romantic
enough to love the girl,--an explanation. He would have asked it of
Trafford first if he had seen him. She said Lawless should trust her;
that she had no explanation at that moment to give. If he waited--but
Lawless asked her if she cared for him at all, if she wished or intended
to marry him? She replied lightly, 'Perhaps, when you become Sir Duke
Lawless.' Then Lawless accused her of heartlessness, and of encouraging
both his uncle and Just Trafford. She amusingly said, 'Perhaps she
had, but it really didn't matter, did it?' For reply, Lawless said her
interest in the whole family seemed active and impartial. He bade her
not vex herself at all about him, and not to wait until he became Sir
Duke Lawless, but to give preference to seniority and begin with the
title at once; which he has reason since to believe that she did. What
he said to her he has been sorry for, not because he thinks it was
undeserved, but because he has never been able since to rouse himself
to anger on the subject, nor to hate the girl and Just Trafford as
he ought. Of the dead he is silent altogether. He never sought an
explanation from Just Trafford, for he left that night for London, and
in two days was on his way to Australia. The day he left, however, he
received a note from his banker saying that L8000 had been placed to his
credit by Admiral Lawless. Feeling the indignity of what he believed was
the cause of the gift, Lawless neither acknowledged it nor used it,
not any penny of it. Five years have gone since then, and Lawless has
wandered over two continents, a self-created exile. He has learned much
that he didn't learn at Oxford; and not the least of all, that the world
is not so bad as is claimed for it, that it isn't worth while hating and
cherishing hate, that evil is half-accidental, half-natural, and that
hard work in the face of nature is the thing to pull a man together and
strengthen him for his place in the universe. Having burned his ships
behind him, that is the way Lawless feels. And the story is told."

Just Trafford sat looking musingly but imperturbably at Sir Duke for a
minute; then he said:

"That is your interpretation of the story, but not the story. Let us
turn the medal over now. And, first, let Trafford say that he has the
permission of Emily Dorset--"

Sir Duke interrupted: "Of her who was Emily Dorset."

"Of Miss Emily Dorset, to tell what she did not tell that day five years
ago. After this other rea