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If Celeste expected Nora to exhibit any signs of distress over the

approaching departure, she was disappointed In truth, Nora was secretly

pleased to be rid of these two suitors, much as she liked them The Barone

had not yet proposed, and his sudden deterreeable possibility She was glad Abbott was going

because she had hurt hiht of him was, in

spite of her innocence, a constant reproach Presently she would have her

work, and there would be no time for loneliness

The person who suffered keenest was Celeste She ake; the tender

little dreaile

fingers stumbled, and she played re, Rubinstein, MacDowell And Nora, perversely enough, sang froht opera

When the two men departed, Celeste went to her room and Nora out upon the

terrace It was after five No one was about, so far as she could see She

stood enchanted over the transfor the mountains

and the lakes How she loved the spot! How she would have liked to spend

the rest of her days here! And how beautiful all the world was to-day!

She gave a frightened little screa pair of arain, but the sound was muffled and blotted

out by the pressure of a led violently,

and suddenly was freed