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East Lynne

By MRS. HENRY WOOD Condensation by RUTH H. FROST LEFT a penniless orphan when a timid and sensitive girl of eighteen, the beautiful Lady Isabel Vane found herself at the mercies of an unsympathetic relative. In her innocence she admired a certain frequent visitor at this home--Captain Francis Levison, an unprincipled spendthrift. Beyond heartlessly leading her on to care for him, he made no honorable mention of marriage. Small wonder was it then that she accepted Archibald Carlyle, when that worthy and straightforward country lawyer, the purchaser of her father's estate at East Lynne, took courage because of her distress over her unpleasant surroundings to ask her hand in marriage. "I ought to tell you--I must," she confessed to him in hysterical tears. "Though I have said 'yes,' I do not--yet--This has come upon me so by surprise," she stammered. "I like you very much; I esteem and respect you; but I do not yet love you." "I should wonder if you did," Archibald replied. "But you will let me earn your love, Isabel?" "Oh yes," she earnestly answered, "I hope so."

Passively she let him have his first kiss. "My dearest," he said "it is all I ask."