till Daphne's husband and that child's
legal guardian?"

"Certainly."

"And if I could once get her upon ground under the English flag, she
would be mine again, and no power could take her from me?"

"Except the same private violence that you yourself propose to
exercise."

"I'd take care of that!" said Roger briefly.

"How do you mean to do it?" asked French, with knit brows. To be sitting
there in an English vicarage plotting violence against a woman disturbed
him.

"He and I'll manage it," said the quiet voice of the American officer.

The others stared.

"_You?_" said French. "An officer in active service? It might injure
your career!"

"I shall risk it."

A charming smile broke on Penrose's meditative face.

"My dear French, this is much more amusing than the law. But I don't
quite see where _I_ come in." He rose tentatively from his seat.

Boyson, however, did not smile. He looked from one to the other.

"My sister and I introduced Daphne Floyd to Barnes," he said steadily,
"and it is my country, as I hold,--or a portion of it--that allows these
villainies. Some day we shall get a great reaction in the States, and
then the reforms that plenty of us are clamouring for will come about.
Meanwhile, as of course you know"--he addressed French--"New Yorkers and
Bostonians suffer almost as much from the abomination that Nevada and
South Dakota call laws, as Barnes has suffered. Marriage in the Eastern
States is as sacred as with you--South Carolina allows no divorce at
all--but with this licence at our gates, no one is safe, and thousands
of our women, in particular--for the women bring two-thirds of the
actions--are going to the deuce, simply because they have the
opportunity of going. And the children--it doesn't bear thinking of!
Well--no good haranguing! I'm ashamed of my country in this matter--I
have been for a long time--and I mean to help Barnes out, _coute que
coute_! And as to the money, Barnes, you and I'll discuss that."

Barnes lifted a face that quivered, and he and Boyson exchanged looks.

Penrose glanced at the pair. That imaginative power, combined with the
power of drudgery, which was in process of making a great lawyer out of
a Balliol scholar, showed him something typical and dramatic in the two
figures:--in Boyson, on the one hand, so lithe, serviceable, and
resolved, a helpful, mercurial man, ashamed of his country in this one
respect, because he adored her in so many others, peni