Now when Edmund Gray takes the place of Edward Dering, in which guise does the soul, in the end, leave the earth? Are the dreams of Edmund Gray perhaps the logical development of the doctrines held by Edward Dering? Is the present stage of Individual Property--where every man works for himself and his household--one through which the world must pass before it can reach the higher level of working each for all? First men and women hunt, separate: they live apart in hollow trees and caves. Then they live together, and the man hunts for his wife and children. Next, they live in communities, which grow into towns and tribes and nations. Then men rely upon the protection of the law, and work for themselves again. That is our present stage: it has lasted long--very long. Perhaps it will break up some day: perhaps sooner than we think. Who knows? All things are possible--even the crash and wreck of a civilisation which has taken thousands of years to build up. And upon it may come--one knows not--that other stage which now belongs to the dreamer before the Ivory Gate. * * * * * The wedding was held then, as Elsie said it should be, shorn of none of its splendours, and relieved of the cloud which had hung over them so long and threatened them so gloomily. Athelstan the Exile--Athelstan the Ne'er-do-well--Athelstan the Profligate--Athelstan the Resident of Camberwell--Athelstan the Smirched and Soiled--stood beside the altar, tall and gallant, and gave away the bride for all the world to see--nobody in the least ashamed of him. There was not any breath of scandal left. Here he was, returned from his travels, a tall and proper man, dressed in broadcloth, perhaps with money in purse, prosperous and successful in the sight of all. His mother gazed upon him when she should have been looking at the bride or into her Prayer Book. Her eyes were red, but then a mother is allowed a tear or two when her daughter leaves the nest. And as to those who had whispered words about family jars, quarrels and estrangements, or had spoken against the fair fame of the groom, they were now as mute as mice.