remarked, as she extended to her the silver salver, on which there lay a
dainty bit of pasteboard.

Mona took it and read the name engraved upon it.

"It is Susie Leades," she said, a slight look of annoyance sweeping over
her face, "and I suppose I must go; but you will tell me the rest some
other time, Uncle Walter? I shall never be content until I know all there
is to know about my father and mother."

"Yes--yes; some other time I will tell you more," Mr. Dinsmore said, but
with a sigh of relief, as if he were glad of this interruption in the
midst of a disagreeable subject.

"I will leave the mirror here until I come back," Mona said, as she laid
it again in its box in the drawer; then, softly kissing her companion on
the lips, she went slowly and reluctantly from the room.

The moment the door had closed after her, Walter Dinsmore, the proud
millionaire and one of New York's most respected and prominent citizens,
dropped his head upon the desk before him and groaned aloud:

"How can I ever tell her?" he cried. "Oh, Mona, Mona! I have tried to
do right by your little girl--I have tried to make her life bright and
happy; must I cloud it now by revealing the wrong and sorrow of yours?
_Must_ I tell her?"

A sob burst from him, and then for some time he lay perfectly still, as
if absorbed in deep thought.