ill
the one living thing. Did she mean it or had she merely planned another
triumph for her vanity in his second conquest, knowing that his high
sense of honour would hold him silent and yet her slave. With a
lawyer's cunning he put her to little tests to try the genuineness of
her feeling. He threw off his restraint and led her back to the scenes
of their youth. With a frankness that delighted her he told of his own
struggles of the past nine years and watched with patient furtive care
for every tone of feeling she might betray. When dinner ended, she was
leaning close, her eyes misty with tears, and a far-away look in them
that told of memories more vivid and alluring than all the splendours
of her palace.

Stuart drew a breath of conscious triumph and his figure suddenly grew
tense with a desperate resolution. But only for a moment.

He frowned, looked at his watch and rose abruptly.

"I must be going, Nan," he said with sudden coldness.

"Why, Jim," she protested. "It's only ten o'clock. I won't hear of such
a thing."

"Yes, I must," he persisted. "I've an important case to-morrow. I must
work to-night."

"You shall not go!" Nan cried. "I've waited nine years for this one
evening's chat with you. Cal has told me of his offer. It's the most
generous thing he ever did in his life. I know the kind of fight going
on in your heart. Come into the music room, sit down and brood as long
as you like. I've planned to charm you with an old accomplishment of
mine to-night."

She led him to a rich couch, piled the pillows high, made him snug,
drew a harp near the other end, and began to tune its strings.

Stuart gazed at the mural paintings in the ceiling and in a moment was
lost in visions of the future his excited fancy began to weave.

Nan's fingers touched the strings in the first soft notes of an old
melody. He woke with a start and looked at her. What a picture she
made, with her full lips parted in a warm smile, her magnificent bare
arms moving in rhythmic unison with the music! In just that pose he had
seen her a hundred times in the days when he called her his own. And
now that he had lost--her beauty had just reached the full splendour of
perfection.

He closed his eyes to shut out the picture and again the fight began
for the mastery of life.

A voice whispered:

"Unless you are a coward, grasp the power that is yours by divine right
of nature. Why should you walk while pigmies ride? Why should you lag