e? When I
finished, he explained that he had put Jacques on the road at his own
request, granted as a reward for help during an epidemic in the prison.
Jacques had chosen it."

"Chosen it! Why?"

"Because it was out of doors, beyond the walls. Because he wanted to see
the sky, and trees, and birds. He always loved birds...."

She felt Philip shaking, and with a gesture of infinite tenderness, drew
his head down on her shoulder.

"He had changed so little, dear, so little. But it was years ago. Now he
must seem older. Have you forgotten how he looks? You were such a child
when he went. Glance into your mirror and you will see him again. The
same eyes that flash blue in your dark face, the same smile, the same
look of gentleness; strong gentleness. You are simply your father over
again. That is why I love you so." She laid her cheek on his hair.

If the words brought a stab of pain that was almost unendurable, she did
not guess it. From the moment her first child was laid in her arms,
Kate, like many another woman, regarded herself as a mother to all
mankind. For her, this was the boy Jacques had left in her care, the
husband she had chosen for her own little girl; doubly, therefore, her
son. That she was less than ten years his senior, the one beautiful
woman in his world, the heroine of all a young man's idealism--of these
things she was as unaware as of the fact that Jacques' boy had long ago
left boyhood behind him.

He stayed where she lightly held him, his head rigid upon her shoulder,
conscious in every fiber of his being of the cheek pressing his hair,
the warmth and fragrance of her, the rise and fall of her soft
bosom--praying with all the strength that was in him to become to this
beloved woman only the son she thought him, nothing more, never anything
more. The Benoix men came of a race of great lovers.

She released him presently and he rose, moving with a curious stiffness
as of muscles consciously controlled.

"What, going so soon? I have so much more to say to you about him--but
there! You look tired--you look not quite happy, Philip. What is it? Are
you still wondering what to do with him? Don't! Leave that to me, dear.
And now go straight to bed and get a good night's rest. To-morrow we
shall begin on the petition--our last, thank God! I will see the men the
Governor mentions myself."

When he was gone, she sat a while longer in the dark. She was not quite
ready yet to face strangers, to face