ly
than ever, and kicked it so violently in the stomach that it fell. Even
then he wouldn't stop his brutality. Marcella tried to get between him
and the animal--just as it lashed out with its heels. The poor girl was
so badly injured that she lay by the roadside until another carter took
her up and brought her back to the village. Three months of accursed
suffering, and then happily came the end.'

A far, faint echoing of thunder filled the silence of their voices.
Heavy rain splashed upon the pavement.

'She said to me just before her death,' resumed Christian, '"I have ill
luck when I try to do a kindness--but perhaps there is one more
chance." I didn't know what she meant till afterwards. Peak, she has
left nearly all her money to you.'

Godwin knew it before the words were spoken. His heart leaped, and only
the dread of being observed enabled him to control his features. When
his tongue was released he said harshly:

'Of course I can't accept it.'

The words were uttered independently of his will. He had no such
thought, and the sound of his voice shook him with alarm.

'Why can't you?' returned Christian.

'I have no right--it belongs to you, or to some other relative--it
would be'----

His stammering broke off. Flushes and chills ran through him; he could
not raise his eyes from the ground.

'It belongs to no one but you,' said Moxey, with cold persistence. 'Her
last wish was to do you a kindness, and I, at all events, shall never
consent to frustrate her intention. The legacy represents something
more than eight hundred a year, as the investments now stand. This will
make you independent--of everything and everybody.' He looked meaningly
at the listener. 'Her own life was not a very happy one; she did what
she could to save yours from a like doom.'

Godwin at last looked up.

'Did she speak of me during her illness?'

'She asked me once, soon after the accident, what had become of you. As
I knew from Earwaker, I was able to tell her.'

A long silence followed. Christian's voice was softer when he resumed.

'You never knew her. She was the one woman in ten thousand--at once
strong and gentle; a fine intellect, and a heart of rare tenderness.
But because she had not the kind of face that'----

He checked himself.

'To the end her mind kept its clearness and courage. One day she
reminded me of Heine--how we had talked of that "conversion" on the
mattress-grave, and had pitied the noble intellec