row. I would, by
Jove!"

"Your mistake was entirely natural," said Sedgwick. "Had my father wanted
all my money, he could have got it for the asking. Do not talk about
going to America; that would be 'conduct unbecoming an officer and a
gentleman'; it would be a cowardly desertion in the face of the enemy.
Then, you have never been very well since your ducking down on the Sussex
coast; and, besides, you have entered into obligations here so sacred
that you must not permit a little whim, or even a great disappointment,
to lead you to think about trying to break them. Let us go to sleep now.
To-morrow we will talk over this matter more fully. I want a few more
hours to think and to make up my mind what is best to do." Jack returned
to his room, and the lights were put out.

CHAPTER XIV.

TEARS AND ORANGE FLOWERS.

In the morning Sedgwick got a cup of coffee early, and was just going
out, when Grace came running up to him in the hall.

"I believe you were running away," she said gaily, and, seizing his arm,
declared that he was her prisoner.

He told her that it was true he was running away, but would be back
before very long, and would then, he thought, explain everything.

"Then I am still very angry," said she. "I am going to my room to make a
calculation how much I am being slighted, and to consult the fates as to
what penalties shall be prescribed before you can possibly hope for
forgiveness." Then she smiled, stretched out her hand to be kissed by
him, then opened the door and said softly, "Do not be too long away."

Sedgwick went again to Jordan's hotel; found him and told him briefly all
that had happened; all about Browning, the love affairs of both, and how
Jack had been taken in on the mine; ran over the prospectus of the "Wedge
of Gold," and explained that he meant to visit the property; that if it
could be made available with the means he had, he intended to improve it
and bring Jack's shares up to cost; that no one but his Grace and her
mother was to know when he went away, that he was not going to America,
and that he wanted some one with him who understood gold quartz.

Jordan listened with increasing interest as the story was told,
interrupting only when Sedgwick spoke of his love for Grace Meredith, and
when he explained how Jack had been swindled.

To the first he joyfully responded: "I am glad, old boy, blast my
broad-horned heart if I aint! She's a daisy; she's a real woman; and I
t