ed so intently I was
sure you saw through that simple disguise. A sense of shame at such
conduct made me faint and heartsick. To escape this I quit the table,
going to my room. Soon after, through the open connecting door, I saw
you and Uncle Thomas enter, and then knew a crisis had come.

"Uncle Thomas related what you had said, and I was greatly puzzled. Your
reasons for not promising to keep his proposed confidences then and ever
since seemed unaccountable. He advised that we return to the inn, there
to await clearing of increasing difficulties.

"What since occurred you well know. I hope to be forgiven for all my
strange, unmaidenly conduct. The very worst has been told, except that
words can never tell the painful experiences and sorrowful memories of
the unhappy past."

Pausing, Alice gave a look of questioning appeal into the expressive,
sympathetic face of Sir Donald Randolph. He seemed struggling with some
unwonted emotional impediment to proper speech. Rising, he extended his
hand, took that of this interesting young woman, and bowing low, in a
husky voice said:

"Make no apologies, Alice! You are all right."

Alice felt much relieved, but the strain had been great. For a while she
leaned back in wearied collapse.

Sir Donald suggested that she await her uncle, while he saw his family.
After the evening meal, he would esteem it a favor to have all meet at
Esther's room.

This invitation was accepted.

Sir Donald notified Thomas Webster that Alice awaited him, adding:

"What a grand girl!"

CHAPTER XXIV

OSWALD IN NEW YORK

Oswald awakes early upon his first morning in New York. The significance
of present surroundings dawns upon his mind. He is in the metropolis of
that country about which so much had been written, told, and dreamed.

What vistas of destiny since that protest and affirmation received the
sword's decisive arbitrament! With what sense of opportune occasion
these two kindred nations are surely drawing toward that "modus
vivendi," tentatively flexible, yet more potential, responsive, and
insistent than treaty covenants, "triple alliances," or proscribed
"spheres of influence."

But how capricious fate's fast-loose antics with individual destiny!

Not with complacent retrospect and cleared prospective does this
intensely impressionable Englishman stand at the threshold of a new
world's view.

That complex web remains intact, the dead lifts unavailing hands,
justice is