Still, if Archie thought otherwise---- Well, as things had turned out, she was really glad; though, to be sure, she always felt in her heart he didn't attach _quite_ enough importance to the pure Plantagenet pedigree that never was theirs, but that somehow ought to have been. However, with her share of that hateful Sheffield money she was now a lady, she said--Archie strenuously denied she could ever have been anything else, though Maud shook her head sadly--and when Archie one day showed her the photograph of a very pretty place among the Campsie Fells which his father had just bought for him, 'in case of contingencies,' and asked her whether she fancied she could ever be happy there, Maud rose with tears in her eyes and laid her hand in his, and answered earnestly: 'With you, dearest Archie, I'm sure I could be happy, my life long, anywhere.' And from that day forth she never spoke to him again of the vanished glories of the Plantagenet pedigree. Perhaps it was as well they had believed in it once. That strange myth had kept them safe from sinking in the quicksands when the danger was greatest. It had enabled them to endure, and outlive with honour, much painful humiliation. It had been an influence for good in moulding their characters. But its work was done now, and 'twas best it should go. Slowly Dick and Maud began to realize that themselves. And the traces it left upon them, after the first poignant sense of loss and shame had worn off, were all for the bettering of their moral natures. THE END. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blood Royal, by Grant Allen