y hold of life with these rather horribly
strong arms of mine"--he looked across at Lady Calmady with a sneering
smile.--"Strong?" he repeated, "strong as a young bull-ape's. I mean to
tear the very vitals out of living, to tear knowledge, excitement,
intoxication, out of it, making them, by right of conquest, my own. I
will compel existence to yield me all that it yields other men, and
more--because my senses are finer, my acquaintance with sorrow more
intimate, my quarrel with fortune more vital and more just. As I cannot
have a wife, I'll have mistresses. As I cannot have honest love, I'll
have gratified lust. I am not stupid. I shall not follow the beaten
track. My imagination has been stimulated into rather dangerous
activity by the pre-natal insult put upon me. And now that I have
emancipated myself, I propose to apply my imagination practically."

The young man flung himself back in his chair again.

"There ought to be startling results," he said, with gloomy exultation.
"Don't you think so, mother? There should be startling results."

Lady Calmady bowed herself together, putting her hands over her eyes.
Then raising her head, she managed to smile at him, though very sadly,
her sweet face drawn by exhaustion and marred by lately shed tears.

"Ah! yes, my dearest," she answered, "no doubt the results will be
startling, but whether any sensible increase of happiness, either to
yourself or others, will be counted among them is open to question."

Richard laughed bitterly.--"I shall have lived, anyhow," he rejoined.
"Worn out, not rusted and rotted out--which, according to our former
fine-fanciful programme, seemed the only probable consummation of my
unlucky existence."

His tone changed, becoming quietly businesslike and indifferent.

"I am entering horses for some of the French events, and I go through
to Paris to-morrow to see various men there and make the necessary
arrangements. I shall take Chifney with me for a few days. But the
stables will not give you any trouble. He will have given all the
orders."

"Very well," Katherine said mechanically.

"Later I shall go on to Baden-Baden."

Katharine rallied somewhat.

"Helen de Vallorbes is there," she said, not without a trace of her
former pride.

"Certainly Helen de Vallorbes is there," he answered. "That is why I
go. I want to see her. It is inconsistent, I admit, for Helen remains
the one person gloriously untouched by the wreck of the former ord