f that he forgot, Nell, while
he was sailing from port to port, or shooting big game in the wild and
desolate places of the earth, than it would be in England. If Nell had
still been pledged to him, how differently he would have received this
gift which the gods had bestowed on him! To have been able to go to her
and say: "Nell, you will be the Countess of Angleford; take my hand, and
let me show you the inheritance you will share with me!" That would have
been a happiness which would have doubled and trebled the value of his
title and estates. But now! Nell was no longer his; he had lost her,
and, having lost her, all the good things which had fallen to him were
of as little value as a Rubens to the blind, or a nocturne of Chopin to
the deaf.

When the lawyers worried him he sent curt and evasive replies, telling
them in so many words to do the best they could without him, and when
Lady Angleford wrote, begging him to return and take up his duties, he
answered with condolences on her loss, and vague assurances that he
would be back--some time. Then she wrote again; the kind of letter a
clever woman can write; the letter which, for all its gentleness, stings
and irritates:

"Much as you may dislike it, much as it may interfere with your love of
wandering, the fact remains that you are the Earl of Angleford, my dear
Drake. And the Earl of Angleford has higher duties than ordinary men.
The lawyers want you, the estate want you, the people--do you think they
do not want you? And, most of all, I think, I want you. Do you remember
our first meeting? It was thought that I had come between you and yours;
but the fact that I have not done so, the consolation I find in the
thought, is made of no avail by your absence. You are too good a fellow
to inflict pain upon a lonely and sorrow-stricken woman, Drake. Come
back and take your place among your peers and your people. Sometimes I
think there must be some reason, some mysterious cause, for your
prolonged absence, your reluctance to take up the duties and
responsibilities of the position which has fallen to you; but if there
should be, I beg of you to forget it, to set it aside. You are, you
cannot help being, the Earl of Angleford. Come and play your part like a
man."

* * * * *

It was the kind of letter which few men, certainly not Drake, could
resist. Wondering bitterly whether she guessed at the reason, the cause
of his reluctance to retur