"I did not exactly let you," she said. "You see, you all took it for granted, and I did not contradict it, for," with a shy glance into her lover's face, "I wanted to see if any one would love me for myself alone, and I am richly rewarded; for
"'He does not love me for my birth,
Nor for my lands so broad and fair;
He loves me for my own true worth,
And that is well—'"
Lady Lancaster could have killed her for her brilliant triumph, but she was powerless to do anything but carry out her angry threats, so she retired from the scene and went to her dower house, where she actually adopted a scion of the house of Lancaster and made him the heir to her wealth; but this lad was too young to marry the earl's daughter, so the dowager never had that honor in the family.
But her spleen and venom passed harmlessly and unheeded over the heads of Lord Lancaster and his fair Leonora, for, in the far-famed language of the story-book, "they were married, and live happily ever afterward."
THE END.
[THE MASTER CRIMINAL]
THE LIFE STORY OF CHARLES PEACE
Profusely
Illustrated