 333 S. fJ-JnVr I 
 
JB 4 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 done in all his life before poured out a full glasB of titt 
 strongest wine, and drained it at a single draught. 
 
 The coach rolled along at a rapid rate, and Dora 9 flushed 
 with triumph, with the vial hidden securely, leaned hack 
 among the cushions planning the diabolical deed which she 
 was so soon to execute. 
 
 " I must manage, by some means, to remain overnightt 
 n the house, " she muttered, " and gain an entry to Leonie 
 Locke s room, then all will be plain sailing. If I am de 
 tected there, I can make some kind of an excuse. Eest 
 securely in your beauty to-day, Leonie Locke; when the 
 morrow comes there will be no trace of it left. She has 
 brought it all on herself; she should not have come be 
 tween me and Gordon Carlisle." 
 
 When the heart is fired by the horrible pangs of jealousy 
 there is no depths of woe that can equal it; all tenderness 
 of heart dies, or is merged, rather, in the one thought of 
 crushing a rival. 
 
 The sudden stopping of the coach before the Lexington 
 Avenue mansion cut short Dora s thoughts, and, a moment 
 later, she was seated in the luxurious parlor awaiting Mrs. 
 Barrett. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 reader, we must now return to Leonie, whom we 
 left leaning over the railing in breathless excitement, 
 gazing down into the dark raging sea, while the winds that 
 lashed the angry waves into a seething fury took up the 
 startling cry and echoed " Murder." 
 
 The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps recalled 
 laconic s scattered senses, and in an instant she realized th 
 danger of being found there. 
 
 The cry died away over the wild waste of water. 
 
 " No one could save him now," muttered Leonie, as she 
 saw that he did not rise again* 1L sod the dark waters caa 
 
LOCKE. 153 
 
 not whisper to the world of the horrible secret they hold. 
 He can never claim me now. I am free free!" 
 
 The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps sounded 
 Bearer and nearer, and the man who was hurrying to the 
 spot in response to that terrible cry, caught a meteoric 
 glimpse of a beautiful, white, startled face that vanished 
 like a shadow in the dense darkness of the starless night. 
 
 A few hours later, when Leonie s maid entered her room 
 to replenish the fire, she stumbled upon a dark-robed figure 
 lying upon the lilies of the carpet, prone upon her face. 
 
 In a moment the maid had touched the gas-jet, and a 
 flood of bright light illumined the scene. 
 
 " Oh, dear! oh, dear! cried the girl, kneeling down beside 
 the prostrate form with a look of consternation and terror 
 on her face. "It is Miss Leonie, she has been gone for 
 two whole days, and what could have happened her to have 
 come home like this? She raised the slender girlish figure 
 in her strong arms and placed her upon the white lace- 
 draped bed. 
 
 In a moment she had removed the long dark cloak and 
 dress and the thin kid boots that were quite wet through. 
 
 " Fm sure if those white lips could open and speak to 
 me they would say: Let no one know/ " thought the 
 maid. "Til not tell em Miss Leonie came home. 1 
 shall tend her all by myself." 
 
 At that moment Leonie s brown eyes flashed wide open, 
 and in an instant she had sprung from the bed and was 
 eowering at the girl s feet 
 
 * Oh, I did not mean to do it," she gasped, clinging 
 ke a frightened child to the girl s skirts, * but I was 
 driven to it. You must hide me, Aimee hide me where 
 no one in the wide world can find me. If you let them 
 find me I will fall down at your feet and die." 
 
 The girl raised her again and placed her in the bed. 
 
 " Something terrible has JttEttened. She s out of bet 
 
158 LEON IE 
 
 mind, poor dear/ thought the girl in affright " I mnsfc 
 arouse the household arid send for a doctor. " 
 
 She had quite unconsciously uttered the words alond, 
 and she never forgot the look of terror that leaped into 
 LeomVs dark eyes. 
 
 " I am not out of my mind, Aimee," she sobbed, " I 1 
 spoke before I thought. I was so tired I must have fainted 
 when I came in. Don t call any one, Sit down beside me, 
 I am afraid of being left alone. " 
 
 Aimee sat down, but, like all the shrewd maids of hex 
 nationality, she readily divined that something greatly out 
 of the usual order of events had transpired. 
 
 " Has Professor Rexford called since I was away?" 
 asked Leonie, eying the girl s face wistfully with her large 
 dark eyes. 
 
 " No, miss, but he sent a note to Mrs. Barrett, saying 
 that it was impossible to come for a few days, as he had 
 some important business to transact out of the city. " 
 
 Was it only fancy, or did a sigh of regret escape from 
 Leonie s lips? 
 
 " I must not tell her about the letter he sent by a mes 
 senger," thought the girl; " for it was particularly stated 
 in the note he sent to me that I must not put it into her 
 hands before Wednesday morning. " 
 
 " Mrs. Barrett told many of the callers that you would 
 be home to-day," pursued the maid; "but there was on$ 
 young girl who declared she was going to stay here untD 
 you came. She was so bold she actually walked into this 
 room last night, and when she saw me sitting here she pre 
 tended she had mistaken it for her own. The reason 1 
 know she is telling an untruth is, she has made the same 
 mistake, as she calls it, whenever she has had an oppor 
 tunity." 
 
 Leonie was tossing restlessly on her pillow, paying little 
 heed to the story;; 1 
 
 " I must give her. a Quieting draught, and after she has 
 
LXOfflE LOCKE. 15? 
 
 6 good sleep she wfll be all right/ thought Aimee, and 
 suiting the action to the word, she forced a few drops of 
 valerian between the white lips, and a few moments after 
 Jjeonie dropped to sleep. 
 
 Aimee put away the damp shoes, and turning the gas-jet 
 tow, and placing the thick dark cloak before the fire to 
 dry, she was just about to quit the room when the knob ef 
 the door turned with a subdued low click, and through the 
 aperture glided the white figure of a woman. 
 
 Aimee stood among the shadows and watched her curi 
 ously, muttering to herself: 
 
 " She must be a somnambulist, yet she can t be asleep, 
 for her eyes are as wide open as mine this very minute." 
 
 Dora Lancaster (for it was she) paused for an instant in 
 the center of the apartment, and cast a swift keen glance 
 around her, and detected the faint outlines of the slender 
 girlish form resting upon the lace-draped couch. 
 
 " Here at last," she muttered, clinching her white hands 
 deep into the folds of her dress, as she glided swiftly toward 
 the bed, with a devilish gleam in her steel-blue eyes. 
 
 Leonie lay with her head resting upon her plump 
 rounded arm, a beautiful picture, with her soft brown 
 curls lying over the pillow, the damp, short locks in baby 
 ish rings on her white forehead, and her long dark lashes 
 against her marble-white cheek. 
 
 If it had not been for her breathing, which stirred the 
 frills of lace on her bosom, she would have looked like a 
 statue carved in marble. 
 
 No warning of the awful danger that menaced her 
 flitted through her dreams. 
 
 * It is she," cried Dora, hoarsely. " I could end her 
 life here and now, but my revenge will be a thousand times 
 more glorious to see her pretty face, that has won Gordon 
 Carlisle from me, scarred and senmedf _and if that fails to 
 turn Gordon s love from her, I shall make terms with that 
 
158 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 woman to carry out iLe plan I have so ingeniously thought 
 out." 
 
 As Bhe spoke she drew the vial from her breast, and held 
 it up toward the dim gas-light. 
 
 It seemed to emit a thousand brilliant rainbow hues of 
 sparkling splendor. 
 
 " How fascinatingly beautiful dangerous things usually 
 are/ she muttered, with a hoarse laugh. " Who would 
 think these sparkling grains could seam and scar a beauti 
 ful face into repulsive ugliness?" 
 
 Love and jealousy had led to a terrible revenge. 
 
 Another moment and she had uncorked the vial, holding 
 it close to Leonie s face. 
 
 "Take that, Leonie Locke!" she hissed. "You have 
 tasted the sweets of Gordon Carlisle s love, and now I shall 
 taste to tb<j full the sweets of revenge!" 
 
 The brilliant powder flashed in the dim light and flut 
 tered down like a drift of snow; but at that thrilling mo 
 ment the hand of Heaven interfered; Leonie turned her 
 head restlessly, and the powder fluttered down upon the 
 pillow, where but a moment since her soft cheek bad 
 pressed. 
 
 With a shriek of baffled rage, Dora Lancaster sprung 
 forward. 
 
 "You shall not cheat me I will kill you first!" she 
 screamed, hoarsely, snatching the pillow with the intention 
 of burying the beautiful face beneath it; but a strong arm 
 hurled her back, and Aimee, the faithful maid, sprung be 
 tween Dora and her innocent victim, and Dora recoiled just 
 in time to escape receiving the full force of the drugged 
 pillow upon her own face. 
 
 The noise and confusion aroused Leonie. 
 
 " They have come for me!" she gasped, as she saw the 
 two struggling figures swaying to and fro in the dim, un 
 certain light. 
 
 In imagination she conld see the rigid body that the 
 
LBOSTE LOCKE. 159 
 
 waves must have east up, with the terrible paper clutched 
 triumphantly in his hand that gave out to the world she 
 was a wife; and, with an appealing cry to God and the 
 Angels to save her, Leonie fell back in a deadly swoon. 
 
 In moments of the most thrilling danger, hardened 
 criminals display the most heroic coolness and courage. 
 
 Dora Lancaster had counted the cost, and had planned 
 what she should do in a case of emergency, should she be 
 discovered in her attempt to gain an entrance to Leonie s 
 apartments. 
 
 Quick as thought she executed her clever plan. She 
 gave a little suppressed scream, gazing around her with 
 well-simulated surprise. " Oh, where am I?" she cried, 
 in pretended bewilderment, clasping her white hands. 
 " Oh, I am in somebody s room! I I pray you will for 
 give me my old habit of sleep-walking must have come 
 over me." 
 
 By this time Aimee had turned on the gas, and a brill- 
 iantf flood of light illumined the room. 
 
 Cleverly as Dora had carried out her little game, she had 
 not succeeded in deceiving the clever French maid. She 
 took in at a glance the exact situation. 
 
 " I have heard of people walking about in their sleep 
 many a time before," whispered the girl, significantly, 
 l< but I have never heard of a somnambulist doing what 
 you tried to do to-night," she added. 
 
 " Why, what did I try to do?" said Dora, in pretended 
 Bonder. 
 
 " I will tell you," replied the girl, in a low, intense 
 *vhisper; f 4 you tried to murder Leonie Locke 1" 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 " You impudent creature! how dare you intimate such a 
 terrible thing?" gasped Dora Lancaster, fairly hVid with 
 rage. 
 
160 LBONIE LOOKB. 
 
 It is tree/ repeated the girl, stolidly; " yon tried v 
 murder Leonie Locke with the contents of the vial yon 
 have there hidden in your bosom." 
 
 " Do you know what I could do with you for making 
 such a threat?" cried Dora, gliding up close to her, so 
 near that her hot breath scorched the girl s cheek. 
 
 " "No matter what you could do, I would stand my 
 ground, and let the whole wide world know what you have 
 tried to do," cried the girl, defiantly. 
 
 " I see that 1 can not convince you," replied Dora, 
 changing her tactics; " but, although you seem to be un 
 friendly toward me, I, on the contrary, have taken a great 
 fancy to you, my good girl, and to one whom I like I am 
 very liberal it is my nature. I am going to make you a 
 little present, my dear girl, but you must never tell when 
 or why I gave it to you, for I would not let any one know 
 for the whole wide world that I have a habit of walking in 
 my sleep and doing strange unaccountable things. * 
 
 As she spoke, she slipped a magnificent diamond ring 
 from her finger, placing it in the girl s rough, toil-hard 
 ened brown palm. 
 
 " Will you take it and promise me this shall be a dead 
 secret between us?" she whispered, keenly watching the 
 girl s face. 
 
 There are few maids that can withstand a persuasive 
 argument of that kind, and Dora knew it well. 
 
 The diamond glowed like a miniature rainbow, sparkling 
 brightly in the gas-light. 
 
 There are women that possess the deadly magnetic fasci 
 nation of a serpent, and Dora was one of them; she held 
 the girl spell-bound under her cool, keen, steady eyes. 
 
 Dearly as the girl loved Leonie, the glittering diamond 
 overcame her scruples. 
 
 "No one shall ever know, I promise you," she an 
 swered, slowly. 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 16] 
 
 " Thank you, be my friend, and yon will loee nothing, 5 
 eaid Dora, significantly. 
 
 She gathered up her trailing silken robe over her arm, 
 and glided toward the door. 
 
 On the threshold a sudden thought occurred to her, ana 
 she stopped short. 
 
 " The girl knows too much, she must be made away with, 
 too," she muttered, under her breath. 
 
 She beckoned the girl to her, and whispered, quickly: 
 
 " I would like to have a long confidential interview with 
 you to-morrow; can you come to me to Brooklyn?" 
 
 " Yes, if Miss Leonie can spare me/* replied Aimee, 
 blushing. 
 
 " She must not know," returned Dora, quickly. 
 " Come alone. You can not miss the place, it is a lonely 
 red-brick house, standing quite apart from the rest, on the 
 banks of the river." 
 
 The precious diamond which Dora had given her quite 
 threw her off her guard, and she readily promised. 
 
 " Put that pillow under that young girl s head/ she 
 said, motioning carelessly to the pillow lying on the velvet 
 carpet. 
 
 Another moment and Dora had gained her own room, 
 and it was not until then that she gave full vent to her ter 
 rible rage. 
 
 * More beautiful than ever," she cried, tearing the lac 
 handkerchief she carried into shreds, " she seems to have a 
 charmed life. I must have more of the same drug. I 
 shall not fail the next time, rest assured. " 
 
 She threw herself down into a cushioned chair by the 
 grate, and all through the long hours of the weary night 
 thought over plots and plans against the beauty and hap 
 piness of Leonie which were to bear fruit on the morrow. 
 
 The sun was shimnp; when Leonie opened her eyes thfl 
 aext morning. Aimee -was movinar about the room, and 
 
LEONIE LOCKS, 
 
 there was no risible trace of the events of the previous 
 night which have just been narrated. 
 
 -* It must have been a dream/ thought Leonie, burying 
 j,ier face in the lace pillows. Then suddenly her thoughts 
 flashed back to Charlie Hart. A moment later the maid 
 was startled by a piteous cry which brought her at once tr 
 Leonie s side. 
 
 " IB that the morning paper on the table?" she asked-, 
 and her voice sounded so hollow and so dreary it almost 
 seemed to Leonie that the words had been spoken by other 
 lips. " It would be sure to be in the morning papers/ 
 she gasped. 
 
 The girl handed her the paper; but her hand trembled 
 so the letters fairly danced before her eyes. 
 
 " Let me read it for you, Miss Leonie," said the girl, 
 noticing, with amazement, how nervous she was. " I wil) 
 bring your dressing-robe and slippers, and you shall sit ID 
 this cushioned chair by the grate while I read. " 
 
 Leonie suffered her to robe her in the pretty pale-blue 
 cashmere gown with its soft lace ruffles and satin bows, 
 and the dainty slippers, curbing her impatience as well as 
 she could. She clasped her hands so tightly that the ten 
 der skin was bruised, so keen was her terrible suspense to 
 know whether Charlie Hart s body had been recovered or 
 not, and if the paper had been found clutched in his hand. 
 
 "Read the * locals first," she said; and Aimee took 
 up the paper, slowly reading the column through. 
 
 Yes, it was there! Early that morning the body of ai 
 unknown man had been found upon the beach, washed up 
 by the tide. It had been sent to the Morgue for identifi 
 cation. "And/ continued the paragraph, "near the 
 body was found a parchment bearing the imprint of a 
 man s hand. The salt water has nearly obliterated the 
 writing; but it has been given over to the authorities, and 
 be put under a microscopical examination. " 
 
 The girl glanced up from the paper. Leonie lay back io 
 
LEONIZ LOCKE. 108 
 
 faer chair in a dead swoon, and it was not until every effort 
 had been made to restore her to consciousness that the 
 maid was at last successful 
 
 Leonie had no appetite for the bit of broiled bird and 
 buttered muffins; she pushed them away un tasted. 
 
 The blow had fallen, but not in the way she had ex 
 pected. She was free from Charlie Hart, but the angels 
 bad taken vengeance upon her for what she had done by 
 casting up that fatal paper which would be such a silent 
 witness against her on the waves. What would they do 
 with her if they knew all? These, and a thousand other 
 thoughts, whirled through her brain, making her weak aid 
 dizzy and wofully heart-sick. 
 
 A feeling of sharp remorse stirred the girl s heart, as she 
 thought of the promise she had given to keep the terrible 
 secret she held from Leonie. 
 
 " Why had Miss Lancaster striven so hard to destroy 
 her?" she asked herself, as she looked at the beautiful, 
 bowed curly head resting on the little white hands. " 1 
 will give her back the ring," thought the girl, " for it 
 eeems like a mill-stone around my neck. 1 have given 
 my word to keep this dark secret, and 1 can not go back 
 on it. But there is one thing I can do: I can watch over 
 pretty Miss Leonie, and see that no ill befalls her, for that 
 yellow-haired woman is a fiend incarnate! She can t fool 
 me. She intended to murder Leonie Locke. Somnam 
 bulists never carry vials hidden away in their bosoms." 
 
 " I must make the more effort to see Paul Rexford/ 
 thought Leonie, " and if I fail the next time, then I will 
 go to Gordon Carlisle and tell him the whole horrible 
 story. He was kind to me once, and he would advise me 
 now and keep the pitiful secret to the bitter end." 
 
 No thought ever occurred to her of making a confidant 
 of Lawyer Barrett or his worldly wife. How they wonl3 
 turn from her in horror and loathing if she told them sbt 
 had pushed down into the dark, hungry sea a man who had 
 
 IMF rn 1 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 driven her to the verge of madness and despair, more cruel 
 to hear than death itself. 
 
 In moments of darkest sorrow her hungry heart had al 
 ways turned to Gordon Carlisle, or Paul Bexf ord, as the 
 needle of the magnet turns to the pole. 
 
 Before Aimee had time to execute her thoughts, the door 
 which was standing ajar was opened softly. There was a 
 taint, delicate odor of white rose and a rustle of silken, 
 robes trailing over the velvet carpet, and the next moment 
 two arms were twined around Leonie s neck. 
 
 " You darling girl!" cried Dora Lancaster, flashing a 
 warning glance at Aimee and making a sign for her to quit 
 the room. " I have discovered you in your fancied secure 
 retreat at last, and I could not stand upon ceremony. I 
 told Gordon I must come and see you at once. Words do 
 not express how pleased I am at your good fortune," chat 
 tered Dora, drawing up a chair close to Leonie s side. " I 
 hope you will pardon me for intruding into your private 
 boudoir, but we are such very old friends, I knew you 
 would not mind," Dora went on, softly. 
 
 " This is the power of riches," thought Leonie, looking 
 at her in wonder. " When I was a poor working-girl how 
 cruelly she abused me, and now that she knows of my 
 wealth she calls me her friend." Still Leonie greeted he/ 
 kindly. 
 
 Leouie had little need to be surprised. She little knew 
 it was the way of the world to be weighed in the balance 
 ef wealth, and to be found wanting was one of the blackest 
 of crimes. 
 
 But Leonie was such a good-hearted, clever, unsuspi 
 cious little soul she was quite willing to let by-gones be by 
 gones; yet she could not quite control the quivering throb 
 that thrust her heart like a knife as she remembered, " if 
 it had not been for Dora, Gordon Carlisle s love might have 
 been hers. Still, all kbit beautiful love-dream was over 
 
\ . 
 "LBOIOE LOCKE. 165 
 
 ; she must put it away from her heart, and try to like 
 Dora as well as she could for Gordon s sake." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 " I SHALL be very pleased to be friends with yon, Miss 
 Lancaster," said Leonie, gazing frankly into the face oi 
 the beautiful guilty girl sitting beside her. " I quite 
 thought that you did not like me." 
 
 " Why, because you had such a charming flirtation with 
 Gordon?" asked Dora, with a little laugh. 
 
 " Flirtation!" how the word jarred upon Leonie s sen 
 sitive soul. She had given Gordon Carlisle all tke pure, 
 sweet love of her girlish heart, during those never-to-be- 
 forgotten days, and he had told Dora it had been only a 
 flirtation. 
 
 No reply came from Leonie s lips, and Dora went on 
 
 gayly: 
 
 44 We shall be none the worse friends for that, Leonie; 
 for I know you cared no more for Gordon than he did for 
 you." 
 
 Should she tell Dora Lancaster the story of that broken 
 love dream? the impulse within her was strong to tell 
 Dora all. 
 
 She arose and stood before her, her white hands working 
 nervously together, and a pain in her dark eyes that was 
 touching to behold. 
 
 " I shall try and be your friend, Miss Lancaster," she 
 said, slowly; " but I can never visit you, never." 
 
 " 1 am so sorry, but perhaps you know best," replied 
 Dora, sweetly. " I had hoped though to persuade you to 
 le one of my bride-maids; I am soon to be married, you 
 know," she continued, maliciously. She saw Leonie s 
 face paie to a dead whiteness, and she went on, gayly: 
 * Perhaps your own wedding would be the next hi order 
 
166 LEONIE LOCKE, 
 
 Mrs. Barrett tells me yon are a great favorite among tin 
 bwaus. " 
 
 One thought was whirling through Dora s busy brain: 
 she must find out whether Leonie had met Gordon Carlisle 
 since the night she had so unceremoniously quitted his fa 
 ther s roof, or not. She was satisfied beyond all shadow ol 
 d dou jfc that Leonie still cared for him. 
 
 How Leonie longed to ask Dora if Gordon knew the 
 strange romantic story of her sudden wealth. 
 
 " You did not tell me how you knew I was here/ said 
 Leonie, eagerly, adding, hesitatingly: " Do Mr. and Mrs. 
 Carlisle and and their sou know of it? * 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied Dora, shaking back her golden curls 
 as she laid her hand on Leonie s arm; " but you must for- . 
 give me for saying something very unpleasant; yet for 
 your own sake I must put you on your guard. No matter 
 how much wealth was yours, Gordon and his parents can 
 never forget you were once a working-girl, and not to the 
 manner born. " 
 
 All the beautiful color died from Leonie s face. How 
 innocent Dora looked as she willfully breathed that wicked 
 falsehood, and the sudden pain in the dark, velvety eyes 
 raised to her own, showed her that the cruel arrow had 
 ss/uck the girl s heart. 
 
 " Yet, knowing this, you have asked me to be one of 
 your bride-maids!" said Leonie, with fine scorn and bitter 
 contempt. " I can not understand why you did that. 
 Mr. Carlisle need have no fear; I shall never cross hia 
 threshold again. I would never have let them know where 
 Hived." 
 
 " Mrs. Barrett was our informant; she is quite a friend 
 of Gordon s mother," said Dora, tapping her dainty heels 
 against the polished fender. " I really liked you, Leonie; 
 and Gordon never objects when I st my heart upon any* 
 thing, he loves me so well. " 
 
 As she spoke, she darted a amck glance at Leonie s face, 
 
LBOlfTR LOCKE. 
 
 Fair, treacherous Dora! she told the glib falsehood with a 
 certain air of truth that carried conviction with it. 
 
 " HaTe you met Gordon lately?" asked Dora, turning 
 around and facing Leonid suddenly. 
 
 " No/ said Leonie, trying to speak calmly; but, in 
 spite of her great effort, the voice that uttered that one 
 word quivered piteously, and Dora s quick ear detected a 
 world of longing in it, and a swift, hot, jealous pang darted 
 through her heart. 
 
 " I am having Gordon s portrait painted a birthday 
 surprise for his mother. It will be finished to-day. The 
 work is by a famous artist, and he promises me it shall be 
 true to life. Will you come with me and help me to judge 
 of its merit?" 
 
 A great, sudden longing Leonie could not understand 
 came over her to go with Dora, and look upon the pict 
 ured face of the man she had loved so well loved and lost 
 While she -was gazing into those eyes that looked such 
 fond love into hers so false and fair she would take a 
 last farewell of him a silent farewell of the handsome 
 lover who had cast her off because she was only a working- 
 girl, while he was the aristocratic son of a millionaire. 
 How well she loved him still! Even Paul Rexford, the 
 poor young professor, had found favor in her eyes because 
 he was so strangely like Gordon Carlisle* 
 
 If her very life had depended upon that one action, 
 Leonie could not have resisted the yearning temptation of 
 accompanying Dora. 
 
 " I think I will go with you, Miss Lancaster," she said. 
 
 There was a sudden gleam in Dora s steel-blue eyes, that 
 the white, drooping lids so artfully concealed a gleam of 
 triumph. 
 
 How strange it was that both of these two young girk 
 should have loved the same man with such a passionate, 
 deathless love a love that was to be the doom of one of 
 them. 
 
168 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 An hoar later Dora s stylish little phaeton, drawn by & 
 pair of prancing bays, was whirling leisurely np Broad* 
 way. 
 
 " We are rather early," said Dora, consulting her little 
 jeweled watch, " and it is so stupid having GO a waft the 
 pleasure of these artists. I think we had better stop at 
 some cafe, and have luncheon first. " 
 
 The reply that trembled upon Leonie s lips never wai 
 tattered, for at that moment a dark, mocking face flashed 
 quickly past them from an adjacent coupe. 
 
 Great heavens! could the sea give up its dead? could the 
 dark, mocking face and luridly gleaming eyes that had 
 just flashed past her belong to the man whom she had 
 pushed down in the dark, maddening, seething waters? 
 
 She quite expected to hear his voice ring op f above the 
 din of the noisy streets accusing her of it. 
 
 Leonie put out her hands in a groping way. 
 
 * Stop the carriage, please/ she cried, in a voice that 
 was scarcely human. " I had forgotten that I have an 
 appointment at this very hour. You need not drive back, 
 1 can take a cab just as well, and an hour later I will join 
 you at the studio. " 
 
 Remonstrance was useless, and Dora was obliged to 
 aliow Leonie to depart. 
 
 Leonie glanced hurriedly around, and feeling secure in 
 the belief she was not followed, she bent her steps hurried 
 ly in the direction of the Morgue, where the paper had said 
 the body of the irian who had been washed up by the sea 
 iiad been removed for identification. 
 
 A deathly f aintness seized Leonie as she made known her 
 errand to the man in attendance, and was ushered into the 
 main apartment. 
 
 In aU the long years of her after life Leonie never forgot 
 the pitiful sight that met her gaze. Mothers were there 
 searching for beloved children, wives for husbands, and 
 tistev for brother* *tttMKare oiteous wails, and heart 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 169 
 
 Droken sobs, and terrible cries. Like one in a horrible 
 dream Leonie glided among them, scanning with terror the 
 silent forms upon the pallid, frozen, marble beds. It 
 seemed to Leonid that she should faint from sheer fright at 
 every step. 
 
 " Can Charlie Hart be among them?" queried Leonk, 
 half aloud. 
 
 " Let me answer that question for you," and, with the 
 sinister, jarring laugh Leonie remembered but too well, 
 Charlie Hart, in the flesh, stepped briskly to her side, with 
 a mocking bow. Leonie did not cry out or utter any 
 moan; no sound fell from her white lips; all the agony of 
 a Kfe-time seemed crowded into that awful moment. 
 " You dashed me down into the sea to escape me," he 
 hissed through his handsome white teeth, " but you see I 
 am not so easily disposed of. Being an expert swimmer, I 
 managed to reach the shore. You shall pay dearly for thafc 
 piece of work. I never knew before how dangerous you 
 could be, my little beauty. " 
 
 Although Leonie was thankful beyond measure to know 
 that she was free from the terrible dark cloud that had 
 gathered above her head, yet the sight of the smiling, re- 
 vengeful face filled her with the greatest dread and appre 
 hension of impending evil. 
 
 He was not dead then, he had escaped, and would show 
 her little mercy, and would hunt her down to her doom. 
 
 Some one opened a door a few paces from where Leonie 
 stood, and like a bird who suddenly sees the door of its cage 
 thrown open, she dashed quickly past her persecutor. A 
 sudden wonder struck a dread chill to her heart as she 
 noticed that he made no attempt to detain or follow her. 
 
 He would explain to the whole wide world the blotted 
 words on the parchment, and they could easily trace tht, 
 lines with a microscope. 
 
 Charlie Hart lived, and there was nothing that eouW 
 gave her from disgrace and ruin now; for the authorities 
 
170 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 were examining it, and before the sun roee on the morrow 
 foey would trace out her signature; nothing could undo 
 that; at any moment the blow might fall, and the terrible 
 gtory would be thrown out broadcast to the world. Leonie 
 looked up to the cold blue sky, and the prayer for mercy 
 seemed to freeze on her pallid lips. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AH hour later, Leonie stood in the artist s studio, but 
 Dora Lancaster was not there, and an hour passed by, 
 bringing no Dora. 
 
 " I had expected to find Miss Lancaster here/ explained 
 Leonie, as the celebrated young artist bowed politely before 
 her. 
 
 " The young lady has not been to the studio to-day/ he 
 replied, pleasantly; " and perhaps it is as well, for the 
 portrait is not quite finished. " 
 
 " Will you kindly permit me to see it?" asked Leonie. 
 " I am sure Miss Lancaster would not object, and I should 
 be very much obliged to you if you would." 
 
 A shadow crossed the young artist s thoughtful face. 
 
 " I have always made a practice of refusing a request of 
 that kind," he said, slowly; ** but if you really insist upon 
 seeing it, I will, in this instance, submit. " 
 
 He motioned Leonie to follow him, and, passing down 
 to the further end of the apartment, drew aside the heavy 
 velvet curtains, disclosing a portrait on the easel the 
 portrait of Gordon Carlisla 
 
 " I shall be obliged to leave you by yourself for a few 
 moments," said the artist, apologetically. " I hope you 
 will entertain yourself by making a study of the picture. 
 You will find my sketch-book upon the table, and in it the 
 photograph from which this was copied. " 
 
 He bowed again t _aoi4L the nurpi* velvet curtains fell scffr 
 
-.; QI 
 
 L20NIE LOCKE. 171 
 
 !y behind him, and Leonie was left alone with the portrait 
 of Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Unfinished! ah! what artist is pleased with his own 
 work, be it ever so perfect? There seemed to be nothing 
 wanting in the portrait, it was so true to life. The golden 
 sunshine lighted up the frank Saxon face, and the kindly 
 blue eyes seemed to smile into her own, as they were wont 
 to do in that sweet, brief past, when he had been her 
 world. 
 
 She was alone with the portrait. There was no one to 
 see how she knelt before the picture, pressing her warm 
 cheek to the cold, pulseless canvas, pouring out a world of 
 pent-up love and bitter, regretful tears over the love-dream 
 that had been so cruelly blighted. 
 
 She knew now that her regard for Pan! Rexford had 
 been only a passing fancy, built upon his strange resem 
 blance to Gordon Carlisle, the hero whose image was never 
 to leave her heart while life lasted. 
 
 " Oh, Gordon, Gordon!" she sobbed, twining her white 
 arms around the portrait, " Miss Lancaster can never love 
 you as I do. We were so happy, dear! I wish I could 
 have died then, still believing in my heart you loved me." 
 
 She did not see a white hand part the velvet hangings, 
 or the look of startled surprise and wonder that crossed the 
 young artist s face at the strange tableau of the beautiful 
 dark-eyed young girl kneeling before the picture he had 
 painted, with her white arms twined around it, and a 
 world of tragic sorrow in her dark, upraised eyes and 
 quivering lips; and, years after, when he painted just such 
 a picture, and the fame of the American artist spread 
 world wide, and critics spoke of his wonderful picture and 
 praised his vivid imagination, no one but Leonie knew 
 what it meant or how to interpret it 
 
 The young artist softly retreated before Leonie had be 
 come aware of bi *VQI^M. leaving her alone with the pop 
 trait again. 
 
172 LEOXIX LOCKE. 
 
 He knew the sad romance of Leonie Locke s life as 
 as though she had told him the sweet, pathetic story of 
 that broken love-dream. 
 
 The young artist was tender of heart, and a tear of sym 
 pathy rose to his eye, and fell upon a picture he was touch 
 ing up. 
 
 Meanwhile Leonie had searched for, and found, the 
 photograph in the sketch-book. 
 
 " Ah, if this were only mine!" she sighed, bending her 
 beautiful face over it; then a sudden thought occurred to 
 ber pencils and paper lay before her; could she not make 
 a crayon drawing of it? her father had often praised her 
 skill in that direction. 
 
 It was wonderful to see how the sketch grew under hei 
 skillful fingers when love prompted every delicate touch. 
 At last it was finished, and hidden in the pocket of hei 
 dress, but not a moment too soon, for at that moment 
 Pora Lancaster s voice was heard in an adjacent apart 
 ment, and the next instant she had joined Leonie. 
 
 A dark look of malicious hatred crossed her face, as she 
 observed her standing before Gordon s portrait. 
 
 " What do you think of my affianced -husband s pict 
 ure?" cried Dora, in a hard, mocking voice. " I must 
 compliment the artist upon his wonderful skilL It is so 
 life-like, I can imagine Gordon standing before me; and 1 
 can almost fancy those lips saying, softly, My darling lit 
 tle Dora " 
 
 " Why, what s the matter, Leonie? Are you ill?" she 
 cried, in well-simulated surprise, noting with keen pleas 
 ure how white Leonie s face had grown. 
 
 Ah, Heaven! what torture it was to sit there and list 
 en to Dora s chatter, when each word stabbed her heart 
 more cruelly than a dagger-thrust. 
 
 The room seemed to s\vim around her, and the air to 
 stifle her, ana by a great effort she kept from fainting. 
 A silver pitcher of iced water stood on the center-table, 
 
LEONIE LOCKS. 171 
 
 tod, under pretext of changing her seat, Dora passed tba 
 table, dropped a fine, grayish powder into the ice-water, 
 but not an instant too soon, for a moment later Leonid 
 crossed over to the pitcher, poured out half a glass of 
 water and, little dreaming of the terrible consequences, 
 raised it to her lips. ^ 
 
 It was a moment of thrilling excitement for Dora. She 
 expected to see the slender figure of Leonie sway to and 
 fro, then fall to the floor. But in that instant, when life 
 and death hung in the balance, she was miraculously saved. 
 
 A servant whom the imperious Dora had not deigned 
 to notice as she swept into the room, had been arranging a 
 folio of drawings in an adjacent alcove, and had been a 
 horrified spectator of the strange would-be tragedy in real 
 life that had been enacted before his astonished eyes, and, 
 quick as thought, he had gained Leonie s side, and dashed 
 the goblet from her white fingers. 
 
 Dora could scarcely refrain from uttering the cry of 
 baffled rage- that rose to her lips upon finding herself again 
 so cleverly outwitted by fate, while Leonie raised her dark- 
 brown eyes in startled wonder. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, miss," apologized the man, awkr 
 wardly; " I I neglected to change the water in that 
 pitcher to-day, and it is not fit to drink " 
 
 A strange pallor had stolen over Dora s face, and hey 
 eyes flashed fire as she met the cool, unflinching gaze of 
 the man bent searchingly upon her a glance which she 
 ^understood but too well. 
 
 " He has found out in some way that I drugged that 
 water, " thought Dora, biting her crimson lips with furious 
 rexation. " But he dare not intimate such a thing-^if he 
 does I can easily turn his own weapons against him, by de 
 claring I saw him do the deed, and who will believe a poor 
 friendless servant in preference to a well-known and 
 wealthy heiress? If he dared assert such a thing he would 
 *>e adjudged a lunatic. 
 
174 LEO*rIE LOCKE. 
 
 Leon e, quite innocent of the real cause of the acoideefe 
 readily accepted the man s apology, and, sponging up the 
 water from the Telyet carpet, and removing the pitchet 
 with its dangerous contents he walked slowly from the 
 room mentally vowing he would keep a sharp eye on the 
 movements of the petty little blonde, and warn Leonh 
 " to beware of her " before she left the studio. 
 
 But the shrewd, calculating Dora took good care to pre 
 vent anything of that kind from occurring for she had 
 readily divined the man s intentions. And she did not 
 breathe freely until she had Lemiie safely out of the studio. 
 
 " You will come with Mrs. Barrett to the reception to 
 night?" queotioned Dora, anxiously, as she left Leonie at 
 her own door. " Mrs. Carlisle and I are going, and per 
 haps Gordon will be there, and Mrs. Barrett has promised 
 me that ehe will be sure to bring you, Leonie, so do not 
 disappoint me." 
 
 * I can not tell yet," replied Leonie, slowly * perhaps 
 I may be there." 
 
 Was it only fancy, or was Dora Lancaster s sudden 
 friendship for her sincere?" Leonie asked herself as she 
 walked slowly up the marble steps, and through the corri 
 dor to her own boudoir. 
 
 In a rare vase on the mantel was a large bouquet of odor 
 ous roses, but Leonie did not heed them. 
 
 She seated herself in a cushioned chair by the window 
 and drew from her pocket the crayon sketch she bad made 
 <9f Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 " Oh, my love, my love," she sobbed, " what a mockery 
 jf fate it was to go with the woman you have chosen to be 
 ,our bride, and gaze upon your pictured face, bidding it 
 a silent, tearless, eternal farewell. Oh, no no no not 
 a farewell, I must go to the ball to-night and look upon 
 your face just once." The subtle odor of the roses seemed 
 to float out to her and fill the room; that was the first in 
 timation Leonie ha^sL^* 6 " 1 r * af> 11 *8ioe. 
 
LBOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 She could not understand why she shivered as with a 
 , sudden chill, as she reached out her hand toward them, 
 i As her white fingers closed around them, she recoiled 
 with a sudden cry a thorn had pierced her white hand, 
 and it seemed to Leonie like a silent voice of warning of 
 some impending evil. 
 
 " Ah, roses, would that my iife were as brief as yours/* 
 she sighed, raising them in her hands. 
 
 And at that moment a note fell from among the roses, a 
 note addressed to her, in a cramped, unfamiliar chirog- 
 raphy, bearing the significant words in the lower left- 
 hand corner, " In great haste/ 
 
 And with fluttering heart and nervous fingers Leonia 
 hastily tore open the envelope that inclosed the strange 
 missive. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX1IL 
 
 THE mysterious note which Leonie had found among the 
 roses contained but these few words: 
 
 44 Be prepared to welcome me to-morrow, for I shall 
 Come then and claim you as my wife. 
 
 " Yours with the greatest adoration, 
 "CHARLIE HABT." 
 
 It almost seemed to Leonie that her heart broke in 
 twain, as her eyes devoured those fatal words on the slip oi 
 paper. 
 
 44 To-morrow!" she gasped, rising up excitedly, and 
 pacing the room hurriedly to and fro. * 4 1 shall have s> 
 few hours before that time, and then and then " 
 
 She fell back in her chair with a low, bitter, piteous cry. 
 u He shall not find me here," she sobbed. " I would 
 sooner be the bride of death or, better still 1 could go 
 far away where no one who had ever known me could Joofc 
 upon my face, " 
 
276 LEOXIE LOCKE. 
 
 i \ 
 
 A sudden longing came over her to see Gordon Carlisk 
 again; there could be no harm in satisfying her poor hun 
 gry heart, even though he loved another, by gazing upon 
 his face and listening to his voice for one little moment 
 Yes, she would go to the ball to-night, for Dora had said 
 Gordon would surely be there. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett was delighted when she entered Leonie s 
 boudoir a few hours later and found her maid giving the 
 last finishing touches to a toilet that was simply perfect. 
 Aimee the maid is busily and skillfully at work, the result 
 is to pass every previous effort. 
 
 "Make me pretty to-night, Aimee/ Leonie cries, in a 
 voice that sounds strangely husky, " if you never do it in 
 your life again." 
 
 And Aimee is doing her best. The soft brown curls are 
 banded back with gleaming milk-white pearls. Her dress 
 is one of Worth s rarest and richest, a dream of azure silk 
 and embroidered pink rosebuds, with gleaming silver 
 leaves and rare point lace, more costly than rubies. 
 
 Diamonds sparkle in her tiny ears, they loop up the bil 
 lowy lace on her bosom, and run like a river of crimson, 
 and golden light around her neck and beautiful white armu. 
 
 But the burning fire in the large, lustrous brown eyes 
 outshine them. They are filled with a strange, restless 
 light; her cheeks are wonderfully flushed, and her dry lips 
 are fever red. 
 
 " He must see me at my best to-night," is the thought 
 that is Hashing through her brain, and perhaps he wilF 
 always remember her as she looks to-night, a proud and 
 haughty heiress now, not the innocent little working-girl 
 who had taken her first lesson in love from his false lips. 
 The young girl to whom he dared speak of love, but not 
 of marriage, because she was socially his inferior. 
 
 Leonie remembers it all with scorn too deep for words. 
 
 An hour later Leonie and Mrs. Barrett enter the crowded 
 {luriors leaning upon Lawver Barretts arms. 
 
lOOJSIE LOCKE. ITS 
 
 I*; j Even among the throngs of beautiful young girls there 
 are few as peerless as Leonie Locke, and a low hum of ad* 
 miration goes through the vast parlors. 
 
 As Leonie crossed the ^threshold her gaze fell full upon 
 the face of Gordon Carlisle. She had expected a startled 
 look of surprise to flash across his grave, handsome face, 
 but no such expression crossed it, and Leonie is more 
 piqued, than she cares to own, even to herself. 
 
 .Leonie does not allow her glance to rest upon his face 
 f<*r a single instant She is in a state of half -delirious ex 
 citement. She hardly feels the floor beneath her; she 
 seems to float on buoyant air, for she feels intuitively the 
 deep, steady gaze of Gordon Carlisle s grave, blue eya fol 
 lowing her. 
 
 Dora Lancaster was there, but not Gordon s mother. 
 
 He made no attempt to come near her, and Leonie told 
 herself that the great triumph she had looked forward to 
 so long had been a sad failure. Gordon Carlisle seemed t 
 quietly ignore her. 
 
 Never had Leonie made as many conquests as to-night, 
 but what mattered it to her if she had the admiration of 
 the whole world, when the man whom she loved held aloof. 
 
 How was she to dream of the terrible struggle between 
 love and pride that kept Gordon Carlisle from her side? 
 
 " Sordid gold is the god whom she worships, " he sighed 
 bitterly, as he turned a way. When the choice was given 
 her between my love and gold, love was found to be lighter. 
 Great Heaven, how heartless these beautiful young girk 
 are! Perhaps mother was right in proving her love for 
 me, even at such a bitter cost. " 
 
 Eren Dora Lancaster held aloof lest Gordon and Leonie 
 might by any possible chance be thrown into each other s 
 society. She can not endure Leonie s triumph, for she is 
 foted by every one present to be the belle of the ball; and 
 sigh after sigh trembles over Gordon Carlisle s lips as hifi 
 3*rnest gaze follows Leonie about. 
 
\7S LECNIE LOCKE. 
 
 Dora had written Gordon a note that day, begging hint 
 in a sisterly fashion to accompany her, as his mother had 
 been slightly indisposed, and if he did not call for her she 
 would, of coarse, haye to miss the moat select ball of the 
 season. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle had kept his word to the very letter he 
 had never crossed his father s threshold since the night he 
 had been so summarily turned from the house, because he 
 had so manfully declared his love for Leonie Locke. 
 
 Dora s note had reached him at his quarters at the Fifth 
 Avenue Hotel, and at the hour named his coach was in 
 front of his father s door, but in spite of all pretty Dora s 
 coaxing Gordon remained firm he would not cross his fa 
 ther s threshold. 
 
 Dora was satisfied; she had seen Gordon and Leonie pass 
 each other by with averted faces. Guilty, designing Dora 
 knew she had separated the lovers effectually. 
 
 Gordon believed Leonie had given him up of her own 
 free will; while Leonie, poor, innocent, little soul, believed 
 Bora s artful falsehood that she was the affianced bride 
 of Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 The pitiful misunderstanding that sundered two liveg 
 could, a] as, so easily have been cleared up, had either of 
 them but made one step toward a reconciliation, then and 
 there. 
 
 The ball was at its height, when, by some strange freak of 
 cruel fate, Gordon and Leonie found themselves in the 
 same <?et together of a waltz-quadrille. There was no help 
 for it. She knew she must waltz with each one in the set 
 in turn, and at last oh, mockery of fate, she found her 
 self bowing to Gordon Carlisle, and the next moment his 
 arms were clasping her in a firm embrace. 
 
 Ah, Heaven! how cruel it was to live over again in that 
 one blissful moment the beautiful love-dream of that 
 past, when those same arms had clasped her in just such 
 a thrilling, tender 
 
LEOKIE LOCKS. 171 
 
 And at that moment the beautiful words of the poeta* 
 rang in the heart of both: 
 
 " The band was playing a wahz-quadrilte, 
 I ftlt as light as a wind-blown feather, 
 
 As we floated away at the caller s will, 
 Through the intricate, mazy dance together. 
 
 The fold of your strong arm sent a thrill 
 From the heart to brain as we gently glided, 
 
 Like leaves, on the wave of that waltz- quadrille- 
 Met and parted, and then divided. 
 
 " I said to my heart, Let us take our fill 
 
 Of mirth and music, and love and laughter; 
 For it all must end with this waltz-quadrille, 
 
 And life will be never the same life after. 
 Oh, that the caller might go on calling! 
 
 Oh, that the music might go on falling! 
 While we whirled on to the vast Forever, 
 
 Where no hearts break, and no ties sever. 
 
 " A clamor, a crash, and the band was still 
 
 Twos the end of the dream, and the end of the meoB 
 
 ure; 
 The last low notes of that waltz-quadrille 
 
 Seemed like a dirge o er the death of pleasure. 
 You bowed we parted the spell was over; 
 
 Too warm for a friend, and too cold for a lover, 
 There was nothing else to say; 
 
 And the lights locked dim and the dancers weary, 
 And the music was sad and the hall was dreary, 
 
 After you went away " 
 
 The blue eye* and the timid brown ones met ia one 
 swift giance. 
 
 " Come into the conservatory, Miss Locke, " whispered 
 Gordon, drawing the little white, jeweled hand within his. 
 arm. 
 
 Leonie had often lived over, in her own mind, just how 
 ahe would answer auch a request, when they met, if Go* 
 ion Carlisle ahould ww ask bar far a private interview 
 
180 LEONIE LOCKK 
 
 But now, when the actual moment confronted her, afl tbt 
 euperb scorn behind which she had intended to intrench 
 herself seemed to vanish and fail her. 
 
 More than one pair of eyes followed his tall, manly fig 
 ure and the slight, girlish form clinging to his arm, as they 
 .eft the brilliant parlors and wended their way toward the 
 conservatory beyond. 
 
 \ Dora Lancaster watched them with bated breath. All 
 ithe happiness of her after life depended upon averting an 
 interview or a reconciliation; and, making a hasty excuse 
 to a handsome young cadet who had come to claim her for 
 the next polka, Dora glided hastily from the ball-room, 
 e offering all the keen tortures of jealousy as she gazed upon 
 the graceful forms disappearing amid the soft glow of the 
 Colored lamps and the tall, waving plants. 
 
 The night was a perfect one. A young moon, liko a 
 lender jewel, hung in the star-gemmed sky, shedding its 
 soft rays, with the softened, mellow glow of the lamps, on 
 the rustic benches placed here and there half among the 
 shadows. 
 
 Gordon and Leonie walked slowly along, little dreaming 
 of the angry woman stealing so softly behind them, whose 
 gliding footsteps were gaining upon them each moment. 
 
 " Will you sit down by the fountain? I I have some 
 thing I wish to tell you, Leonie," said Gordon, in a husky 
 voice, as his warm hand closed firmly over the little, cold, 
 white fingers lying as lightly as snow-flakes on his arm. 
 
 The eventful moment of their lives had come. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THBEB was a pretty picturesque rock by the fountain 
 just large enough for two, and with a gentle, almost caress 
 ing touch, Gordon placed Leonie on it, taking a seat by 
 her side. 
 
 She half turned h* ^rr from/his, for the fire of those 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 
 
 lark-bine eyee seemed to scorch her, and the beautiful 
 silence that came over them was only broken by the sound 
 of the falling water, and the sweet strains of music that 
 floated out to them. 
 
 Suddenly, as though his bright, passionate longing gkze 
 compelled her, she raised her dark eyes to his. She made 
 a desperate effort to regain her indifference, but her hearv 
 beat quickly with a pleasure so great, it was almost pain. 
 
 " How strange it was that this girl with the sweet, pure 
 face of an angel, should have preferred wealth to lovo," 
 Gordon Carlisle told himself bitterly. He could remember 
 the beautiful light that had softened her dark eyes afc his 
 approach, and the blushes that suffused her flower-like 
 face. Had her love for him been but a dream? 
 
 Gordon reached over and detached the blossom of a pure 
 white flower that drooped above her head, brushing against 
 her soft cheek as the breeze swayed it to and fro. 
 
 Gordon raised the flower to his lips. 
 
 " I envy this flower because it has caressed your face, 
 Leonie," he said, with a voice husky wita emotion, " and 
 it brings back to me a memory I can never forget. I have 
 brought you here because I could bear the pain no longer, 
 Leonie. I must speak to you or I must die. The old 
 sweet love-dream comes over me again, strive thongh I may 
 
 He stops abruptly at a gesture from her. 
 
 A flush passes over her face, a strange light flashes inte 
 iier golden-brown eyes. The white hands that clasp hei 
 hrory-handled fan tremble with suppressed emotion. Her 
 face grows proud and cold, and her voice scornful. 
 
 " 1 wonder," she said, rising slowly to her feet, " thafc 
 you have dared to say this to me. " 
 
 Her pride is strong within her, it rings in her voice antf 
 flashes from her eyes. 
 
 " Where is your pretended sense of honor? A lore- 
 Oreaml You insuJ^ w ^" A *WWlJdfc, I am not the same 
 
188 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 girl now that 1 was then. Let me hear no more of thk 
 I do not forget your position if you do." 
 
 For a moment Gordon Carlisle does not speak, so great 
 is his surprise. He trembles and his face blanches, she has 
 taken him back so completely. 
 
 In that moment a great burst of music comes from the 
 ball-room, the first bars of a grand triumphal march. 
 
 Hot tears filled his eyes. 
 
 " An insult?" he echoed the words she had used with a 
 voice husky with intense emotion. 
 
 How little he dreamed of the cruel story Dora Lancaster 
 had told her of her engagement to himself and their ap 
 proaching marriage; he thought, of course, that she re 
 ferred to his poverty and her wealth, and the paiu the 
 thought brought nearly maddened him. 
 
 " Have you no pity, no compassion left, Leonie?" he 
 cried, falling on his knees before her and clasping the white 
 hands firmly in his, that were ruthlessly strewing the leaves 
 of the roses about her. " Listen to me for but a moment, 
 let me say aH that is in my heart, and then condemn me 
 if you will " 
 
 Gordon Carlisle looks at her again, and the story his eyes 
 tell is the story told since the world began, to be told till 
 the world ends. 
 
 " I am not the same Leonie Locke now that I was 
 then," she repeats, pantingly. " I was only a romantic 
 hild then, always remember it." 
 
 " Heaven knows 1 realize that fact but too plainly!" he 
 replies, huskily. " I wonder if any other human being 
 ever changed so utterly in a few short months as you have 
 done, Leonie. There is not a trace, not a tone, not a look 
 of the little Leonie whom 1 have loved." 
 
 A smile breaks over the proud set gravity of her face, a 
 smile of triumph. " I loved that Leonie," he whispers, 
 brokenly; "and I adore this x one," He stops, catching 
 feis breath hard, 
 
LKHOB LOCKE. 
 
 The words give Leonie an absolute shock; he, the en* 
 gaged husband of Dora daring to talk to her like this. 
 
 " Fickle of heart and fair of face/ is the thought that 
 flashes through her brain, as she springs to her feet white 
 with anger and confronts him. " Yon are less than noth 
 ing to me, Mr. Carlisle; take me back to the ball-room t 
 once; the sooner this annoying scene ends the better pleased 
 1 shall be. I shall take good care that it shall never be 
 repeated. I say. again that you are willfully insulting me. * 
 
 Her words had gone home, they had struck the very core 
 of his heart. 
 
 He gazed at her steadily as she stood there, with the 
 soft, mellow glow of the colored lamps falling upon her 
 shimmering robe, and her proudly averted head, the most 
 beautiful picture that a man s eyes ever rested upon. 
 
 She had stung his pride at last. He sprung to his feet, 
 and a hot flush came to his face. " You may term my 
 yearning love presumptuous if you will; but not an insuJL 
 The love of an honest, honorable man can insult no WOM- 
 an," he replied, proudly. 
 
 " I am wealthier than Dora/ she thought, bitterly, 
 " and wealth is everything in his eyes, and honor ie a dead 
 letter," and her hot indignation increased with every mo 
 ment 
 
 " 1 have pleaded my love for the second time in vain," 
 he said, slowly, raising his miserable face to the stars that 
 shone down pityingly through the windows. "The time 
 will come, Leonie, when you will feel sorrow for the hasty 
 accusations you have used against me to-night, when yoc 
 will repent the words you have spoken to ms, and wish 
 they^had never been said." 
 
 "1 do not think so/ she replied, sarcastically, in her 
 musical, pitiless voice. " You must remember 1 was only 
 an ignorant, innocent child when 1 listened to your vows 
 rf love. I did not know then what 1 know now." 
 
 She was thinking of that scene she had witnessed in the 
 
184 LEONIB LOCKS. 
 
 corridor of Ms father s home, his arms tightly clasped 
 about Dora Lancaster s slender form, while he brushed 
 away the pearly tear-drops from her eyes. The memory 
 of that scene would linger with her while life lasted. 
 
 And the words of Gordon s mother came plainly back to 
 ner. " Gordon might speak to a working-girl of love, for 
 he is fickle, and has a weakness for pretty faces, but I am 
 jure he has never mentioned marriage." And Leonie had 
 never forgotten how the words had burst upon her startled 
 senses, and the remembrance of that hour rendered her 
 colder and prouder than ever. 
 
 A long, low moan came from his lips, and the awful de 
 spair in his face startled her; and she knew in that mo 
 ment that he cared for her as he had never cared for Dora 
 Lancaster; but the triumph born of that knowledge had 
 in it more of bitter pain than pleasure, for he was engaged 
 to marry Dora. Should she tell him the pitiable story of 
 Jhailie Hart s persecution of the strange power he bell 
 over her, and of the desperate plan she had resolved upon 
 to fly from the life that menaced her that very night; to 
 fly so far that no one who had ever known her could loo* 
 upon her face again? Ah! if she had only told him, how 
 much sorrow would have been spared? 
 
 " No, no; it would be useless. Gordon Carlisle, as fickla 
 of heart as he was handsome of face, could not help her," 
 she told herself. 
 
 " Let us go back to the ball-room, if you please/ she 
 said, haughtily. " Miss Lancaster will be waiting for you* 
 I am sorry we have met again. " 
 
 " You mean this?" he says, slowly. 
 
 " I mean this," she answers, and meets his eyes full. 
 
 " Then there is no more to be said," he replies, huskily, 
 as he rises, offers her his arm, and conducts her back to 
 the ball-room. " Pardon me for having taken you from 
 your friends and wealthy admirers so long. Good-night 
 and good-bye, Mis*. Locke. "" 
 
LEONIE LOCKS. 181 
 
 An impulse is upon her thoroughly contradictory and 
 thoroughly womanly to call him back to end thig misera 
 ble farce of pretending not to care for him. A flush svreepe 
 over her face to the very temples. 
 
 " Oh, come back! Do not go!" is on her lips; bat her 
 lips refuse to speak, and while she hesitates, Gordon Car- 
 lisle bows low over the little white hand, drops it, and 
 walks away, and no one who saw the white, set expression 
 of his handsome face and the drawn lines about the month 
 ever forgot it. He had gone without even the poor return 
 of an answer to his good- night. 
 
 The room seemed to stifle Leonie, and the lights to 
 ffwim around her. 
 
 " Come up to Mrs. Harvey s boudoir, Leonie/ cried 
 Mrs. Barrett, making her way up to where she sat; " you 
 are white as death, white to the lips, as if you were about 
 t> faint." 
 
 Like one in a mazy dream Leonie took Mrs. Barrett 3 ! 
 arm, and allowed her to lead her from the room. 
 
 " Rest here for half an hour, my dear; no one shall dis 
 turb you," said Mrs. Harvey, the hostess, placing her upon 
 a divan. " Take off your jewels, my dear, and lay them 
 on the table. Loosen your dress, and make yourself com 
 fortable. Turn the key in the lock, if you wish; I will 
 come back in less than half an hour to see if yon are all 
 right. Remember, I can not spare my greatest attraction 
 for a longer time than that. " 
 
 Leonie sunk back upon the divan, feeling faint, siek P 
 and unutterably unhappy, her face hidden in her hands. 
 
 Tired nature asserted itself, and Leonie dropped into a 
 dreamless slumber. 
 
 A slight sound hi the room awakened her a sound faint 
 and stealthy, yet startlingly terrible, the low, clicking 
 sound of a lock, and in the dim, nickering light Leonie 
 saw distinctly the form oC a mun bending over the jewel 
 a form stariiingly familiar to her strained eyes 
 
188 lEOim LOCKB. 
 
 tlie next instant a terrible shriek Mild, piercing, and hor 
 rified rang through the house, as sha uttered his name. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 ONCE, twice, thrie the terrible cry rings through tta 
 house as Leonie gazes, with white, awful . horror on her 
 face, at the midnight intruder, who bends his masked face 
 over the glittering jewels. He turns, with a terrible im<- 
 precation on his lips, and with one swift bound he has 
 leached her side and put his hand over her mouth, and a 
 struggle ensues. 
 
 " Curse your infernal tongue I" he mutters between his 
 Clinched teeth, " you have brought the whole house upon 
 me!" In the struggle the mask has been torn from his 
 face. Their eyes meet; the light of the gas-jet falls full 
 upon both of them; the struggle ceases, and the midnight 
 robber loosens his hold of her. For one awful moment she 
 tares up at him, he down at her. 
 
 "Leonie Locke!" he gasps, hoarsely; and, with a 
 horror too deep to be painted in words, she gazes up into 
 the face of Charlie Hart. 
 
 She has always had a strange horror of this man now 
 she knows why. The awful blackness of his true character 
 is clearly revealed. 
 
 And this is the man who holds her in his deadly power 
 the man who is to claim her on the morrow as his wife* 
 through that fatal paper she had signed in a moment of 
 madness. Her senses reel at the very thought of it. 
 
 Flying footsteps were hurrying through the corridor. 
 Nearer and nearer they approached, and the neit moment 
 they would reach the door. 
 
 " You must not betray me," hissed Charlie Hart, dart* 
 ing behind the silken draperies of the window. " Remem 
 ber I warn yon to make no outcry. Send those people 
 from the door kf that YOU made no ootcry it 
 
UWBTE LOOKS. 13? 
 
 enly their fancy. Do this, and I will leave the country to* 
 night" 
 
 " Say that you will nerer claim me as your wife, and I 
 wfll do it," cried Leonie, white to the lips with terrible 
 excitement. 
 
 Quite a crowd was collecting in the corridor, and Charlie 
 Hart could hear them talking of forcing open the door. 
 He knew he must speak quickly, and ie gave the promise 
 that he had no intention of keeping, readily enough; and 
 Leonie, in all her innocent trustfulness, believed him. 
 
 The next moment she has unbolted the door and flung it 
 wide open. 
 
 Deep down in her soul Leonie abhors the lie she is com 
 pelled to act; but she knows it is the price of the horrible 
 secret this guilty plunderer holds over her head like a 
 flaming sword, and she must not hesitate. She dare not 
 allow his presence there to become known. 
 
 "Oh! what is the matter?" the ladies cry in a chorus, 
 crowding around her in breathless alarm. " What can be 
 the matter, Miss Locke?" 
 
 Leonie clasps her hands above her heart as though to 
 stop the violent throbbing that she is quite sore they must 
 hear. A deathly faintness steals over her; but she dares 
 not give way to it, lest by any chance they might cross the 
 room to open the window, and Charlie Hart s retreat would 
 be disclosed to their astonished eyes; and then, to defend 
 his horrible position, such a shocking expose would follow^ 
 and ere the sun shone on the morrow the whole city would 
 ring with the great sensational scandal that would mar a 
 young girl s life. 
 
 But when such a moment comes, stung to madness by 
 her wrongs and persecutions, let Charlie Hart tremble, his 
 life would not be worth much. Ee did not know the terrt 
 bl vengeance she would take upon him, a glorious revenge* 
 and the world would applaud her when they heard bar piti 
 ^al story. 
 
188 LBOSTE LOCKE. 
 
 " We thought we keard a piercing scream/ echoed the 
 ladies; "bat we must ha,ve been mistaken, Miss Locke, 
 judging from your expression of astonishment. Did you 
 cry out?" 
 
 " No," said Leonie, making a brave attempt at com 
 posure; " it must have been a mischievous urchin on the 
 street. I I am sorry you left the ball-room on such an 
 errand. " 
 
 The merry group of maidens tripped quickly back to the 
 ball-room, laughing and chatting, calling back to Leonie 
 to " make haste and join them, for the band was playing 
 another waltz." Mrs. Barrett alone remained, much to 
 Leonie s terror. 
 
 Leonie sinks down in a powerless sort of a way into the 
 first chair, and Mrs. Barrett notices in the hectic flush of 
 her cheeks and startled brightness of her eyes unusual ex 
 citement. 
 
 Leonie and Mrs. Barrett are alone together, or at leawt 
 the latter lady thinks so. 
 
 " Leonie," she says, sitting down on the velvet divan be 
 side her, and taking the girl s white, cold fingers firmly in 
 her own, " I was passing through the corridor, and I heaid 
 those cries distinctly, and I knew your voice. I am at a 
 loss to comprehend the meaning of it, my dear; I can not 
 understand it; why did you call for help? There seems 1,o 
 be some startling mystery here." 
 
 4 Did I?" answered Leonie, confusedly; "I must have 
 been dreaming if I cried out," turning a face so white and 
 miserable toward Mrs. Barrett that she started back in 
 wonder. 
 
 " You have not been yourself of late, Leonie," she an 
 swers, drawing the dark curly head to her bosom and 
 pushing back the soft, dark, clinging locks from the girl s 
 temple. " You need rest Lie down on the sofa again, 1 
 will go and find Mr. Barrett, and he will see that the car 
 riage is brought aro&njLiexju at once." 
 
" 
 
 UJUJTTB LOUttJl* 2S& 
 
 * Sea, let us go home, I am tired to death!" * eta 
 speaks Leonie sinks back upon the sola, clasping her fiat 
 teiing hands over her heart 
 
 There is weariness unspeakable in the gesture, and heart 
 nckness so pathetic in the quivering voice that Mrs. Barrett 
 flakes the slight figure in her arms and soothes her ar 
 khough she were a tired child. 
 
 " My poor little dear/ she says, softly, " no wondet 
 yoj are tired; you have danced almost every set; yom 
 nerves are all unstrung with so much excitement" 
 
 Yes, I am tired tired tired/ sighed Leonie; "1 
 rest here until yon come for me." 
 
 The words trail oft heavily, and Leonfe sink? task 
 among the pillows of the sofa. 
 
 " 1 shall not be long then, my dear, Mrs. Barrett say* 
 at ehe walks quickly from the room. 
 
 Bat her last words have fallen upon deat ears. Trying 
 to keep up appearances before Mrs. Barrett, when at any 
 moment Charlie Hart s near presence might be discovered, 
 Its been too much for her highly strung nerves, and she 
 dropped back upon the lace pillow in a deathly swoon. 
 
 The moment the door closed Charlie Hart darted from 
 kl* place of concealment and turned the key in the lock. 
 
 One glance at Leonie s face and he takes in the exae* 
 situation. 
 
 A sardonic langb forces its way through his white teeth. 
 
 " I thought I should have considerable trouble with hei 
 Jot Dame Fortune seems to aid me/ 
 
 As he muttered the last words he wrapped a dark cloak, 
 which he found in the wardrobe, quickly about her, and 
 raising her in his arms, with as much ease as though she 
 had been an infant, hastily made his exit with her, through 
 the long, low, Kronen window, through which be had 
 
 an entrance into the boadon*. 
 1* *f& be many * ua# vear befora TOOT tends ionfc 
 
290 tawnra ran. 
 
 joar face again, my charming Leonie. My 
 little craft will take a long cruise this time. 
 
 Charlie Hart was fleet of foot and strong of arm, and, 
 atil\ carrying Leonie in hia arms, he hastily made his way 
 toward the water. A small skiff was moored there, into 
 which he quickly placed his unconscious burden, taking 
 ;he precaution, however, to place Leonie *s hat, one tiny 
 slipper, and a shred torn from her dress, conspicuously on 
 the shore, to lead to the impression that she had made 
 away with herself. 
 
 A few strokes oi the oar and they were skimming over 
 the water. Leonie s swoon had lasted so long Charlie Hart 
 had become frightened. 
 
 At a lonely isolated spot on the banks of the Hudson, ha 
 fastened his skiff, and, lilting Leonie from the boat, rapidly 
 made his way toward a long, low stone house, standing 
 quite alone, hi the midst of an extensive corn-field. 
 
 Great overarching trees and a high wall of briers com 
 pletely concealed it from tlie main road, and a wayfarer, 
 struggling through that unused place that skirted too 
 river, would never dream of a human habitation in such 
 close prcjnmity, as no path led to it from the main road. 
 
 Charlie Hart seemed no stranger in that locality. Dark 
 clouds, every now and then, obscured the face of the moon; 
 but, even in that semi-darkness, he made his way, with hia 
 heavy burden, through the dense foliage with very littJs 
 difficulty. 
 
 The door was fastened securely, and the shutters of thd 
 windows closed. There seemed no signs of life about thif 
 mysterious habitation, so noar, and yet so far removed 
 from the maddening crowd. A terrible, death-like oppres- 
 vion reigned undisturbedly around the stone-imbedded 
 structure* 
 
 He gawt a peculiar ra> upon tae dooronce, twice, 
 ftrfet 
 
 ague* was repealed ton tbt inside, and Charfift 
 
LOOKIL HH 
 
 fart fltoopad, pressed hia lips to the key-hole, and ottered e 
 tew word*. 
 
 There was a low, grating sound, and the door m0 OB 
 tjoosjy opened. 
 
 CHATTER 
 
 xW door of the stone hoose was opened by * oautioog 
 hand, and a black, woolly head, covered by a bright gay 
 turban, that looked strangely weird hi the uncertain moon* 
 light, was thrust through the slight opening, to make sore 
 there had been no deception practiced upon the suspiciona 
 fcimate of this strange abode. 
 
 44 Open the door quickly, Hagar," cried Charlie Hart, 
 impatiently. " Don t keep me standing out here all night. 
 I ve somebody in my arms who has fainted." 
 
 ** Lor*! Marse Hart, cried the old woman, flinging the 
 door wide open. " I only wanted ter make shn* it war 
 you, shu* nnnV* 
 
 Charlie Hart pushed impatiently past her, entered the 
 low-ceilinged apartment beyond, and laid the slight figure 
 of Leonie down upon a rode lounge which was placed 
 ftgainst the wall. 
 
 44 Let me tend dat ar chile, Marse Hart," cried the old 
 woman, hobbling after him, with all the curiosity of her 
 dbony race. " 111 fetch her to quick nufL You men 
 ion t nn stan* *bout dem fairs." As she spoke she had 
 Buried his side, and proceeded at once to divest Leonie at 
 the thick cloak that had enveloped her. 
 
 44 Oh, Lor*!" she cried out in astonishment, gazing 
 down on the marble-white face. " Why, Marse Hart, dia 
 ttD t no chile; she am a young lady, an jest aa lovely as 
 burn angei" 
 
 " Never mind making comments," cried Charlie Bkt 
 
 "Set to work and see if you can restore her; this swoon I 
 
LOCXR. 
 
 Ins lasted over an honr; the deuce and al would t to jx# 
 tit we were obliged to call in a doctor." 
 
 At that moment an adjoining door opened, and Rate 
 Hardy glided quickly into the room, stopping short as her 
 astonished gaze fell upon the slight figure in the trailing 
 silken robes, and crushed roses on her breast, lying on tke 
 .oungp, 
 
 " Who in the world is this, Charlie?" she cried, taking 
 A step or two forward; then she recoiled with a fearful 
 shriek. "It s Leonie Locke s ghost come back to haunt 
 we." 
 
 In an instant she cast herself down at Hart s feet, her 
 livid, her teeth chattering, and her great, staring 
 eyes riveted in mortal terror on Leonie s face. 
 
 She quite believed it was Leonie s ghost, for she nevei 
 she had been saved from that horrible death on the 
 mils to which she had consigned her. After fastening 
 l*onie securely, Kate Hardy had rushed frantically away 
 into the darkness of the night, out of the sound of the 
 death-cries that each moment grew fainter and fainter. 
 
 Terrified at what she had done, she dared not return th3 
 ue.it day to the work-room of Messrs. Lincoln & Carlisle* 
 but had fled to this retreat for safety, lest by some strange 
 chance the terrible crime she had committed should be 
 come known, and the awful mystery of that night s work 
 she had kept carefully hidden in her own guilty breast. 
 
 It was little wonder she stared at the still, slender f oim> 
 4Hfcd the white face framed in its silky rings of soft brow? 
 9orls, rith a terror too deep for words. 
 
 " Yea have either gone suddenly mad, or you are 
 fool!" cried Charlie Hart, angrily spurning the girl from 
 him. " I always thought before that you had a littlfc 
 Sense/ 
 
 44 She has come back to haunt me," cried the girl, kf 
 yt * just as I ilwavs Knew sno would." 
 
fcHONTE LOOTE. IBS 
 
 It wii8 some moments before Kate Hardy ecnid be 000- 
 itoced that Leonie really lay before her. 
 
 Then suddenly she turned upon him like a flash. 
 
 " How came the girl here?" she hissed, in a voice <u 
 atoh concentrated rage that it appalled even Charlie Hart 
 
 " You brought her here," she screamed; " what is she 
 lo yon, Charlie Hart? tell me the whole story I will knov 
 fclsay." 
 
 For a moment he was speechless at the mad torrent oi 
 Sate Hardy s impassioned rage, which was growing fiercer 
 flfloh instant. 
 
 "There is little to toll/ he replied, with a grating 
 laugh, twirling nervously at his black mustache. " There 
 was a grand ball in New York to-night; I gained an en 
 trance into one of the boudoirs, and was helping myself to 
 a set of jewels when I was suddenly faced by yonder girl; 
 fihe tore the mask from my face, and as we had met befott 
 the recognized me, and aroused the whole house by hf-r 
 creams. I could not stand upon ceremony while the guests 
 were hammering down the door; I hastily wrapped that 
 bawl about her and took her bodily from the room lest she 
 should betray me. The girl fainted with fright, and has 
 remained in that death-like swoon ever since. I dared not 
 leave her, and there was no other feasible course to parser 
 than to bring her here, which I accordingly did." 
 
 " Ton say you were helping yourself to the diamonds; 
 where are they? show them to me and I will believe your 
 story/ answered Kate Hardy, gazing at him steadily witb 
 her hard, brilliant eyes. 
 
 Charlie Hart coolly took the flashing jewels from hie 
 pocket and heaped them upon the table before her. 
 
 There was proof positive, yet Kate was loath to beneve 
 
 " Ton loved Leonie Locke once/* she whispered, 
 V; " and you love her yet. and yen have dared bring 
 ttewterel 
 
uoexi. 
 
 Charlie Hart knew the tigerish Jealousy cf the womtQ 
 before him too well to allow that statement to pass unccw* 
 tradicted. 
 
 * It is false," he eried, doggedlj; " th girl is a prude; 
 I admit I might have had a passing fancy for her at one 
 time, but she snubbed me most audaciously, and i vowed I 
 would be revenged upon her, for vengeance is sweeter thai 
 love." 
 
 Still Kate Hardy was hut half satisfied. 
 
 "You do not love her?" she repeated, suspiciously 
 Swear it!" 
 
 " By all the saints hi the calendar if you like," he re 
 plied, moodily. " Come, Kate/ he added, with an effort 
 to affect a gayety he was far from feeling. You and I 
 can not afford to quarrel over such trifles, see that the girl 
 does not escape, and you sliall not regret it." 
 
 " How can it benefit me?" she asked, eying him fixedly. 
 
 * As soon as 1 can turn these diamonds into cash I wi3 
 <narry you, Kate, and we will fly from here. Have patience 
 a little longer, Kate." 
 
 " You hav promised t iat often enough hefore," she re 
 plied, bitterly, " and I m Kate Hardy still. You must keep 
 your word with me." 
 
 " Haven t I done everything for you that & man car 
 fco?" he replied, evasively " bought this house and deeded 
 it over to you furnished you with servants and money 
 
 " Everything but your society, * she cried, angrily. * I* 
 fe months, now, since r came out here to this lonely hoa% 
 rad waited in vain for you, hut you never came nevarj 
 Can a few careiessjy written letters suffice, when the newt 
 is hungry for love from the one who writes them? I would 
 have willingly died for your love." 
 
 Charlie Hart turnad on his heel with a muttered cram 
 1 he love of this jealous woman was less than nothing to 
 bim: but she knew too many secrets of his past life thai 
 might bring bim within the wj* of the law were he te 
 
LBOJSTIE LOCKE. 19i 
 
 freak from her entirely. Discretion was the better part at 
 Valor let her go on with her silly lore-dream. Promise*, 
 with Charlie Hart, were cheap commoditiea--ea8fly given* 
 *nd, like glass, easily broken. 
 
 Suddenly he turned and put his arm about her waiefc 
 more to appease her anger than from any feeling of affec 
 tion. 
 
 " Don t be foolish, Kate. See that this girl is kept care 
 fully guarded untfl 1 can turn everything into cash, ftnfr 
 then I will make good all the promises that 1 have era 
 made you/ 
 
 And, woman-like, even while she mistrusted him, sh 
 blindly believed him. 
 
 4< Heaven help you if you play me false, Ohariie!" ehe 
 whispered. " If 1 thought you loved Leome Locke it 
 would make a fiend incarnate of me, and all my pent-up, 
 passionate lore would turn to the deadliest hatel" 
 
 "That s all nonsense," said Charlie Hart, sharply. 
 * You know you couldn t hate me, Kate, no matter how 
 hard you tried. Yon would obey me if it ran your neck 
 into the halter, and you know it. " 
 
 " I would if I were sure of your love," she answered* 
 slowly; * but, if you ever made love to another woman, I 
 would run your neck into the halter before I would sm* 
 render you to her!" 
 
 Charlie Hart laughed at the low-breathed threat; btm 
 there came a day when he remembered it all too well a 
 day when he atoned, at a fearful cost, for the daring 
 crimes he had committed, and the hand that dealt out such 
 terrible justice to him was the white hand of a woman! 
 
 Kate and Charlie Hart had scarcely quitted the apart 
 ment, ere two great wondering velvety-brown eyes flashed 
 open wide, gazing with a puzzled expression into the blaoto 
 face bending over her. 
 
 " Dar, now," chuckled the old woman, trimnplatttXy, 
 " you re all right now. nonev. Oto Hagar wa n * gofe* tft 
 
let a party angei iike you die afore her 
 
 I M powerful glad tor see dem eyes open, Meed I is, chitoi* 
 
 " Where am IP How did I come in your house?" fen 
 quired Leonie, faintly. 
 
 The old black woman looked cautioosly around to mate 
 sore they were quite alone, hesitated a moment, tht* 
 loaned down and whispered ? few startling words in the 
 young girl s ears that macb her ay act In terror 
 
 OHAFTEE 
 
 IdXB the sound of a trumpet, the words black Hagv 
 ottered fell upon the startled ear of Leonie, and fairij 
 dazed her senses. 
 
 " You se in a den of thieves, chile, an de cappen hissef 
 brought you here in his arms in a dead faint, deed he did, 
 dule." 
 
 In a moment the whole scene through which she had so 
 lately passed rushed back to Leonie s memory. The thrill 
 ing sensation of awaking from the dream into which she 
 had fallen, and finding the masked midnight plunderer 
 bending over her jewel case, tearing the mask from hia 
 features and finding herself face to face with the man whe 
 had cursed her young life Charlie Hart the man who 
 could claim her at any moment he chose as his wife. 
 
 Oh, what a world of misery was compressed into the 
 awful thought; there was no torture under the o. v 
 heavens that could equal it 
 
 Had God and the angels forsaken her? Could her angel 
 mother, whom she had never known, look down upon thi 
 misery and persecution of her orphan child without appeal* 
 ing at the great white throne for mercy and protection for 
 her poor Leonie F the world below was so cruel and so basi 
 lor her. 
 
 64 You, at least, have a oood* kind heart/ sobbed to 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 197 
 
 onie, kneeling at the old colored woman s feet, you will 
 surely unbar the door and set me free. I have friends 
 who will mourn my loss keenly. I am rich, and you shall 
 never know the lack of gold. Only set me free." 
 
 "Chile, I wouldn t dare do it," declared Hagar. " I se 
 powerful fraid of Marse Hart, he s a reg lar debbil. An* 
 says he when he left de room, Hagar, I se gwine ter 
 leave dat gal under your eye, an ef I don t find she am 
 here when I come back, I wouldn t give much for your 
 ole black hide, you mind my words ! so you see, honey, 
 Tse too fraid ter opin dat ar door." 
 
 "Oh, useless, useless ! " groaned Leonie, wringing her 
 little, white hands in the most abject misery, " the fates 
 have conspired to ruin me. Oh, Hagar, Hagar, you pity 
 me, your heart is not dead to pity. If you saw a little 
 bird lying in the path beneath your feet, slowly dying, 
 with an arrow wound in its poor, bleeding heart, you could 
 not bear to witness its agonizing death throes; you would 
 end its poor life at once to put it out of pain, and God 
 would look down and bless you for being so humane and 
 kind. I am suffering the agonies of a living death, 
 Hagar, just like that poor bird ; be kind and end it for 
 me, and with my last breath I will bless you." 
 
 "Lor , chile, don t you talk like dat, I wouldn t tech 
 one hair of yer putty head for all Marse Hart s ill-gotten 
 wealth. I jes wants ter tell ye sumfin ," said the old 
 woman dropping her voice to a mysterious whisper, "ole 
 Hagar can see strange things in de pink palms o your 
 little, white hands." 
 
 And as she spoke she studied intently the small lines 
 that crossed the palm of Leonie s slender hand. 
 
 Even in the moments of our most intense grief, slight, 
 causes can turn our distracted thoughts into other chan 
 nels, and it was so with our unfortunate heroine, Leonie. 
 She turned her large brown eyes on Hagar s mysterious, 
 face and listened. 
 
"Iw 
 
 fct da line o love cornea to a sadden stop here, de liaa wax 
 powerful deep. J reckon he wmr fair roan who loved yer, 
 honey. It stops of * eoddia; dar be irregular lines here 
 an* dar, dat means a tragedy, an then, way the Lor bless 
 OB, chile, dat ar sane line o lore begins again an con 
 toners." 
 
 "Oh* don t, don t!" ohed Loonie, drawing away tun 
 little white hand with a perceptible shudder; " there will 
 be no more love in my lifa 1 did love some one once, bat 
 the son of that lore set in sndden gloom. I loved him, 
 but be never loved me, Hagar. i was poor then, and he 
 was the son of a millionaire. It is all over between us long 
 ago, and he is soon to marry another one whom he was 
 engaged to while he was whispering tender words to me." 
 
 4 * Dat ar man loves yon," persisted Hagar, solemnly. 
 ** I kin read it hyar ole Hagar kin tell an* Fse clair dat 
 afar line o* love begins agin true s yer born, honey!" 
 
 It was madness to listen to the senseless jargon of this 
 superstitious old colored woman. She must not dare to 
 dream of such a possibility as Gordon Carlisle s love. Oh, 
 what utter folly to listen to it! Her love had been built on 
 the quicksands not on a rock and the sands had shifted 
 and her love-dream broken. His loving words, his smiles 
 and tender caresses, were not for her Heaven had not so 
 willed it they were all for Dora Lancaster, who was soon 
 to be his bride. 
 
 v *Tbe strange, mysterious secret which was so soon to 
 Darken her life trembled upon Hagar s lips as she gazed 
 -with breathless intensity at the small white hand she held, 
 and of the story it told to her searching eyes; but as her 
 lips framed the words, tho d^ r opened and Charlie Hart 
 entered. 
 
 Ha pointed to the ^ oarf an a Hagar, well used to that 
 *ileut. command, ao^&ied out, managing, howevec, to wais* 
 in J^onj^* ear: 
 
LEOSTIE LOCKS. 199 
 
 da Lor s sake, chile, don t *ile him! Yon don* 
 3BOW Marse Hart like I do. Kemember Hagar a warning. 
 
 The door closed after her retreating form, and iii the 
 dim, uncertain light of the candle Ijecnie aziJ aer cruel 
 persecutor stood face to face. 
 
 As if possessed with superhuman strength, Leonie arose 
 from the lounge. 
 
 ** 1 see I am in your power again,** she cried, with flash 
 ing eyes. <k But I do not fear yon now; your persecutions 
 have rendered me desperate. I scorn you yes, despise 
 you I Go fling to the world your shameful story trace out 
 for the officials those fatal words on the paper they are try 
 ing so hard to decipher; I do not care for the result I" 
 
 " Have you finished?" asked Charlie Hart, coolly, as he 
 seated himself on the lounge from which she had risen. 
 
 " No/ answered Leonie, with a flash of triumph, " I 
 have not finished. I will proclaim to the world what yon 
 are a plunderer, as well as a persecutor of women." 
 
 Charlie Hart laughed aloud. 
 
 * What a clever idea, my beautiful, scornful bride I" hd 
 answered, tauntingly. " But, as yon will be obliged to 
 live with me, all the charges you bring up against me will 
 but reflect upon you, in the end. If you had been wise, 
 >ou would have accepted the inevitable with all the grace 
 possible. We would have been, like many others, a pat 
 tern husband and wife before the censorious eyes of the 
 .world, and no one would have guessed the troe inwardness 
 (of existing infelicity/ 
 
 " Yon astonish me I* retorted Leonis, in superb scorn, 
 drawing herself np to her full height " Accept a thief, a 
 house-breaker as a life companion! I thank yon for your 
 opinion of my powers of endurance. Oh, how 1 de* 
 yon, fiend that you are!" 
 
 it yon could strike me dead with the lightning of those 
 eyes, 1 am sure yon would do it," laughed Charlft 
 fcw&to&iy, as ae .tew 
 
frankly that I wsoH do ft," 
 low only wonder God iiafl permitted yoo U 
 
 "Well, if 700 are through with that high-tragedy act, I 
 wffl toll yoo my plans/ he went on, coolly. " I am going 
 to take you away from here this house, I mean in er 
 floor from now. Hagar will bring yon an outfit of suitable 
 jelothing, which you will kindly don at once, as that trail 
 ing white ailk you have on is hardly the thing for the jour- 
 ney we shall make. I shall return with a conveyance in* 
 Bide of an boor see that yon are ready, my defiant love; 7 
 and with another of those peculiar laughs that was so taunt 
 ing to hear, he kissed his finger-tips to her and left the 
 
 Close by the door-way, screened by the dec Be ixnpenetra* 
 ble shadows, crouched the figure of Kate Hardy, but 
 Charlie Hart never dreamed of her close proximity. 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha!" she chuckled, raising her clinched hand 
 and *bftlnng it after his retreating figure. So that is your 
 game, is it, to take Leonie Locke secretly away from the 
 house, and fly with her out of range of my vengeance! We 
 shall see we shall see! 9 Her set face was as white aa 
 death itself, her eyes gleamed with a sudden deathly pur 
 pose. " He would leave me, and fly with her/ she mut 
 tered, bitterly. " Dupe, fool that 1 was to believe the lie 
 that he told me he did not care for her. And he thought 
 to fool me, too, by making arrangements to have her kept 
 a prisoner here, while in his heart it was but a lie to still my 
 suspicions, for he intended to steal her secretly away this 
 rery night, and by the time the sun rose, my false lover 
 would be far away. But, by the heavens above, I swear 
 that she shall never have him! I sought a t rrible vengo* 
 Mice on her once before, and I rested content all these 
 months because 1 believed her dead 795, dead, and out of 
 tiharlie s way and rnina toeveKi _ An hour! Ha, ha/ he 
 
LBONTE LOCKE. 201 
 
 will not return until that time. He will see what has be 
 fallen his beautiful Leonie when he returns I " 
 
 A few moments later, Kate Hardy crept stealthily 
 through the halls, carrying a small tin box. She opened 
 the door of the room in which Leonie sat, glided in as 
 swiftly as a shadow, scattering the contents of the box 
 about on the floor very silently, in all directions, also scat 
 tering the dark grains about through the hall in a long, 
 straight, narrow line. 
 
 Her fertile brain had concocted a most diabolical scheme. 
 The contents of the box was gunpowder! 
 
 Another moment and she had lighted a match to the ex 
 plosive material, and a second after, the house was one 
 terrible blaze of raging, devouring flames. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVHL 
 
 IN a single instant the powder ignited, and the stone 
 house was wrapped in a sheet of lurid flame. 
 
 Kate Hardy stood watching the terrible scene, her lips 
 tightly compressed, and her eyes blazing triumphantly. 
 Great columns of smoke poured from every casement, fol 
 lowed by a volcano of starry sparks and a deafening sound 
 of crashing timber. 
 
 " No one can save you, Leonie Locke \" cried Kate 
 Hardy, uttering a wild, eldritch laugh, that rang far out 
 over the waving corn-fields. " You can never cross his 
 path again you shall never rest in my lover s arms. I 
 have taken a glorious vengeance upon you a glorious re 
 venge!" 
 
 A half hour, then an hour, passed by. The flames had 
 done their work but too well; the interior of the house was 
 one mass of glowing coals, and the grim, blackened stone 
 walls inclosed them like a monument. 
 
 The wheat and com. in the fields near by fere scorched 
 
LBOJTIE LOCKS. 
 
 aad bending earthward, and the leaves had succumbed to 
 the intense heat, and had fallen from the trees. 
 
 In the distance the sound of carriage-wheels could be 
 heard advancing rapidly. 
 
 " He has come for Leonie Locke," muttered Kate, 
 screening herself behind a network of bushes. " I will see 
 how he takes it, and then then " 
 
 Before she could finish the sentence, Charlie Hart had 
 dashed up breathlessly to the spot There was a hoarse 
 cry of mingled horror and rage that echoed weirdly on the 
 still night air, and, in his intense excitement, Charlie Ha -t 
 had recklessly thrown off his coat, with the daring deter^ 
 minatiou of dashing through the ruins in search of some 
 token that might tell him of Leonie s fate. 
 
 " Leonie! Leonie!" he cried out. " Oh, my God, how 
 can I ever live without you!" 
 
 A strange mocking smile played around the lips of the 
 enraged woman who was watching him so breathlessly be 
 hind the bushes. 
 
 " He does not mourn for me," she muttered, hoarsely; 
 " it is only Leonie Locke for whom he grieves. He must 
 not leap into that horrible furnace I must save him!" sho 
 cried, Another moment and she had reached his side, and 
 laid her hand heavily on his arm with a strong detaining 
 clasp. 
 
 Their eyes met, and in that instantaneous glance, Charlie 
 Hart knew as well as though she had told him, that this 
 was her work. 
 
 " You need not look for your love/* she cried, mock 
 ingly, pointing to the hissing, craekling flames, " for she is 
 there! You shall never look upon her face again. 1 vowed 
 that I would Dart you, and I have kept my vow!" 
 
 " You fiend incarnate! I should make you share the 
 same fate!" cried Hart, hoarsely and threateningly. "I 
 as well own UD the truth to you: I never loved yon, 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 203 
 
 (rat 1 did love, to the very verge of madness, beautiful Le 
 tt lie Locke!" 
 
 " And you dare tell me this to my face?" cried Kate 
 Hardy, fairly livid with rage. " You, who cheated me 
 into the belief we were to leave the country together to 
 morrow I as your happy bride and all the while you in 
 tended to be far away by that time, with Leonie Locke!" 
 
 " You have guessed it," admitted Charlie Hart, moodily; 
 " JL do not wish to deny it" 
 
 " Charlie," she whispered, taking a step nearer to him, 
 " take care! You are goading me to madness. I love you 
 with a love so intense it is the mainspring of my whole ex 
 istence. Take care that you do not turn it to deadliest 
 hate even the worm can turn and wound the heel that 
 crushes it. Come away, Charlie; we will go far away from 
 nere, and be happy together once again as happy as we 
 were before that girl came between us." 
 
 Her long dark hair had become loosened, hnd swept 
 about her white, passionate face hi wild disorder, waving 
 to and fro on the night breeze. Her hands were clasped 
 pleadingly, beseechingly before her, betokening entreaty. 
 
 " Have done with such nonsense, now and forever!" 
 ovied Hart, turning on his heel. " You may as well know 
 the truth now as at any other time. I disliked you before, 
 but now I despise you. Out of my sight, before I take full 
 vengeance upon you for the death of lovely Leonie Locke I 39 
 
 A low, taunting laugh answered him; and he knew the 
 df^erate woman standing before him too well to trust 
 hunhtfl: a single instant longer in her presence, and, wheel 
 ing suddenly about, before she had time to divine his intea ^ 
 tions, with a few flying strides h, had reached his carriage 
 again, applied the whip vigorously to the mettlesome horse, 
 and was dashing like the wind over the uneven road era 
 Hardy fully realized the situation. 
 
 " Soaael" eead Kate, boarselv, jgeating her clinched 
 
904 LBOHIE LOCKE. 
 
 hands upon her heaving breast " He h&> gone and left 
 me! Let me think what I must lo." 
 
 In that moment all the love in her heart toward her 
 faithless lover underwent a terrible change. Again the 
 words of the poet were fulfilled or verified, rather: 
 
 " Hefl hath no fury like a woman scorned. * 
 
 We must now return to Leonie whom we left lying on 
 the rude couch, sobbing as though her heart would break, 
 as the cruel words of Charlie Hart rang in her ears as he 
 quitted the apartment: 
 
 " You must be ready to leave this place in an hour from 
 now; for at that time I shall return, and be forced to make- 
 you accompany me by fair means, or the reverse." 
 
 " What is the use of battling against adverse fate?" Le 
 onie asked herself bitterly. Her strength was gone sh& 
 was getting too weak to hold out against him much longer. 
 Oh, if death would only come and claim her! 
 
 It is a terrible thing for youthful lips to utter such 
 words when the world is so bitter and hard they fain would 
 leave it. What must the dreary after years of their life be 
 unless relief comes to them in some form? 
 
 " I shall never consent to be Charlie Hart s wife/ she 
 gasped, breaking down completely, her slight form shaking 
 with convulsive sobs. <4 He may force me to it, and the 
 world may call me his wife, but it shall be in name only. " 
 
 And lying there, face downward upon the lounge, listen- 
 Ing to the wind sighing fitfully among the branches of the 
 pines outside, she thought of the sad story of poor Lady 
 Jean, whose sad life had been such a pitiful poem, all 
 shadowy darkness with no gleam of light penetrating the 
 gloom. And quite unconsciously Leonie compared her own 
 sorrowful life to the sad tragedy that darkened the life of 
 poor Lady Jean. 
 
 She had been an artist, known to fame long years ago by 
 /ier pictures of traaiO fluttering. Her subjects were always 1 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. 80S 
 
 girls, and over their heads in the shadowy back 
 ground those who studied her pictures keenly could dio* 
 cern above their heads a sword hanging by a single 
 thread. 
 
 It might have been only fancy that led the net-work of 
 clouds in the background to take such a peculiar form, yet 
 it was noticeable the sword was always there. 
 
 One morning her studio was not opened at the usual 
 hour and the room was forcibly entered. Lady Jean sat 
 before a portrait, brush in hand, her cheek pressed close 
 against the canvas, and the group who gathered around 
 her with bated breath saw that she had painted her own 
 portrait, and on her head the sword had fallen, and with 
 the last stroke of the brush her life had ended, and the 
 world never knew the pitiful shadow that had haunted the 
 life of poor Lady Jean. 
 
 Just such a pitiful shadow haunted Leonie s life, and 
 over her head hung a flaming sword that would fall within 
 an hour but her life would drag wearily on to the end, 
 she told herself. 
 
 While Leonie was ruminating upon the fate that was so 
 soon to overtake her, a tongue of flame crept beneath the 
 door, and, like a flash, the dark grains of powder sprinkled 
 about on the floor ignited, and in a single instant the room 
 was wrapped in a sheet of flame. 
 
 The very horror of the thrilling situation for a moment 
 paralyzed Leonie s senses. 
 
 She had prayed for death, and now it was thrust sud 
 denly upon her in the mad, riotous flames. If it had come 
 upon her in any other form she would have welcomed it 
 gladly, but not this way, oh, not this way ! 
 
 The door was barred upon the outside, there was no 
 escape. 
 
 In vain the voice of the terrified girl rang out over the 
 fierce crackling of the flames. The dense smoke was blind 
 ing her, and each jnatanfc the heat grew more intense and 
 
208 IfiOHIE LOCKE. 
 
 the tongues of fire leaped nearer and nearer, scorching tna 
 curls upon the frightened girl. 
 
 " I am coming, mother," she sobbed. " I will dis 
 bravely! God never intended me to be Charlie Hart s 
 wife!" and Leonie gave herself up to her horrible fate. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 WE must now return, dear reader, to the scene in the 
 boudoir, when Mrs. Barrett returned and discovered Le- 
 onie s absence. 
 
 In a moment the corridor was filled with a breathless 
 throng, anxious to get at the particulars of the strange dis- 
 appearance. Was she kidnapped or had she eloped? were 
 the questions whispered about and commented freely upon 
 by the ladies. 
 
 Servants were dispatched in all directions to search for 
 her. There was no more festivity at the ball that night; 
 every one felt anxious over the mysterious disappearance of 
 the lovely young heiress, who had left no clew whatever to 
 her absence. 
 
 Gordon Carlisle had escorted Dora home at once, when 
 the strange affair reached his ears, and with a party of 
 gentlemen headed the band of diligent searchers. His 
 handsome face was pale as death itself, and there were 
 deep lines of intense pain and anxiety upon it that should 
 not have been on that noble brow for long years to come. 
 
 Dora Lancaster never forgot that ride home in the 
 coach. Not one thought was given to her, and she knew 
 by the sighs that trembled on his lips that he was thinking 
 of Leonie Locke. 
 
 " How foolish you are, Gordon, for joining in this 
 search!" she said, laying her white jeweled hand on his 
 arm. "No doubt the girl has eloped with some coach 
 man, and is enjoying hugely the scare she is giving every 
 one: " He did no^pe** 11 * *"4 D^ra rnt on triumphantly: 
 
LEONIB LOCKE. 207 
 
 ** She only wanted to create a sensation and break up the 
 ball because she was not set down as the belle/" 
 
 " Don t Dora; you do not know how your words pant 
 me," replied Gordon, huskily. " I can feel in my heart 
 that danger threatens her and I not near to defend her!" 
 
 " I I beg your pardon for asking you such an imper 
 tinent question, but do you still care for her hi the old, 
 fond way, Gordon?" 
 
 " I shall love Leonie Locke while life lasts," he re*: 
 turned, quietly. " Love such as I feel for her can never 
 die never! Do not open that old wound, Dora; it pains 
 me too deeply." 
 
 It was quite as much of a mystery to Dora as it was tc* 
 Gordon, what had become of Leonie. At first, in her sus 
 picious heart she had believed he had been in some way 
 connected with her strange disappearance; but his poignant 
 grief, which he was too honorable to feign, was too plainly 
 apparent to admit of a doubt. 
 
 " When shall I see you again, Gordon?" she asked r 
 clinging to his hand, as they parted in the vestibule. 
 
 "Not until after I have found Leonie, or learned her 
 fate," he answered, gravely; and, giving her a kindly 
 message for his mother, Gordon Carlisle re-entered his 
 coach and started on his fruitless search. 
 
 When the gray dawn broke he was standing on the dock, 
 and was the first to discover the littla pink slipper, half 
 hidden in the sand, and those who heard the anguished cry- 
 that fell from his lips remembered it while their life lasted. 
 
 " Drowned!" was the whispered word tnat went from 
 lip to lip, as the gentlemen gazed into each other s pallid 
 face. 
 
 " Drowned! lying beneath those waves!" were the cruel 
 words that drove Gordon Carlisle mad with the bitterness 
 of his woe. 
 
 They could not realize it. How had it happened? What 
 had taken Leonie Lfickfla. the. beautiful, petted young heir 
 
208 LBONIE LOCKE. 
 
 ess dovn to the dark water, while the sweet, gay music of 
 the ball-room she had just left was bubbling with life and 
 mirth? 
 
 There was no mistaking the tiny slipper, for, upon the 
 inside, it bore the name " Leonie," and the shred of silk 
 found near it matched the dress Gordon had remembered 
 seeing her wear. 
 
 " There was proof positive that she was drowned." 
 
 Gordon Carlisle heard them whisper the words like one 
 in a dream. How could the sun shine and the birds sing 
 again when that beautiful head, with its dark curling hair, 
 lay buried beneath the smiling waves? 
 
 What awful storm of agony had driven her to the water? 
 Had she gone there purposely? Had she wandered away 
 from the lights and the music to the edge of the water and 
 fallen in? Or was there a deeper mystery? No search 
 could be made, for the body must have drifted out to sea 
 long hours ago. 
 
 All the papers, with one accord, accepted the theory that 
 the beautiful young heiress had wandered too near the 
 water and had fallen in, and had been carried out to sea. 
 
 No inducement could make Gordon Carlisle give up the 
 little pink slipper. It seemed to him a living remembrance 
 of the young girl whom he had loved so well and lost! 
 
 From the water Gordon Carlisle went straight to his 
 hotel, shut himself up in his room, and then the strength 
 of his manhood gave way, and he wept as he had never 
 wept before. Was there ever a love as faithful and true as 
 his had been for Leonie Locke and was there ever an 
 ending more pitiful? 
 
 There was nothing left to live for now, since Leonie was 
 gone, and Gordon Carlisle decided to go abroad; and that 
 one decision changed the current of two lives. 
 
 Meanwhile, at that self-same moment, far away in the 
 stone house on the banks of the Hudson, Leonie stood in 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 2C8 
 
 deadly peril, the scorching breath of the fire-fiend creeping 
 nearer and nearer. 
 
 She determined to meet her death bravely, if die she 
 must, and, with a prayer on her lips, she sunk down on 
 her knees, awaiting her doom; but, at that critical mo 
 ment, the door was hastily flung open, and black Hagar 
 appeared in the door-way. Her eyes almost protruded 
 from their sockets in abject terror at the fiery scene pre 
 sented to view. 
 
 " Some one has set the house on fire, Miss Leonie," she 
 screamed, forcing her way through the flames to the girl s 
 side, " an alJ scape is nearly cut off. Come along, Miss 
 Leonie," she cried; " we must save ourselves if we can." 
 
 But now, with help so near at hand, all Leonie s strength 
 seemed to leave her, she had been through so many thrill 
 ing scenes of late. 
 
 " Save yourself, never mind me, Hagar," she said, and, 
 swaying to and fro, she would have fallen in a dead faint, 
 an easy victim to the flames, had not Hagar stretched out 
 her arms and caught her. 
 
 Around the fearless Hagar the flames rose high, threat 
 ening every instant to fold her in their dread embrace. 
 
 But with the strength of desperation, Hagar fought her 
 way through them, with the slight form of Leonie clasped 
 closely in her arms. 
 
 The entrances had all been carefully locked beforehand 
 by Kate Hardy, but, with all the strength born of despera 
 tion, Hagar threw her ponderous form against them, and 
 the doors were soon crashing down right and left as she 
 made her way through the net-work of halls toward the 
 outer door, which had been fortunately overlooked by Kate 
 as she quitted the doomed house. 
 
 The soft, cool breeze upon her face restored Leonie, and 
 with a thankfulness too deep for utterance she found she 
 had been saved from the terrible late that had seemed to 
 
210 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 l>e closing in around hersaved by the kind-hearted black 
 woman. 
 
 Hagar had laid her down in the corn-field and had sank 
 down to rest beside her. 
 
 " I reckon, chile, that ere was a plot to destroy you an 
 J; deed I does, fer that black-eyed woman hated yer power 
 ful bad." 
 
 " What black-eyed woman?" asked Leonie in puzzled 
 3*mazemeiit. " 1 saw no woman there except yourself." 
 
 * Her name s Kate Hardy; I am housekeeper for her/ 
 whispered Hagar. 
 
 Leonie recoiled as though a blow had been suddenly 
 xlealt her. 
 
 " Kate Hardy!" 
 
 She repeated the name with white, compressed lips, and 
 she well knew then that Hagar s shrewd surmise had been 
 < correct the house had been intentionally fired, and for the 
 purpose of destroying her. 
 
 The thought gave Leonie new energy. 
 
 " She here!" she exclaimed, tremulously, " then let us 
 get far away from here, Hagar; we must move on at once. 
 She would take a terrible vengeance upon us if she found 
 that we had escaped." 
 
 To this Hagar readily assented, and they moved on as 
 rapidly as they could make their way through the corn 
 fields toward the main road. 
 
 " Where are we, Hagar?" asked Leonie, glancing in be- 
 r wilderment around her, 4f how far are we from New York 
 "City?" 
 
 * Hush," whispered Hagar, warningly; and with all the 
 cunning of her race, she bent hurriedly down among the 
 grass, placing her ear close to the ground in a listening 
 attitude. " Some one s comin , I ken h ar bosses hoofs 
 tearin along like mad, an there s a sound too of carriage 
 .wheels." 
 
 " Oh, it is Charlie, Hart!" cried Leonie, a death-like de* 
 
LEON IE LOCKE. 211 
 
 spair seizing her, " lie said he was coming back for me in 
 
 an hour. There is no place to hide myself. Oh, Father in 
 heaven, I am lost lost lost!" 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 NEARER and nearer came the vehicle, the sound of the 
 wheels crashing like a death-knell upon Leonie s fluttering 
 heart; and at last the face of the occupant could be dimly 
 outlined through the misty, gray twilight of the early 
 morning. 
 
 Leonie cowered still lower among the waving corn, and 
 Hagar followed her example. 
 
 Nearer and nearer came the carriage, and had it swerved 
 ever so little toward the right from the narrow road, it 
 must have crushed Leonie, and she almost fancied he must 
 hear the loud beating of her terrified heart. 
 
 Charlie Hart was so intent upon his own thoughts, he 
 did not turn his face in her direction, and the terrible 
 calamity which threatened her was, for a time, averted. 
 
 " When he finds the house in flames, he will turn back 
 and search for us," said Leonie, nervously. 
 
 " Marse Hart would be more apt ter look among them 
 *ar ruins," said Hagar, confidently. " 1 reckon we two 11 
 be a good ways off afore he gits back this way." 
 
 Hagar was fortunate in having a few silver coins in her 
 pocket, and, walking to the nearest station, they were just 
 in time to catch the down train to New York. 
 
 No one would have dreamed, among the passengers in 
 that crowded coach, that the slight figure, so completely 
 concealed in the, long, dark shawl and bonnet, was Leonie 
 Locke, the petted and wealthy young heiress of Lexington 
 Avenue, of whose supposed death all the city papers were 
 teeming. On the train, Leonie bought the " Herald,* 
 and a sudden thought occurred to her, as she read the 
 strange paragraph concerning herself. . 
 
UB01STT5 LOCKS* 
 
 No kith or kin had she in all the whole wide world. 
 Why break np the sad romance the papers had so ingen 
 iously woven? Let her friends believe her dead; it were 
 better so. No one would miss her. Let them dispose of 
 her property as they pleased; what comfort had ifc brought 
 to her? She was a thousand times happier when she was 
 only Leonie Locke, winning her own bread by her daily toil. 
 
 Charlie Hart would believe that she was buried beneath 
 the smoldering ruins, and his persecutions would cease. 
 
 She made up her mind to commence life anew. 
 
 Quietly she took from her pocket the crayon drawing she 
 had made of Gordon Carlisle, gazing earnestly at the fair, 
 handsome face. 
 
 " Should she take this portrait into the new life she had 
 worked out for herself ?" Judgment whispered: "Thrust 
 it from you!" but her heart whispered: "He was your 
 first and only love. You can not find it so easy to forget." 
 
 It was the first time for many months that she had al 
 lowed herself to think calmly over that sweet love-dream 
 that had flitted across her young life. She had told herself 
 it would be a crime to allow one tender thought to linger 
 upon the man who was soon to be Dora Lancaster s hus 
 band the handsome lover who had proven himself so faith 
 less. Once before Leonie had stood face to face with the 
 cold, cruel world; she knew all its pitiless woes, yet she did 
 not shrink from them, and fully determined upon the 
 course she would pursue, Leonie alighted from the train 
 at the Grand Central Depot, intending to put it into exe 
 cution without delay. 
 
 Leonie had made a confidante of Hagar; she felt she 
 must have some one to share her sorrows with her, or her 
 poor heart, that had borne so much, would surely break. 
 
 At the depot she had parted from Hagar, who had re 
 fused to share the contents of her slender purse. Pooi^ 
 faithful Hagar, to whom she owed her life. 
 
 "Which way should she turn where should she go?* 
 
LEOKIE LOOKS. 313 
 
 was the question Leonie asked herself as she threaded the 
 streets of the busy city. 
 
 Some one was crossing the street Leonie gave a hurried 
 gasp; there was no mistaking the tall, graceful form and 
 easy carriage; it was surely Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Leonie drew her cloak more closely about her and turned 
 her head away, turned hurriedly about, and would have 
 pursued an opposite direction, but fate or Providence in 
 tervened. 
 
 The gentleman turned unexpectedly around and they 
 stood face to face not Gordon Carlisle but Paul Rexford, 
 the young professor. 
 
 For one brief instant he stood as though stricken dumb 
 with uncontrollable emotion. 
 
 " Leonie Miss Locke?" he gasped; " am I mad, or do 
 I dream, or is this some trick of fatal resemblance? No, 
 no; my eyes do not deceive me. You are Leonie Locke!" 
 
 He drew her little cold fingers through his arm and 
 walked on with her to divert attention from them. 
 
 " It is no dream, Mr. Rexford, it is I," sobbed Leonie. 
 " The papers were wrong. 1 did not leave the ball and 
 wander to the water, as they said. I will tell you the truth. 
 I was kidnapped!" 
 
 The startling words almost took Paul Rexford s breath 
 away. They were standing before a cafe, and he quietly 
 led her within. 
 
 " We can talk here quite unobserved," he said, after 
 -giving the order for luncheon. 
 
 Leonie hid her face in her hands and sobbed aloud. She 
 did not see the kindly eyes behind the blue glasses fill with 
 tears, and the flushes come and go on his handsome, pale 
 face as she told her simple story: 
 
 Of how she had retired to the boudoir to rest, the fatigue 
 of the ball being too much for her; of the midnight in 
 truder bending over her jewels, and the horrible discovery 
 she had made that Jm vaa.Ghacfc&Jiftrt, the man from 
 
314 tEOKTE LOCKE. 
 
 whose persecutions the young professor had saved her 03 
 that never-to-be-forgotten night of the masked balL 
 
 Paul Kexford listened with breathless interest, and she 
 trent on pathetically: 
 
 " After I tore the mask from his face he knew I recog 
 nized him. I faulted; and when I regained consciousness 
 I found myself in an isolated stone house, in which my 
 persecutor had placed me, and while I was praying for 
 escape or death, the interior of the house caught fire, and 
 I would have been burned to death had it not been for a 
 faithful old colored woman who periled her own life in 
 saving mine. We walked to the nearest station and 
 boarded the New York train. I had just arrived when 
 you met me." 
 
 Although Leonie had gone to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
 and called for Paul Rexford, on the night of the mas 
 querade ball, to tell him of the paper acknowledging her 
 self to be the wife of Charlie Hart, now that she stood face 
 to face with the young professor, a sudden reticence seemed 
 to seal her lips. She would not tell him of the sword that 
 hung suspended over her head. No, no she could not 
 breathe the words that trembled on her Hps. 
 
 And her silence brought to those two lives the keenest 
 and most pitiful sorrow they were ever to experience. Oh, 
 if she had but told him then and there the whole story of 
 Charlie Hart s persecutions, a world of woe might have 
 been spared her. 
 
 Leonie dared not tell the young professor of the resolu 
 tion she had made to abandon her friends and luxurious 
 home, and earn her own living. And a half hour later, 
 he had escorted her to the door of her Lexington Avenue 
 home. There was another sensation in the morning jour 
 nals, which explained under the caption of " The Freak of 
 a Prettv Young Heiress," that she had stolen away to visft 
 a voting lady friend, suimosin/jr her friends knew where she 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 215 
 
 had gone. And, as no one doubted the truth of the as* 
 sertion, it was generally believed. 
 
 Hundreds of friends called to pay their respects to her 
 among them artful, deceitful Dora Lancaster; but Gor 
 don Carlisle held aloof. No one but black Hagar and the 
 young professor, Paul Kexford, knew the dark story con 
 nected with her mysterious disappearance. 
 
 The cruel indignities which had been forced upon Leonie 
 stung the young professor to madness when he thought of 
 them. All that night at his lodgings, he paced his room, 
 revolving in his mind some way to punish the villain who 
 had dared bring such fright and persecutions upon Leonie. 
 
 He remembered obtaining Charlie Hart s address on the 
 night of the masquerade ball, and hastily turning to his 
 memorandum he found it with little difficulty. 
 
 " 1 will take it upon myself to avenge Leonie Locke s 
 wrongs," he muttered, and seating himself before his writ 
 ing-desk, he indited a long, closely written letter to Charlie 
 Hart. 
 
 It was soon dispatched by a messenger to Charlie 
 Hart s apartments. All night long the young professor sat 
 by his open window, his head buried in his hands, deeply 
 absorbed in thought. At last the messenger returned. 
 
 With a firm hand the young professor took the envelope 
 from the boy, tore it open, and read its contents. It con 
 tained but these few words: 
 
 " I accept your challenge, and will be ready to fight the 
 uel at the time and place agreed upon. 
 
 " Yours defiantly, 
 
 "CHARLIB HART." 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 PAUL REXFORD placed the envelope containing Charlifl 
 flart s answer upon the table, then resumed hia eat by the 
 window. 
 
816 LBONIE LOCKE. 
 
 By the time the son rose on the morrow Leonie s wrongs 
 should he avenged. 
 
 The young professor sighed heavily, then set about mak 
 ing his preparations for the coming event By evening ali 
 his business affairs were arranged. If he fell, there would 
 be little trouble hi the distribution of his effects. 
 
 Then he sat down and wrote a long letter to Leonie, ad 
 dressing it to Aimee, her maid, with strict instructions thau 
 it should not be delivered to her mistress until twelve 
 o clock the following day, and there were tears upon the 
 page as he folded it up and sealed it. 
 
 After he had finished this epistle he packed his valise 
 with a few necessary articles, and a half hour later was 
 steaming toward a small town lying among the Connecti 
 cut hills. 
 
 Paul Rexford walked up the quiet, grass-grown streets 
 with a strange, restless light in his dreamy blue eyes. 
 
 The whole earth looked so peaceful, smiling under the 
 light of the warm spring sunshine, that poor Paul admitted 
 to himself it was indeed hard to leave it. 
 
 He stopped a moment on the brow of the hill and looked 
 ground him. When that same sun rose again he might 
 never see it, or, if he lived, his hands might be dyed with a 
 fellow-creature s life-blood. Paul Rexford shuddered, then 
 a reckless sort of laugh burst from his mustached lips. 
 
 How greeu the sloping hill-sides looked, dotted here and 
 there with brilliant wild flowers and spreading beach-trees. 
 
 A babbling stream danced in the sunlight aiid its music 
 sounded like a dirge in the young professor s ears. 
 
 Toward the right of the stream the greensward was 
 dotted here and there with gypsy tents swarthy men and 
 maidens making the morning air ring with their rollick- 
 some songs. 
 
 Quite apart from the group, and directly in the path be 
 fore Paul, a young girl sat. A tambourine decked with 
 bright crimson ribbon* ia* on. Lte ffragflLbeside her, and her 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 gaody, picturesque dress, long dark hair, bright black 
 glancing eyes and tawny skin betokened her race. 
 
 A gay, dashing song broke from her crimson lips, and 
 Paul Rexford stopped short in the path, his arms folded 
 across his chest, his head drooping upon his breast, and 
 listened. 
 
 She raised her eyes suddenly, and her glance encountered 
 the stranger standing in the daisy-studded path. 
 
 She bounded to her feet with the agility of a graceful 
 young gazelle and courtesied low before him. 
 
 " Will you have your fortune told, handsome youth?" 
 she asked, raising her lustrous dark eyes to his fair face. 
 * 1 can tell you all the mysteries that lie in the future, 
 and the dark shadows that have gathered in the back 
 ground of the past." 
 
 Paul Rexford stood for a single moment irresolute. At 
 any other time in life he would have scorned the proffered 
 offer; but now, when life and death hung in the balance, a 
 feverish unrest possessed him to know what she could tell 
 h : m. 
 
 Long and earnestly the gypsy girl gazed into the palm 
 of the white, shapely hand she held in her own small dusk 
 ones. 
 
 " You love," she said, slowly, " and your love has been 
 your doom!" 
 
 Paul Eexford laughed a mirthless, reckless laugh, but 
 a strange brooding shadow crept into his eyes, and a flush 
 rose to his pale, handsome face which told the crafty 
 maiden that her shaft had struck home, as it usually did. 
 
 Suddenly a cry broke from the girl s lips. " Great dan 
 ger threatens you, oh, handsome youth! fly from it quick 
 ly! Death and destruction lie in your path!" 
 
 " Let it come I have courted it!" returned Rexford, a 
 little impatiently. " I have nothing to live for, anyhow." 
 
 Although he spoke bravely, he could realize how hard ft 
 <ras to die in the spring-time of youth, to bid farewell to 
 
fclS LBOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 the green earth and fair, smiling heaven*, to be rushed aQ 
 unprepared where? He could hear no more. Tossing a 
 Handful of bright silver coins into her lap, he moved on. 
 
 If Paul Kexford had turned suddenly around he would 
 have seen the beautiful, passionate gypsy girl fall down 
 upon her knees in the long, green grass and press her 
 dusky cheek to the daisies which his feet had pressed. 
 
 " As handsome as a prince," she sighed, wearily, brush 
 ing the pearly tear-drops from her eye; " but it will not do 
 for the queen of the gypsies to dare to love him our races 
 hate each other." Yet the memory of his gentle voice 
 haunted her, and, thrusting the bright silver coins into her 
 bosom, she started to her feet. " I must know who he 
 is," she said, reflectively, toying with the bright crimson 
 ribbons that bound her dusky hair; and, silently as a creep 
 ing shadow, she stole after him, her footfalls making no 
 sound on the green velvety grass whether for weal or woe, 
 the reader is soon to know. 
 
 Meanwhile, Leonie had plunged madly into the vortex of 
 fashionable life again, endeavoring, in the giddy whirl of 
 oxcitement, to forget the sword that hung suspended over 
 her head, and might fall upon her at any moment. She 
 knew Charlie Hart s cruel persecution too well to even 
 hope he would forego his diabolical plan of making use of 
 her signature, and claiming her as his wife before the as 
 tonished world. 
 
 Leonie s friends watched this unlooked-for change in the 
 capricious little heiress with wondering faces, whispering 
 to themselves that she was unnaturally gay wliat had 
 caused such a change? 
 
 Aimee, the maid, looked at her young mistress with 
 troubled eyes. " I might as well give her the letter the 
 young professor sent," she thought, taking it from the 
 pocket of her dress, although the directions in the lower 
 left-hand corner plainly stated " it was not to be delivered 
 until twelve o clock the folio wine, nowu" 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 Leonie lay asleep on a divan when she entered the room, 
 and Aimee quietly placed it upon a chair \ff her side and 
 withdrew, drawing the silken curtains closely after her. 
 Leonie stirred uneasily in her sleep, and as she awoke, her 
 eyes rested upon the letter that had slipped from the chair 
 to the carpet, and had been lying quite hidden beneath the 
 folds of her dress. A square white envelope bearing her 
 name written in a plain bold hand, and in the lower 
 left-hand corner was the line: " Not to be delivered 
 until Wednesday noon. " She knew the chirography well 
 it was Paul Kexford s. Was it true her yearning heart 
 was going out to him on the rebound? or was it the 
 strange, unaccountable workings of a fate which is beyond 
 the power of mortals to understand who could tell? 
 
 She tore open the envelope with trembling fingers. It 
 bore the date of the day which followed the masquerade 
 ball, and the paper bore the caption of the " Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel." 
 
 " Leonie," it began, " by the time this reaches you and 
 you are holding it in your little white hands, I shall be 
 standing face to face to give my life or take his life 
 with the man who dared persecute you so cruelly at the 
 ball. Target-shooting has not been a part of my educa 
 tion, and, from my knowledge of this man, Charles Hart, 
 I feel that I am doomed. They tell me, in duels, he is a 
 sure shot. But death would be sweet to me, Leonie, if I 
 die defending your beloved name; for I dare write on 
 paper what I dare not breathe in words I love you. 
 
 " We meet at noon at the cross-roads one mile north of 
 New London, Connecticut, ancl as the last vibrations of 
 the clock in an adjacent steeple die away we fire. 
 
 " If I live I shall go so far away you shall never be 
 troubled by the memory of the words 1 can not refrain 
 from penning. I am ^ot what I seem I am false to 
 your implicit faith a living lie- for I am not Paul 
 fordl" 
 
220 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 CHAPTER XLTI. 
 
 THE letter fell from Leonie s fingers. Was she mad, of 
 did she dream? She picked up the letter and reread it: 
 
 44 1 am not what I seem. I am false to your implicit 
 faith a living lie for I am not Paul Rexford. 
 
 " The name was an assumed one. I was in the office of 
 the Fifth Avenue Hotel when you sent in your card re 
 questing an interview with Professor Rexford. I was not 
 known there by that name, and very shame kept me silent. 
 
 " I have but one excuse to offer: Had you known who 
 and what I am you would have spurned me from your 
 presence, and that 1 could never have endured, for I love 
 you, Leonie, with all the mad, passionate love of my heart; 
 a love which weak words are powerless to describe. 
 
 " 1 would rather die for you than live for any other 
 woman. Remember, if I live I shall put the whole wide 
 world between us that I may not look upon the beautiful 
 face of her who could but scorn the poor professor for dar 
 ing to acknowledge his great love for one so far above him. 
 
 " I dare write the words here breathe out all the wealth 
 of my pent-up love upon the white, soulless paper, con 
 tent that your eyes will rest upon it, reading the words I 
 write words that would never cross my lipsrevealing a 
 mighty love you little dreamed existed. 
 
 " Ah, Leonie, I know that in telling you the story of 
 my mad, passionate love I have placed a barrier between 
 us forever. In daring to love you I have sinned past for 
 giveness, so I will finish my sin and tell you that from the 
 first moment we met I loved you as no man in the wide 
 world ever loved before, or will ever love again. If 1 
 should fall, remember always, through the long years in 
 which I shall see you no more, the greatest, deepest, most 
 passionate love that was ever given to a human heart was 
 laid at your feet fojutou ta tramnte on. 
 
LfcONIE LOCKS. 
 
 " Gold came between us, and I realized, when 1 had 
 mothing but poverty to offer you, that the great, pa&eion- 
 ate love in my heart for you must be stifled. You would 
 never love a poor man. 
 
 " I had a mad, hopeless fancy that perhaps my mighty, 
 patient Jove would wake some echo in your heart As we 
 leaned together over the pages of your books, 1 was con 
 tent to watch over you and guard you; and when you 
 looked up into iny eyes and smiled, the keen rapture of it 
 almost unmanned me, I worshiped you so. 
 
 " I followed you to the masquerade ball, and, thank 
 God, I was there in time to shield you! The man Hart 
 challenged me, and 1 accepted; for I would give a thou 
 sand lives, dear little Leonie, if I had them, to defend your 
 honor. 
 
 " But I ask this, by my great love for you, that you will 
 forget the daring presumption of the poor professor in lov 
 ing you, and remember only my last request the request 
 of one who thought it the greatest bliss to lay down his life 
 for you that you will rest your beautiful face, just for one 
 trief moment, on this paper, over which mine has bent, 
 and 1 will be content. You are kind of heart, and I feel 
 sure you will do this, if only for pity s sake pity for him 
 who loved you so. Ah! Leonie, beautiful, dark-eyed 
 queen, Heaven intended us for each other. I dare to tell 
 you this, because we shall never, in any event, meet again. 
 But fate has drifted you from ma 
 
 " Two shall walk some narrow way of Hfe, 
 So nearly side by side that, should one turn 
 Ever so little space to left or right, 
 They needs must acknowledge, face to face, 
 And yet with wishful eyes that never meet 
 With groping hands that never clasp, and Mps 
 Calling to ears that never hear 
 They seek each other all their weary days, 
 And die unsatisfied and this is fate. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 " Perhaps my next words will surprise you. I saw you 
 first when you were plain little Leonie Locke a working- 
 girl and that was the time I learned to love you; but 
 wealth came between us, and 1 knew then how useless it 
 would have been to declare my hopes. 
 
 " Farewell, Leonie! Forgive my aspirations and my 
 hopeless love. Seek not to know who or what I am. 
 
 " * You will not you can not understand 
 How the written words are so much colder 
 Then eye or hand. 
 
 Farewell, oh, lost one! For all the pain 
 That I may give or take, 
 Think of me kindly and at my best, 
 For my hopeless love s sake. " 
 
 No name was signed to the letter that had been written 
 by the young professor s hand; his identity was shrouded 
 in the darkest mystery. 
 
 " Oh, this duel can not must not go on!" sobbed 
 Leonie, starting to her feet, and wringing her white hands 
 in the most intense agony. 
 
 Almost fainting with terror, she ran her eyes over the 
 letter again. The duel was to take place at twelv4 <^clock 
 snarp; it was then but ten. Aimee had made a fortunate 
 mistake in not obeying Paul Rexford s note, which bade 
 her place this letter in Leonie s hands as the chimes of the 
 clock tolled the hour of noon on this fateful Wednesday. 
 
 * What difference can an hour or two make?" Aimee 
 had thought. Ah, if she had only known! 
 
 Two hours! Oh, what might not be accomplished in 
 that length of time! Life and death hung hi the balance. 
 
 How her heart turned to the poor young professor, who 
 had loved her with such a hopeless love! She could pity 
 him, for she knew every pang of it; she had loved hand 
 some Gordon Carlisle with just such a mad, passionate, 
 hopeless lore, 
 
 Leonie gave the bell-roue a violent pull that brought 
 
UftSlE LOCKE. 223 
 
 Aimee hurrying to her side. Leonie stood in the middle of 
 the room, her face white as marble and her dark eyes 
 gleaming like dark purple fires, in her intense excitement. 
 
 In one hand she held the letter crushed closely in her 
 fingers against her throbbing heart, and the other hancx 
 grasped the back of a chair for support. 
 
 * You must get me ready at once, Aimee," she gaspea. 
 i( I I am called suddenly away. Do not let any cue 
 know. Say that I am indisposed and can not see any one, 
 it will not be an untruth; I am sick almost to death." 
 
 The thought of meeting Charlie Hart face to face again 
 almost made her heart cease beating, for she knew the 
 whole horrible story would be sure to follow he would 
 claim her then and there as his wife. 
 
 His wife! oh, pitiful Heaven! What had she ever done 
 to merit it? she, whose whole life had been as bla-meless as 
 fc little child s. She would save the young professor from 
 him, and then and then ah, well, it did not matter 
 much what became of her after that, for the whole world 
 would think her Charlie Hart s wife. 
 
 The papers would print the cruel story and call it a 
 thrilling romance in high life, and the shame of it would 
 break her heart. 
 
 What young girl in the whole wide world ever had a 
 sword like this suspended by a thread above her head, 
 knowing sooner or later the blow must fall and crush her. 
 
 Aimee looked at her young mistress, pale to the very 
 lips. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Leonie," she cried, "don t go! On, if I 
 dared to tell you," she wailed, entreatingly. 
 
 " Don t stop to talk like that," cried Leonie, " get me 
 my cloak, hat, gloves, and a dark yen. A human life de 
 pends upon it; quick, or I shall be too late!" 
 
 " It is one of that Miss Lancaster s tricks, I feel sure of 
 it," cried the girl, moodily. " Take my warning, and do 
 not go, Miss Leonie, Aet rue go instead," she persisted. 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 Leonie only shook her dark curls sorrowfully. 
 
 " Miss Lancaster has nothing to do with it Do not try 
 to make me more nervous than I am already/ she added, 
 drawing on her gloves and hurriedly tying her curls back 
 behind her dark veil. 
 
 " Heed my warning and do not go/ she urged. " Oh, 
 Miss Leonie, I do feel as though something terrible was 
 going to happen, and you would never come back just as 
 you are leaving me. You have enemies who wish you 
 dead. I must save you from yourself ." 
 
 " Don t don t, I can not bear it!" cried Leonie. " I 
 must go. Every hour, every moment, is precious golden 
 moments that are fleeting but too quickly. Good-bye, 
 Aimee/ she said, and in a moment she had flitted through 
 the open door-way and down the broad entrance hall to 
 the pavement, and just at that opportune moment a coach 
 drew up at the curb-stone, and Dora Lancaster leaped out. 
 
 " It seems I am just in time," chattered Dora, gayly, 
 * here you are, looking as pretty and fresh as a fairy, all 
 dressed for a drive. I am going to take a look at that 
 portrait again to-day; the artist has sent for me. You wfll 
 come with me, Leonie. Remember, I have your standing 
 promise. " 
 
 " I can not go to-day \" cried Leonie. " 1 am just on 
 my way to the depot, to see a friend whose life is despaired 
 of. If it were at any other time I would go gladly; every 
 moment is precious. " 
 
 " At least let me drive you to the depot," urged Dora, 
 iv 1 have Gordon s horses here, and they are the fleetest in 
 tne city/ 
 
 And almost before she was aware of Dora s intention, 
 the artful blonde had thrown her arms coaxingly about 
 ner; and fairly forced her into the coach. The curtains, 
 a silken seal brown, were closely drawn, and a heavy odoi 
 of Marechal Neil roses pervaded the vehicle. 
 
 uora wore a cluster <vf the same^rpses on ner breast. 
 
LEON IE LOCKE. 225 
 
 "We shall have a very oozy ride, pretty Leonie/ she 
 ried, with a shrill laugh that sounded strangely out of 
 place. " I must tell the driver to go by the back streets, 
 to make quicker time. 
 
 44 I would be so pleased," replied Leonie; 44 for I most 
 be in time to catch the first train." 
 
 44 Why don t you admire my fragrant roses?" cried 
 Dora, catching up a bouquet and almost burying Leonie a 
 face in it, ** are they not beautiful? is not the faint odor 
 delicious?" 
 
 The bouquet contained something more than the rare 
 odorous breath of the innocent roses, which Dora was 
 steadily pressing to her nostrils. 
 
 44 They make me faint," gasped Leonie; 44 please take 
 them away, Miss Lancaster, I I oh, I see it all nowl" 
 she cried out faintly, " you have poisoned the roses and I 
 am fainting, dying. 1 " 
 
 44 Die then!" shrieked Dora Lancaster, " the sooner the 
 better; your beauty that won Gordon Carlisle s love irom 
 me, has been your curse. Yes, I will tell you the truth 
 now when love is out of your reach forever: Gordon loves 
 you, and I vowed I would separate you, and I have kept 
 my vow. You shall not die, there is a worse fate than 
 that a thousand times worse! You are at a rival s mercy, 
 Leonie Locke," 
 
 CHATTER XLIIL 
 
 TKE subtle odor of the roses was becoming unbearable, 
 and was fast locking Leonie s senses in its dread embrace. 
 
 She was painfully conscious of all Dora was saying, but 
 all power to raise her voice or move a muscle seemed sud 
 denly to have left her. Dora had told a horrible truth 
 her beautiful, innocent rival was at her mercy! 
 
 Her lovely dark velvetv eves weie fi^flfj ypna Dflra 6 
 
226 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 with a look of frozen horror in their dark depths; but, 
 nothing daunted, she went on, triumphantly: 
 
 " Yes, you are at my mercy, Leonie Locke, and you 
 shall taste to the full how deeply a rival can hate. You 
 shall not die; Gordon could, in that case, weep over the 
 memory of your beautiful face. My revenge is more dia 
 bolical than that. I will scar your beauty so horribly that 
 a thrill of abhorrence will fill the hearts of those who gaze 
 upon you, and when you see Gordon Carlisle turn away as 
 he looks upon you, in that thrilling moment you will feei 
 all the tortures of slighted love, such as I have felt." 
 
 Leonie tried to utter the words 4< mercy," " pity," but 
 no sound broke from her white lips. Yet amidst all the 
 dark horror of the moment and the still more horrible 
 future in store for her, her poor heart thrilled with ex 
 quisite rapture at the bare possibility of the thought that 
 perhaps, after all, Gordon did care for her. 
 
 Almost in answer to her thoughts, Dora continued: 
 
 " I may as well tell you the truth, and it will be another 
 bitter drop in your cup. Gordon Carlisle has loved you 
 from the very first, when you were only a working-girl, 
 and he scorned me me, an heiress whose one passionate 
 life-dream had been to be Gordon Carlisle s wife. The 
 one great torture of my life was that he might some day 
 meet some girl with a pretty face, and she might lure him 
 from me; and when my eyes rested upon you, Leonie 
 Locke, I knew that my fears were realized: he would love 
 you we were to be mortal foes. My life-dream was dashed 
 down. I knew it would be war to the knife between us. i 
 tried to lure him from you, but it was all in vain, and I 
 hated you so I could have killed you with these white hands 
 of mine. Then a brilliant idea came to me I must teach 
 him to abhor you ; if I could only do that, he might turn 
 to me for comfort and sympathy. I made a study of it 
 aight and day, and at last I saw my way clear. It is 
 beauty that men love-just such dark, dreamy eyes, small, 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 2K 
 
 > 
 
 delicate features, and curred, crimson, quivering lipe, and 
 I knew, if I blighted your beauty, his love would diet 
 Beao&y alone will always win and hold the hearts of men--* 
 dark, luring beauty. You will never dare to tell one word 
 I am telling you; no one would believe you, for you can 
 not prove it. You will be " 
 
 There was a crash. The coach had collided with a pass 
 ing street car, and, in a single instant, the occupants were 
 lying senseless on the pavement. 
 
 They were taken to an adjacent drug-store, and, under 
 the skillful hands of a doctor, Leonie gained consciousness, 
 and the powerful restoratives completely counteracted the 
 pernicious influence of the drugged roses. "With Dora it 
 was quite aaother matter. Examination proved that sh 
 had sustained severe injuries about the head and face. 
 
 " Heaven has saved me," thought Leouie, gazing down 
 upon the mocking lips, that still retained a leering smile, 
 " I will tak no revenge upon her; I will forgive her, for 
 she was crazed by jealousy;" and, after giving the doctor 
 Dora s Brooklyn address, in order that she might be taken 
 home at once, Leonie hurried toward the depot, which was 
 fortunately close at hand. 
 
 The train for Nor walk and New London was just start 
 ing, and she had barely time to buy her ticket and secure 
 her seat as the car moved out. 
 
 Owing to the wreck of a freight car just ahead on the 
 road, the train was half an hour late, and this delay was 
 the turning point in the destinies of two lives. 
 
 It was due at New London at 11:45. There were always 
 oabs at the depot, and in fifteen minutes time, if nothing 
 delayed her, she could reach the spot where such a startling 
 tragedy was to be enacted. 
 
 Those who sat near her saw her clasp her hands together 
 supplicatingly, and heard her murmur, " Oh, Heaven! 
 what should I do if I came too late!" 
 
 The train seemed .to almost creet) along, to her excited 
 
LEOHTE LOCKE. 
 
 fancy. Leonie resolutely put all thoughts off (jforclon 
 lisle from her mind, and thought only of the young pro 
 fessor who loved her with such a patient, hopeless love, and 
 was facing death for her sake. How deeply his pathetio 
 jetter had touched her! Was there ever a love like his? 
 She muat reward him by straining every nerve to save his 
 life. Oh, how long the train waited at the way-stations! 
 How peaceful the Connecticut hills and vales, looked , 
 bathed in the golden glory of the sunlight! Alas! it 
 seemed so strange that its tranquillity should be broken 
 with the moans of the dying, and the blooi of a human/ 
 loving heart lave the modest violets on the hill-side. 
 
 At last the towers of : the quaint town loomed into sight. 
 Leonie looked at her jeweled watch. A cry that was pitiful 
 to hear broke from her lips. It was ten minutes to twelve! 
 
 She signaled the nearest cab. 
 
 * Can you take me to the cross-roads a mile north of the 
 city in eight minutes?" she cried, breathlessly. " A life 
 oh! sir, a human life depends upon it! You shall have 
 double your fee or any price you wish to charge me!" 
 
 " Eight minutes!" answered the cabman, shaking his 
 head dubiously. " It s over a mile, and the roads are 
 terrible. I took a party of gentlemen there a half hour 
 go, and 1 " 
 
 " Oh, Heaven! I shall be too late!" exclaimed Leonie. 
 "* Oh, sir, do your best to make it, and 1 will give you the 
 price of your horses! I am rich let money influence you 
 to do your best! Those gentlemen are to fight a duel, and 
 I must prevent it!" 
 
 " Get into the coach, miss; I will do my best," said the 
 man. 
 
 Another instant and the coach was whirling with light. 
 niDg-like rapidity along the uneven road. 
 
 It was a ride never to be forgotten. A strong hand held 
 the reins and urged the frightened animals to do thek 
 
LBONIE LOCKE. 229 
 
 beit The vehicle, whirling and dashing along with ifca 
 terrified occupant, swayed to and fro like a leaf in a gale. 
 
 Three four five minutes passed; then a sound rose 
 clear and distinct above the crashing of the wheels a 
 sound that made Leouie almost faint with fear. It was 
 the town clock chiming the hour of noon! ; 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Itf after years when Leonie looked back at that thrilling 
 ride, she wondered that she had not died in the terrible 
 excitement of that awful moment. 
 
 The horses rearing and plunging frantically down the 
 *teep uneven road, and the white-faced driver standing 
 upon the box, applying the whip with a steady hand, mak 
 ing each stroke tell upon the quivering, panting beasts, 
 and the vehicle swaying to and fro, and above the deafen 
 ing crash of the wheels, the solemn stroke of the town 
 clock, chiming the dread hour of noon. 
 
 " As the last vibrations of the town clock die away, we 
 fire, that is our signal;" those were the words the poor un 
 happy young professor, Paul Rexford, had written. 
 
 The clock was striking the hour, only Heaven could tell 
 whether her errand of life or death would avail. 
 
 The two young men had just taken their places, a look 
 of calm resolve was upon Paul Rexford s face, although it 
 was very pale. His nerves were tense, and his hand steady. 
 
 A look of vindictive hate shone in the coal-black eyes of 
 Charlie Hart, and a mocking smile played around his 
 sneering lips as he took his place and glanced at his oppo 
 nent; but in that one glance a sudden change had come 
 over his features as he gazed upon the quiet man before 
 him, with the dark hair and whiskers, and the thick 
 double blue glasses. 
 
 " Ha! we have met before," cried Charlie Hart under his 
 oreath. " I have anld score to settle with you, I think. 
 
230 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 Are you ready?" cried Hart insolently, as he raised his re 
 volver. The young professor bowed. 
 
 Silently they faced each other, listening to the chimes 
 that would in all probability be the death-knell to one oi 
 them. Clear and distinct, the last stroke broke the stillness. 
 
 " Fire!" cried the young professor hoarsely, and at that 
 thrilling instant the shrill piercing scream of a woman 
 broke the awful stillness, and a dust-covered cab dashed 
 between them, while the foam-covered, panting steeds quite 
 hid the Combatants from each other s view, and the door 
 of the vehicle was wrenched open, and Leonie, white as 
 death, sprung to the young professor s side. 
 
 Charlie Hart saw Leonie, and her presence there made 
 him desperate. 
 
 " Drive those horses on, or I will shoot them down in 
 the harness," he cried hoarse] y. * I am a desperate man 
 too desperate to be trifled with." 
 
 One cut from the whip which he snatched from the cab 
 man s hand, sent the steeds and vehicle whirling down the 
 road. 
 
 " Oh, don t, don t!" shrieked Leonie, springing between 
 them. " I beseech you, gentlemen, for my sake, stop!" 
 
 "Leonie," whispered Paul Eexford, hoarsely, "leave 
 me to face the villain. I will defend your honor, or die in 
 the attempt." 
 
 4< Then it is to the other one that 1 must plead," gasped 
 Leonie, wildly throwing herself down on her knees before 
 her mortal foe. 
 
 " Spare him," sobbed Leonie, clasping her white hands 
 supplicatingly, " and you can name your own reward. 
 This fatal duel was brought about for my sake, and for my 
 sake I pray you on my bended knees not to let it pro 
 ceed." 
 
 Charlie Hart looked down into the beautiful uplifted 
 face, with the light of the golden sunshine falling upon it, 
 the dark-brown wealth of glossy curls, and the pleading 
 
LEONIE LOCKS. 23: 
 
 wine-dark eyes, and parted crison lips and. a diabolic*! 
 thought flashed across his wicked brain. 
 
 " The duel must go on, and the insult this fellow offered 
 you must be avenged," said Paul Rexford, with dignity. 
 
 " I must speak one word," cried Leonie, frantically; 
 " I pray you to listen to me " 
 
 * There is but one way you can save him," whispered 
 Hart hurriedly; " acknowledge to him that you are bound 
 to me, and this duel in which he is sure to go down will 
 be averted; remember, I have your signature and the world 
 will soon know it." 
 
 " Never!" cried Leonie; " I would" 
 
 " Yes, I think you will, for I have made a startling dis 
 covery/ he cried, and bending down, he whispered a few 
 words in the girl s ear. They were but a few words, yet 
 they produced the most tragic effect upon Leonie Locke; 
 all the color faded from her lovely face, like a beautiful 
 tender flower blasted by a sudden blaze of lightning, and 
 she would have fallen had not Charlie Hart put out his 
 hand and caught her, drawing her to a close embrace. 
 
 "Villain!" cried Paul Rexford, darting forward, "do 
 not dare to clasp your arms around that pure young girl, 
 or I shall strike you down on the spot. " 
 
 4< What do you say?" cried Hart, still retaining his hold 
 of the willowy girlish figure. No sound broke from her 
 pale lips, but with the white agony of death upon her, she 
 bowed her beautiful curly head as a token of assent. 
 
 Charlie Hart understood. 
 
 " 1 do not see why you should attempt to dictate to me 
 vn my own private affairs," sneered Hart, crushing the 
 fchivering form still closer; " you may as well know the 
 truth first as last Leonie is mine!" 
 
 If a thunder-bolt had suddenly fallen from a clear smiling 
 summer sky, Paul Rexford could not have been more as. 
 tounded. He reeled back, as though a terrible blow had 
 been suddenly struck him. and. great drops of agonj 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 gathered on his brow, hard to witness on the face el one 8t 
 brave and true. He could not believe that he had heard 
 aright. 
 
 " Great Heaven, I have gone mad!" he cried hoarsely, 
 v r I can not believe it. Leonie, I " 
 
 " Tell him that I have spoken ,the truth, Leonie; yon 
 are mine, are you not? Remember his life hangs on your 
 answer/ he added, sotto voce. 
 
 k A terrible silence fell around them; for a moment both 
 of them thought Leonie was dying; then she raised her fair 
 young face and looked at the young professor, while the 
 most piteous cry that ever broke from mortal lips, echoed 
 from hers. 
 
 " Are you mine, or not?" cried Charlie Hart, threaten 
 ingly. 
 
 And Leonie, white as a statue carved in marble, with an 
 agony too pitiful to be pictured with words, raised her 
 white face, and with a voice that sounded scarcely human, 
 answered, " Yes." 
 
 " Now you see what folly it is to meddle with other 
 folks affairs," sneered Charlie Hart, fairly glowing with 
 wicked triumph; " you have called me to account to-day, 
 for attempting to kiss my own little sweetheart. 1 have 
 promised her that the duel shall not take place, but I shall 
 have revenge upon you, my fine aristocrat," and, before 
 the astonished young professor could collect his scattered 
 senses, Charlie Hart leaped suddenly forward and treacher 
 ously dealt him a terrible blow, crying out: " No man caa 
 come between Leonie and me and live." 
 
 And the next instant the young professor, with a crue] 
 wound on his temple which dyed the young spring grass, 
 lay senseless at his feet. 
 
 " Oh, you have killed him! you have killed him! * 
 shrieked Leonie, wrenching herself free from Charlie Hart s 
 firm grasp and flinging herself down beside the prostrate 
 form. 
 
LBONliS LCCtfE. 233 
 
 "I hope I have," was the cruel rejoinder. "I have 
 vowed to do it more than once. He has crossed my path 
 and yours too often." 
 
 But Leonie did not heed him- " You have killed him!" 
 she cried. * If he is dead, I weak girl though I am I 
 will avenge him! * 
 
 Something in her voice struck a chill to Charlie Hart s 
 breast, villain though he was. He loved her with a mad, 
 wild, passionate love, even though he had said revenge was 
 sweeter, and to see her bending over the prostrate form of 
 another, was more than he could tamely endure. 
 
 " Leonie, my sweet one, come away," he cried, eagerly; 
 " this is no place for you." In an instant she had sprung 
 to her feet, her brown, starry eyes flashing and her face 
 fairly glowing with superb scorn. " Yours!" she reiter 
 ated, in a voice quivering with horror; " it is false; you 
 forced me to say it, as the price of his life, but you shaU 
 never claim me, I will die first! You have hunted me down 
 and wrecked my life, but you can not follow me beyond thu 
 gates of death. " i 
 
 At that instant several horsemen were seen advancing 
 up the road, and Hart knew at a glance that they were 
 mounted police, who had heard of the duel and had come 
 to prevent it, and if he were found there an arrest would 
 be sure to follow. 
 
 With a muttered curse at being obliged to flee, and leave 
 Leonie there, he turned and fled precipitately down the 
 road, with the parting warning to Leonie, that he would 
 publicly claim her as his wife before the sun had set 
 
 Leoiiie did not heed him; she was stooping over the 
 prostrate form of the young professor. 
 
 The blue glasses had fallen from his eyes, and as Leonie 
 raised her white hand to his bruised temple, it brushed 
 against his face, displacing a false beard, and a wig of 
 raven-dark hair he had worn, revealing the handsome face 
 of Gordon Carlisle* Lftome utterad a heart-rending 
 
234 LEON IE LOCTB. 
 
 f &llmg upon her knees beside him. " Oh, my love! nrj 
 love! is it really you?" she sobbed, calling him by ever} 
 endearing name, and begging him to open his eyes and 
 speak to her. It was no dream; it was Gordon Carlisle, 
 with the fair handsome beauty of King Olaf, who had 
 staked his life for her sake. Paul Keif ord and Gordon 
 Carlisle were one and the same. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 JNow Leonie realized why her heart had gone out so 
 strangely to the quiet young professor why the touch of 
 his hand had thrilled her heart so, and the music of hi 
 yoice seemed strangely familiar. He was Gordon Carlisle, 
 the young lover who had won all the deep affection of her 
 girlish heart. Wealth had come to her since, and position; 
 but it was only a mockery without his love. 
 
 There is nothing in the whole wide world that can fill 
 the void in the desolate, lonely heart, when the love of 
 some one for whom we have yearned is wanting. 
 
 Why had he come to her in disguise Gordon Carlisle, 
 the millionaire s handsome young son and heir? 
 
 Suddenly she thought of Dora Lancaster s words: " He 
 loved you from the very first, and he loves you still; and 
 for that reason I vowed to take the crudest vengeance 
 upon you that a desperate woman ever took upon a rival!" 
 
 " He loves you still." How the words rang in Leonie s 
 ears! She took the handsome golden head in her armSj 
 lavishing a world of passionate kisses on his white face, 
 calling him by every endearing name to open his eyes and 
 speak to her. 
 
 At last the dark-blue, earnest eyes opened wonderingly, 
 and Gordon Carlisle gazed up into the beautiful face bend 
 ing over him. 
 
 " J did not wait until noon tc read your letter, Gordon,* 
 she sobbed. 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 235 
 
 He quite believed his senses were playing him some trick. 
 
 * Leonie!" he cried, making no attempt to free himself 
 from the clasp of her arms, " am I dreaming, or is it your 
 face bending over me? If it is a delusion, I pray Heaven I 
 may die while it is still upon me it is so sweet! Leonie I" 
 
 ** Yes, it is Leonie. I am here, Gordon," she whis 
 pered. * Does your head pain you? The man who struck 
 you down has fled. " 
 
 He raised his white hand to his forehead, and he missed 
 the false curling dark hair and the blue glasses, and the 
 thought rushed over him, she had called him by his own 
 name Gordon. 
 
 Yes, it was true; the man had fled, and he was alone 
 with Leonie, at last! In the sweet, sudden delirium of the 
 moment he forgot all that had befallen him. He thought 
 only of Leonie. He sprung to his feet, flushed and eager. 
 
 " Forgive me for coming to your home in that disguise, 
 my darling," he cried, pointing to the dark hair and the 
 glasses. "To be near you was a temptation I could not 
 resist. I did not dream you would ever know. I loved 
 you so madly, so passionately, that life without you was 
 more bitter than death. You did not give me time to tell 
 you all this the night you fled from my father s roof, and 
 when I came back from the library, and they told me you 
 had gone, the shock of it nearly killed me. You cared 
 more for wealth than you did for me/ that is what they 
 said. 
 
 " My father and I had a stormy interview in the library 
 that night, and he told me I must choose between you and 
 his wealth. I did not hesitate for an instant I will 
 choose Leonie, father/ I answered proudly. 
 
 41 * Then you shall leave my roof 1 disinherit you from 
 this moment/ he cried. I obeyed him and hurried to tha 
 library to take you with me, as my darling little wife, out 
 into the hard bitter world, and thyjfchey told me you had 
 Jed, Leonie. 
 
35 LEON IE LOCKE. 
 
 " From wealth and affluence, I was hurled down to the 
 depths of poverty. Those who have never known what 
 wealth and power is, can not understand the horror of it 
 
 " I had only my education to fall back upon. My pride 
 was a serious drawback, and to avoid humiliation I adopted 
 that disguise. 
 
 " I searched for you night and day, Leonie, and fate was 
 kind at last, for it brought us face to face; and then the 
 mad thought occurred to me, perhaps my great love might 
 win you, and you might learn to love me even in my dis 
 guise, for you loved me once, Leonie you told me so. " 
 
 He spoke rapidly, and the eager flush deepened on his 
 friir handsome face, which was all aglow with the light of 
 love. In the excitement of the moment he quite forgot 
 the strange incident that had brought him there. 
 
 He held out his arms to her with that winning smile she 
 remembered but too well. 
 
 " You loved me once you love me still, Leonie/ he 
 cried, with a flash of sudden hope; " I am not vain, but, 
 darling, I am not blind you love me. You are not his 
 the coward who took such an unmanly advantage of a rival; 
 you are mine, Leonie, tell me so with your own sweet 
 lips." 
 
 Leonie raised her white face to the smiling heavens. 
 Should she tell him then and there, that in the eyes of the 
 law she was bound to Charlie Hart? Let me have just one 
 moment of happiness first, and then I will tell him all 
 was the yearning cry of her impassioned heart. Would it 
 be a ski to rest in his arms for just one little moment to 
 feel his kisses on her white face, for one brief instant 
 when she loved him? ah, Heaven alone knew how dearly 
 she loved him, and she was putting him out of her life 
 forever. 
 
 * I am not poor, as you suppose, Leonie," he cried; 
 * father disinherited me, yet since then, an investment I 
 maUe long a^o ha? ttuneu out prosperously, and 1 am now a 
 
LEONIE LOCKS. 
 
 millionaire in my own right My fortune equate yow own, 
 Leonie, but I would give it all for just one kind word from 
 you just one assurance that it is no delusion yon lova 
 me still/* 
 
 How could she resist his pleadings, when she loved him 
 so well? She was reckless of the consequences. Yes, she. 
 would purchase one moment of happiness, even if she paid 
 for it by a life-time of sorrow. 
 
 " I love you, Gordon," she sobbed, " I I love you. * 
 Leonie never forgot the cry of rapturous delight that broke 
 from his lips, nor the sudden joyful radiance that over^ 
 spread his face. 
 
 He clasped her in his arms, raining a world of passionate 
 kisses 011 her white face, on the beautiful brown curls, and 
 little trembling hands. 
 
 " My darling my beautiful darling," he murmured, 
 ** out of every ill some good may accrue. How little I 
 thought when that miscreant challenged me to stake my 
 life against his, that it would be the means of reuniting uij. 
 I did not intend that you should know anything about it 
 until it was all over; if I had survived, I meant to go far 
 away, and you would never have known Paul Rexford and 
 Gordon Carlisle were one and the same. Oh, Leonie, my 
 sweet one! let us forget the past and in the future live only 
 for each other. 
 
 " We shall be married this very day, love, if you are 
 willing and when you are once my wife I " 
 
 The beautiful white arms fell from his clasp, and the 
 most piteous cry that ever broke from a pent-up heart 
 issued from her lips. 
 
 " Let me be happy for just one little minute, Gordon," 
 she sobbed, "for it will be for the last time, perhaps, 
 Tvhile we both live. Oh! how hard it is for me to tell yo* 
 the truth; but I must do it, Gordon." Her courage and 
 self-command broke don. all *!^$noe, and she faltered, 
 
238 LEONIB LOCKE. 
 
 "I 1 can not marry you, Gordon; I can not be yow 
 
 wife; please don t be angry with me."- 
 
 Gordon Carlisle s face grew strangely white. 
 
 " You can not marry me, Leonie?" he cried. "I do 
 not understand you. Surely you are not trying my love 
 for you, my darling; my devotion and patience must have 
 proved that. Tell me why you can not marry me?" 
 
 She made him no answer but shrunk from him, her facfc 
 white as marble, and in her dark velvety eyes the look of a 
 hunted hare. 
 
 " Will you not tell me why, Leonie?" he asked, attempt 
 ing to draw her once more within his sheltering arms. 
 " We love each other, our very hearts are twined together^ 
 yon would not lead a man on by kind words and smiles 
 until his heart lay under your feet, and then trample on it 
 Leonie, you turn your face away. You frighten me, my 
 d/if ling. Have you no word for me?" 
 
 " Ko, Gordon," she sobbed. "Heaven help us, we 
 could not be further apart if one of us were lying dead. 
 Do not look at me like that; you are killing me, Gordon. 
 We must part. Fate has torn us asunder, like many an 
 other. We are lost to each other while we live," she 
 cobbed pathetically. 
 
 " Do you love me, Leonie, or are you trifling with me?" 
 he asked sternly. " I can not give you up. My love and 
 my life are so twined together that if one goes the other 
 goes." 
 
 " I love you, Gordon," she wailed, " do not torture me 
 so; but fate is against us. We are parted. I can not 
 marry you. " 
 
 Hot anger flashed in Gordon Carlisle s face. 
 
 " What am I to think, Leonie?" he cried in an agitated 
 voice. " You tell me you love me, yet you can not marry 
 me." 
 
 She stood up before him, her white bands locked to 
 gether over her heavjnjt breast, and a look of agony on her 
 
LEONtE LGCKfc. 
 
 face. Ah, how could she tell him what was to part them 
 forever! For one moment only the sighing of the wind 
 among the branches broke the terrible stillness. 
 
 " I will tell you, Gordon, why I can not marry you/* 
 she wailed* "I love you oh! Gordon, I love you ae 
 woman never loved man before, but we are parted, for I 
 am bound to another. The law calls me Charlie Hart* 
 wife!" 
 
 CHAPTER XLVL 
 
 GORDON CARLISLE looked at her as though he did not 
 quite understand. He stood so motionless before ker with 
 his arms folded over his broad chest that he frightened her. 
 
 " Pity me, Gordon, it is very true/ she repeated, de 
 spairingly. " I am bound to the man who so cowardly 
 dealt you that cruel blow, and then fled." 
 
 A terrible groan escaped his white, set lips, and his fair, 
 handsome face grew ghastly in its pallor. 
 
 " Heaven forgive you. Leonie, for I never can while life 
 lasts! You knew that you were bound to this man, yet you 
 lured me on to love you. You knew I could not resist 
 loving you, yet no word of warning fell from your lips. 
 You have let me declare my love for you for the second 
 time, and still you led me on, when you were another man s 
 wife. Oh, the horror of it! the pity of it! You have 
 ruined me! and I repeat, I can never forgive you for lur 
 ing me on to destruction. I thought you as pure and as 
 true as the angels are up in heaven." 
 
 " Oh, Gordon, pity me! pity me!" gasped Leonie, " do 
 not turn from me; don t you see you are breaking my 
 heart? I do not love him, I " 
 
 Gordon Carlisle turned from her with a terrible cry. 
 * Do not say another word," he cried, hoarsely, " it woufo 
 only avid to your sin. 1 am an honorable man, and tc *ne 
 fliere is no crime SQ great in the whole wide world as th* 
 
LOOKS. , 
 
 one in which I find myself placed that of loving anothet 
 man s wife. God alone knows how dear yon are to me 
 bat I would die now sooner than tonch those lips or clasp 
 your hands. You have done the most cruel wrong to ine 
 that woman can do to man; you have betrayed and de 
 ceived me into loving you. I shall never look upon a wonv 
 an s false, fair face again. 1 shall hate the whole sex be 
 cause I found the fairest of them so cruelly false. Great 
 Heaven! keep me from losing my reason! I fear I am go 
 ing mad. There is nothing on earth so cruelly false as a 
 beautiful woman," he cried. " Go back to your husband; 
 your place is by his side, not mine. I wonder that he left 
 you here; I can not understand it." Gordon Carlisle 
 laughed a bitter laugh. " There are stranger things hap 
 pening in real life than any of the romances furnished na 
 from a novelist s pen," he cried. * Oh, the mockery of 
 it! I challenged a man to fight a duel for daring to at- 
 tempt to persecute the woman 1 loved her whom 1 
 thought little less than the angels, and it turns out that 
 that woman was his own wife. And to add insult to in 
 jury, she tells me she loves me false to both of us. May 
 Heaven forgive you, Leonie Locke!" 
 
 Oh! how cruelly he misunderstood her. If she had only 
 knelt at his feet then and there and explained the whola 
 matter to him how she had been forced into signing that 
 paper, which the lawyer had told her bound her legally to 
 Charlie Hart, how different life might have been for then) 
 both. 
 
 " He judges me without hearing my side of the story, * 
 she thought, with bitter humiliation. " How hard and 
 cruel he is." 
 
 If he had only spoken one kind word to her in that awful 
 moment the whole world might have been changed for 
 those two hearts that loved each other so. 
 
 " Good-bye," he id kn*kilyj Ji I am going out of yom 
 
LEON1B LOCKE. 
 
 Hfe forever going where 1 can never look upon the face 
 of a woman again I" 
 
 Leonie took a step nearer, clasping his arm entreatingly 
 trith her white hands. 
 
 "Don t go, Gordon!" she wailed, " I I could not live 
 without you. " 
 
 " You should have thought of that before/ he an 
 swered, gloomily. 
 
 She was weeping so bitterly that in sheer pity he UD- 
 c?asped the little white hands that held his arm so tightly, 
 aid attempted to move away. 
 
 Still she clung to him. 
 
 " Ycu must listen to me, Gordon," she moaned; * do 
 not condemn me without without " 
 
 " Do not try to tempt me, Leonie," he cried, " if you 
 have any reverence, respect for me, send me from you at 
 once ! Your smiles, your caresses are not for me. I am a 
 broken-hearted man. You have lured my heart from me; 
 now do not attempt to lure from me my strength to resist 
 you. Remember, I am only human. The deepest Jove 
 that ever burned in a man s bosom burns in mine. Do not 
 cling to me; let me go! Laugh my love to scorn if you 
 will; taunt me with your fair, false lips anything rather 
 ihan plead with me to stay!" 
 
 He turned away abruptly. One more glance at those 
 lovely, wine-dark eyes drowned in tears, and the strength 
 of his manhood would have given way. 
 
 "Farewell! my beautiful, false love," he cried; "my 
 fair, false love, farewell forever!" 
 
 But the clinging clasp of the cold, white fingers tight 
 ened. Leonie s face was deathly pale. 
 
 " Oh, Gordon! Gordon!" she gasped, clinging to him 
 with a strength born of desperation. " 1 can not live with 
 out you. You must take me with you." 
 
 There was an agony of death on the white, lovely face 
 raised to his, and, although the words startled him terri- 
 
UBOXIB LOCKE. 
 
 biy, he quite believed she did not understand or realize 
 what she was asking. Tears were raining down her beau 
 tiful face, and he knew they were called to those dark eyes 
 for love of him, and he could not find it in his heart to 
 turn upon her and reprove her. He was moved to the very 
 depths of his heart. Oh! how cruelly hard it was, for those 
 who loved each other so, to part only those who have 
 joved know the horror of that word. But Gordon Carlisle 
 was a man of honor; he would tear himself from her 
 though his very heart broke in the struggle. Leonie did 
 not realize what she asked, and he must protect her, even 
 from himself and his worshipful love. 
 
 " A wife s place is by her husband s side/ he cried, 
 hoarsely. " I am going to take you to your husband and 
 apologize to him for interfering between you. Heaven 
 help me! I did not dream you were his wife. Come, 
 Leonie." 
 
 "Oh! no, no, Gordon," she gasped; " I will kill myself 
 first; you do not know all.. Kiss my face just once, Gor- 
 lon, for the last time, and it will give me strength to cell 
 JWU." 
 
 Gordon was only a mortal man. It was for the last 
 time. How could he refuse? He clasped her in his arms, 
 raining down a world of passionate kisses on the beautiful 
 face, asking himself over and over again how he could ever 
 leave her, what would life be like without her. Heaven 
 help him! he could not leave her. 
 
 " Take me with you, Gordon/ she pleaded. 
 
 And at that moment Charlie Hart leaped into the path 
 before them, crying, hoarsely: " I have something to say 
 ^bout that, for I claim you, Leonie. You are my wife!" 
 
 No word broke from Gordon Carlisle s white lips as 
 
 Charlie Hart sprung into the path, and angrily exclaimed, 
 
 Leonie. " His arms fell heavily from her, and he turned 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 243 
 
 
 
 - You shaU answer to me for this/ hissed Hart, " an4 
 the next time I shall have full satisfaction. " 
 
 Leonie had fallen at Gordon s feet in a dead faint, but 
 he had no right to raise her to pillow her beautiful head 
 on his breast and protect her. She was another s. 
 
 The pitying sunshine never fell upon a sadder scene: 
 the handsome young lover who had been separated from 
 Leonie by such a cruel conspiracy taking a mute farewell 
 of her forever. He who loved her so passionately, so truly, 
 must never look upon her face again never while they 
 both lived. Only Heaven knew the bitter anguish of that 
 moment. And it made it all the harder to bear to know 
 that Leonie loved him, even as he loved her. 
 
 In the recklessness of the moment he little cared what 
 became of him; all love and happiness were over for him, 
 and he did not care for life that would have to be lived 
 without her. Gordon Carlisle loved as men love but once 
 in a life- time. 
 
 " I will give you as much satisfaction as you want/ he 
 aaid, turning hastily to Charlie Hart, " Take your your 
 -~wife up to the hotel; then come back. I will wait for 
 /uu here." 
 
 Charlie Hart needed no second bidding. He gathered 
 Leonie s slight figure in his arms, and, hailing a coach 
 waich luckily was passing at that moment, placed Leonie 
 within it, and was soon whirling rapidly in the direction of 
 the hotel, and on to his fate. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIL 
 
 A STILL summer night. A young moon had risen, and 
 was set like a jewel in the cloudless sky, blue as the heart 
 of a sapphire. The stars had climbed the opal steeps and 
 fixed themselves slowly one by one in the glittering 
 neavens, au<l the calm beauty of a still summer night lay 
 over the earth. 
 
244 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 In her room in the Lexington Avenue mansion, Aimee, 
 die faithful maid, sat by the open window waiting patient 
 ly for the dawn. 
 
 The long hours of the day had dragged slowly by, yet 
 Leonie had not returned, and the girl was sorely fright 
 ened. 
 
 A thous^id imaginary evils that might have befallen her 
 young mistress rushed through her brain, and in the midst 
 of it all Dora Lancaster s face rose up before her. 
 
 She started to her feet with a low cry, for she remem 
 bered seeing her drive off in Miss Lancaster s carriage. 
 
 * If ill had befallen Leonie, smiling, wicked Dora was 
 Bnrely at the bottom of it," she told herself. 
 
 All that night the girl paced up and down the floor of 
 her room, wondering if it were best to make a clear con 
 fession of all she knew concerning Dora. 
 
 She took the diamond ring from her bosom, gazing at it 
 long and earnestly; the glittering ring which had been the 
 price of her silence concerning that midnight tragic es 
 capade. 
 
 As she twisted it about on he - brown hand the door of 
 an adjoining room cautiously opened, and a pair of keen, 
 gray eyes gazed searchingly upon her from the small apert 
 ure. The gaslight fell full upon a badge on the breast of 
 a man s coat the badge of a detective. The intruder 
 closed the door as noiselessly as he had opened it, a strange 
 smile curling the corners of his thin lips. 
 
 " My patience has been rewarded at last," he muttered, 
 rubbing his hands softly together; " I have found a clew 
 to the missing diamonds, I have only to follow up the lead 
 to make a clear case of it " 
 
 Walking slowly to his room, he threw himself down upon 
 the bed, indulging in the first sleep he had had for the past 
 week since the night of the grand ball. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett had never been quite satisfied with the 
 alight explanation^!^ 01 * 1 ** had vouchsafed concerning her 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 245 
 
 sudden mysterious disappearance, and she had discovered 
 another startling fact too Leonie s diamonds were miss 
 ing, yet she had never even mentioned her great loss. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett was mystified. What could it mean? She 
 determined to sift this strange affair to the foundation. 
 
 In response to her note to head-quarters, an experienced 
 detective was placed at her disposal. He .listened atten 
 tively to the facts, as she related them, jotting down a few 
 incidents as she went along. 
 
 Quite ingeniously, with all the cunning of his crafty 
 profession, he drew from her the romantic story of Leonie & 
 life, putting it down in short-hand as she related it. 
 
 " She wore the diamonds the night of the ball?" ha 
 asked, interrogatively. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett bowed assent. 
 
 " I shall never forget how brilliantly they sparkled like 
 rivers of fire on her rounded white arms, her plump neck, 
 and amid the rings of her soft, dark hair. Every one re 
 marked that they were a fortune in themselves. 
 
 " You say she went up to one of the boudoirs to lie 
 down?" 
 
 Mrs. Barrett nodded affirmatively. 
 
 " And shortly after you heard a suppressed cry emanat* 
 mg from that particular room?" 
 
 " I am quite positive I heard a piercing cry from that 
 particular room. The voice was like Leonie s and the cry 
 was repeated twice, then suddenly hushed. I could heai 
 it more plainly than those in the ball-room below, for I was 
 in the corridor, not very far from the door. " 
 
 The detective made a note of this, and pursued his in 
 quiries in another direction. 
 
 " Have you arrived at any theory?" asked Mrs. Barrett, 
 curiously, as he placed the note-book in his breast-pocket. 
 
 "It is rather early to advance a theory, madame," re 
 turned the detective, but, as you say the diamonds were 
 last seen on that occasion, it is my belief they were stolen 
 
248 LEOXIE LOCKE. 
 
 en that occasion. And the suppressed &3ream leads me ta 
 the impression that she discovered the thief in the act of 
 taking the jewels, and the face was net altogether a strange 
 one to her." 
 
 This announcement was so startling to Mrs. Barrett that 
 it almost took her breath away. 
 
 " Why do you think such an utter impossibility as that?* 
 she demanded, in astonishment. 
 
 " First from the fact that her cries were suddenly 
 hushed, and when you appeared at the door-way her 
 actions were nervous and constrained; and, secondly, from 
 the very peculiar fact that she did not mention their loss, 
 preferring to lose them this princely fortune rather 
 than allow *>n investigation to be made. This fact is 
 strongly apparent to me, madame." 
 
 Still Mrs. Barrett looked increduloas; such a thought 
 would never have occurred to her, yet she was forced to 
 limit to herself that the theory certainly did look prob 
 able. 
 
 " The next point in the net-work of circumstances is t* 
 find out the names of all who attended that particular ball, 
 and who among them the lady was acquainted with. And 
 if there was one among them upon whom the young heir 
 ess smiled with favor." 
 
 The lawyer s wife was thoughtful for a moment. 
 
 " There was one person there whom I think Leonie care* 
 for more than she would be willing to admit, the son of an 
 intimate friend of mine. I remember they had quite a 
 lengthy conversation in the conservatory that evening. " 
 
 " His name, if you please, madame," said the detective. 
 
 And Mrs. Barrett answered, slowly: 
 
 "Gordon Carlisle." 
 
 "Is he the eon of one of the members of the firm of 
 Lincoln & Carlisle?" questioned the detective, after a mo 
 ment of silence. 
 
 Again Mrs. Barrett bowed assent 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 24? 
 
 For a moment the keen detective knitted his brows to* 
 gether. 
 
 " Ah!" he thought; " this is the handsome, debonair, 
 reckless young fellow whom John Carlisle disinherited a 
 few months since, and the quarrel was such a bitter one the 
 hot-headed youth left the paternal mansion, taking up his 
 abode at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Without visible means 
 of support what has kept up this luxurious and expensive 
 living? Ah, there s the rub/ he muttered, sot to voce. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett, clever-witted little lady though she was, 
 did not quite comprehend the strange turn the detective 
 thoughts were taking. 
 
 That night, when the clocks of the neighboring belfries 
 were striking the dead hour of midnight, the detective, 
 with a dark lantern, was carefully searching Leonie s 
 apartments for some clew to further the chain of evidence 
 he had woven in his mind. 
 
 " The young lady would shield this dastardly thief," h& 
 muttered; " and there is but one way to account for it 
 she loves him. Ah! what is this?" he exclaimed, stopping 
 short before a package carefully placed in a velvet case in 
 a pearl inlaid writing-desk. 
 
 A portrait blotted here and there with tear stains, the 
 portrait of a handsome young man with fair curling hair 
 and mustache, deep-blue eyes and a winning smile, and be 
 neath the portrait were written the startling words iu g 
 pretty feminine hand: 
 
 " Gordon Carlisle, my lost love/ 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 A TRIUMPHANT look crossed the detective s face as he 
 transferred the portrait of Gordon Carlisle to his breast 
 pocket. 
 
 The next day all the pawn-shops were visited, and, at 
 Hast, the diamonds were traced. 
 
848 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 The stones were identified by the dealer who had sold 
 them to Leonie, also by the lapidary through whose bauds 
 they had passed. 
 
 The broker, in whose possession they were found, stated 
 that they had been brought there the night before by a 
 woman closely veiled and all alone. She did not quite look 
 the lady. In her eagerness to dispose of the jewels she 
 lifted the veil for one brief instant, and then drew it down 
 over her face again with a startled cry; but, in that in 
 stantaneous glance, he had caught sight of a pair of black, 
 glittering eyes and a face that, he told himself, it would bd 
 easy to remember. 
 
 " So there was a woman implicated in the affair/ mused 
 the detective, as he quietly wended his way toward Lexing 
 ton Avenue " a woman who did not quite look the 
 lady/ as the broker had quaintly phrased it." 
 
 The detective s. next step was to find Gordon Carlisle at 
 tha Fifth Avenue Hotel; but here he was met with a dis 
 appointment that gentleman had left, bag and baggage., 
 the day before. 
 
 " I must find out what that conversation in the conserv 
 atory was about, on the night of the ball. Perhaps a run 
 out of town for a few hours might give me food for 
 thought/ mused the detective, boarding the first outgoing 
 train. 
 
 A change of scene might turn his ideas into new chan 
 nels. There was nothing like a few hours of quiet country 
 life for planning a great case like this. 
 
 " Where to?" asked the ticket-seller. 
 
 " The first stopping place, provided there s a hotel 
 there/ replied the detective, laconically. 
 
 " It s a through train to Hartford. No stops between 
 here and New London; that s quite a stirring place, with 
 Al hotels," said the ticket agent. 
 
 " All right, book me to New London. I ll take a look 
 at it, anyhow; I ve }&** there 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 249 
 
 A moment later he was seated in the smoking car, puff 
 ing thoughtfully away, watching the green fields and hazy, 
 dandelion-covered hills through the clouds of cigar-smoke, 
 wondering in which direction he ought to strike first. 
 
 How quiet the thrifty little town looked, tinder the light 
 of the summer sun! 
 
 The detective was in no particular hurry; his time was 
 his own, and, as he saw it wanted two hours of dinner 
 time, he employed the time in strolling about, revolving 
 the * diamond case " as he passed leisurely along. 
 
 " Have your fortune told, sir?" 
 
 The voice broke in abruptly upon his reverie, and he 
 glanced quickly up to see a pretty gypsy maiden in a 
 bright, fantastic dress, courtesying in the path before him. 
 
 * Have your fortune told, sir?" she repeated. " If 
 there s anything on your heart that troubles you, I can un 
 ravel the deep mystery for you. I am Zara, the seventh 
 daughter of the seventh son," and she smiled up coyly 
 iuto his face. 
 
 The detective laughed an amused laugh, and an im 
 pulse suddenly seized him to hear what she would tell him 
 it would pass away a few moments, and perhaps give 
 him a new idea to work upon. 
 
 " You have business of great importance on hand/ she 
 oaid, slowly. 
 
 " That s what you tell them all, I presume/ he replied, 
 kossing over the customary silver coins; " but go on, my 
 good girl, I admit you have struck the right trail this 
 time." 
 
 The gypsy girl smiled. " I must tell him something 
 about love," she thought; " all men like to hear of that." 
 
 And glancing up, she saw that his eyes were gray, and 
 he was medium fair, and she shrewdly guessed he would be 
 apt to like a dark-eyed woman best " And I see some 
 thing more," she said, aloud; " a pair of levers and the 
 
250 LEOKIE LOCKE. 
 
 girl is dark, and the man fair. Yon are dogging their 
 footsteps." 
 A strange interest leaped into the detective s keen, gray 
 
 " If I did not know this was all jargon I would say that 
 you are a witch," he muttered, testily. 
 
 " You may call me a witch if you like, but you know I 
 have spoken the truth," she answered, with a saucy shakt 
 of her long jetty braids. 
 
 " I am on the track of a pair of lovers," he said, jocu 
 larly; " and now, pretty * Witch of Endor/ tell me where 
 I shall be likely to find this fair-faced youth upon whom 
 the dark-eyed young girl looks with favor, or I shall not 
 believe in your wonderful powers." 
 
 4 Go to the fork of the roads, a mile hence, and ask that 
 question of the first person whom you shall meet, and he 
 will tell you." And with another saucy nod, the pretty 
 gypsy with the fantastic dress, who had so ingeniously 
 avoided answering a direct question, turned and fled down 
 the path. 
 
 The detective laughed and walked on; but, strangely 
 enough, he walked straight toward the fork of the roads 
 just as a clock in an adjoining steeple chimed the noon 
 hour. For a few moments he walked along in silence, 
 then a clattering of horses hoofs broke the stillness, and 
 two mounted policemen galloped quickly down the road. 
 
 The detective was well known to both of them, and de 
 spite their great hurry, they drew rein for a few moments 
 .chat 
 
 " What s up now?" inquired the detective. " Any 
 thing of extra importance on foot? I m sorry I haven t a 
 horse here, or I would accompany you just for the novelty 
 of the thing." 
 
 " We re going to head off a duel if we can," returned 
 one of the men. " The distance is trifling up at the 
 fork of the roads about half a milSLshead; you can easily 
 
LEOKIK LOCKE. 351 
 
 make it on foot if yon walk pretty sharp. There may be 
 lots of fan before you, and you d better be on hand to take 
 it in." 
 
 The men nodded and galloped off while the detective 
 followed more leisurely. 
 
 " A duel, eh on the outskirts of the town that s quite 
 a sensation for the quiet, easy-going New Londoners/ he 
 ejaculated to himself as he quickened his pace in the direc 
 tion indicated. 
 
 At that moment the coach which contained Leonie, 
 dashed quickly past him. He saw a beautiful terrified 
 girlish face at the window, framed iu a mass of soft broww 
 curls, and in that instantaneous glance he recognized hei. 
 
 " Leonie Locke!" he ejaculated, in intense surprise, 
 fairly rooted to the spot; " well, well, this is getting inter 
 esting. I always was a lucky fellow, and by Jove! it must 
 be my lucky star that sent me here to-day; it s better to 
 be born lucky than rich. I ve got a heavy per cent, of the 
 one, and if I am right in my calculations, I ll have a still 
 Heavier per cent, of the other before many days. " 
 
 A few feet ahead he saw the mounted police, who had 
 alighted from their steeds, and were engaged in an earnest 
 ^Conversation with a young man leaning against the trunk 
 of a tree by the road-side. 
 
 This young man was, in all probability, one of the parties 
 who had been about to participate in the duel, the detect 
 ive concluded. "Was it merely a coincidence that brought 
 the carriage containing Leonie Locke to this particular 
 point where a duel was to be fought? was she concerned in 
 it in any way? The detective was in deep water. 
 
 As he drew near he could see that no carriage was in 
 sight, but he observed at a glance irom the impress of the 
 wheels on the soft turf, that the carriage had evidently 
 stopped at that particular spot, and then passed on. 
 
 Only one of the parties seemed^ to be there, and that was 
 
252 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 the one to whom the policemen were talking and gesticu 
 lating. 
 
 The young man stood with his back toward tie detective 
 as he advanced, and he saw lying on the green grass before 
 nim a dark wig a mustache of the same raven hue, and 
 a pair of dark-blue double glasses. The fair-haired young 
 man leaning against the tree kad evidently been in dis 
 guise. 
 
 At the sound of swiftly approaching footsteps, he turned! 
 gracefully around. The sunlight drifted down through 
 the green foliage upon his fair, handsome face. 
 
 The detective gave a sudden start, accustomed hourly 
 though he was to strange and thrilling surprises. In a 
 moment he sprung forward, laying his hand heavily on 
 Gordon s arm as he produced an official package from his 
 breast-pocket. 
 
 " You are my prisoner, Mr. Carlisle," he said, quietly. 
 Gordon drew back with an exclamation of intense astonish. 
 ment 
 
 * Upon what charge?" he demanded, haughtily, and 
 the detective answered, slowly: 
 
 " The charge of theft, for stealing diamonds from a 
 New York heiress; perhaps you know her Miaa Leonid 
 Locke?" 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THE coach accident had proven a most serious affair tc 
 Dora Lancaster. Her fair, round cheek had come in con 
 tact with the jagged edge of the curb-stone and had been 
 fearfully lacerated. 
 
 All that human ingenuity could suggest had been done 
 for her, but it was quite useless the horrible scars on her 
 cheek could not be effaced. 
 
 When she called for the hand-glass, Mrs. Stuart, the 
 housekeeper, trembled. la. * ntaoMuit* when consciousness 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 258 
 
 had returned, and she found herself lying on her own bed 
 at home, she realized what had happened. 
 
 Fate had foiled her; Leonie Locke had escaped from the 
 doom she had planned for her, and the worst part of the 
 whole matter was, depending so entirely upon the success 
 of her scheme, she had daringly taunted Leonie with the 
 fate that awaited her, and she had told her that Gordon 
 
 Carlisle still loved her. 
 
 
 
 In the depths of her wicked heart she hoped Leonie was 
 dead. If she had been killed what a world of future 
 trouble it would save her! 
 
 " What became of the young girl that was with me in 
 the coach/ she asked, turning her face to the wall and 
 listening breathlessly. 
 
 " She escaped unhurt, " replied Mrs. Stuart, and she 
 almost fancied a smothered cry of anger burst from the 
 white lips buried beneath the bed-clothes. 
 
 " Did you send word to Gordon at the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel about my accident, and has he been hero?" she in 
 quired. 
 
 " fTord was sent to the hotel, but they said Mr. Gordon 
 Carlisle had just started for New London, Connecticut, and 
 they couldn t tell when he would return. "We sent a tele 
 gram there but received no answer, and we think, that is, 
 his mother and father think, he is no doubt coming home." 
 
 44 Then you must see that I look well, Mrs. Stuart," she 
 said, impatienly. Put on my lace dressing-robe with the 
 blue satin bows, and curl the short locks over my forehead, 
 and hand me the powder-puff and a hand mirror. I 
 wouldn t have Gordon see me looking like this for the 
 whole round world. What is the matter with my head that 
 you have it bandaged so?" she cried, tearing off the linen 
 bands. ** I want that mirror, hand it to me. I ve asked 
 for it the third time. You don t seem to understand your 
 position here, Mrs, Stuart," cried Dora, testily. 
 
254 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 With a grim smile on her stolid face Mrs. Stuart obeyed 
 this time, placing the glass in her hand. 
 
 One glance at the seamed, disfigured face and Dora 
 Lancaster threw the mirror from her with a Urrible 
 scream of rage. 
 
 " What have you done to my face?" she screamed. " It 
 is a vile conspiracy against me, to make me horrible in 
 Gordon s eyes/ she cried, springing from the coach and 
 confronting the trembling housekeeper; but the pain of the 
 wound on her face was so intense she almost fainted with 
 the exertion. 
 
 In an instant she realized it all. The terrible fate she 
 had marked out for Leonie Locke to go through life with 
 a horribly scarred face had overtaken her, and the very 
 thought of it worked her up into a fierce frenzy. 
 
 " What does Gordon s mother say? Why don t she comb 
 to me?" she demanded, hoarsely. 
 
 " She is with her husband in the library, she will be here 
 soon," replied Mrs. Stuart soothingly, as she quitted the 
 room with the fragments of the hand-glass gathered up in 
 her apron. , 
 
 When Dora Lancaster was left alone, she crept stealthily 
 to the mirror again, and, like a statue carved in .marble, 
 ehe gazed long and steadily at the face reflected there; no 
 moan or cry escaped her white lips, and in that moment as 
 she gazed, all the good in her heart died, and she was 
 transformed into a fiend incarnate. "He will hate me 
 now," she thought; " all hope of love is ended, the love of 
 a life- time blasted; but he shall never marry Leonie 
 Locke. I vowed that once before, and standing here be 
 fore this glass> I renew that vow with a deadly vengeance." 
 
 Mr. Carlisle had always wanted-his son Gordon to marry 
 her; what would he say now, when he saw her horribly 
 scarred face would he not use his influence against her? 
 Dora s desperate jealousy had cost her a pitiful price. 
 
LOCKE. 
 
 " Perhaps at this very moment he is talking it crer in 
 the library with his wife/ she muttered to herself. 
 
 Quick as thought, Dora caught up a dark robe, and, 
 throwing it hastily over the one she wore, glided as silently 
 as a panther to the library. 
 
 The door was slightly ajar, and with silent, velvet-shod 
 feet Dora crept into the room, gliding behind a marble 
 Flora that occupied an alcove, which commanded a full 
 view of the interior of the room. 
 
 John Carlisle sat in his arm-chair at his desk, while his 
 wife stood before the fire with a look on her hard proud 
 face that was terrible to behold, in its freezing hauteur. 
 Dora was right, they were speaking of her, and Mrs. Car 
 lisle was saying, " of course the idea we have been enter 
 taining of Gordon making Dora his wife, is at an end now. 
 I pity her misfortune of course, but 1 could never consent 
 to introduce such a horribly scarred creature as my son s 
 bride into society; the very idea is shocking!" 
 
 " Gordon must marry her," responded John Carlisle 
 slowly, with a strange husky tremulousness in his voice. 
 * There are more reasons than one why this must be. " 
 
 * I shall strongly oppose any arrangement of the kind, 
 John," declared Mrs. Carlisle emphatically. " Gordon is 
 our only son and will one day inherit all we have; he will 
 bu wealthy enough to chose whom he will. " 
 
 If he does not marry her, we will be ruined," retorted 
 Mr. Carlisle, rising and crossing the room toward where his 
 wife sat. He leaned his arms heavily on the marble man 
 tel, bowing his head upon them, and something very like a 
 groan burst from .his pallid lips. * The time has come 
 w.heu 1 must unfold a cruel secret to you, Alecia," he said, 
 slowly. " I never thought to tell you, but you have forced 
 me into it, You can leave me, if you will, and 1 could not 
 blame you for it; for a wife never had greater cause to 
 part from a husband. I deserve no mercy and I ask none, 
 *il my sorrow is for yoa <fcy! our son Gordon. " 
 
LBOHTE LOGEK. 
 
 " Why, what do yon mean?" cried lira. Carlisle in sur 
 prise. " I am at a loss to understand you. What are you 
 making such a mystery of this affair for? I do not under 
 stand what this has to do with the subject of Gordon s 
 marriage. " 
 
 " It has everything to do with it, Alecia," returned John 
 Carlisle, raising his white face, and looking down at her 
 uneasily. " I will tell you why he must marry Dora Lan 
 caster. She was an heiress; when I became administrator 
 of her estate, I drew her money, and used it. I specu 
 lated with it, Alecia, and I lost every dollar of it, and if it 
 were once known, I would be a ruined man. Dora will 
 call for a settlement sooner or later, and then, unless Gor 
 don marries her, the whole affair will leak out. " 
 
 " You would sell your only son for gold/ cried Mrs. 
 Carlisle, with bitter scorn. " Have you forgotten there is 
 an honorable way out of this? Pay Dora Lancaster back 
 her money, dollar for dollar, out of our own estate; it is 
 quite ample for the purpose. Your calculations always 
 turn out wrong it seems to me. It was you who sent that 
 pretty little dark-eyed Leonie Locke out into the street 
 that winter night, and it turns out now that she is one of 
 the wealthiest heiresses in all New York." 
 
 " Stop!" cried John Carlisle, sinking into a chair, his 
 face ghastly, and his eyes almost protruding from their 
 sockets. " Don t mention that name in this house unless 
 you want to kill me. 1 have suffered enough by it." 
 
 In a moment Mrs. Carlisle had sprung to her feet 
 * What is this girl to you?" she cried, standing flushed 
 and angry before him. 
 
 " You may as well know all. Years ago the father of 
 Leonie Locke bought this house and everything in it, 
 deeding it to his infant child, Leonie. He traveled abroad 
 for years, giving out that he was poor. Everything was 
 left in my hands, and her father never called upon me for 
 a single dollar. He wanted to be considered poor, for Jtt 
 
LEONIE lAfeAlfc. 25? 
 
 had a great horror that, should his daughter s wealth be 
 come known, she would he besieged by fortune-hunters. 
 The money accumulated year by year, and at last I con 
 ceived the brilliant idea of appropriating it to my own use, 
 Allan Locke died suddenly in this city a little over a yea? 
 ago. He was supposed to be a poor man. I had a fearful 
 struggle with my conscience, but love for gold prevailed; J 
 could not give up the luxury of a life-time to this girl, and 
 I vowed she would never know. I hated Leonie Locke be. 
 cause she stood between the son I worshiped and the wealth 
 and luxury he had always considered his. 
 
 "The girl s face has haunted me like a shadow, an* 
 those great reproachful dark eyes of hers almost drove m* 
 mad. I am a poor man, Alecia, poor in my old age, so 
 are you and Gordon. If this Leonie Locke only knew 
 how matters stood, we would be homeless before another 
 night." 
 
 "Let me tell you that you have made a terrible mis 
 take," cried Mrs. Carlisle. "When you knew all this, 
 why did you not let Gordon marry Leonie Locke when 
 they loved each other, instead of turning her away from 
 this house?" 
 
 " I wish to Heaven I had!" sighed John Carlisle. " But 
 it is too late to think of that now, the girl will never kno jf 
 of this for long years after I am dead and gone. Keep it 
 a dead secret in yuu A * breast, Alecia, for if Gordon once 
 mistrusted this, he would scorn to keep it a single mo 
 ment If he marry Dora Lancaster there will be no in 
 vestigations. If the ball were once started it would neyet 
 stop until the whole affair were unearthed, and that would 
 mean poverty and ruin. I am too old to face it; I can see 
 no other way to save myself than gaining Gordon s conaaof 
 to many Dora." 
 
858 LEONIE LOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 SWIFTLY as a shadow Dora Lancaster flitted from the 
 library and gained her own room again, closing and lock* 
 ing the door after her. 
 
 No prayer for mercy fell from her lips; she knew that 
 the vengeance of an outraged God had overtaken her. 
 
 She had parted Gordon Carlisle from Leonie, and it had 
 been her fertile brain that had concocted the diabolical plot 
 of gaining Leonie s signature to the spurious marriage cou 
 tract with Charlie Hart. 
 
 She had made the daring attempt to blight Leonie s fair 
 beauty; and now, as the price of her deadly sin, it had 
 recoiled upon her own guilty head. 
 
 Her beauty was gone forever, and with it her wealth. It 
 was the darkest hour of Dora Lancaster s life. 
 
 At that moment a telegram, which Mrs. Stuart had laid 
 upon the table during her absence, caught her eye. 
 
 "It is from Gordon," she muttered, hastily tearing 
 open the envelope. 
 
 It was not from Gordon; it was from Charlie Hart 
 dated at New London, Conn., and ran as follows: 
 
 " Gordon Carlisle is here: so is Leonie Locke. I can 
 not give details in a telegram. Can you come here on firsf 
 train? 
 
 " To make matters worse, I find that the paper Leonie 
 signed was destroyed by fire last night. Building lost; no 
 papers saved. My only weapon against her has been swept 
 away. Advise me, or come on. 
 
 "CHARLIE HART. * 
 
 A hursh laugh broke from Dora s lips. " Trouble nev* 
 was known to come singly/ she muttered. There is a 
 fierce, wild fire in her eyes, and her brain is whirling with 
 excitement; she clinches her hand over the telegram, 
 
LE03STE LOCKJu 253 
 
 catches her breath with a spasm of pain. Was it merely 
 coincidence, Gordon Carlisle and Leonie Locke being in 
 New London at the same time? Had they not met and 
 would not explanations follow, and the whole truth come to 
 light? 
 
 " I will go to New London by the first tram!" she cried, 
 tearing the telegram into shreds and tossing them into the 
 waste-basket beside her writing-desk. " Gordon Carlisle 
 shall never marry Leonie Locke I swear it! I will kill 
 her first; and then " . 
 
 She did not finish her sentence, but, crossing over to the 
 dressing-case, hastily opened r. secret drawer, and drew 
 from it a tiny vial and swallowed half of its contents. 
 
 Yes, it had come to that. When she needed strength 
 and nerve to execute the daring plans she had plotted, she 
 had recourse to stimulating drugs. 
 
 She gave the bell rope a violent pull, which brought Mrs- 
 Stuart hastily to the door. 
 
 " I am going to take a little journey," she said, turning 
 her strangely brilliant eyes upon the bewildered house* 
 keeper. " I am going on the first train to New London, 
 and I want you to go with me, Mrs. Stuart. Let no one 
 know; no one will miss us, and we will doubt retuna 
 again on the night train." 
 
 " But you have just had a terrible accident, Miss Dora/* 
 cried Mrs. Stuart. " You surely would not" 
 
 Dora interrupted her with an imperious wave of her 
 jeweled hand. 
 
 ** I will do as I please!" she flashed out. " Do not at 
 tempt to tell me what I must or must not do!" 
 
 As she spoke, her back was turned to Mrs. Stuart; but, 
 through the hanging mirror opposite, she could see her 
 every movement, and as she watched, she saw Dora hastily 
 take a bright, gleaming dagger from the drawer and thrust 
 ft into her bosom. 
 
 For a moment the blood almost raa cold in Mrs. Stuart s 
 
60 LEOfflE LOCKE. 
 
 veins. What could it mean the sight that she had just 
 witnessed? She remembered Gordon Carlisle was at New 
 London, Connecticut just the place Dora was going. 
 " She does not mean to injure him she loves him too well 
 for that/ thought Mrs. Stuart. " Perhaps she means to 
 make away with herself." She made up her mind to 
 JHumor Dora; when she was off her guard she could easily 
 disarm her. 
 
 Dora could never get along with a maid, and no maid 
 dbuld get along with Dora; and more than one of them 
 told strange stories of her ungovernable temper, and since 
 the accident Mrs. Stuart had been her constant attendant 
 
 Dora dressed herself for her journey with the greatest 
 care. The scarred face was draped in lace, which kindly 
 hid it. She seemed in a state of delirious excitement: her 
 cheeks were flushed, her dry lips were fever-red, and her 
 eyes shone like blue flaming stars, with a wild glittering 
 light. 
 
 The effect of the drug was becoming more visible each 
 moment At every remark Mrs. Stuart made, Dora- 
 laughed a wild, eldritch laugh, though there was little to 
 cause mirth. 
 
 As Mrs. Stuart passes the waste-basket, she sees the 
 crumpled telegram in it. Perhaps that tells the story of 
 Dora s strange excitement. Another moment and she has 
 mastered its significant contents, and the whole affair i& 
 mapped out clearly before her. Now she understands why 
 Dora is making this secret trip to New London in aaswei 
 to Charlie Hart s telegram. Leonie Locke is there, and 
 so is Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Mrs. Stuart thrust the telegram into her pocket, quite 
 unobserved by Dora, who stood gazing intently at a steel 
 engraving hanging over the mantel. It was the picture of 
 Virginius, copied from a famous master, representing the 
 intensely thrilling scene where the father plunges the 
 dagger into the pure breast of Virginia, as he clasps her in 
 
LEOXI1 LOCKS. 261 
 
 his arms to take the last farewell takes her pwre yeuag 
 life rather than give her up to the arms of his enemy. 
 
 Dora draws a hard breath; Mrs, Stuart follows her gaze, 
 and she reads the thought that is flitting through Dora s 
 mind, as her white jeweled hands clutch nervously at the 
 dagger concealed in her bosom. 
 
 It would be more than madness to attempt to reason 
 with Dora Mrs. Stuart knows her too well for that, and 
 she does not attempt it. There is only one person im the 
 whole world who has the slightest influence over Dora, and 
 chat person is Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 " I will tell Gordon all about it, and he will know how 
 to act in this matter," she thought. "If I were to tell 
 Mr. Carlisle or his wife, they would not listen to me. Gor 
 don will know best what to do. I will tell him of her 
 treachery that it was she who separated him from Leonie 
 Locke, and I will show him the proof. He must promise, 
 though, not to wreak his vengeance on my graceless 
 nephew. " 
 
 How little she knew of the thrilling event that was 
 transpiring at that very moment in which Charlie Han 
 was the principal actor. 
 
 CHAPTER LL 
 
 " THEFT!" the word seemed shrieked out on the air and 
 t)orne along tauntingly on the breeze, to Gordon s aston 
 ished ears. 
 
 " I am sorry, Mr. Carlisle," said the detective, gravely, 
 " but it is my duty to place you under arrest/ 
 
 " I am not guilty," replied Gordon, proudly, " still, I 
 will go with you/ 
 
 Like one in a dream, he accompanied the detective back 
 co the city. 
 
 The morning papers were full of lie great scandal of the 
 
LEOUTIE LOCKE. 
 
 day, which Gordon Carlisle s arrest on such an astounding 
 charge had created. 
 
 Owing to the handsome young prisoner s previous high 
 standing, and, as all supposed, the prospective heir to the 
 Carlisle millions, au immediate trial was granted him. 
 
 Th* court-room was crowded as it usually is in such 
 cases. 
 
 Mrs. Barrett was greatly frightened at the turn affairs 
 had taken. 
 
 " Always attend to your own affairs in future, my dear/ 
 remarked the old lawyer, grimly, when she came to him 
 and confessed meddling with what did not concern her. 
 
 " I can not believe handsome Gordon Carlisle took those 
 diamonds/ she sobbed. " I do not, and will not believe 
 it You must plead his case, my love, and clear him, for 
 if ii anything else happened I could never forgive my 
 self." 
 
 " You should have thought of that, or consulted me, 
 before sending for detectives. My experience has been, 
 that when you once engage them they will rake up a tor 
 nado out of whole cloth to get up a sensation that they 
 may figure in, but as you engaged the fellow you are re 
 sponsible, and if a criminal libel grows out of this affair I 
 won t answer for you. " 
 
 The lawyer s wife was thoroughly alarmed now, she 
 had heard so much of the terrible penalty which was im 
 posed upon those who were responsible in the first instance, 
 for a criminal libel. Money would not save them from be 
 hind the bars. 
 
 " If people will play with fire, they must not complain 
 if they get their fingers burned. I ll go to court and see 
 what 1 can do for young Carlisle/ said Lawyer Barrett, 
 putting on his hat. 
 
 He was glad Leonie was not in the city. Her presence 
 there could not, in that case, be insisted upon. 
 
 When the startlina accusation had been made public, 
 
LBONTE LOCKS. 263 
 
 Aimee, the maid, had taken sadden leave, although no 
 one thought of connecting her with the affair, save the 
 detective, yet he kept his own counsel awaiting the devel 
 opment of the case. 
 
 The court room was crowded with the elite of New York 
 society. Handsome young girls pushing eagerly past each 
 other, anxious to obtain a seat where they could have the 
 best view of the handsome prisoner, who sat beside his at 
 torney with his head thrown proudly back. 
 
 Gordon s face was deathly pale. He looked so honorable 
 writh the fair golden beauty of King Olaf that it seemed the 
 most cruel of farces to accuse him of aught that was igno 
 ble. He admitted having the conversation with Leonie in 
 the conservatory, and that they had parted in anger. 
 
 By the time the opposing attorney had summed up the. 
 case it looked hard, and the black ominous clouds of cir 
 cumstantial evidence, which has so cruelly blighted more 
 than one innocent life, rolled darkly over the head of our 
 handsome hero. 
 
 The case had come to a close; there was a death-like 
 hush in the room to hear the decision of the stern-faced 
 judge. 
 
 At that moment there was a bustle of excitement toward 
 the door, and a woman pushed eagerly through the crowd 
 toward the judge, exclaiming: 
 
 " One moment, if you please, your honor, I have a state 
 ment to make. The young man yonder is innocent. I 
 can tell you who stole Leonie Locke s diamonds. " 
 
 The greatest excitement prevailed in the room. Young 
 ladies rose in their seats waving their handkerchiefs, mur 
 muring their approbation. Gordon Carlisle s fair face 
 flushed, and he bent forward eagerly in his chair to catch 
 a glimpse of the woman s face. 
 
 She had removed her veil, and calmly turned toward the 
 vast assemblage. 
 
 And Gordon saw, wjh_intense as^rushinent, that it was 
 
264 EBOHIE LOCK, 
 
 Kate Hardy, oae of the sewing-girls who had once been IE 
 his employ. 
 
 Her face was white and set, and her eyes blazed with a 
 strange lurid light. 
 
 " 1 have a short story to tell, and a strange one, but I 
 beg you will permit me to tell it in my own way," she 
 said, hesitatingly. 
 
 The judge nodded stiffly, adding, however, that she 
 would be obliged to confine herself strictly to facts bearing 
 apon the diamond case. 
 
 " I was once in Mr. Gordon Carlisle s employ," Kate 
 began, slowly, " and it was in Mr. Carlisle s work-room 1 
 first met his foreman, Charlie Hart, who is the man who 
 stole Leonie Locke s diamonds " 
 
 The intense breathless stillness of the room remained un 
 broken, and she continued, slowly: 
 
 " I loved Charlie more than words could tell, and mat 
 ters ran on smoothly enough until one winter morning, in 
 response to an advertisement which had appeared in the 
 morning papers, a young girl applied to the firm for work. 
 The moment my eyes rested upon her a demon of jealousy 
 sprung into my heart, for she was as beautiful as a dream. 
 The exquisite high-bred dainty face was as perfect as a 
 picture, framed in clustering brown curls, that fell in soft, 
 clinging childish love-locks over her white brow. The 
 dark-blue merino dress fitted her lithe graceful figure to 
 perfection, and her name was so picturesque, it sounded 
 like a poem: it was Leonie Locke." 
 
 A suppressed murmur ran through the room but Kate 
 continued, slowly: " When I raised my eyes to her face I 
 hated her lest she should, through her great beauty, find 
 favor in my lover s eyes. 
 
 " It came about as I had predicted in my own heart: 
 Charlie Hart fell desperately in love with her at first sight, 
 and he annoyed her so much with his attention that the 
 girl left. 
 
..... 
 
 LEONIE LOCKE. 265 
 
 " From that time on Charlie s heart grew cold toward 
 me, and I knew but too well that he was thinking of Le<- 
 onie Locke. Oar wedding-day had been fixed before she 
 crossed his path, but after that, he put it off from time to 
 time I knew why; ah! I knew why he could not forget 
 the flower-like face of Leonie Locke. 
 
 " About that time Charlie was discharged from Mr. 
 Carlisle s employ, and he vowed a terrible vengeance upon 
 the young man sitting in the prisoner s box; and hi a 
 thoughtless moment he told me he could strike at Gordon 
 Carlisle s heart through his love for pretty Leonie Locke. " 
 
 All the young girls in the room, with one accord, pressed 
 eagerly forward in anticipation of a romantic love story: 
 and their interest in the handsome young man increased 
 each moment, so great was their sympathy. 
 
 A momentary silence ensued, then Kate Hardy went on 
 slowly: " As time wore on, Charlie Hart told me he had 
 lost all trace of Leonie Locke; but I did not believe him. 
 I followed him silently around, like a veritable shadow, and 
 I found him always doggiog the footsteps of Miss Locke. 
 
 " I own an old stone house on the banks of the Hudson, 
 where I lived up to the night of the Lexington Avenue 
 ball, and on that night Charlie Hart came to my home 
 with Leonie Locke, who was in a dead swoon in his arms. 
 He said that he had gained an entrance into the building 
 by scaling the ladder of trellis- work, and entering a boudoii 
 through a window which had been carelessly left open. 
 
 4 As he was bending over a jewel-case, he was surprised 
 by the entrance of a woman, whose shrieks rang through 
 the house; and, in endeavoring to silence her, the mask 
 which he wore was torn from his face, and recognition fol 
 lowed; it was Leonie Locke, and she had recognized him r 
 and fainted at his feet. 
 
 " He dared not leave her there to give to the world the 
 startling information, and hastily cramming the jewels into 
 hia pocket, he raised_j^ >adr] in his arms and bore her 
 
266 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 hastily from the house, bringing her to my home on the 
 banks of the Hudson. Here are the diamonds/ she added, 
 ponring them on the table beside her like a shower of fire 
 only one is missing I disposed of that one myself; I care 
 not what you do with me for it, I have made amends by 
 saving the honor of Gordon Carlisle. " 
 
 CHAPTER LIL 
 
 " You will wonder why 1 have revealed this dangerous 
 secret," continued Kate Hardy "the secret which will 
 confine my lover in a felon s celL Let me tell you why. 
 I found out that he was false to his vows to me: he loved 
 Leonie Locke, and had made up his mind to fly from this 
 country, and carry Leonie with him by force. 1 overheard 
 the plan, and it changed me from a loving woman into a 
 fiend incarnate. This is my revenge. Let it be a warning 
 to all men never to trample into the dust a true, devoted 
 heart, or fling it from them for a younger, prettier love. " 
 
 As the last word trembled upon her lips she swayed 
 slightly forward, sinking down at Gordon Carlisle s feet. 
 
 Those were the last words Kate Hardy ever uttered. 
 She stood before a higher Judge than those of earth to an 
 swer for her sins. 
 
 The presence of the diamonds was proof positive that 
 Kate Hardy had spoken the truth. 
 
 Hundreds of friends who had proclaimed Gordon s in 
 nocence from the very first crowded around him, eager to 
 offer their congratulations and express their indignation at 
 the false accusation. 
 
 No one could imagine why he took the matter so calmly. 
 A moment later he had entered a coach in waiting, and 
 was driven back to the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
 
 " 1 must take the first train back to New London/ he 
 thought, as he paced thon<rhtf ally up and down his apart 
 ment. " If I do noU.tiiau imaei-abie fellow will think I fled 
 
LEOISOB LOCKE. 5567 
 
 from the contemplated satisfaction he demanded through 
 fear that is, if he has not heard of the misfortune which 
 afflicted me. " 
 
 Already the detectives were scouring the country in 
 search of Charlie Hart. One word from Gordon Carlisle 
 would have put them on the right track; but he would not 
 speak that word for Leonie s sake. He was too noble te 
 avail himself of the glorious revenge that was within his 
 reach. 
 
 The train puffed slowly into the New London depot, and 
 Gordon Carlisle alighted, making his way toward the hotel, 
 little dreaming of the strange scenes being enacted there. 
 
 We must now return, dear reader, to Leonie, whom 
 Charlie Hart had conveyed to the hotel while she was still 
 in the deep swoon into which she had fallen. 
 
 The next few days that followed (during the time that 
 Gordon Carlisle was in the crowded court-room), Leonie 
 lay tossing upon her pillow, in the ravages of delirium. 
 
 It was the most pitiful sight that the good landlady and 
 her two young daughters, who were constant attendants at 
 her bedside, ever beheld, to see the little white hands 
 stretched out imploringly, while the startled cry was ever 
 on her fevered lips: " Oh, Gordon, my love, do not for 
 sake me ! Life is so bitter and so cold ! I meant no wrong 
 fate has conspired against me! 1 " 
 
 Charlie Hart was not admitted into the room, for it was 
 quite noticeable that Leonie grew more violent when even 
 his name was mentioned, and she would cling to their 
 hands like a frightened child, piteously begging them to 
 save her from him. 
 
 Charlie Hart, cowardly villain though he was, knew bet 
 ter than to openly claim Leonie Locke as his wife; for he 
 had nothing whatever to substantiate such a claim. The 
 weapon he had heiirtP var her-head-tfas, as he had tele* 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 graphed Dora, lost in the New York fire of a few days pre. 
 vious. 
 
 His plan now was to take Leonie to Boston, just as soon 
 AS she was able to be removed, and from thence take the 
 first outgoing steamer for Liverpool. 
 
 He had not gone down to the fork of the roads again, 
 for the satisfaction he had demanded of Gordon Carlisle, 
 and he supposed, as he did not return to the hotel, he had 
 in all probability returned to New York. He knew noth 
 ing of the arrest which had been made, or of the sensa 
 tional trial in the New York court, from the fact that he 
 was no reader of newspapers; they held no interest for 
 him. 
 
 He was in blissful ignorance of the terrible vengeance 
 which was so soon to be visited upon his wicked head by 
 on outraged God. 
 
 He had given out at the hotel that Leonie was his sister, 
 whom he was about to take to Europe for her health, but 
 owing to her indisposition, had concluded to stop over 
 here. 
 
 He had also ingeniously added: " He did not think it 
 worth while to alarm their relatives, as Leonie often had 
 similar attacks which usually lasted but a day or so. " 
 
 " Shall I tell you what 1 think?" said one of the land 
 lady s daughters to her sister, as they bent sympathizingly 
 over Leonie s pillow, and gently smoothed back the soft 
 brown curls from her white brow. " Why, I think that 
 cruel brother who is here with this lovely dark-eyed little 
 creature has taken her away from home to separate her 
 from some lover. Don t you see how she begs of some one 
 by the name of Gordon to take her in his arms and fly 
 with her where no one will ever find them?" 
 
 The other sister nodded, and they turned away their 
 heads, and brushed away the tear-drops from their eyes, as 
 Leonie turned her wondrous dark eyes slowly upon them, 
 each one in turn to brinff Gordon back to her, fot 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 269 
 
 she loved him, oh, so dearly! And the pathos in her Toioe 
 would have melted hearts of stone. Both of the girls were 
 young and had lovers of their own, and they could sym 
 pathize with the lovely chfldish Ftranger, who so pathetic 
 ally pleaded with them to bring her lover back, for life 
 without him would be intolerable to ^ier. 
 
 " I ll tell you what I have a mind to do," said Jenny, 
 the younger of the two sisters. " I will try to help her., 
 1 will go to that dark-browed brother of hers and see what 
 can be done." 
 
 " He will not thank you to meddle with his affairs," re 
 turned the elder sister in affright. He looks like a young 
 man of violent temper. You had better leave this matter 
 alone. You do not know his reasons for not giving his sis 
 ter to this Gordon, whom she worships so. You know 
 what Tricotrin says about many women who have es 
 caped horrible fates. They often think they have lost 
 Heaven, until the blindness of love s first glamour wears 
 off, and they see, with horror, the yawning chasm upon 
 the edge of which their feet had betn." 
 
 " I shall make the attempt all the same," replied the 
 younger sister, determinedly. " I am always so sorry for 
 lovers who have been separated, and I always wish some 
 thing would happen to bring them together again;" and 
 wiping her sympathetic blue eyes, dauntless little Jenny 
 went forth on her fruitless mission. 
 
 Charlie Hart listened to the brave little pleader, his 
 anger growing each moment more intense as she told him, 
 with trembling voice, how dearly the young girl loved this 
 Gordon, whose name was ever upon her lips, and how she 
 would beg of this Gordon to take her in his arms and fly 
 with her, far away from her persecutor. 
 
 Jenny saw that the more she pleaded the angrier the 
 young man grew. 
 
 " You are hard-hearted and cruel," she said, indignant 
 ly, her blue eyes ^flaahii r * i*il You. have never loved any 
 
70 LEQNIE LOCKE. 
 
 one yourself, or JOTSL would have some pity on that poor 
 little creature who is pining her sweet young life away be 
 cause you have separated her from the man she loves. " 
 
 " I can not imagine, madame, what interest you can 
 have in this affair;" and he added, with freezing polite 
 ness: " I am sorry to disoblige a lady, but really I can not 
 comply with your request for particular reasons I do not 
 choose to make known." 
 
 He turned then to the letter he had been reading, and 
 Jenny knew it was useless to argue longer, and with a nod 
 fully as stiff and freezing as his own she swept from the 
 loom, leaving Charlie Hart alone with his own guilty, ac 
 cusing conscience. 
 
 " It might be as well to drop a line to Kate Hardy," he> 
 soliloquized f " I do not know what to make of her strange 
 silence. A strange presentiment is stealing over me of 
 coming evil, but, pshaw! 1 have lived a rollicking bohem- 
 ian life, fearing neither God nor man, like Richard the 
 Third. Why need I fear? * My fortune smiles and gives 
 me all that I dare ask. Ah, what is that?" he muttered. 
 
 It was a low, cautious rap at the door of his apartments. 
 
 CHAPTEK LHI. 
 
 CHARLIE HART gave a quick start, hesitated a moment, 
 and then crossed over and flung open the door. 
 
 A servant stood without, announcing that Leonie, al 
 though very weak, was down in the parlor, and would see 
 him a few moments. 
 
 " Very well, say that I will be down directly." The 
 servant withdrew and Charlie Hart hastily turned the key 
 in the door. His dark face was flushed with triumph, and 
 his eyes glowed maliciously. 
 
 " She has sent for me at last," he muttered. " I will 
 return her diamonds to her; when she finds I have not at 
 tempted to dispose, of them. Amau soften her heart a little 
 
LEONIE LOCKi,. 271 
 
 toward mo.** Strange to say, since the night he had taken 
 Leonie so unceremoniously to the lonely stone house on the 
 banks of the Hudson, he had not even opened the case into 
 which he had thrust the diamonds, putting it carefully 
 away in a secret pocket of his satchel. 
 
 He took out the case and pressed the spring, and the lid 
 flew open, but the diamonds he had placed so carefully on 
 the crimson plush bed, were missing. 
 
 Cold drops of perspiration broke out on his forehead, 
 and the case dropped from his nerveless fingers to the 4 
 floor with a crash. " Gone!" he gasped, sinking into a 
 chair; " gone, and no one knew that I had them, except 
 Kate Hardy; she has tricked me, she has stolen them. It 
 was she who started that fire to deceive me/ he muttered. 
 He had never clearly understood how Leonie had made her 
 escape from the old stone house. "N"ow he believed Kate 
 Hardy had aided her, and then destroyed the house, to lead 
 him to the impression Leonie had died among the ruins. 
 
 Kate had outwitted him! how the thought maddened 
 him. He picked up the case and tossed it back into his 
 satchel. 
 
 " There s no use sighing over the inevitable/ he mut 
 tered, and without bestowing another thought to the lost 
 gems, he crossed over to the mirror, and giving his mus 
 tache an extra twirl, and running his white fingers through 
 his dark curls, he walked hastily down to the parlor, where 
 Leonie awaited him. 
 
 The golden sun had set in the western sky, and the dark 
 shadow of night was silently drawing its sable curtains 
 around the earth, as Charlie Hart walked quickly down to 
 the parlor, where Leonie reclined among the cushions of 
 the sofa, trying to nerve herself for the coming interview. 
 At that self-same moment, Gordon Carlisle was walking 
 slowly up the broad street of the town toward the hotel. 
 
 A carriage dashed past him. " Was it only fancy, or 
 was it Dora Lancaster s, .white faee^lying back among the 
 
272 LEOWIT5 LOCKS. 
 
 cushions? ke asked himself. " No, no, it Host have been 
 only kis imagination; what could Dora be doing there? 5 
 
 Leonie half arose as Charlie Hart appeared in the door 
 way, then sunk back upon the sofa again. " I have come 
 at your bidding, Leonie/ he said, crossing the room, and 
 taking a seat near the sofa quite as near as he dared 
 and dropping his voice to a low key, that he intended 
 should be very winning. 
 
 A servant came in to light the gas, but he waved him 
 back. * I should much prefer the soft glow of the fire 
 light/ he said, imperatively; and the servant withdrew, 
 leaving him alone with the girl he had so cruelly wronged. 
 
 * 1 have sent for you to plead with you, Mr. Hart. I 
 have a proposition to make to you. " She slid from the. 
 sofa, and knelt down at his feet, clasping her hands sup 
 plicatingly over her throbbing heart, and raising her lovely 
 dark eyes to his face. 
 
 " Tell me/ he said, " what is it that you wish?" 
 
 " Oh, I want you to go away, only to go away, and leave 
 me here to be happy with the one I love. 1 am rich; I 
 mil make it worth your while; every dollar I have in the 
 world I will make over to you, if you will only go away. ; 
 
 " You can not tempt me with such a pretty bribe, 
 Leonie. It is you I love, and not your gold/ he said, 
 slowly. 
 
 " Where men love they are merciful and sacrificing," 
 she sobbed, raising her lovely, despairing, colorless face. 
 " And I ask you by the love you say you bear me to let me 
 go free. If you goad me to death, God will make yon an 
 swerable for the crime." 
 
 " It is my love that urges me on to let nothing take you 
 from me/ was the grim reply. " You do not seem to un 
 derstand, Leonie, the depths of a love like mine. I have 
 surmounted almost insurmountable barriers to claim you; 
 and you ask me to give you up now, Leonie, and I answer 
 you that I will never do it. I had rather see you lying 
 
LEONIE LOCKE. 27$ 
 
 dead at my feet than help you to happiness with Gordon 
 Carlisle. Ah, no! 1 shall never let you go free, Leonie. 
 You shall be mine the fates have so decreed it." 
 
 He looked down at her with darkly threatening eyes, and 
 she knew her prayer had been in vain. He was as pitiless 
 as a man of marble. She knew the shadow of his hateful 
 presence would never be lifted from her life. All love and 
 happiness had ended for her. Darkness and misery lay be 
 fore her, and she turned from him with a piteous moan, 
 that must have been heard and wept over by the listening 
 angels, for a bitter despair more cruel than death itself was 
 closing around her desolate young life, and again she sunk 
 heavily to the floor with her little hands clinched tightly 
 over her breast, her white face wet with tears wrung from 
 her anguished heart. 
 
 " How much a man will dare for the love of a beautiful 
 girl," he mused, kneeling down on a hassock beside the 
 sofa, and gazing passionately down at the still, white face. 
 
 They were alone together for the first time, and in the 
 dead faint which locked her senses, she could not resist the 
 fervent kisses he pressed on her cold lips. 
 
 44 Leonie, how dearly 1 love you! You are mine, Leonie/* 
 he mused aloud, in a low, husky voice. " I must take you 
 far away from here, lest you should ever find out that the 
 paper you signed was burned, and I have no proof to es 
 tablish my claim upon you. " Leonie s eyes had slowly 
 opened, and she had heard every word that had fallen from 
 his lips. An icy band seemed tightening about her heart, 
 which seemed to almost cease beating, but ere she could 
 free herself from his clasp, the folding-doors were slowly 
 opened by the white jeweled hand of a woman. 
 
 It was Dora; she had heard low, subdued voices, and 
 had entered the room as noiselessly as a shadow. For a 
 moment she held her breath and listened intently, and she 
 heard the low murmured words: " Leonie, I love yoiv 
 sweet one, more than words can teii. " 
 
274 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 The words fired her brain to madness; she thought the} 
 nad been uttered by Gordon Carlisle. 
 
 Charlie Hart was bending over the still form of Leonie, 
 nis back turned toward the silent figure in the door-way. 
 
 The gas-jet was burning dimly, yet Dora could distin 
 guish her rival s face lying outlined against the crimson 
 satin pillows of the sofa. 
 
 Like an avenging spirit, Dora stealthily circled the room, 
 keeping well in the dense shadow, until she had gained the 
 eofa upon which Leonie lay. 
 
 There was a low, fiendish cry of intense rage, and the 
 gleam of a dagger in the dim, uncertain light, a piteous 
 cry of horror, and Dora Lancaster had done her terrible 
 work. 
 
 CHAPTEE LIV. 
 
 THE cry was repeated, and Charlie Hart staggered back 
 Irom the sofa, with the dagger that had been intended for 
 Jjeonie s heart buried in his own breast. 
 
 He had glanced hurriedly up, and saw Dora Lancaster, 
 with the weapon in her jeweled hand, bending over Leonie 
 to strike the fatal blow. He saw and read the dread pur 
 pose in her glittering eyes at a single glance; and in that 
 one instant he atoned for all the cruelty he had ever shown 
 Leonie. 
 
 He stretched out his hand to stay the fearful blow, but 
 he missed it, and swift as thought he thrust Leonie from 
 the sofa, and received the full force of the weapon in his 
 own breast. 
 
 There was a terrible cry of baffled rage from Dora Lan 
 caster s lips a cry that rang out on the still night air, 
 bringing the startled inmates of that quiet hostelry flock 
 ing to the parlor from all directions and among them 
 Mrs. Stuart, the housekeeper, whose vigilance Dora had 
 cunningly succeeded .*i eluding but a few moments before, 
 
LEOXIE LOCKE. 275 
 
 With ihe desperate force of a dying man Charlie Hart 
 clung tenaciously to Dora s hand, lest she should break 
 away from him and renew her attack upon her beautiful 
 rival. 
 
 In the turmoil Leonie had relapsed again into a dead 
 faint; and kind hands bore her from the room and into a 
 quiet parlor in another part of the house. 
 
 " Let me go!" cried Dora, frantically struggling to 
 make her way through the throng toward the open door; 
 but all exit from that terrible scene was cut off by strong, 
 stalwart forms. She was hemmed in; there was no es 
 cape. 
 
 In the struggle the lace drapery had been torn from ier 
 face, and she stood before them a horrible, scarred creat 
 ure, from whom women shrunk in terror, and even men 
 recoiled. 
 
 She turned around and faced the startled group, glanc 
 ing calmly at those who were bending over Charlie Hart. 
 
 "I did not mean to kill him/ 9 she said. * It was a 
 terrible mistake a fearful mistake. I meant to frighten 
 Leonie Locke. I ask no pity, no mercy. I hated her; she 
 was my rival. It is but a story of woman s love, jealousy, 
 and revenge told over again. I loved Gordon Carlisle, and 
 when I came into this room to-night I mistook this man, 
 Charlie Hart, for Gordon Carlisle. When I saw him bend 
 ing over the sofa upon which Leonie Locke reclined, and 
 heard him murmur tender, loving words, it maddened me, 
 for I thought it was Gordon. 1 I meant to frighten 
 the girl into giving him up. I struck at her, intending 
 only to mar the fatal beauty that had won Gordon from 
 me." 
 
 " She must be taken care of to await the man s in 
 juries/ one whispered to another, and half fainting with 
 her desperate struggles to free herself from their strong 
 clasp, Dora was removed to anathOT apartment, while font 
 
476 LEOHIE LOCKS. 
 
 attendant were detailed to carefully watch her eyery move, 
 ment, lest she should attempt self-destruction. 
 
 In the parlor the poor old, white-haired Mrs. Stuart 
 knelt beside the sofa on which Charlie Hart lay, a pitiful 
 spectacle of a misspent, reckless life. 
 
 A doctor, who had been hastily summoned, had told him 
 the truth. His moments were numbered each breath 
 might be his last. 
 
 4 Send for Gordon Carlisle/ he whispered. "I have 
 something to say to him; I could not rest in my grave with 
 the words unspoken. " 
 
 Gordon Carlisle had at that very moment arrived at the 
 hotel Silently they conducted him to the parlor in which 
 Charlie Hart lay, with the physician on one side of him, 
 and his heart-broken aunt on the other. He motioned 
 Gordon to a seat, and with his dark, restless eyes on the 
 face of the noble young man he had so foully wronged, he 
 confessed to him the whole cruel story from beginning to 
 end, all that the reader already knows. 
 
 He made no attempt to shield himself; he gave him 
 every detail faithfully, from the time he had first beheld 
 Leonie Locke on the Fulton Ferry boat that stormy De 
 cember morning, and had fallen in love with her shy, 
 sweet, dimpled face, up to the time he had decoyed her by 
 the anonymous note among the roses to the masquerade 
 ball, and had gained her signature to the chemically pre 
 pared paper which she had innocently believed to be a 
 heet of plain white paper, and her name was to head a 
 subscription list for the benefit of the poor. 
 
 He described the poor girl s terror when he held the 
 paper over the heat of the gas, and the words which had 
 been written in white ink turned black, and stood out 
 boldly before her, a contract of marriage; and of how he 
 had held her to tkat spurious contract, which had been the 
 work of Dora Lancaster s scheming brain, finishing up with 
 the sequel of the cruel atteinot upon Leonie s life, that the 
 
LBOKIE LOCKE. 277 
 
 foyers might be effectually separated; and how he had re 
 ceired the thrust upon his own breast to save Leonie, 
 And in that last act he knew he had atoned for the past 
 
 "Tell Leonie all," whispered Charlie Hart, "and ask 
 her to forgive me. " Mrs. Stuart went in search of Leonie, 
 sobbing as though her poor old heart would break. 
 " Heaven will surely pardon my poor, wayward nephew," 
 she sobbed, " he loved her so! Ah, me! what a dangerous 
 thing lore is," and with a heavy heart she entered Leonie s 
 apartment. A startling surprise awaited her Ltonie was 
 not there. 
 
 In a moment the most intense excitement prevailed; no 
 one had seen her leave the house, yet she was nowhere to 
 be found; the mystery deepened. 
 
 Every room was carefully searched, but no Leonie could 
 be found. At last, some one suggested searching the room 
 in which Dora Lancaster had been confined. 
 
 They opened the door cautiously, fearful lest Dora 
 should spring past them into the corridor, and then, a 
 sight met their gaze which none of them ever forgot te 
 their dying day. 
 
 The attendants who had been detailed to watch over 
 Dora, stood around her weeping; it had been a pitiful 
 scene which had wrung such tears as these from the eyes 
 of stalwart men, used only to the hard side of life. 
 
 Leonie Locke was there, and Dora was lying on the 
 white-draped bed, with her poor scarred face resting 
 against Leonie s breast. 
 
 In after years Leonie told how it happened: she had 
 wandered from the room in which they had placed her, aad 
 by mistake entered Dora s. The terrible excitement had 
 been too much for Dora; she lay upon the bed, pale, 
 wretched, dying. A terrible cry broke from her white lips 
 as her eyes encountered Leonie standing tremblingly in 
 the door-way. 
 
 " She baa come to taunt me with my crime," she 
 
273 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 moaned. " Ob! be merciful, Leonie Locke, for I am 
 dying!" 
 
 Leonie crossed swiftly over to the bed, where Dora lay; 
 she saw it was but too true; the white agony of death was 
 ever the poor scarred face, and glazed wandering eyes. 
 
 Dora shrunk from her with a low moan, and cowered 
 among the snowy pillows. 
 
 Leonie took the poor feverish hands in her cool palms, 
 and smoothed back the damp yellow curls from the poor 
 scarred face. " I forgive you, Dora/* she whispered, " a? 
 surely as I hope for Heaven s mercy when my last hour 
 shall have come. " 
 
 " But you could not forgive me, if you knew what * 
 have done/ gasped Dora. " It is beyond all hope of for* 
 giveness." 
 
 " I can and I will forgive you, no matter what you have 
 done," said Leonie, kneeling at the bedside of her fallen 
 foe, and taking the poor weary golden head on her breast. 
 
 " I have ruined your life and Gordon s," whispered 
 Dora; * and God has wreaked just vengeance upon me for 
 it. You can never forgive me for that," she whispered, 
 incredulously. " I will tell you what I have done, and 
 you can strike me down with bitter scorn and anger, for 1 
 am too far gone to defend myself. Say harsh words I can 
 not endure pity or kindness from you!" And between 
 broken gasps and sobs, with her hands closely clinging to 
 Leonie s, she told her all. 
 
 " Now turn from me, if you will," she whispered. " I 
 deserve it." But Leonie, with a light on her beautiful face 
 that resembled an angel s, only clasped the erring girl still 
 closer, whose only sin from the first had been her over 
 powering love for Gordon Carlisle the love which had 
 fostered such despair, jealousy, and attempted revenge. 
 That had recoiled upon her own hapless head. " I forgive 
 you, Dora," she whispered, " and may Heaven forgive you 
 ab fully as Idol"*.;: 
 
LBONIB LOCKE. 273 
 
 44 And Gordon would he forgive me?" she sobbed. 
 
 "Yes, Dora, poor girl! I forgive you too/ responded a 
 deep, tremulous voice, and Gordon Carlisle, who had been 
 hastily summoned by Mrs. Stuart to the strange scene, 
 bent over Dora s bedside, with tears of pity in his blue 
 eyes, for he knew her love for himself had been poor 
 Dora s doom. 
 
 " Charlie Hart will live," he said, in answer to Dora s 
 tremulous inquiry; " he forgives you, Dora." 
 
 " There is one thing I want given to the world, for the 
 benefit of all young girls," whispered Dora, feverishly. 
 "And that is, to never cherish a love in their hearts for 
 any man who can not or will not return it; for love makes 
 or mars a woman s whole life. And the crudest, most bit 
 ter suffering a girlish heart can ever endure is to know that 
 her love is unreturned. Let my life be a warning to young 
 girls never to let jealousy take deep root in their hearts, 
 Ifcst their fate should be like unhappy Dora Lancaster s, a 
 victim of hopeless love and jealousy!" and as the last 
 words fell from her lips, by a sudden movement, she 
 clasped the hands of the estranged lovers together. " Be 
 kind to him, Leonie," she whispered, " and sometimes 
 when the sun shines, the birds are singing, and the flowers 
 are in bloom, let Gordon come and kneel upon my grave 
 and I will be content." Another moment and poor, err 
 ing Dora was no more. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 " POOR Dora!" sobbed Leonie. " Oh, Gordon! Gordon! 
 she is dead!" 
 
 But Dora was not dead; the dark angel was hovering 
 over her, but had not yet stamped his seal upon her moist 
 white brow. Her eyelids quivered a little and slowly 
 opened. 
 
 A smile that was almost divine lifted up her face as she 
 
280 LEOHIE LOCKE. 
 
 saw Gordon Carlisle bending over her, as he knelt by tbe 
 couch. 
 
 Dora held ont her little white hands to him like a tired 
 child; then, with a sudden accession of strength, she strug 
 gled up from the pillow, sobbing out, plaintively: 
 
 " Take me in your arms just once, Gordon! Let me die 
 looking into your dear face I" 
 
 For a moment Gordon hesitated, and in that moment it 
 was Leonie that clasped his arms gently about poor hapless 
 Dora, and pillowed, her golden head on his breast the 
 noble rival that had suffered so much at Dora s hands. 
 
 " Be kind to her, Gordon/ Leouie whispered, tears of 
 pity falling like rain from her dark eyes. 
 
 " God has heard my prayer/ whispered Dora, faintly, 
 ** for 1 prayed to Heaven that when I died your arms 
 would be clasped around me, Gordon, and your face shall 
 be the last one I shall ever see. You will let me touch 
 you, Gordon?" she sighed. " Your face seems so waver 
 ing and indistinct." And her poor little hands wandered 
 restlessly over the face she had loved so well, with a touch 
 that was a yearning, heart-broken caress. * I am dying, 
 Gordon/ she sighed, plaintively, " and here, on the brink 
 of the grave, I will tell you that the one sin of my life has 
 been my wild, mad, passionate love for you. I have given 
 you the love I should have given Heaven. I have lived for 
 you, sinned for you, and now I am dying for you! But if 
 J have sinned, I have suffered a thousand-fold for it. Say 
 that you forgive me, and 1 will die content. " 
 
 With a heart too full for utterance, Gordon clasped the 
 erring girl still closer, through pity, in his strong arms; 
 and, in after years, he always liked to remember that he 
 bent his head and kissed the cold, clammy face lying so 
 heavily against his breast, and he never forgot tht adoring 
 gaze of ecstatic rapture that flashed into Dora i tearleas 
 eyes. 
 
 " I forgive yon, J&rtU^ Le^wdUhisToice trembdng with 
 
LEONTE LOCKE. 281 
 
 emotion " I forgive you. May .you die in peace, and may 
 Heaven pardon you as I do. " 
 
 " Promise that you will not forget me when I am gone, 
 Gordon," she whispered. " No one can ever love you so 
 madly, or so hopelessly as I. Oh, no one ever could. But 
 it is my last dying prayer that you will marry Leonie after 
 I am gone. It was wrong to love you better than my God- 
 On, so wrong! Gordon; but I did not quite realize that. 
 You were the sun of my life in my thoughts by night and 
 by day. My one great prayer was to win your love or 
 4ie. Burning jealousy led me on, and, like draughts of 
 strong wine, robbed me of my reason, and I was mad 
 yes, mad for love. I listened to the voice of jealous 
 temptation and I fell. I schemed, toiled, and prayed for 
 your love, but all in vain all in vain. My sin recoiled 
 upon my own head, and the sting of conscience is upon me; 
 but God is good in the last dread hour, for I am lying 
 upon your breast " 
 
 Gordon could only bow his head over the unhappy girl 
 and weep; but the tears were no disgrace to his manhood* 
 
 Dora gazed up into his face with a faint, wondering smile. 
 
 " I only deserve that you should hate me, Gordon/ she 
 sighed. " How kind of you, my lost love, to hold my 
 hands firmly clasped in yours and let me rest my eyes on 
 the face that is all this world to me. 
 
 " My short, ungracious life is nearly ended, Gordon 
 my sins and follies are all Over. I shall never come be 
 tween you and Leonie fair, generous, noble Leonie Locke 
 again. God intended you for her, not me." 
 
 And, as the words fell from her lips, poor Dora broke 
 out into a low, feeble, wailing sob most pitiful to hear. 
 
 " Oh, for my lost youth! my lost life!" she sobbed. 
 " Oh, Gordon! if I might but live it over again if I might 
 but have time to redeem it!" 
 
 Tears fell like rain from her eyes upon Gordon Carlisle s 
 hands that ninar**^ wr closely. He bent h 
 
882 LEONIE LOCKE. 
 
 head over her, whispering that God was merciful to thoso 
 who repented. 
 
 " I wish," she cried, faintly, " that I could speak with 
 a voice of warning that all the world could hear, of the 
 terrible curse of jealousy. Or I wish that I could have 
 written some great work that would have touched the 
 hearts of all young girls who have ever listened to that 
 fatal voice. Oh, fatal voice of jealousy that has wrecked 
 so many loving hearts! for a heart had better break than 
 know the all-consuming, fiery pangs of jealousy like I have 
 known/ 
 
 Gordon tried hard to comfort her; but the pangs of re 
 morse were too strong for mortal power to soothe. 
 
 " Gordon," she cried, cowering still closer in his strong, 
 sheltering arms, " I am standing on a green islet in the 
 midst of a swollen stream, and the dark, niad, surging 
 waters are rising higher and higher as they roll swiftly on. 
 White faces smile at me from the mocking waves, and 
 white hands are stretched out to grasp me from you; but 
 I do not want to go. Oh, Gordon, my love is so strong I 
 do not want to go and leave you! Oh, I am so young to 
 die! Hark, how the waters rush! They will cover me, 
 Gordon see how thdy rise!" 
 
 It was pitiful to see how frantically poor Dora s white 
 arms cluag to his neck, and <the awful look of terror and 
 despair that was in her white face. 
 
 LeoDie, with a heart too full for utterance, had quietly 
 stole* from the room, leaving poor dying Dora as she had 
 prayed to be left, alone with Gordon in the hour of death. 
 
 " Gordon," she begged, " when I am dead, remember, 
 when they speak of my sins, how well I loved you. You 
 have been the one star of my wrecked, lonely life. Try to 
 forget how I came between you and Leonie, try to forget 
 how wicked I have been. Only remember my great, deep, 
 passionate love. Say to yourself, poor Dora! poor erring 
 Dora! how well she l<ro*l *V Let my great love pleaci 
 
LEOHIE LOCKE. 283 
 
 for my forgiveness. I had a portrait painted of you, 
 Gordon/ she whispered with difficulty, " see that it is 
 buried with me, I treasured it so in life; you will do tb ; s 
 Gordon?" 
 
 He bowed his head with an anguish too deep for words. 
 
 Poor Dora looked the gratitude her white lips couM not 
 frame. * And put a faded rose that you once gave me 
 with it, the poor rose is lying all withered on my breast, 
 have worn it there for many a day, but it is not mort 
 withered than my hopes have been, the hope of your love, 
 Gordon. There is no more jealousy or envy in my heart 
 now, Gordon. I have learned to love Leonie Locke, I 
 give you to her freely. You may know that I love her, 
 when I give to her the love of my life. The beautiful, 
 mad, sweet, passionate love that filled my heart and soul, 
 I give her all this it has been my ransom for pardon from 
 Heaven/ 
 
 The clinging clasp of Dora s arms grew weaker. 
 
 " Hold me closer, Gordon," she whispered, in an awful 
 voice, " the river is washing over me it is carrying me 
 out of your arms. Oh, Gordon! Gordon! my lost love! the 
 great dark water is drifting me from you! Bend forward, 
 quick! and kiss my face just once for the waves have 
 swept me from you!" 
 
 Gordon bent down quickly and pressed his warm lips to 
 the cold, clammy ones lying against his breast. 
 
 " Good-bye, Gordon," she wailed "the waters have 
 swept your face from sight!" 
 
 Suddenly the fast-glazing eyes were raised yearningly to 
 his, and he saw a smile pass over her white, wistful face, 
 and poor, erring, unhappy Dora, who had died for love of 
 him, passed peacefully away as she had prayed so hard 
 that she might with her eyes fixed on his face. Her ears 
 were closed to his passionate weeping as he laid her gently 
 down among the silken nillows* JlVords of love or regret, 
 
284: LEWIE LOOKS. 
 
 of passion or sorrow, would reach her again nevermore OD 
 earth. 
 
 He kissed the white face again and again, weeping for 
 her hopeless, sorrowful love-dream that had brought her to 
 her doom. He almost fancied a smile flitted over those 
 cold, pallid lips under his caressing touch; but it was only 
 the flickering sunshine resting pityingly upon the white, 
 amiling face, framed in its sheen of golden hair of all 
 that was mortal of poor, unhappy Dora Lancaster, who 
 had died for love. 
 
 CHAPTER LVL 
 
 A WEEK later there was a brilliant wedding at the 
 Lexington Avenue mansion, and the pretty bride and the 
 happy groom* who had parted at Dora s bedside, had not 
 met again until they met before the altar. 
 
 And, underneath a floral bell in the magnificent parlor, 
 snrrounded by a brilliant throng of friends, Gordon Carlisle 
 and Leonie Locke were joined together in holy matrimony, 
 for better or for worse, until death parted them. 
 
 And the happy young husband could scarcely wait until 
 they were alone together to take Leonie in his arms and 
 rain down a world of passionate kisses on the beautiful 
 blushing face of sweet Leonie who was all his own now. 
 
 " There has never been such a love story as ours, my 
 darling," Gordon whispered, holding her close to hi? 
 throbbing breast. * No two lovers ever were so cruelly 
 parted or so strangely reunited. A whole life-time of love 
 must make atonement for what we have endured. All the 
 dark clouds have rolled away, and in the future we will live 
 only in the blissful sunshine of each other s love." 
 
 Leonie answered him with a timid kiss, as she hid her 
 rosy, blushing face on his breast and twined her little white 
 arms round his 
 
LEOtflB LOGCB. 285 
 
 Gordon, like most young husbands, needed no ether 
 answer. He was quite content love ruled supreme. 
 
 There s nothing half so sweet in life as love s young 
 dream when fully realized. 
 
 The great sensational story found its way into the daily 
 papers, as sensational stories always do; and many a work 
 ing-girl read the story of Leonie Locke, and their honest 
 hearts thrilled as they read the story of her struggle against 
 adverse fate. She had been a working-girl like them 
 selves; she had known all their privations, the early rising, 
 hurried toilet, and hurrying steps to the work-shop. She 
 hatl known what it was to toil late and early for the sweet 
 bread of life, and had known all their sorrows and the 
 pitiful desolation and fear of being discharged from 
 work. 
 
 No wonder the hearts of the people warmed to Leonie 
 Locke Leonie Carlisle, the young millionaire s bride now 
 as their hearts had never warmed to any other young girl 
 who had gained wealth, and above all the love of a young 
 husband who fairly adored her. 
 
 The loss of Leonie s diamonds was hushed quietly up for 
 Mrs. Barrett s sake. 
 
 No one ever found out the hidden mystery in the life of 
 John Carlisle, Gordon s father. The curious prying world 
 never knew that hidden secret of Dora s double loss of love 
 and fortune too. 
 
 Gordon s father and mother learned to fairly worship 
 beautiful Leonie, " Gordon s young wife," as they always 
 called her, and a spirit of rivalry has always existed be 
 tween Lawyer Barrett and his good wife and the Gordons 
 ds to which loves her best 
 
 A pretty little girl, with wine-dark eyes like Leonie s, 
 and golden hair like Gordon s, blesses that luxurious 
 Lexington Avenue home, and if you ask her what her 
 name is she will raise those wondrous dark eyes of hers and 
 
286 JLEUXLK . 
 
 answer, " papa calls me * little pet, but my mamma calla 
 me* Dora. " 
 
 In the old Trinity Church-yard, quite within sight of the 
 surging throngs of passers-by, is the grave of that other 
 Dora who is never mentioned save with tears of pity., in the 
 home of Gordon Carlisle. A drooping willow waves above 
 poor Dora, but the blithe birds seem to shun that spot and 
 the whispering winds that stir the branches seem to mur 
 mur the story of her unhappy love. 
 
 There is little more to tell, dear reader. Charlie Hart 
 had suddenly disappeared, but for Mrs. Stuart s sake no 
 attempt was made to bring him to the punishment he had 
 so richly deserved. 
 
 Leonie and Gordon are reunited now, happy in each 
 other s love at last. 
 
 In the *rand parlor of their spacious Lexington Avenue 
 home liangs a picture to which Gordon Carlisle, the hand 
 some young husband, points witt pardonable pride. It is 
 tie picture of a blusnma, cov young girl, with a face as 
 pretty and dainty as a nower a young girl in a dark 
 merino dress with jacket and cap to match and beneath 
 the picture in Gordon s writing are the words, " Le.onie, 
 my darling little bride." 
 
 Although jewels glisten now in Leonie s dark-brown hair 
 and on her small white hands, and wealth that a princess 
 might envy surrounds her, she is not proud and cold. 
 
 And when Leonie passes by many a young girl mur 
 murs, with tears in her eyes, " God bless her! she is a true 
 friend of all working-girls. We shall never forget sweet 
 Leonie Locke. " 
 
 It is evening now, and Gordon stands before that picture 
 upon which the sunlight falls so lovingly, his arms are 
 clasped about Leonie s slender waist, and he bends his 
 handsome, golden head and whispers lovingly, " That is 
 the way you looked, my darling, when we first met, an(? 
 
LEOKIE LOCKE. 287 
 
 when I fell so deeply in love with you, sweet little bride, 
 and you will never look prettier, arrayed in all the trap 
 pings of wealth, than when you were only Leonie Locke, a 
 working-girl. I searched among the busy workers of life s 
 sea and found a pearl of great price, and my life has been 
 so happy ever since that I advise all young men to marry, 
 ^nd above all to search among the working-girls for a Inval 
 md loving wife, just such a one as my pretty Leonie/ 
 
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