ll it had to do with Meryl, and he did
not want her to see his secret in his face. In fact, he did not wish
to speak of the subject at all.

Ailsa stood silently a moment, looking at his back, and then she said
very quietly, "I have heard the story of your past life. I ... I ...
know it all."

For a moment there was such a stillness in the room that one could
almost hear heart beats. The figure in the window never moved.

"Who told you?..." he asked at last.

"Mr. Henry Delcombe, the scientist, who was a great friend of your
father's."

Another silence. At last--

"Is he in Rhodesia now?"

"He is here, in Salisbury. He will not tell anyone else," she added.
"He told me because ... because ... he perceived that Billy and I
cared for you very much, and for your happiness." She moved a little
nearer to him, and continued gently, "I felt almost as if I could
break my heart with sympathy for you,--and that you should have borne
such memories all these years, _alone_."

"I have put them behind me," he said, speaking almost harshly. "The
past is dead. What does it matter who and what I was before?... To-day
I am a Rhodesian, and my work is _here_. I shall remain here now until
I die."

"You may not be able to do that," and her voice had suddenly a ring in
it that seemed to arrest him.

"Why may I not?"

"Because presently--very soon perhaps--you will have to answer to a
call that requires you in England."

He half turned to her, waiting silently and unmoved, with grave eyes
fixed on the distance.

She came a step nearer. "Mr. Delcombe told me also, that because of
many changes that have taken place in the sixteen years since you cut
yourself adrift from home, you are now heir to the marquisate of
Toxeter. When the present marquis dies you will succeed him."

It seemed at first as if he heard without understanding. Once more
there was a silence in which one might hear heart beats.

"Will you let me congratulate you?" Ailsa asked a little timidly.

"I think he must have been dreaming," he said in slow comment.

"No; there is no doubt about it whatever. He will tell you himself if
you will let him. He wants to see you very much."

And still he was only silent, gazing, gazing to the far distance. If
it was true, how was it he had never heard?... Could it possibly all
have transpired during the times he had been away shooting in the far
north, or out on the veldt, away from newspapers for months?

"There i