"Well?" Colonel Lockhart inquires, his blue eyes blazing with excitement.
"I have hired a fast trap for myself, and intend to give secret chase to the gentleman," Mr. Sharp replies.
"That is right. I will accompany you," decides his employer, eagerly, and with a springing hope in his breast.
[CHAPTER XLIII.]
It is late noon when Mrs. Cleveland returns to her lodgings, and finds Ivy lounging on a sofa in the shabby parlor, in a state of blissful beatitude.
"You have been out, Ivy?" she exclaims, in surprise, glancing at the elegant carriage dress of brocaded black silk and sparkling jet.
"Yes," Ivy answers complacently.
"Where?" her mother inquires, surprised, for hitherto Ivy has spent all her time in the seclusion of her chamber, bewailing her untoward fate.
"I have been—to the jeweler's," Mrs. Noble answers, with shining eyes, and enjoying her mother's amazement with all the zest of one who has taken new hold on life.