, and Amherst's radiant mother.

As Justine passed between them, she wondered how much they knew of the
events which had wrought so profound and permanent change in her life.
She had never known how Hanaford explained her absence or what comments
it had made on her return. But she saw to-day more clearly than ever
that Amherst had become a power among his townsmen, and that if they
were still blind to the inner meaning of his work, its practical results
were beginning to impress them profoundly. Hanaford's sociological creed
was largely based on commercial considerations, and Amherst had won
Hanaford's esteem by the novel feat of defying its economic principles
and snatching success out of his defiance.

And now he had advanced a step or two in front of the "representative"
semi-circle on the platform, and was beginning to speak.

Justine did not hear his first words. She was looking up at him, trying
to see him with the eyes of the crowd, and wondering what manner of man
he would have seemed to her if she had known as little as they did of
his inner history.

He held himself straight, the heavy locks thrown back from his forehead,
one hand resting on the table beside him, the other grasping a folded
blue-print which the architect of the building had just advanced to give
him. As he stood there, Justine recalled her first sight of him in the
Hope Hospital, five years earlier--was it only five years? They had
dealt deep strokes to his face, hollowing the eye-sockets, accentuating
the strong modelling of nose and chin, fixing the lines between the
brows; but every touch had a meaning--it was not the languid hand of
time which had remade his features, but the sharp chisel of thought and
action.

She roused herself suddenly to the consciousness of what he was saying.

"For the idea of this building--of a building dedicated to the
recreation of Westmore--is not new in my mind; but while it remained
there as a mere idea, it had already, without my knowledge, taken
definite shape in the thoughts of the owner of Westmore."

There was a slight drop in his voice as he designated Bessy, and he
waited a moment before continuing: "It was not till after the death of
my first wife that I learned of her intention--that I found by
accident, among her papers, this carefully-studied plan for a
pleasure-house at Hopewood."

He paused again, and unrolling the blue-print, held it up before his
audience.

"You cannot, at this dista