Page:The Fate of Fenella (1892).djvu/176

 to God she were not! I have to thank Mme. de Vigny for all my misery. If I had never set eyes on that woman, Fenella and I might have been living happily together at this moment. It was she who came between us, curse her!"

"Mme. de Vigny!" exclaimed Helen, with a red flush mantling in her cheek, "O Frank, if only I had known, nothing on earth would have induced me to give Ronny up into her charge. Poor dear little Ronny! Why, she is an odious woman—an abominable woman!"

"I quite agree," he said moodily. "But abuse cannot alter the fact of her having stolen my boy. I can't think, though, how you let him go."

"She came here, Frank," continued Mrs. Grandison, in self-defense, "and some instinct warned me against her. I refused at first to accede to her request, but she was so urgent that at last I believed she was really empowered by you to take Ronny away. See, here is your card, which she produced in token of the genuineness of her errand." And so saying, Helen turned to the mantelpiece and showed Frank his card. He looked at it, then snatched up his hat and prepared to leave.

"This is a bad business," he said tremulously. "A very bad business, indeed; I would not have had it happen for a year's income. But perhaps you can tell me where Mme. de Vigny is to be found?"