to her slightest caprice and she had ruled the household with a look
or a word. Death had suddenly deprived her of a mother who was
necessary to her comfort and to whose presence she was accustomed,
and her heart was full of angry resentment at the fate which had
dared to take away a member of her household. It had never entered
her thoughts that death could devastate HER home.

Other people lost fathers and mothers, of course; but that Mabel
Lawrence could be deprived of a parent seemed incredible. Anger is a
strong ingredient in the excessive grief of every selfish nature.

Preston Cheney became more and more disheartened with the prospect of
his future, as he studied the character and temperament of his
fiancee during her first weeks of loss.

But the net which he had woven was closing closer and closer about
him, and every day he became more hopelessly entangled in its meshes.

At the end of one month, the family physician decided that travel and
change of air and scene was an imperative necessity for Miss
Lawrence. Judge Lawrence was engaged in some important legal matters
which rendered an extended journey impossible for him. To trust
Mabel in the hands of hired nurses alone, was not advisable. It was
her father who suggested an early marriage and a European trip for
bride and groom, as the wisest expedient under the circumstances.

Like the prisoner in the iron room, who saw the walls slowly but
surely closing in to crush out his life, Preston Cheney saw his
wedding day approaching, and knew that his doom was sealed.