"But how can I tell him?" asked the girl.

"Write on a piece of paper, 'Come at the hour and place your sister
appoints. I wish to see you.' Then he will come. I am writing tonight,
and will enclose the note."

It would rather take from her queenlike attitude, she thought; but as
she had promised the kindness, it would not be graceful to dispute as to
how it should be granted; so, under the guidance of the woman to whom
her innocent youth was entrusted, she sealed her fate with her own
hands.




CHAPTER V.


"How am I to thank you?" said Adelaide Lyster to the girl she had
betrayed. "I have a letter from Allan, and he says the very thought of
seeing you has given him a fresh life--fresh energy. I have never read
anything so rapturous in my life. Do you wish to see the letter?"

As Marion Arleigh read the passionate, poetical words that had been
written expressly for her, her face flushed. How wonderful it was to
hold a man's life in her hands--to sway a genius so that her nod meant
stay or go, her least words meant happiness or misery! She looked around
with something of pity for other girls who had not this new and
wonderful sensation.