boy departed and the man considered. It seemed that harm irreparable
was wrought, and a reconciliation, that might have been easy in
Abel's childhood, when he was too young to appreciate their connection,
had now become impossible, since he had grown old enough to understand
it. He would not be Raymond's son. He declined the filial
relationship--doubtless prompted thereto from his earliest days, first
on one admonition, then at another. The leaven had been mixed with his
blood by his mother, in his infant mind by his grandmother, in his soul
by fellow men as he grew towards adolescence.

Yet from Sabina herself the poison had almost passed away. In the light
of these new difficulties she grew anxious, and began to realise how
fatally Abel's possession was standing in his own light. She loved him,
but not passionately. He would soon be sixteen and her point of view
changed. She had listened long to Estelle and began to understand that,
whatever dark memories and errors belonged to Raymond Ironsyde's past,
he designed nothing but generous goodness for their son in the future.

After the meeting with Abel, Raymond saw Sabina and described what had
occurred; but she could only express her regrets. She declared herself
more hopeful than he and promised to reason with the boy to the best of
her power.

"I've never stood against you with him, and I've never stood for you
with him. I've kept out of it and not influenced for or against," she
said. "But now I'll do more than that; I'll try and influence him for
you."

Raymond was obliged.

"I shall be very grateful to you if you can. If there's any human being
who carries weight with him, you do. Such blistering frankness--such
crooked, lightning looks of hate--fairly frighten me. I had no idea any
young creature could feel so much."

"He's going through what I went through, I suppose," she said. "I don't
want to hurt you, or vex you any more. I'm changed now and tired of
quarrelling with things that can't be altered. When we find the world's
sympathy for us is dead, then it's wiser to accept the situation and
cease to run about trying to wake it up again. So I'll try to show him
what the world will be for the likes of him if he hasn't got you behind
him."

"Do--and don't do it bitterly. You can't talk for two minutes about the
past without getting bitter--unconsciously, quite unconsciously, Sabina.
And your unconscious bitterness hurts me far more than it hurts you. But