She went away at last, having utterly failed in all her efforts to cajole Flower into a solemn promise to marry Lord Clive.

"I could not deceive him so, and I am too proud to confess my bitter secret to him; so, in a short while I shall break my engagement," the girl said, with sorrowful firmness.

Jewel repressed all expression of her hate for her half-sister as much as possible. She wanted to be on good terms with her in order to further her own nefarious designs.

But it was very hard to keep her temper when the poor girl, meekly dismissing her own grievances, asked, eagerly:

"Jewel, do you ever go to see mam—I mean your mother?"

"No, never! I stood her ravings at home until I became almost as mad as she was, and I have no fancy for a second experience! The doctor keeps me posted as to her condition."

"But, Jewel, will you not go and see her once? I do not believe she is mad now, for even so long ago as that day in the grave-yard she seemed to me almost sane. And, with kind treatment, she ought to have been cured by this time. Poor soul! I feel so sorry for her. I can not forget that she gave me a mother's love for seventeen years."

"The doctor never told me of her escape that time," Jewel said, angrily.

"He looked like a bad man," Flower said. "Perhaps she is in her right mind now, and you ought to take her away into a pleasant home and make her life endurable."

An angry frown drew Jewel's brows together.

"Oh, stop your preaching!" she exclaimed, impatiently. "Mamma is incurably insane, and will never come out of that asylum alive!" and with that she took her leave, smiling wickedly as she went along the broad corridors of the large hotel.

Flower began to pace quickly up and down the room, but was arrested by Marie, who caught her arm and held her back.

"Look there upon the floor, Miss Brooke," she said. "Ah, she was vair cunning. She thought we did not see her place the little box under the chair, when she stooped to arrange her skirts! Ugh, it is no doubt a dynamite bomb!"

"Ah, no, no, Marie, she could not do that, and she my half-sister!" shuddered Flower.

"And your rival," added the French maid, knowingly. "See, mademoiselle, you will come into the anteroom. I will open the back window which looks down on a brick-paved yard. There is no one near. Wait, I will bring the little box very careful, afraid of my life. I toss it from the window. See!"

The box, only half as long as her hand, a simple, innocent-looking thing, was hurled quickly from the window. There was the swift sound of a crash on the pavement, followed by a loud explosion. Marie shut down the window with a bang, and caught the trembling figure in her arms.

"You understand, ma'amselle, that your rival is fully determined to sweep you from her path," she said, warningly. "If you had struck your little foot sharply against that box in walking, or drawn forward the chair over it, there must have been an explosion that would have ended both your life and mine!"

Flower shuddered and hid her pallid face in her hands, wondering at the wickedness of her half-sister.

"But I was watching very close," Maria continued, complacently. "This is twice I've foiled that wicked woman. You must look to yourself, my gentle-hearted lady, for terrible danger lurks near you. She fears and hates you, and she will keep on trying to kill you. If you take my advice you will deliver her up to the authorities."

"Oh, how can I do that? She is my sister! Besides, he loves her, Marie!" Flower sighed.

"And shows vair bad taste, in my opinion, ma'amselle," the maid replied, candidly, and added, "and you show vair poor judgment in letting her go free."