way, I think she did right. I think, indeed, she acted with an angelic unselfishness. There is nothing for me to forgive."

"I am happy to hear you say so much. If Julia knew this to be your opinion, I believe she would be reconciled to the change in her life."

"You may tell her what I have said to you, sir."

"It would be better if it came from your own lips. We are going to Italy for a few months; if I send you word what train we take to Dover, will you happen to be there fifteen minutes before we leave? You could in bidding her farewell, say to her just what you have said to me. It would make her so happy! Surely you will favor her and myself, so far?"

"You ask a hard thing of me, Sir William, but for -her sake I will do it. And ere we part, let me say for your own satisfaction that I have never wronged you in the least manner. I have never sought your wife's company for a moment. for a moment. I have never said any words but those of simple courtesy to her. I have not touched her hand, even in the dance, but in honor. I am hourly doing my best to forget even her name. The time may come, when we can be friends; but it is not yet.'

With these words they parted. The faces of both

men were open and satisfied and Sir William offered his hand freely and said with an air of dignity and trust, "Mr. Kelder, we are no longer rivals. We are friends."

The interview had only lasted half an hour but Jan was weary; he was even tired of the subject. He wished to forget all that had taken place between Julia and himself. It was now love out of season and the best of lovers soon weary of that. There is a reason for this; a wise man will always obey Necessity-that was now Jan's part.

Jan was well aware of this position and did his best that night to prevent his uncle from touching a subject that had become almost irritating; but Lord William had been with him for some time in the afternoon and every topic of their conversation had begun or ended with Lady Morgan. Kelder was a little tired of the subject also but he wished to know the way Jan looked at it. Jan took rather high ground. He praised himself for his coldness to Julia's advances and the elder gentleman sighed sarcastically, "Poor Julia!"

"Sir William thought I had acted blamelessly," Jan answered with a sigh.

"To be blameless belongs to the angels, Jan; repentance is about the highest grace that men attain."

"Really, uncle, I did nothing and said nothing to Julia that asks for repentance. Sir William had only words of thanks and praise for me."

"That is pleasant. It is a pity Julia's husband did not know from the first how safe his honor was in your hands."

"Would you have done differently, uncle?"

"I don't know. Times and opinions were different when I was a young man. It was a word and a blow then and often the blow without the word. Men talk over things now and get at real meanings."

"Uncle, what do you think Mackenzie once said of you? Cecil made a remark about your politeness to everyone and Mackenzie answered. 'Very polite now, young gentleman; but I remember when Thomas Kelder would fly in the face of Providence, or any other person that stood in his way.'"

Kelder smiled a little reserved smile of grim satisfaction, though he said he was afraid his temper was a little upperhanded in the days of his youth. "However, Jan," he continued as he rose from the dinner table, "Julia has ceased to be a heart-break to you and when a woman has ceased to be quite the same to us, it matters little how different she becomes."

CHAPTER VIII

THE INEVITABLE END

Great passions and great sorrows are needed in order to give life its true meaning. Yet they inspire a wondering awe-what can they mean?

J

The end of ends-the finite over, the infinite begun.

AN knew that there could be no more conversa

tion at present on the subject of Julia and he rose with his uncle, lit a cigar and said:

"Uncle, I want to buy a good saddle horse. No one can help me better than yourself; Lord Brougham told me that you were all Yorkshire when it came to a horse and I supposed from his remark and the tone in which it was made that you understand horses."

"A man must be Yorkshire of long descent to love horses and know horses as Yorkshiremen of the North Riding do. They are loom men now in the West Riding but they used to be so brotherly with horses, that you might trust a cat with cream sooner

than a West Riding jockey with a fine horse. Ten to one he would run off with it; he could not help it. And even yet I should consider no ambition more hopeless than to outwit a Yorkshireman in a horse bargain. There used to be a pleasant exaggeration common to the effect that if you shook a bridle over a Yorkshireman's grave he would get up and make a horse trade. So you see Brougham flattered me considerably. Once I was standing among a crowd of horsemen at Horncastle horse fair and a farmer touched me with his whip-handle and said, 'Friend, if thou stands dreaming that way, some jockey will feel bound to steal thy horse from under thee.' Now they are all as keen after money as they used to be after horses, but I dare say the horsemen were better men generally than the same men are as reputable cotton lords."

"Yet, I have heard it said when a young man takes to horses he goes to the dogs."

"Such a young man would likely have taken that road anyway. They have a shallow place in their heads, that is a destroying angel, it makes them do anything. A good horse has many of the finest human qualities. From sheer pluck in field or race he will go till he drops, or till he encounters physical strength greater than his own; then very humanly,