"Of course! I doubt if you ever asked him," Maud cries, irritably. "But, Reine, what is the matter? You look white and scared? What has happened?"
"Vane—Mr. Charteris has gone away," Reine falters, miserably.
"Gone away—of course. That was the condition on which he married you. He said he could marry you, but he could not live with you."
"Maud, why do you tell me these horrible things?" falters the wretched young bride.
"To make you as wretched as I am," Maud breaks out, with vindictive passion in her voice and face. "But it is all true, every word. He said he would stay away a year, and Mr. Langton must train you to be such a woman as he could respect and honor; a woman," triumphantly, "like me."
"God forbid!" Reine says, with a stifled gasp, turning her white face away that Maud may not see the hopeless pain that shadows the brightness.
The door opens and Nellie creeps forlornly in.
"Oh, Miss Maud," she says, tearfully, "I can't find it, I can't find it! I've searched high and low but it's nowhere to be found!"