sband who was to claim her in June.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE RECONCILIATION.

Those few months had been filled with excitement for Lord Chandos. The
pain he had felt at leaving his wife had been great and hard to bear,
but life differs so greatly for men and women. Women must sit at home
and weep. For them comes no great field of action, no stir of battle, no
rush of fight; their sorrow weighs them down because they have nothing
to shake it off. With men it is so different; they rush into action and
forget it.

Leone was for some days prostrate with the pains of her sorrow. Lord
Chandos suffered acutely for a couple of hours; then came the excitement
of his journey, the whirl of travel and adventure, the thousand sources
of interest and pleasure.

He was compelled to take his thoughts from Leone. He had a hundred other
interests; not that he loved or cared for her less, but that he was
compelled to give his attention to the duties intrusted to him. He was
compelled to set his sorrow aside.

"I must work now," he said to himself, "I shall have time to think
afterward."

He would have time to look his sorrow in the face--now it must stand
aside.

When he really brought himself face to face with the world, it was
impossible to help feeling flattered by the position he held. Every one
congratulated him.

"You start to-morrow," one would say. "Glad to hear you have been
chosen," said another. One prophesied continual court favor. Another
that he would receive great honors. Every one seemed to consider him
quite a favorite of fortune. No one even ever so faintly alluded to his
marriage, to the lawsuit, or to the decision.

He was divided between gratitude for the relief and irritation that what
had been of such moment to him had been nothing to others. Yet it was a
relief to find his darling's name held sacred. He had dreaded to hear
about it--to have the matter discussed in any word or shape; but it
seemed as though the world had formed one grand conspiracy not to
mention it.

Then came the excitement of traveling. His companion, Lord Dunferline,
one of the most famous statesmen and noblest peers of England, was many
years older than himself. He was a keen, shrewd, clever man, full of
practical knowledge and common sense; he was the best friend who could
have been chosen for the young lord; and Lady Lanswell congratulated
herself on that as a magnificent piece of business. Lord Dunferline had
not an iota o