uld consent to
your union with Lucie, and withdraw my opposition to your immediate
marriage, he would take your future in charge and put you in the way of
political advancement only to be limited, as he says, by your talents,
which he is good enough to rate very high.

After this, how can I do otherwise than bid you follow your impulses
and marry Lucie in spite of the disparity of years to which I have
hitherto taken exception. Were she as poor as she is accounted rich,
I should say the same, now that I have sounded the depths of her lovely
disposition and the rare culture of a mind which those seven years have
enriched beyond what is usual even in women of intellect. Her money
does not influence me in her favor, nor does it weigh with me in my
present opinion of her complete fitness for the position you are so
eager to give her. That this will make you happy I know. Let it hasten
your return which cannot be too speedy.

This was the bombshell which had disturbed Carleton Roberts' complacency,
bared his own soul to his horrified view, and revealed to him the
weakness of his moral nature which he had hitherto considered strong. For
his first impulse was one of recoil, not only from the secret marriage
which shut him off from these new hopes, but from his youthful bride as
well. He found himself weary of his flowery bonds and eager for a man's
life in his native city. Oh, why had he urged this immature girl to take
the ride which had led him into slavery to one who could not advance him
in life, however queen-like she moved and talked and smiled upon the
world from the heights of her physical perfections. It was brain that was
needed--an understanding like Lucie's, tempered, like hers, by years, not
months, of culture and refined association.

It was at this point he paused in his restless walk and looked for
inspiration to the far-off waters of the bluest of all seas.

Suddenly he resumed his walk; then quickly stopping again sat down at his
desk and with an air of desperate haste began a letter to his mother with
the announcement:

It is too late. Unfortunately for your scheme, I am already....

He never got any further. A fresh impulse drove him into the street. He
could not thus summarily settle his future fate. It meant too much to
him. He must take time to think. His heart clamors loudly for its rights;
he is only twenty-six--and in a rush of feeling which should have been
his sal