"Darling," she gasped, "he says that you loved another—a white man—a preacher—Percy Marshall. Daughter, darling, deny it! Deny it!"
"O! God of Heaven, what shall I do! What shall I do," groaned the unhappy Tiara.
With one hand pressed upon her throbbing heart and the other laid upon her fevered brow the beautiful girl left the Ellwood home.
CHAPTER XXX.
Mr. A. Hostility.
It will be recalled that in a very early chapter we saw a cadaverous looking white man, wearing a much worn suit of clothes, making a sketch of Ensal's home, as the latter was going out to make arrangements with Mrs. Crawford for the introduction of Tiara into the best circles of Negro life in Almaville.
And now in the crisis of the relations of Ensal and Tiara he comes forward to inject his peculiar virus into the awful wound made in Ensal's heart by the disclosures of the Gus Martin letter. Tiara, burdened creature, was hardly out of sight of Ensal's home when this man made his appearance and was ushered into the study. When he had taken the seat proffered him, he said: