She recalled her happy home, her loving parents, and wondered if they had ever forgiven her, for she had not heard one word from them since her flight, and she knew not the scene that had followed, when Kent Lomax had met Schuyler Cluett upon the field of honour, and had fallen before the bullet of the man she had married.
She had told Colonel Ivey all before she had married him, and he had but loved her the more for her confession and the sorrows she had known.
He had told her, too, that in the pleasant fall of the year, they would all go down to Maryland on a visit, and see the old home and her parents, and ask that she might be forgiven.
As she sat alone in her home she was pondering over the past.
Her husband had gone off on a business trip to the far West, Will was away upon a yachting cruise, for he had become a skilful and devoted yachtsman, his step-father having presented him with a beautiful craft, and Pearl was spending the night with a little playmate who lived near.
Presently a footfall was heard in the hallway, and Mrs. Ivey supposed it was the butler, about to close up the house for the night, so that it did not disturb her, but she started when the words fell upon her ears:
"Mrs. Ivey, I believe?"
"Oh, Mercy!"
The cry came like a groan of anguish from the lips of the woman, as she turned and beheld the form of a man standing before her.
He had entered the mansion unseen, had walked into the library unannounced, and was within a few paces of her.