An Old Man's Darling

g between[Pg 31] Bonnibel Vere and Colonel Carlyle wh

had developed a new phase of her trouble. A great

re even the memory of her Uncle Francis. She had brooded over Leslie's strange silence until her

uld murmur wildly as she paced the floor, wringing her beautiful hands and weeping. "Either Leslie has

r pillow, began to return, and in long and heavy slumbers she would lose for a little while the memory of the handsome artist so deeply loved in that brief and beautifu

lence, and containing the whole story of her uncle's tragic death. She had begged him to send her just one little line to assure her that s

t was that she, little Bonnibel Vere, who looked so much like a child, with her short hair, and baby-blue eyes, was really a wife. But for the shining opal ri

ed street, filled with eager shoppers, for Christmas was drawing ne

et and sleety pavement. "That means 'the Lord watch between thee

e could not think, but the next moment she felt one ankle twisting suddenly beneath her with a dreadful pain in it,[Pg 32] and found herself falling to the ground. With an exclamation of t

reach her was a gentleman who was coming out of a jewe

erly, and a woman res

on her feet and thank them

ed her that she could not stand upon it. She uttered a

sprained," she said, "

beauty of the sufferer. "Here is my carriage at the curbston

ely speak, but she murmured brokenly: "Fifth Avenue, number --," and with a slight exc

the satin cushions of the carri

hly faintness that was stealing over her, "but I think you must be Miss Bonnibel Ver

recalling the gossip of her maid, Lucy. So this was Colonel Carlyle,

fact, for the curling locks that still clustered abundantly on his head were

ark and piercing, though he could not have been less than seventy years old. He was

bel answered, quietly, "but I cannot imagine how y

of meeting you, though I have frequently visited at your home. But the fame of Miss Vere's bea

g

of his words or tone jarred upon her. Besides, she was in

iteness of her fac

ear you are sufferi

admitted, throug

l be at home, and can have medical attention. Sprains are quite ser

g her lips to repress the moan of pain that trembled on them

tudying the beautiful, pa

of deep sympathy shining on

nel Carlyle," she said, gently. "Believe m

mately in the army, Miss Vere. We were friends, though the general was my junior in age and my superior in rank.

the father who had died in her infancy, but whose memory

f him, Colonel Carlyle. Let my

e, feeling that those timely words of his had gained him a gre

terms when, with a faint cry, she sank back against the cushions and clos

head on his arm until the carriage stopped in front of Mrs. Arnold's splendid brown-stone mansion. Then he careful

and alarm at his burden, but silently threw open the drawing-room d

insensible Bonnibel down upon the sofa. She looked like one dead as she lay there

pping[Pg 34] forward, as he bent over Bonnibel, while her

"and has sustained some serious injury. She has suffer

bruptly, and almost rudel

looked at her in

e explained, rather coolly, "when the accident occurred, an

e hated, wished in her heart that Bonnibel Vere might never recov