f that sense of
apartness which underlay his smile than from any perception of the man's
real nature or of the awesome purpose which at that moment exalted
it. But had they known--could they have seen into this tumultuous
heart--what a silence would have settled upon these noisy streets; and
in what terror and soul-confusion would each man have slunk away from
his fellows into the quiet and solitude of his own home.

Brotherson himself was not without a sense of the incongruity underlying
this ovation; for, as he slowly worked himself along, the brightness of
his look became dimmed with a tinge of sarcasm which in its turn gave
way to an expression of extreme melancholy--both quite unbefitting the
hero of the hour in the first flush of his new-born glory. Had he seen
Doris' youthful figure emerge for a moment from the vine-hung porch he
was approaching, bringing with it some doubt of the reception awaiting
him? Possibly, for he made a stand before he reached the house, and sent
his followers back; after which he advanced with an unhurrying step,
so that several minutes elapsed before he finally drew up before Mr.
Scott's door and entered through the now empty porch into his brother's
sitting-room.

He had meant to see Doris first, but his mind had changed. If all passed
off well between himself and Oswald, if he found his brother responsive
and wide-awake to the interests and necessities of the hour, he might
forego his interview with her till he felt better prepared to meet
it. For call it cowardice or simply a reasonable precaution, any delay
seemed preferable to him in his present mood of discouragement, to that
final casting of the die upon which hung so many and such tremendous
issues. It was the first moment of real halt in his whole tumultuous
life! Never, as daring experimentalist or agitator, had he shrunk from
danger seen or unseen or from threat uttered or unuttered, as he shrank
from this young girl's no; and something of the dread he had felt lest
he should encounter her unaware in the hall and so be led on to speak
when his own judgment bade him be silent, darkened his features as he
entered his brother's presence.

But Oswald was sunk in a bitter revery of his own, and took no heed
of these signs of depression. In the re-action following these days of
great excitement, the past had re-asserted itself, and all was gloom in
his once generous soul. This, Orlando had time to perceive, quick as the
change c