Cuthbert said nothing, for nothing was needed. A new vision had opened itself before Guy's spirit. Was the strange comprehension between himself and Florella to bloom out into so lovely a flower? "I owe her all," he thought. "She set me fighting. I knew she was a saint and an angel. And I love her." He took up his arms again with renewed courage. Before he won Florella, he must be free. She was not only a helping angel, she was his heart's love, and he must be strong enough to take care of her. He gazed long at the little picture, then folded it away, and getting up from the sofa, went over to the old piano, unused for many weeks, and began to play the old North-country Christmas hymn, familiar to his earliest childhood, "Christians awake." "I can't sing now," he said; but he hummed the words softly, and sang a line or two at intervals-- "Peace upon earth, and unto men good will." "We'll have a little Christmas," he said, with a smile. PART THREE, CHAPTER ONE. HANDICAPPED. In the meantime Godfrey, stung to the very quick by Constancy's shallow answer to the confession which he had forced from the depths of his soul, was kicking against the pricks of disappointed passion, and trying to persuade himself that they did not hurt him. He could not work, he barely scraped through his final examination; he could think of nothing but how to escape from himself. He could not face Guy till his plan of restitution was matured, and he caught at the Rabys' invitation to go and spend a gay Christmas among a lively set of other young people at Kirkton Hall. He was very miserable, but, when people are young and strong, it is possible to be amused in spite of inward misery, and nobody guessed that Godfrey was either conscience-stricken or broken-hearted; and while he was thus keeping thought at bay, there befell him a great and unexpected temptation. Jeanie, being now at Rilston with the Matthew Palmers, appeared on the scene in the altogether new light of a flattered and considered guest. She was talked of as a prize to be won, and in some occult and mysterious manner it was conveyed to Godfrey that this prize might be his for the asking. Perhaps her Palmer kindred, who were people of much sense in a quiet way, knew what might be the lot of a simple and homely little girl whose great fortune bought a husband of good family and with bad debts. And Godfrey Waynflete, even if his fortune was not great, was no doubt a shrewd young fellow, or his shrewd old aunt would never have preferred him to his elder brother.