his mother's eyes--but she only
continued:--

"Never doubt for a moment, dear, that Laura's welfare and yours are
dearer to me than life. You are very weary; I see it in your eyes. Have
you been to your apartment? Clark will show you." She kissed his brow
and departed.

CHAPTER XXVI

IN WHICH DAVID THRYNG ADJUSTS HIS LIFE TO NEW CONDITIONS

David stood where his mother had left him, dazed, hurt, sad. He was
desperately minded to leave all and flee back to the hills--back to the
life he had left in Canada. He saw the clear, true look of Cassandra's
eyes meeting his. His heart called for her; his soul cried out within
him. He felt like one launched on an irresistible current which was
sweeping him ever nearer to a maelstrom wherein he was inevitably to be
swallowed up.

He perceived that to his mother the established order of things there in
her little island was sacred--an arrangement to be still further upheld
and solidified. She had suddenly become a part of a great system,
intrusted with a care for its maintenance and stability, as one of its
guardians. Before, it had mattered little to her, for she was not of it.
Now it was very different.

Slowly David followed Clark to his own apartments. He had been given
those of the old lord, his uncle. Everything about him was dark,
massive, and rich, but without grace. His bags and boxes had been
unpacked and his dinner suit laid in readiness, and Clark stood stiffly
awaiting orders.

"Will you have a shave, my lord?"

The man's manner jarred on him. It was obsequious, and he hated it. Yet
it was only the custom. Clark was simple-hearted and kindly, filling his
little place in the upholding of the system of which he was a part; had
his manner been different, a shade more familiar, David would have
resented it and ordered him out,--but of this David was not conscious.
In spite of his scruples, he was born and bred an aristocrat.

"No--a--I'll shave myself." Still the man waited, and, taking up David's
coat, flicked a particle of dust from the collar. "I don't want
anything. You may go."

"Thank you." Clark melted quietly out of the apartment.

"Thanks me for being rude to him," thought David, irritably; "I shall
take pleasure in being rude to him. My God! What a farce life is over
here! The whole thing is a farce."

He shaved himself and cut his chin, and when he appeared later with a
patch of court-plaster thereon, Clark commented to himself on "his
lo