knew him as '1596.' His fiancee was never too obtrusively in
evidence, and if Miss Forde thought of Miss Anderson with any
scruple, it was probably to reflect that if she could not take care
of these things she did not deserve to have them. This at all
events was how her attitude expressed itself practically; and the
upshot was that Miss Anderson lost them. There came a day when
Frederick Prendergast, in much discomfort of mind, took to Violet
the news that Madeline had brought their engagement to an end. She,
Violet, gave him some tea, and they talked frankly of the absurd
misconception of the relations between them upon which his dismissal
was founded; and Prendergast went away much comforted and wholly
disposed to respect Miss Anderson's startling wishes. She, with
what both the others thought excellent taste, persuaded her mother
and sister to move to Brooklyn; and so far as the thoroughfares and
social theatres of New York were concerned, the city over the river
might have been a nunnery which had closed its gates upon her. It
was only in imagination that she heard Frederick Prendergast's
wedding-bells when, two months later, he was united to Miss Forde in
Grace Church, and that after the fact, their melody being brought to
her inner sense next day by the marriage notice in the 'Tribune'.

It would be painful, in view of what we know of Frederick
Prendergast, to dwell upon what Madeline Anderson undeniably felt.
Besides her emotions were not destructively acute, they only lasted
longer than any one could have either expected or approved. She
suffered for him as well; she saw as plainly as he did the first
sordid consequences of his mistake the afternoon he came to solicit
her friendship, having lost other claims; and it was then perhaps,
that her responsibility in allowing Violet Forde to spoil his life
for him began to suggest itself to her. Up to that time she had