Xenie lifted her dark eyes and looked at the gentle girl.
"Should you love a man that won your heart and threw it away like a broken toy?" she asked, slowly.
"I do not believe that I could ever forgive him," said Edith, frankly.
"Nor can I," answered Xenie, in a low voice of repressed passion. "No, I am not friends with him, Edith, and never shall be; I am not the kind of woman who could forgive such a cruel slight."
Neither of them said another word on the subject, but Edith knew quite well from that moment why Xenie had married Mr. St. John.
"It was not for the sake of the money, but simply to revenge herself on Howard Templeton," she said to herself, with a woman's ready wit.
And when Mr. Templeton, according to his uncle's desire, offered her his hand and heart, a few days later, expecting to have her for the asking, he was surprised to receive a cold, almost contemptuous refusal.
But she dropped a few words before they parted by which he knew plainly that his deadly foe had been working against him, and that her revengeful hand had struck a fortune from his grasp for the second time in the space of a week.