“I was not alone. My brother was nearby. He knew of my going there.”

“Even so,” said Ida, “it was a remarkable thing for a young woman to go to a young man’s apartment on the night before his wedding at nearly the midnight hour.”

The young woman blazed up into a passion.

“I went there in a last attempt to prevent his marriage.”

“To prevent his marriage?” repeated Ida.

“Yes,” replied Miss Rainforth. “By all rights, he was bound to me, and it was I whom he should have married.”

“Do you mean to say that you were engaged?”

“Yes; if promise is an engagement.”

The young woman paused a moment and then said, passionately:

“It was that wretch, that Ladew woman, who interfered. But he never loved her.”