“I have something to show you,” said Miss Sarepta; “guess what my last good gift from Philip is.”

“I did not know that he had any thing left to give you.”

“It is the last and best. A flower of spring!” From a thick envelope in her work-basket, she drew out a photograph, and, with its face upward, laid it in Tessa’s hand.

A piquant face: daring in the eyes, sweetness on the lips.

“Nan Gerard!” cried Tessa, catching her breath with a sound like a sob.

“Naughty Nan! And they are to be married here in this room, that I may be bridesmaid.”

“Oh, how stupid I was!”

“Why, had you an inkling of it?”

“Several of them, if I had had eyes to see!”

“It came last night, and I lay awake all night, thinking of the woman that Philip will love henceforth better than he loves me.”