[CHAPTER XXXVIII.]
Jewel was very busy getting ready for her marriage now, which had been set for the early spring. In her anxiety to be sure of her husband she would have liked to forego the delights of a trousseau, and be married at once, but she had no excuse for hurrying the time, and Laurie Meredith never hinted at the intervening months as being at all too long.
So Jewel filled up her life as much as possible with ordering an expensive trousseau and mixing in the gay world, not giving herself time to think, for "that way madness lay."
One evening her lover had called to accompany her to an entertainment given in honor of Lord and Lady Ivon, who were to leave on the morrow. Jewel was exquisitely dressed for the occasion in a dress of dark-red satin, draped in rich black lace, one of her favorite and most becoming costumes. Her ornaments were deep red rubies set in gold.
A happy light was burning in the large dark eyes, for her rival was going away to-morrow, never to cross her path in life again, she hoped.
Mrs. Wellings, in rich black velvet and point lace, was in attendance as chaperon.
Jewel slipped her gloved hand through the arm of her betrothed.
"Let us go to the conservatory, dear Laurie," she whispered, fondly. "I have a fancy that you shall choose the flowers I wear to-night."
He rose with her and selected deep-red jacqueminot roses. She made him cut them off with long stems and an abundance of buds, and was about to fasten them in her corsage, when, to his utter amazement, she uttered a wild, startled shriek, dropped the flowers and fell against his breast, clasping her white arms around his neck.