"I always felt that those Carews were mean, especially Ivan," she said. "But, never mind, dearie. When your uncle comes to-morrow we will make him remain for a long visit."
[CHAPTER XLI.]
RALPH'S LETTER.
The world is naught when one is gone
Who was the world; then the heart breaks
That this is lost which once was won.
Arlo Bates.
But before the old gentleman called in the morning, Kathleen had a great shock of surprise.
The morning papers had not had anything so exciting to chronicle for a long time as the news that Ralph Chainey, the great actor, and the idol of the hour, had been secretly married to a beautiful ballet dancer who was no better than she ought to be, and that he had publicly applied for a legal divorce to free him from his galling fetters.
Of course the public had to know all about it, so the reporters had besieged Ralph Chainey, and he had talked freely with them, giving them all his sad story, hoping in this way to reach the obdurate heart of beautiful Kathleen.
Surely, he thought, when she heard his story aright—when she heard how cruelly he had been betrayed by the false and wicked Fedora—she must pity and pardon her unhappy lover.
Ralph Chainey was not much of a praying man, but in these hours of awful suspense his thoughts took almost the form of a prayer to God that He would help him to win his proud young love who had scorned him in such disdainful fashion.