After All;

seven inmates twenty-two were still missing , and it was feared they had all perished . Redtaper was well attended by the doctors , Violet insisting on helping in various ways , and many little comforts were soon prepared b y her hands , though she had hardly recovered her fright yet . Indeed , shortly after she herself had taken some restoratives , she fell asleep , and did not wake for twelve hours .

During the next five weeks she was the almost constant attendant at his bedside , smoothing his pillow , anticipating his desires , soothing his pain , and showing infinite tenderness in her kind solicitude and loving devotion . In Redtaper's eyes she was a more beautiful creature than ever , and his love increased . She in her turn truly loved her hero and saviour with more than the delirious love she had experienced for Humberton , and she had promised

to be his wife . But she had overtaxed her strength by her devoted vigils and care for Redtaper , and she sank under the strain . A week's rest and medicine , however , brought her back to health , and in three months they were to be married . Redtaper was well again , though his face was marred by the disfiguring fire . But she loved him the more for that , and they determined that nothingshould now prevent their union . She had renounced the nun ' s life for ever . Redtaper had not the slighest suspicion that her love was simply the feeling of

deep and dutiful gratitude to her preserver—it was too ardent , too earnest for that . Quietly they Avere married , and happy , happy was their wedded life as a poetic dream . The queenly Violet loved her brave and persevering husband ( who was almost a head less than herself ) with a love that had perhaps just the slightest tinge of patronage in it ; while he adored her . Long was the honeymoon they spent at fashionable Brighton , aud loth were they both to leave the p lace . There was almost a longing visible in Violet's beautiful face to go back to the festive city by the sea . There she could not help observing how

she had been universally admired , and her piquant dresses tended greatly to heighten her attractive beauty . Foolishly she had permitted a photographer to display her photographs in his conspicuous window , and after some persuasion allowed him to sell them , the consequence being that the photographer made a little fortune out of it , and Violet a proportion of it . This was too flattering for her vanity to resist , and she felt she was fast becoming a professional beauty ; indeed she was the belle of Brighton for that season . Naturally

Redtaper did not exactly like it , but he could ' refuse his dear wife nothing , and she knew how entirely he was in her power , and she easily turned all his chagrin into kisses . So she had her own way , and now she was in London ; the town began to buzz and echo with her name and beauty , a name and beauty that had before been unknown , and now was on every lip . . Happy were the privileged ones who managed to creep into her society , and were held spellbound by her imperial vivacity , her brilliant beauty , and swift repartee . The

moths flew round the candle , dazzled by the unusual glare . Yes , the city went into raptures over her , and Redtaper became the friend of the nobility , though not for his oivn sake . ' It was not the happiness he had wished for ; he did not care to knoiv that hundreds had fallen in love -with his lovely and accomplished wife , and that she Avas the most popular woman in London . Still she ivas his , and true and loyal to him ; still she had kisses and caresses for him ; her love had not faded by her new passion yet , though he feared what it might lead to ;

for she was veritably the favourite idol of the hour , the fancied queen of the " crutch and toothpick " fraternity , ay , and of the aristocracy . She had risen from the frothy foam of the past , and burst like a brilliant bubble upon the susceptible hearts and minds of her admirers—the incomparable , the indefinable , piquant , beautiful Venus of the modern Bab ylon—literally empress of all she surveyed , for London was at her feet ; her intoxicating presence flashed its dazing splendour upon the electrified citizens of the mighty metropolis .