Like an echo from that pent-up murmur of feeling which had rippled
through the crowded court many years ago, his little group of auditors
almost gasped as Lovell left his place and strolled down the room.
Aynesworth laid his hand upon his shoulder.

"All the time," he said, "you were looking at that calendar! Why?"

Lovell once more faced them. He was standing with his back to a round
table, strewn with papers and magazines.

"It was the date," he said, "and the fact that I must leave England
within a few hours, which forced this story from me. Tomorrow Wingrave
will be free! Listen, Aynesworth," he continued, turning towards him,
"and the rest of you who fancy that it is I who am leaving a humdrum
city for the world of tragedies! I leave you the legacy of a greater one
than all Asia will yield to me! Lady Ruth is married to Lumley, and
they hold today in London a very distinguished social position. Tomorrow
Wingrave takes a hand in the game. He was once my friend; I was in court
when he was tried; I was intimately acquainted with the lawyer's clerk
who had the arrangement of his papers. I know what no one else breathing
knows. He is a man who never forgives; a man who was brutally deceived,
and who for years has had no other occupation than to brood upon
his wrongs. He is very wealthy indeed, still young, he has marvelous
tenacity of purpose, and he has brains. Tomorrow he will be free!"

Aynesworth drew a little breath.

"I wonder," he murmured, "if anything will happen."

Lovell shrugged his shoulders.

"Where I go," he said, "the cruder passions may rage, and life and
death be reckoned things of little account. But you who remain--who can
tell?--you may look into the face of mightier things."

OUTSIDE THE PALE

Three men were together in a large and handsomely furnished sitting room
of the Clarence Hotel, in Piccadilly. One, pale, quiet, and unobtrusive,
dressed in sober black, the typical lawyer's clerk, was busy gathering
up a collection of papers and documents from the table, over which they
had been strewn. His employer, who had more the appearance of a country
gentleman than the junior partner in the well-known firm of Rocke and
Son, solicitors, had risen to his feet, and was drawing on his gloves.
At the head of the table was the client.

"I trust, Sir Wingrave, that you are satisfied with this account of our
stewardship," the solicitor said, as his clerk left the room. "We have
felt it a gre