‘All? all?—that’s but the end of a hideous story; the beginning was so long ago I scarce remember it. Always money, money. There was the matter of Anne Champion; but he was to pay every debt I had, you know, and I was hard pressed at the time. Lord lay not that sin to my charge! ’Twas Meadowes’ sin, not mine; and there was that other affair in the year ’24 that——’ ‘There,’ said Phil, turning away, ‘I for one have heard all I wish to hear.’ But Prior talked on:— ‘There was the matter of Anne Champion, as I said; listen, Philip, for she was your mother, you know, and you, Shepley, you were her lover once, you remember; come, and I shall tell you all of that I——’ ‘Sir, sir,’ said Phil in a low quick whisper to Sebastian, and he pointed to the door. They passed out together, with the sound of Prior’s voice still talking on and on as they closed the door. In silence they passed down the staircase and out into the silent street. They stood together there for a moment without speaking. Then Sebastian laid his hand on Phil’s shoulder. ‘Come, my son,’ he said. * * * * * Phil and Carrie were perhaps the happiest man and woman in London that night. And Sebastian Shepley, watching their joy, entered into it and saw in them the bright end of a dark story. Ah, untraceable jugglery of Time, and Change, and Fate! In all the arts of the conjurer is no trickery like this; from pain and dishonour and treachery, and broken hearts and blighted hopes, from such a soil life sends up her fresh and vigorous shoots, the immortal blossomings of the tree that cannot wither, whose leaves shall surely, at some far-off day, heal the nations! TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES Mis-spelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed. Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.