"Every possible effort was made to save the unfortunate pleasure-
seekers, but in vain; they disappeared from view long before a boat
could reach them. One of the bodies has not yet been recovered. It is
that of a Miss Porter, from Florida. She had reached Cuyler only the
day previous, and was unaccompanied by a single friend, save a
waiting-maid, who seems overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her
mistress."

This, then, was the announcement which so affected Ralph Browning,
blotting out for a moment the wretched past, and taking him back to
the long ago when he first knew Marie Porter and fancied that he loved
her. She was _dead_ now--_dead._ Many a time he whispered that word to
himself, and with each repetition the wish grew strong within him--not
that she were living, but that while living he had not hated her so
bitterly, and with the softened feeling which death will always bring,
he blamed himself far more than he did her. There had been wrong on
both sides, but he would rather now, that she had been reconciled to
him ere she found that watery grave. Hand in hand with these
reflections came another thought; a bewildering, intoxicating thought.
He was _free_ at last--free to _love_--to _worship_--to _marry_
Rosamond.

"And I will go to her at once," he said, after the first hour had been
given to the dead; "I will tell her all the truth."

He rose to leave the room, but something stayed him there, and
whispered in his ear, "There may be some mistake. Cuyler is not far
away. Go there first and investigate."