be a prison walled off with fear of love and fear of death. The poets have not lived and sung for nothing. They'll cleanse the walls of the filth and the cry of bitter anguish; and when man has done with discovering the world and playing at conquerors and king o' the castle, he will come to the most glorious day of all when he shall know himself, what he is: _Great Nature spoke, with air benign: 'Go on, ye human race! This lower world I you resign, Be fruitful and increase. The liquid fire of strong desire, I've poured in every bosom; Here, on this hand, does Mankind stand, And there is Beauty's blossom.'_ That's Robert Burns for ye! . . . Good night." He walked away abruptly, and Serge only remembered then that he had intended to inform the old man of the fate that had befallen his son. More than ever he felt that Bennett and Annette were, in the main principle of their action, right, though they might be wrong in the details of their manner of doing it. The world would exact a heavy penalty of them. The world would be wrong. * * * Old Lawrie awoke next morning to find his wife standing by his bedside holding out a letter. It was from Mrs. Folyat and was extremely offensive. Old Lawrie read it: "There's no doubt," he said, "that he's a son of mine." He handed the letter back to his wife, turned over on his side and went to sleep again. XXVI MINNA'S CHOICE _It is always difficult to get rid of a woman at the end of a tragedy._ CHARLES LAMB.