CHAPTER XXIV.
_NO_ other result than the one that followed could have been hoped for.
The strain upon Edith was too great.

After the funeral of her mother mind and body gave way, and she passed several weeks in a half-unconscious state.
Two women, leading actors in this tragedy of life, met for the first time in over two years--Mrs.Hoyt, _alias_ Bray, and Pinky Swett.

It had not gone very well with either of them during that period.

Pinky, as the reader knows, had spent the time in prison, and Mrs.Bray, who had also gone a step too far in her evil ways, was now hiding from the police under a different name from any heretofore assumed.

They met, by what seemed an accident, on the street.
"Pinky!" "Fan!" Dropped from their lips in mutual surprise and pleasure.