eiled interest" which had "detailed him, for special duty," of the
self-protecting maneuvers which had placed him on the staff of the faded
valetudinarian general who had given his spotless name to the woman
whose lava heart glowed under a snowy bosom. It was the wreck of a soul!

And then, with a gasp, he recalled his mad fever to win every honor
under her glowing eyes. The forgotten deeds of desperate valor--all
useless now, and stained forever with the bar sinister of his treason.
He shuddered at the unforgotten delights of the hour when they had met
in her seraglio bower of shaded luxury, and "the fairest of Laocoons"
had answered his passionate whisper, "Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere
I die," with the faltered words: "Alan, you are all the world to me!"

Fondly blind, he had drifted along in a Fool's Paradise, at her bidding,
until the crash came! He never knew the military Sir Modred, who had
betrayed the open secret, but his blood boiled when he recalled the
cruel abandonment to the rage of a jealous and awakened spouse!

All in vain had been his manly sacrifice to save the woman whom he had
loved more than life. He had cast away every protection for himself.
Duped and tricked, he had remained mute before the storm of abuse heaped
on him by the General, and his papers sent in, at a momentary summons,
had carried him in dishonor out of the band of laureled soldier knights,
to dream no more "the dream that martial music weaves!" And the smiling
woman Judas tricked him to the very last!

How hollow her faith, how lying the mute pleading of her eyes, he knew
now, for had he not paused at the door for one despairing glance of
farewell, to hear her murmur to her placated lord: "After all your
goodness to him, to dare to offer me insult! You have punished him
rightly, but, he is a fascinating traitor, after all!" Deprived of his
sword, shunned by his associates, and lingering near her in hopes of
the last interview pledged him by her lying eyes, he had only been
undeceived when he vainly tried to reach her carriage for a last
farewell on a star-lit lonely drive.

The cold cutting accent of her voice smote him as the edge of a sword.
"Drive on, Johnson!" she sharply cried. "These vagabond people must
face the General himself." Then came the insane self-sacrifice of his
reckless downfall, but he had spared her to the very last.

He bowed his head in his hands, and a storm of agony swept over him
as he recalled th