CHAPTER V

THE AIR OF CONQUEST 172

CHAPTER VI

TRAMPLED ROSES 217

CHAPTER VII

SOME PEOPLE FIND THEIR KINGDOMS 262

CHAPTER VIII

ROUND THE CORNER 311

The Illustrations by

W.D. Stevens

"I'M SORRY," TABS APOLOGIZED. "I DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING
UNKIND." (Page 33) _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

TABS EXTENDED HIS HAND. BRAITHWAITE MADE NO MOTION
TO TAKE IT. 130

"MRS. LOCKWOOD, WHY CAN'T YOU LET ADAIR ALONE?" 172

"I WAS AFRAID YOU HAD LEFT" 324

_The_ Kingdom Round the Corner

CHAPTER THE FIRST

AN ALTERED WORLD

I

It was on a blustering March morning in 1919 that Tabs regained his
freedom. His last five months had been spent among doctors, having
sundry bullets extracted from his legs. He walked with a limp which was
not too perceptible unless he grew tired. His emotions were similar to
those of a man newly released from gaol: he felt dazed, vaguely happy
and a little lost. He felt dazed because he hadn't remembered that the
world was so wide and so complicated. He felt lost because he was
discovering that this wasn't the same old world that he had left in
1914. It hadn't paid him the compliment of marking time during his
absence; it had marched impolitely forward. He would have to hurry to
overtake it. What made him feel most lost at the moment was the fact
that he had only just realized how his bravest years had been escaping.
The reason for this realization was Terry. He had been accustomed to
think of himself as in the first flush of manhood, with all life's
conquests still lying ahead; it was therefore a little disconcerting to
be told, as a matter of course, that he had only four more years to go
till he was forty. "I'll be there at the station to meet you," Terry had
written him. And then, she had added laughingly, "Father orders me to
say that he only gives his permission because you're such an old friend
and nearly middle-aged."

Middle-aged! He, Tabs, middle-aged! The thought was appalling. It was a
slander so almost true as to be incapable of disproving. He had to-day,
to-morrow, and the next day; after that people would have the right to
s