"How can you save my sister," she asked, quickly; "is she innocent?"
"I don't know," he replied evasively; "but even if she is guilty, I'll save her."
Mr. Foster entered the room.
"Well," said that gentleman, "what's the matter?"
"Miss Cotoner would like to tell you a story," said Ronald quietly.
Carmela sat down, and so did Foster, who was now all attention, while Ronald leaned against the mantelpiece, and listened eagerly.
"This," thought Foster, as he settled himself, "is the beginning of the end."
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
A LOOK INTO THE PAST.
Someone in the drawing-room was playing a valse, "Love's Sorrow," and in after years Ronald could never hear the melody without recalling the scene in the smoking-room at Bellfield. The eminently masculine characteristics of the room, the steady glow of the lamp, the quiet, cold moonlight outside, and those two figures seated before him. His friend Foster, with his keen eyes fixed on Carmela,--the woman he loved, seated in the low chair looking like a statue, with her white dress and rigid face, and the mockery of that brilliant valse music sounding fitfully at intervals, while this bitter scene was taking place.