SONS OF FIRE A Novel By Mary Elizabeth Braddon THE AUTHOR OF "LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET," "VIXEN," "ISHMAEL," ETC. _IN THREE VOLUMES_ VOL. III. LONDON SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LIMITED STATIONERS' HALL COURT [_All rights reserved_] LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. I. ROMAN AND SABINE II. "IF SHE BE NOT FAIR TO ME" III. "I GO TO PROVE MY SOUL" IV. BLACK AND WHITE V. THE MEETING-PLACE OF WATERS VI. KIGAMBO VII. MAMBU KWA MUNGU VIII. WHERE THE BURDEN IS HEAVIEST IX. ALL IN HONOUR X. "AM I HIS KEEPER?" XI. A SHADOW ACROSS THE PATH XII. "IT IS THE STARS" XIII. MADNESS OR CRIME? XIV. "HE HATH AWAKENED FROM THE DREAM OF LIFE" SONS OF FIRE. CHAPTER I. ROMAN AND SABINE. Geoffrey was not to be baulked of his purpose. He sat till long after midnight in the music-room with his mother--sat or roamed about in the ample spaces of that fine apartment, talking in his own wild way, with that restless, fitful romanticism which had marked him from childhood, from the dim hours, so vaguely remembered and so sadly sweet in his memory, when he had sat on the floor with his head leaning against the soft silken folds of her gown, and had been moved to tears by her playing. There were simple turns of melody, almost automatic phrases of Mozart's, which recalled the vague heartache of those childish hours; an idea of music so interwoven with that other idea of summer twilight in a spacious, shadowy room, that it startled him to hear one of those familiar movements in the broad glare of day, as if daylight and _that_ music were irreconcilable. No arguments of his mother's could shake his purpose. "I will see her and talk with her. She alone shall be the judge of what is right. Perhaps when I am sure of her I may be able to teach myself patience. But I must be sure of her love."