And while I stood there, breathless and stupefied, the party descended, laughing boisterously and exchanging greetings.
I looked again. Was it only some strange chimera of my vision? Could it be the amazing truth? What further bitterness had life in store for me?
My Ella was standing enfolded in the arms of the man who had greeted them, and he was at that moment kissing her fondly upon the lips before them all.
And the man? His countenance was, alas! only too familiar to me.
He was the fellow I had met only that very morning under Miller’s roof—the man whom I had known in Nervi as Lieutenant Shacklock, R.N.!
Chapter Twenty One.
The Peril of Ella Murray.
In an instant the bewildering mystery of it all became apparent.