ng which is surely going to happen.
I will tell you what I have seen."

I leaned forward in my chair, and looked curiously into Allan's face.
His hard, somewhat commonplace features seemed touched for the moment by
some transfiguring fire. His keen, blue-grey eyes were as soft and
luminous as a girl's. He had actually the appearance of a man who sees a
little way beyond the border. Even then I could not take him seriously.

"Speak, Sir Prophet!" I exclaimed, with a little laugh. "Let my eyes
also be touched with fire. Let me see what you see."

Mabane showed no sign of annoyance. He looked at me composedly.

"Do not be a fool, Arnold," he said. "You may believe or disbelieve, but
some day you will know that the things which I have in my mind are
true."

I think that I was a little bewildered. I realized now what at first I
had been inclined to doubt--that Mabane was wholly in earnest.
Unconsciously my attitude towards him changed. It is hard to mock a man
who believes in himself.

"Go ahead, then, Allan," I said quietly. "Remember that you have told me
nothing yet."

Mabane turned towards me. He spoke slowly. His face was serious--almost
solemn.

"The man Delahaye will never claim the child," he said. "I think that he
will die. The man who shot him has gone--we shall not hear of him again,
not for many years, if at all. He has gone like a stone dropped into a
bottomless tarn. We shall not send the child back to the convent. She
will remain here."

He paused, as though expecting me to speak. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Come," I said, "I shall not quarrel with your prophecy so far, Allan.
The introduction of a feminine element here seems a little incongruous,
but after all she is very young."

Mabane unclasped his arms, and looked thoughtfully around the room.
Already there was a change since a few days ago. The ornaments and
furniture were free from dust. There were two great bowls of flowers
upon the table, some studies which had hung upon the wall were replaced
with others of a more sedate character. The atmosphere of the place was
different. Wild untidiness had given place to some semblance of order.
There was an attempt everywhere at repression. Mabane knocked the ashes
from his pipe.

"For five years," he said abstractedly, "you and I and Arthur have lived
here together. Are you satisfied with those five years? Think!"

I looked from my desk out of the window, over the housetops up into the
sunshine,