"How I love and honor you!" she whispered.

"We will never speak about this again, if you please, dear," said Isabel Stewart, in a slightly tremulous tone. "I wished you to know the truth, but I cannot talk about it. I do not deny the affection; that is something over which I have no control; but I can at least say 'thus far and no farther,' for the sake of conscience and self-respect. Now, about that letter which was handed to you to-day,"

she continued, suddenly changing the subject. "Suppose we look it over again, and then I think it should go directly into the hands of Mr.

Bryant."

She had hardly finished speaking when there came a knock upon her door.

Rising, she opened it, to find a servant standing without and waiting to deliver a card that lay upon a silver salver.

Mrs. Stewart took it and read the name of Royal Bryant, together with the following lines, written in pencil:

"Will Mrs. Stewart kindly excuse this seeming intrusion of a stranger? but I understand that Miss Allandale is with you, and it is necessary that I have a few moments' conversation with her.

R. B."

"Show the gentleman up," the lady quietly remarked to the servant, then stepped back into the room and pa.s.sed the card to Edith.

The young girl's eyes lighted with sudden joy, and the quick color flushed her cheeks, betraying how even the sight of Roy's name and handwriting had power to move her.

A few moments later there came another tap to tell her that her dear one was awaiting admittance, and she herself went to receive him.

"Roy! I am so glad you have come!" she exclaimed, holding out both hands to him, her face radiant with happiness.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

"MY DARLING, YOU ARE FREE!"

The young man regarded her with astonishment, for she had never greeted him so warmly before.

Edith saw his look and met it with a blush. She took his hat, then led him directly to Mrs. Stewart.

"Roy, you will be astonished," she remarked, "but my first duty is to introduce you to--my mother."

With a look of blank amazement, the young man mechanically put out his hand to greet the beautiful woman who approached and graciously welcomed him.

"That was rather an abrupt and startling announcement, Mr. Bryant,"

she smilingly remarked, to cover his confusion; "but pray be seated and we will soon explain the mysterious situation."

"Pardon my bewilderment," said the young man, as he bowed over her extended hand; "but really, ladies, I am free to confess that you have almost taken my breath away."

"Then you will know how to sympathize with us," cried Edith, with a silvery little laugh, "for we have both been in the same condition during the last few hours."

"Indeed! Then I must say you look very bright for a person who has not breathed for 'hours,'" he retorted, as he began to recover himself.

"Well, figuratively speaking, our respiration has been r.e.t.a.r.ded many times, during a short interval, by the strangest developments imaginable," Edith explained. "But how did you trace me to the Waldorf?"

"I had something important to tell you, so ran up to Nellie's to see you, but was told that you had accompanied Mrs. Stewart thither," Roy explained. "I hope, however, I shall be pardoned for interrupting your interview," he concluded with an apologetic glance at the elder lady.

"Certainly; and, strange to say, we were speaking of you almost at the moment that your card was brought to us," she returned. "Edith has had an important communication handed her to-day, which I thought you ought to have, since you are her attorney, without any unnecessary delay."

"Oh! it is most wonderful, Roy! This is it," said the young girl, producing it from her pocket. "But first I must tell you that in Mrs.

Stewart I have discovered mamma's old friend--the writer of those letters of which I told you. She did not die in Rome, as was feared."

"Can that be possible?" exclaimed Mr. Bryant.

"Yes, dear. It is a long story, and I cannot stop to tell it all now,"

Edith went on, eagerly, "but I must explain that she has discovered an important doc.u.ment that proves what makes me the happiest girl in New York to-day. We met at Mrs. Wallace's this afternoon, where some one addressed me as Miss Allandale, when she instantly knew that I must be her child. Isn't it all too wonderful to seem true?"

After chatting a little longer over the wonderful revelations, he suddenly remembered the "important communication" which Mrs. Stewart had mentioned.

"What was the matter of business which you felt needed early consideration?" he inquired.

Instantly Edith's lovely face was suffused with blushes, and Mrs.

Stewart, thinking it would be wise to leave the lovers alone during the forthcoming explanations, excused herself and quietly slipped into an adjoining room.

Edith immediately went to the young man's side and gave her letter to him.

"Roy, this is even more wonderful than what I have already told you,"

she gravely remarked. "Read it; it will explain itself better than any words of mine can do."

He drew the contents from the envelope, and began at once to read the following confession:

"For the sake of performing one right act in my life, I wish to make the following statement, namely: I hereby declare that the marriage of my brother, Emil Correlli, to Miss Edith Allen, who, for several weeks, has acted as my companion, was not a legal ceremony, inasmuch as it was accomplished solely by fraud and treachery. Miss Allen was tricked into it by being overpersuaded to personate a supposed character in a play, ent.i.tled 'The Masked Bridal.'

The play was written and acted before a large audience for the sole purpose of deceiving Miss Allen and making her the wife of my brother, whom she had absolutely refused to marry, but who was determined to carry his point at all hazards. Motives of affection for him, and of jealousy, on account of my husband's apparent fondness for the girl, alone prompted me to aid him in his bold design. I hereby declare again that it was all a trick, from beginning to end, and it was only by my indomitable will, and by working upon Miss Allen's sympathies, that I was enabled to carry out my purpose." (Then followed a detailed account of the plot of the play and its concluding ceremony, after which the doc.u.ment closed as follows): "I am impressed that I have not long to live; and wishing, if it can be done, to right this great wrong, and make it possible for the proper officials to declare Miss Allen freed from her bonds, I make this confession of a fraud that weighs too heavily upon my conscience to be borne.

"ANNA CORRELLI G.o.dDARD."

The above was dated the day previous to that of madam's death, and underneath she had appended a few lines to Mr. G.o.ddard, stating that she knew he was in sympathy with Edith; therefore she should leave the epistle with her lawyer, to be given to him, in the event of her death, and she enjoined him to see that justice was done the girl whom she had injured.

This was the missive that the lawyer had pa.s.sed to Mr. G.o.ddard at the same time that he had read the woman's will in the presence of her husband and Emil Correlli, and over which, as we have seen, he afterward became so strangely agitated.

We know how he had hurriedly removed from his former elegant home to a habitation on another street; after which, instead of going abroad, as the papers had stated, he had gone directly to New York, upon the same quest as Emil Correlli, but with a very different purpose in view--that of giving to Edith the precious doc.u.ment that was to declare her free from the man whom she loathed.

He could get no trace of her, however; unlike Correlli, he had no knowledge of her acquaintance with Royal Bryant, and therefore all he could do was to carry the letter about with him, wherever he went, in the hope of some day meeting her upon the street, or elsewhere.

One day he was out at Central Park, when he suddenly came upon a former friend--Mrs. Wallace--who immediately announced to him her intention of arranging a charitable art exhibition and solicited contributions from him to aid her in the good work.

Thus the appearance of that bit of old "Roman Wall" is accounted for, as well as the presence of Mr. G.o.ddard himself, who was particularly requested by Mrs. Wallace to honor the occasion, and allow her to introduce him to some of her friends.

It would be difficult to describe the terrible shock which the man sustained when he heard Edith addressed by and respond to the name--Miss Allandale.

Like a flash of light it was revealed to him that the beautiful girl was his own daughter!--that, in her, he had, for months, been "entertaining an angel unawares," but only to abuse his privilege in a way to reap her lasting contempt and aversion.

This blighting knowledge was followed by a sense of sickening despair and misery, when, almost at the same moment, he saw Isabel Stewart start forward to claim her child and lead her from the room, when he knew she must learn the wretched truth regarding his life of selfishness and sin.