Lady Thesiger wept bitterly over me.

"I foresaw it from the first," she said. "I knew it was not the loss of
Crown Anstey, but the loss of Agatha, that would be your sorest trial."

Then I said "good-by" to her whom I had hoped so soon to call my wife. I
kissed her white face and trembling hands for the last time.

But the dear soul clung to me, weeping.

"You may say you must leave me a thousand times, Edgar, but I shall
never be left. I shall wait for you; and if it be never in your power
to claim me, I shall marry no other man. I will be yours in death as in
life."

And though I tried to shake her resolution, I knew that it would be so.
I knew that no other man would ever call her wife.

The day before I left, Mrs. Trevelyan, with her little Sir Rupert, took
possession of the Hall. She must have found many thorns in her path,
for, although she had attained her heart's desire, and was now mistress
of Crown Anstey, she was shunned and disliked by all the neighborhood.

"An adventuress," they called her, and as such refused to receive her
into their society. Perhaps she had foreseen this when she wished to
marry me.

By Sir John's influence, the post of secretary was found for me with an
English nobleman residing in Paris. I was to live in the house; my
duties were sufficiently onerous, and I was to receive a salary of one