ed her, "are made for the benefit of the whole human
race. Sometimes an individual may suffer for the benefit of others. That
is inevitable."

"And so let the subject pass," she concluded, "but it saddens me to
think that one of the great sorrows of the world should be there like a
monument to spoil the wonder of this morning. Now I am going to ask you
a question. Are you the John Strangewey who has recently had a fortune
left to him?"

He nodded.

"You read about it in the newspapers, I suppose," he said. "Part of the
story isn't true. It was stated that I had never seen my Australian
uncle, but as a matter of fact he has been over here three or four
times. It was he who paid for my education at Harrow and Oxford."

"What did your brother say to that?"

"He opposed it," John confessed, "and he hated my uncle. He detests the
thought of any one of us going out of sight of our own hills. My uncle
had the wander-fever."

"And you?" she asked suddenly.

"I have none of it," he asserted.

A very faint smile played about her lips.

"Perhaps not before," she murmured; "but now?"

"Do you mean because I have inherited the money?"

She leaned a little toward him. Her smile now was more evident, and
there was something in her eyes which was almost like a challenge.

"Naturally!"

"What difference does my money make?" he demanded.

"Don't you realize the increase of your power as a human being?" she
replied. "Don't you realize the larger possibilities of the life that is
open to you? You can move, if you will, in the big world. You can take
your place in any society you choose, meet interesting people who have
done things, learn everything that is new, do everything that is worth
doing in life. You can travel to the remote countries of the globe. You
can become a politician, a philanthropist, or a sportsman. You can
follow your tastes wherever they lead you, and--perhaps this is the most
important thing of all--you can do everything upon a splendid scale."

He smiled down at her.

"That all sounds very nice," he admitted, "but supposing that I have no
taste in any of the directions you have mentioned? Supposing my life
here satisfies me? Supposing I find all that I expect to find in life
here on my own land, among my own hills? What then?"

She looked at him with a curiosity which was almost passionate. Her lips
were parted, her senses strained.

"It is not possible," she exclaimed, "that you can mean it!"