dear Grace, I am dying
to see your handwriting at new York, and then fly home and see your dear
self, and never, never quit you more. I have been wonderfully lucky; I
have made my fortune, our fortune. But it hardly pays me for losing the
sight of you so many months. But what I was going to tell you is, that
my method of forging large axes by machinery is wonderfully praised,
and a great firm takes it up on fair terms. This firm has branches in
various parts of the world, and, once my machines are in full work,
Hillsborough will never forge another ax. Man can not suppress
machinery; the world is too big. That bullet sent through Mr. Tyler's
hat loses Great Britain a whole trade. I profit in money by their
short-sighted violence, but I must pay the price; for this will keep me
another week at Chicago, perhaps ten days. Then home I come, with lots
of money to please your father, and an ocean of love for you, who don't
care about the filthy dross; no more do I, except as the paving-stones
on the road to you and heaven, my adored one."

The effect of this letter was prodigious. So fearful had been the
suspense, so great was now the relief, that Coventry felt exultant,
buoyant. He went down to the sea-side, and walked, light as air, by the
sands, and his brain teemed with delightful schemes. Little would come
to Hillsborough soon after the marriage, but what of that?

On the wedding-night he would be at Dover. Next day at Paris, on his way
to Rome, Athens, Constantinople. The inevitable exposure should never
reach his wife until he had so won her, soul and body, that she should
adore him for the crimes he had committed to win her--he knew the female
heart to be capable of that.

He came back from his walk another man, color in his cheek and fire in
his eye.

He walked into the drawing-room, and found Mr. Raby, with his hat on,
just leaving Grace, whose eyes showed signs of weeping.

"I wish you joy, sir," said Raby. "I am to have the honor of being at
your wedding."

"It will add to my happiness, if possible," said Coventry.

To be as polite in deed as in word, he saw Mr. Raby into the fly.

"Curious creatures, these girls," said Raby, shrugging his shoulders.

"She was engaged to me long ago," said Coventry, parrying the blow.

"Ah! I forgot that. Still--well, well; I wish you joy."

He went off, and Coventry returned to Grace. She was seated by the
window looking at the sea.

"What did godpapa say to you?"