oor to it--and endowed with that keen
compact pioneer determination to stride straight to my goal, whether it
is the White House or--well--the Presidency of a Trust Company. I
forget--good God!--_Are_ those years behind me in England? I have caught
myself wishing that I had kept a scrap-book like other idiots. It
escapes my memory altogether at times, that I have but to take a steamer
out of New York to reach the top of civilization again in less than a
week."

"Perhaps it suggests itself when you remember that with the income you
can command before long, life in England will be more worth while."

"That was as nasty a one as you ever gave me! No one knows better than
yourself what brought me to America, and that those conditions cannot be
altered by money. Could I not have had Julia Kaye's fortune? You need
not be nasty again! You forget that not only was I in love with her--or
thought I was--but could have given her the equivalent. She would be the
last to claim that she was to pay too high a price, even with me thrown
in. If you don't beg my pardon I'll leave the house."

"I beg your pardon," said Isabel, hastily. She was thrilled with
curiosity; she had never seen him so nearly excited, with the exception
of one memorable and painful moment. She fancied that she could see one
of the barriers between them sway.

"It may be that this sudden prospect of wealth, or rather of a goodish
income that would enable me to keep up a decent establishment in town,
and a bit of a place somewhere in the hunting country, has upset my
equilibrium, but it occurred to me this morning as I was splashing
through the mud--I had to go out to the ranch--in fact it came over me
with such a rush that I felt like Don Quixote, and every landmark looked
like a windmill--what is England to-day but the very apex of
civilization? The Mecca, the reward, of every man and woman with the
breeding and the intelligence to appreciate it? The best of everything
goes there, you have but to turn round to help yourself to an infinite
variety--to be found piecemeal everywhere else on earth. And the very
best is mine, by inheritance and personal effort. Why in thunder am I
out here on this ragged edge of civilization struggling with almost
primitive conditions?--elemental badness, sure enough! What is my
object? Merely to bring about a set of conditions that exists in England
to-day. I have them there. Why am I wading into filth up to my knees,
for the sake