ll you put your accomplishments where they can
be of value, instead of hoarding them, as a miser does his gold?"

He stood watching her wonderful animation as she spoke with a conviction
which swept him off his feet. In the past she had listened to him, and
he could but be conscious of the domination which his mind had held over
hers; now he knew their positions to be reversed. Was this what the
world had given her? And the boy--Philip, named after him. Why was it
that the lessons he had taught himself during all these years proved so
inadequate to combat the yearning which he felt within him?

Marian was not slow to sense the conflict in his heart, nor to follow up
her advantage.

"What have you really accomplished, Philip?" she asked quietly. "Be
generous in sharing your splendid development with us."

"I could not give this up," he protested.

"Of course you couldn't, and you should not," she assented. "Give up
nothing, but simply add to what you have by assimilating from others. I
want you to know my husband, my children, and my friends, and I want
them to know you. Say that you will return with us, Philip."

He gazed at her helplessly, then turned his head aside. The emotion
against which he had fought for twenty years had escaped from his
control, and he was ashamed that another should see what he knew his
face betrayed.

"It is impossible," he said, when he was himself again; "it would not be
fair."

"To whom?" she demanded.

"To you--or to your husband--"

"Nonsense! We all understand one another too well for that! It is the
boy who needs you and whom you need."

Hamlen turned to her again. "The boy," he repeated after her--"Philip!
You would let him come into my life?"

"I desire nothing so much," she answered resolutely, a great joy surging
in her heart as she seemed to see the barrier between him and life
crumbling before her attack.

"Would the boy permit it? I might not be able--"

"Let me be judge of that," she smiled.

The man passed his hand wearily over his eyes as Mrs. Thatcher watched
his uncertainty with fearfulness and yet with eager expectancy. She knew
that she could say no more, that there was danger in bringing further
pressure upon this spirit already extended to its extremest tension; and
yet she longed to take advantage of what she had gained in awakening the
latent human element and in disturbing the complacency which habit had
established upon premises so false.

"Oh, M