"Oh, that is so long to wait! May I not see you sooner?"
"Impossible! I have a sacred duty to do to-morrow that will engage me all day. But you too will be busy. And we can look forward all day to our meeting in the evening. And after to-morrow we can meet every morning and spend the whole day together," said the traitress, sweetly.
"I suppose I must be content!" sighed the victim.
"Now good-night, dear. And good-bye until to-morrow night," murmured the siren, as she gave her lover a Judas kiss and dismissed him.
Mary Grey hurried into the drawing-room, where the Misses Crane were still sitting up.
"My dear Mrs. Grey, we feared that something had happened to you," said the elder Miss Crane.
"Oh, no! I went to see one of my Sunday-school pupils, whom I missed from my class, and whom, upon inquiry, I found to be ill at home. I have spent the whole day with the sick child, except the hours spent at church. And I must go to see her again to-morrow morning," said the widow, with a patient smile.
"How good you are!" murmured Miss Crane.
Mary Grey shook her head deprecatingly, bowed good-night to the slim sisters and went upstairs to her own room.
Early the next morning Mary Grey, telling her hostesses that she was then going to sit with the sick child, left the old manor-house and walked rapidly to the railway station and took a ticket for Forestville, a village about twenty miles from the city, on the Richmond and Wendover Railroad.