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He did not hear the man's ejaculation of surprise as his eyes fell on the face of the master who stood before him with hair white as snow so utterly changed in one short hour. "You couldn't possibly make the next train, sir; it leaves in a few moments." "I tell you you must make it!" cried Basil Hurlhurst. "Go and do as I bid you at once!
In an elegant boudoir, all crimson and gold, some hours later, sat Pluma Hurlhurst, reclining negligently on a satin divan, toying idly with a volume which lay in her lap. She tossed the book aside with a yawn, turning her superb dark eyes on the little figure bending over the rich trailing silks which were to adorn her own fair beauty on the coming evening.
"Not exactly!" cried a ringing voice from the rear; and before the two women could comprehend the situation, the detective sprung through the silken curtains, placing his back firmly against the door. "You have laid a deep scheme, with a cruel vengeance; but your own weapons are turned against you. Bring your daughter forward, Mr. Hurlhurst. Your presence is also needed, Mr. Brooks," he called.
Nobody regretted Pluma's downfall, although Basil Hurlhurst carefully kept that part of the narrative back. "Oh, it is just like a romance," cried Eve Glenn, rapturously; "but still we must not be disappointed, girls; we must have a wedding all the same. Rex and Daisy must be married over again." Every one was on the tiptoe of expectancy to see the beautiful little heroine of a double romance.
He could not see her face, for she stood in the shadow, and the room was dimly lighted; but he knew that the sweet, pathetic voice was like the sound of silvery bells chiming some half-forgotten strain. "I have come to tell you this wedding can not must not go on to-night!" she cried, excitedly. Basil Hurlhurst certainly thought the young girl standing before him must be mad.
With a smile and a bow, what could Rex do but lead Daisy gracefully forward. Those who witnessed the scene that ensued never forgot it. For answer Pluma Hurlhurst turned coldly, haughtily toward them, drawing herself up proudly to her full height. "There is evidently some mistake here," she said, glancing scornfully at the slight, girlish figure leaning upon Rex Lyon's arm.
"Arouse the household if you dare!" hissed the woman, tightening her hold upon the white arm upon which the jewels flashed and quivered. "If Basil Hurlhurst knew what I know you would be driven from this house before an hour had passed." "I I do not know what you mean," gasped Pluma, her great courage and fortitude sinking before this woman's fearlessness and defiant authority.
She could hear them coupling the names of Rex and Pluma Hurlhurst. Rex her husband! Daisy was blind and stupefied. She groped rather than walked from the library away from the three, who scarcely noticed her absence. Who cared that her heart was broken?
The door was closed, and she stood motionless, trying to understand and realize what she had heard. "Have my senses deceived me?" She said the words over and over to herself. "Did I dream it? Can it even be possible Pluma Hurlhurst is coming here, coming to the home where I should have been? God help me. Coming to comfort Rex my husband!"
I knew I would be brought back the next day, though," laughed Sara. "Mamma is so strict with me. I suppose yours is too?" "I have no mother or father," answered Daisy. "All my life I have lived with John Brooks and his sister Septima, on the Hurlhurst Plantation. I call them aunt and uncle. Septima has often told me no relationship at all existed between us."
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