ght, the repulsion she felt for Mr. Tooting aided her to sit where
she was. She heard the outside door open and close, and she saw Humphrey
Crewe walk past her again into his library, and that door closed, and she
was left in darkness. Darkness indeed for Victoria, who throughout her
life had lived in light alone; in the light she had shed, and the light
which she had kindled in others. With a throb which was an exquisite
pain, she understood now the compassion in Austen's eyes, and she saw so
simply and so clearly why he had not told her that her face burned with
the shame of her demand. The one of all others to whom she could go in
this trouble was denied her, and his lips were sealed, who would have
spoken honestly and without prejudice. She rose and went quietly out into
the biting winter night, and stood staring through the trees at the
friendly reddened windows of the little cottage across the way with a
yearning that passed her understanding. Out of those windows, to
Victoria, shone honesty and truth, and the peace which these alone may
bring.

CHAPTER XIV

THE DESCENDANTS OF HORATIUS

So the twenty honourable members of the State Senate had been dubbed by
the man who had a sense of humour and a smattering of the classics,
because they had been put there to hold the bridge against the Tarquins
who would invade the dominions of the Northeastern. Twenty picked men,
and true they were indeed, but a better name for their body would have
been the 'Life Guard of the Sovereign.' The five hundred far below them
might rage and at times revolt, but the twenty in their shining armour
stood undaunted above the vulnerable ground and smiled grimly at the mob.
The citadel was safe.

The real Horatius of the stirring time of which we write was that old and
tried veteran, the Honourable Brush Bascom; and Spurius Lartius might be
typified by the indomitable warrior, the Honourable Jacob Botcher, while
the Honourable Samuel Doby of Hale, Speaker of the House, was
unquestionably Herminius. How the three held the bridge that year will be
told in as few and as stirring words as possible. A greater than Porsena
confronted them, and well it was for them, and for the Empire, that the
Body Guard of the Twenty stood behind them.

"Lars Porsena of Clusium,
By the Nine Gods he swore."

The morning after the State Tribune had printed that memorable speech on
national affairs--statistics and all, with an editorial