n, seemed all
the more desolate for their size and splendour, and in them their owner
had suffered a sort of homesickness. 'Twas a strange thing to pass
through the beautiful familiar places now that they were all thrown
open and adorned for the coming guests, reflecting that the gala air
was worn for her who should, Fate willing, have made her first visit as
mistress, and realising that Fate had not been willing and that she
came but as a guest and Countess of Dunstanwolde. Oh, it was a bitter,
relentless thing; and why should it have been--for what wise purpose or
what cruel one? And with a maddening clutch about his heart he saw
again the tragic searching in her eyes when she had said, "Then you
have known me long, your Grace," and afterwards, so soft and strangely
slow, "Then you might have been one of those who came to my birthnight
feast, and saw my life begin."

He might have been, Heaven knew. Good God, why had he not? Why had he
gone back to Flanders? Now it seemed to his mind the folly of a madman,
and yet at the time he had felt his duty to his house commanded that he
should not give way to the rising tempest of his passion, but should
at least wait a space that time might prove that he could justly trust
the honour of his name and the fortune of his peoples into this wild,
lovely being's hands. Had he been free from all responsibilities, free
enough to feel that he risked no happiness but his own, and by his act
could wrong none other than himself, he would not have waited to see
what time wrought but have staked his future life upon this die. He had
denied himself and waited, and here he stood in the Long Gallery, and
'twas thrown open and adorned for the coming of my Lady Dunstanwolde.

"I meant an honest thing," he said, gazing out over his fair domain
through a dark mist, it seemed to him. "All my life I have meant
honestly. Why should a man's life go wrong because he himself would act
right?"

The flag fluttered and floated from the battlements of the tower, the
house was beautiful in its air of decorated order and stateliness,
glowing masses of flowers lighted every corner, and tall exotic plants
stood guard about; the faces of lord and lady, dame and knight, in the
pictures seemed to look downward with a waiting gaze. Outside, terraces
and parterres were wonders of late summer brilliancy of bloom, and the
sunshine glowed over all. On the high road from town at this hour the
cavalcades of approachin