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ane ,
A DREADFUL TEMPTATION, ge
- 7 his blue ¢ eyes resting sadly on ‘the wreck of the beautiful
ora,
been restored to her.’
‘Why did we not think of vr ocur ing a substitute for the
child?” exclaimed Howard, suddenly. ‘If we could have.
tion have saved her life?”
“Such a plan might’ have been tried,” said the doctor,
- thoughtfully... ‘*But it must have been a terrible risk to
tell her the truth even after her recovery. | , she is. very
nervous, and her organization is high-strung.”
Even as he spoke, the grayness and pallor of death set-
ted over Lora's 's beautiful, wasted features. eos
CHAPTER: XXI.,
OMy love, you are simply perfect. ‘You look ike a oo
- bride.” . -
Mrs. Carroll spoke enthusiastically, and her. daughter.
7 flushed brightly with gratified pride and pleasure.
She was standing before the long cheval-glass in her. .
dressing- room. She was about to attended a ball at Mrs.
_ Egerton’s, and her maid had just. put the finishing touches |
‘to her toilet.
It was no wonder that Mrs.. Carr oll’s admiration had
broken out into enthusiastic words. Xenie’ 8 loveliness was.
dazzling, her toilet perfection. . ~
She wore a dress of the rarest and. costliest cream-whita os
+ Jace over a robe of cream-colored satin. The frosty net-
work. of the over- -dress was looped here. and there with.
-. diamond stars.
A necklace of -diamonds was clasped ar ound her white |
throat, a diamond star-twinkled in. the dark waves of her~
luxuriant hair, and. the same rich jewels shone on_ her ~
| - breast and at her tiny, shell-like cars.
» Her dark and brilliant beauty shone forth regally from 4 .
- the costly setting.
Her eyes outr ivaled the diamonds, her. satin skin was as:
creamily fair as her satin robe, her ‘scarlet: lips were like.
rosebuds touched with dew. a
No wonder that Mrs. Carroll caught her breath i ina kind yo
of ecstacy at the resplendent vision.
More t an a year had passed since that dark and rainy
“T have done all that the medical art can do,” declar ed —
- the physician, ‘‘but all to no avail. She has sustained a
terrible shock. Her dreadful tramp through the-wind and.
' rain the day she came here was enough to have killed her.
-But her constitution was a superb one, end I believed that
I might have saved her after all, if the child could: have © ee
put another child in its place might not the innocent decep- ve
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