It was not an easy task, and he could almost as readily have committed them to the flames as to have despoiled that beautiful home of what, for so long, had made it so dear and attractive to him.
When his work was completed he went out, slipped over into Boylston street, where he knew there were plenty of rooms to be rented, and where he soon engaged a suite that would answer his purpose for the present.
This done, he secured a man and team to move his possessions, and before the shades of night had fallen he had stored everything he owned away in his new quarters and bidden farewell forever to the aristocratic dwelling on Commonwealth avenue, where he had lived so luxuriously and entertained so elaborately the crême de la crême of Boston society.
Three days later he had disappeared from the city—"gone abroad" the papers said, "for a change of scene and to recuperate from the effects of the shock caused by his wife's sudden death."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
MR. BRYANT MEETS WITH UNEXPECTED DIFFICULTIES.
Let us now return to Edith, to ascertain how she is faring under the care of her new friends in New York.
On the morning following her arrival Mr. Bryant called at the house of his cousin, Mrs. Morrell, as he had promised, to escort our fair heroine to his office, to meet Mr. Louis Raymond, who had been so anxiously searching for her.
The gentleman had not arrived when they reached the place that was so familiar to Edith, and "Roy," as she was slyly beginning to call him, conducted her directly to his own special sanctum, and seated her in the most comfortable chair, to await the coming of the stranger.