[CHAPTER XXXI.]
The next day while Madam Dolores sat alone in her beautiful parlor, a card was brought to her. She read upon it the name of Walter Earle.
"I am so glad to meet you once more," he said, as she rose to receive him. "Valchester told me he had called upon you yesterday and I could not resist coming to-day."
The sensitive color Walter remembered so well, rose into Jaquelina's clear cheek.
"I am very glad to meet you, Mr. Earle," she replied, and gave him her hand in a perfectly frank, unembarrassed way. Walter pressed it a moment with a quickened heart-beat, and then they sat down. He congratulated her on her brilliant career.
"You must tell me how it all came about," he said. "We all believed you dead. It seemed as if the earth must have opened and swallowed you that morning, when I left you at the park gates."
"I wish it had!" she cried, involuntarily, and a look of pain came over the eager, handsome face of the listener.
"Were you so unhappy, Lina?" he asked, sadly.
The white hands clasped each other tightly, and tears came into the sad, dark eyes, as she lifted them to Walter's face.