And by the light of a candle flickering in the wind, which blew through the broken window-panes of a wretched garret, Stella saw her father for the last time, and on her knees beside his bed freely forgave him for any grief he might have caused her, and soothed his last moments with a daughter’s tenderness as freely given as it was wholly undeserved.
* * * * * * * *
Mr. and Mrs. Hilary Pritchard are settled in the Canadian homestead now, where they live in perfect happiness and ever-increasing worldly prosperity. The law has long since freed Lord Carthew from his unfortunate marriage, concerning which the world has forgotten to talk; but the money which he settled upon Lura only accelerated her end by enabling her to indulge in her passion for drinking. At once the means and the victim of a long-deferred vengeance, she died miserably at the age of four and twenty. Old Sarah only survived her enemy, Sir Philip, by a few months; and as to James Carewe, and Brian, and Stephen Lee, they are living out unprofitable lives in the way best suited to their roving, restless temperaments.
But Stella was only one-third gypsy after all. Such freedom-loving instincts as she has are tempered by a gracious womanliness and unobtrusive refinement, which make her a queen among the settlers and farmers in her new home, where, blessed with her husband’s and her children’s love, she can forget the sorrows and the trials of her girlhood’s years.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Gertrude Warden was the pseudonym of Gertrude Isobel Price.
She was the younger sister of author/actress Florence Warden.
Minor spelling inconsistencies (e.g. evening-gown/evening gown, stepmother/step-mother, etc.) have been preserved.
Alterations to the text: