CHAPTER XXXVII.

After Vivian Deane had learned of the estrangement of Eugene and Ida, she made up her mind that she would part them forever.

But how? She thought over the matter long and earnestly. She was standing in the magnificent drawing-room one morning, when Arthur Hollis entered.

"How does it happen that you are not out for a canter on horseback with our host and Captain Drury?" she asked. "This is such a delightful morning."

"Ah, Miss Deane," he replied, laughingly, showing a handsome set of white teeth, "I was just bemoaning that fact. But I had some important letters to write, and I was obliged to remain in my room and finish them."

At that moment they saw their young hostess crossing the lawn. Vivian saw Arthur Hollis look after her with a long, steady, earnest gaze, until she was quite out of their sight.

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"Are you admiring our young hostess?" she asked, suddenly, with something like a frown on her face.

"Yes," he answered, frankly. "I was just thinking that Mrs. Mallard has the sweetest face and most charming manner of any woman I ever met."

"Then you admire her style of beauty?" said Vivian, a little piqued.

"Yes, very much," said Arthur Hollis. "If I had met her before she married our friend Eugene, I think I should have fallen in love with her myself."

The words were innocent enough; but Arthur Hollis never for a moment dreamed of the terrible mischief they were to do in the after years.

Those words so simply uttered sent a thrill through the heart of the girl who listened.

"Ah, I have it!" she said to herself. "A way is opened to me at last to part Eugene Mallard and his wife. I will encourage Arthur Hollis's admiration for the beautiful Ida. Men are easily flattered. There is no knowing what the end will be."

It was a plot worthy of a fiend incarnate; but this girl, who loved Eugene Mallard, would stop at nothing to gain her end.