t interest in your
career, and watch it with pride."

"That is right, as I shall yours, Lord Chandos. I am proud of you, I am
proud when I read your speeches; it seems to me no other man ever spoke
so well. I am proud when I read that the rising man of the day is Lord
Chandos, that England looks to Lord Chandos as a great power and a
promising statesman. Ah, yes, I am proud of you when I read those
things. Your face, your eager, hopeful eyes rise before me, and I say to
myself, 'Ah, yes, he is a genius, and the world knows it.' It is
pleasant to have true friends, such as we shall be to each other."

"Yes," he had answered her, with a sigh; "we should have been foolish
indeed, Leone, to have deprived ourselves of this, the only consolation
left in life for either of us. We shall be more happy as friends, Leone;
it would have been too horrible to have been always apart."

They hedged themselves round with precautions; they were to be so
prudent; they were not to address each other as Lance and Leone; they
were never to sing old songs together; he was not to go behind the
scenes in the theater, he was not to wait for her in the evening. She
said to him laughingly, that they ought to have these conditions of
friendship written down as they write down the articles of war or the
preliminaries of peace.

"We ought to have parchment strong as parchment can be; but, Lord
Chandos, we must keep to our rules, no matter what happens."

So they intended, and neither of them had the faintest idea of ever
deviating from the rules laid down. It was better than nothing, spending
a few hours with her each week was refreshing as an oasis in a desert;
he eagerly looked forward to those days on which he was permitted to
call, and before long these visits became chiefly the event of his
life--he thought of little else.

So it gradually came about that the stronger nature gained the
ascendency, the stronger soul gained the upper hand in his life. The
love of Leone had always been by far the strongest element in his life;
it had been set aside by a series of clever maneuvers, but now it
resumed its sway. He did not intend it; he was weak enough and foolish
enough to think that the prudent friendship could replace mad love, and
he was not very long before he found out his mistake. But at first all
went well--her praise stimulated him, he gave loose to the fiery
eloquence that was natural to him. Knowing that she would read and
criticise