True Loves Reward | Page 6

for me, but she is dead gone on
young Palmer; and if you drive her away, the next you'll know she will
forestall you in the Palmer mansion."
Mrs. Montague grew pale at this shaft, and sat for several moments
absorbed in thought.
"I thought that he was in love with Walter Dinsmore's protegee, Mona
Montague," she at last remarked, with a bitter inflection.
A peculiar smile flitted over Louis Hamblin's lips at this remark. But he
quickly repressed it, and replied:
"So I heard and thought at one time; but he was deeply smitten with
Ruth the night of the Hazeldean ball, and never left her side after
refreshments; they sat in the balcony, half concealed by the draperies,
until after one o'clock."
"You don't mean it!" Mrs. Montague exclaimed, with a start and frown.
"Then the girl is more artful than I thought; but, on the whole, I'm not
sure but that I should prefer to have Ray Palmer marry Ruth Richards
rather than Mona Montague--it might be better for me in the end. I
wonder where she is. I am almost sorry--"
She broke off suddenly, but added, after a moment:
"I don't know, Louis--I am somewhat perplexed. If, as you say, Ray
Palmer is so deeply smitten with Ruth he must have gotten over his
penchant for the other girl. I will think over your proposition, and tell
you my conclusion later."

An expression of triumph swept over Louis Hamblin's face, but quickly
assuming a grateful look, he remarked:
"Thank you, Aunt Margie--if you'll bring that about I'll be your loyal
slave for life."
Mrs. Montague's lips curled slightly at his extravagant language, but
she made no reply to it.
Presently, however, she asked:
"When are you going to attend to that matter of business for me? I do
not think it ought to be delayed any longer."
"Blast it! I am tired of business," responded her dutiful nephew
impatiently, adding: "I suppose the sooner I go, though, the quicker it
will be over."
"Yes, I want everything fixed secure before my marriage, for I intend to
manage my own private affairs afterward, the same as before," his
companion returned.
Louis laughed with some amusement.
"You ought to have been a man, Aunt Marg; your spirit is altogether
too self-reliant and independent for a woman," he said.
"I know it; but being a woman, I must try to make the best of the
situation in the future, as I have done all my life," she returned, with a
self-conscious smile.
"Well, I will look after that matter right away--get your instructions
ready and I will be off within an hour or two," said the young man, as
he rose and went out, while Mrs. Montague proceeded directly to her
own room.
CHAPTER III.

MONA FORESTER.
While Louis Hamblin and Mrs. Montague were engaged in the
discussion mentioned in the preceding chapter, below stairs Mona sat
in the sewing-room reading the paper of the previous evening. She was
waiting for Mrs. Montague to come up to give her some directions
about a dress which she was repairing before she could go on with it.
She had read the general news and was leisurely scanning the
advertisement columns, as people often do without any special object
in view, when her eye fell upon these lines:
WANTED--INFORMATION REGARDING A PERSON named Mona
Forester, or her heirs, if any there be. Knowledge to her or their
advantage is in the possession of CORBIN & RUSSEL,
No.--Broadway, N. Y.
Mona lost all her color as she read this.
"Can it be possible that there is any connection between this Mona
Forester and my history?" she murmured thoughtfully; "Mona is a very
uncommon name--it cannot be that my mother's surname was Forester,
since she was Uncle Walter's sister. Perhaps this Mona Forester may
have been some relative for whom she was named--possibly an aunt, or
even her mother, and thus I may be one of the heirs. But," she
interrupted herself and smiled, "what a romantic creature I am, to be
weaving such a story out of a mere advertisement! Still," she added,
more thoughtfully, "this woman's heirs cannot be very numerous or it
would not be necessary to advertise for them."
She carefully cut out the lines from the paper, slipped the clipping into
her pocket-book, then took up her work just as Mrs. Montague entered
the room.
She gave instructions regarding the alterations she wished made, and
then left Mona by herself again. All day long Mona's mind kept
recurring to the advertisement she had cut from the paper, while she
had an instinctive feeling that she might be in some way connected

with Mona Forester, although how she could not comprehend.
"It would be useless for me to go to Corbin &