“He loves me still, I know it by my ring,” she cried, tenderly kissing the gem. “He loves me still, in spite of all they have done to turn his heart against me. Oh, Cecil, could I but escape from my prison, I would fly to you, and you would find some means to break these cruel fetters and set me free from Harold Castello.”
She began to turn over in her mind wild schemes for escaping from the prison in which Harold Castello had sworn to keep her till she became reconciled to her fate.
She knew well that she would have no help from the outside world, since Amber had made every one believe she was gone of her own free will to be a rich man’s bride.
Within this house she was surrounded by the minions of Harold Castello, who were paid to keep her a prisoner. She had not a dollar of her own to bribe them with, and no jewels of any value save Cecil’s ring. With this she could not part.
To God alone must she look for help in this dark and fateful hour.
Dismissing her dark and evil mood, Violet fell on her knees by the white velvet couch, and with clasped hands and earnest, upraised eyes, prayed Heaven to aid her in this darkest hour of her young life, to look with pity on her terrible strait and deliver her safely from the power of the man she hated and feared. Then she prayed for her dear lost lover, that God would comfort him in his distress, and open up some way to save Bonnycastle from falling into the hands of her cruel grandfather. She knew that the old man had done that cruel thing to punish Cecil for loving her, and she lamented bitterly that through her such harm had come to her darling.
A little comforted by her earnest prayer and the hope that God in His infinite mercy would answer it kindly, Violet rose from her knees and began to pace up and down the room, trying to form some plan of escape.
She was interrupted by the entrance of Suzanne with a tray of delicious refreshments.
“You have had no supper, Mrs. Castello, so your husband ordered something sent to you,” she said, courteously, as she set the silver tray down on a little stand.
Violet would have delighted in the dainty edibles and exquisite fruits at any other time, for she had the appetite of a healthy young girl, but now she shuddered with loathing and exclaimed, imperiously: