how cruel was the expression in the face of the woman before her, and
how faded she appeared in the morning light. "But I think I shall be
quite well in a little while, I only need to keep quiet for a few
hours."

"I fear you passed a sleepless night," the Baroness remarked with a
solicitous tone, but with the same cruel smile upon her lips. "I see
you never opened your bed. Something must have been in the air to
keep us all awake. I did not sleep an hour, and Mr Cheney never
entered his room till near morning. Yet I can understand his
wakefulness--he announced his engagement to Miss Mabel Lawrence to me
last evening, and a young man is not expected to woo sleep easily
after taking such an important step as that. Judge Lawrence sent for
him a few hours ago to come and support Miss Mabel during the trial
that the day is to bring them in the death of Mrs Lawrence. The
physician has predicted the poor invalid's near end. Sorrow follows
close on joy in this life."

There was a moment's silence; then Miss Dumont said: "I think I will
try to get a little sleep now, madame. I thank you for your kind
interest in me."

The Baroness descended to her room humming an air from an old opera,
and settled to the task of removing as much as possible all evidences
of fatigue and sleeplessness from her countenance.

It has been said very prettily of the spruce-tree, that it keeps the
secret of its greenness well; so well that we hardly know when it
sheds its leaves. There are women who resemble the spruce in their
perennial youth, and the vigilance with which they guard the secret