earted judge who condemned a guilty prisoner out of her own
mouth.

"Alban Kennedy has many good qualities," she said. "I think he is very
worthy of your generosity."

"Ah, you like him, I perceive. Let us suppose, Anna, that my intentions
toward him were to go beyond anything I had imagined--suppose, being no
longer under any compulsion in the matter, the compulsion of an
imaginary obligation which does not exist, I were still to consider him
as my own son. Would you be surprised then at my conduct?"

"It would not surprise me," she said. "You have always wished for a son.
Alban is the most original boy of his age I have ever met. He is clever
and absurdly honest. I don't think you would regret any kindness you may
show to him."

"And you yourself?"

"What have I to do with it, father?"

"It might concern you very closely, Anna."

"In what way, father?"

"In the only way which would concern a woman. Suppose that I thought of
him as your husband?"

She flushed crimson.

"Have you spoken to him on the matter?"

"No, but being about to speak to him--after dinner to-night."

"I should defer my opinion until that has happened."

He laughed as though the idea of it amused him very much.

"Of course, he will have nothing to do with us, Anna. What is a fortune
to such a fine fellow? What is a great house--and I say it--a very
beautiful wife? Of course, he will refuse us. Any boy would do that,
especially one who has been brought up in Union Street. Now go and look
for him in the garden. I must tell Geary to have that cheque drawn
out--and mind you, if I meet that fellow Forrest, I will half kill him
just to show my good opinion of him. This nonsense must end to-night.
Remember, it is a promise to me."

She shrugged her shoulders and left the room with slow steps. Gessner,
still smiling, turned up a lamp by his writing-table and took out his
cheque-book.

CHAPTER XVIII

FATE IRONICAL

They were a merry party at the dinner-table, and the Reverend Silas
Geary amused them greatly by his discussion of that absorbing topic, is
golf worth playing? He himself, good man, deplored the fact that several
worthy persons who, otherwise, would have been working ten or twelve
hours a day as Cabinet ministers, deliberately toiled in the sloughs and
pits of the golf course.

"The whole nation is chasing a little ball," he said; "we deplore the
advance of Germany, but, I would ask you, how does the German spend