I do not know what to say in reply. So I drop my eyes and mentally anathematize my own stupidity.
"Do you know why she refused to come?" she persists.
While I still hesitate, Jim--I must say Jim--touches my arm.
"Your delicacy is commendable," he says in my ear. "But would it not be better to tell Mrs. Bethel the truth, than to allow her to think the woman she has befriended, ungrateful?"
I feel that he is wise and I am foolish; so I lift my eyes to her face and say:
"Mrs. Bethel, Adele Lowenstein had one secret that you never guessed. If you had seen her, as I saw her, at the bedside of your husband, on the day after the attempt upon his life, _you_, of all women in the world, would understand best why she is not at your wedding to-day."
She utters a startled exclamation, and her eyes turn involuntarily to where Carl Bethel stands, tall and splendid, among his guests; then a look of pitying tenderness comes into her face.
"Poor Adele!" she says softly, and turns slowly away.
"Adele Lowenstein is not the woman to forget easily," I say to my companion. "But there," and I nod toward Gerry Brown, "is the man who would willingly teach her the lesson."
"Then," says Jim, contentedly, "it is only a question of time. Gerry Brown is bound to win."
Madeline Payne, the Expert's Daughter; with 44 Illustrations. Price, $1.50.
Shadowed by Three; with 55 Illustrations. Price, $1.50.
Sold on all Railway trains, by all Booksellers, and sent postpaid, on receipt of price, by the Publishers.
_Dangerous Ground; or, The Rival Detectives._
By LAWRENCE L. LYNCH. Illustrated by 45 original Engravings. Price, $1.50.
Its incidents are splendidly handled. There is not a dull page or line in it. Dick Stanhope is a character to be admired for his courage; while one's deepest sympathies twine about the noble, tender-hearted Leslie Warburton.
_Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter._
By LAWRENCE L. LYNCH. Illustrated by 44 original Engravings. Price, $1.50.
"One of the most fascinating of modern novels. It combines the excitement that ever attends the intricate and hazardous schemes of a detective, together with as cunningly elaborated a plot as the best of Wilkie Collins' or Charles Reade's."
By LAWRENCE L. LYNCH. Illustrated by 36 original Engravings. Price, $1.50.
