THE 
 
 G1AMTS 
 
 
 SlL KiKG 
 
 '**n***r^*mi*j:-
 
 
 . OF CALIF. LIBHABY, LOS
 
 The Giant's Strength 
 
 BY 
 
 BASIL KING 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE INNER SHRINE, THE WILD OLIVE, 
 THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT, ETC 
 
 "O, it is excellent 
 
 To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous 
 To use it like a giant." 
 
 Measure for Measure. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 Published by Arrangement with Harper & Brothers.
 
 Copyright, 1906, by HARPBR & BROTHERS. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 Published March, 1907.
 
 TO 
 THE DEAR AND BLESSED MEMORY OP 
 
 GEORGE WRIGHT HODGSON 
 
 "Whatever way my days decline, 
 I felt and feel, tho' left alone, 
 His being working in mine own. 
 The footsteps of his life in mine.'* 
 In Memoriam. 
 
 2130531
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AS it was the entr'acte of the opera the lobby of 
 J\ the Casino was filled with a gay and noisy cos- 
 mopolitan crowd. All the more, therefore, was it a 
 proof of the celebrity to which Paul Trafford had 
 attained that his entry caused a distinct and general 
 thrill of curiosity. A man who was reckoned the rich- 
 est in the world could not be other than an object of 
 supreme interest to people whose first cry was money. 
 The fact that he had arrived at Monte Carlo the day 
 before had been as much a topic of conversation as if 
 he had been King Edward or the Czar. Now that he 
 appeared and was recognized, princes, duchesses, and 
 adventurers instinctively fell back a little, making way 
 for him and his party to pass on. Here and there some 
 one claimed the privilege of his acquaintance, and bow- 
 ed before his nod as before a pope's benediction. Those 
 who followed in his train were besieged with greetings. 
 Mr. and Mrs. George Trafford were actually cut off 
 from the procession and made prisoners of war. The 
 
 I
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Duke of Wiltshire only maintained his position at Miss 
 Trafford's side by being rude to people, and turning 
 his back on them. 
 
 As for Paula herself, she passed on, between her 
 father and the man she had almost promised to marry, 
 unmoved by the stir she created. She was aware of it, 
 but she was used to it. Having been so constantly her 
 father's companion during the last four years, she had 
 come to take public attention as a matter of course. 
 At first the interest she inspired had been impersonal 
 the interest inseparable from one whom the Amer- 
 ican press called "the greatest heiress on earth." Her 
 fortune was compared with that of the Queen of 
 Holland, and of the daughters of the Rothschild and 
 Rockefeller families, but that was all. Now, however, 
 at twenty-two, she was emerging from the golden mist 
 that had surrounded her, and was assuming personality. 
 The flowering of her beauty had done something 
 towards this. People had found it superfluous that a 
 girl with so much money should have a complexion 
 like rose-petals floating in milk. They resented the 
 fact that her figure had needless grace, and her face 
 an expression of appeal which there was no resisting. 
 Rumors of marriage sprang up wherever she appeared. 
 The girl knew these things without taking actual ac- 
 count of them, or letting them form part of her daily 
 consciousness. At this minute she could ignore the 
 fact that her looks were being criticised and her income 
 appraised, in gazing about her, with amusement, at the 
 novelty of the scene. 
 
 2
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "We're now in one of those spots of No-man's-land," 
 said the Duke of Wiltshire, as they entered the first 
 saloon, "which modern civilization likes to set apart as 
 cities of refuge from the rule of caste and conven- 
 tionality." 
 
 Paula turned her soft eyes slowly towards him. They 
 were blue eyes with black lashes the Celtic eyes in- 
 herited from her father's mother the eyes in which 
 faith is mingled with superstition, in which self-devo- 
 tion has a dash of insincerity, and in which laughter 
 never wholly hides the mist of tears. Between the 
 brows there was a tiny, perpendicular furrow, like that 
 of a person endeavoring to see through the rights and 
 wrongs of things, and conscientiously trying to be sure. 
 It was this puzzled, inquiring look that the Duke of 
 Wiltshire specially loved in her. It gave him an oppor- 
 tunity for the kind of explanatory work in which he 
 excelled in the House of Lords. 
 
 "Haven't you noticed," he went on, in answer to 
 Paula's unspoken interrogation, "that in all the great 
 capitals of the world London, Paris, and New York, 
 for instance there are two or three expensive res- 
 taurants and luxurious hotels, where on crossing the 
 very threshold one steps outside all the limitations of 
 nationality, moral prejudice, and class distinction ?" 
 
 "That's very true," Paul Trafford said, in corrob- 
 oration. 
 
 He liked to listen to Wiltshire's reflections on sub- 
 jects that he himself had never thought about. "He's 
 always widening your mind in some direction where 
 
 3
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 you never looked before," he remarked, now and then, 
 to Paula. The girl was glad to believe it. It was one 
 more attraction of mind, where physical charms were 
 so lacking; it was one more explanation of her willing- 
 ness to marry him. She liked him. "No one could 
 help liking him," she often told herself; and yet as they 
 moved slowly along amid the crowd, with so many 
 eyes upon them, she regretted the fact that he was 
 shorter than herself, and that he had this air of hopeless 
 mediocrity. The men of her own family were all 
 equipped for command. Her father, who had been a 
 New England farmer's son, and himself a farmer's boy, 
 overtopped most men by a head, and was undeniably 
 handsome. Even her cousin George, who was big and 
 lumbering, had something dominating about him. 
 It seemed strange to her, therefore, that this English 
 duke, the head of the illustrious house of Holroyd, the 
 descendant of a line whose good looks had helped to 
 make Holbein, Vandyck, and Reynolds famous, should 
 have been sent into the world by the great capricious 
 Mother with the seal of the commonplace indelibly 
 set upon him. She could not stifle in herself the knowl- 
 edge that she was sorry for this; and yet as her glance 
 took in once more the details of his dull-blue eyes, his 
 stubby, sandy beard, and the stocky figure that defied 
 the reformatory arts of the most expensive tailors in 
 London, she was conscious, too, of a throb of pity, of 
 almost tender pity, that he to whom so much had been 
 given should have to contend with such obvious dis- 
 advantages. 
 
 4
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "You've only got to look about you," Wiltshire went 
 on, with the enthusiasm of a man airing his own ideas, 
 " to see that Monte Carlo is the great city of refuge of 
 our time. To people whose outward appearance 
 warrants the green ticket of admission, the reign of 
 liberty, equality, and fraternity has set in as nearly as 
 possible on earth. Look there!" he continued. "That's 
 the Grand -Duke Dmitri standing on tiptoe to look 
 over the shoulder of Aarons, the money-lender, one of 
 the greatest rascals unhung. That pretty English 
 girl, asking Aarons to place her stake for her, wouldn't 
 touch him anywhere else with the end of her parasol. 
 In every direction you can see the same flinging to- 
 gether of odd contrasts the same suspension of the 
 rules that govern organized society elsewhere." 
 
 Paula listened and smiled, but said nothing in re- 
 sponse, gazing about her to verify his observations for 
 herself. 
 
 Against a background of tawdry splendor the great 
 ladies of all worlds combined to produce an effect of 
 elegance. There was a place for Aspasia and Madame 
 de Stael alike. So, too, with the men; great lords, great 
 bankers, and great adventurers met and mingled with 
 the unprejudiced freedom of souls in the future state. 
 Among the seated players the card-sharper elbowed 
 the countess, and the fashionably dressed young man 
 of the world jostled the faded grandmother in rusty 
 crape. It was clear to Paula that in the Temple of 
 Chance there was no respect of persons, and that the 
 worshippers loved to have it so. In this heated at- 
 
 5
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 mosphere and under these glaring lights, it was as if a 
 complex civilization suddenly resolved itself into its 
 constituent elements, and men and women went back 
 to the primitive, predatory instincts that time and 
 experience had taught them to conceal.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ON the outer ring of spectators around the table 
 in the centre of the room, they paused to look on. 
 
 " Faites vos jeux, messieurs," the croupier was saying, 
 in a voice nasally mechanical. 
 
 Paula's eyes were instantly attracted to the game. 
 The sight of large sums of money to be lost and won 
 appealed, by some hereditary instinct, to her imagina- 
 tion. She looked at the players facing her, and saw 
 them enriched or impoverished with dramatic sudden- 
 ness. She was sure the girl in a bright-red hat, with a 
 wide - meshed blue veil making unnatural tints on 
 powder and rouge, would end her days in want. The 
 gray-bearded old man, carefully placing a five-franc 
 piece en carre, would have his homeward fare paid by 
 the authorities. The purse-lipped woman, in shabby 
 widow's weeds, working an elaborate system all over 
 the tableau, would win a lot of money. The good- 
 looking young man, smilingly throwing down the 
 maximum stake en plein, would be ruined and would 
 shoot himself. 
 
 "Rten ne va plus" the croupier cried again, and the 
 players drew back their hands to await the result of 
 Fate.
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "Your father has been called away to be presented 
 to the Grand-Duke Dmitri," Wiltshire whispered to 
 Paula, but she only nodded to signify that she had 
 heard. 
 
 When the croupier turned the wheel and threw the 
 ball she felt her heart-strings tighten. In the whirling 
 thing before her the blindest and most obscure forces 
 of the universe seemed visibly at work. Destiny was 
 staked on a chance that kept beyond all foresight and 
 eluded all calculation. It was strange, daring, and 
 exciting. She wondered how the girl in the red hat 
 could gaze indifferently about her while the wheel spun 
 round. She wondered how the young man could turn 
 with a jesting remark to the companion standing be- 
 hind him. She wondered still more at the effect upon 
 them all when the rotations of the wheel began to 
 slacken speed, when the ball clicked and tapped and 
 staggered, whirling round and round in a slow, wild, 
 drunken way, till it fell, at last, as if exhausted, into the 
 decisive number. The widow saw her system swept 
 away, and without a shadow of expression on her stony 
 face began to work out a new one. The girl in the red 
 hat put down another louis on the exact spot whence 
 the last had disappeared. The old man replaced his 
 five-franc piece by one of ten. The young man who 
 had played en plein received the value of his stake 
 thirty-five times over. 
 
 "Faites vos jeux, messieurs," the croupier called 
 again. He was a stout man of fifty, swarthy and 
 commonplace, but Paula could not help investing 
 
 R
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 him with some of the inexorable power of the 
 Parcae. 
 
 "You seem interested," the Duke whispered, be- 
 hind her. 
 
 "It's tremendous," she returned, over her shoulder. 
 "It's awful. It's as if one had got to the very springs 
 of all happenings, as if one were in touch with the 
 power that has made the world and flung us, hap- 
 hazard, on to it." 
 
 "Wiltshire," said her father, slipping into the crowd, 
 beside them, "the Grand -Duke wants to meet you. 
 Paula, dear, you can wait for us here a minute. We 
 sha'n't be long." 
 
 "Very well, papa, dear. I shall be all right." 
 
 She was not sorry to have them go, for it enabled her 
 to give herself up to the spectacle of the game. The 
 wheel was twirled again and again, always with varia- 
 tions on the same result. It gave her a thrill to see the 
 croupier rake the gold and silver in, with a sort of lavish 
 indifference to its value. There was something superb, 
 too, in the careless ease with which he pushed about to 
 the successful players the various multiplications of 
 their stakes. As each winner picked up his gains she 
 regretted that she had not put down a louis just where 
 he had put his. She wondered what would happen if 
 she did. She wondered whether the obscure, blind 
 power that was throwing destinies about would have 
 anything in store for her. 
 
 " If I knew how, I'd do it," she said to herself, looking 
 up and down the table to see exactly what the others did. 
 
 9
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Just then a man across the table threw down a ten- 
 franc piece on pair. She had seen him do it several 
 times in succession, and on each occasion he had lost. 
 It was an easy conclusion that if pair lost impair would 
 win. It was the simplest form of the game, and before 
 she realized what she was about her own ten francs 
 were down. The wheel spun and slackened speed; 
 the ball clicked and staggered and stopped. She held 
 her breath, with her eyes fixed upon her stake. 
 
 "If he rakes it in," she thought, "I shall know I've 
 lost." 
 
 But no! From the ends of the table the sure, re- 
 lentless hand swept up the gold and silver into one 
 central pile. Here and there a few isolated stakes were 
 left, her own among the number. A minute later she 
 found two gold coins where she had put down one. 
 
 She picked them up timidly, and looked across at 
 the young man. Pair had lost again, and she felt sorry 
 for him. He was not in evening dress, and she guessed, 
 from slight indications, that he was poor. Her first 
 thought was that it was a pity for him to waste his 
 money; her second, that the stake she had won was 
 practically that which he had lost. At the idea the 
 tiny furrow deepened for an instant between her brows, 
 and the gold piece clinched in her hand seemed to burn 
 through her glove. She had a confused, mistaken 
 notion that she had taken the money from him, that if 
 she had not played he might have won. 
 
 "I oughtn't to have done it," she said to herself, 
 half turning to go away. But the young man threw 
 
 IO
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 down another ten-franc piece on pair. It was an op- 
 portunity, she thought, for him to recover the money 
 she had taken from him. It was not likely that she 
 would win again, and her loss must of necessity be his 
 gain. Once more she put her stake down on impair, 
 and, with eyes fixed on it, awaited the result. 
 
 Again the croupier raked the gold and silver in, and 
 the young man's stake went with the rest. This time 
 the very coin he had forfeited was pushed across the 
 table to her. She picked it up and slipped it into her 
 glove, looking over at him to see what he would do. 
 If he stopped she would stop; if he went on she would 
 give him the chance to win his money back. She was 
 sure it was his money, and she felt some humiliation in 
 going home with twenty francs that belonged to a 
 passing stranger. Unconsciously to herself her in- 
 terest was the more sincere because of the fact that he 
 was tall and good-looking. "Certainly a gentleman," 
 the commented, "and with such a striking face." 
 
 For an instant he seemed to hesitate; then his bit of 
 gold fell on pair. A second later Paula's fell on im- 
 pair. The result was the same as before; it was so the 
 next time and the next. On the sixth spin pair won 
 and impair lost, but with the seventh Impair s run of 
 luck began again. Paula felt herself growing des- 
 perate. The palm of her left - hand glove seemed 
 bursting with gold, but in honor towards the poor 
 young man she could not stop till he did. She did not 
 reason that he could win back his money from the 
 bank; she thought it must be from her. Of one thing 
 
 Ii
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 she was glad: he had not noticed her at all or glanced 
 in her direction. She could, therefore, look at him, 
 with her money in her hand, ready to throw her stake 
 when he threw his. 
 
 The widow was elaborating a new arrangement of 
 her system, taking coin after coin from a small black 
 bag. The girl in the blue veil was playing with two 
 louis instead of one, gesticulating her orders to the 
 croupier as to where they should be placed. The lad 
 who had put his stake en plein was now playing it a 
 cheval. 
 
 " Rien ne va plus !" 
 
 Paula started and looked at the young man across 
 the table. He had put nothing down. He had evi- 
 dently lost all he could afford. What she had won 
 she should be obliged to keep. The obscure pow- 
 ers of chance had been true to their reputation, 
 and had given the luck to those who had no need 
 of it. 
 
 Her hand, with the glove full of gold, fell heavily at 
 her side. Perhaps the unfortunate man had lost every- 
 thing he possessed and would be driven to take his life, 
 as she understood ruined gamblers generally were. She 
 had a wild thought of asking her father to go and beg 
 him to take his money back, when the victim's eyes wan- 
 dered, apparently by accident, in her direction. For a 
 fraction of a second their glances met, but Paula felt 
 herself coloring and turned away. 
 
 "Why what!" 
 
 The broken exclamation came from the Duke of 
 12
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Wiltshire, as he pushed his way through the crowd 
 to take his place again at her side. 
 
 "Have you been crying? or playing? or what?" 
 he demanded, when he was near enough to speak. 
 For the first time in their acquaintance he assumed a 
 tone of authority. 
 
 "I haven't been crying," she said, hurriedly. "I've 
 been playing, and I've won a lot of money. I don't 
 quite know what to do with it." 
 
 "So ho!" he laughed. "That's what you do when 
 your father's back is turned!" 
 
 "I sha'n't do it again," she said, in some confusion, 
 as she moved out of the ring immediately around the 
 table. "You see it was this way. I played against that 
 tall young man over there. Don't look now because 
 he'll notice it. That is, whatever he did on one side 
 of the table I did on the other, and he always lost and 
 I always won. I'm so sorry. He didn't look as if 
 he could afford to lose and he didn't keep on." 
 
 "What young man do you mean ? I don't see him." 
 
 "He's tall, and well set-up, with a pointed brown 
 beard and rather gleaming eyes. No; he's gone," she 
 added, stealing a glance to where he had been standing. 
 "Ah, there he is now, coming round the table. He's 
 coming this way. Don't look; he'll know I've been 
 speaking of him. Come away. There's papa. Let 
 us go to him." 
 
 But it was too late. The unknown young man and 
 the Duke were already shaking hands, with the cord- 
 iality of long-standing friendship. Paula tried to slip 
 
 '3
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 out of her embarrassment by gliding round them and 
 taking her place beside her father. He was talking to a 
 knot of people she did not know, but she was near 
 enough to him to be under his protection, while not 
 so far from the Duke as to escape hearing some of the 
 remarks between him and the stranger. 
 
 Through the hum of movement and conversation 
 about her she caught a sympathetic barytone quality 
 of voice. From the English precision of his enunciation 
 and the American plaintiveness of his inflections, she 
 guessed he was one of those fellow-countrymen of her 
 own who have lived or studied abroad. The Duke 
 catechised him freely, and he replied with the sort of 
 detail one gives only to one's friends. 
 
 He had been working in Rome, and would have 
 remained till after Easter, only that he had a couple of 
 commissions for portraits in Paris. Oh yes; commis- 
 sions did come in, but very slowly. Perhaps it would 
 be different some day. Yes, his mother was quite ac- 
 customed to her blindness now, but so feeble that they 
 might lose her at any minute. Marah was well, and, 
 as usual, working hard. He was staying only a day 
 or two at Monte Carlo, just to break the journey from 
 Rome. He hoped to have something in the next Salon, 
 though he had nothing ready yet. Perhaps if Lady 
 Alice were passing through Paris, she would look in, 
 and give him the benefit of her advice. 
 
 Then came the question Paula was afraid of. Would 
 the Duke tell him who was the tall young lady, in a blue 
 dress and black hat, who had spoken to him on turning
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 away from the table ? Of the reply she caught only the 
 end of the sentence "and you must know her." 
 
 She felt herself flushing with embarrassment, but 
 as the Duke approached she knew the only dignified 
 thing to do was to turn and greet him pleasantly. 
 
 "Miss Traffbrd," he said, with the awkward air he 
 always had at such moments, "I want you to know a 
 very old friend of ours, Mr. Roger Winship." 
 
 "Mr. Winship's face," she laughed, "is perfectly 
 familiar to me. I've been watching him from the other 
 side of the roulette-table for nearly half an hour." 
 
 "And you saw the ill-will of the gods against me," he 
 returned, easily. "But I had the gratification of know- 
 ing that I couldn't lose unless you won. That was 
 something." 
 
 "Haven't we met before ?" she asked, with a hurried 
 change of topic. 
 
 "No; never." 
 
 The quick decisiveness of tone as well as the curious 
 gleam of his eyes, in speaking the brief words, were 
 details she remembered afterwards. 
 
 "And yet," she persisted, "your name is very well 
 known to me. I've heard it often." 
 
 "That isn't impossible," he admitted, with a forced 
 smile, "though you must have been very young." 
 
 " I know I've heard of a Roger Winship," she con- 
 tinued, as if searching in her memory. "It must have 
 been my father " 
 
 "Probably," he interrupted; "but it was so long 
 ago-" 
 
 '5
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "That it was your father's name and not yours 
 that I've heard mentioned. Were you going to say 
 that ?" 
 
 "It was a long time ago," he repeated, the forced 
 
 smile gone. "I don't suppose that either you or 
 j 
 
 He hesitated, and Paula saw that it would be best to 
 let the subject drop. The Duke broke in with a re- 
 mark or two, and after a few further words Winship 
 bade them good-evening and passed on. 
 
 "What am I to do with all this money ?" Paula asked, 
 when she and Wiltshire were alone again. 
 
 "You might give it in charity," he suggested. 
 
 "No; I wouldn't do that. I couldn't give in charity 
 money to which I felt some one else had a prior claim. 
 And," she pursued, with some hesitation, "I suppose 
 I was right in fancying that he is poor ?" 
 
 "Oh yes; he's poor enough. He's a portrait-painter, 
 and still has his way to make. Alice got to know him 
 and his sister when she took it into her head to study 
 art in Paris. She brings them over every now and then 
 to stay with us at Edenbridge, or, at least she did till 
 the poor old lady grew too blind. I like this young 
 fellow. He's full of ideas, and we've had some jolly 
 talks together." 
 
 "I've heard your sister spoken of as a great authority 
 on art. Does she think this Mr. Winship ?" 
 
 "She says she doesn't think she knows. In ten 
 years' time, she believes, he will have such a place as 
 Sargent holds to-day." 
 
 16
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Then, what shall I do with the money?" Paula 
 
 said again. 
 
 "What can you do but give it away or spend it ?" 
 "I can keep it," she returned, thoughtfully. "I 
 
 may find a way of getting him to take it back."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " \\ T^HAT connection have I with the name of 
 VV Roger Winship ?" 
 
 "Oh, that dreadful man!" Mrs. Trafford cried, with 
 a little gasp. "I haven't heard of him for years." 
 
 " Do you mean old Roger Winship ?" George Traf- 
 ford asked, yawning, as he slipped down lazily in his 
 arm-chair and stretched his legs before the fire. 
 
 "I mean any Roger Winship," Paula replied. "I've 
 heard the name to-night, and I seem to have known it 
 before." 
 
 "How on earth did it happen?" came from Mrs. 
 Trafford. 
 
 "There was a young man at the Casino, rather an 
 interesting-looking man, a friend of the Duke's. The 
 Duke spoke to him and then introduced him to me. 
 I'd noticed him before that." 
 
 "I'm surprised at the Duke. It's very queer the 
 sort of people who seem to know one another nowadays." 
 
 Mrs. Trafford spoke with as much severity as a 
 beaming content would permit. Handsome, dimpling, 
 and energetic, she was spending her middle-age in the 
 serene satisfaction of seeing all her dreams fulfilled. 
 
 The daughter of a New England coal merchant, her 
 18
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 modest fortune had been the foundation on which the 
 colossal Coal Trust had been built up. It was to her 
 credit to have married a poor man, certain that a great 
 industrial empire awaited him. She had married for 
 love, against the wishes of her family, but her love had 
 been based on admiration. Her husband and she had 
 passed through good years and evil years, had lived 
 sparingly, had watched and planned and combined, 
 and made their business march with the march of the 
 country. She had seen him rise, with the swiftness and 
 sureness of a Bonaparte, to the highest financial posi- 
 tion, first in Vermont, then in New England, then in 
 America, then in the world. Before he was sixty or 
 she was fifty, TrafFord was a name to go with Roths- 
 child. It was a name that meant not only the power 
 of money, but the power of power the success of those 
 who threw in their destinies with it, and the ruin of 
 those who opposed it. 
 
 During the years in which the great trust was being 
 organized and maintained, the Traffords had lived in 
 an atmosphere of battle. There were suits in the law 
 courts, appeals to supreme courts, State legislatures to 
 be managed, Congress to be appeased, foreign trade- 
 marts to be invaded, and small competitors to be crush- 
 ed out at home. It had been exciting, and often 
 dramatic; but as middle-age drew on and most of the 
 ends had been gained, it was pleasant to settle down 
 and enjoy the hardly won laurels in peace. George 
 TrafFord, whose late father, Andrew TrafFord, had 
 shared the family elevation, was equal now to taking 
 
 19
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 his uncle's place in everything but the supreme com- 
 mand. In the exercise of this office Paul Trafford 
 himself was never idle, hurrying now to one great capi- 
 tal, now to another, with but brief intervals to spend 
 with his wife and daughter at home. 
 
 Home now meant Paris. The dust of conflict being 
 still thick in New York, it was natural that Mrs. 
 Trafford, at least, should prefer a place of abode where 
 she could breathe more freely. It was not less natural 
 that the enticements of fashion and fine weather, as well 
 as the needs of Mrs. Trafford 's health, should draw 
 them in winter to the Riviera. The coming of the 
 George Traffords from America, as well as the possi- 
 bility of Paula's engagement to the Duke of Wiltshire 
 a possibility which was only awaiting her final word to 
 become a certainty offered reasons for assembling 
 something like a family party. 
 
 At the present minute they were spending the last 
 desultory half-hour of the evening in Mrs. Trafford's 
 sitting-room, before parting for the night. Mr. Traf- 
 ford had already gone to his apartment, and Mrs. 
 George, beating back a yawn with the gloves she had 
 just pulled off, was preparing to take her husband off 
 to theirs. Paula, dressed as she came from the Casino, 
 sat by a window from which she had pulled the curtain 
 back. Under the starlight, the sea gleamed duskily, 
 reflecting here and there the lamps of the yachts an- 
 chored in the tiny bay. Lights, too, ran in a long, slant- 
 ing line down the sea-wall to the Condamine, while 
 more lights still punctured the dark mass of the town 
 
 20
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 of Monaco, looming, high and ancient, against the 
 sky. 
 
 "The Duke couldn't help introducing him to me," 
 Paula explained, in answer to her mother's objections. 
 "I was standing near, and he asked who I was. Be- 
 sides, we'd noticed each other before that." 
 
 "Noticed each other?" Mrs. George queried, with 
 just the glimmer of a smile. 
 
 "In the Casino at Monte Carlo,'' George Trafford 
 began, "strange ladies don't notice strange gentlemen 
 unless " 
 
 "It was this way," Paula hastened to say. "I'd 
 won a lot of money from him " 
 
 "You'd what ?" Mrs. Trafford gasped. 'You don't 
 mean to say you played in that dreadful place ?" 
 
 "I didn't play exactly. I just put down ten francs 
 on a sort of square to see what would happen." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Well, he had ten francs on the corresponding 
 square on the opposite side, and he lost and I 
 won." 
 
 "That wasn't winning from him," George Trafford 
 corrected; "it was winning from the bank." 
 
 "It seemed like winning from him," Paula insisted. 
 
 "Was that all ?" the mother inquired, anxiously. 
 
 "No. We went on six or seven times. He lost 
 every time but one. I've brought home all this!" 
 
 She pulled off her glove and let the gold pieces slip 
 from her palm on to the nearest table. They lay about 
 separately, like stars. Mrs. Trafford and Mrs. George 
 
 21
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 both leaned forward to see; George Trafford turned his 
 head to look without changing his position. 
 
 "One two three," Mrs. Trafford counted "fifty 
 francs in all. Well, it isn't very much." 
 
 "It was a good deal to him, I fancy," Paula remarked. 
 "The Duke admitted that he wasn't well off. Who is 
 he, George ?" 
 
 " If he is old Roger Winship's son " George Traf- 
 ford began, lazily. 
 
 "He is," Paula interrupted; "or at least he hinted as 
 much. He seemed to speak as if his family had fiad 
 some connection with us." 
 
 "Did he say that?" Mrs. Trafford asked, with a 
 gleam of her old readiness for conflict. 
 
 "Not exactly," Paula explained. "He only wouldn't 
 talk of it when I said I seemed to know his name. Who 
 is he?" 
 
 "Old Roger Winship," George Trafford went on, 
 in his comfortable, lazy tone, "was one of the men who, 
 twenty years ago, had the folly, the hardihood, and the 
 ill-luck to oppose your father." 
 
 "And what then?" 
 
 "Then," Trafford laughed "then he was ruined." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 "That is," Mrs. Trafford added, in explanation, "he 
 would have been ruined if he had lived. As it was " 
 
 "His son was ruined," Paula finished, seeing her 
 mother hesitate. 
 
 "No, his widow, poor thing," Mrs. Trafford correct- 
 ed, pityingly. 
 
 22
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Was she ruined by by us?" Paula continued, a 
 little tremulously. 
 
 " No, by herself," George Trafford replied, promptly. 
 
 He pulled himself up in his chair and spoke with 
 emphasis. You could see that it was one of the sub- 
 jects that kindled him into interest by the way in 
 which his eyes awoke from their blue benignity to dart 
 out a ray like steel. It was then that you realized in 
 him the presence of the new type the essentially mod- 
 ern and chiefly American type the son of the hugely 
 wealthy, self-made man; the son to whom has passed 
 the blood of a peasant with the power of a prince, and 
 a command of means far in excess of anything he knows 
 how to use. As Trafford dragged his heavy figure into 
 an upright posture in his chair, his large jaw set, his 
 head thrown back, and his keen eyes flashing, there was 
 the implication that he could do what Paul Trafford 
 himself had done if there were need to begin the work 
 again. But his was another duty the duty of the 
 second generation to keep what had been won. It was 
 a task consistent with a large-handed, easy mode of 
 life, with leisure for a certain sort of simple cultivation, 
 with praiseworthy, philanthropic undertaking, and 
 with interest in everything that made for the general 
 public good. The least competent judge of character 
 could read in George Trafford's rather ponderous, 
 clean-shaven face the presence of the loyal, honest citi- 
 zen, who would have straightforward, sensible views 
 on every subject, from ward politics to the nude in art. 
 It was not an aristocratic face; its features, excellent in 
 
 23
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 themselves, were so placed together as to be without 
 distinction; a mustache would have softened the hard 
 lines of the mouth and a beard would have veiled the 
 too aggressive chin; but in the general expression there 
 was at least frankness, open-mindedness, and a sense 
 of power coupled with a look of kindness. Undoubt- 
 edly that look of kindness came from his eyes. They 
 were blue eyes with black lashes, like his cousin Paula's, 
 only smaller and more deeply set. Where hers ranged 
 about with a sort of searching, puzzled wonder, his 
 twinkled good-naturedly, until some sudden topic of 
 politics, business, or American patriotism made them 
 blaze. A good man, was the universal opinion in New 
 York regarding George Trafford; a safe man, a man to 
 be found in the forefront of any movement to help on 
 the common weal; but a man who, in all matters of 
 money, was of Paul Traffbrd's own stock and blood. 
 
 "She ruined herself," he repeated, with greater 
 energy. " She, too, was possessed of the insane con- 
 viction that she could fight your father and beat him. 
 She wasn't the only woman who ever tried it, but no 
 other kept at it so doggedly and desperately that there 
 was no choice at last but to club her down." 
 
 "Of course," Mrs. Trafford interposed, "she worked 
 for sympathy on the fact that she was a woman; and she 
 got it there's no denying that. It was one of the in- 
 justices that was done your father and which he is al- 
 ways so ready to forgive." 
 
 "I didn't know," Paula said, with a more decided 
 tremor in the voice, "that papa fought with women." 
 
 24
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "There are no women in business," Mrs. George 
 Trafford observed, in her clear, cold way; "there are 
 only competitors." 
 
 "Your father never fights with any one," George 
 Trafford cried, forcibly. "It is others who fight with 
 him. They won't let him alone. His success is what 
 they can't pardon, and the less so when they compare 
 it with their own failure. There's never been a man 
 who has tried harder than your father to do good to 
 others, and there's never been one who has had more 
 harm done to him." 
 
 In his tone there was a mingling of pride and in- 
 dignation. Mrs. Trafford raised her lace handkerchief 
 to her eyes. Even Mrs. George Trafford, who had 
 only a connection by affinity with the great financier, 
 threw up her head with admiration when the trumpet 
 was blown in his praise. 
 
 Paula herself felt a strange oppression about the 
 heart. Like the rest of the Traffords she had set up the 
 man who had made them what they were as a kind of 
 demigod. She had done more than the rest of them; 
 for, into the worship they all accorded him, she had in- 
 fused a self-devotion of which she alone was capable. 
 As the youngest of the family it was she who had known 
 him least as a man of business and most as a man of 
 the world. In all her recollection of him he had never 
 been anything but the great personage whose goings 
 and comings were as important as those of kings. 
 During his later years, when the immensity of his 
 affairs obliged him to travel much, she was his frequent 
 
 3 25
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 companion. She helped him in collecting rare old 
 books and works of art, and filled some of the gaps in 
 his early education; but she never saw him otherwise 
 than as the financial potentate, who had taught statesmen 
 to look to him for advice and bishops for benefactions, 
 and who could buy anything that was good enough. 
 
 To be the daughter of such a man had given her a 
 kind of royalty the royalty of money. Wherever they 
 went they were treated with a spontaneous awe, 
 scarcely less deferential than if they had sprung from 
 the line of Charlemagne. Governments and aristoc- 
 racies did them honor, and sovereigns received them 
 on a footing curiously like that of equality. As for 
 republics and democracies, they had hailed Paul Traf- 
 ford at first as the type they could produce at their very 
 best the man who out of small beginnings could rise to 
 vastness of power, and then dispense his means not 
 merely in sumptuous living, but in founding hospitals, 
 building churches, endowing seats of learning, and leav- 
 ing a name that time could only consecrate. It was not 
 strange that Paula, living in the radiation of so strong a 
 character, should give him more than filial affection. 
 For this very reason certain suggestions made to-night 
 seemed to her like a desecration. To fight with a 
 woman! To club her down! There are no women in 
 business, only competitors! What did it mean? For 
 a few minutes she kept silence, pondering her cousin's 
 words. She looked straight before her, trouble cloud- 
 ing in her Celtic eyes and the little furrow of perplexity 
 deepening between the brows. 
 
 26
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Did Mrs. Winship ?" she began, with some 
 hesitation. 
 
 "For mercy's sake, Paula," Mrs. Trafford ex- 
 claimed, hastily, "don't get those Winships on the 
 brain! I thought they were dead and buried long ago, 
 and, dear knows, they've given us trouble enough." 
 
 "Let her go on, Aunt Julia," George Trafford rea- 
 soned, calmly. "Since the subject has come up, she'd 
 better know it just as it is." 
 
 "I was going to ask," Paula said, with dignity, "if 
 Mrs. Winship thought that papa had done her wrong." 
 
 "Most people think you do them wrong if you do 
 things better than they can," Trafford answered, 
 quickly. "There's no kind of business, from the stage 
 to the church, in which the strong worker isn't held as 
 an enemy by the feeble and the indifferent. That's 
 inseparable from human nature, and your father has 
 had to face it. The hostility he has encountered has 
 been in proportion to his success; so, naturally, it's 
 been colossal." 
 
 "And I've never known him to utter a harsh word," 
 Mrs. Trafford observed, quaveringly. "As each new 
 attack has arisen, he has faced about to crush it. When 
 that's been done he has given it no more thought if 
 it hasn't been to help those he has beaten. Where he 
 has seen people with ability he has often taken them 
 into his own employment; and there are plenty of 
 wealthy men to-day who can tell you that their fortunes 
 were made when your father singled them out as clever 
 opponents. There's Henry Desmond, for instance, 
 
 27
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 who was only an obscure young lawyer at Utica until 
 he gained the McTavish case against us. From that 
 very moment your father kept his eye on him, and when 
 the Brewer action was brought in Albany he put the 
 whole case in Desmond's hand. That made Des- 
 mond what he is; and there are hundreds of others of 
 whom the same thing is true. Your father has the 
 most wonderful way of converting enemies into friends. 
 It's a sort of art of his. I've never heard of it anywhere 
 else unless it was in Mary Queen of Scots." 
 
 "Couldn't he have done that with the Winships ?" 
 Paula asked, returning to the personal point. 
 
 "In business," Trafford explained, swinging him- 
 self round so as to lean over the arm of his chair, and 
 speaking for Paula's benefit "in business, most men, 
 when they can't get best, will turn themselves about so 
 as to put up with second-best. They will even accept 
 third-best and fourth-best rather than go with no ad- 
 vantage whatever. But every now and then you meet 
 some one with whom it must be all or nothing. They'll 
 not bargain, or compromise, or meet you half-way, or 
 resort to any of the shifts with which business men have 
 often to be content. They'll fight you to the bitter end, 
 and die before they yield. In fact, they're people with 
 the fighting rather than the business instinct, and when 
 you meet them they leave you no choice but to crush 
 them out of your way." 
 
 "Were the Winships like that?" 
 
 "Yes, they were. They were like that, only worse. 
 You could no more beat modern methods into old Roger 
 
 28
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Winship's mind than you could into a mountain of 
 brass. Because he was the largest owner of coal-lands 
 in New Hampshire, he looked upon himself as a sort 
 of ruler by divine right. For nearly thirty years he had 
 operated the Devlin Mines " 
 
 "But they're ours!" Paula exclaimed. 
 
 "Now yes," Trafford assented, with a short laugh. 
 " But when your father first cast his eyes on them the 
 Devlin Coal Company was practically old Roger Win- 
 ship. He worked the mines and sold the coal, in a 
 humdrum, provincial, old-fashioned way, and made a 
 handsome income. Then came your father with new 
 ideas, big ideas, and victory behind him all along the 
 line." 
 
 "But papa didn't want to take the Devlin Mines 
 from Mr. Winship ?" 
 
 "No; not at all. He was only developing the plan 
 with which he had begun that he should control the 
 entire output and sale of coal in the sphere under his 
 immediate influence. As you know, that sphere ex- 
 panded as he went on, like a growing empire. At first, 
 when he was a young man, he thought of coal produc- 
 tion only within the State of Vermont didn't he, 
 aunt?" 
 
 "He spoke only of that," Mrs. TrafFord corrected. 
 "His thoughts from the beginning were as vast as his 
 business afterwards came to be." 
 
 "At any rate," George TrafFord continued, "he 
 began with Vermont, quietly and, as we should think 
 nowadays, very modestly. And yet, so complete was 
 
 29
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 his system, and so thorough his organization in every 
 detail, that in a few years there was not a bushel of coal 
 mined or sold from Canada to the Massachusetts line 
 that wasn't under his direct control. He had got pos- 
 session of every important company and annexed every 
 customer, great and small. Where any one showed 
 fight, he pushed him out of the market. He had his 
 agents everywhere not only in every town but in every 
 office. There wasn't a carload of coal that crossed the 
 state of which he didn't know the quality, the value, and 
 the destination. If it wasn't his, his agents went after 
 it and offered the dealer a better quality at a cheaper 
 rate. If the dealer refused, then they went to his 
 customers and cut the prices right under the dealer's 
 nose. In five years' time there was practically not a 
 merchant in Vermont who could sell a ton of coal if he 
 hadn't bought it from your father." 
 
 "But the Devlin Mines are in New Hampshire," 
 Paula argued, eager to know about the Winships. 
 
 "We're coming to that," Traffbrd went on, enthusias- 
 tically. " It wasn't natural that a business such as his 
 had come to be should stop within the limits of a state. 
 It spilled over on every side: into New York, Massa- 
 chusetts, Pennsylvania, the Middle States everywhere. 
 It crossed the whole country; the farther the net went 
 out the easier it seemed to throw it farther still. His 
 system was so perfect that the thing seemed to go of 
 itself. In reality his method was simple; it lay in three 
 main points: First, to get control of the means of trans- 
 portation by rebates from the great railway and steam- 
 
 30
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 ship lines rebates allowed to him and refused to others; 
 then to sweep out competition by annexing rival com- 
 panies; and lastly to keep up prices by limiting the 
 supply. If an independent company refused to yield 
 to his demands, then he laid siege to it siege as reg- 
 ular, as thorough, as patient, and as systematic as 
 that of a fortress. He invested it, so to speak, by sea 
 and land. He cut off its means of transportation by 
 prohibitive rates and its customers by low prices. If 
 there was litigation, he was almost invariably victorious. 
 In the end the rebellious company did one of two 
 things it capitulated and came in, or it went bank- 
 rupt and Uncle Paul bought it/' 
 
 Trafford threw back his great head, with a sense of 
 exultation in so much industrial triumph. Mrs. Traf- 
 ford sighed softly as she recalled the old days of ac- 
 tion. Paula sat quite still, her eyes fixed upon her 
 cousin with a sort of astonished fascination, as her 
 mind tried to comprehend these strange these brutal 
 mysteries of business. 
 
 "You ought to say, George," young Mrs. Trafford 
 suggested, "that your uncle never struck until he had 
 made the most generous proposals." 
 
 "That's true, Laura," her husband agreed. "Paula 
 should understand that; and the Winships make an 
 excellent illustration. The Devlin Company," he 
 pursued, in a tone of narrative, "had already been 
 pretty hard hit by us before your father began to give 
 them open attention. Of course, he'd known for years 
 what he was going to do with them, but he's never one 
 
 31
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 to act before the time. When he was ready that is to 
 say, when he had secured his rebates on all their rail- 
 ways, when he held their customers in the hollow of his 
 hand, when, by his agents whom he kept in their em- 
 ploy, he knew their business better than they did them- 
 selves he made his offer. It was a good one, or it 
 wouldn't have come from him. As nearly as I re- 
 member, it was this: They were to hand over to the 
 Vermont Mining Company that was your father, of 
 course for the period of twenty years, the mines, th<* 
 plant, and all their own time. He was to put in twenty 
 thousand dollars and his rebates; that is to say, they 
 were to have the same transportation advantages as 
 ourselves. They were to limit their output to a given 
 quantity, and in return Uncle Paul was to guarantee 
 them a profit of fifty thousand dollars a year. Any 
 profit over fifty thousand was to go to him." 
 
 "Most generous, I call it," young Mrs. Traffbrd 
 commented. 
 
 "And yet the old man refused it," Trafford said, with 
 a short laugh. 
 
 "Why?" Paula asked, trying to keep up with her 
 cousin's explanations. 
 
 "Why?" he echoed. "Because those whom the 
 gods wish to destroy they first make mad. Old Roger 
 Winship thought he could pit himself against the man 
 whose financial conquests were by this time the talk of 
 two worlds. You see, for forty years the Winships had 
 done a steady, respectable business in the played-out, 
 live-and-let-live way that used to be the standard. They 
 
 32
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 had no notion of progress, or energy, or real competi- 
 tion. Your father had begun to eat the heart out of 
 their trade before they ever heard of him. By the time 
 they began to wake up they were as good as ruined al- 
 ready. Your father knew it but they didn't. When 
 they took in the fact they threatened him with all the 
 rigor of the law." 
 
 "Only," Mrs. Trafford added, "they went beyond the 
 limits of propriety. They said your father was no better 
 than a common thie well, no, I won't say it. He him- 
 self is the last to bear malice, and an example to us all." 
 
 "At any rate," George Traffbrd pursued, "your 
 father stepped in just then with his offer. He was 
 always for peace and fair-dealing, and he knew the 
 psychological moment had come. He knew, too, just 
 how it would be taken, and laid out his plan of action 
 for five or six years ahead. If the Devlin hadn't been a 
 sort of family company, with all the shares in a few 
 hands, they would probably have come in after the first 
 storm of threats had blown over. A body of share- 
 holders are generally ready in the long run to eat 
 humble-pie if their dividends are assured them. But, 
 you see, the Devlin was practically Roger Winship, a 
 proud, stubborn, high-tempered old fellow of a by-gone 
 school. As hereditary coal king of New Hampshire, 
 he felt himself a match for any mushroom Trafibrd, 
 and so he set to work." 
 
 "Very cleverly, it must be admitted," Mrs. Traffbrd 
 observed. "Your father always says that he went 
 straight for the weak point of the whole system." 
 
 33
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes the rebates," Trafford went on. "Uncle 
 knew that if the question of rebates was ever seriously 
 raised in law he couldn't hold out beyond a certain 
 point." 
 
 "Do you mean that papa knew he was making use 
 of an illegal privilege ?" Paula asked. 
 
 Trafford was not expecting a question of so much 
 acumen, and replied, somewhat slowly: 
 
 "Nothing is illegal till it's proved so. He only made 
 use of the rebates until it was shown that he couldn't. 
 It was a matter of public benefit to have the question 
 fought out and settled. So when the New Hampshire 
 Central refused the Winships the same rates for trans- 
 portation as they had given to the Vermont Mining 
 Company, the Devlin took the matter into court. Of 
 course your father stood behind the railroad, and the 
 case was argued in the Court of Common Pleas. The 
 railroad lost, just as he thought it would; but see what 
 a general he is ! He had the whole campaign mapped 
 out. The railroad appealed to the District Court, your 
 father in the mean time having the use of his rebates. 
 The railroad lost again. Then it appealed to the 
 Supreme Court of the State. Still the rebates went on, 
 while at the same time your father was cutting off 
 from the Devlin every ton of business. Before the case 
 was heard at Concord old Roger Winship died from a 
 stroke of apoplexy." 
 
 "Brought on," Mrs. Trafford explained, "purely by 
 bad temper and his refusal to accept your father's offer. 
 Now, tell her, George, of your uncle's magnanimity." 
 
 34
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "It was just this," said Trafford "just what you 
 would have expected him to do. He went to Mrs. 
 Winship personally and renewed the offer he had made 
 two years before. In the mean time, please take notice, 
 the Devlin's business had gone from bad to worse, and 
 yet he actually renewed the offer as it stood." 
 
 Trafford leaned back, his thumbs thrust into the arm- 
 holes of his evening waistcoat, and watched the effect 
 of this information upon Paula. The girl could only 
 gaze at him with the same troubled expression of in- 
 quiry, waiting for him to go on. 
 
 "But Mrs. Winship," he continued, "had as little 
 mind for compromise as her husband. The railroad 
 having already lost twice, she was persuaded it would 
 lose again. Once there were no more rebates, she was 
 sure the Devlin would do its old work again. Well, the 
 railroad lost the third time, and appealed to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. For the poor lady that was 
 a staggerer, just as your father supposed it would be. 
 Still, she had the pluck or the folly, whichever you 
 choose to call it to struggle on. The case went before 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, and the rail- 
 road lost again. Mrs. Winship was victorious; but 
 and this is what your father had foreseen during the 
 whole six years the fight had lasted the Devlin Coal 
 Company was already in the hands of a receiver, and 
 legal expenses had eaten up all the Winships' private 
 means." 
 
 Trafford, having ended his story, fell back dramat- 
 ically into the depths of his chair. 
 
 35
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "We took over the Devlin Mines the next year," 
 Mrs. Traffbrd concluded. "The Winships had misman- 
 aged them terribly. Once they were thoroughly worked 
 they became the most paying of all our properties." 
 
 There was a long silence, broken only when young 
 Mrs. Traffbrd reminded her husband that it was time 
 to say good-night. 
 
 "Did any more of our money come like that ?" Paula 
 asked, suddenly. 
 
 "Like what?" Traffbrd demanded. 
 
 " Like what, Paula ?" came from Mrs. Traffbrd her- 
 self, with a suggestion of protest in her tone. 
 
 "Like that," the girl said, confusedly "like the 
 money we got from the Winships." 
 
 "We got nothing from the Winships," Traffbrd de- 
 clared. "We haven't a dollar that we didn't get in 
 business." 
 
 "Was it honorable business?" 
 
 The question slipped out unawares. Traffbrd strode 
 towards her. He stood looking down at her, his hands 
 in the pockets of his evening jacket, his feet planted 
 apart, and his eyes shooting out their steely rays. 
 
 "Look here, Paula," he said, in a tone of rough 
 kindliness, "you have for a father one of the greatest 
 men God ever raised up a man with a big mind, a big 
 heart, a big nature; a man who out of nothing has creat- 
 ed one of the first positions in the world; a man who has 
 not only transformed the business of the country, but 
 given new conceptions of business to the whole earth. 
 Now, such a man as that is bound to have enemies, 
 
 36
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 and he has them. All his life long he has been per- 
 secuted, vilified, and traduced. He has gone from 
 court to court, and from one committee of investigation 
 to another. What has been his crime ? He has made 
 money. He has made a lot of money. To people 
 who've tried to make money and haven't made it, that's 
 crime enough to warrant any kind of hounding down. 
 But take the people who haven't tried to make money; 
 take the people whose ambitions are elsewhere and 
 whose minds are impartial. Is there any one among 
 them who isn't proud to take your father by the hand 
 and accept what he has to give ? Is there a philan- 
 thropist, from Cardinal Gibbons to Bishop Potter, who 
 isn't glad of his subscription ? Is there an institution, 
 from Harvard University to St. John's Floating Hos- 
 pital, that doesn't accept his donation without ques- 
 tioning the means by which the money came to be his ? 
 He has built a cathedral at Burlington, a hospital at Des 
 Moines, an orphanage in St. Louis; he has endowed a 
 School of Mining at one university, and an Institute of 
 Manual Arts at another; there are charitable schemes all 
 over the country that owe their chief support to your 
 father. Is there a doubtful note on the part of any 
 person or any corporation, civil or ecclesiastical, that 
 has received his benefactions ? None. Mind you, I'm 
 quoting to you not the common standard of the world, 
 but the standard of men devoted to the religious, moral, 
 or educational welfare of their fellows. One and all 
 they have taken his money as money which he had an 
 honest right to bestow. Now, isn't that enough for 
 
 37
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 you ? Haven't you got a mass of moral testimony there 
 that nobody can go behind or bring into dispute ? The 
 man who impeaches your father to-day must prac- 
 tically impeach all the religious, philanthropic, and 
 educational opinion in the United States. Don't you 
 begin to do it." 
 
 He stood looking down at her, smiling in kindly 
 admonition. Young Mrs. Trafford came up and slipped 
 her arm through his, smiling down at her too. The 
 mother joined them, with an affectionate injunction to 
 dismiss all foolish and fatiguing thoughts and go to bed. 
 
 The girl made no reply to any of them. She smiled 
 rather wistfully in response to their good-night wishes, 
 and told them she would put out the lights. Then she 
 sat still, alone and pondering, trying to sift and co-or- 
 dinate the mass of information she had just received. 
 
 It was late when she rose to go away. On the table 
 beside her lay the five gold pieces she had brought 
 home an hour or two ago. "The Winship money," 
 she half muttered to herself. "What father did to his 
 father I seem to have done to him." 
 
 She picked up the coins one by one and pressed them 
 in her palm. Suddenly, before she could control her- 
 self, the tears rose and ran down her cheeks. As she 
 dashed them away it seemed as if a figure rose before 
 her through the mist they made. It was not the man 
 with the brown beard and the gleaming eyes she had seen 
 that night; it was the blind woman, who had gone on 
 from court to court and from year to year, till her father 
 had been forced at last to "club her down." 
 
 38
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 OF all the Traffbrd family it was Paula who had 
 least of the clearness of vision and promptness 
 of action that were so remarkable in her parents. Her 
 thought worked slowly and somewhat illogically. She 
 was not capable of large conceptions, and when she 
 tried to trace for herself a definite line of duty it soon 
 lost itself in vagueness. In a small way of life she would 
 have fulfilled the daily task with scrupulous devotion, 
 helped by the very absence of choice; but as mistress of 
 a fortune such as that which she was already allowed 
 to spend she felt herself bewildered. It was as if she 
 had a bird's range of flight without the bird's instinct 
 for finding the way. 
 
 She was conscious of this as she sat, on the follow- 
 ing morning, looking over her correspondence. Every- 
 thing in the room about her suggested wealth. She 
 herself, in a soft, trailing garment that seemed to be 
 woven of gossamer and the petals of pale-pink flowers, 
 looked as far removed from the practical side of life as 
 a Princess de Lamballe or Dauphiness Marie Antoinette. 
 Her coffee, brought to her in the gold-plate service kept 
 in the hotel as a delicate attention to passing royalties, 
 was beside her on the table, and she sipped as she read. 
 
 39
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 The Duke's daily letter she glanced through first, 
 laying it down with a sigh. When she had read the 
 notes from her friends, she separated the letters of in- 
 vitation from those of premature congratulation on her 
 reported engagement. Then she attacked the large 
 pile of envelopes, the nature of whose contents she 
 knew only too well. They were all requests for con- 
 tributions of money to charities of various kinds, and 
 she swept them aside with a gesture of impatience. 
 In spite of herself, her thoughts went back to the man 
 she had seen last night the man who was "evidently a 
 gentleman," but who "looked poor." 
 
 For a man to "look poor" seemed to Paula the last 
 touch of the pitiable. All the men with whom she 
 had much to do had at least the outward air of riches. 
 This man, on the contrary, bore the very stamp of one 
 obliged to deny himself. Yes, that was it. She could 
 see it now. It was not poverty that he expressed so 
 much as self-denial. The very clothes he wore were 
 threadbare. She had noticed that detail, sub-con- 
 sciously at the time, and now it came back to her 
 significantly. Well, he had a mother and a sister de- 
 pendent on him; it was only too likely that he should 
 be forced into personal privation. It was not the 
 nobleness of the sacrifice that appealed to Paula; that 
 was not the standard by which she had been taught to 
 judge; it was rather the pitifulness involved in the 
 necessity for making that kind of sacrifice at all. The 
 men of her family put forth gigantic efforts, and carried 
 them out to gigantic successes. She understood that; 
 
 40
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 she was used to it; but that a man of her own world, 
 one who was on such footing as to be casually presented 
 to herself that such a man should be driven to pinch- 
 ing, sordid, petty economies in clothing, and perhaps 
 in food, had in it something of the shameful. It put 
 him at once, in her imagination, into the class of people 
 without money the seekers, the wheedlers, the beg- 
 gars. She was not indifferent to poverty, but she could 
 not help being distrustful of it. She had seen so much 
 of it, fawning and whining, with the back bent and the 
 hand out-stretched! She could not remember the time 
 when they, the Traffords, had not been tracked down 
 by petitioners. They had moved among them like 
 European tourists among Egyptian fellaheen, with 
 cries for backsheesh forever ringing in their ears. 
 Whether from the individual or the institution, the 
 demand for money never ceased. 
 
 She had come to give carelessly, with a kind of royal 
 prodigality, but none the less with a certain contempt 
 for those who asked of her. They wearied her, they 
 goaded her. There were so many of them that she 
 was tempted to class every one who had not huge means 
 of his own among their number. For the minute she 
 saw Roger Winship there. He was poor; that surely 
 was a sufficient reason why he should put his hand out 
 like the rest. 
 
 Then came the thought of what had made him poor. 
 She went over again the discussion of last night. Her 
 father had eaten the heart out of the Winships' business 
 before they had ever heard of him! He had laid out his
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 plan of campaign to ruin them five or six years ahead! 
 What did it mean ? What could she do ? Could she 
 do anything ? Was there a right and a wrong to the 
 situation ? 
 
 She leaned her head on her hand and tried to think; 
 but the complex questions at issue were of the sort that 
 baffled her intelligence. Her mind could only shift 
 aimlessly about, as in a labyrinth, where all the paths 
 led to nothing. She felt herself beating about in de- 
 spair, in search of a way, when Mrs. George TrafFord 
 came tripping in and pointed out the direction. 
 
 She had knocked lightly at the door, but had en- 
 tered without waiting for an answer. She, too, was 
 in a morning costume, but one significantly unlike 
 Paula's. It was of white linen, belted in at the waist 
 with pale blue. It was neat and trim and cleared 
 the ground, setting off her small figure to perfection. 
 
 "Good-morning, Laura," Paula said, rather wearily. 
 
 " Good - morning, dear," Mrs. TrafFord returned, 
 briskly. 
 
 They kissed each other in a pecking fashion, and Mrs. 
 TrafFord sank into the nearest chair. No one could 
 see her without being sure that she was the sort of 
 woman to go to her point at once. 
 
 "I simply had to come to you, dear, before you had 
 a chance to go out. I've been so distressed about 
 the conversation of last night. I've told George that 
 he shouldn't hurl things at you like that." 
 
 "What things ?" Paula demanded, holding herself 
 erect, and flushing. 
 
 42
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "About your father, dear. You might easily mis- 
 understand " 
 
 "I should never misunderstand to the extent of 
 thinking he had done wrong," the girl said, haughtily. 
 
 "No, of course not. But I know exactly how you 
 feel, because I've had times of feeling that way my- 
 self." 
 
 "You mean ?" Paula began, and stopped abruptly. 
 .Her eyes clouded, and the tiny furrow marked itself be- 
 tween her brows as she gazed straight before her, 
 trying to shape her thought. 
 
 Mrs. Trafford leaned back in her chair and waited. 
 She was a pretty woman, with the cold, clear-cut 
 daintiness of a statuette in biscuit de Stvres. When 
 George Trafford married her it was a surprise to every 
 one but herself. A Western girl, the daughter of a 
 doctor in a small country town, she had the Western 
 ability to meet poverty just as, when it came, she had 
 the Western readiness to accept wealth. She had not 
 looked for wealth certainly not such wealth as George 
 Trafford's but she knew her capacity to fill any 
 position, and she entered upon her new career with 
 plenty of self-confidence. 
 
 The marriage was something of a public event, es- 
 pecially in the West. Even in New York there was 
 some curiosity over the advent of a penniless country 
 girl suddenly lifted to such a giddy height of fortune. 
 Laura knew that people expected her head to be turned. 
 They looked at least to be amused by that wild splash- 
 ing in money supposed to be characteristic of those 
 
 43
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 who have been hurriedly made rich, especially when 
 their antecedents have lain beyond the Mississippi. 
 But they had reckoned without the personal knowledge 
 of one who knew thoroughly her own mind. In coming 
 to New York Laura felt herself raised up for the pur- 
 pose of illustrating the correct and conscientious use 
 of wealth. 
 
 By this time the social position of the Traffords in 
 New York had been secured. After living in Cleve- 
 land, St. Louis, Washington, and elsewhere, according 
 to the needs of Mr. Trafford's growing empire, they 
 had come to New York as comparative strangers. 
 Their reception by the high powers ruling there had 
 been one of mingled coldness and curiosity. Little 
 by little, however, they had passed through the neces- 
 sary stages of initiation, so that when Mrs. George 
 Trafford made her entry it was into an uncontested 
 place. In spite of the Mississippi, there was no reason 
 why, as a bride unusually pretty and incomparably 
 rich, she should not become one of that chosen oligarchy 
 of ladies whose golden sceptre sways over the American 
 metropolis. 
 
 And yet she had the courage to snub gently, cour- 
 teously, but none the less decidedly to snub those 
 two great potentates, Mrs. Van Rensselaer Smith and 
 Mrs. Stuyvesant Jones, when, through sheer kindness, 
 they united their rival forces to come and tell her so. 
 She should have no time for mere amusement she in- 
 formed them. The duties of her position would tax 
 her strength to the utmost. Besides, she shrank from 
 
 44
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 ostentation, from anything that made a parade of the 
 mere power to spend. True refinement lay in making 
 as little display as possible, didn't it? None, in fact, 
 could know it better than themselves. The responsi- 
 bility of wealth involved so many considerations for 
 others that one's self and one's legitimate, one's natural 
 tastes were driven to the background. 
 
 She looked at them with such clear, gray eyes, was 
 so frank, so naive, and (as they thought) so Western, 
 that Mrs. Van Rensselaer Smith and Mrs. Stuyvesant 
 Jones were nonplussed rather than offended. They 
 liked her for her independence, and were certainly 
 amused. If she wanted to help others with her money, 
 goodness knew there was room enough, they said, when 
 they went away. They were the last people in the 
 world to object to it. Besides, when she had helped 
 a few, she would have enough of such a thankless task 
 as that. She had snubbed them that was plain but 
 they were so unused to the process that they almost en- 
 joyed it. She would have other ideas when she was a 
 little older, and then they would take her up again. 
 
 But the years were slipping by and Laura was true 
 to the principles with which she started. The only 
 display she made was of the fact that she made no dis- 
 play; her only ostentation was that of her lack of 
 ostentation. She made no secret of the fact that she 
 looked upon wealth as a heavy burden. "Mr. Traf- 
 ford and I have no pleasure like that of giving away," 
 she sighed, not only in private but in public. They 
 did give away on a scale of superb munificence. By 
 
 45
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 confining their gifts to what would refine, elevate, and 
 educate the masses at large, they took care not to 
 pauperize or encourage idleness. Schools, colleges, 
 libraries, and art museums had the chief benefit of their 
 generosity. The grim want of individuals did not ap- 
 peal to them, "because," so Mrs. TrafFord said, "there 
 were so few cases in which the after-effects of charity 
 were not deleterious." She liked to feel that her 
 liberality had a sound commercial basis. 
 
 You needn't be afraid to speak out with me, Paula, 
 dear," she said, encouragingly, when the girl had been 
 a long time silent. "As I've told you already, I've 
 been through it all, and I want to help you. Before 
 I married George I'd heard lots of things about Uncle 
 TrafFord that well, that rather shocked me." 
 
 Again Paula lifted her head haughtily, but Laura 
 hurried on. 
 
 "I had to reason everything out before I could see 
 how right he was. If I hadn't been able to come to 
 that conclusion I could never have accepted George. 
 Now, here's a principle which, George says, people in 
 our position must never lose sight of: you can't go be- 
 hind the law. If the law is on your side, you must be 
 right." 
 
 " But can't the law be outwitted ?" Paula asked, 
 ponderingly. "It seems to me I've heard of that." 
 
 "I believe it can, but George says Uncle TrafFord 
 never tried to do it. That's where he's been so 
 able." 
 
 "Did he ? Tell me frankly, Laura, please. I 
 46
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 know he didn't, but I must ask you. Did he, in your 
 opinion, ever do anything that wasn't honorable ?" 
 
 "George says," Mrs. Trafford answered, slowly, 
 "that business is a good deal like whist. Each player 
 holds his portion of the cards, out of which he's per- 
 mitted to win the game by any means short of cheating. 
 It's acknowledged beforehand that there's no place in 
 the play for mercy or unselfishness. The game goes 
 to him who can get it. There are commonly accepted 
 rules that he can observe or not, as he chooses. What 
 justifies him is his success, and if he wins the question 
 of honor or dishonor isn't raised. Now, dear, your 
 father is an amazingly clever player of the game. He 
 can win it when his opponents hold all the best cards 
 and more than half the trumps. It isn't his place to 
 consider them; it's his duty to take the tricks. If he 
 takes a great many tricks a great, great many tricks 
 his skill can't be called dishonor, can it ? It's skill, 
 that's all; and nothing is more admirable than skill in 
 anything." 
 
 " But if it's skill to bring trouble and worry and want 
 to some people, and to others to us, for instance 
 millions more than we can ever use " 
 
 "There's no such skill as that, dear," Mrs. Traffbrd 
 argued, in a virtuous tone. "From the beginning of 
 history wealth has always been a stewardship, and it 
 has gone into the hands of certain stewards. If you 
 are a steward, it's much more important to fulfil your 
 stewardship than to question the means by which you 
 were appointed." 
 
 47
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "But," said Paula, doubtfully, "couldn't part of the 
 stewardship be to make reparation ?" 
 
 "Reparation isn't as easy at it looks, dear. It's not 
 only a matter of giving, but a matter of taking. When 
 one side is willing to offer it, the other, perhaps, isn't 
 ready to accept it." 
 
 "But if it were money? Anybody would accept 
 money." 
 
 "No, anybody won't accept money, strange as it 
 may seem. There are people we may not know many 
 of them but there are people who put money a long 
 way after pride. I've got a good mind to tell you some- 
 thing that George and I have always kept from you. 
 It would show you." 
 
 Paula looked her interrogation. 
 
 "It's about your father." 
 
 "Do tell me, Laura, please." 
 
 "Well, the beginning of it was a long time ago, when 
 we lived in Turtonville, Wisconsin. It was ages before 
 I ever imagined I should marry one of the Traffords. 
 Your father at that time had some trouble out there 
 with a man named Marshall. I don't know exactly 
 what it was, but it was something like what we were 
 talking of last night." 
 
 "Not the Winships ?" Paula cried, painfully. "There 
 wasn't another case like that? Tell me, Laura!" 
 
 "No, it wasn't a bit like that; it was just something 
 in the same line. What I'm coming to is this: Mar- 
 shall was the rich man of Turtonville. He had some- 
 thing to do with coal, of course; and he had four 
 
 48
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 daughters, all very plain. One of them was an old 
 maid from the time I can begin to remember. Well, 
 when the trouble started, your father began pushing 
 Marshall and pushing him and pushing him till at 
 last he pushed him out of his business altogether. 
 Then Marshall shot himself." 
 
 "Oh, Laura, don't tell me any more." 
 
 "It was all Marshall's fault, dear. Your father 
 didn't make him shoot himself. That was perfectly 
 gratuitous on Marshall's part. But it's about the old 
 Miss Marshalls that I want to tell you. After their 
 father died and they were so poor, they had to turn 
 their hands to anything for a living. They did sew- 
 ing and made cake and put up pickles and painted 
 doilies" 
 
 "Oh, how dreadful, Laura!" 
 
 "And they did pretty well till the eldest one fell ill. 
 That was the very summer I was married; and one 
 day, in the winter after, I happened to mention them 
 to your father." 
 
 "Oh, I'm so glad. I know he was good to them!" 
 
 "Yes; he sent them a thousand dollars, anonymous- 
 ly, through their minister. He gave the strictest orders 
 that his name was never to be known, but when they 
 had spent a couple of hundred of it the foolish clergy- 
 man told them. That was enough. The sick one got 
 up out of her dying bed and went to work. It was as 
 if her pride had healed her. For two years they toiled 
 and saved till they had got together as much as they 
 had spent. Then they returned the full thousand to 
 
 49
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 your father. He told me about it, and I know it cut 
 him to the quick. He's forgiven them, though, great 
 heart that he is! And he's asked me several times to 
 do what I can for them." 
 
 "And you've done it, Laura ?" 
 
 "Indeed I have! I couldn't send them money, of 
 course, after their treatment of Uncle TrafFord. Be- 
 sides, I never run the risk of pauperizing any one. 
 What I've done has been to give them work. They 
 sew beautifully, and I've managed to let them have all 
 the house-linen, both for Newport and Tuxedo, with- 
 out a suspicion on their part that it was for our family. 
 Naturally, I had to do it through a third person, for 
 they wouldn't have touched it if they had known." 
 
 "Are there really people in the world who feel 
 towards us like that?" Paula questioned, with an air 
 of distress. 
 
 "I suppose," Mrs. Traffbrd replied, in her practical 
 way "I suppose they feel towards us much as the 
 French do towards the Germans. It can't be very 
 pleasant for the Germans to be hated so, and yet they 
 have Alsace-Lorraine to console them. I don't blame 
 the Miss Marshalls. I say it's very natural in their 
 situation. I do all I can to alleviate their condition, 
 and I believe I succeed. Their work is really exquisite, 
 and I find that, even after paying the express charges, 
 it is cheaper than it would be in New York. Now the 
 third person of whom I spoke if you must know who 
 it is, it's that Miss Green who works in the College 
 Settlement in Bleecker Street she wants me to take a 
 
 5
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 lot of their painted doilies, but I feel that I must draw 
 the line at that." 
 
 "I'll take them," Paula said, instantly. "I'll take 
 as many as they can paint, if they go on painting all 
 the rest of their lives." 
 
 It was this sort of impulsive generosity that contra- 
 dicted all Mrs. Traffbrd's well-thought-out principles of 
 benevolence. It lacked the element of the practical 
 good of both parties, as well as the sense of the respon- 
 sibility of wealth. 
 
 "Then you'd be making a mistake," she said, blunt- 
 ly. "You'd be wasting both your own money and their 
 time. There are three useful things that they can do: 
 they can sew, they can make cake, and they can put up 
 pickles. Why on earth should they want to do paint- 
 ing-?" 
 
 "But painting is a useful thing," Paula interrupted, 
 a little warmly. 
 
 "Exactly. And that brings me right to the thing I 
 came in to say. I know what's been on your mind ever 
 since last night. I know it, because it's been on my 
 mind, too. I always feel for those cases where there's 
 been a previous connection with the family, so to 
 speak. I know it's Uncle Trafford's wish that we 
 should make things as easy for them as we can. Now, 
 why shouldn't you have this Mr. Winship paint your 
 portrait ?" 
 
 "Oh, Laura, I couldn't!" the girl cried, flushing. 
 
 "Couldn't ? Of course you could. It's the thing to 
 do. He could paint you and the Duke and me and
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 our little Paul, and perhaps I might even get George 
 to sit to him. I suppose Aunt Traffbrd never would. 
 Anyhow, he could do all of us, and we'd pay him very 
 good prices nothing fabulous, mind you, nothing of 
 that kind, but what for him would be generous prices. 
 Just think of all it would mean to him! It wouldn't 
 be only the money though that, of course, would be a 
 great deal it would be the reclame, the advertisement. 
 It would pose him before the world; it would set him 
 up for life. Then we should be rid of the worry of 
 thinking about him. Of course, I can see it would be 
 a bore to you," she added, as Paula still seemed to 
 hesitate, "but people like ourselves, with the responsi- 
 bility of wealth upon them, can't stop at a duty merely 
 because it's a bore." 
 
 "You're a wonderful woman, Laura," Paula said 
 at last, her eyes suffused with that Celtic softness which 
 is midway between smiles and tears. "You've such 
 good ideas, and such sound ones. I won't say that I'll 
 do it, but I'll think it over. But if I come to it," she 
 went on, stammering slightly, "you mustn't think 
 that it is because I have any doubt of of father." 
 
 As she uttered the last words there came a sharp 
 rap at the door, and Paul Trafford himself entered.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 HE strode in with his characteristic air of com- 
 mand, and Paula, springing up, threw her arms 
 about him. The two were always expressive in their 
 affection for each other, but this morning there was 
 in Paula's "Oh, papa!" a variety of emotions of which 
 she herself could have given but a confused account. 
 It was as if she had received him back again after 
 the nightmare of having lost him. He clasped her to 
 him, looking down at her with that kind of impres- 
 sive tenderness for which very strong faces alone have 
 the capacity. 
 
 It was no wonder that she was proud of him this 
 handsome giant of over six feet three, before whom all 
 the fast-barred gates of life had yielded. Even age 
 seemed powerless to lay more than the lightest hand 
 upon him. His sixty-five years had deepened the lines 
 on his rocklike face, and brought a little gray into the 
 mustache that curving upward revealed the set of the 
 close lips, but they had done little more. The hair was 
 scarcely silvered, and the eyes still had the vivacity of 
 an eager, stern-faced boy's. They were the Trafford 
 eyes blue with black lashes, and, in his case, with 
 heavy, overhanging brows. 
 
 53
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Paula slipped from his embrace, and they exchanged 
 the usual morning greetings. Trafford kissed his niece, 
 and inquired for George and little Paul. It was clear 
 to the two women, accustomed to observe the slightest 
 signs of his wishes, that he had come on some special 
 errand; so Laura, after reminding Paula that she and 
 the Duke were to lunch with George and herself at 
 Giro's, made some excuse for running away. 
 
 Paula resumed her seat, while her father moved about 
 the room with unusual restlessness. 
 
 "That's a pretty thing you've got on," he observed, 
 coming back to her side. "Aren't you looking a lit- 
 tle pale to - day ?" he continued, stroking her cheek. 
 "What's all this?" 
 
 He turned over, with a toss, the letters of petition she 
 had opened, and, with characteristic attention to small 
 details, ran his eye over them. 
 
 "You might send something there," he advised, "and 
 there. I wouldn't pay any regard to that. You might 
 inquire into this one; and, of course, you must see that 
 that poor little French girl has what comfort you can 
 give her. I'm going to Vienna," he finished, abruptly. 
 "Oh no, papa!" she pleaded. "Not now! Not just 
 now!" 
 
 "I must, dear. I've tried to get out of it, but there 
 are very large interests at stake, and I'm obliged 
 to go." 
 
 He drew a small chair towards her and sat down. 
 With his arms folded on the table, he looked across at 
 her. Before that gaze her own glance fell. It was as 
 
 54
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 though the mingling of strength and adoration in it 
 were too much for her to support without flinching. 
 The roselike color came and went in her cheek, and 
 stole up into her white, blue-veined temples, while Paul 
 Trafford wondered, as he did ten times every day, how 
 it was that, out of his sheer force and his wife's mere 
 buxomness, there had sprung this exquisite flower of a 
 child. 
 
 "Yes, dear, I'm obliged to go," he repeated. "I'm 
 sorry it has to be now just now. You know why, 
 don't you ?" 
 
 She lifted her eyes and let them fall again. 
 
 "I suppose I do, papa." 
 
 "I don't want to hurry you," he went on, with what, 
 for him, was curious timidity, "and I wouldn't on my 
 own account not for a second. But, darling, we ought 
 to think of of him, oughtn't we ? Don't you think 
 he's been very patient ? It's over a month now." 
 
 "I find it very hard to decide, papa." 
 
 "Could you tell me why, dear? I might be able to 
 help you." 
 
 "You'd like it very much, wouldn't you, papa?" 
 
 "Yes; but that isn't a reason for you," he answered, 
 promptly. "I want my little girl to marry to please 
 herself, not me." 
 
 "And yet I can't help taking what pleases you into 
 consideration into deep consideration. And I've 
 wondered a little papa," she continued, looking up at 
 him, "why you've been so anxious about this one, when 
 you've been so indifferent, if not opposed, to the others." 
 
 55
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "I'll tell you, darling. I'll give you my point of view. 
 But, mark you, it can't be yours; it mustn't be yours. 
 From the very nature of things, you and I approach 
 this subject from different angles. First of all, I have 
 to remember that I'm no longer a young man, and that 
 I have a great treasure to leave behind." 
 
 " But, papa, darling, I'd rather not think of it in that 
 light." 
 
 "No, but I must. There's the difference of angle at 
 once. If one of your brothers had lived, or even one 
 of your sisters, perhaps, I shouldn't feel so keenly about 
 it as I do. But you're all that's left to us " 
 
 "Then why not keep me with you as long as pos- 
 sible ?" 
 
 "We're not going to lose you. We shall never be 
 far away from you, at any time. Your mother and I 
 have quite made up our minds to that. Life wouldn't 
 be worth anything to me if I couldn't see my little girl 
 when I wanted to; that is, within reason." 
 
 She leaned across the table and laid her hand on his, 
 smiling into his face with shining eyes. 
 
 "And so, dearest, since my treasure is so great, it 
 would be a comfort to me, as I go downhill, to know 
 that it was in safe, in very safe, hands." 
 
 "And you think his are the best?" 
 
 "They are the best I know. I can't think of any 
 man I've ever met of whom I should feel sure, with so 
 few reserves without any reserves at all. Listen to 
 me," he pursued, in another tone, patting her hand, 
 which still lay out-stretched towards him on the table. 
 
 56
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Listen to me, and I'll expose my whole reason to you 
 in a way you will understand. I repeat, that it is the 
 reason which guides me, but it's not to guide you. 
 Yours must be a different motive and a surer one. 
 Still, it may help you in making your decision, if you 
 know what has enabled me to come to mine. In the 
 first place, he loves you. Of course, you know that." 
 
 She nodded and let her eyes fall again. 
 
 "Then, I think my little girl has, to say the least, a 
 very sincere regard for him." 
 
 She nodded again, still with eyes downcast. 
 
 "And then, he's not a man who would love to-day 
 and forget to-morrow. He is essentially good, kind, 
 loyal, and devoted. Your mother and I would have 
 none of that wretched uncertainty of parents who say 
 to each other, 'Oh, I hope he will be good to her!' 
 We would be sure of that beforehand. You see, dear, 
 we've protected you so, we've got so strongly the habit 
 of protecting you, that it's like pain to us to think that 
 any wind of unkindness could ever blow on you." 
 
 " Papa, darling," she broke in, with a choking of the 
 voice, "couldn't I stay with you always, and not marry 
 any one ?" 
 
 "Certainly, dear. There's not the slightest reason 
 why you shouldn't be an old maid, if you want to. But, 
 in the mean time, let me go on. Wiltshire is not only 
 a good man who loves you, but he's a very rich man." 
 
 "I shouldn't think that mattered," she said, lifting 
 her head suddenly. 
 
 "Only in this way, that in our position it's a guarantee. 
 
 5 57
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 He's one of the rich men of a rich country. There's 
 no possible reason why he should marry any woman 
 for any other object than herself. Mind you, I'm far 
 from saying that if you married a poor man it might 
 not be for love, love on both sides. But I'll go as far as 
 this: there's no poor man you could marry for whom, 
 however much he loved you, your wealth would not 
 be an overpowering consideration. The very change it 
 would bring into the daily circumstances of his life 
 would oblige him to give his mind to it, perhaps more 
 than to you. I must keep repeating, dear, that that's a 
 point which weighs with me, though I shouldn't expect 
 you to give it undue importance." 
 
 "I don't think I could," she said, with a wistful smile. 
 
 "All right. So much the better. Now for one thing 
 more. Wiltshire is not only a good man, and a rich 
 man, but he's a man of very high rank. He can give 
 his wife one of the best positions in the world, as the 
 world counts positions." 
 
 "I thought our own was very good as it is." 
 
 He raised himself and laughed. 
 
 "You're quite right," he returned. "It is a good 
 position. But it's rather like that of the Bonapartes 
 good as long as you can keep it. It's a position that 
 depends upon a strong man, and requires a strong man 
 to maintain it. And I want my little daughter to have 
 the best of everything without the hardship of the strug- 
 gle. If you were a boy, I should feel differently; but 
 as it is, I want to see you in a place that will be based on 
 something broader and solider than the mere possession 
 
 58
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 of money. I want you to be where criticism and accusa- 
 tion can't touch you. You've never known to what an 
 extent I've been assailed by them and not only I, but 
 every one with whom I have had much to do. We've 
 kept you out of it as far as possible, but we couldn't do 
 so always. They've struck at your mother and George 
 and Laura, and even at my friends. Very soon they 
 will begin to strike at you, simply because you are my 
 child." 
 
 "I should be proud of it," she declared, throwing 
 back her head with something of his own flashing of 
 the eye. 
 
 "You wouldn't be proud of it long. The press of our 
 country is perfectly pitiless on those who rise an inch 
 above the general mediocrity. It spares no feeling 
 and respects no sanctuary. The mere fact that you are 
 Paul Trafford's daughter will make you a target to that 
 great section of the public that has never ceased to 
 pursue me with the most relentless hostility." 
 
 " But what could they say against me ?" 
 
 "Nothing against you, darling nothing against you. 
 They could only rifle the privacy of your domestic life, 
 and besmirch you with a hundred vulgarities. You 
 might not perceive it, but it would be madness to me. 
 It's only over here that we have some respite from that 
 kind of thing, and, therefore, it's over here I should like 
 to see you find a refuge. If you were like some women 
 like Laura, for instance I mightn't hesitate to ex- 
 pose you to it; but, being what you are, I should like to 
 see you so far removed from it all that even the echo of 
 
 59
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 slanderous curiosity couldn't reach you. There," he 
 broke off, "I think I've had my say." 
 
 She rose from her place, and came slowly to him, 
 round the table. 
 
 "Thank you, papa," she said, simply, slipping her 
 arm over his shoulder and bending down her cheek 
 against his brow. "Whatever I do, you'll love me just 
 the same, won't you ?" 
 
 For answer, he drew her slim white fingers to his lips. 
 It vexed her that, at that very instant, George's words 
 of last night should have returned to her memory like 
 the refrain of some hideous song: 
 
 "Your father was obliged at last to club her down."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 /"^OULDN'T you take me somewhere?" Paula 
 \^J asked, turning with a smile to the Duke as they 
 pushed back their chairs after lunch at Giro's. "Laura 
 and George are going to Cap Martin, and I have noth- 
 ing to do." 
 
 "We might motor over to Eze and see Alice," he 
 suggested. 
 
 "No; let's walk up to Monaco. I've never been 
 there, and you know you promised to take me." 
 
 The Duke was radiant or as near radiant as any 
 one could be with so little power of facial expression. 
 As they traversed the Galerie Charles III., on their 
 way out, he bumped into people and overturned chairs, 
 with a joy in walking with his mistress like that of an 
 affectionate dog. From the hotels and restaurants the 
 crowds were sauntering towards the Casino, and there 
 were so many salutes and greetings to exchange that 
 only the most broken remarks were possible till they 
 neared the sea-wall. Paula knew they offered a topic 
 of conversation to passers-by, strangers and friends 
 alike; and again she was conscious of the utterly foolish 
 wish that he had been taller, and that in his springlike 
 attire and soft gray hat he had less the air of a pros- 
 
 61
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 perous grocer on the stage. If she had not known that 
 he was only thirty-eight, looking it up for herself in 
 Debrett, she would certainly have put him down as 
 fifty. She blamed herself for such thoughts as these, 
 when she knew, as well as her father did, his many 
 sterling virtues. They chatted of indifferent things as 
 they descended towards the Condamine, and Paula 
 wondered how he would turn the talk into the channel 
 he preferred. She wondered even more what reply she 
 would make to him when he did. 
 
 "Have you seen your friend Mr. Winship to-day?" 
 she summoned up courage to ask, as they ascended the 
 brick-paved footway that leads up the face of the cliff 
 to the old town of Monaco. 
 
 "Yes; for a minute this morning. He's over at Eze, 
 spending the day at Alice's." 
 
 Paula caught herself up before she could regret not 
 having accepted the Duke's suggestion after luncheon. 
 
 "They know each other very well, I think you said." 
 
 "Oh, veiy well. You must come over and see Alice's 
 little place some day, too. I fancy she's only been 
 waiting for some definite " 
 
 "Oh, I'm out of breath!" Paula exclaimed, suddenly, 
 turning round. "Do let us wait a bit. What a 
 glorious view!" 
 
 The level of the Condamine lay beneath them in the 
 foreground, a cluster of tawny, yellow houses roofed in 
 ochre red. On the height behind, Monte Carlo, with 
 its hotels and villas, terraced one above another, sloped 
 steeply down towards the sea. Still farther back, shut- 
 
 62
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 ting in the horizon, the mountains of dull brown and 
 olive green were crowned with a light, glistening January 
 snow. On the pale, bottle-green of the bay the Prince 
 of Monaco's yacht made a sharp white streak. Gray 
 green on the sea lay the long stretch of Cap Martin, 
 covered with hoary olive-woods and dotted with white 
 villas. Then, on and on, into the east, followed the 
 successive headlands towards Italy, flecked with snow 
 at the highest points, and unchanged, except in the 
 number of their clustering towns, since the days when 
 the Phoenicians toiled along in their high-beaked tri- 
 remes, on their way towards Cornwall or Marseilles. 
 
 "It's like those bits of landscape," Paula said, with a 
 timid attempt to bring the conversation back to the 
 theme she had started "those bits of landscape which 
 the old Italian masters show you through a window, 
 behind a Last Supper, or a portrait." 
 
 "Do you think so?" Wiltshire argued, in his literal 
 way. "Isn't it rather that the old painters give you 
 a glimpse of the life of their day ? a line of hills, a vil- 
 lage, a castle, a religious procession, a knight riding with 
 his hounds, a ploughman working in the fields. This 
 is too little typical for what they wanted; and besides, 
 it isn't the life that has grown out of the soil, but the one 
 which idlers from other lands have implanted on it." 
 
 So they fell to discussing Monte Carlo, and Paula 
 was foiled again. She sighed softly to herself as they 
 moved on, and, after passing through an old gray 
 gateway vaulted with yellow arches, came up into the 
 Place du Palais. 
 
 63
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 On the left, across the great square, stood the old 
 town, a mass of mellow red and orange. The palace, 
 a long, simple structure with battlemented towers, lay 
 on the right. The Monagasque sentries, in blue-and- 
 red uniforms, and sweeping, picturesque, blue cloaks, 
 had the air of stepping through some romantic play. 
 In the background, to the north and west, the Tete du 
 Chien rose like a majestic couchant mastiff keeping 
 watch over the Principality. Between its paws Cap 
 d'Ail, with its terraces, olive-trees, and red-roofed villas, 
 lay like a plaything. In towards the shore the sea re- 
 flected all the shades that mingle in a peacock's breast, 
 while farther away, towards Spain and Africa, it deep- 
 ened into Homeric wine-dark violet. 
 
 "How wonderful!" Paula murmured, just above her 
 breath. "This air! This immensity!" 
 
 She moved a step or two in advance, as though eager 
 to cross the level Place and reach some spot where she 
 could best command the whole sea-line of the hills, 
 from the distant east to the distant west, from the blue 
 vagueness of Piedmont, past San Remo,past Bordighera, 
 past Mentone, past Cap Martin, past Monaco, past 
 Nice, past Cannes, on into the golden haze that hung 
 above Provence. When she stood still, at the western 
 edge of the terrace, the Duke came to her side and ex- 
 plained where the different points of interest lay. 
 
 "This is what we come to Monte Carlo for," he said. 
 "It isn't to be in the tide of fashion; it's because nature 
 seems to have chosen the Principality of Monaco as the 
 single point of vantage from which to behold all rter 
 
 64
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 beauties in one glance. We soon tire of Monte Carlo, 
 but this " 
 
 \Vith a gesture that was not without dignity, he in- 
 dicated the vast panorama of sea and sky, of headland 
 and town, of blossoming gardens and snows on the 
 hills. Paula thought she saw another far-off opening, 
 and carefully pointed her remarks towards it. 
 
 "How much you enjoy beauty I mean beauty for 
 its own sake. There are so few people who do. Now, 
 I take only a second-hand interest in it. I like to have 
 seen Egypt or Switzerland or California, in order to be 
 able to follow with some intelligence what others say 
 about them. But with you it's different. So it is with 
 your sister or it seemed to me so the few times I've 
 seen her." 
 
 "Oh, Alice is all right. She really knows about it, 
 and I don't. She lives for art and artists." 
 
 "And I'm sure she does a lot of good. I thought 
 what you said about her last night was so charming 
 I mean about her taking that poor blind lady, Mrs. 
 Winship, to stay with you at Edenbridge." 
 
 "Oh, you'll like Alice when you know her well. 
 She's got her queer ways, like any other old maid with 
 ten thousand a year, but her heart is sound." 
 
 "Tell me about them about the Winships." 
 
 He turned to her with a faint smile. 
 
 "Haven't we something else to talk of first ?" 
 
 "No, not first afterwards. Couldn't we go some- 
 where out of the sun and sit down ?" 
 
 "We should be likely to find seats over there." 
 65
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "I wanted to ask your advice about something," she 
 ventured, timidly, as they entered the wonderful garden 
 that clambers over the cliff, and goes down, down, 
 down till it almost meets the sea. 
 
 "Here's a good place, don't you think?" 
 
 He pointed to a bench, in a nook formed by giant 
 cacti of every sinister shape, massed in with pink and 
 red geraniums growing like tall shrubs. Overhead there 
 was a shade of cedar, cypress, and pine, while far below 
 the blue-green sea broke with a monotonous rumble. 
 
 "My advice ?" he questioned, as they sat down. 
 
 "You're such a good friend," she murmured, trem- 
 ulously. "I'm in a great deal of perplexity." 
 
 "Is it about me?" 
 
 "Partly; but it isn't only that." 
 
 "You know that I should never want to bring the 
 shadow of a care upon you not even if it was to give 
 me what I want so much. You're sure of that, aren't 
 you ?" 
 
 "That's why I turn to you," she said, simply. 
 "There's no one else in the world I could trust in the 
 same way." 
 
 "And you'll never regret having given me your con- 
 fidence, however full it may be. I know I'm not much 
 to look at, but at least I can offer you devotion and 
 truth to the uttermost to the uttermost." 
 
 "I want you to tell me about the Winships," she be- 
 gan again, looking down at the tip of her parasol, with 
 which she traced aimless lines in the sand. "How did 
 you come to know them ?" 
 
 66
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Oh, it was a long time ago let me see ten, eleven, 
 twelve yes, it must be quite fifteen years ago. After 
 my mother died and Alice was free, she went to Paris 
 for a year or two to study art. In the atelier where she 
 worked she fell in with Marah Winship." 
 
 "Is that the sister of the man I saw last night ?" 
 
 "Yes, an older sister a good deal older. She must 
 be somewhere about Alice's age, not far off fifty." 
 
 "And does she paint, too?" 
 
 "Yes, poor thing." 
 
 "Why do you say poor thing?" 
 
 "Because she's had such a hard life. She had only 
 the smallest kind of talent, if she had any at all, and yet 
 she made herself a painter by sheer determination and 
 pluck. I've heard Alice say that, in the atelier, they 
 used to think she couldn't possibly succeed, and yet she 
 did in a measure. 'I had to succeed,' she has told me 
 herself but that was afterwards, when Alice used to 
 have them at Edenbridge." 
 
 "Why had she to succeed ?" 
 
 "You see, their father was dead, and they had lost 
 all their money. There was a mother to be taken care 
 of a splendid, majestic creature, when first I knew 
 them, but already growing blind. Then there was 
 this brother " 
 
 "But he's a man." 
 
 "I'm speaking of fifteen years ago. He was only a 
 lad then. The sister thought he had it in him to be- 
 come one of the great portrait-painters of the day, and 
 so she brought him to Paris to give him the best chance. 
 
 6?
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 By Jove! she's been a plucky one! I've never seen 
 anything like it. She has not only worked like a slave, 
 but she's done the impossible. She's turned herself 
 into what nature never meant her to become, and she's 
 made a living for them all a poor living, it must be ad- 
 mitted, and one of great privation, but a living all the 
 same, and somehow they've managed to pull through." 
 
 "Do you know why they've been so poor?" 
 
 It was more the tone than the question that aston- 
 ished Wiltshire. 
 
 "No," he replied, rather blankly. 
 
 "It's because we took their money and their mines, 
 and everything they had, away from them." 
 
 "We? Who?" 
 
 " Our family my father. Oh, Duke, I didn't know 
 anything about it till last night, and to-day I feel as if 
 we were a band of robbers. When I think of the way 
 we've lived, and the way they've lived " 
 
 "Tell me about it," he said, soothingly, as she broke 
 off, choking. 
 
 "I don't think I can. There's so little to tell and 
 yet so much. It's all so dreadful and it's it's my 
 father, Duke." 
 
 "For that very reason you shouldn't be in a hurry 
 to judge " 
 
 "I know, but I can't help it. It's like a kind of 
 jealousy in me a jealousy for his honor, that I thought 
 so far above attack." 
 
 The Duke's mouth twitched with a queer, significant 
 expression, while a look of pity stole into his dull eyes. 
 
 68
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "This Miss Winship's father was my father's com- 
 petitor, and my father crushed him and ruined him 
 and killed him. He died in the middle of all sorts of 
 lawsuits, and then my father ruined the widow the 
 poor lady, who, you say, is blind- Everything they 
 possessed came to us I can't exactly tell you how, but 
 my cousin George would explain it if you asked him." 
 
 "I can guess." 
 
 "Yes, because you understand about business. But 
 it's all so cruel, Duke. I spend a great deal of money, 
 but I can't spend it fast enough. I don't know what 
 to buy that I haven't bought over and over again, and 
 yet the money heaps itself up in spite of me. And now, 
 when you tell me of that poor Marah, working against 
 the grain, trying to achieve the impossible, and doing 
 it" 
 
 Her tone rose, with a sharp, nervous inflection, till 
 she found herself unable to go on. 
 
 "There's one thing we must never forget," Wiltshire 
 said, kindly. "We're the inheritors of the past; we're 
 not the creators of it. All sorts of complicated situa- 
 tions come down to us, and in them we can only grope 
 our way. You inherit the situation your father made 
 for you, and Mr. Winship inherits that which his father 
 made for him. You and I know too little to judge 
 either side. We're too remote from all the conditions 
 to apportion out the real rights and wrongs " 
 
 "And therefore," Paula interrupted, somewhat bit- 
 terly, "we should settle down complacently to accept 
 things as they are." 
 
 69
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Not quite that. But if we can't accept things as 
 they are, we mustn't try to force them into being what 
 they can't become. We can only learn by degrees how 
 to adjust what's wrong " 
 
 " But you can adjust anything with money that is, 
 if you have enough." 
 
 "Not everything, unhappily." 
 
 "But I could adjust this." 
 
 "You mean that you could give the Winships money ? 
 Oh no, you couldn't." 
 
 "I don't mean that I could give them alms, or do 
 anything with condescension. But couldn't I give them 
 a great deal as much as they ever lost more than 
 that ? I have a great deal of money of my own I 
 don't know how much but it must be a large sum 
 and I'd give it all to them. You could help me. 
 You know them, and I could do it through you, if 
 you only would " 
 
 "Softly, softly. You couldn't do anything of that 
 sort. They wouldn't take it. Things aren't managed 
 so directly as that in this complicated world. They'd 
 be offended, you know. They wouldn't listen to 
 me" 
 
 "Oh yes, they would. Everybody listens when it's 
 a question of getting money. You'd beg it as a favor. 
 You'd say it was not in pity for them, but in kindness 
 to me. You'd put it that way. And they'd take it. 
 I know they would. I've never seen any one refuse 
 money if it was enough. Oh, Duke, do!" 
 
 She ended abruptly, with a quaver in her voice, like 
 70
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 a little wail. Wiltshire sprang to his feet, and took 
 two or three turns up and down the gravel-path. Re- 
 turning, he resumed his seat beside her. 
 
 "You mustn't do anything rash in the matter," he 
 said, gently. "You mustn't have the air of seeming to 
 judge your father." 
 
 "I don't," she answered, quickly. "I know he didn't 
 do anything wrong. I should never admit otherwise. 
 Only" 
 
 She did not finish the sentence, and Wiltshire, lean- 
 ing towards her, laid his hand on hers. 
 
 "Dear Paula," he whispered, "couldn't we let it be, 
 until you and I could manage it together ?" 
 
 She did not withdraw her hand from his touch, but 
 the eyes she lifted towards him were full of the mute 
 appeal of an animal begging to be let off. 
 
 "You've never answered my question my great 
 question," he went on, tenderly. 
 
 " I've been trying to," she managed to say. 
 
 "And you don't find it easy?" 
 
 She shook her head, letting her eyes fall again. 
 
 " But you've been making the effort ?" 
 
 "Yes," she murmured, just audibly. 
 
 " And it's been a great effort ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " So great, in fact, that you don't feel the strength to 
 make it." 
 
 "I'm trying to," she said, hurriedly. "I want to." 
 
 "You want to ? In what way ?" 
 
 Again she lifted her appealing eyes to him. 
 
 71
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I I want to please father," she stammered, "and 
 make you happy, and and " 
 
 "And sacrifice yourself," he added. 
 
 "It wouldn't be a sacrifice if I could do those two 
 things," she stammered on. 
 
 "That is," he corrected, "not so great a sacrifice but 
 that you could make it." 
 
 She nodded her assent. A few seconds passed in 
 silence, when Wiltshire slowly withdrew his hand and 
 sat erect. 
 
 "I've hurt you," Paula cried, turning sharply towards 
 him. "That isn't what I meant to say. You haven't 
 understood me. I'm ready to be your wife, if it will 
 make you happy. Indeed, I'm ready. You don't 
 know how I honor you, how good I think you, how " 
 
 "Oh yes, I do," he broke in, with a wan smile. "I 
 only thought that perhaps it might be possible, after all, 
 for a woman to do a little more than honor me, and 
 think me " 
 
 "I'm sure it is," Paula insisted, warmly. "Let me 
 try, let me " 
 
 "Oh, but you have tried. And such things as that 
 don't come from trying. They come spontaneously, 
 or not at all. I'm not hurt. I know you far too well 
 to think you would hurt anything that breathes and 
 still less me. But I'll tell you something. We've al- 
 ways been good friends, haven't we that is, for three 
 or four years past ?" 
 
 "Very." 
 
 "And I've rather spoiled things between us by bring- 
 72
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 ing up this subject, which, I might have known from 
 the first, was impossible. Suppose we go back to what 
 we were before. Suppose we blot all this out, as if it 
 had never happened. Wouldn't that be a relief to 
 you ?" 
 
 "Yes," she said, in an unsteady voice. 
 
 "Then we'll do it. I won't undertake to give up 
 hoping. No one could to whom you hadn't absolutely 
 said no. But I sha'n't bother you with my hopes, and 
 if, in the end, I have to bury them why, then, we'll 
 see." 
 
 " How good you are!" Paula said, softly, two big 
 tears falling in spite of her efforts to keep them 
 back. 
 
 "Don't say that," he protested. "You speak of 
 goodness only because you don't know love. But 
 you're tired," he added, rising. "Wouldn't you like 
 me to take you home ? I dare say we shall find a fiacre 
 in the Place that will take us down by the carriage- 
 road." 
 
 Late that evening, when Paul Trafford kissed his 
 daughter to say good-night, she twined her arm over 
 his shoulder and detained him. 
 
 "I've seen the Duke," she whispered, "and he 
 wouldn't have me." 
 
 "He " Traffbrd began, in a puzzled voice. 
 
 "He thought it was a sacrifice on my part," she ex- 
 plained, looking up at him with glowing eyes, "and he 
 wouldn't let me make it. It's all over." 
 
 6 73
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "And would it have been a sacrifice?" he de- 
 manded, with shaggy brows drawn together. 
 
 "Not if I could have pleased you." 
 
 His face cleared as he bent low and kissed her again. 
 
 "Then I shall only keep my little girl the longer," 
 was all he said.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "I'M going to do it, Laura," Paula whispered, as 
 1 they approached the luncheon - table. "I mean 
 the portrait. I've got his address, and I'm going this 
 afternoon." 
 
 There was no time to say more, for Mrs. Trafford 
 entered the room, followed by George Trafford and 
 little Paul. 
 
 There had been several reasons for their return to 
 Paris in the early days of February. The protracted 
 absence of Mr. Trafford in Germany and Russia was 
 the one they spoke of openly. The Duke's silent de- 
 parture from Monte Carlo, taking the spirit out of their 
 little band, was a subject they mentioned to one another 
 only when Paula was not there. The sudden anxiety 
 of Mrs. Trafford about her own health, and her haste 
 to see a doctor in Paris, was a matter that they dared 
 not discuss at all. 
 
 "Where's everybody going this afternoon?" Mrs. 
 Trafford demanded a half-hour later, with the brisk- 
 ness which her courage enabled her to maintain. 
 
 "Where are you going, Aunt Trafford?" Laura in- 
 quired, warily. 
 
 "Oh, I've got a lot of things to do. First, I have the 
 
 75
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 committee for the Bazar de la Charite; the Princesse de 
 Friedland counts on me absolutely this year. Then 
 I have to go to a meeting at the American Art-Students' 
 Home. Then I must drop in at the Duchesse de 
 Dodoville's gouter. By-the-way, I could come back 
 and take you there, Laura. You'll want some tea." 
 
 "I simply must go to the Bon Marche," Mrs. George 
 Traffbrd declared. "I have all sorts of things to buy 
 for Paul. I'll get my tea at Rumpelmeyer's or Colom- 
 bin's on the way back." 
 
 "Then couldn't you come, Paula ?" Mrs. Traffbrd 
 continued. "I hate going into crowded rooms alone 
 especially in French houses; and I speak so badly." 
 
 Paula knew the moment had come, and nerved her- 
 self to reply in her usual tone. 
 
 "I can't go, mother, dear," she said, as calmly as she 
 could. "I've got to see about sittings for a portrait I'm 
 going to have painted." 
 
 It seemed to Paula as if her commonplace words 
 fell with curious solemnity on the stillness of the room. 
 She knew that, in spite of herself, she was coloring. 
 
 George Trafford took his cigar from his lips and 
 looked round at her over his shoulder. 
 
 "You seem to be lost in admiration of yourself, 
 Paula," he observed. "You had 'a portrait last year 
 by Carolus Duran, and one by Chartran the year before." 
 
 "I don't like either of them," she returned, her eyes 
 searching the depths of her empty coffee-cup. 
 
 "And yet they weren't considered to be what you'd 
 call unfair to the original," he went on. 
 
 76
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know where you'll hang it," Mrs. 
 Traffbrd complained, looking round the splendid room. 
 "If you put another item on the walls of this house we'll 
 smother." 
 
 "I was thinking of making it a present to George." 
 
 "Oh, don't put the responsibility of stowing it away 
 on me," Trafford cried. "Laura and I have already 
 more stuff than we can handle." 
 
 "I don't know about that, George, dear," Laura 
 argued. "It might be nice in years to come for Paul. 
 We've got so little in the way of ancestral things to 
 leave him. And they say that in forty or fifty years 
 from now that would be easily within Paul's lifetime 
 some of the great portrait-painters of the present day 
 will have become what Romney and Gainsborough are 
 for us." 
 
 "It's a good while to look ahead to," Traffbrd laugh- 
 ed. "But I suppose if ancestors hadn't had foresight 
 descendants wouldn't have privileges. Who's your 
 man, Paula ? Give us an American this time, won't 
 you ? Say Sargent, or some of those fellows." 
 
 "He is an American," Paula replied, "but he isn't 
 Sargent. He's a new painter. I believe he has re- 
 markable talent. We spoke of him one night at 
 Monte Carlo. You told me about him, George. His 
 name is Winship." 
 
 Mrs. Trafford gave a little scream and let her coffee- 
 cup fall with a crash on the floor. 
 
 "Paula Traffbrd," she cried, "if you want to kill me, 
 do it now; don't let it be by inches." 
 
 77
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "You do beat everything, Paula," her cousin ob- 
 served, grimly, "for getting things on the brain. I'll 
 bet fifty cents that you've been turning those Winships 
 over in your head ever since the subject came up, two 
 or three weeks ago." 
 
 "Lady Alice knows them," Paula stammered, in 
 excuse. "She says he's wonderful and he isn't rec- 
 ognized and his mother is blind and they're so 
 poor and " 
 
 "Goodness knows," Mrs. Trafford expostulated, 
 "there are plenty of poor people in the world without 
 hunting up your own father's enemies. I don't believe 
 the portrait is anything but a pretext for " 
 
 "Even so, Aunt Traffbrd, dear," Mrs. George in- 
 terrupted, in her reasonable tone, "don't you think 
 it's just what Uncle Trafford would like ? Haven't 
 you known him time and time again turn round on the 
 beaten and the bitter and the sore and hold out the 
 helping hand to them ? Is there any one who knows 
 better than he how to take the sting from hostility ? 
 And isn't it part of the responsibility of wealth ?" 
 
 "Oh, you needn't tell me!" Mrs. Trafford gasped, 
 impatiently. She disliked so much having the higher 
 way pointed out to her by Mrs. George that she often 
 hurried in advance to take it. " I know better than any 
 one what he is, and the sort of example he sets us. If 
 to return good for evil is the motto of his life, it may well 
 be that of ours. Paula, my child," she added, with a 
 quick change of front, "if it be your will to help these 
 people, do it. I withdraw all objection. If you like, 
 
 73
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 I'll pay for the portrait. I believe it would please your 
 father, though I think we'd better not say anything 
 about it. Yes, I will pay for it. I don't care what it 
 costs." 
 
 "Thank you, mother, dear," Paula said, rising, eager 
 to escape, now that her point was gained. "I'd rather 
 pay for it myself." 
 
 "All I beg of you," Mrs. Trafford cried, as Paula 
 left the room, "is not to bring the young man here." 
 
 " But where can I have my sittings ?" Paula ques- 
 tioned, from the doorway. 
 
 "Where you like. Have them in the Louvre, or in 
 Notre Dame, or anywhere else you please; but don't 
 bring the young man here. I should faint if I saw him. 
 Take a maid with you, take two maids, take ten maids 
 if you will, but don't bring the young man here." 
 
 "Do you think that's wise?" Trafford questioned; 
 but Paula was already out of hearing. 
 
 Half an hour later her coupe turned from the Rue 
 Mazarine into the narrow Passage de la Nativite and 
 stopped before an ancient, fortress-like gate. Traces 
 of Renaissance sculpture were visible on the battered 
 stone, while in a niche over the portal stood a crowned 
 but time-worn statue of the Virgin and Child. When 
 the footman clanged the gong a wrinkled old woman 
 opened a small door cautiously. Paula descended and 
 asked the way to Mr. Winship's studio. 
 
 A minute afterwards she found herself in a spacious 
 court-yard, paved with flat stone, which time had 
 forced into various levels, the interstices being filled 
 
 79
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 here and there with tufts of grass. Low, weather- 
 worn gray buildings in the Renaissance style surround- 
 ed the court-yard on three sides. In the centre of the 
 space the stone basin of a long-disused fountain was 
 gradually crumbling away, throwing slightly out of the 
 perpendicular the elaborate wrought-iron tracery which 
 rose above it, surmounted by a cross. The place was 
 evidently an old convent, violated probably at the Revo- 
 lution, and since then become one of those spots, more 
 common in Paris than elsewhere, in which poverty can 
 take refuge and still keep some sense of dignity. To 
 Paula, picking her way across the court towards the 
 entrance the concierge had pointed out, everything 
 about her seemed oppressively ancient. It was pict- 
 uresque enough; in a mournful way it was even stately; 
 but to think of any one actually living there made her 
 shudder. The Winships themselves were well content 
 to have discovered, in the heart of the city, so charming 
 a retreat, while Paula could think only of outcasts seek- 
 ing shelter among broken, empty tombs. 
 
 Now that she was here, she had none of the ner- 
 vousness or fluttering of the heart from which she had 
 often suffered in thinking the matter over. On the 
 contrary, in her velvet and sables she felt herself im- 
 posing. The ease with which the conversation at the 
 luncheon-table had passed off gave to the undertaking 
 an air of being a matter of course. Besides, after all, 
 there was no tremendous difficulty to overcome. She 
 would have such a conversation as she had held at 
 other times with M. Chartran or M. Carolus Duran, 
 
 80
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 and would come away. On the question of price she 
 would, naturally, have to surprise the young artist; 
 but such surprises were generally borne by their 
 recipients with good grace. For everything else she 
 counted on her own dignity, tact, and knowledge of the 
 world. 
 
 The entry was so dark, and the slippery stairs were 
 so steep, that on the landing Paula waited for a minute 
 beside a window to take breath. The view here was 
 less severe than that below. In the foreground, just 
 beyond the court, there were gardens such friendly, 
 ancient, unexpected gardens, hidden from the streets, 
 as one finds everywhere in Paris, and nowhere else in 
 the world. Farther off rose the venerable tower 
 of St.-Germain-des-Pres; farther off still, the square 
 of the Odeon displayed its simple lines, while, as 
 culminating - point to the prospect, the columned 
 dome of the Pantheon lifted itself into the winter 
 air. 
 
 As Paula gazed outward she rehearsed once more 
 the first few phrases she should use to Winship. Sud- 
 denly she seemed to hear music the faint tinkling of 
 an air with which she was familiar. When she turned 
 from the window to go up the second flight of stairs 
 the sounds became more distinct. 
 
 Presently she heard a voice singing a woman s 
 voice, sweet and in tune, but thin and worn, like the 
 tone of the old piano on which the singer was playing 
 her accompaniment. Once on the landing, Paula 
 could hear the words quite plainly: 
 
 81
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 
 
 The night is gone. 
 
 And with the morn those angel faces smile 
 Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile." 
 
 There was an Amen, just as they sing in churches, 
 and then the tinkling music ceased. Paula took a 
 step forward towards the closed door through which 
 the sounds had proceeded. It was that indicated to 
 her by the concierge, but she hoped to find herself mis- 
 taken. While she was ready to deal with Winship him- 
 self, she had not counted on finding herself face to face 
 with the women of his family. But no! she was not 
 mistaken. It was the door. The card on it bore the 
 name "Winship." She was half inclined to turn away, 
 when a high-pitched, quavering voice arrested her 
 attention. 
 
 "Thank you, Marah, dear. That's very nice very 
 comforting." 
 
 The enunciation had that slow, emphatic distinctness 
 which belongs to aged persons of strong will. Paula 
 was about to ring, when the voice began again, re- 
 citing in a loud, clear, trembling monotone : 
 
 " Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, 
 
 Lead Thou me on ; 
 The night is dark and I am far from home, 
 
 Lead Thou me on. 
 
 Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
 The distant scene j one step enough for me." 
 
 " One step enough for me one step enough for me," 
 the voice repeated, softly, like an echo, and Paula sum- 
 moned up force to ring. 
 
 82
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 There was a second or two of bustling movement 
 within, and then the door was opened. 
 
 For a brief instant Paula hesitated, in surprise. She 
 had expected a servant of some sort, and held her card, 
 half-drawn from her card-case, in her hand. Before 
 her she saw a little, gray-haired lady, with snapping 
 black eyes and a face that might have betokened any 
 of the complex shades from cynical kindliness to jest- 
 ing severity. Everything about her was austerely sim- 
 ple, from the parting of her gray hair to the falling of 
 her black gown, covered up, just now, with a huge 
 white apron like a pinafore. Paula had a minute of 
 feeling herself very tall and very much overdressed. 
 
 "Is Mr. Winship at home ?" she managed to ask at 
 last. 
 
 "If you'll be good enough to come in, I'll see." 
 The voice was hard, the utterance crisp, and the 
 smile that accompanied the words had the bright flash 
 of winter sunlight. 
 
 Marah Winship led the way in, with a quick, awkward 
 motion that bespoke a nature too busy to think of grace. 
 Paula followed, and after a step or two stood still, 
 with another slight shock of surprise. 
 
 It was not like going into any other house she had 
 ever visited. There was no hallway or anteroom or 
 vestibule. On crossing the threshold she passed at 
 once into the full domestic life of the family. She had 
 entered an immense, barnlike apartment, which was 
 evidently studio and living-room in one. The floor 
 was bare, except for a few of the commoner sorts of
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Oriental rugs. The walls were hung with an ordinary 
 dark-red stuff which formed a background for the un- 
 framed sketches portraits, landscapes, and architect- 
 ural drawings pinned up here and there against it. 
 At the far end of the room there was an easel on which 
 the work was covered up with a loosely thrown cloth. 
 A couple of lay-figures stood in grotesque attitudes in a 
 corner, while near them was an open grand-piano of 
 old-fashioned make. It was only vaguely that Paula 
 took these details in, for after the first glance her eyes 
 were drawn to a tall figure seated quite near her, in a 
 high, thronelike chair. 
 
 Paula knew at once that this was the woman who had 
 done battle with her father, until he had been obliged 
 "to club her down." The immediate impression was 
 that of a person sitting very still and erect, her feet 
 planted firmly on a red cushion, and a large volume 
 evidently a Bible in raised letters, open on her knees. 
 Over the white hair a lace scarf, of beautiful design, 
 came to a point on the forehead, and fell in lappets to 
 the shoulders. The severity of the black gown was re- 
 lieved by a fichu of soft white stuff, fastened on the 
 breast with a large, old-fashioned brooch set with 
 emeralds. Clearly, the face had been handsome once, 
 and even haughty; but now all that had been passionate 
 or self-willed in it was subdued by time and sorrow into 
 sweetness. There was no color there at all only the 
 waxlike transparency of the aged. As Paula entered, 
 the sightless eyes were raised towards her, as if with one 
 more useless, piteous attempt to pierce the darkness. 
 
 84
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Marah Winship had allowed Paula to stand still a 
 moment and gaze. It was one of her rare bits of pleas- 
 ure that instant when a stranger beheld her mother 
 for the first time and betrayed his astonished admira- 
 tion. It was the old maid's only coquetry; it was all 
 that remained of the vivacity and pride that had been 
 hers in the days before the family disasters. When 
 ruin overtook them, she gave up once and forever all 
 impossible hopes for herself. She had not been with- 
 out a young woman's love of happy trifles; nor without 
 a pleasant vague anticipation of a home, with children 
 of her own; nor without the half-shy, half-rapturous 
 thought that if a certain one of the young men with 
 whom she danced during the winter season in Boston 
 ever asked her, it would not be in vain. But when the 
 great financial battle was fought to a finish, she re- 
 nounced everything of that kind. She saw her life's 
 work before her. It was, first, to make a man of Roger, 
 the boy who was so much younger than herself as to 
 seem less like a brother than a son; then it was to shield 
 from the crudest winds of adversity the mother who had 
 done her best and failed. 
 
 She crushed out her own longings with that cynical 
 suppression of regret which some women can command, 
 and set herself to her task. She learned the meaning 
 of sacrifice, privation, penury, failure, and, at last, of 
 faint, almost pitiable, success. But she achieved her 
 purpose she made a man of Roger; and during the 
 long, hard years Mrs. Winship never knew how long 
 and hard they were. Marah protected her at least from 
 
 85
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 that. As the mother grew older and blinder, it became 
 easier to deceive her easier to make her believe there 
 was plenty of food because she had enough, easier to 
 persuade her that life was happy because she knew 
 only smiles. Out of the wreck of their pretty things 
 Marah had snatched a few old jewels, a few odds and 
 ends of lace not much, but enough to keep alive in 
 her mother's consciousness the conviction that she was 
 "still a lady." Marah was satisfied with that, as far as 
 a hungry, unfed heart is ever satisfied. The day's 
 work was always lighter if some one pointed to her 
 mother and whispered, "Isn't she a picture!" 
 
 Paula did not say that, but she was conscious of an 
 overwhelming sentiment of pity. It was not only pity, 
 it was a feeling of responsibility. Everything about her 
 was to her eyes so poverty-stricken while she was 
 spending the money which would have provided for 
 this helplessness the setting to which it was entitled. 
 During the second or two that had passed since she en- 
 tered the room, her mind had worked faster than it 
 had ever worked before. Wild schemes rose con- 
 fusedly in her heart, and it was almost exultantly that 
 she felt it in her power to change all this, making amends 
 for a cruel past by a sudden raining down of hap- 
 piness. Notwithstanding her sense of the wrong that 
 had been done, she could not help feeling, as she 
 stood in the vast, bare room, a little like a fairy god- 
 mother. 
 
 But when Marah Winship spoke, Paula was recalled, 
 of necessity, to the circumstances of the moment. 
 
 86
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I think my brother is in; I will go and see. May 
 I ask what name I ought to give him ?" 
 
 "Miss Trafford Miss Paula Trafford." 
 
 She spoke slowly and distinctly; she meant also to 
 speak reassuringly. She hoped the very sound of the 
 name would be the signal that, after the long years, the 
 victors were coming to give back the spoils and hold out 
 the olive-branch of peace. She was surprised to see 
 Marah start and grow pale, while her black eyes snapped 
 with a sparkle like that of electricity. 
 
 "I I don't think my brother can be in," she re- 
 turned, coldly. 
 
 "I want very much to see him. Won't you make 
 sure ?" 
 
 Paula spoke in the gentle tone of command that 
 came from her sense of power. Marah Winship had 
 suffered too many defeats at the hands of wealth to dare 
 to disobey. 
 
 "Mother," she said, turning abruptly to the figure 
 in the thronelike chair, "this is Miss Trafford Miss 
 Paula Trafford. She has come to see Roger; I'm 
 going to look for him." 
 
 She sped away, leaving Paula alone, and face to face 
 with Mrs. Winship. 
 
 There was a moment's silence, during which the 
 blind woman's fingers trembled violently over the raised 
 letters of the open page. The lips quivered as if un- 
 able to frame a word. 
 
 "Trafford!" she murmured at last. "Did my 
 daughter say Trafford ?"
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "I'm Paul Trafford's daughter," Paula answered, 
 firmly. She would have no misunderstanding or 
 mistake. 
 
 "I know the name," Mrs. Winship said, making an 
 effort towards self-control, "but I haven't heard it for 
 many years." 
 
 "I'm afraid it may be painful to you," Paula felt im- 
 pelled to say; "but " 
 
 "It used to be; it used to be. But oh! my dear, 
 when the race is as nearly run as mine is, and the king- 
 dom of heaven is opening before your eyes, nothing is 
 very painful any more." 
 
 Paula was not expecting this. She moved uneasily. 
 The sound caught Mrs. Winship's ear. 
 
 "Come nearer to me, dear," she quavered, holding 
 out a delicate white hand, on which a diamond or two 
 still twinkled. "Come here; sit down; let me see you." 
 
 There was a tall, straight-backed chair beside her. 
 Paula drew it nearer to the blind woman and sat 
 down. 
 
 "I was almost afraid to come," she began to mur- 
 mur, but Mrs. Winship interrupted her. 
 
 "You needn't be. No one can live to my age with- 
 out learning that in this world we can't afford to 
 cherish enmities not against any one not against any 
 one. Give me your hand, my dear," she added, 
 groping in the darkness. 
 
 Paula stretched out both her hands. She could 
 not speak for fear of crying. 
 
 "You're young, I see," Mrs. Winship went on, letting 
 88
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 her touch wander lightly over Paula's gloves. "I 
 begin to be able to distinguish the young from the old 
 by little signs. But of course you're young. I re- 
 member that Mr. Trafford had a little girl at the time 
 I used to to see him." 
 
 "I knew nothing till a short time ago " 
 
 "About all our troubles," Mrs. Winship finished as 
 Paula hesitated. "Of course you didn't, dear. How 
 should you ? As I look back, I can see that we knew 
 very little ourselves. We were like children, wrestling 
 in the darkness, on the edge of a precipice. And it 
 wasn't worth while it wasn't worth while." 
 
 She sighed, and Paula felt again the desire to cry. 
 
 "My husband is gone," Mrs. Winship quavered on. 
 "He sees life this life already from another point of 
 view. And I begin to see it, too. That's because I'm 
 blind, perhaps. The spiritual vision becomes won- 
 derfully clear when the earthly eyes are closed. There 
 are times when I feel as if I could look up with Stephen 
 and see the heavens opened and the Son of Man stand- 
 ing on the right hand of God. How should I keep hard 
 feelings when I'm so blest ? I used to have them; but 
 not now, not now. I'm glad to see you, dear." 
 
 "If there's anything I can do for you " Paula tried 
 to say, conscious of her own awkwardness. 
 
 "No, dear, no," Mrs. Winship broke in, gently, 
 pressing the girl's hand. "The Lord is good to us, and 
 we've never wanted for anything. My son and daugh- 
 ter have had great success in their callings, so that as 
 soon as one door was closed another was opened to us. 
 7 80
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Looking back, I can't but see that all has been for the 
 best even the things against which, at the time, I 
 rebelled the most. It's the Lord's favor to have shown 
 me that in this life, when so many of His servants have 
 to wait to learn it till they enter on the life to come. 
 Now that I see it, I feel ready to sing my Nunc dimittis 
 Domine, In pace. But you wanted to see my son, I 
 think you said, dear r" she added, in another tone. 
 
 "I hoped to have him paint my portrait," Paula tried 
 to explain. "I've heard of his work " 
 
 "Yes; he's made a great reputation," the mother 
 said, complacently. 
 
 "So I understand; and I hoped " 
 
 "He's coming now, dear. I hear his step. It's 
 always firmer than anybody else's." 
 
 A door at the distant end of the long room was thrown 
 open, and as Paula looked up she saw the young man 
 she had met at Monte Carlo stride in.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A) Winship came down the long room, Paula was 
 able to give a definite outline to the vague portrait 
 of him she had carried away from Monte Carlo. She 
 saw him now, tall, spare, muscular, and, as it were, 
 loosely hung together. He swung himself along with 
 an easy gait in which there was something both care- 
 less and sure. "Careless and sure" seemed stamped 
 on his whole person, from his roughly brushed brown 
 hair to the old, russet-colored suit which, as Paula said 
 to herself, he wore "so distinctly like a gentleman." 
 In his ill-dressed, aristocratic gauntness, he seemed to 
 her to recall the race of noble, legendary outlaws just 
 as a hollow-flanked, gleaming-eyed dog will remind one 
 of a wolf. 
 
 "This is Miss Traffbrd, Roger," Mrs. Winship said, 
 in a voice shaking with emotion. "She has come to 
 ask you to paint her portrait." 
 
 "Miss Traffbrd and I have met already," Winship 
 returned, as he took the hand Paula stretched out to 
 him without rising from her chair. 
 
 "For an instant," Paula assented. "I'm glad you 
 haven't forgotten. You see," she added, turning to 
 Marah, who had followed her brother into the room
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "you see, we're al! friends of Lady Alice Hol- 
 royd's." 
 
 Marah Winship made no response. Her face had 
 settled into an expression of stony repose. As Winship 
 drew up a small chair beside his mother and opposite 
 their visitor, Marah remained standing at a distance, 
 just where Paula could not see her without turning 
 round. 
 
 "Lady Alice is such an enthusiast over your work, 
 Mr. Winship " Paula hurried on. 
 
 "And so generous in singing other people's praises," 
 Winship laughed, not without a flush of conscious 
 pleasure. 
 
 " That I couldn't help hoping you would do a 
 portrait of me, if you're not too busy." 
 
 "You are very busy, Roger," Marah warned him, 
 before he had time to reply. "If you're going to have 
 anything ready for the Salon " 
 
 "Perhaps Miss Trafford wouldn't mind my sending 
 this ?" 
 
 "Not at all," Paula smiled. "I've figured there 
 already. It isn't so very disagreeable. One is hardly 
 ever recognized." 
 
 "What sort of portrait were you thinking of?" Win- 
 ship inquired. 
 
 Paula confessed that her own ideas were vague; she 
 would have to appeal to him for advice. Carolus 
 Duran had painted the bust only; Chartran had done 
 a three-quarters length, standing; she would accept 
 Mr. Winship's judgment as to how she should be 
 
 Q2
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 represented now. She did not say that the picture 
 had little or no interest for her in itself. While he made 
 his suggestions she listened inattentively. He would 
 paint her, he thought, at full length, almost as she sat 
 before him in the high Gothic chair. She should be in 
 some sort of evening dress, black for preference, or 
 diaphanous black over color. She should have a small 
 tiara in her hair, and wear a few fine jewels, possibly 
 emeralds. If she chose emeralds, he would carry out 
 the idea of green by a glimpse just a glimpse of a 
 malachite table in the background. There would be 
 green tints, too, in the bit of sky the sky of a long, 
 late summer twilight that would be visible through 
 an open window. It would be quite simple Miss 
 Traffbrd need not fear the contrary but it would 
 be the princely simplicity with which she ought to be 
 surrounded. 
 
 Paula maintained her air of listening as he grew 
 enthusiastic over his conceptions, but in reality she 
 was watching his play of countenance. She thought 
 she had never seen not even in her father a face in 
 which there was greater strength of will. In the eyes, 
 soft and hazel as they were, there was a penetration not 
 less keen than in Paul Trafford's own; while the mouth 
 under the brown mustache seemed to her both sensi- 
 tive and inexorable. She was not sure that she liked 
 it. It was too much like the mouth of a man whom 
 neither pity nor passion would turn from what he 
 had set his mind on. While he was talking of colors 
 and poses, she caught herself wondering if he could 
 
 93
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 possibly be as unyielding as his expression seemed 
 to say. 
 
 Having decided on the general character the portrait 
 was to take, they discussed the question of sittings. 
 Paula admitted the difficulty of giving them in her own 
 house, and her willingness to come to his. 
 
 "That will suit me admirably," Winship agreed, "if 
 it isn't giving you too much trouble. This is my only 
 studio, I regret to say; but it has the advantage that 
 my mother is always here, and generally my sister." 
 
 Paula turned round towards Marah with a concilia- 
 tory smile. 
 
 "That will be charming. I know Miss Winship is 
 an artist, too. Perhaps we shall have the benefit of 
 her criticism and advice." 
 
 But Marah stood unresponsive, gazing blankly at the 
 opposite wall. After waiting a second for some recog- 
 nition of her words, Paula turned again towards Win- 
 ship. If she felt hurt, she was too sure of her own 
 good intentions to be otherwise than self-possessed. 
 
 "And now, Mr. Winship," she said, gently, "there's 
 one other question. I'm business woman enough to 
 know that there must be no misunderstanding about 
 terms." 
 
 Winship bowed. 
 
 "Certainly. I will tell you frankly how the matter 
 stands with me. I've just finished a portrait for which 
 I've had four thousand francs; for the next one I 
 painted I meant to ask five." 
 
 "I will give you fifty thousand," Paula said, quietly. 
 94
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 There was a moment's hush, as if the hearers were 
 endeavoring to comprehend. 
 
 "I don't think you understand me, Miss Traffbrd," 
 Winship said at last, speaking deliberately. "I said 
 five thousand " 
 
 "And I said fifty," Paula interrupted. 
 
 "You're very kind," Winship said, flashing one of 
 his careless smiles at her, "but I'm afraid I must stand 
 by my price." 
 
 "There's no question of standing by anything," 
 Paula returned. "A portrait hasn't a fixed and un- 
 changing value like like a postage-stamp." 
 
 "The money value of any work of art, a book, a 
 picture, a statue, or whatever it be," Winship explained, 
 "can be measured only by the reputation of its author. 
 A poor bit of work by a well-known man is worth more, 
 from a financial point of view, than a good bit of work 
 by a man who makes only a small appeal to the 
 public; and so " 
 
 "I don't care anything about that," Paula inter- 
 rupted again. 
 
 "No; but I do," Winship rejoined. "I'm obliged 
 to look at things just as they are. My portrait of you 
 might be as good as Carolus Duran's, and yet you 
 couldn't hang it with the same pride on your walls, or 
 take the same glory in it among your friends." 
 
 " But that isn't what I want to do," Paula said, un- 
 guardedly. 
 
 "Then what Jo you want to do?" he asked, leaning 
 forward and looking at her straight in the eyes. 
 
 95
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Paula was not blind to the directness of the question, 
 and she thought it rather tactless. It would have been 
 so much more delicate on his part to have let her fix the 
 price without discussion! His smile, too, annoyed her 
 that is, it would have annoyed her if it had not fas- 
 cinated her by its suggestion of ease and power. He 
 looked at her entirely without awe, as if he caught no 
 glimmer of the throne of gold on which other people 
 seated her. It was not exactly disagreeable, she 
 thought; it was only disconcerting. 
 
 "What do I want to do?" she repeated, trying to 
 gain time to formulate her reply. "I want to have a 
 good portrait of myself, and to pay for it what I am 
 sure it will be worth." 
 
 "You're more than generous," Winship acknowl- 
 edged; "but I must protect you from the injustice you 
 would do yourself." 
 
 " But I don't want to be protected. No woman does 
 nowadays. And as for injustice " 
 
 She stopped in some confusion. It seemed to her 
 that in Winship's continual smile there was a play of 
 satirical amusement. She felt that he saw through her, 
 that he was riddling her poor plan for his benefit with 
 the silent shots of his scorn. 
 
 "As for injustice what, Miss TrafFord ? You were 
 going to say something." 
 
 It was Marah Winship who spoke, in a sharp tone of 
 challenge. Feeling the attack, Paula faced about to 
 meet it. It was the sort of situation that called out 
 her courage, and made her spring to her own defence. 
 
 96
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I was going to say, Miss Winship," she replied, 
 looking calmly into Marah's snapping eyes, "that as 
 for injustice, all of us have to bear it all of us. There 
 are no exceptions. If it hurts you in one way, it hurts 
 me in another but none of us escapes." 
 
 "Just as none of us escapes the winter's storm," 
 Marah returned, hardly. "Only it's one thing to 
 watch it from the window, and another thing to shiver 
 in its blast." 
 
 Paula did not reply, but she did not immediately 
 turn her eyes away. She met Marah's scintillating 
 gaze without flinching, but she grew aware of the 
 hostility behind it. 
 
 "There's only one prayer for us, dears, when we feel 
 we're unjustly treated," Mrs. Winship said, in her 
 high, trembling voice. "It's, 'Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do.' If we did know, 
 we'd be gentler with one another." 
 
 "I'm sure Mr. Winship doesn't know how he wounds 
 me in not accepting my conditions," Paula said, with a 
 faint smile, turning again towards the mother and the 
 son. 
 
 "Nor Miss Trafford how she offends me by con- 
 testing mine," Winship laughed. 
 
 "I do contest them," Paula insisted; "I not only 
 contest them, but I reject them." 
 
 "Then," said Winship, speaking with sudden gravity, 
 "there's nothing more to be said. If we can't agree, 
 we can only cry our bargain off." 
 
 Paula was not expecting so abrupt a termination to 
 
 97
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 the discussion. Her blue eyes clouded and the deepen- 
 ing of the furrow between her brows betrayed her distress. 
 
 "Do you mean that you won't paint my portrait at 
 all ?" 
 
 " Only at my own price." 
 
 "But since I can't accept it?" 
 
 "That's entirely for you to decide. I, at least, must 
 abide by it." 
 
 "My son shall paint your portrait," Mrs. Winship 
 said, in a tone of authority. " I shall act as arbitrater 
 between you, for I understand you both. He shall 
 paint it for a price that I shall fix. It shall be higher 
 than his and lower than yours." 
 
 So, after further talk, it was settled, and presently 
 Paula rose to go away. She felt less assurance than 
 when she arrived, but she said her good-byes without 
 visible embarrassment. As Winship held the door 
 open for her to pass out, she turned to him on the 
 threshold. 
 
 "Our discussion strikes me as a little odd," she ob- 
 served, her brows contracting with her characteristic 
 expression of perplexity. "I've always understood that 
 men wanted to make money." 
 
 "So they do when they have time." 
 
 "And you?" 
 
 "I shall make money some day." 
 
 "Why some day ? Why not now ?" 
 
 "Because now I'm too busy with my art. When 
 I've mastered that a little more, the money will come of 
 its own accord." 
 
 98
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "But if it doesn't?" 
 
 "I should have only one reason for regretting it." 
 
 He nodded backward towards his mother's chair, 
 over which Marah was leaning tenderly. 
 
 " But if you refuse to seize your opportunities ?" 
 
 "I shall not refuse; but there are opportunities and 
 opportunities. There are some of which one avails 
 one's self, and there are others which no honorable man 
 could take without losing his self-respect." 
 
 "And you think my offer of to-day " 
 
 "Was meant kindly," he finished, before she could 
 end her sentence. "I'm sure of that. And I'm equally 
 sure that when you've reflected well you'll see that my 
 refusal to accept it is not incompatible with the fullest 
 appreciation." 
 
 She dared not question him further. She under- 
 stood that he had read her scheme in all its blundering 
 benevolent futility. She read it so herself, now that 
 it had been put into words and subjected to scrutiny, 
 but she read it with a curious misapprehension of 
 characters and hearts. 
 
 "No wonder he refused it!" she said to herself, as she 
 drove homeward. "Fifty thousand francs! Five hun- 
 dred thousand would be but a trifle of what we owe 
 them. If it was five million well, perhaps that might 
 have been enough." 
 
 Five million francs! The sum appealed alike to her 
 imagination and to her sense of justice. That would 
 be a million dollars two hundred thousand pounds. 
 She knew nothing about the matter, but it seemed to 
 
 99
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 her as if it might represent approximately the value of 
 the Devlin Mines. At least, it was a sum with which 
 one might offer restitution without being laughed at. 
 Winship had laughed at her. She was sure of that 
 now. The very thought made her cheeks burn, in the 
 semiobscurity of the carriage. She did not blame 
 him. She 'did not resent his derision. She accepted 
 even Marah's hostility with a confused feeling of mak- 
 ing some atonement. But there was an atonement 
 more practical and adequate than that of sentiment; 
 and with the unreasoning tenacity of her nature she 
 grew more firmly convinced that her family ought to 
 offer it. 
 
 She spoke of it in the evening, at home, during that 
 last hour before parting, when the string of the tongue 
 is often loosed and the mind expresses itself boldly. 
 She flung her opinion like a bomb into the family circle, 
 and waited to be blown up herself by the explosion. 
 
 At first there was neither expostulation nor direct reply. 
 
 "Aunt Julia," George Traffbrd remarked, from the 
 depths of his arm-chair, " I think we ought to send for 
 Dr. Marier, the specialist for mental diseases." 
 
 "What does she mean ?" Mrs. Traffbrd demanded, 
 turning with an air of distress towards Mrs. George. 
 Laura arched her fine eyebrows and looked at Paula 
 wonderingly. 
 
 "It isn't a question of what she means, but of what 
 we mean," Trafford exclaimed. "We ought to invent 
 some mild form of strait-jacket for her. It isn't safe 
 to have her going around loose." 
 
 100
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Cheap \vitticism isn't argument, George," Paula 
 reminded him. 
 
 "Cheap?" he retorted. "No witticism that turns 
 on throwing away a million dollars can be cheap." 
 
 "A million dollars isn't much," Paula declared, 
 warmly. 
 
 "Try to earn it and you'll see," Traffbrd threw back 
 at her. 
 
 "I mean it isn't much for us especially if it were 
 divided up among us all. We should never miss it." 
 
 "We shall never try," he laughed, gruffly. 
 
 "Paula, dear, do keep your senses, at any rate while 
 your father is away," Mrs. Trafford pleaded. "If 
 you go on like this you'll get nervous prostration or 
 you'll give it to me." 
 
 " Mother, if you'd seen those people as I saw them 
 to-day" 
 
 " I don't want to. I don't want to know about them. 
 When I remember what they did to your father " 
 
 "Well, they're punished for it now. They live in 
 such a poor place! a sort of old, half-ruined convent. 
 And everything about them is so comfortless, so bare, 
 so lacking in all that we call essential! When I looked 
 at that poor lady, it was as if I saw you, mother, dear, 
 old and blind and feeble and sweet and saintlike " 
 
 "Oh, for mercy's sake, stop," Mrs. Trafford cried. 
 "You're enough to give any one the creeps." 
 
 " And a million dollars would mean so much to them," 
 Paula ended, pleadingly. 
 
 "That's the first point on which I agree with you," 
 101
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Trafford said, dryly. "A million dollars means a good 
 deal to most people. But look here! I'll tell you what 
 I'll do. You're a good girl and I'll humor you. I'll 
 give you fifty francs for them " 
 
 "George, you're crazy," Paula exclaimed, indignant- 
 ly. "You're insulting. He refused fifty thousand 
 francs from me this very afternoon." 
 
 "He what?" Traffbrd asked, with the low, slow 
 emphasis of incredulity. 
 
 Then Paula told the story of the day's experiences. 
 She told it brokenly, interrupted by George's and Mrs. 
 Traffbrd's questions. Laura stitched in silence, her 
 eyes fixed on her work. Traffbrd drew up his arm- 
 chair close to where Paula sat by a small table, merging 
 her hot blushes in the red glow of a shaded electric 
 lamp. Mrs. Traffbrd fanned herself with a lace hand- 
 kerchief, as though in danger of suffocation. 
 
 "And so he stood out for more," Traffbrd comment- 
 ed, as Paula brought her narrative to a close. "Well, 
 I don't blame him. No doubt he could see that if he 
 left you alone you'd bring him back the whole Devlin 
 property." 
 
 "Why shouldn't we ?" Paula demanded, with cheeks 
 flaming. "It was theirs. We took it from them. You 
 said yourself, the night we talked of it, that papa had 
 laid out his plan to ruin them five or six years ahead. 
 Why shouldn't we do justice to them now, late as it is ?" 
 
 "I never said your father had laid out his plan to ruin 
 them; I said he had laid out his plan of campaign." 
 
 "It's the same thing." 
 
 102
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Pardon me, but it isn't the same thing. Your 
 father's operations were in the way of business, not of 
 spoliation." 
 
 "That's the mere jargon of the market," Paula cried, 
 springing to her feet and beginning to move restlessly 
 about. "I've heard it till I'm sick of its sound. Busi- 
 ness! business! It's the only password of our world. 
 It's our only motto, our only standard of right. So 
 long as we can say that any action, however base, is in 
 the way of business, we think the trickery, the mean- 
 ness, the dishonor is excused. We make our plea of 
 business cover a greater multitude of sins than charity. 
 What's the good of our philanthropies and our libraries 
 and our fine plans for the elevation of mankind, when 
 we get the very money that keeps our schemes alive by 
 clubbing other people down ? I use your own expres- 
 sion, George. It's what you said papa did to this poor, 
 blind Mrs. Winship " 
 
 "Your father can't be made responsible for my 
 expressions, any more than he can be argued guilty by 
 your eloquence." 
 
 "I'm not trying to argue him guilty. I know he 
 wasn't guilty. I'm trying only to protect him from 
 being thought so. And when we could do that with an 
 insignificant million dollars " 
 
 " But could you ?" Laura asked, looking up from her 
 work, and speaking for the first time. "If you con- 
 stitute yourself a judge of your father's doings " 
 
 "A kind of Holy Office of the Inquisition, consisting 
 of one infallible member," Trafford threw in. 
 
 103
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "You couldn't stop at one isolated case," Mrs. 
 George went on. "You'd find yourself led further 
 than you expected." 
 
 " Do you mean that everything was wrong ?" Paula 
 demanded, stopping in her walk and looking haughtily 
 down at Laura. 
 
 " Everything could be made to seem wrong, I've no 
 doubt," Laura replied, quietly, " if we went by the tests 
 you seem determined to apply. There'd be no end to 
 the extent to which you'd become involved, One 
 million wouldn't be enough, nor two, nor three." 
 
 "I shouldn't care for that," Paula flung out, turning 
 towards the door. "Rather than feel that we've be- 
 come rich by grinding other people into poverty, I'd 
 give away everything we have." 
 
 "It's lucky for us that you can't," Traffbrd laughed. 
 "It's lucky for you, too. Paula!" he called after her, 
 as she was leaving the room. "Come back. I've 
 got something more to say to you." 
 
 She turned at the door and confronted him. Her 
 blue eyes were shining with tears, and the color in her 
 cheeks had contracted into two hectic spots of scarlet. 
 
 "As far as I can see," he went on, with smiling 
 sarcasm, "the only way to help your painter man is to 
 marry him." 
 
 "I would," she returned, holding her head high 
 "I would, if I couldn't do him justice in any other 
 way." 
 
 Traffbrd laughed aloud. 
 
 "Ho! Ho! Well done, Paula!" he cried after her, 
 104
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 as she went proudly and indignantly up the great 
 stairway. 
 
 But Mrs. Trafford was vexed. 
 
 "Why on earth should you put that notion into her 
 head, George ?" she complained, fretfully. "You know, 
 as well as I do, that she's quite capable of doing it." 
 
 8
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "TJE'LL never be the same again, Alice," Marah 
 JTl Winship said, complainingly. "You've never 
 seen any one more changed than he, since the first day 
 he began to paint her." 
 
 "I shouldn't bother about that," Lady Alice returned, 
 in her bluff, hearty way, "so long as the change is for 
 the better." 
 
 "But is it?" 
 
 "Certainly, if you can judge from his work. That 
 picture is a man's work, not a boy's. It's got the two 
 things he's lacked hitherto inspiration and authority. 
 He's always had drawing and color. I give you my 
 word, Marah, I'm astonished, perfectly astonished I, 
 who looked for big things from him. That woman 
 is Paula Trafford as surely as Rembrandt's 'Old Lady* 
 in Amsterdam is Elisabeth Bas." 
 
 "If it had only been any one else in the world, rather 
 than a Trafford!" 
 
 "I call that stuff and nonsense, and flying in the face 
 of Providence. The boy's business is to paint pretty 
 women, and where could he have found a better sub- 
 ject ? You'd feel the same about any one else who had 
 good looks enough to give him pleasure in putting them 
 
 1 06
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 on canvas. Oh yes, I know all about the past; but, 
 good gracious, Marah, you're not a Corsican, to carry 
 on a vendetta from generation to generation. I should 
 say that, if they've fallen in love with each other, it 
 would be uncommonly rare poetic justice for them to 
 make a match of it." 
 
 "You didn't want your own brother to marry her." 
 
 "That's a different thing. Ludovic, poor lad, came 
 into the world bound hand and foot with duties, and 
 with a whole load of family traditions crushing him 
 down. He can't marry the first pretty face he takes a 
 fancy to. He's got to keep in the picture, so to speak. 
 There's nothing more incongruous, in my opinion, than 
 an English duke with a rich American duchess. It's 
 out of drawing and off the background. It leaps at you 
 from the frame. Of course, if Ludovic had done it, 
 I could have lived through it and made the best of it, 
 just as I should do if he were to dismantle the beautiful 
 Louis Seize drawing-room at Edenbridge and refurnish 
 it from Maple's; but I shouldn't like it." 
 
 "We have our family pride as well as you," Marah 
 observed, with sharp eyes snapping. "Until we were 
 driven out, our own family had lived on the same land 
 in New Hampshire for nearly three hundred years." 
 
 "Oh, my dear, America wasn't discovered as long 
 ago as that, and even if it had been, the two things are 
 not the same at all. They're as different as a Teniers 
 and a Raphael. Mind you, a Teniers is just as good 
 as a Raphael; but it's quite another genre, and you 
 mustn't mix them. As for your brother, I say again, 
 
 107
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 that if they can make a match of it you ought to take it 
 as the special intervention of Providence, and a happy 
 way out of the coil." 
 
 They sat in the long studio before Winship's un- 
 finished portrait. Lady Alice, in her black cloth gown, 
 Tyrolese hat, and stout leather boots, was an excellent 
 type of the Englishwoman who is so sure of her means 
 and position that she can dress as she pleases. Above 
 the two women, Paula Traffbrd sat as if enthroned. 
 She had been painted much as Winship had suggested 
 in the first moment of inspiration in diaphanous black 
 over something green, with a diamond ornament, like 
 a tiara, shining in her hair. From a chiselled gold coffer, 
 standing on a small malachite table beside her, she was 
 drawing a string of pearls, though her eyes were turned 
 towards the spectator. Through an opening between 
 two columns the vaguely suggested sunset was fading 
 out in tints of green and gold and black. 
 
 "She'll have the money," Lady Alice continued, un- 
 folding the plan, "and he'll have the fame. The one 
 will not be better dowered than the other. This bit of 
 work means that he is going up to the gate of the Temple 
 with a good, sharp rap. They'll let him in quickly 
 enough this time. It's marvellous how he's managed so 
 much detail with such simplicity. And yet," she went 
 on, in her summary, "nothing takes your attention 
 away from the girl herself. He's caught the meaning 
 of her face with nothing short of power. I've seen her 
 look just like that in fact, it's her characteristic ex- 
 pression. Don't you notice it, Marah?" 
 
 108
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I can see it's very well painted." 
 
 "Then it's a pity you can't see more. That rather 
 pathetic kind of loveliness is unusual in itself, but 
 when you add her wondering, questioning expression 
 you make it positively significant. It's tremendously 
 modern, too. You could never confound this girl with 
 the soft-eyed, shameless beauties of the Lely school, or 
 with the bedraped and befeathered ladies of Sir Joshua. 
 Here you've got not only a pretty woman, but a human 
 soul. Any one might think that, with her puzzled, 
 ranging gaze, she was asking the eternal What? and 
 Why ? of earthly existence." 
 
 The grating of a latch-key in the lock of the door cut 
 short Lady Alice's observations, and Winship himself 
 entered. During the greetings that followed, Marah, 
 murmuring something about see to her mother, slipped 
 from the room. Winship asked Lady Alice many 
 questions: When had she come? Where was she 
 staying ? How long was she to remain ? He showed 
 his surprise and pleasure at seeing her. 
 
 "I'm especially glad on account of that," he said, 
 with a gesture towards the portrait, when they had 
 finished the first preliminary topics of meeting. "How 
 do you like it? Sit down there just there that's 
 the best light. Now tell me what you think of it. 
 There's no one whose opinion I'd rather have than 
 yours. Is it she ? That's the thing I care for most. 
 You know her better than I do." 
 
 "And yet you seem to know her pretty well." 
 
 "I do. I divine her." 
 
 ICQ
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 " It's a very pleasant form of speculation, isn't it ? 
 You've painted with a good deal of enthusiasm. I can 
 see that." 
 
 "It takes enthusiasm to transfer a living personality 
 to the canvas," he said, evasively. "You can paint 
 clothes and features by mere skill; but it's only sym- 
 pathy with your subject that will put the whole character 
 into a single look." 
 
 "And you find that she inspires it? the sympathy 
 you speak of?" 
 
 "If she didn't her situation would." 
 
 "You mean" 
 
 "I mean that for me she belongs to the group of 
 women overwhelmed by the fatality of circumstances, 
 the representative circumstances of their time. Each 
 age has its own types, which often become its own vic- 
 tims. In one age it may be an Iphigenia, in another a 
 Lady Jane Grey, and in another a Madame Royale. 
 They are simple women simple girls without inborn 
 greatness of any kind but the cyclone of forces con- 
 centrates and bursts above them." 
 
 " My good man, do you mean to say that Paula Traf- 
 ford is threatened by some overhanging doom ?" 
 
 "No, I do not. I say only that she is one of the few 
 who focus into themselves the results of a great indus- 
 trial country and of a great industrial era. There she 
 sits as I see her," he went on, pointing over Lady 
 Alice's shoulder, "the type and the victim of a com- 
 mercial age and a commercial people. All the rights 
 and wrongs of industry and finance are forced into 
 
 no
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 her hands their honest gains, their pitiless compe- 
 titions, their brutal robberies, their sordid trickeries, 
 and their moral assassinations. She sums them up 
 and represents them." 
 
 "Yes," Lady Alice assented, with her grim smile, 
 "just about to the same extent as I sum up the history 
 and privileges of the House of Lords." 
 
 "Oh, more than that. You're one of your class; 
 she stands alone in hers. She can't be other than rep- 
 resentative. Destiny has singled her out for the task." 
 
 "And she's such a sweet, gentle soul." 
 
 "That's where the curious irony of it comes in. Do 
 you remember in the cathedral at Ghent the tomb of 
 Mary of Burgundy? No? Well, it's worth looking 
 at the next time you're there. She lies crowned and 
 gorgeously robed, on a sepulchre covered with the 
 shields of the duchies, counties, and baronies she in- 
 herited from Charles the Bold. She herself is a frail, 
 pinched little body, who died at twenty-four. She 
 lived just long enough to marry Maximilian, to have a 
 son, to transfer the Low Countries to Spain and Austria, 
 and so to begin the centuries of war and misery that 
 never really ended till the revolt of Belgium from Hol- 
 land, in 1830. She was nothing but a girl little 
 older than Miss Trafford there but the storm-forces 
 of her time centred around her, tossing her into a 
 place in history utterly out of keeping with her personal 
 importance. In the United States to-day, women don't 
 inherit duchies, like Mary of Burgundy, they inherit 
 money " 
 
 in
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "So much the better for the men who marry them," 
 Lady Alice broke in, bluntly. "Some one has to marry 
 them. Some one will have to marry Paula Trafford." 
 
 Winship picked up a brush and began to fleck 
 touches on the soft black draperies. 
 
 "Well, won't they?" Lady Alice persisted. 
 
 "I suppose so," he agreed, without turning round. 
 
 "Then why shouldn't it be you ?" 
 
 "I've so few ambitions of that kind." 
 
 "So few fiddlesticks!" 
 
 "And, besides, when I marry, I hope it will not be 
 for money, but for love." 
 
 "Love!" Lady Alice sniffed. "Is love so out of the 
 question ? You couldn't have painted her as you've 
 done if" 
 
 "Shall I have to fall in love with all the beautiful 
 women I hope to paint in order to do them justice ?" 
 
 "Not now, because she will have taught you the 
 secret once for all." 
 
 Winship was spared the necessity of answering this 
 retort by the opening of a door near by, while his 
 mother, aided by Marah, groped her way in. 
 
 Lady Alice sprang up and took the blind woman 
 into her strong arms. When the first embraces had 
 been exchanged, she aided Marah in leading her to a 
 seat. While Marah busied herself in preparing tea, 
 Lady Alice entertained Mrs. Winship with the account 
 of her doings through the winter. It was inevitable 
 that the talk should drift to Roger's work and Paula 
 Trafford. 
 
 112
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "She's a sweet girl," Mrs. Winship said, tremulously. 
 "I've come to love her very dearly. So has my son, 
 haven't you, Roger ?" 
 
 "I can quite understand that," Lady Alice observed, 
 dryly. 
 
 "Oh yes," he laughed. "It's quite intelligible. 
 But all terms are relative, and mother's don't bear being 
 torn away from the context." 
 
 "She's been a great comfort to me," Mrs. Winship 
 pursued, gently. "I haven't been so well during the 
 latter part of the winter, and her kindness has been 
 very sweet to me. She comes and reads to me, when 
 Marah and Roger are away, just as you used to do, 
 dear. She took me to drive one day, but I'm afraid that 
 was too much for me. I don't suppose I shall go out 
 again now, till I go home." 
 
 Winship and Lady Alice exchanged glances. It was 
 evident to both that the aged woman had grown very 
 frail. The voice was strong and the look eager, as 
 though the spirit were straining itself to break away. 
 
 " If you'll excuse me a minute," Winship said, trying 
 to speak cheerily, "I'll leave you ladies to your remi- 
 niscences. I've got an idea I should like to work 
 out" 
 
 "It would be a pity to lose it, then," Lady Alice re- 
 plied. "Your company will keep, but an idea must 
 be seized on the wing." 
 
 "The Lord is very good to me," Mrs. Winship con- 
 tinued, in a high, shaking voice, while Winship, with 
 his back towards them, worked rapidly at the canvas. 
 
 "3
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "I see that more and more plainly as the time draws 
 near; and, oh, my dear, of all His mercies the last seems 
 to me the best." 
 
 "Then you must be a happy woman, Mrs. Winship. 
 Most of us see the Lord's mercies to us otherwise." 
 
 "I am a happy woman, dear. I have everything to 
 make me so. And yet it would have been harder for 
 me to enter into the joy of my Lord if I hadn't learned 
 to love Paul Traffbrd's daughter. I had the memory 
 of bitter feelings still, but even that has passed away 
 since she came." 
 
 "I don't wonder you love her," Lady Alice mur- 
 mured, sympathetically. 
 
 "And Roger loves her, too," the mother whispered, 
 bending forward. "Haven't you noticed it?" 
 
 "Well, I haven't had much time." 
 
 "Yes, he does. He tries to hide it, but he couldn't 
 do that from me. And she loves him. I've seen it. 
 I'm sure of it. Oh, my dear, they were made for each 
 other. My son and Paul Trafford's daughter! If we 
 had only foreseen that, how much anguish we might 
 have spared each other. But it's better that it should 
 be late than not at all. I shall go home to tell my dear 
 husband that all strife is at an end." 
 
 When she had finished her tea, Lady Alice crossed 
 the room towards Winship. 
 
 "May one have a peep ?" she asked, looking over his 
 shoulder. "I wouldn't spoil anything by overzeal, 
 you know. I should think you had almost got to the 
 point where you might leave well enough alone. So 
 
 114
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 this is the young lady a man couldn't marry for 
 love!" 
 
 "I didn't say that," Winship returned, with a little 
 warmth. 
 
 "Well, what did you say?" 
 
 "I said really, Lady Alice, I don't remember." 
 
 "No, nor I either exactly. You said you couldn't 
 marry her for love; wasn't that it?" 
 
 "I don't suppose I could marry her at all," he replied, 
 turning round and looking at her frankly. "Where 
 there are so many extraneous circumstances to be 
 taken into consideration " 
 
 " But if there weren't ?" 
 
 "If there weren't an atmosphere round the earth, we 
 should see things in quite another light. But since 
 there is an atmosphere, all our perceptions have to de- 
 pend upon it." 
 
 "But even in the atmosphere there's a difference be- 
 tween cloud and sunshine. You wouldn't refuse to 
 enjoy a bright spring morning because you'd suffered 
 from last year's storm." 
 
 "You would if you'd been struck by lightning," he 
 returned, with a sharpness of tone that surprised her. 
 "You would if you'd been crippled and blinded and 
 left all but dead. The bright spring morning would 
 bring a rather belated cheerfulness then." 
 
 "I didn't mean that," she began, apologetically. 
 
 "No, Lady Alice; but I have to mean it. I can't 
 shut my eyes to the fact that the two lives nearest mine 
 are blasted beyond all hope. The curious thing is that 
 
 "5
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 the power that did it should have come right under my 
 hand. Can't you see that when I look at that" he 
 nodded in the direction of his mother's chair "when 
 I look at Marah, the temptation to strike back should 
 be almost irresistible ?" 
 
 "I can understand that easily enough. The in- 
 stinct is as primitive as mother's love. But in this 
 sophisticated age of the world's history most people 
 think that, after defeat, reconstruction is wiser than 
 revenge." 
 
 "Ah, yes," he laughed, with a curious glitter in the 
 eyes, "but in my case revenge would take the form of 
 what you call reconstruction." 
 
 "I see." 
 
 "You see some of it not all." 
 
 "The revenge of Romeo on the Capulets. I pre- 
 sume the motive would be Romeo's as well as all the 
 rest of it." 
 
 "One has a right to presume anything on a subject 
 that is no more than 'the baseless fabric of a vision.'" 
 
 "As yet." 
 
 He made no response. 
 
 "As yet," she insisted. 
 
 "As yet, if you like," he smiled. 
 
 "Ah, well, I've no more time to talk of it," she sighed, 
 picking up her gloves from a small table. "I must be 
 off. I suppose you know," she continued, glancing 
 up at him sidewise, "that there'd be a fight. The 
 doors wouldn't be flung open to you as, for instance, to 
 my brother Ludovic." 
 
 116
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Winship shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. 
 
 "And so, in the end, you might fail." 
 
 "I couldn't fail," he answered, quickly, "not now. 
 However it turned out, the victory would be mine now. 
 In the one case, Paul Trafford would carry a wound in 
 his side; in the other he'd get it in the heart." 
 
 Lady Alice paused, with her glove half drawn on, and 
 regarded him. 
 
 "Hmph!" she sniffed at last. "I believe you Win- 
 ships are Corsicans, after all you and Marah, too."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 AT the Pavilion d'Armenonville, in the Bois de 
 Boulogne, it was the crowded hour of the after- 
 noon all the more crowded because the day was one 
 of those in early spring when it seems a rare pleasure 
 to sit out-of-doors, under the foliage still too tender to 
 keep off the grateful warmth of the sun. In the long 
 gallery, and beneath the trees, there was such a move- 
 ment of going and coming, such a rustle of silks and 
 satins, such a hum of talk and laughter, such a calling 
 of greetings and farewells, such a tinkle of cups and 
 glasses, that two ladies seated by themselves could be 
 intimately alone. Lady Alice had forseen this when she 
 invited Paula to tea with her. 
 
 At the table nearest them, a young actress of the 
 Comedie was entertaining a party of friends; beyond 
 them, a couple of clean-shaven American lads were 
 having a Scotch-and-soda; farther off, a group of Eng- 
 lish people, on their way from the Riviera, were taking 
 tea; the Italians at another table, and the South Amer- 
 icans at still another, were regaling themselves with pink 
 and pea-green drinks and ices. Up to the main door 
 there was a long, double procession of carriages, motor- 
 cars, and cabs. Liveried chasseurs ran to and fro, to 
 
 118
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 welcome the arriving, and speed the departing, guest. 
 Swans were floating on the lake in the foreground, and a 
 faint, sweet perfume came up from the beds of hyacinths 
 on its banks. Overhead, birds were flitting and chirp- 
 ing, in the ardor of building their nests; while above and 
 through and beneath all other sounds came the wild 
 twanging, clanging, heart-breaking music of the Hun- 
 garian Tziganes. 
 
 Neither of the two women paid direct attention to 
 these things; they only submitted unconsciously to the 
 influence of what is a little out of the common. The 
 glamour of the sunshine, the strains of the gypsy air, the 
 subtle sense of the romantic that diffuses itself in any 
 rich, leisured, cosmopolitan crowd, made it possible, 
 for Paula at least, to speak as she could not have spoken 
 without the stimulus and support of an accompaniment. 
 
 "Yes, Ludovic will be back again in a few weeks," 
 Lady Alice sighed, as she put down her cup. "Poor 
 boy, I hope the trip will have done him good." 
 
 "I'm sure I hope so," Paula murmured, politely. 
 
 "He sails from Cape Town to-morrow. That '11 make 
 it about three months altogether since he left Monte 
 Carlo." 
 
 "About that, I think," Paula murmured again, trying 
 to look anywhere but at her hostess. 
 
 "Of course," Lady Alice ventured, boldly, "I never 
 asked him what took place between you. I wouldn't. 
 I think one can never be too delicate about matters of 
 that sort. But, naturally, one has one's surmisings, 
 don't they ?" 
 
 119
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Paula admitted as much as that. 
 "I knew you'd say so," Lady Alice pursued, as though 
 relieved by Paula's assent. "One has their surmisings,, 
 and they can't help it. But I never talk about such 
 things. Whatever I think, I keep to myself. My dear 
 mother used to say that one always had plenty of time 
 to begin to talk, but it was never too soon to be silent." 
 
 "I'm sure that must be very true," Paula agreed, 
 innocently. 
 
 "And so, as I say, I never say anything. I only 
 thought you'll excuse me, dear, won't you ? I only 
 thought, that if it was anything in the nature of a mis- 
 understanding " 
 
 Paula shook her head. 
 
 "That I could help in" 
 
 " It wasn't anything of that kind," Paula forced her- 
 self to say. 
 
 "Well, I'm glad of that or, rather, I can't help 
 being a little bit sorry, too; because, if it had been so, 
 there might have been a ray of hope for Ludovic. But, 
 of course, if you'd made up your mind that you couldn't 
 marry him " 
 
 "I offered to," Paula stammered, in the hope of 
 putting the matter less ungraciously. "I wanted to, 
 but the Duke thought I had better not." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 Lady Alice's dry tone indicated her astonishment. 
 
 "He seemed to think I didn't love him well enough." 
 
 "And didn't you?" 
 
 "He wouldn't let me try." 
 120
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Were you ready?" 
 
 "Yes to try." 
 
 "Well, it's never too late, you know." 
 
 The swift rose-color came into Paula's cheek, while 
 she fixed her troubled eyes on the farthest point they 
 could see a swan at the distant end of the lake. 
 
 "Look here, my dear," Lady Alice said, assuming a 
 kindly, elderly tone, "let me warn you of one thing: 
 don't trifle with love. I'm an old maid, and you may 
 think I don't know anything about it, but I do. I've 
 had my experiences, like other people; and once, when 
 I'd seen the man I could have given my heart to, I 
 wouldn't. I wouldn't because he was only a barrister, 
 and I was Lady Alice Holroyd, and I thought I couldn't 
 come down. I've been bitterly punished, I assure you, 
 for I've thought of him ever since, and he's been lord 
 chancellor, too. Don't trifle with love, dear. It's the 
 most precious gift of life. It comes to us once, and if 
 we refuse to take it, it passes us by, never to return 
 again." 
 
 The ending was so impressive, and the Hungarian 
 music sobbed so despairingly, that Paula's lip trembled. 
 
 "And so, dear," Lady Alice went on, pursuing her 
 advantage, "you mustn't let Ludovic think you don't 
 love him enough, if you do." 
 
 "Oh, but I don't," Paula said, hurriedly. 
 
 "You said you could try." 
 
 "I could have tried then; I can't now." 
 
 "Excuse me, dear," Lady Alice exclaimed, twisting 
 her mouth into a sympathetic smile. "I'm talking 
 t, 121
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 about what I have no business to. There! I shall say 
 no more about it. I'm sorry I began. I shouldn't have 
 done it, only that I know so well what love means, when 
 it has once come to us and gone on. Being Ludovic's 
 sister, I thought but no. Let's talk of something else. 
 By-the-way, I went over to call on the Winships yester- 
 day, and I saw your portrait. It's superb." 
 
 "I'm glad you like it." 
 
 The new, bright color in Paula's face might have 
 sprung from mere pleasure in the success of the work. 
 
 "Like it isn't the word. It's a splendid work of art, 
 that's what it is, my dear, and you know that I don't 
 speak on the subject without knowledge, That man 
 has something in him that none of our other young 
 painters have got, and he'll go far you mark my 
 words. I can't think how you ever came to happen on 
 him." 
 
 "It was my cousin, Mrs. George Trafford, who sug- 
 gested my having it done." 
 
 "She's very philanthropic, isn't she ? Oh yes, I see. 
 She got you to sit to him out of a spirit of benevolence." 
 
 "Not that exactly." 
 
 "Well, you've done a very good thing, in any case. 
 He tells me it's to go to the Salon, and if so his reputa- 
 tion is made. How do you like him ?" she ended, ab- 
 ruptly. 
 
 "Like him? How?" 
 
 "As a man. You see, I've mothered the whole 
 family, so to speak, in times past, and so I have an in- 
 terest in him. How do you think he seems ?" 
 
 122
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Oh, very well." 
 
 "Only that?" 
 
 "No I wouldn't say only that." 
 
 "He struck me as very good-looking." 
 
 "He seemed so to me." 
 
 "And I thought him very determined and manly, and 
 so on. Of course, I knew he was; he's always been so. 
 They've had such a hard time, you know, or perhaps 
 you don't know; but he had a man's pluck even when 
 he was a boy. Now the worst of that will be over for 
 them, since you've given him such a lift." 
 
 "I'm very glad," Paula said, just audibly. 
 
 "And you've done him another good turn. I don't 
 know whether I ought to tell you or not." 
 
 She laughed lightly, and Paula lifted her eyes, full 
 of inquiry. 
 
 "I don't see why I shouldn't tell you," Lady Alice 
 went on, as if with inward amusement. "It can't 
 matter to you, after all the admiration you've had." 
 
 "Please don't," Paula begged. 
 
 "Why not ? It isn't anything to you, and to him it's 
 like electricity to the wire. You know what artists are. 
 They never seem able to do their best work until they've 
 found some one who appeals to their imagination as an 
 ideal. Dante wasn't anything until he saw Beatrice, 
 even though he lived to marry Gemma Donati." 
 
 "Please don't go on, Lady Alice. It makes me feel 
 ridiculous." 
 
 "Oh, you know what I was going to say? Then 
 I might as well stop. I thought I might be telling you 
 
 123
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 something new; but of course you must have seen it 
 long before I did. You needn't pity him; it's the sort 
 of thing that does any young man good. Love isn't 
 for men what I said just now it was for women. If they 
 have to let the best slip by, they've a greater faculty 
 than we for putting up with second-best. But what ? 
 What's the matter, dear ? You look as if you were 
 going to cry. For mercy's sake don't do it here, where 
 you'll attract so much attention." 
 
 "I'm not going to," the girl managed to say. 
 
 "That's good; but have I offended you ? No ? What 
 can it be, then ? Is it ? Oh no, it can't be. It's 
 too impossible. It's too absurd. It can't be. Upon 
 my word, I believe I'm like the farmer's wife who went 
 out to look for hen's eggs and found a pot of gold. 
 Paula, my dear, when you said, just now, that you 
 couldn't try again to love Ludovic, was it because ?" 
 
 "Yes." The word slipped from Paula's lips, though 
 she would have given anything to keep it back. 
 
 The sobbing, gypsy air rose higher and higher, till it 
 ended in a clang like the breaking of the strings of a 
 thousand harps. 
 
 Lady Alice leaned back with a sigh of satisfaction. 
 
 "Ludovic is safe, thank God," she thought, "and so 
 is Roger. I've done a good day's work."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DURING the spring the first golden laurel-leaves 
 of popular attention began dropping into Win- 
 ship's studio. Before his work was finished he knew 
 it was receiving that measure of respect which comes 
 from being talked about. Up to the present his repu- 
 tation had been confined to friends, critics, and con- 
 noisseurs. Now his name was to pass from mouth to 
 mouth, out from the narrow circle of those who know 
 a good thing, to the broader world which must be told 
 where to look for it. In the prophetic hints with which 
 the great journals herald the approaching Salon, there 
 were frequent hints of a new, young artist of extraordi- 
 nary ability, and the portrait he was painting of Made- 
 moiselle Traffbrd, la richissime Americaine. 
 
 It was the first puff of the trumpet of celebrity, and 
 in it Paula's name counted for much. The fact caused 
 her an uneasiness which increased as her father re- 
 mained longer away. For the first time in her life she 
 had taken an important step without his knowledge. 
 For the first time in her life she had concealed anything 
 from him, and hesitated still to make it known. The 
 project undertaken as one of private benevolence had 
 become a matter of almost public interest. As the girl 
 
 "5
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 saw her name in print, side by side with Winship's, she 
 dreaded lest some stray paragraph should fall under her 
 father's eye. It was chiefly with a view to avowal that 
 she secured the privilege of going alone to meet him at 
 the station, on the day following her talk with Lady 
 Alice at Armenonville. 
 
 " Papa, I've something to confess to you," she began, 
 as the victoria descended one of the long, populous 
 thoroughfares leading from the Gare du Nord. The 
 crowd, the street cries, and the rumble of traffic gave 
 her courage. She felt less likely to fall into the emo- 
 tional. 
 
 "Fire away," he said, good-naturedly. 
 
 "I've been having my portrait painted." 
 
 "What! Again? Well, that is a crime. There 
 will be no pardon for it, unless the guilty object is 
 forfeited to the state and, Tetat, c'est moi.'" 
 
 "You mayn't want it when I've told you all. It has 
 turned out to be a very remarkable work." 
 
 "That's against it, of course." 
 
 "I didn't think anything about it as a portrait 
 when I began; but Lady Alice Holroyd says it's very 
 striking, and sure to make the artist's reputation. The 
 newspapers have said so, too." 
 
 "Ah, well! That's a pity. But one can't always 
 keep one's name out of the papers, worse luck." 
 
 "And I've promised him to let it go to the Salon." 
 
 "You might have hesitated a little there. You were 
 in the Salon last year, and the year before. You don't 
 want to be taken as an annual, dear." 
 
 126
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "No. I thought of that. I shouldn't have done it 
 for my own sake. But I was anxious that he should 
 have whatever advantage he could get from showing it." 
 
 "Who's he?" 
 
 "He's a friend of Lady Alice's. The Duke in- 
 troduced him to me the first evening you took me to the 
 Casino at Monte Carlo. After we came home George 
 told me who he was, and what connection his family 
 had had with ours." 
 
 "What's his name?" 
 
 "That's what you mayn't like, papa." 
 
 "Well, it's his name, dear, I suppose, whether I like 
 it or not, I didn't baptize him, so I'm not responsible." 
 
 "It's Winship." 
 
 "Surely not old Rog ?" 
 
 "Yes, papa. The very same." 
 
 "The devil it is! Why didn't you tell me that before, 
 dear?" 
 
 "I suppose I should have done it, if you hadn't been 
 away." 
 
 "But I wasn't beyond the reach of letters, dear and 
 you wrote nearly every day." 
 
 "The truth is, papa, darling, that I was afraid you 
 mightn't approve of it." 
 
 "All the more reason, then, why you should have 
 told me." 
 
 "We did talk it over mamma, George, Laura, and 
 I and we came to the conclusion that it was just what 
 you would like. You're always so good, papa, to 
 people who've been your opponents, and " 
 
 127
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I thought you said you were afraid I wouldn't ap- 
 prove of it." 
 
 "I had that feeling, too. You see, I was so anxious 
 to do something for them. You've no idea how poor 
 they are and the mother is blind, and " 
 
 "Oh, she's living yet, is she ?" 
 
 "Yes, papa, and such a saint!" 
 
 "Then she must have changed for the better. Well, 
 we'll let it be. If there's any harm done " 
 
 "Oh, but there isn't, papa." 
 
 "So much the better, then. I'm sorry, dear, that 
 you've been brought into contact with these people " 
 
 "But they're not a bit like what you think them." 
 
 "I'm sorry, all the same; and now that the business 
 is over, as I suppose it is, you can let the acquaintance 
 drop." 
 
 "It isn't quite over the business, I mean." 
 
 "Well, when it is, then," he said, shortly. "Now 
 tell me how your mother is," he went on, in another 
 tone, as they turned into the Champs-Elysees. "Does 
 she suffer less ?" 
 
 "She's very brave about it. Sometimes I can't tell 
 whether she suffers much or not." 
 
 "And sometimes you can. Is that it?" 
 
 "Of course, when she has a paroxysm she can't hide 
 it. But I don't think they come quite so often now." 
 
 "What with one thing and another," he said, moodily, 
 "I'm afraid I've stayed away too long. But I couldn't 
 help it; such great interests were at stake." 
 
 "I'm sorry if I've added to your cares," she mur- 
 128
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 mured, laying her hand on his arm. "You know that, 
 don't you, papa, dear ?" 
 
 "Yes, dear, I know it," he answered, briefly, and 
 sank into silence until they reached home. 
 
 It was only in the evening that he spoke again of the 
 subject Paula had so much at heart. 
 
 "Come up to my room," he said, as they rose from 
 the table after dinner. They had dined alone. Mrs. 
 Traffbrd had not left her room, and George and Laura 
 were out. During the meal he had been unusually 
 silent, Paula would have almost said dejected. His 
 anxiety about her mother, she thought, would have 
 been enough to account for that. She was not ex- 
 pecting his first words, as he closed the door of the large, 
 book-lined room, half library, half office, into which 
 they entered. 
 
 '.'Did I understand you to say," he asked, "that 
 Lady Alice Holroyd suggested your being painted by 
 this man Winship ?" 
 
 "Oh no. I said only that she knew them. In 
 fact, she and the Duke have looked after them, more or 
 less, for years past. They've often been over to stay 
 with them at Edenbridge." 
 
 "Then whose idea was it? I mean the portrait." 
 
 He lighted a cigar, and Paula seated herself on a 
 sofa. 
 
 "It was Laura who spoke of it first, but it was I who 
 wanted to help them. If there's any blame to be at- 
 tached anywhere, it's mine. Laura only suggested it, 
 because she knew I wanted to do something for them." 
 
 129
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because I'd heard they were so poor. The Duke 
 told me that." 
 
 "Was that the only reason ?" 
 
 She raised her eyes to him frankly. He paced up 
 and down the room, and only glanced at her in passing. 
 
 "No, papa." 
 
 "Then what other reason had you?" 
 
 "George told me that all the property the Winships 
 used to have had come to us." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "Then I was sorry for them. I was more than 
 sorry. I felt as if I were responsible " 
 
 "Responsible?" he exclaimed, stopping before her 
 with a sharp jerk of his person. "Responsible for what ?" 
 
 "Perhaps I used the wrong word," she returned, 
 softly. "What I felt was that if any one should help 
 them, it should be one of us." 
 
 "Why should we?" 
 
 "For the reason that we had what used to be their 
 property, if there were no other." 
 
 "And was there any other? That's what I want to 
 know. Speak out, dear." 
 
 " I had no other, papa." 
 
 "Are you sure of that?" 
 
 "Quite sure. What other should I have ?" 
 
 He took two or three turns up and down the room, 
 and again paused before her. 
 
 "Did it occur to you that I might have been hard to 
 the Winships?" 
 
 130
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes, papa." 
 
 "Did the thought come to you that I might even have 
 been unjust to them ?" 
 
 "Yes, papa." 
 
 "And what then?" 
 
 "I knew you couldn't have been. I knew it wasn't 
 possible." 
 
 "How did you know?" 
 
 "I knew by myself, first of all. I knew you wouldn't 
 be. Then I talked it over with Laura, and she told me 
 that no one could go behind the law, and that if the 
 law is on your side you must be right. And then, 
 besides," she added, looking up at him with a smile, "I 
 was quite sure of it. No one would make me believe oth- 
 erwise, no matter what they said, no matter what I saw." 
 
 Trafford's brow cleared suddenly. He slipped to 
 her side on the sofa, and drew her to him. 
 
 "You were quite right to have done it, darling," 
 he murmured. " I'm glad you thought of it. It's just 
 like your goodness. I know I can always trust to that. 
 I do like to help those whom, in the way of business, 
 I've had to hit hard. But you'll never think that I hit 
 hard without reason, will you ? You see, that's what I 
 was afraid of; and it would be a dark day for me if my 
 little girl went over, even in thought, to my enemies. 
 You never will, will you, dear ?" 
 
 In the very act of giving the assurance he asked, a 
 sudden determination came to her. It was the woman 
 in her unconsciously taking advantage of the man's 
 moment of softness.
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "Papa," she asked, leaning back in his arms, "have 
 I as much as a million dollars of my very own ?" 
 
 "You've more. I invested a million dollars in your 
 name five years ago. And since then you've had 
 three hundred thousand from your uncle Andrew, and 
 another two hundred thousand from your aunt Jane. 
 Why do you ask ?" 
 
 "Couldn't I give a million of that to the Winships ?" 
 
 He drew his arms slowly away from her. 
 . "Couldn't you ?" he began, as if trying to under- 
 stand her question. " Say that again, dear, will you ?" 
 
 She repeated her words with some hesitation. For 
 a minute he made no response. 
 
 "I thought you believed in me," he said at last, re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 "So I do, papa. And yet and yet " 
 
 "And yet what?" 
 
 "And yet something seems wrong to me somewhere. 
 Oh, papa, don't be angry with me. I can't bear it, if 
 you are. I'm so unhappy about it. I don't want all 
 that money. I don't want any of it. I'd much rather 
 they had it. Even if I'm wrong, I'd rather purchase a 
 little peace of mind in that way. It wouldn't be very 
 much for me to give." 
 
 " But don't you see," he pointed out, with cold gentle- 
 ness, "that if you did that it would be saying to all the 
 world that, in your opinion at least, I had robbed 
 them ?" 
 
 "Oh!" she gasped. "I see. I see. Then, of course, 
 I couldn't do it in that way." 
 
 132
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Neither in that way nor in any other way," he com- 
 mented, still coldly, as he rose. 
 
 "You're wrong, papa," she said to herself, while an 
 expression of mingled radiance and fear came over her. 
 "There still remains the way you haven't thought of." 
 
 And she sat still, dreaming.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 " VfOU'LL leave me alone with her," Mrs. Winship 
 
 1 said to Marah, who was propping her with pillows 
 in an arm-chair. "It will be for the last time." 
 
 "You mean that she won't come again when that 
 thing has gone to the Salon. I hope not." 
 
 "I mean, dear, that I shall not be here. You mustn't 
 expect me to stay long now, nor grieve that I am leaving 
 you. Of course she will come again, if she marries 
 Roger." 
 
 "Oh, mother, don't say that. I know you've been 
 thinking of it, but it would kill me. I'd rather see 
 Roger ruined, as father was, than married to a Trafford. 
 She comes here with her money, thinking to buy us " 
 
 " She means well, dear. Some day you'll see that, and 
 judge her more justly. Kiss me, dear child," she added, 
 as a ring came to the door. "Now, leave us together 
 till Roger comes." 
 
 It was the last visit before the removal of the por- 
 trait to the Salon. Finished and framed, it stood now 
 at the end of the long studio, making a spot of in- 
 congruous splendor amid the poverty of its surround- 
 ings. 
 
 "I've written a check for twenty thousand francs,"
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Paula whispered, hurriedly, when the first greetings 
 were over. "Dear Mrs. Winship, do take it. I daren't 
 give it to your son himself. When you said eight 
 thousand, you didn't know it would turn out such a 
 work as this." 
 
 "Yes, I did, dear. I knew Roger couldn't do any- 
 thing but what would be very great. I mustn't take 
 the money, dear. I know what is in your heart, but 
 it would give Roger great pain to be offered more than 
 the sum agreed upon." 
 
 "But it isn't worthy of what he's done " 
 
 "You see, dear," she interrupted, "he doesn't value 
 his work by money." 
 
 "But he ought." 
 
 "You think so because you're young. I would have 
 said so, too once. But, oh, my dear, I've lived long 
 enough to see how little money can do towards buying 
 us the things most worth having. Roger is wiser than 
 I was at his age. He's beginning where I leave off, 
 and I bless God for it. He's found already the secret I 
 had to learn through so much struggle and sorrow." 
 
 She lay back on her pillow, with closed eyes, as if so 
 many words had exhausted her. Paula was wondering 
 whether she ought not to ring for some one, when the 
 blind woman raised herself and spoke again. 
 
 "I take your own case as an example, dear. You're 
 rich, and you want to help us. You'd like to give us 
 money; you don't see that you've given us more than 
 money in giving us yourself." 
 
 "But there's the money, too," Paula urged. 
 135
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Forgive me if I speak too plainly," Mrs. Winship 
 quavered on. "I haven't long to stay here, now a 
 few days a few hours perhaps not that. I feel the 
 heavenly gates opening to let me in; and before I go I'd 
 like to tell you that I've read your heart aright. You've 
 seen that we've had to suffer for the conflicts of the past, 
 and you've wanted to give us back something of what 
 we've lost. Isn't that it ?" 
 
 "I hoped" Paula began. 
 
 "And you've succeeded, dear. The Lord is letting 
 me depart in a peace I should never have known if 
 you hadn't come. You've done more for me and 
 mine " 
 
 "I've done nothing at all for Roger," Paula interrupt- 
 ed, quickly, calling him, for the first time, by his Chris- 
 tian name. 
 
 "It will be shown you," the mother sighed, gently. 
 "Where there are young hearts, like yours and his, 
 they'll not go far astray." 
 
 She sank back on the pillows again, and lay still, with 
 closed eyes. As Paula watched, a bright pallor, like 
 an illumination, stole over the waxen face. Presently 
 there came a light breathing, though the blind eyes 
 remained closed. Paula sat still, wondering if this 
 might not be the distant approach of death, till, with a 
 wide swing of the door and long, vigorous tread, Win- 
 ship came in. She motioned him to step lightly, and 
 pointed to his mother. 
 
 "Marah, come here," he called, in a loud whisper, 
 through the still open doorway. 
 
 136
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "You've tired her, Miss Trafford," Marah said, 
 bluntly, when she appeared. 
 
 "I'm very sorry." 
 
 Mrs. Winship stirred. 
 
 "No, dear, no," she murmured, faintly. "It isn't 
 your fault. It's only that I'm going going home." 
 
 She dropped away again into what seemed like sleep. 
 Marah sat down by the arm-chair, fanning her. 
 
 "She'll be better now," Winship whispered to 
 Paula. "Come and give me your final judgment on 
 the portrait." 
 
 They slipped away silently to the end of the long room, 
 where the woman in black and green regarded them, 
 with her eternal What ? and Why ? For a few minutes 
 they stood side by side without speaking. The feeling 
 was in both their hearts that they were turning their 
 backs on death and the past, to look out towards life 
 and the future. 
 
 "You've changed it in some way," Paula observed 
 at last. 
 
 "I thought you might like it better so." 
 
 "This seems to me Paula Traffbrd more as she looks 
 every day, and less as an abstract conception." 
 
 "That's it. Lady Alice said I was wrong. She said 
 the abstract conceptions, rather than the mere portraits, 
 survive best as works of art that 'Mona Lisa' and 
 the * Sistine Madonna ' will always be greater than 
 any of Vandyck's cavaliers, or Vigee-Lebrun's 'Marie 
 Antoinettes.' Perhaps she's right, but in your case 
 I prefer the more absolute likeness. You see, I was 
 
 '37
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 thinking of you too much as a type and too little as a 
 lady." 
 
 "Everybody thinks of me as a type," she complained, 
 wistfully. "I have to stand for Money, like the female 
 figure on a stock-exchange." 
 
 "I didn't mean that. If I thought of you as repre- 
 senting Wealth, it was that great, strange, new spirit 
 of American wealth that is unlike everything else." 
 
 "Do you mean in the way in which it's acquired ?" 
 
 "Yes, and in the way in which it's dispensed. The 
 world has never seen money made with so little mercy, 
 spent with so much generosity. The spectacle is 
 quite novel, and must be extremely puzzling to mor- 
 alists." 
 
 Paula colored, and looked away. They spoke in low 
 tones so as not to disturb Mrs. Winship. 
 
 "I suppose," she ventured, after a minute's reflection, 
 "that that's better than if it were ill-spent and ill-gotten, 
 too. If the money is in your possession, it's something, 
 at least to do good with it." 
 
 "Good," Winship observed, turning on her one of 
 his gleaming looks "good is an essentially spiritual 
 quality that is not to be commanded by any sum in the 
 market. You can't do good with money; you can only 
 do good by yourself," 
 
 "Money must, at least, enlarge one's opportunities." 
 
 "There's no question about that. And yet the man 
 who robs Peter and expects to benefit mankind by pay- 
 ing Paul can't do what you call good to any one." 
 
 "Still," she argued, "if Paul has been fed and 
 138
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 clothed and educated, you've added something to the 
 total of human happiness." 
 
 "Not when you've left Peter hungry and naked and 
 brutalized, and tricked of the means that were honestly 
 his. That's the spectacle to which some -of our great 
 philanthropic financiers are treating us and the angels 
 who look on must often be in doubt as to whether to 
 laugh or to weep." 
 
 "It seems to me cruel to say that," she said, flushing 
 still more deeply. 
 
 "So it is. But it's only the cruelty inherent in the 
 situation when Paul reflects on the charity offered him 
 through the robbery of Peter." 
 
 "Does he often do that ?" 
 
 "Perhaps not often, but he'll learn." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 "When the American people have begun to judge by 
 standards of right and wrong, rather than by those of 
 material success." 
 
 " Then we shall have a long time to wait." 
 
 "If it's too long, there may be a short way taken 
 that is, if we may judge by analogous situations in 
 history. When moral progress is too slow to right in- 
 tolerable wrongs, the human race has a way of ap- 
 pealing to the fire and the sword." 
 
 " Do they gain anything by that ?" 
 
 "You've only to look about you and see. The 
 France you're living in may be bad enough, but it's 
 heaven itself compared to what it was before the Rev- 
 olution." 
 
 139
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I presume you are not foretelling a similar revolu- 
 tion for us ?" 
 
 "Not if our moral forces develop themselves, as they 
 should; not if we can supplant our love of mere brutal 
 bigness by an appreciation of the simpler, holier ele- 
 ments in life; not if the rich man would be content with 
 his own flock and herd, without snatching the poor 
 man's one ewe-lamb. -Then, Miss Trafford, there'd 
 be no new American revolution. But if " 
 
 " But if these signs and wonders don't come to pass ?" 
 
 "I'm neither a pessimist nor a prophet," he smiled. 
 "I see only that when Louis XIV. laid the first stone of 
 his chateau at Versailles he started the train of events 
 which drove the French people into setting up the 
 guillotine. I read the same moral among every people 
 on earth, where there has been a heaping-up of wealth 
 and privilege for a few, while the many find it harder 
 and harder to exist." 
 
 "And it is that heaping-up of wealth that you take 
 me to stand for?" 
 
 There was no indignation in her tone. In her ex- 
 pression there was only the look of pathetic interroga- 
 tion he had caught in her portrait. Winship met her 
 gaze calmly and frankly. Whatever he felt inwardly, 
 the appeal of her helplessness did not make him flinch. 
 He meant that she should understand his view of her 
 position. 
 
 "The daughter of a great house," he said, "stands 
 for that house, in its good and its evil. Iphigenia 
 couldn't be other than an Atrides, though she herself 
 
 140
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 was innocent enough. Madame Elisabeth couldn't be 
 other than a Bourbon, though she herself could never 
 have done wilful wrong to any one. And Miss Paula 
 Trafford no, no," he broke off, "I won't say it." 
 
 "Please!" she begged. "Please! I insist." 
 
 "Miss Paula Trafford," he went on again, "comes 
 of a race that has had a giant's strength, and has used 
 it like a giant! There! I've offended you, and we've 
 been such good friends till now! To-morrow this will 
 have gone to the Salon, and our association together 
 will be over. You will have your portrait, and I shall 
 have" 
 
 "What ?" she questioned. "You will have what ?" 
 
 "I shall have the joy of having painted it. It will 
 go where I shall probably never see it; but it will remain 
 my work. As long as it exists, it will present you as 
 I've seen and known and understood you. That's a 
 part of the artist's recompense that he can never lose. 
 Nothing could take away from Pygmalion the glory of 
 having created Galatea." 
 
 " But Galatea came to life for him." 
 
 She stopped abruptly, biting her lip. She had 
 spoken without weighing the significance of her words. 
 The color that came and went in her cheek called forth 
 a dark flush in Winship's as, for the first time, they 
 stood looking at each other in emotion they made no 
 effort to conceal. The silence that followed seemed to 
 throb with what could not be spoken. 
 
 "She will always live for me," he said, with a slight 
 gesture towards the portrait. 
 
 141
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes as the woman who could never dissociate her- 
 self from the wrongs inflicted by one class upon an- 
 other." 
 
 "Couldn't she?" 
 
 Winship's tone was lower, and he drew near her, 
 looking down into her clear eyes. 
 
 "That's for you to judge," she murmured, faintly. 
 
 "How?" 
 
 " I was wrong," she said, summoning all her strength 
 to speak boldly; "I was wrong when I said that 
 Galatea came to life. Pygmalion prayed the gods to 
 bestow life on her. It was his prayer that wrought the 
 miracle." 
 
 "Which means," he said, slowly, drawing nearer 
 still, "that if I prayed " 
 
 "The gods might hear you," she finished, softly, 
 turning her eyes away. 
 
 " But if the call into life meant for Galatea the com- 
 ing-down from her golden pedestal ? if it meant sac- 
 rifice r renunciation ? the sharing of a poor man's 
 life?" 
 
 "Roger! Quick! Come here!" 
 
 Marah's voice had the sharp ring that belongs to 
 intense moments of existence. Winship rushed to his 
 mother's side. Paula followed slowly. 
 
 Mrs. Winship had lifted herself in her chair and was 
 sitting upright. Her arms were out-stretched and her 
 hands raised, as though in supplication. The sightless 
 yes seemed to be looking straight into heaven. 
 
 "Roger!" she called, in a loud, clear voice. 
 142
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes, mother, I'm here." He seized her hand in 
 both of his. 
 
 "Paula!" 
 
 The voice was weaker now, but the left hand seemed 
 to beat the air, feeling for a response. Paula clasped 
 the trembling fingers to her breast. 
 
 Slowly, feebly, and with the last act of earthly strength, 
 the dying woman drew the two hands together. 
 
 "Pardon!" she murmured. 
 
 Neither Paula nor Winship glanced at each other. 
 They lost thought for what was happening to them- 
 selves, in the sight of the passage of a soul. When their 
 hands met, it was with a firm, instinctive clasp. 
 
 "Love!" the mother sighed again, and fell back 
 among the pillows. 
 
 There was a long minute's waiting, till the silence 
 was broken by Marah's wail. 
 
 "Oh, mother, mother! have you no word for me? 
 I've loved you so! I've loved you so!" 
 
 The little old maid flung herself upon her knees. 
 It seemed to her now as if she had been deprived of the 
 last poor bit of human rights; for the blind woman 
 never spoke again.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE blind woman never spoke again. She lingered 
 a few days still, but before the Salon was opened, 
 and the crowds had begun to gather about her son's 
 great work, she was lying beneath a tiny, flower-decked 
 chapel up on Montparnasse. 
 
 Winship found himself in the first degrees of fame 
 without paying any attention to the fact. Rather he 
 accepted the fact as one of two or three new condi- 
 tions that would bring momentous changes into his life. 
 After a youth of hard work, pinched means, and the 
 narrowest path of duty, he had come face to face with a 
 future full of possibility. He was neither elated by his 
 success nor confused by his power of choice. He had 
 known for years what lay before him to do, if ever he 
 had the chance and the chance had come. 
 
 He had had no communication with Paula since the 
 day when his mother had joined their hands, in an act 
 of which neither knew the significance if it had signifi- 
 cance at all. She had written an affectionate note of 
 sympathy to Marah, and had left with her father for a 
 few weeks in the Touraine. But Winship knew there 
 was no coquetry in this withdrawal; it was only flight 
 from a situation of which neither he nor she was sure. 
 
 144
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Paula's thoughts were not with Marie de Medici at 
 Blois, nor with Anne de Bretagne at Langeais, nor with 
 Jeanne d'Arc at Chinon, nor with Diane de Poitiers at 
 Chenonceau. They were back in the long, red studio, 
 piecing together the events of the past winter, and trac- 
 ing the progress through which her mind had come to 
 submit itself to Roger Winship's. 
 
 "You seem to be in a dream, dear," her father had 
 said to her once or .twice, and the statement fitted her. 
 It was not a waking life, these days on the banks of the 
 Loire. The primal emotions of love, ambition, and 
 hate found there that setting of stately castle and broad 
 champaign which softens crime into adventure and 
 passion into romance. The spell of the long past min- 
 gled with the glamour of the strange, new life into which 
 she felt herself entering. The memories of splendid, 
 ardent generations fell round her like rich tapestries, 
 shutting in the mysterious chamber of her heart. She 
 made no effort to confront her problems or to smooth 
 her way. She was content, for the moment, to move 
 in her dream the dream in which love is still able to 
 keep to its defenceless paradise. 
 
 With the return to town, the thought of the practical 
 became more insistent. What was to happen ? How 
 was it to happen ? The old life seemed to close in so 
 tenaciously about her that she wondered how it would 
 ever be possible to get out of it. Even her dream lost 
 some of its reality in the stress of giving and receiving 
 invitations to dinner. With all that she could not avoid 
 doing, it was the third day after her return before she
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 could find time to steal into the Salon, and see the 
 effect of her portrait as it hung. So much had been 
 said of it at social gatherings, and in the press, that even 
 her family were roused to some degree of interest. 
 When they began planning a party to go and see it 
 together, Paula seized the first occasion to slip off alone. 
 It was a wild, wet afternoon; there would be few vis- 
 itors; she was fairly sure of having the gallery to 
 herself. 
 
 It was as she expected. The great rooms of the 
 Grand Palais, deserted except for the uniformed 
 guardians, and a solitary wanderer here and there, 
 succeeded each other in long, empty vistas of color. 
 Her own portrait held a conspicuous place of honor, 
 and of the rare visitors two or three were generally 
 stationed before it. She sat on a divan in the centre 
 of the room, but too far off to challenge comparison 
 with the object of interest on the wall. 
 
 As she gazed about her she thought with compassion 
 of the amount of ambition and toil that had gone to 
 make up such a collection toil that would never reap 
 an adequate reward, ambition that would never have 
 any fulfilment. Who would buy the hundreds upon 
 hundreds of landscapes and sea-views, of domestic 
 scenes and studies of still life, that hung about her ? 
 They might have been those of last year, or of the 
 year before, or of the year before that, or of any year 
 since the Salon was founded. What became of all the 
 pictures that were painted ? What became of the men 
 and women who painted them ? The feeling of pity 
 
 146
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 which rose now was new to her new since she had 
 watched Marah working away, day after day, at her 
 little wooden miniatures new especially since the 
 question touched the man she loved. 
 
 He, too, had sent his offspring here for the last five 
 years. She herself had passed them by and never 
 noticed them. The dumb things had appealed to her 
 for a glance, and she had ignored them. Hundreds of 
 thousands had moved on in the same neglect and in- 
 difference. It seemed now like a wound to her own 
 pride. True, he had done some of them as commis- 
 sions, and some of them he had sold; but she knew that 
 some, too, were still roaming from one exhibition to an- 
 other in the hope of finding a purchaser. So much 
 effort and little or no recompense! Her father or 
 George would scoff at all that Winship could earn in a 
 year. Even for this thing, which was counted a success, 
 he had received but eight thousand francs, and, for a 
 man of his standing, was to be considered well paid. 
 Eight thousand francs! She had often spent as much 
 for a trinket. The very fact that women of fashion, 
 women of her own world, were already coming to be 
 painted by him, scorched her with a sense of humiliation 
 that he should be dependent on their patronage. That, 
 at least, need never be, she reflected, with some exulta- 
 tion. She had no high-flown theories of the beauty of 
 art or of the nobility of toil. It was enough to know 
 that the man she loved would be free from all sordid 
 cares of that kind when she married him. 
 . She had reached this point in her meditations when a 
 147
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 footstep startled her, and Winship himself glided on to 
 the divan beside her. 
 
 There were many reasons why it should be a moment 
 when all guards were down. They had lived through 
 months of repressed emotion months in which each 
 had been a problem in the other's life. The thought of 
 love had been beaten back by large, persistent questions 
 of mutual rights and wrongs. Now it leaped to the 
 front and claimed the field. 
 
 Before he realized what he was saying, Winship had 
 done that which, for weeks, he had been planning not to 
 do. He had declared his love, as any man to any wom- 
 an, and he had implored her to be his wife. He had 
 done it with a few quick, passionate words, in which 
 there were none of the conditions and contingencies 
 with which he had meant to speak. He had foreseen 
 this moment, but he had foreseen it as one of compli- 
 cated explanations. He had prepared his points, as an 
 ambassador prepares a treaty, and lo! they had gone 
 for naught. The unexpected sight of her, sitting on 
 the red divan, simply dressed in black, as though in 
 mourning for his mother, had swept away all his 
 theories, and left him nothing but his passion as a 
 man. The minute she lifted her surprised, appeal- 
 ing eyes to his there had been only one thing to 
 say. 
 
 There was no formal greeting between them. He 
 slipped on to the divan without touching her hand. 
 
 "I didn't know you were back," he whispered. 
 "Don't go away and leave me like that again." 
 
 148
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " Did you miss me ?" she asked, with childlike direct- 
 ness. 
 
 "It wasn't like missing it was as if my own soul 
 were gone. Every kind of experience has come to me 
 all at once, and yet, in your absence, I seem to have 
 been benumbed. It was as if I couldn't feel joy 
 in my bit of triumph, nor sorrow when we laid 
 my mother in her grave. When you went, all 
 went; and I didn't know that you'd come back 
 again." 
 
 "I didn't know you wanted me." 
 
 His response came in the tones that ring forever in a 
 woman's heart, and which she carries with her into 
 paradise. The mere words Paula had heard before, 
 but they had not, as now, been set to a music with which 
 her own being sang. They were only the well-used 
 formulas, which are all that language provides, and to 
 which the living voice alone lends the significance. 
 But to Winship they seemed new. He uttered them as 
 though they were sounds never before heard on earth, 
 and Paula bowed her head, as though listening to words 
 too sacred for the human ear. 
 
 It was a lyric moment, and it was soon over. A few 
 eager questions, a few straightforward replies, and they 
 were sitting with clasped hando, pledged to become 
 man and wife. 
 
 The dull-eyed, uniformed guardians paid them no 
 attention; the visitors who entered the room walked 
 briskly up to the much-discussed portrait without giving 
 them a glance. Only the woman in black and green 
 
 149
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 looked down on them from her gilded frame, with her 
 ever-unanswered What ? and Why ? 
 
 Perhaps it was the sight of that which recalled Win- 
 ship to himself. All at once he seemed to fall from the 
 blue ether, where he and Paula had floated alone, to 
 find himself again part of an intricate society. He 
 came down with a swift realization of the change which 
 a few minutes had produced. There was no dash upon 
 his happiness; he had only the sudden fear of owing 
 his happiness to a trick. 
 
 He had not explained himself to Paula as he had in- 
 tended. He had not made clear to her the distinction 
 he drew between Paula, the woman made in the image 
 of God, and Miss Traffbrd, the heiress of the man who 
 had ruined his father, Roger Winship, in order to insure 
 his own success. In their mutual situation love alone 
 could not be the determining element, and she had 
 given her promise without understanding a point which 
 to him was essential. With what skill he could master 
 he must weave the warning in, as a skilful composer will 
 make the death-motive heard in the very strains of the 
 love-chant. 
 
 "Paula, dear Paula," he whispered, "I've been afraid 
 of you. I've been afraid you wouldn't come with me 
 on the road I must travel." 
 
 "I'd go anywhere with you, Roger anywhere on 
 earth." 
 
 "It won't be an easy way especially for you." 
 
 "Nothing will be hard with you to help me. I've 
 plenty of courage to face whatever must be en- 
 
 150
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 countered. I've some skill, too," she added, with a 
 smile. 
 
 "You'll need it, darling. Above all, you'll need 
 faith in me." 
 
 "You couldn't overtax that, Roger." 
 
 "Our love can't take the common course. You and 
 I can't be like a knight and a lady in a troubadour's 
 romance. We have other things between us than just 
 the fact that we love each other." 
 
 She looked at him with a puzzled expression and 
 an air of listening only half attentively. A far-off 
 clatter of footsteps caught her ear, with a hum of 
 voices. 
 
 "Even before we met, we were united by a past 
 Winship pursued. 
 
 "Oh, don't let us talk of that now," she entreated. 
 
 "On the contrary, we must. Don't let us have any 
 reserves between us. It's been in your thoughts all 
 winter, as it's been in mine " 
 
 The sound of footsteps drew nearer, and she hastened 
 to speak. 
 
 " But it's all over now, Roger. All I have is yours 
 all I shall ever have " 
 
 She stopped abruptly. The quick, incisive ring of one 
 of the approaching voices frightened her. 
 
 "You yourself will be enough, dear," Winship said, 
 with a significant inflection. 
 
 But she was no longer listening. She sat erect, alert 
 and pale. The voice was surely Laura's. The party 
 were advancing, not directly behind them, but through
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 a series of rooms at the side. Even Winship's atten- 
 tion was diverted to them now. 
 
 "If you'd only listen to me, George," Laura was 
 protesting, "we shouldn't have had this endless tramp. 
 I knew from the beginning that it was down this way. 
 No wonder poor Aunt Trafford is tired out." 
 
 Winship and Paula sprang to their feet. Instinc- 
 tively they moved apart. Winship retreated a few 
 paces from the divan, while Paula turned to confront 
 the members of her family, as they came in, in irregular 
 procession, from the adjoining room. Mrs. George 
 was in the forefront. 
 
 "Why, here's Paula, Uncle Traffbrd," she called back, 
 from the ' threshold. "After all the hunt we've had 
 for her, we find her on the spot." 
 
 "There's no help for it," the girl reflected, feeling 
 less brave than a minute or two ago. "I must tell 
 them and do it now." 
 
 "For goodness' sake, Paula," Mrs. Trafford panted, 
 as she marched in fanning herself, "I wish you wouldn't 
 spirit yourself away, where no one knows where to look 
 for you. Your father's been turning the house upside- 
 down. He's been as crazy as if yqu'd been kidnapped." 
 
 "It's all right now, since we've found her," Paul 
 Trafford laughed, striding up to his daughter and 
 pinching her cheek. "So this is the famous portrait. 
 Well, it's you, sure enough." 
 
 " Portrait de Mademoiselle T ," George Trafford 
 
 read from the inscription. "I should label it 'A Note 
 of Interrogation.' He's made you look as new-born into 
 
 '52
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 the mysteries of this terraqueous globe as Eve when she 
 first wakes in the garden. No one could possibly live 
 to your age and be as innocent as that." 
 
 "That's the black-and-green thing Paquin made 
 for you," Mrs. Traffbrd commented, sinking on the 
 divan. "Why on earth did you select that? I sup- 
 pose it was to bring out your complexion. It does do 
 that, I must say." 
 
 "That's a beautiful malachite table," Laura observed. 
 *' George, dear, I'm simply dying to have one. It would 
 go so well in the tapestry-room at Tuxedo. I believe 
 he's copied the gilded legs of this one from the mala- 
 chite table in the Grand Trianon." 
 
 All eyes were bent on the portrait. To Winship, 
 standing remote and in the background, no one had 
 given a glance. Paula kept herself rigid and erect, 
 waiting for her moment. It was not till her father turn- 
 ed again towards her, after a few more comments from 
 the family, all in the same strain, that she knew the 
 hour had come. 
 
 "Papa," she said, huskily, "this is Mr. Roger Win- 
 ship, who painted my portrait. I've promised to marry 
 him." 
 
 Trafford stood still, as if turned to stone. Mrs. 
 Trafford glanced backward from her seat on the divan. 
 George and Laura wheeled round from their contem- 
 plation of the portrait. It was the sort of shock that 
 translates itself slowly to the thought, more slowly still 
 into action. 
 
 Winship remained motionless, his gleaming eyes 
 153
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 fixed on the man who had struck his father down. His 
 trained observation watched, while dull, ashen hues 
 stole into Paul Trafford's face, and the determined lips 
 settled themselves, shade by shade, into the lines of 
 pain. 
 
 The silence was long. It was only by degrees that 
 the full meaning of the situation made itself clear. The 
 eyes of the family, that had been fixed in amazed con- 
 templation on Winship, now turned towards Trafford, 
 waiting for a sign. 
 
 "Paula, go home," he commanded at last. "Take 
 her," he added to his wife. There was a quiver in his 
 voice as if he could say no more. 
 
 Paula advanced towards Winship and held out her 
 hand. He took it and held it long, but no word was 
 spoken between them. 
 
 "Go!" Trafford cried, with the brief threat of anger, 
 and Paula turned. 
 
 She went out first, with bowed head, through the door 
 by which they had all come in. Her mother followed, 
 pressing her handkerchief to her lips. Trafford nodded 
 to George and Laura to precede him. George went out 
 obediently, very pale. On the threshold of the room 
 Laura turned and looked back at Winship. It was 
 the only glance of recognition, if recognition it was, 
 that had been vouchsafed him. Trafford himself left 
 last. 
 
 Winship stood still, listening to the tramp, tramp of 
 their footsteps through the long defile of rooms. He 
 listened while the sound grew fainter, and till at last it 
 
 154
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 died away. Then he flung himself on the divan and 
 covered his face with his hands. 
 
 " Paul Traffbrd has got it in the heart," he muttered 
 to himself. "My God, I've done it! after the long 
 years. Even if I lose her now the victory is mine."
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 EFTLE was said between Paula and her mother 
 on the homeward drive. With her head thrown 
 back into the corner of the carriage, Mrs. Trafford 
 sobbed gently. 
 
 "Oh, mother, don't," Paula pleaded, from time to 
 time; but Mrs. Trafford only sobbed the more. 
 
 "It's my fault," she moaned. "I never should have 
 allowed you to think of that absurd portrait. I might 
 have known that some evil would happen when you 
 began to take up with your father's enemies. It's my 
 fault, and I never shall forgive myself." 
 
 "No, mother, dear, it's not your fault. The painting 
 of the portrait didn't make me love him. I loved him 
 before that. I can see it now." 
 
 "Don't say such a thing. It's shameful." 
 
 "But I did, mother. I did, even if it were shameful. 
 I loved him before the Duke introduced him to me. 
 I've never ceased to think of him, from the first moment 
 I saw him." 
 
 "Oh, the poor Duke! I wonder you have the heart 
 to mention him. If you'd only married him, as you 
 should have done, this dreadful scandal wouldn't have 
 come upon us. The newspapers are sure to get hold of 
 
 156
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 it. They always do. I can't begin to think what your 
 father will say, after the way he's spoiled you." 
 
 Paula sat erect and silent. Her mother had touched 
 the one point that was vital. What would Paul Traf- 
 ford say and do ? There was no question to be asked 
 beyond that. Beside that nothing counted. 
 
 They reached home at almost the same moment as 
 George and Laura. The father was following alone. 
 
 "It's my fault," Mrs. Trafford broke out anew, as 
 they all met in the great entrance-hall. " I should never 
 have allowed her to think of it. I should have insisted 
 on her marrying the Duke of Wiltshire. Better that 
 she should have taken that Comte de Presles, though I 
 never could endure him. But anybody anybody 
 rather than such disgrace as this! No! I shall never 
 forgive myself. Never! Never!" 
 
 "If it's any one's fault, Aunt Julia," Traffbrd spoke 
 up, trying to be consoling, "it's mine. I shouldn't have 
 told her anything about the Winships, to begin with. 
 I should have known the kind of ardent, crazy way in 
 which she'd take it." 
 
 I^aura said nothing, but, if possible, her face was 
 clearer and more business-like than ever. From the 
 glance of her gray eye to the brisk movements of her 
 person, everything bespoke resolution and restraint. 
 Paula remained apart and behind them, just within the 
 door, like a child in disgrace. 
 
 "Come up to my room and talk about it," Mrs. Traf- 
 ford begged. "I must have something to say to your 
 uncle when he comes in." 
 
 '57
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Moving heavily and moaning as she went, Mrs. Traf- 
 ford mounted the splendid stairway. George and 
 Laura followed. Excluded from the approaching con- 
 ference, Paula, nevertheless, went forward timidly be- 
 hind them. At the foot of the stairs she paused. The 
 sounds of wheels had caught her ear. Her father was 
 returning. She would see him and make one plea, even 
 if it were a silent one. She stepped aside, standing in- 
 conspicuously by the pedestal of a statue. 
 
 Flinging his hat and rain-coat to the footman in the 
 antechamber, Paul Traffbrd entered, with set lips and 
 rapid stride. In his eyes was the look with which 
 boards of directors were familiar, but which Paula had 
 never seen. It was the look that quenched inquiry 
 before it could rise, and bore down opposition as if in 
 sheer insolence of strength. It was the look that turned 
 weaker men into enemies, and drew hatred from those 
 who were made rich by his co-operation. To Paula it 
 was new and frightening. She crept out of the shadow 
 of the statue and stretched out her arms towards him. 
 
 "Oh, papa, don't look at me like that." 
 
 She would have caught him, touched him at the least; 
 but he put up his hand to keep her back. She grasped 
 it, but he tore it from her, and pushed her away. 
 
 She staggered, regained her footing on the polished 
 floor, staggered again, and, recoiling towards the pedes- 
 tal of the statue, fell. It was an accident, the mere mis- 
 calculation of his iron strength, but as she reeled and 
 went down, Traffbrd thrilled with a sense of satisfaction. 
 The very brutality of the act was an assuagement to the 
 
 158
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 pain of his outraged adoration. At the turning of the 
 stairway he glanced down at her as she lay. Let her lie! 
 She was the one being in the world against whose blow 
 he had no power of defence, and she had struck him. 
 
 He passed on to his room, and rang for his secretary. 
 Two minutes later he was dictating letters on business. 
 It was partly the instinct for work, partly the impulse 
 to seek refuge in the commonplace from this upheaval in 
 his affections. He had not reached the point of con- 
 sidering the situation in its practical light, practical man 
 though he was. All he could think of now, all there 
 was room for in his big intelligence, was the fact that his 
 little girl, the one creature on earth whom he loved 
 with an idolatrous tenderness, had taken a step which, 
 as she must have known beforehand, would create a 
 cruel breach between them. No matter how it turned 
 out now, the fact that she had done it would be there. 
 
 She, too, in her room, was thinking in the same strain 
 of him. When he had thrust her from him the action 
 had taken her by surprise. Not even when she fell did 
 she seize its full significance. It was only when she 
 caught his merciless glance, as he passed up the stair- 
 way, that she understood the extent of the indignity he 
 had put upon her. - 
 
 For a second or two she lay quite still. She pressed 
 her cheek on the cold, polished wood, drinking in her 
 humiliation. When she dragged herself up, two hectic 
 spots were blazing on her cheeks, while in her soft eyes 
 there was a light that made them curiously like her 
 father's. As she marched up-stairs her head was high, 
 
 159
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 and her step firm, with a determination altogether new 
 to her. It came over her then that she could never be 
 again the clinging, dependent Paula Trafford of the past. 
 Whatever she did in the end, she knew that, outside 
 herself, there would be no stay sure enough to lean on. 
 She must be, in future, her own guide, her own judge, 
 the arbitrator of her own destiny. She felt like a child, 
 putting forth into the night alone. Between leaving 
 her father's door and reaching Roger Winship's there 
 was a dark, unknown road to travel, but she must face 
 it. It was difficult to believe that her father's protecting 
 love would not be there. She was so used to it that to 
 be without it was like being without shelter. Instinc- 
 tively she yearned to stretch out her hands to him again, 
 but the impulse died in the recollection that he had 
 struck her down. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when Traffbrd dismissed 
 his secretary and summoned his wife, George, and 
 Laura. They filed into his book-lined office, as children 
 before a master. Mrs. Trafford sat near him, by the 
 desk; George and Laura farther off. Through all the 
 business of the afternoon, Trafford's thoughts had been 
 working subconsciously towards the definite step to be 
 taken. 
 
 "Now, tell me about this affair," he said, briefly. 
 "Tell me everything." 
 
 Mrs. Trafford, trembling and gasping, recounted 
 what she knew of the first meeting of Paula and Win- 
 ship at Monte Carlo, and of the progress of their ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 160
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " I shall never forgive myself, Paul," she sobbed, as 
 she brought her statement to an end. 
 
 "You never ought to," he said, with the shortness 
 habitual to him in moments of excitement. "You 
 knew, as no one else did, what those people brought on 
 me. You knew how I had to fight them, and how, 
 because I beat them, public opinion has hounded me as 
 if I were a criminal. They take me for a heart of brass, 
 indifferent to attack of that sort ; but you knew better. 
 And yet you've permitted this!" 
 
 "Paul, I'm very ill," she pleaded. "Spare me!" 
 
 "I do spare you. If I didn't spare you, I should say 
 much ore." 
 
 "Aunt Julia is less to blame than I," George broke 
 out, with a touch of indignation in his voice. "It was 
 I who told Paula all about the Winships." 
 
 "There was no harm in her knowing that," Traf- 
 ford said, quickly. " There was nothing I want- 
 ed to hide. You didn't thrust her into their 
 arms." 
 
 "No; but I let her go. I knew she felt that in some 
 way we had wronged them " 
 
 "Then, by God! she'll learn to the contrary," Traf- 
 ford cried, bringing his fist down on the desk. 
 
 "I knew she felt that," George went on, "but I 
 laughed at her. I didn't take her seriously. When 
 she talked of giving them a million dollars in restitution, 
 I joked about it, and told her the easiest way for her to 
 do it was by marrying the fellow." 
 
 "Then you were a damn fool." 
 161
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I know it," George agreed, humbly. "I'm only 
 showing that I was more to blame than Aunt Julia." 
 
 "I don't see anything to be gained, George," Laura 
 said, in her most mildly reasonable tone, " by trying to 
 apportion out degrees of blame, where, perhaps, there 
 is no blame at all. Paula is of age and independent. 
 She's her own mistress in every sense. Neither you 
 nor I had any control over her, and Aunt Julia very 
 little. It was Uncle Trafford's wish. That's the way 
 he's brought her up." 
 
 "I trusted her," Trafford broke in, savagely. 
 
 "Naturally," Laura agreed. "So did we. I should 
 trust her again. I must tell you, Uncle Trafford, dear, 
 that it was I who sent Paula to have that portrait done." 
 
 "Oh, you did, did you! Yes, I remember her telling 
 me so. Then all I can say of you is that " 
 
 "You see," Laura pursued, calmly, "after the con- 
 versation at Monte Carlo, when George told her about 
 the Winships, and how they had lost their money, 
 and so on, I could see that she was very much distressed. 
 It was the first time she had ever come face to face with 
 the idea that if one man grows rich it often happens that 
 another must grow poor. It rather pained her. I 
 tried to show her that, with just so much money in the 
 world, if wealth flows very much into one pocket, it 
 has to ebb a good deal from another." 
 
 "What's that got to do with it ?" Trafford demanded. 
 
 "It gave her a more reasonable idea of business. It 
 helped her to see that the Winships might lose their 
 property, and that you might get it, and yet that the 
 
 162
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 fault might be none of yours. What she felt was pity 
 nothing more, and nothing less. You see, Uncle Traf- 
 ford," she continued, edging her chair a little nearer 
 the desk, "Paula is more a child than a woman. It 
 wouldn't be possible for any one to live here on earth 
 and keep a soul more spotless from the things that the 
 rest of us have to know and understand. She isn't a 
 man of business, like you and George. She isn't even 
 a woman of business, like Aunt Trafford and me. She 
 doesn't reason like the rest of us. She can't. The fact 
 is, her nature is limited; any one can see it who's ever 
 lived with her. There are just three things of which 
 she's capable: love for what's good, pity for what's 
 suffering, and pardon for what's wrong." 
 
 "That's so," George corroborated, strongly. 
 
 "Yes, it is," Mrs. Trafford added, with a heavy sigh. 
 "It's true, every word of it, even if I am her mother." 
 
 "Look here, Laura," Trafford said, coldly, "if your 
 game is to work on my sympathies " 
 
 " Oh, but it isn't. I'm only trying to point out to you 
 the way she reasoned the way that, with her limitations, 
 she had to reason. She saw that the Winships were 
 poor and that we were rich. She knew they had suf- 
 fered. She had a confused idea as to how it had come 
 about. It wasn't possible for her to think it out, as we 
 should. She saw only that we could come to their 
 rescue, and put them back into something like the posi- 
 tion they had held before. The impulse to do it was as 
 natural with her as to want to heal them if they'd been 
 sick. We talked it over together, and I " 
 
 163
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " Sent her to marry him," Trafford interrupted, with 
 a grim laugh. 
 
 "I advised her to help them," Laura went on, im- 
 perturbably, "but to do it on some such lines as you 
 would approve of, Uncle Trafford." 
 
 "God!" Trafford ejaculated, with an impatient fling- 
 ing out of the hands. 
 
 " I remembered how good you were to those old Miss 
 Marshalls in Turtonville, Wisconsin " 
 
 "Stop!" Trafford thundered. 
 
 "I can't stop, Uncle Trafford. I've got to justify 
 myself. I've got to justify Paula. As far as I can, I've 
 got to justify you. So, when you spoke to me about 
 the Miss Marshalls, I did all I could to carry out your 
 wish. That is to say, I kept them regularly supplied 
 with work, and saw that they were able to earn a com- 
 fortable income. I told you about it, and you were 
 pleased. When it came to the similar case of the 
 Winships, what more natural than that I should follow 
 the line that you yourself had commended ?" 
 
 "The situation was different. You should have 
 foreseen the catastrophe." 
 
 "How could I, Uncle Trafford? It was no more 
 possible than for you to foresee that old Mr. Marshall 
 would shoot himself." 
 
 "How can you!" Mrs. Trafford protested, while 
 George tried to silence his wife with significant looks. 
 
 "Go on," Trafford said, quietly. He was not the 
 man to let any one see that Laura's shot had carried. 
 
 "I suggested the portrait," Laura continued, in the 
 164
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 same calm tones, "not only as a means of helping the 
 Winships as a matter of generosity, but also to divert 
 Paula's mind from any larger or wilder projects. In 
 that I didn't succeed. I saw all winter that I wasn't 
 succeeding, but I hoped her ideas would die out with 
 time. They haven't. That's perfectly plain. And 
 since that's the case, I, for one, dear Uncle Trafford, 
 cannot see what good will ever come of fighting her. 
 You can't fight Paula's instinct, not any more than you 
 could fight the Spirit of Spring. Our worldly weapons 
 have no force against it. You'll excuse me, dear Uncle 
 Trafford, won't you but if I might advise " 
 
 "You'd give in ?" he asked, hoarsely. 
 
 "I'd humor her. If we'd done that at first this 
 thing might never have happened. It mayn't be too 
 late now." 
 
 "When you say humor her," Traffbrd demanded, 
 slowly, leaning on the desk and fixing Laura with his 
 penetrating stare, "do I understand you to suggest 
 giving a large sum of money to the Winships, in what 
 might be called restitution ?" 
 
 "I mean the large sum of money; I shouldn't care 
 what they called it. It's only the strong who can dare 
 to eat humble-pie, and I suggest that we should do it. 
 The money, of course, is nothing; and for people in our 
 position, I should think the interpretation given to the 
 act need count for very little." 
 
 "Hmph!" Traffbrd snorted, springing to his feet; 
 "just as it counts for very little to a general whether the 
 world looks on him as victorious or defeated." 
 
 165
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "There are different kinds of victory, Uncle Trafford. 
 You who've gained so many on one field could easily 
 afford to win them on another." 
 
 He took two or three paces up and down the room. It 
 was evident to them all that he was in a state of great 
 agitation. In the many years of their married life, 
 Mrs. Trafford had never seen him so. The poor lady 
 pressed alternately her handkerchief to her eyes and 
 her vinaigrette to her nostrils. George stared at Laura, 
 in mingled surprise and admiration at her audacity. 
 It was not the first time he had seen advice proffered 
 to Paul Trafford, but he had never seen it endured so 
 long, or carried so far. 
 
 "You don't know what you're saying," Trafford 
 flung out at last. " In the eyes of the whole world, I 
 should seem to be climbing down. It couldn't be kept 
 quiet. The press would ring with it." 
 
 "I shouldn't care for that," Laura responded, in her 
 gentlest way, "if it was to save my child." 
 
 He stopped abruptly before her, his feet planted 
 apart, and his hands thrust deep into his pockets. 
 
 "Would it?" he demanded, fiercely. 
 
 Laura looked up at him with fr,ank eyes. 
 
 "I don't know," she replied. "It would depend on 
 how far it's gone. It might. I should even think it 
 probable. At any rate, I should try." 
 
 Turning on his heel, he walked to the mantel-piece, 
 and stood with his back towards them. When he re- 
 mained silent, they made signs to each other, and slipped 
 away. 
 
 166
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AT dinner Paula wore the black-and-green dress in 
 which Winship had painted her. The detail was 
 lost on Trafford and George, but Mrs. Trafford and 
 Laura exchanged comprehending glances. Laura man- 
 aged to call her husband's attention to the fact, but 
 the father saw only that the dark setting brought out 
 the rose tints of the girl's complexion, and increased the 
 blueness of her eyes. She had even hung round her 
 neck the string of pearls which, in the portrait, she was 
 drawing from the small gold coffer at her side. 
 
 The meal passed in some constraint. Trafford ate 
 with his eyes on his plate, or crumbled his bread with a 
 nervous movement of the fingers. Mrs. Trafford was 
 too ill to eat at all. She had only appeared at table in 
 the hope, as she said, of "carrying things off." The 
 three others made feeble efforts to talk, Paula avoiding 
 her father's eyes. When her mother rose, she escaped 
 again to her room. 
 
 "Don't wait for me, if you want to join the ladies," 
 Trafford said to his nephew, when they had smoked 
 awhile in silence. 
 
 George understood the hint, and withdrew to the 
 small salon the family were in the habit of using when 
 
 167
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 they spent the evening alone. His aunt and Laura were 
 already there, sitting as if in expectation. 
 
 Left to himself, Trafford sat staring vacantly at the 
 flowers and crystal on the table. His cigar went out, 
 as his arm fell limply over the back of his chair. He 
 was not thinking actively, nor trying to make plans. 
 His inward sight was fixed on a little black heap, fallen 
 on the floor, while two blue eyes were lifted appealingly 
 to his. They haunted him. Their expression became 
 confused in his mind with the unspeakable look of a 
 fallen Christ, in a picture of Vandyck's he had seen in 
 a church in Antwerp. His lips twitched, his eyelids 
 quivered. 
 
 "My little girl," he muttered to himself. "I struck 
 her down. It's come to that!" 
 
 Again he stared, as if without sight and without 
 thought. It was late in the evening when he rose, and 
 passed into the salon, where the two ladies and George 
 were sitting in silence. He went straight to the bell 
 and rang it. 
 
 "Ask Miss Paula to come here," he said to the ser- 
 vant who appeared. 
 
 He took a seat and waited. In a few minutes she 
 came. She stood on the threshold, without advancing 
 into the room. He had again the impression that her 
 color was very radiant and her eyes strangely blue. He 
 had another impression, impossible to define the feel- 
 ing that his little girl was no longer near him, but gazing 
 at him across some mysterious flood. He waited for 
 her to come into the room, but as she did not, he spoke. 
 
 168
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Paula, my child," he began, as gently as he could, 
 "since this afternoon I've reflected. You can't be un- 
 aware that what you told us in the gallery has been a 
 great blow to me, a great shock." 
 
 "I thought it might be a shock, papa, at first; I didn't 
 know it would ever prove a blow." 
 
 "It has done so, already. I can say, without melo- 
 dramatic exaggeration, that it's one which neither your 
 mother nor I can ever get over." 
 
 "Oh, mamma, darling, I didn't think that possible." 
 
 Her voice trembled, but she took no step to advance 
 into the room. Mrs. Traffbrd pressed her handkerchief 
 to her eyes, and said nothing. 
 
 "I want to do you justice, dear," Trafford went on, 
 "and I want you to be just to me. We must be sym- 
 pathetic with each other " 
 
 "More than that," she interposed. 
 
 "Yes, more than that. It isn't possible for you and 
 me to have any wish more sacred than to insure each 
 other's happiness, is it ?" 
 
 "Not for me, papa." 
 
 "I thought so. And you must know that it's equally 
 impossible for me. I don't have to tell you that you're 
 all I have. Other fathers love their daughters; I know 
 that, of course. But I don't think many of them do as 
 I love mine. Come into the room, dear. Don't stand 
 away from me. Come and kiss me." 
 
 Moving forward very slowly, she bent and kissed him. 
 He drew her to him, and she sank on the floor beside his 
 chair. 
 
 169
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Oh, papa! Oh, papa!" she murmured, throwing 
 her arms about his neck. 
 
 "There,- there," he whispered, soothingly. "I'm 
 sure we shall understand each other." 
 
 She rose again, and took a seat. She sat directly 
 facing him, the three others ranged behind his chair. 
 
 "I've been trying to comprehend," he began again, 
 "just how it was you felt called upon to take the step 
 you announced to us to-day. I think I see it. I 
 needn't explain, for I'm sure you follow me. I don't 
 say that you're wholly right. That's something we 
 should both find difficult to discuss. But since you feel 
 as you do, I'm ready to go as far as I can to meet you." 
 
 She clasped her hands tightly in her lap, looking at 
 him with parted lips and eyes glowing. 
 
 "To the young man we saw to-day," he continued, 
 speaking very deliberately, " I'm ready to give a large 
 sum of money. It shall be as large as you like. I un- 
 derstand there's been some mention made of a million 
 dollars. I should be willing to make it that." 
 
 "Oh, papa, how good you are!" 
 
 "I should settle it on his sister and him, in equal pro- 
 portions, as I believe the mother is dead. It could be 
 called restoration or restitution, or anything else they 
 chose. By the press and the public and the pulpit, it 
 would be called conscience-money. I should be looked 
 upon as a penitent thief." 
 
 She started from her chair with a protesting exclama- 
 tion; but he waved her back. 
 
 "Let me go on, dear. Let me show you how much 
 170
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 I'm willing to do for you I will even say, to suffer for 
 you. You've known something, in a vague way, of the 
 fight I've had to make, but you've only seen the favor- 
 able side of it. You've known me as victorious, but 
 you've never known how often I've been wounded. 
 Nobody has. I've kept that as much as possible to 
 myself I'm looked upon as a man too hard to be hurt 
 by the cannonade of popular hatred and abuse; but it 
 isn't so. I've borne it in silence, and I've lived through 
 it. To a certain extent I've lived it down. The men 
 who couldn't beat me don't hate me less, but I've got 
 beyond reach of their powder. That's all. Now, in 
 what I'm ready to do at your request, I should be putting 
 myself again within their range. I should be doing more 
 than that: I should be offering myself as a target. I 
 shouldn't be spared their shots nor you, nor any of us. 
 I told you once that I wanted my little girl to be protect- 
 ed from that; but, of course, we should have to let such 
 considerations go." 
 
 " But, dear papa, why should any one ever know ?" 
 He smiled faintly, with a shrug of the shoulders. 
 "You must go to the press to find that out, dear. 
 I'm not in their confidence half as much as they're in 
 mine, and I know something of their secrets, too. How 
 did the New York papers announce the probability 
 of your marriage to the Duke of Wiltshire, with day and 
 date for our movements and his, just a week after the 
 first mention of the subject privately among ourselves ? 
 I don't know, any more than you. But this I do know 
 that within ten days of the transference of property 
 
 171
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 of which we've been speaking, the news will be in every 
 paper in the United States. I know, too, just how it 
 will be interpreted. I can't express it better than I 
 have done that I shall be looked upon as a penitent 
 thief. I shall be abused for the theft and ridiculed for 
 the penitence. I shall be considered as a man whose 
 mind has become enfeebled in his declining years. It 
 will be the end of my career, but " 
 
 "Then, papa, darling, I don't want you to do it. 
 I didn't see it in that light." 
 
 "No, dear, of course not. How should you? But 
 I want to do it. I've considered it well, and I'd rather 
 do it. For, when I've made this sacrifice for you, you 
 won't be unwilling to make one for me, will you 
 darling ?" 
 
 "What sacrifice?" she faltered. 
 
 "You'd give this man up." 
 
 "Oh, but I love him!" 
 
 There was no mistaking the accent of the cry. It 
 came from her because she could not help it. It fell 
 on the stillness with the strangeness of a sacred avowal 
 flung out on the common air. It was followed by a 
 hush. A long minute passed before Traffbrd spoke 
 again. 
 
 "But you don't love him better than me ?" he asked, 
 softly, leaning forward, with his strong eyes bent upon 
 her. 
 
 "Not better, papa differently," she managed to 
 stammer, her cheeks flaming now, as if with sudden 
 shame. 
 
 172
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "You wouldn't give me up for him ?" 
 
 "I couldn't give you up at all." 
 
 "But if the choice lay between him and me?" 
 
 She sat with eyes downcast, and made no answer. 
 
 "What then ?" Trafford persisted, softly. 
 
 Again she made no answer. Laura leaned forward, 
 and whispered in his ear. 
 
 "Dear Uncle Trafford, do you think it wise to ask 
 her these questions now ?" 
 
 He waved her back, and kept on. 
 
 "If the choice lay between him and me, Paula, dear? 
 What then ? After the way we've loved you, after all 
 we've done for you, after the happy years together, 
 would you go away with this stranger my enemy 
 and leave your mother and me alone ?" 
 
 "He isn't your enemy, papa," she declared, seizing 
 the one point on Vrhich she was able to reply. 
 
 "I must judge of that. But would you go with him ? 
 That's what I'm asking. Your mother is ill, and I'm 
 growing old. You're all we have all God has left with 
 us. Would you desert us for a man you didn't even 
 know a year ago ?" 
 
 She raised her burning face to him again. 
 
 "Oh, papa, how can I answer you ? How can you 
 bear to torture me like this ? Surely you know what 
 love is! not such love as yours and mine, but the love 
 of man and woman. If you don't know it, the others 
 must. Mamma, I appeal to you. Laura, I appeal to 
 you. You know what a woman's heart is when it's 
 given to the one man to whom it can ever go out. You
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 know that I can't say anything. You know that I can't 
 answer him. Help me. Protect me. You're women 
 like myself. Mamma! Mamma!" 
 
 She ended with a little cry. 
 
 "Yes, dear. I'm here." 
 
 Mrs. Trafford bustled forward with a sob. Paula 
 sprang to meet her, and mother and daughter were 
 clasped in each other's arms. 
 
 "That spoils it," Trafford commented, turning 
 wearily to Laura. "There's no dealing with argument 
 like that," 
 
 A half-hour later, as he was lighting a cigar in his 
 office, Mrs. Trafford stole in. She was pale and trembling. 
 
 "I've got her to bed," she said, with some hesitation. 
 "She'll be quieter now. She's been terribly unnerved, 
 poor lamb." 
 
 He stood with his foot on the fender, and neither 
 answered nor turned round. 
 
 "It's my fault, Paul," she began, weakly. 
 
 "So we understood," he flung over his shoulder. 
 "Why return to the point again ?" 
 
 "Because I want you to forgive me, Paul." 
 
 "What's forgiveness got to do with it? Forgiveness 
 won't give me my daughter back." 
 
 "She's my daughter, too, Paul. You seem to forget 
 that." 
 
 "Oh no, I don't. The fact that she is your daughter 
 is my only possible excuse for leaving her in your in- 
 competent care." 
 
 174
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Oh, Paul! After all the years that we've been 
 married you say that to me!" 
 
 "Good-night," he returned, still over his shoulder. 
 
 "I'm very ill, Paul " she began, once more. 
 
 "You won't get any better by standing in this cold 
 room." 
 
 ' You don't know how ill I am. I've never told you, 
 Paul. I beseech you " she went on, brokenly. 
 
 "I'm tired," he said, leaning heavily on the mantel- 
 piece. "I really think we'd better say good-night." 
 
 She turned, slowly, and left him. He heard her go 
 half-way up the stairs, and come down to his door again. 
 She stood a minute, but, as he made no sign, she turned 
 heavily away once more. 
 
 He listened without moving till her door closed be- 
 hind her. Then he flung himself into an arm-chair and 
 smoked. He smoked on and on, while the clock on the 
 mantel-piece chimed off the hours. His mind worked 
 back to the past and forward to the future.' He lived 
 through again the old days of strife, and drew comfort 
 from the thought of his huge successes and his many 
 victories. By degrees his pain and anger died down 
 together. The longing for the love and tenderness of 
 his own home came back to him. 
 
 "After all, she's been a good wife to me," he muttered 
 to himself, reproachfully. "I'm a brute to treat her 
 so and I'm a brute to my little girl." 
 
 The early June dawn was breaking when he' rose to 
 go up-stairs. The house was very quiet, and he went 
 on tiptoe past his wife's door, for fear of waking her.
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "Suppose I do wake her," he thought, suddenly, 
 "wake her with a kiss. It will please her." 
 
 He turned the handle and entered softly. A faint 
 light was stealing in. He went to the bedside and bent 
 over. But when his lips touched hers, he knew that she 
 would never wake again.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 IT was natural that during the fortnight following 
 upon Mrs. Trafford's death Paula's more personal 
 affairs should recede to the background. Trafford's 
 grief for his wife was deep and sincere all the more 
 so from the circumstances in which she had died. The 
 mere mention of Winship's name would have been an 
 intrusion upon sorrow. 
 
 But as the days went by, and life seemed to resume 
 its normal routine, it became impossible to ignore the 
 fact that such a subject could not be forgotten. There 
 was an uneasy sense of it in the minds of all. The very 
 reticence with which some themes were avoided, the 
 very skill by which others were touched upon with tact, 
 heightened the perception that it was among them, like 
 an invisible presence, at all times when they came to- 
 gether. If Paula and her father were alone they kept 
 silence a guarded, conscious silence, in which the only 
 spontaneous element was the dread of what might 
 follow upon speech. Their affection for each other was 
 not diminished; it was only changed by the loss of the 
 old, clear strain of confidence. They were falling into 
 that painful mutual attitude in which each looks for the 
 other's move. Trafford's lack of action was diplomatic; 
 
 177
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 he had lived through many occasions in which he had 
 learned the advantage of just this kind of waiting. 
 Paula was dumb only because she did not know what 
 to say. 
 
 When Trafford spoke at last, it was for the reason 
 that he thought he had found his way. He had en- 
 tered Paula's boudoir one morning on some unimportant 
 errand connected with the day's domestic affairs. 
 
 "And, by-the-way," he said, casually, as he turned to 
 leave her, "how long will it take you to close up this 
 house ? I have important business that will require our 
 going to America." 
 
 For a few seconds she made no response, but it seemed 
 to Trafford as if her slight, black-robed figure became 
 more erect against the tints of white and rose and gold 
 which formed the background. 
 
 "Then we shouldn't go to Versailles," she said, when 
 she had found voice. "We should be away all sum- 
 mer." 
 
 "Oh yes; longer, in all probability." 
 
 "All winter, too?" 
 
 "Well, I meant indefinitely." 
 
 "And not live in this house any more?" 
 
 "It isn't necessary to say as much as that. We can 
 close it, and leave it with the caretakers. If ever we 
 want to come back to it, we can. It was your poor 
 mother's idea more than mine, from the very first. 
 Now that she's no longer with us " 
 
 "Are you doing this with the object of separating me 
 from Mr. Winship, papa ?" 
 
 178
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Trafford was not expecting a question so direct. He 
 turned fully round and confronted her. 
 
 " I thought it might have that effect," he said, quietly. 
 
 "It wouldn't," she replied, in a tone like his own. 
 
 "Do you mean that you wouldn't come with me ?" 
 
 "Oh no, papa. Of course I should go with you. But 
 it wouldn't separate me from him. Nothing would. 
 Nothing ever will." 
 
 "I suppose you know it's painful to me to hear you 
 talk like that ?" 
 
 " But you make me do it, papa. You force me to say 
 the things on which any other girl is able to keep silent. 
 I only do it to make you understand." 
 
 "Understand what?" 
 
 "That I love him that I shall always love him 
 even if I were never to see him again even if I were to 
 marry some one else. I should belong to him. I be- 
 long to him already. I've given him not only my heart, 
 but my word. I've given it and repeated it. I ought 
 to tell you, papa, that I've seen him again, since that 
 day." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " In the same place for a few minutes only." 
 
 "Clandestinely?" 
 
 "That isn't a word that should be applied to me, papa. 
 It was an accident. I didn't stay, even though he had 
 something to explain to me. I wouldn't even let him 
 write to me without your knowledge. And yet I feel 
 free to see him, if I choose." 
 
 "Even though it be against my command ?" 
 179
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I don't think I ought to be subjected to command 
 on such a point." 
 
 "You'll allow, perhaps, that I have some claim." 
 
 "And that I have some right." 
 
 "What right?" 
 
 "The right of the human being to love, where there 
 is no impediment. I don't ask for anything strange or 
 astonishing. I'm only begging for the use of an in- 
 alienable privilege." 
 
 "You mean the privilege to marry when and where 
 and how you choose, without regard to those who've 
 loved you and cared for you, and who are as much 
 concerned in the act as you are. I never expected you, 
 dear, to blind yourself with that sort of sophistry." 
 
 "You put me in a very hard position, papa. You 
 give me the choice between two courses. I may marry 
 him, and displease you; or I may give him up, and 
 break my heart. Which would you do if you were in 
 my place ?" 
 
 "There's one thing I shouldn't do. I shouldn't ally 
 myself with a man who could never stand towards my 
 own father otherwise than with a drawn sword in his 
 hand." 
 
 "I'm sure he doesn't, papa." 
 
 "And I know he does. I take it for granted that the 
 man is neither a coward nor a fool. You'll allow, per- 
 haps, that I have some acquaintance with human nat- 
 ure. I know his type and I know his breed. He can't 
 have inherited any other feeling towards me than one of 
 revenge. Mind you, I don't say that I blame him 
 
 1 80
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 much, not any more than I should blame the serpent 
 who bites with poison." 
 
 "Oh, please, don't say things like that." 
 "I'm warning you, Paula, dear. I'm no novice at 
 this life. I've foreseen so much that has come true 
 that I can trust my own guess against another man's 
 experience. You don't know what you're doing, but 
 I can show you. You're only a little girl, innocent 
 and good, and yet you're rousing the passions that sleep 
 but never die just as a princess may press a button 
 and start up a system of machinery of which she has 
 neither knowledge nor control. I warn you. Have 
 anything more to do with this man, and the struggle 
 ceases to be between you and me; it passes to me and 
 him; and it will last till one or other of us is alone on the 
 field with the victory." 
 
 " But is there no such thing as forgiveness, papa ?" 
 "No not among men not in business. There, it 
 isn't even the eye for the eye and the tooth for the tooth; 
 it's the trick in the dark, or the stab in the back, or 
 any other means that commends itself. Forgiveness 
 has no more place in that world than nectar and am- 
 brosia have in this. You can't fight with balms on the 
 field of battle, and your lover and I shouldn't choose 
 the weapons that hurt least " 
 "Ah, but why fight at all?" 
 
 "Do you think that if I stayed my hand he would 
 stay his ? Not a bit. I might have my arms bound to 
 my side, and he'd have at me none the less. If you 
 married him, that would be my position. You may be 
 
 181
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 sure I shouldn't strike at your husband. I should stand 
 still and let him strike at me. He'd do it, mind you, if 
 he's a Winship; he'd do it, and he'd keep it up, till I was 
 riddled like St. Sebastian. I'm not at the beginning 
 of my experience of the Winship relentlessness. I told 
 you, on the very night your dear mother died, how 
 many wounds I had carried out of the big war I've had 
 to wage. None were so deadly as those which came 
 from just that quarter, and their shots have never ceased. 
 If they don't fire them still, there are others who do. 
 There are others who make use of the Winship defeat 
 to beg for public sympathy in their own; and they get it. 
 You've only to look through the newspapers and maga- 
 zines to see it. I could afford to laugh them to scorn, if 
 it were not for one simple fact. The chain can't be 
 stronger than its weakest link; so I'm weak, dear Paula, 
 in everything that touches you." 
 
 "Papa, you wrong him. Do believe me. I know 
 him so well. All that is as much blotted out for him as 
 if it had never been. It isn't as though he had had any 
 actual share in the trouble. He hadn't not any more 
 than I. And he's so good so noble! If you'd only be 
 willing to see him, to get to know him, to let him know 
 you, then you'd be as sure of that as I am. He doesn't 
 care anything for money, or for the strife about money. 
 I thought that strange, at first, until I began to see that 
 the things he lives for are higher than " 
 
 "Than those I've lived for. Be it so. You're ar- 
 guing beside the mark, dear. The great fact remains 
 that one of us, you or I, must yield and," he added, 
 
 182
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 fixing her with one of his strong looks, "I've never 
 yielded." 
 
 Turning slowly away, she walked to a window and 
 gazed down for a minute on the trees and traffic of the 
 Avenue du Bois. When she confronted him again her 
 own look was as strong as his. 
 
 " I'd yield, papa, if I thought it was right." 
 
 "And don't you?" 
 
 "You make it so hard for me to see." 
 
 "Surely I put it plainly enough." 
 
 "It isn't that I don't see what you mean; it's that 
 you give me such a terrible alternative. I must sacri- 
 fice either him or you " 
 
 "Or yourself." 
 
 "I don't count myself. If I could only satisfy both 
 your claims and his I should be willing to suffer any- 
 thing." 
 
 Trafford winced at the words, but maintained his 
 ground. 
 
 "He has no claims." 
 
 "Oh yes, he has, papa. He loves me." 
 
 "Wiltshire loved you, too. That didn't give him a 
 right." 
 
 "But I didn't love the Duke, and I do love Roger 
 Winship. I know it's wrong on my part, but I could 
 see the one suffer with only a passing pang, while, if I 
 withdraw my word from the other, it will be like plung- 
 ing a sword not only into his heart but into my own." 
 
 "Then it's possible that you should withdraw your 
 word ?" 
 
 183
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Anything would be possible that was right." 
 
 "And you'd have the strength to do it?" 
 
 " I should have to have the strength if I had the con- 
 viction. I couldn't go on in a course I thought wrong, 
 whatever happiness it might bring." 
 
 "That's a brave girl." 
 
 "But, oh, papa, I can't see it yet. I can't promise." 
 
 "Not yet, dear, perhaps," he said, coaxingly, "but 
 you could take it into consideration, couldn't you ? 
 You could think about it as a probability " 
 
 "No not a probability." 
 
 "Well, then, a possibility. In any case, we could go 
 to America, and stay there awhile, and then we'd 
 see." 
 
 "If you mean that I might come, in time, to think less 
 about him, and give him up more easily that couldn't 
 be." 
 
 " But you could give him up that's the main thing. 
 Mind you, I don't say you would have to, but if it came 
 to the point " 
 
 "I might have the courage, papa. I don't know. 
 It's like asking me if I should have the strength to die. 
 One can, if one has to do it. And, after all, I don't care 
 what happens to me, so long as you're pleased and are 
 saved from being wounded again and we can all see 
 our way to doing what is right and " 
 
 But Traffbrd turned sharply away, leaving her with 
 the words dying on her lips and the brave look still 
 shining in her eyes.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 " OHE disarms me," Trafford said, when he recounted 
 
 O the interview to Mrs. George, later in the day. 
 
 Since his wife's death he had come to depend a good 
 deal on Laura. Her little sitting-room offered him a 
 refuge in times of loneliness, while the common-sense of 
 her conversation was a relief from the strain that life had 
 lately taken on. 
 
 "I can understand that," Laura returned, looking up 
 from her stitching. "All her instincts are so right that 
 one feels placed in the wrong, whether one is wrong or 
 not. But there are two things of which I am more and 
 more convinced as I grow older. The one is, that noth- 
 ing is more precious in life than the love and peace of 
 families. And the other is this, that to preserve them 
 it must happen from time to time that some one has to 
 yield, and, perhaps, to suffer." 
 
 "Exactly," Trafford agreed, warmly. "I can't save 
 her from suffering, can I ? God knows I would, if I 
 could." 
 
 " I'm sure of that, dear Uncle Trafford. One can't 
 have a child of one's own without knowing that in 
 everything it has to bear one suffers twice one's self." 
 
 "Twice ? I suffer twenty times. Since this thing has 
 13 185
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 happened to my little girl there's nothing she feels that 
 isn't multiplied in me, over and over again, like a re- 
 flection in double mirrors. I give you my word, Laura, 
 that I rack my brains to explain why the one event in all 
 the world that could have hurt me most should have 
 come upon me. It almost carries me back to the belief 
 in a God who occupies Himself with the details of our 
 affairs and brings the moral consequences of our acts 
 upon us; and I'd given up that idea long ago." 
 
 "I often think," Laura observed, in her musing tone, 
 "that it's easier to suffer one's self than to see some one 
 we love have to do it." 
 
 "Quite so. Quite so. You can see that in Paula. 
 That's the way she feels. My God! she's a brick if 
 ever there was one. She'd take everything on herself, 
 if she could. But she can't." 
 
 "No, of course not," Laura said, quickly. "It's 
 only the very strong who can do that. I don't suppose 
 any woman is capable of vicarious suffering, and there 
 must be very few men." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" Trafford questioned, 
 in the slightest tone of pique." 
 
 "Well, I don't know what I mean," Laura smiled, 
 frankly. " If I mean anything, it is that there must be 
 here and there a man strong enough to take the cause of 
 suffering from others, by bearing all the pain himself." 
 
 "Hmph!" Trafford ejaculated. 
 
 He was not used to the suggestion that there were 
 men in the world stronger than himself. 
 
 "Of course, I don't know anything about it," Laura 
 186
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 admitted. "One only feels in that way about one's 
 child." 
 
 "You can protect your child," Trafford argued, "as 
 long as it will follow you. Then you keep it to the line 
 of your own defences. The minute it goes outside, into 
 a course of its own, you have no more power." 
 
 "Do you know, dear Uncle Trafford," Laura said, 
 "I'm beginning to think that just as, at first, our chil- 
 dren's happiness depends on following us, so, later, our 
 happiness depends on following them ?" 
 
 "What do you mean by following them?" 
 
 "I mean recognizing the fact that they become in- 
 dependent entities, with independent rights. I mean 
 acknowledging their rights with frankness and sym- 
 pathy, and keeping as close to them as possible, what- 
 ever they may do." 
 
 "And suppose they do what you don't approve of?" 
 
 "I admit that's the hard part. I have to take for 
 granted that the parent is the wiser and the stronger 
 and the more able to endure." 
 
 "That's all very fine! But, now, to take an extreme 
 illustration: suppose your little Paul were to grow up 
 and go to the bad ? Then where would your theories 
 be?" 
 
 " He couldn't go so far to the bad that I shouldn't be 
 as near to him as I could, offering him at least the help 
 that came from my love." 
 
 "Suppose he did worse ? Suppose he were to marry 
 well, say a chorus-girl, or something of that sort ? 
 What then ?" 
 
 187
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I don't mean to say that I shouldn't be sorry; but I 
 should do my best to take her as my daughter, as he 
 would remain my son." 
 
 "I don't believe you could do it." 
 
 "Very likely I couldn't, but I should try. You see, I 
 feel so strongly on the question of personal inde- 
 pendence." 
 
 " But you can't leave much personal independence if 
 you're going to preserve the love and peace of families, 
 of which you speak." 
 
 "Oh, don't you think so? It seems to me just the 
 other way. I've often thought that most of the domestic 
 misery I ever heard of came from the fact that the people 
 who had to live together didn't know where to draw the 
 line between what they could claim and what they 
 couldn't claim from each other. A family isn't an au- 
 tocracy, is it, uncle, dear? It's rather a federation of 
 states, in which each member keeps its sovereign rights. 
 There never can be love and peace unless those rights 
 are freely recognized." 
 
 "It strikes me that you're arguing rather queerly," 
 Traffbrd commented, after a short pause. "It almost 
 seems to me as if you were telling me I oughtn't to in- 
 terfere between Paula and this young man." 
 
 "Oh, Uncle Trafford!" 
 
 "Well, it does." 
 
 She let her sewing fall into her lap, and looked at him 
 with those candid gray eyes, behind which no one could 
 see the shrewdness. 
 
 "You mustn't attach any importance to what I say," 
 188
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 she avowed, humbly. "You see, I'm only a woman. 
 I couldn't judge like you, even if I had the penetration. 
 I suppose every woman gives love and happiness a 
 higher place in her scheme of things than she ever 
 ought to. It takes a man to see that there are more 
 important elements in life." 
 
 "Such as what?" 
 
 "Well let me see! such as ambition and success 
 and wealth and pride and " 
 
 "If you put those things before love and happiness, 
 my girl, you're very much mistaken." 
 
 "I shouldn't, because I'm a woman. But I thought 
 men did." 
 
 "The young and the bumptious and the feeble some- 
 times do not men who've done my work or lived to 
 my age." 
 
 "Still, we women have a simpler idea of happiness 
 than you. It's less complex, and goes more directly to 
 its point. I don't suppose," she added, with a depre- 
 ciatory smile, "that there's anything more serious to it 
 than just the old, instinctive wish that those who love 
 each other should get married." 
 
 "Hmph!" 
 
 "Oh, I'm not arguing, dear Uncle Traffbrd. I'm 
 only excusing myself. You see, we're not without cer- 
 tain successful examples right in our own household, are 
 we ? Dear Aunt Traffbrd has told me so often how 
 opposed her family were when she married you." 
 
 "Pooh! They didn't keep that up very long. They 
 know now where they would have been if " 
 
 189
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes, and it's just that which gives me this foolish, 
 feminine conviction that the heart is the surest of all 
 guides. And then I have my own marriage. Oh, I 
 know very well that you were all a little perhaps only 
 a little, but still a little disappointed when George 
 married me. Now that it's all over, and you've been 
 so good to me, I don't mind confessing that I lived 
 through several months of great unhappiness, for fear 
 you'd take him from me. If you had, there's no use de- 
 nying that there would have been one more embittered 
 old maid in the world, and George wouldn't have been 
 so happy, either." 
 
 "Nor any of us, my girl I can tell you that. If we 
 were a little staggered before we knew you, we re- 
 covered ourselves easily enough when we did." 
 
 "And so, when I think of Paula " She hesitated. 
 
 "Well what? Speak up." 
 
 "I can't keep myself from wishing that she might be 
 as happy as Aunt Trafford was with the man she loved, 
 and as I've been with George." 
 
 "The cases are different," Trafford jerked out, 
 dryly. 
 
 " Oh yes, I know that. It seems a pity, too; because 
 they say he's such a fine fellow, and sure to make a great 
 name for himself." 
 
 "How do we know that ?" 
 
 "Well, I suppose we don't, except from such people 
 as Lady Alice and the Duke, who've been his friends 
 nearly all his life. As for his ability the newspapers 
 have witnessed to it abundantly. Then, too," she 
 
 190
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 mused on, "it would create a great revolution of feeling 
 at home, though you wouldn't care anything about that. 
 Just as you've been indifferent to slander, you'd be 
 equally so to applause." 
 
 "Applause how ?" 
 
 "Don't you see that it would be looked upon as so 
 splendid and superior and American, that your daughter, 
 who's had dukes and princes at her feet, should choose 
 to marry a poor man not only one of our own country- 
 men, but the son of one of your defeated enemies ? 
 Of course, it would mean nothing to you, but we weak 
 women of the family couldn't but rejoice that the world 
 should see you in your true light in your simplicity 
 and generosity, and in your great sense of the true 
 responsibility of wealth. Your traducers would be 
 obliged to stop their attacks, for there'd be no more 
 powder in their magazine. I don't know anything about 
 it, Uncle Trafford. That's only the way I feel." 
 
 "Ah, well!" he sighed. "Ah, well!" 
 
 He rose and took two or three strides up and down 
 the room. 
 
 "Ah, well!" he sighed again. "I don't mind ad- 
 mitting to you, Laura, that I'm miserable about the 
 whole business. When I think of that dear child crying 
 her brave eyes out, perhaps at this very minute " 
 
 "Yes, I know," Laura interrupted. "Then you'd 
 make any sacrifice to save her." 
 
 She felt she had said enough, for she, too, rose and 
 folded her work. 
 
 "Won't you come and see Paul have his supper?" 
 191
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 she suggested. She knew he liked to see the boy kick 
 and crow and splutter, and beat with his spoon on the 
 table. 
 
 "No, I don't believe I will," he replied, wearily. "I 
 seem to have had enough of children. I begin to wish 
 the Lord had never made them." 
 
 "If He hadn't, you'd be the first to pray Him to be- 
 gin," she smiled, as she turned at the door to leave 
 him. "You know better than I do, that for Paula's sake 
 you'd throw everything you've ever won to the winds." 
 
 "I suppose that's true," he muttered to himself, as 
 he went along the corridor to his office. "I suppose 
 that's true. That wife of George's is a damned clear- 
 headed little woman, and she doesn't know it." 
 
 Only a skilful psychologist could have followed the 
 evolution of Paul Trafford's thought during the next 
 forty-eight hours. Only a sympathetic insight could 
 have disentangled the strands of love and self-love, of 
 egoism and devotion, of passionate affection for his 
 child and of impulse to make one more appeal to the 
 great, easily hoodwinked public to indorse him as a 
 high-minded, honorable man. 
 
 "Life is only compromise, after all," was one text on 
 which he mused. "She'd go wild with joy; she'd love 
 me more than ever," was another. "Laura was right: 
 they would see me as I am simple, generous, patriotic, 
 caring nothing for honors or a big name, but only for 
 sterling worth. They'd come to understand me at 
 last." That was a fruitful theme of meditation. " Brave 
 
 192
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 little brick! She doesn't care what happens to herself, 
 so long as I'm pleased, and saved from being wounded 
 again. God! I'd let myself be stabbed all over my 
 body rather than that she should shed another tear." 
 That was a subject on which he could dwell only with 
 eyes blinking. "After all, I may be wrong to distrust 
 the man. He may be less of a Winship than the rest 
 of the lot. The old lust for vengeance may have died 
 down, by this time, and the reign of common-sense be- 
 gun. Other people seem to speak well of him. Wilt- 
 shire and Lady Alice ought to know. Who can tell ? 
 I shouldn't be the first father who has had to make the 
 best of his daughter's choice, and I might even come to 
 like him. I'm not a monster, in spite of all they say of 
 me." From these reflections he took what comfort he 
 could. 
 
 It was the third day before he felt convinced that, of 
 all the chances against him, he was accepting the least 
 dangerous. It was the fourth before he felt sure 
 enough to speak. He waited till evening, till the mo- 
 ment when Paula came to kiss him and say good-night. 
 He drew her to him, and laughed with an air that was 
 almost boyish in its embarrassment. 
 
 "I've given in," he stammered. "My little girl is to 
 do as she likes." 
 
 She slipped from his embrace and fell back a pace 
 or two. 
 
 "I I don't understand, papa." 
 
 "Don't you? Then I'll make it clearer. I'm a 
 weak and beaten and foolish old man. You'll see it," 
 
 193
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 he went on, unconsciously quoting Laura "you'll see it 
 when I tell you that just as you're my daughter, so Roger 
 Winship shall be my son." 
 
 The little sob with which she threw herself into his 
 arms again was one of natural relief in the thought that 
 the long strain was over.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 WINSHIP had finished his coffee, in the long, 
 red studio, before Marah brought hers and sat 
 down beside him. Though money had been coming 
 in as it had never come before, they had made no 
 change in the simple habits of the days of poverty. 
 Going to and fro in the room, Marah observed that 
 her brother had received a letter which he read and 
 reread with unusual absorption. 
 
 " Is it another commission ?" she asked, as she took 
 her place. 
 
 "No," he answered, absently, still pondering the page 
 before him. 
 
 When some minutes had gone by, she spoke again. 
 
 "It isn't anything that worries you, I hope ?" 
 
 "Read," he said, briefly, pushing the paper towards 
 her. She took it and read: 
 
 " DEAR MR. WINSHIP, A great bereavement has re- 
 cently come into both our families. Perhaps nothing 
 so much as sorrow teaches us the true value of the 
 things of this life. Since God has taken my dear wife 
 from me, I, at least, have come to see many things 
 from a different point of view. I am sure you will un- 
 derstand what I mean when I say that it would give 
 
 195
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 great pleasure both to my family and myself to meet 
 Miss Winship and you, and to talk over matters of im- 
 portance, which must be discussed between us. May 
 I ask, then, if to-morrow afternoon at three would suit 
 your convenience to come to my house in the Avenue 
 du Bois de Boulogne ? where, as I have already said, 
 we shall all be glad to see you. Believe me, dear sir, 
 "Yours very truly, 
 
 "PAUL TRAFFORD. 
 
 "P.S. I beg to add that we lay particular stress on 
 the presence of Miss Winship, as some of our topics of 
 conversation will be of as much interest to her as to 
 the rest of us." 
 
 The brother and sister looked at each other blankly. 
 
 "What does this mean ?" Marah demanded at 
 last. 
 
 "It means first of all that I have asked Paula Traf- 
 ford to marry me." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "That she's consented." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "That they've all consented." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "And then," he cried, springing up, with a harsh 
 laugh "then it means that the day has come to which 
 we've looked forward so long-^-when we can say to each 
 other, as Deborah said to Barak, 'Up! for the Lord 
 hath delivered him into your hands."' 
 
 "I don't understand you. How has He delivered 
 him ?" 
 
 196
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Come and see." 
 
 "Vety well. I'll go." 
 
 No more was said : the subject was difficult to speak 
 of; but at three o'clock they presented themselves at the 
 door of the great house. 
 
 Trafford himself met them at the foot of the grand 
 stairway. Now that this step was definitely decided on, 
 he felt the satisfaction by which he was always thrilled 
 in playing the benefactor or god from the machine. 
 With a large share of the sentiment characteristic of 
 the American man of business in his softer moods, he 
 had a distinct enjoyment of generosity especially his 
 own. He came forward with dignified cordiality, and 
 held out his hand. Winship took it with a certain 
 gravity. Marah stood in the background, her eyes 
 sparkling like two electric lamps. 
 
 "You're very good to have come," Traffbrd said, 
 in his kind tone. "I'm sure we shall all be glad to 
 know one another better. And you, too, Miss Win- 
 ship." 
 
 He advanced towards Marah, and again held out 
 his hand. She allowed hers to rest limply within his 
 grasp, but left to her brother the task of finding a 
 reply. 
 
 "The kindness of your letter made our coming im- 
 perative," Winship murmured, politely. 
 
 It was all that could be said before the two tall 
 footmen, and Traffbrd turned to lead the way up- 
 stairs. As they followed, both brother and sister 
 were impressed by the magnificence of their sur- 
 
 197
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 roundings. It was beyond what they expected, and 
 recalled to the imagination a bit of the chateau of 
 Versailles in the days of its greatness. Marah felt 
 herself dwarfed by so much splendor, and it required 
 a mental effort even on Winship's part to lift his per- 
 sonality above it. 
 
 " I want you to know my nephew and niece, George 
 and Laura," Trafford said, when they had reached the 
 top of the stairs. "I think we shall have our little talk, 
 at first, without the presence of my daughter." 
 
 Winship bowed, and TrafFord, with a wave of the 
 hand, ushered the visitors into the great salon, whose 
 door was standing open. 
 
 It was an awkward moment, especially for Marah, 
 who entered first. Her little figure seemed to dwindle 
 to nothing, in the vast apartment, where every object 
 was a thing of art. The Louis Seize drawing-room at 
 Edenbridge was the abode of gentry; but this was the 
 dwelling-place of kings. Once inside the door, she 
 stood timidly, waiting for the others to pass in and take 
 the lead, when she became aware of a small lady, in a 
 long, black train, advancing, with out-stretched hand, 
 to meet her. 
 
 "I know this is Miss Winship," Laura said, cheerily. 
 "Our friend, Lady Alice Holroyd, has spoken of you 
 so often. And Mr. Winship," she continued, in the 
 same easy strain. "This is my husband, George. 
 Now we all know one another, don't we ?" 
 
 George shook hands with the Winships in tur/i, say- 
 ing, "How do you do ?" to each. To this they found it 
 
 198
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 a relief to be able to reply with the same non-committal 
 formula. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Winship," Laura rattled on, as the party 
 moved a few paces towards the centre of the room, 
 "I can't tell you how much I admire your portrait of 
 Paula. I've been to see it twice. Everybody says 
 that nothing equal to it has appeared in the Salon during 
 the last ten years. Now, do tell me," she pursued, 
 eager to cover up the first few trying minutes, "didn't 
 you paint that malachite table from the one in the 
 Grand Trianon ?" 
 
 "No," Winship smiled, "it's one I had the chance to 
 sketch in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. You see, I 
 have a knack with marble surfaces, and so, when I get 
 an opportunity " 
 
 "Shall we sit down ?" Trafford asked, offering a seat 
 to Marah. 
 
 A Buhl table, with some gilded and tapestried arm- 
 chairs about it, seemed to offer a rallying-point, and 
 presently they were all seated. It was partly accident, 
 partly instinctive grouping, that placed Winship and 
 Marah together on one side, with the three Traffords 
 facing them on the other. Laura felt that her power of 
 taking the lead was now at an end. There were a few 
 seconds of constraint before Trafford spoke. He look- 
 ed directly at Winship and Marah, though his tone was 
 that of a man musing aloud. 
 
 "Our meeting of this afternoon is of a kind that must 
 make any thoughtful person believe in the directing 
 finger of a higher Providence. The very strongest of 
 
 199
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 us must be subject to His authority. In fact, I don't 
 suppose that with Him there are such things as strong 
 or weak at all. We are simply His children, fulfilling 
 His designs." 
 
 This opening was so little what any one expected that 
 there was nothing to do but to accept it in silence. 
 
 "I realize that the more fully as I see events 
 shaping themselves better than I could have di- 
 rected them. Yes, I confess that it is better. I ad- 
 mit that I have had my own plans plans that have 
 been very near my heart. But now, as I approach my 
 threescore years and ten, I see them being gently taken 
 from my hand, and others offered me in their place. 
 Very well, I accept them. It doesn't take much re- 
 flection to see that an old man is better occupied in 
 sowing the blessings of peace than in continuing the 
 wars of his youth. Mr. Winship, I believe you have 
 asked my daughter to marry you." 
 "I have." 
 
 "And that she's consented." 
 "I've understood her so." 
 
 "Then I, too, consent. I don't pretend that I can 
 give her away easily to any man. She's more than 
 precious in my sight. But I realize that a day must 
 come, before many years are over, when she will need 
 other guardianship than mine; and where can she find 
 it better than in the man who loves her, and whom she 
 loves, and of whom every one speaks well ?" 
 
 "I can only say," Winship murmured, "that to me 
 the trust will be a sa/rred one. Her very sacrifice in 
 
 200
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 marrying me will make it all the more my duty to see 
 that she is compassed about with love." 
 
 " I like that," Trafford said, warmly. "Where there's 
 love, care and sorrow take their proper and subordinate 
 place in the scheme of things. Mr. Winship, we're 
 simple people, and I'm a plain man. It will be better 
 for us all if I speak quite frankly and without re- 
 serve." 
 
 "That's what I should like," Winship agreed. 
 
 "We're simple people, but I think you'll find us open- 
 hearted people. We're a united family, and, with the 
 necessary crosses such as fall to human lots, we've been 
 a happy family. God has blessed me, even though He 
 has seen fit to take from me all my children but my lit- 
 tle youngest-born and, now, her mother, too. Still, 
 He has blessed me. I should be ungrateful to deny the 
 fact, after all He has enabled me to do. And just as, 
 in my dear niece here, He has given me, as it were, an- 
 other daughter, so I am ready to see in you an only 
 son." 
 
 Winship bowed, and Trafford hurried on. 
 
 "You see, we want to take you in as one of ourselves. 
 I want you to feel that in me you have a second father. 
 I want Miss Winship to be one of us also; and," he 
 continued, looking directly at Marah, with an encourag- 
 ing smile, "I've taken certain steps which I hope will 
 assure her of my unlimited good-will." 
 
 He drew a small memorandum-book from his 
 pocket, and began turning its pages. Marah sat bolt 
 upright, with the rigidity of steel. Her snapping eyes 
 
 14 201
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 were fixed on Traffbrd, like those of a little animal 
 watching its minute to spring. 
 
 " It would be idle to ignore the fact," Trafford went 
 on, "that it isn't the first time our interests have lain in 
 the same field, even though it's the first time we meet. 
 And yet I need hardly go back to speak of the past. 
 I consider it dead and buried. I want to erect over its 
 ashes to-day a monument of affection and peace. I'm 
 sure you will understand the sentiments by which I'm 
 governed, without any further explanation on my part, 
 when I say, my dear Miss Winship, that I beg to turn 
 over to you, now, at once, securities to the amount of 
 half a million of dollars." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 The laconic directness of Marah's question had a 
 slightly disconcerting effect on Trafford's benevolent 
 placidity. 
 
 "Surely that's self-evident," he smiled, in gentle re- 
 sponse. "Your brother is about to marry my daugh- 
 ter. It wouldn't be fitting you'll excuse me if I speak 
 quite plainly it wouldn't be quite fitting that you 
 should remain in your circumstances, while we are in 
 ours." 
 
 "They've been my circumstances for over twenty 
 years, Mr. Trafford. I've battled with them and 
 borne them. I shouldn't be myself, now, in any 
 others." 
 
 "But I want you to feel," Trafford persisted, "that 
 there will no longer be any need for you to work " 
 
 "I'm used to working," Marah broke in. "I've 
 
 202
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 worked as few people have ever done. I've worked as 
 I never expected to work in the days before before 
 you came into our lives, Mr. Traffbrd. I haven't only 
 toiled and pinched and scraped I've starved. I've 
 seen my mother and my brother starving. I was only 
 a girl not older than your daughter, and not less ten- 
 derly nourished, when you, with your merciless hand, 
 drove me out, bewildered and penniless, into the world, 
 with the care of a mother and a little lad upon me. 
 Now you are willing to erect over my ruined life a 
 monument of affection and peace. I thank you, but 
 I don't want it." 
 
 "Dear Miss Winship," Traffbrd said, still more 
 gently, "do you think that the heart of a general, whose 
 duty it is to ravage some fair province, doesn't often 
 bleed for those whom he is obliged to render homeless ? 
 Business and war are alike, in that neither conquered 
 nor conqueror escapes without a wound." 
 
 "Men ruin in war for a country Vsake; they rob in 
 business for their own." 
 
 "You're using hard words, Miss Winship." 
 
 "I'm speaking of hard things. May I ask, Mr. 
 Trafford, if my words aren't true ?" 
 
 "Perhaps," Traffbrd said, with a patient smile, "we 
 should be in danger of getting into an abstract dis- 
 cussion, when our attention should be fixed on a par- 
 ticular point. I repeat that I'm glad to place this 
 money at your disposal, and should be still more glad to 
 know that you accepted it." 
 
 "I couldn't do it. I should feel that I was buying 
 203
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 prosperity at the cost of my father's life, and my 
 mother's twenty years of want." 
 
 "Then," Trafford said, losing some of his forced air 
 of patience, "I see that this part of our discussion is 
 useless, unless," he added, turning to Winship "unless 
 your brother can persuade you." 
 
 "I think my sister is quite right," Winship said, quiet- 
 ly, and with a certain air of detachment. 
 
 The three Traffords gave a simultaneous start, as if 
 from a slight electric shock. 
 
 "You'll pardon me if I don't understand," TrafFord 
 began, rubbing his hand across his brow. "You come 
 here to marry my daughter " 
 
 "I do." 
 
 "And you uphold your sister in refusing money that 
 you yourself are willing to share " 
 
 "No! I never said so." 
 
 " But what ? Upon my soul, I don't follow you." 
 
 It was clear that TrafFord's courteous self-possession 
 was breaking down. 
 
 "My position," Winship said, "needs some expla- 
 nation." 
 
 " So it would seem," TrafFord assented, dryly. 
 
 "I've tried to make Miss TrafFord understand from 
 the first, that in marrying me she would be sharing a 
 poor man's life." 
 
 "Hmph! I doubt if she took that detail in." 
 
 "I think it quite possible. I've never had any real 
 opportunity to place the matter in its true light before 
 her. I've had almost no communication with her since 
 
 204
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 the minute she promised to become my wife. Without 
 your consent, she has refused to see me, or even to let 
 me write to her." 
 
 "And what might that true light be ?" 
 
 "Only that I wish to marry her for herself, and for 
 herself alone. If she comes to me, it will have to be 
 without money." 
 
 Trafford drew his chair closer to the Buhl table, as 
 though to diminish the distance between them, and 
 fixed on Winship the look before which all other men 
 had quailed. Winship, too, drew up his chair, and re- 
 turned the gaze with quiet steadiness. 
 
 "You wish me to understand, I presume," TrafFord 
 said, speaking slowly, "that your motives are quite dis- 
 interested. I'll do you the justice to say that I never 
 questioned them." 
 
 "I should like you to understand a little more than 
 that," Winship returned. "But, first, may I explain 
 that the present situation is none of my seeking ? Had 
 I seen it coming, I should have gone out of my way to 
 avoid it. There seems to have been no means of doing 
 that. Some fatality, or some destiny, has forced it on 
 us all. If I had been given my choice, the last woman 
 in the world whom I should have wished to marry would 
 have been a child of yours." 
 
 "You're quite right to be frank," TrafFord threw in, 
 with a touch of irony. 
 
 "Thank you. I shall try to be so. May I go on 
 with my explanation ? It wasn't I who sought Miss 
 TrafFord out, neither was it she who sought me. She 
 
 205
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 was impelled towards me by the knowledge that you 
 had killed my father, impoverished my mother, and 
 blasted my sister's life," 
 
 A sound came from George like the low growl of a 
 dog. Traffbrd put out his hand to repress it. 
 
 "Let him go on," he muttered. "This is the most 
 remarkable wooing I ever heard of." 
 
 "Yes; it has to be," Winship agreed. "But I want 
 to put things in a way which will admit of no future 
 doubt. I want to put them justly, too. So when I say 
 that Miss Traffbrd knew these things I don't mean 
 that she was able to formulate them to herself as facts. 
 She was only convinced of them in her inner sense of 
 rectitude. Her love and loyalty remain with you; her 
 verdict and her sympathy have long ago gone out to me 
 and mine. Do I make myself clear ? I repeat that, 
 if it hadn't been for the situation that you yourself 
 created, your daughter and I would probably have 
 passed each other by as strangers." 
 
 "And since you haven't done that," Trafford broke 
 in, impatiently," I'm here to say that I'm willing to make 
 the best of it. You've fallen in love with each other, as 
 I understand; and though I don't look upon it as the 
 most brilliant match my daughter could make, I'm 
 ready to swallow my own disappointment in order that 
 she should be as happy as possible. I'm ready to make 
 you rich. I'm ready to make your sister rich. What's 
 the use of dragging up a lot of unfortunate rubbish at 
 the very minute when we could put everything right 
 again ? If it's folly to kill the goose that lays the golden 
 
 206
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 eggs, it's surely criminal to strangle the poor dove that 
 comes with the olive-branch of peace." 
 
 " It isn't the peace I object to, but the terms of the 
 treaty." 
 
 "My God! Don't I offer you enough ?" 
 
 "Yes; too much. I ask only for your daughter's 
 hand, empty of dower." 
 
 "Look here! Do you mean to tell me that you think 
 of marrying my child and supporting her out of your 
 miserable painter's pittance ?" 
 
 "Since you choose to put it so yes." 
 
 " Then you're mad. It's out of the question. It's pre- 
 posterous. She's lived like a princess all her life. She'd 
 spend in a day all that you could give her in a year." 
 
 " I think not. I think she'd be content with what I 
 could offer her." 
 
 " But, for the love of Heaven, why should she ? Here's 
 money to squander, money to throw away, money to 
 burn up " 
 
 " It's money I couldn't touch. It's money I couldn't 
 allow my wife to touch. It's the money for which too 
 many widows and orphans are still clamoring. It's 
 the money for which too many beggared men are still 
 cursing the sound of your name. It's the money that 
 came when old Marshall, of Turtonville, shot himself, 
 and Rawson, of Fitchburg, hanged himself, and Brewer, 
 of Albany, went mad, and Bennett, of Cleveland, be- 
 came a forger, and Jackson, of Ohio, stabbed your 
 agent and got penal servitude for life, and Lewis, of 
 Philadelphia, died a drunkard, and Barnes " 
 
 207
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "That's enough!" Trafford cried, sternly, holding up 
 his hand. 
 
 "I know it's enough," Winship threw back. "I 
 could go on with the list and make it much longer with- 
 out mentioning my own father's name. But that's 
 enough. You can finish it, no doubt, for yourself. 
 Such names are not easily forgotten." 
 
 Trafford sprang to his feet and strode away from 
 the group. With his hands behind his back and his 
 head bent, he took two or three paces across the room. 
 Marah had scarcely changed her position since the con- 
 versation began. Laura sat biting her lip and looking 
 at the floor. George, grasping the arms of his chair, 
 was like a bull-dog held in leash and straining to spring 
 at the man opposite, who was, apparently, the least 
 concerned among them all. 
 
 Trafford strode back to the group again. 
 
 "You're a clever man, Mr. Winship," he said, tap- 
 ping with his fingers on the table. "You're an ingen- 
 ious man. You've had a blow to strike at me, and 
 you've chosen the weapon you knew to be the sharpest." 
 
 "I didn't choose it," Winship returned, quietly. "It 
 came into my hand." 
 
 "But you know how it cuts." 
 
 "Yes, I do know that." 
 
 "And you have no scruple about thrusting the blade 
 in." 
 
 "The whole world has learned from you, Mr. Traf- 
 ford, that scruples belong only to the weak." 
 
 " I see what you've been working round to," Trafford 
 208
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 went on, musingly. " I see it now. I see. I see. I see 
 the whole game." 
 
 "It isn't a game," Winship corrected "it's a situa- 
 tion." 
 
 "It's more adroit than I thought at first. The worst 
 of which I could suspect you was the plan of marrying 
 my daughter in order to get her money. That would 
 have been bitter pill enough for me. That ought to 
 have given you an ample revenge. But this is what 
 shall I say? this is so clever as to be nearly dev- 
 ilish." 
 
 " I must call your attention again to the fact that the 
 circumstances are not of my making, but your own. 
 I didn't seek to love your daughter. I must say again 
 and again that we were brought together in consequence 
 of your own acts. Now that I do love her, I want to 
 marry her. That's natural enough. But I can't touch 
 your money. No honorable man could. It's blood- 
 money. But, there again, if that knife cuts you, it's 
 one of your own forging, not of mine. It isn't the first 
 time the conquered have been avenged by the very 
 cruelty of the conquest. lo Victis is a song the world 
 has heard over and over again." 
 
 "Hmph! Blood-money! It's blood - money, is it? 
 And you want my child to say so." 
 
 " I want her to be true to what I know are already her 
 own high and holy convictions." 
 
 "You want her to choose between you and me, be- 
 fore the world. Then, by God! she shall," he cried, 
 bringing his fist down upon the table. 
 209
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 He marched to the end of the long room, and threw 
 open a door. 
 
 "Paula!" he called, loudly. "Paula, come here!" 
 
 When he rejoined the group he was very pale. In- 
 stinctively they all rose as Paula appeared in the 
 doorway. 
 
 For an instant she seemed to hesitate, her dark figure 
 framed in the arch of white and gold. Then she came 
 forward a step or two, and paused, then a step or two 
 more, and paused. She seemed doubtful of what they 
 expected her to do. They could see that her eyes were 
 aglow, her cheeks delicately flushed, and her lips parted 
 in a half-smile. She was in black, with a row of black 
 pearls in the frill around her throat. 
 
 The silence and immobility with which the group 
 about the table regarded her approach soon began to 
 bewilder her. She looked from one to another ques- 
 tioningly, and her smile faded. 
 
 "What is it?" she asked, pausing again before she 
 had quite reached them. 
 
 "Paula, my child," Trafford said, "I've given my 
 consent to your marriage with Mr. Winship, and I've 
 not withdrawn it." 
 
 The half-smile came back. Her eyes sought Win- 
 ship's; then the droop of the long, black lashes hid them 
 again. 
 
 "But Mr. Winship," Trafford pursued, "is not satis- 
 fied with my consent. He asks for more.'* 
 
 "No, not for more," Winship corrected. "I ask for 
 nothing." 
 
 210
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Mr. Winship asks for so little, dear, that it becomes 
 significantly much." 
 
 "I don't understand at all, papa." 
 
 "Then I'll put it to you plainly. Mr. Winship is 
 ready to marry you, but you must come to him empty- 
 handed." 
 
 "I shouldn't care," she said, promptly. "I don't 
 mind about the money not at all. I know what Roger 
 means. He wants every one to see that it's for myself 
 not for anything else." 
 
 "That isn't quite his motive, dear. But perhaps he 
 could explain it better than I can. Will you be good 
 enough," he added, turning to Winship, "to tell my 
 daughter why it is that you'd shut her out from the 
 provision I've worked so hard to save for her ?" 
 
 "If Miss Trafford is willing to make the sacrifice, it 
 seems to me the explanation becomes unnecessary." 
 
 "I don't want an explanation, papa I really don't." 
 
 "I think you'd better have it, none the less," Trafford 
 insisted. " If he won't give it, I will. Mr. Winship will 
 not touch my money, nor allow you to touch it, because 
 it's blood-money." 
 
 " Oh, don't, papa," the girl pleaded. " Don't tell me." 
 
 "I must tell you, dear. The time has come when 
 you've got to make a choice when you've got to decide 
 between my enemies and me." 
 
 "But Roger isn't your enemy!" 
 
 "You'll see. He wants you to stand forth before the 
 world and declare that, in your opinion, I am a robber, 
 an assassin " 
 
 211
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "No, no," Winship cried. " That's not fair. That's 
 not what I ask for. I ask only that she shall come to 
 me as she is, without money, without dower. I'm not 
 trying to force her into putting any construction on the 
 act" 
 
 "And I'm not splitting hairs," Traffbrd interrupted, 
 scornfully. "I'm not drawing nice philosophical dis- 
 tinctions. If she doesn't put a construction on the act, 
 you will, and the world will. Paula, darling, he wants 
 you to refuse my money because it's blood - money. 
 Those are his words. He wants you to marry him 
 without a penny. Then every one will be able to say 
 that Paul Trafford must be what his enemies and 
 traducers have called him, because his own daughter 
 thinks him so." 
 
 "Oh no, Roger, you don't mean that!" 
 
 "He means more, dearest. He means that, as you 
 are all I have, so even that shall be taken from me." 
 
 "But I couldn't be!" 
 
 "That's for you to decide, dear and to decide now. 
 He knows that I could bear up against the world, what- 
 ever it might say, whatever it might be led to believe. 
 But he knows, too, that what I couldn't bear up against 
 is that you should say, ' Papa, I can't touch your money, 
 I can't touch your hand, because they're full of blood.' " 
 
 "Roger, I wish you'd speak!" she pleaded. "I wish 
 you'd tell me yourself what it all means." 
 
 " How can I tell you ?" he asked, moving towards her 
 with hands out-stretched, as if in petition. "Can't you 
 guess ? Can't you see ? Don't you know how this 
 
 212
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 stupendous fortune has been brought together ? Don't 
 you know that it's been by every form of financial jug- 
 glery the mind has been able to invent ? Don't you 
 know that it's been by ways as crooked as they were 
 cruel ? Don't you know that it's been by a system of 
 depredation so gigantic that even the common opinion 
 of the common world has risen in revolt against it ?" 
 
 "You lie!" George Trafford shouted. It was as if 
 the bull-dog had torn away from its leash and sprung 
 at Winship's throat. 
 
 "Be quiet, George," Laura begged. 
 
 "Stand back," Winship said, in a tone of authority. 
 "I'm here to explain to Miss Trafford, the woman I 
 love, and who loves me. I lie, do I ? Then why have 
 you Traffords, and your monopolies, been hunted from 
 court to court, throughout the whole land of America ? 
 Why is the press ringing daily with your name, and 
 calling for justice against you ? Why have you been 
 driven to every legal shift in order to dodge, or twist, or 
 circumvent the law ? Why have you spent millions to 
 buy up clever men, to corrupt politicians, to bribe a 
 press, and to purchase a little public that might stand 
 by you ? You have no friends but paid friends, and no 
 standing except among those who are overawed by the 
 brutality of your power. Even so, no one knows better 
 than yourselves that that power will not stand a day 
 when once the moral wits of the people are awakened; 
 no one knows better than yourselves that the very 
 sycophants of your success will be the first to rejoice in 
 your downfall. And yet you a Trafford! dare to 
 
 213
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 tell me that I lie! Dear Paula," he went on, in another 
 tone, turning again to the girl, who stood listening with 
 white face and terrified eyes "dear Paula, I'm saying 
 nothing new. It's only what's notorious to the world. 
 You're the only person, perhaps, on earth who doesn't 
 know it all. If it had been possible to keep it from you, 
 I should have done it. But it isn't possible. Sooner or 
 later you must have learned it. Don't you understand, 
 then, that when I see you in the midst of all this " he 
 threw out his arms with a wide gesture "it's as if I 
 saw you living in, clothed in, the ruin of beggared men 
 and hungry women and children ? When I see you in 
 your splendor, your pearls are to me like their tears, 
 your rubies like their sweat of blood. I can't bear it. 
 I can't bear it. It's like desecration. It's like sacrilege. 
 I must take you out of it. Oh, come away come 
 away!" 
 
 "And leave my father?" 
 
 "You needn't leave him. You need only leave 
 all this." 
 
 "Is there no way by which love could make some 
 some reconciliation ?" 
 
 "None." 
 
 "Then, papa," she said, in a dull tone, "I'm your 
 daughter. If I have to make the choice, it must be you." 
 
 She moved across the room to his side, slipping her 
 arm into his. 
 
 Winship raised his hands again, with their petitioning 
 gesture, but, before the look of pathetic reproach in her 
 eyes, he let them fall again. 
 
 214
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Paula," Trafford said, in a voice that shook a little, 
 "I've let this man speak. You've heard him to the end. 
 Now tell him that you believe in me. Tell him that his 
 charges have failed." 
 
 "Oh, papa," she returned, wearily, "how can it 
 matter what I say? I'm so tired of it all. I give 
 him up; I'm going to stay with you. Isn't that 
 enough ?" 
 
 Winship could see, as he had seen once before, the 
 ashen hue steal over Trafford's face. 
 
 "Yes, dear," he murmured, dropping his daughter's 
 hand. "I suppose it is enough. It will have to be." 
 
 There was a minute's pause, and then a simultaneous 
 movement. The Winships were going away. Paula 
 gave a little start, as of one awakening. 
 
 "Couldn't we be alone together?" she begged, look- 
 ing round among them all "just for a minute ?" 
 
 It was Laura who, somehow, got them from the room. 
 Winship and Paula stood, confronting each other. He 
 remained at a distance, looking at her with burning 
 eyes. 
 
 "Roger!" she faltered "Roger! Would it be useless 
 to make one more appeal to you ? Must our love end 
 like this?" 
 
 "Our love doesn't end. Our love can't end." 
 
 " But all the rest of it all our happiness ? Is it to 
 be flung away for this ? How could you expect me to 
 turn my back upon my father ? It would kill him." 
 
 "Oh, Paula," he said, coming towards her, "I didn't 
 ask for that. Don't turn your back on him. Love 
 
 215
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 him always, as you've loved him, only come to me. Re- 
 nounce all this, that's so unworthy of you, and come to 
 me without the money." 
 
 "I can't, Roger. Don't you see that I can't ? What- 
 ever the money is, even if it's all you say, I can't separate 
 myself from it now. It's bound up with my father, and 
 I'm bound up with him. I've got to carry the weight 
 of it. It seems to me that if you loved me, you'd come 
 and help me bear it." 
 
 "You've only to think of what that would mean, to 
 see how impossible it would be. You and I living to- 
 gether in splendid luxury on " 
 
 "No, don't," she cried. "Don't say it again. Once 
 has seared the words right into my heart. I shall al- 
 ways feel them burning there. Then, Roger, if you 
 can't," she added, hopelessly, "there's nothing for us 
 but to part. I must go my way with my father, even 
 though I fall in it. God will help me, perhaps, to 
 stumble on. I must leave you now. I can't stay it's 
 killing me. Good-bye good-bye." 
 
 She held out her hand. He dropped on his knee, 
 and pressed it to his lips. 
 
 Almost before he had risen, he found himself alone. 
 
 It was a dreary little party that assembled in the 
 small family salon that evening before dinner. Laura's 
 eyes were red; George tried to hide himself behind his 
 paper; Trafford turned his back on them, pretending to 
 look down at the stream of carriages coming from the 
 Bois. In the condition of nervous tension to which 
 
 216
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 they were all wrought up, a little scream from Laura 
 was enough to make them start. 
 
 "For pity's sake 1" she cried. "Paula, are you 
 crazy ?" 
 
 Paula stood in the doorway. She was dressed in 
 some shimmering stuff, like tissue of gold. On her 
 head she wore the high, round, diamond crown her 
 mother had bequeathed her; a collar of rubies was 
 clasped about her throat; a girdle of diamonds and 
 rubies encircled her waist; diamonds and rubies were 
 on her arms; while round her neck she had the rows 
 upon rows of the famous Trafford pearls. Her rose- 
 like color was bright, her eyes shone, and she smiled 
 valiantly. 
 
 "My God, what a vision !" Trafford muttered, under 
 his breath, as he watched her from the embrasure of the 
 window. 
 
 "Well, you have rigged yourself up !" George com- 
 mented, looking up at her, over his paper, with a sort 
 of savage reproach. "What's the idea ?" 
 
 "Really, Paula," Laura protested, "I don't think 
 you ought to " 
 
 "Let her alone," Trafford commanded, striding for- 
 ward. "I know what she means; don't I, dear?" 
 
 "I hope so, papa," she smiled, as she let him take her 
 into his arms, "because it's my profession of faith. I 
 wear them because they're your gifts." 
 
 She came into the room, and the conversation turned 
 on the degree to which the jewels suited her. The 
 commonplace topic relieved the strain, and the evening 
 is 217
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 passed in a sort of artificial cheerfulness. It was not 
 till they were parting for the night that Laura found the 
 moment for a private word with her. 
 
 "I wouldn't force myself, if I were you, dear," she 
 advised. 
 
 "I have to," Paula replied, with arms uplifted in the 
 act of taking off her crown. "I couldn't do it without 
 forcing myself. But I shall be equal to it, Laura. I'm 
 not afraid of breaking down. Only you must help me. 
 You must laugh when I do, and we must both talk 
 brightly. I want papa to think I've done it easily. If 
 he doesn't, he'll be unhappy, and everything will be in 
 vain." 
 
 "God bless you, dear," Laura murmured, as she 
 kissed her. "God bless you, and bless you again."
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PAUL TRAFFORD stood at a window of that 
 house which no changes have been able to dis- 
 sociate from the memory of La Pa'iva. It was the 
 middle of September, and he was thinking idly that the 
 increased stir in the Champs-Elysees showed already 
 that the dispersed forces of Paris were beginning to 
 concentrate again. From mountains, sea-shore, and 
 chateaux; from Asia, America, and the antipodes of the 
 world, the great, beautiful city was drawing new re- 
 sources for the endless tragic comedy that makes up her 
 life. The curtain was rising on a season in which the 
 events would be as different as the fashions from those 
 of last year. What were they to be ? In every nerve 
 of Paris there was that sense of awakening curiosity 
 which is simultaneous with the moment when the 
 chestnuts put forth a few fresh, green leaves among the 
 brown, and here and there a flower. The slanting 
 autumn sunshine was rich with the desire that is more 
 earthly, more passionate, and more essential to the 
 heart than all the hope of spring. Youth, with its care- 
 less anticipations, had gone on its holidays in June ; 
 middle-age was coming back, with its desperate long- 
 ings, in September. There was to be something new, 
 
 219
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 something the eye had not seen before. Was it pos- 
 sible that there would be fulfilment for the demands 
 which had had none as yet ? When the Invisible 
 Hand turned the kaleidoscope of events, what would 
 the new combinations be ? 
 
 Paul Traffbrd was wondering that on his own ac- 
 count. What kind of a season was preparing for him 
 now ? It was just a year ago, here in this very Travel- 
 lers' Club, that Wiltshire had broached the subject of 
 his love for Paula. Traffbrd had entered on the winter 
 which he had thought to make the happiest of his vic- 
 torious career. And yet, in those very months, he had 
 lost his wife, and wrought some indefinable change be- 
 tween his daughter and himself. 
 
 Yes, there was a change. There could no longer 
 be any doubt of that. But was it between them or in 
 them ? Trafford was not used to close analysis of char- 
 acter, and admitted he did not know. She puzzled him. 
 She seemed happy; she was often lively, in her quiet 
 way. She was tenderer and sweeter with him than 
 she had ever been. She had borne the rupture with 
 Winship so easily that he had been astonished. He 
 could only think that the scene in June, with its brutal 
 attack upon himself, her father, had killed what she 
 had taken to be her love for the man. All that had 
 passed off satisfactorily. And yet there was this subtle 
 difference in her, this something which was just within 
 range of his perception, though it was beyond his power 
 to explain. In spite of her nearness, she seemed mys- 
 teriously apart from him. It was as if there was in the 
 
 220
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 atmosphere about her some spiritual element that put 
 him ill at ease. He wondered if he were not growing 
 to be afraid of her, as though she were no longer the 
 daughter of his blood, but some ethereal visitant from 
 other spheres. 
 
 "If her sister Jennie were to come back to me from 
 the Lord's own keeping," he sometimes said to himself, 
 "I don't suppose I should have a stranger feeling of 
 unearthliness." 
 
 There seemed to Trafford but one means of bridging 
 over the gulf that had opened between the girl and 
 common life: that she should marry and have children. 
 It was impossible then for his mind not to go back to 
 Wiltshire. There was the man for her ! It was a million 
 pities that she had not felt so herself. He would have 
 watched over her and worshipped her. He would have 
 been to her all that Hector was to Andromache. There 
 were even times when Trafford imagined that Paula 
 regretted having sent him away. He was afraid to hint 
 at it, for fear of touching too rudely what might be the 
 delicacy of an awakening sentiment. But the fact was 
 there, that she spoke of him often, and always in a strain 
 of tenderness. Then, too, she had never looked so 
 favorably on any other man, with the exception of this 
 young Winship, for whom, after all, apparently, she had 
 not cared. 
 
 " Lord ! if it could only be brought about," he said 
 to himself now. "I believe I should be ready then to 
 depart in peace." 
 
 He was turning away from the window to think of his 
 221
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 lunch, when he was suddenly arrested by an incident 
 which seemed to him like an answer to prayer. Wilt- 
 shire himself was entering the club. There was noth- 
 ing remarkable in the fact, beyond what was passing 
 in Trafford's mind. Wiltshire was a member of the 
 Travellers', and it was natural that he should be in 
 Paris at just that time of year. But Trafford could not 
 see it so. Long ago he would have called it one of his 
 lucky chances. Now he could only feel that Wiltshire 
 had been "sent." 
 
 The two men shook hands with a sincere effusion 
 which meant more than pleasure in each other's com- 
 pany. Each was an actor in the other's drama, and the 
 interrupted play could begin again. 
 
 "This is luck," Wiltshire exclaimed. "I thought 
 you were in America." 
 
 "I meant to go, but I didn't. I found that George 
 could look after what was to be done just as well as I. 
 He's there, with Laura and their youngster. Paula 
 and I are at Versailles. You must come out and 
 see us." 
 
 "I should like to. In the mean time, can't we have 
 lunch together ? Then we could talk a bit." 
 
 "All right; but not here. There'd be too many 
 fellows interrupting us." 
 
 In Trafford's tone there was a hint of confidences to 
 be exchanged to which the Duke was not insensible. 
 
 " Let's go to Henry's," he suggested. "That's where 
 they feed you best just now." 
 
 It was in the minute of going out to take a cab that 
 222
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 each found leisure to note the changes that seven months 
 had produced in his companion. 
 
 "By George, he's improved!" Traffbrd said to him- 
 self. "I believe Paula would see it. He's better- 
 looking, and he's smarter, and he's got an expression in 
 his face that was never there before." 
 
 " I wonder what's aged him so ?" Wiltshire was ask- 
 ing, silently. "He's grown old in half a year. He 
 looks like a man who's had some great shock. I sup- 
 pose it must have been Mrs. Trafford's death." 
 
 The scraps of conversation after they had ordered 
 lunch were as the tuning of the fiddles to the playing of 
 the piece. Wiltshire talked of his trip to the Cape, 
 and gave his views on South Africa. He shifted to the 
 Dolomites, where he had been in August, and passed 
 on to tell of a few days' shooting he had just had 
 in Hungary. 
 
 "Now I'm on my way home to slaughter birds at 
 Edenbridge. I suppose Alice and I must have some 
 people there." 
 
 "I expect you're very keen on it," Trafford hazarded. 
 
 "Not a bit. If there was anything better to do, I 
 shouldn't go. Let me give you one of these eggs a 
 1'ecossaise. You'll find 'em good. The fact is, Traf- 
 ford, I can't stay anywhere. I'm on the jump. Wher- 
 ever I am, I feel as if I should be more at peace some- 
 where else. When I went out to the Cape, I thought 
 that if I could only get away from Europe I should be 
 all right; and yet, bless you, I hadn't been there a day 
 before I was mad to be back again in England. But, 
 
 223
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Lord! England is the last place I can stay in. If ever 
 I do take a week at one of my places over there, Alice 
 passes a procession of virgins before me, as if I were 
 King Ahasuerus." 
 
 "Well, you'll marry one of them in time." 
 
 "No, that's done for. I'm one of those dull men with 
 whom such things go hard. It's just a year ago, isn't 
 it, since we first spoke of of something that never 
 came off?" 
 
 " If you don't mind my saying so, Wiltshire, I always 
 thought you gave up that fight rather easily." 
 
 "Do you mean ?" Wiltshire began, with a jerk. 
 
 "No, I don't. I don't mean anything more than I 
 say. In business we generally keep at a thing till we do 
 it. In love " 
 
 "In love there are two sides to consider. In business 
 you have only your own." 
 
 "But I've always understood that the business of love 
 was to make the two sides one." 
 
 "When you can. I was under the impression that 
 I couldn't. May I ask you if you are of another 
 opinion ?" 
 
 "My dear boy, I have no opinion at all. All I know 
 is that since you left Monte Carlo last February my 
 little girl has been a different creature. There's some- 
 thing the matter with her still. I don't know what it is, 
 but it's clear she isn't the same." 
 
 "Do you mean that she's unhappy?" 
 
 "I shouldn't go so far as that; and yet if I did I don't 
 know that I should be very wrong. To me it seems as 
 
 224
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 if she were living in another world. She goes and sits 
 for hours in the park of the Petit Trianon my little 
 place touches it, you know and when she comes back 
 the look in her eyes is like that of some sweet soul strayed 
 out of paradise. I don't know what to say to her or 
 how to talk to her I'm damned if I do." 
 
 Traffbrd made fierce lunges at his slice of pre-sale, 
 and ate savagely. Wiltshire did not eat at all. He sat 
 reflecting for a few minutes before he spoke. 
 
 "I've been under the impression," he said at last, 
 "that there was something between her and young 
 Winship, the painter." 
 
 "Oh, pshaw! There was nothing in that," Traffbrd 
 declared, gulping nervously at his Chablis. "What 
 could there be ?" 
 
 "Only what might not be unreasonable between a 
 girl like Miss Traffbrd and a handsome, idealistic young 
 chap " 
 
 "Oh, come now! The fellow's a damned scoundrel. 
 I know all his ins and outs, and of his people before 
 him." 
 
 "I'm surprised to hear you say that. I've always 
 thought rather highly of him. Alice has just got him 
 a somewhat important commission. He's been over at 
 Sandringham painting Queen Alexandra. She'd heard 
 about his portrait of Miss Traffbrd, and got Alice to 
 send her a photograph of it. She seems to have been 
 quite struck with it, and sent Miss Traffbrd a message 
 to that effect. She thought the likeness extraordinary,, 
 apart from the other merits of the work." 
 
 225
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Yes, I believe Lady Alice did write Paula some- 
 thing of the sort." 
 
 "We were rather pleased over the business, so that 
 I'm sorry to hear your opinion of the young man " 
 
 "Oh, my opinion is of no importance. The only 
 thing that counts is that, as far as I can see, Paula thinks 
 of him as I do. I shouldn't pay any attention to the 
 matter, in one way or another, if it were not for the 
 purpose of assuring you " 
 
 "Thanks!" 
 
 The word came out in that dry, laconic tone which 
 hints that the rest of the subject can be best pursued in 
 silence. It was dropped then and there, with a sig- 
 nificant abstention from further speech. It was only 
 when they were shaking hands at the door, to go their 
 different ways, that Trafford alluded to it again. 
 
 "I say, Wiltshire," he began, with a touch of em- 
 barrassment, "I hope you won't take anything I said 
 about young Winship too seriously." 
 
 "Oh no; I assure you." 
 
 "I called him a scoundrel. I had no right to do that. 
 It's a word I'm too quick to use of any one whose ideas 
 are different from mine. From the little intercourse 
 I've had with the man, I can't say that I like him, and 
 yet I'm blowed if there isn't something in him I rather 
 admire." 
 
 "Oh, I sha'n't think any more about it. Well, 
 good-bye, old chap. I'm ever so glad to have seen 
 you." 
 
 "Good-bye," Trafford returned, as he got into his 
 226
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 fiacre. "I'll tell Paula you're here, and I know she'll 
 want you to come out and see us." 
 
 Wiltshire waited till Trafford was out of hearing 
 before he turned round to the chasseur at the door of 
 the restaurant. 
 
 "Find out for me," he said, "when there will be a 
 train for Versailles, and call me a cab."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 A^ hour later Wiltshire stood before the little 
 palace built for Jeanne du Barry, but stamped 
 with the immortal charm of Marie Antoinette. It was 
 so many years since he had been there that he had for- 
 gotten the simple elegance of its pale, pilastered fa9ade, 
 against which four pomegranate-trees made dark spots 
 of verdure, with an occasional late scarlet flower. Cab- 
 men hung about the gateway, children played in the 
 court, and tourists waited at the door for their turn to 
 enter. She would not be here, he said to himself, and 
 passed onward to the park. 
 
 He avoided the road to the Hameau and the more 
 frequented routes. If he found her at all, it would be in 
 some secluded spot, where the tourist would be little 
 likely to venture. From the terrace of the villa he sur- 
 veyed the French garden, with its lines of purple, scarlet, 
 and orange flowers making arabesque designs between 
 the quaint, close-clipped limes planted by Louis XV. 
 With the exception of some children sailing a boat on 
 the basin in the centre, there was no one there. Down 
 by the Octagon Pavilion a girl in white was sketching; 
 he descended towards her, but it was not she whom he 
 sought. He went on through a labyrinth of hedges, 
 
 228
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 where princesses and court ladies had loved to wander 
 in the cool of the apres-dmie" and now the shy birds 
 were startled by a foot-fall, taking flight with a sharp 
 whir of wings; but all was solitude and silence. The 
 rose-red line of the Grand Trianon, skirted about by 
 gardens, brilliant with the splendid hues of the end of 
 summer, showed itself on his left; but he turned from it 
 and sought the deeper recesses of the park. A majestic 
 mournfulness spread about him as he went farther on. 
 Pines shot up their bronze-colored shafts with the 
 straightness of palms. Ancient pointed firs drooped 
 with a melancholy sweep, dragging their lower branches 
 on the ivy-tangled ground. Junipers, soft as mimosas 
 and spreading like cedars, were as red with berries as 
 pomegranates in flower. Dark walls of clipped yew 
 led to stone basins, where the water was heavy with 
 dead leaves, and the bronze water-babies seemed to 
 have been arrested forever, in mid-play, by tidings of 
 calamity. Pale buildings showed here and there their 
 crumbling roofs through clusters of lilac or beneath 
 yellowing elms. Here was a rustic village, there a 
 temple of love, elsewhere a sculptured pavilion, and 
 everywhere the ghost of a woman whose story is the 
 most moving of earthly dramas since that of the Son 
 of Man. 
 
 Wiltshire wandered on, seeing no one but an occa- 
 sional workman or a party of tourists. 
 
 " Never mind," he said to himself. " If I don't find 
 her to-day, I shall come every day till I do." 
 
 He strayed aimlessly, knowing that any deliberate 
 229
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 search would be useless and that only some happy 
 chance would bring them together. There were many 
 probabilities that, in the semi-obscurity of shaded 
 allees and winding paths, they would pass each other 
 by. There were many more that she had not come at 
 all. Still he would keep on, he said, until twilight told 
 him that further staying would be fruitless. He would 
 rather meet her in some such spot as this than in the 
 commonplace atmosphere of a drawing-room. 
 
 There was a moment when he found himself in a by- 
 way dim with the enchanting gloom of laurel, privet, 
 and box. The sunlight that filtered through the high 
 trees above reached here only in faint flecks of gold 
 on the sombre foliage. The pathway climbed a little 
 knoll, and seemed to lead into some sacred grove. A 
 murmur of falling water caught his ear, and he followed 
 its music, seeking the source. There were no birds nor 
 flowers only a hush, a stillness, a solemnity, as if sound 
 would be a profanation, since the songs and laughter 
 of the proud men and light-hearted women, who had 
 frequented here, had been frozen on the lips by the 
 horror of the coming tragedy. 
 
 It was with surprise that Wiltshire emerged suddenly 
 into a sunny grass-plot, with a view of green meadows 
 and a meandering stream. Close beside him, on the 
 brow of a little cliff, perched a small pavilion an 
 epitome of that beauty, simple, stately, and sure of itself, 
 to which the eighteenth century worked up, through all 
 the splendors of color and all the graces of form. The 
 autumn sunlight, bathing the cream-colored walls, 
 
 230
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 showed glimpses of the white-and-gold decoration 
 within the lyre, the harp, the flute, and whatever else 
 is suggestive of lightness, gladness, and song. Wiltshire 
 stood still. He was not an imaginative man and yet 
 he could almost persuade himself that he heard the 
 tinkle of the spinet giving out some melody of Gluck's 
 he could almost fancy that he caught sight, through 
 the high windows, of the Queen's white fichu or 
 Madame Elisabeth's percale. 
 
 He was so lost in the memories of the spot that for a 
 minute he nearly forgot the object of his quest. It was 
 only when he began to look about him that he became 
 aware of the presence of a girl in black. She stood in 
 the centre of an arched rustic bridge, which, beyond 
 the pavilion, spanned the tiny, artificial chasm be- 
 neath. Behind her a towering mass of rocks formed 
 a sort of grotto, from whence came the sound of falling 
 water which had lured him on. Her hands rested on 
 the rustic balustrade of the bridge, and she stood look- 
 ing at him, as he at her. 
 
 For a minute it seemed as if there were some uncer- 
 tainty in their mutual recognition. It was only when 
 her lips quivered in a faint smile that Wiltshire had the 
 courage to go forward. 
 
 " How strange !" she cried, turning to offer him 
 her hand, but not moving from her place in the 
 centre of the bridge. " I was just thinking of 
 you." 
 
 "And I of you," Wiltshire responded, keeping her 
 hand an instant longer than he need have done. "There 
 
 231
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 must surely have been some unseen force at work be- 
 tween us." 
 
 "Did you think I should be here ?" she questioned, in 
 her direct way. 
 
 " I knew you lived somewhere near by," he replied, 
 evasively. "I was really strolling about at haphazard. 
 It's the most wonderful thing in the world that I should 
 have found you like this." 
 
 "Yes, it is," she agreed. "I come out into the park 
 nearly every day, and I don't think I've ever met any 
 one I knew before. Over at Versailles one does, but 
 so few people ever come to the Trianons, except to take 
 a hurried run through the villas and a walk down to the 
 Hameau. They don't know anything about the real 
 beauties and associations of the place." 
 
 "I didn't myself till this afternoon." 
 
 " Oh, but you can't know anything yet." 
 
 " I could learn, though, if you'd teach me and take 
 me about." 
 
 "I should love to," she smiled, "but you wouldn't 
 have the time. I doubt, too, if you'd have the patience 
 or the interest or the imagination." 
 
 "Of the four conditions, I know I could take the time, 
 and I could cultivate the others. All I should want 
 would be a little steering." 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "I'm afraid you'd need more than that. I ques- 
 tion whether you're one of the elect few who worship 
 the shadows of other days. This is the enchanted 
 garden of the past. It's one of the few spots on earth 
 
 232
 
 where the past isn't past. Almost everywhere else in 
 Rome or Athens or Egypt, for instance the things 
 that happened a long time ago are hopelessly out of one's 
 mental reach. But it isn't so here. This is one of the 
 rare places that later generations have been wise enough 
 to let alone. This very spot where we're standing is 
 exactly as it was when Marie Antoinette left it, on 
 October 5, 1789. Did you know that she was right 
 here in this grotto when the messenger came to tell her 
 that the mob from Paris was advancing on Versailles ? 
 She hurried over to the Chateau, and never came back 
 any more." 
 
 She spoke with a certain breathlessness, as though to 
 gain time or to conceal embarrassment. 
 
 " I'm sure I could learn details of that sort if any- 
 body would be willing to teach me." 
 
 "Ah, but would you come and sit here with Marie 
 Antoinette herself? Would you put yourself back into 
 her time, and live with her through all her follies and 
 heartaches and sufferings ?" 
 
 "I shouldn't ask for anything better, if you'd just 
 show me how to do it." 
 
 "I can see already that you wouldn't have the spirit. 
 I'll test you. Look over there, in that path beyond the 
 lake. Tell me what you see." 
 
 "I see two elderly ladies in dark dresses. One has 
 knitting in her hand, and one is carrying a parasol." 
 
 "And that's all?" 
 
 "That's all I can see with the naked eye. If I had a 
 field-glass " 
 
 " 233
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Now, that's Madame Adelaide and Madame Vic- 
 toire, the King's aunts. They're neither so young nor 
 so pretty as when Nattier painted the splendid portraits 
 over at Versailles, but there's something sweet and 
 touching in their faces, and I love to watch them. They 
 come over to Trianon every afternoon, between dinner 
 and supper. If there's to be music in this little pavilion, 
 you'll see them, presently, stroll up here. Now, listen. 
 What do you hear here ?" 
 
 "I hear some children squabbling." 
 
 "No! How can you? They're not squabbling. 
 That's the little Dauphin and Madame Royale singing. 
 They've been up in the English garden, and they'll go 
 by, in a minute, to drive their team of goats in the 
 meadow. He, poor lamb, will look so wide-eyed and 
 innocent ; and she will have already in her young face 
 the prophetic expression of sadness that Vigee-Lebrun 
 giv^s her. But I know you won't see it. You'll think 
 it's two school-children from Versailles. That's be- 
 cause you haven't the spirit. I feel certain already that 
 you couldn't tell me who that is, over there beneath that 
 line of trees." 
 
 "It looks to me like Madame Elisabeth or the 
 Princess de Lamballe," Wiltshire said, with a laugh, 
 "only that she's limping." 
 
 "It's the Queen," Paula affirmed, decidedly. "You 
 can tell that by her walk. She isn't limping. It only 
 seems so to you. No one else has that sort of gliding 
 carriage, so graceful and, at the same time, so dignified. 
 Besides, she's alone. That's significant in itself. It's 
 
 234
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 only at Trianon that etiquette is suspended and she can 
 walk without her suite. She's on her way to the Ha- 
 meau to see the cows milked. There's nothing she en- 
 joys so much, poor thing. She'll be here in a minute, 
 so I think we'd better go away. If you'll come home 
 with me, I'll give you a cup of tea, and perhaps you'll 
 see papa. He's been in Paris all day, but he generally 
 gets back about this time." 
 
 Wiltshire kept to himself the fact that he had seen 
 papa already, and hoped that, if they met, Trafford 
 would do the same. It was just as well that Paula 
 should think the meeting had come about through the 
 special intervention of Providence. He turned when 
 she did, and followed her down, through dim and nar- 
 row paths, where they could not walk abreast, towards 
 the open avenue. He found answers to the many 
 questions she asked about himself, as she led the way. 
 Where had he come from ? Where was he going ? 
 How had he happened to drop down in the middle of 
 the park of the Petit Trianon, of all the odd places in 
 the world ? But, as he spoke, he had Trafford's words 
 at luncheon ringing in his heart: "Some sweet soul 
 strayed out of paradise." That was what she was. 
 He could see exactly what her father had meant. The 
 change in her was difficult to define, but it was very 
 visible. It would be a vulgarizing of its spiritual qual- 
 ity to say that it had made her thinner and paler, but 
 that was the effect. "Her eyes are homes of silent 
 prayer," was the quotation he had been making to 
 himself all the time she had been chattering about the 
 
 235
 
 Tl4E GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 King's aunts. It was clear that her self-possession 
 was but superficial, and that even the cheerfulness of 
 her conversation had a forced note. 
 
 "No happy woman could look like that," he said to 
 himself, when once she turned half round. 
 
 With a great leaping of the heart, he wondered if he 
 could be the cause of her hidden grief. Trafford had 
 hinted as much, and yet the idea was too grotesque. 
 She must have known that a sign from her would have 
 brought him back at any time. He would have scouted 
 the very thought, had it not offered a straw for his 
 drowning hope to cling to. Besides, it was not an un- 
 heard-of thing for a beautiful woman to love an ugly 
 man. He could think of several instances among his 
 own acquaintances. Was it possible, after all, that the 
 miracle had been wrought for him ?
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 
 
 WHEN they reached an avenue of towering elms, 
 touched already with the yellow brown of au- 
 tumn, Wiltshire was able to take his place by her side. 
 
 "This is our way," she said. "We have a little gate 
 farther down that leads into our own grounds. I'm 
 glad you've come out, because I like showing my garden 
 to people who haven't seen it. Lady Alice was good 
 enough to compare it to the famous one at your Irish 
 place, but I dare say she did that only to please me." 
 
 " By-the-way, you've heard from Alice lately, haven't 
 you ?" 
 
 "Yes; she wrote to give me the Queen's kind mes- 
 sage about about my portrait." 
 
 Wiltshire noticed the instant of hesitation, and ob- 
 served her sharply. She continued to walk on, with 
 head erect, in the resolute fashion he had already re- 
 marked as being new to her, but no touch of c.olor came 
 into her pale cheek. 
 
 "I suppose you know that the King was so much 
 pleased with Winship's picture of the Queen that he 
 has made him stay at Sandringham to paint the Princess 
 Victoria." 
 
 "No; I didn't know it. I'm so glad." 
 237
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 She glanced towards him, but again he got nothing 
 from his scrutiny. It seemed to him, however, that the 
 old, appealing look was gone, and that in its place had 
 come something detached, uplifted, which caused him 
 a sudden sinking of the heart. 
 
 "I might as well hope to marry an angel," was the 
 thought that passed through his mind. Aloud he said : 
 "Yes; it's a fine thing for Winship. Alice writes me 
 that owing to his being kept so long at Sandringham, 
 he's had to cut short the visit he was going to make at 
 Edenbridge. She hopes to have him for a night or two, 
 but not more. I believe he has orders ahead that will 
 keep him busy for the next two years." 
 
 "I'm so glad," she said again. 
 
 "I thought you would be," he went on, "especially 
 after what you said of the family at Monte Carlo. Do 
 you remember ?" 
 
 "Yes, perfectly. I ought to say, perhaps, that I 
 found you were right, and that it wasn't possible to do 
 what I thought of then." 
 
 "You've done a great deal better. He's a made 
 man through what shall I say ? through your co- 
 operation." 
 
 "You mean the portrait. I was only an accident in 
 that. He would have had the same success with any- 
 body else. It was bound to come." 
 
 "Perhaps so ; and yet the hand that lifts us up is the 
 one to which we must be grateful. We can't say that 
 another would have done as well." 
 
 If Paula betrayed herself at all, it was then. She 
 238
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 stopped in her walk and confronted him. They had 
 entered a dim, turf-carpeted avenue, where the solemn 
 aisle of overhanging green stretched on, like that of some 
 stupendous church, to a distant arch of sunlight. The 
 swish of a hedge-trimmer's sickle cut sharply on the 
 stillness, and far away they could hear the rumbling 
 of a forester's wain. In a round opening in the wood 
 stood a lonely, noseless, armless statue of Themistocles, 
 the one poor, melancholy ghost of the jovous, by-gone 
 centuries, 
 
 "I want to tell you something, Duke," Paula began, 
 with the forced self-possession he had already remarked 
 in her. "I should like you to know it before you see 
 papa. I speak of it because well, because of what we 
 talked about that day at Monaco. If my father ever 
 owed Mr. Winship anything, he doesn't now." 
 
 "No?" 
 
 "No. Mr. Winship found the means by which to 
 repay himself. It wasn't in money; it was in some- 
 thing else. Mr. Winship wouldn't take the money." 
 
 "Do you mean that your father offered to ?" 
 
 "Yes ; but Mr. Winship refused." 
 
 "And of course that hurt your father." 
 
 "You'll see. That's one reason why I'm telling you. 
 Papa is very much changed; he's aged in every way. I 
 want you to be prepared for it." 
 
 "Am I to understand that Winship had the power ?" 
 
 " He had the power to wound my father deeply, and 
 he used it. I can't explain myself any further. I only 
 want you to know that papa isn't what he used to be. 
 
 239
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Dear mamma's death was a great blow to him and 
 then this other thing and everything " 
 
 She broke off with a pathetic little gesture, and turned 
 to walk on again. 
 
 " I understand," Wiltshire murmured, though he did 
 not understand at all. 
 
 Paula said no more, and he felt it best to let the sub- 
 ject drop. They went on in silence to the end of the 
 vista, emerging all of a sudden into the open country, 
 with a wide prospect of fields, reaped and yellow, or 
 lush and green. Dotted about in the hills all round, 
 white chateaux stood in pleasant nooks, sheltered by 
 overhanging woods. 
 
 "This is our place," Paula said, passing through a 
 wicket-gate into a grove of firs. " It goes by the name 
 of the Pavilion de la Reine, because, I believe, the first 
 building on the ground was a sort of studio where Marie 
 Leczinska used to paint. The present house is quite 
 modern, though, as you'll see; it's in the style of Louis 
 XIII. We thought at first of one or two more historic 
 places that happened to be in the market, but dear 
 mamma said she wouldn't live with anybody's ghosts, 
 and so we took this." 
 
 In a minute or two they came out on the lowest of 
 three wide terraces, with gardens designed in the style 
 of Le Notre, leading up to the cheerful red-brick fa9ade 
 of a house at once dignified and homelike. Hedges 
 of box and privet were broken by statues and sculptured 
 urns, while rows of conically clipped yews made quaint 
 and stately contrast to the majestic elms and chestnuts, 
 
 240
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 where the gardens merged into the park. Down from 
 the centre of the house came a broad walk, straight as a 
 ribbon, descending from terrace to terrace by flights of 
 marble steps. Each terrace had its pair of fountains, 
 of which the two on the middle plane were playing. 
 Not far behind the chateau the ground rose gently into 
 a wooded hill. 
 
 "Charming!" Wiltshire commented, as they stood 
 still for a minute to look up over the successive stages 
 of blossom and verdure. "It does recall our garden at 
 Kilmaurice, as Alice said. Only this is the real thing, 
 and that's the imitation." 
 
 "I'm glad you like it," Paula returned. "I'm very 
 fond of it. Papa bought the place only for week-ends, 
 and for entertaining passing Americans, who like to see 
 a bit of the country; but we've come to like it better than 
 any of our houses. Ah, there's papa now. He's got 
 back. Papa, dear," she called, "here's an old friend 
 whom I'm sure you'll be glad to see." 
 
 When Traffbrd turned from the idle contemplation 
 of a peacock spreading his tail, his face took on slowly 
 the expression of admiring appreciation it had some- 
 times shown to his associates when they had carried 
 through some unexpectedly successful "deal." When 
 he laughed and clapped his hands, and called out 
 "Gad!" in a big, jovial voice, Wiltshire knew that his 
 own prompt action had met with approval, and that 
 Paula would hear nothing of the luncn at Henry's in 
 the morning. 
 
 "It's done him good to see you already," Paula mur- 
 241
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 mured, as Traffbrd came down to meet them, shouting 
 words of welcome. "And," she added, quietly, "it 
 does me good, too, to see him look pleased again." 
 
 "If it only needs that " Wiltshire began, but Traf- 
 ford was upon them, and they could say no more. 
 
 At tea, in the English garden, on the other side of the 
 house, Paula was conscious of the fact that they had not 
 been so cheerful since long before her mother died. 
 The sense of constraint which had become permanent 
 between her father and herself seemed to drop away 
 in the presence of this kindly man, with his unofficious 
 sympathy. From her seat behind the tea-table, in the 
 shade of a trellised wall, hung with honeysuckle, clem- 
 atis, and roses, she watched the two men, out in the sun- 
 light, on the grass. She half listened, and half followed 
 her own thoughts, as Wiltshire explained to her father 
 the exact situation between the Church and the State in 
 France. For the first time in months the ashen hue had 
 disappeared from Trafford's face, while the old light of 
 power stole back into his dulled eyes. Wiltshire, too, 
 was changed. She had noticed that from the beginning, 
 but now she had time to remark the fact more con- 
 sciously. It was as if he had acquired the dignity that 
 comes from mental or moral suffering. That reflection 
 brought a pang with it, and the pity which had always 
 entered into her regard for him took on a new degree of 
 tenderness. 
 
 It required but little urging to induce Wiltshire to 
 stay and dine. Again Paula had the sensation that life 
 had come into their atmosphere once more. Her 
 
 242
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 father told his favorite stories with the relish he would 
 have had a year ago, and laughed with his old-time 
 jollity as he made the familiar points. He absorbed 
 Wiltshire's attention with the curious fascination he al- 
 ways had for men ; and it both pleased and amused her 
 to see that, when she left them at the end of dinner, 
 neither of them noticed it, except to rise as she passed 
 out. 
 
 It was then, however, thatTrafford's manner changed. 
 He told no more anecdotes, and presently, as they 
 smoked, he went back to politics. From politics he 
 passed to business, and from business to philanthropy. 
 Then, for a few minutes, conversation flagged. Wilt- 
 shire felt that they had been working up to something, 
 and waited for the cue. 
 
 "Speaking of philanthropy," Traffbrd said, with a 
 sudden effort, " I've got a lot cf money I should like to 
 give away." 
 
 "That's easily done, as a rule," Wiltshire laughed. 
 
 "As a rule yes," Trafford went on, slowly. "But 
 my case is a little outside the rule. I wonder if I could 
 make you understand it ? I've often thought that, if 
 ever I had the chance, I should like to talk it out with 
 you confidentially." 
 
 "Oh, confidentially, of course," Wiltshire said, po- 
 litely. 
 
 "You see, I've given away a deuce of a lot of money, 
 in one way or another. I've given to charities, I've 
 given to churches, I've given to hospitals, I've given 
 to orphanages and colleges and libraries and picture- 
 
 243
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 galleries, and every other damned thing there is to give 
 to. Now I should like to do something different from 
 all that." 
 
 He paused to puff nervously at his cigar. Wiltshire 
 waited for him to go on. 
 
 "I don't have to tell you," he resumed, "that I've 
 been what is called a successful man. Well, to make 
 my successes a good many poor devils have had to fail. 
 I know that I'm under no obligation to consider them 
 none whatever. And yet, as I grow old, I'll be hanged 
 if I don't think of them a good deal. Perhaps it's 
 nerves, or perhaps it's nothing but the living every day 
 with such a creature as that little girl of mine. What- 
 ever the reason, there's the fact that I should be glad 
 to shuffle back some of this useless money into the 
 hands of those who used to well, who need it more 
 than I, at any rate." 
 
 "How would you propose to do it ?" Wiltshire asked, 
 puffing quietly. 
 
 " There you've got me. That's where I don't see my 
 way. I suppose to you it seems easy." 
 
 "No; on the contrary, I can quite understand that 
 it might be a ticklish job." 
 
 "It's infernally ticklish. It's one of the queer ele- 
 ments of the situation. Here I am, a well-meaning 
 man, with no other longing than to do good, and I'll be 
 hanged if I can. I could give you the names of a dozen 
 people old enemies, or old enemies' widows and or- 
 phans whom I should be willing to set up for life, and 
 yet I doubt if they'd let me. You'd hardly believe that." 
 
 244
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " Oh yes," Wiltshire replied, dryly. " A little knowl- 
 edge of human nature makes the thing clear enough." 
 
 "That's it. You've got that knowledge, and so I 
 thought that you might help me." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 Wiltshire withdrew his cigar from his lips, and looked 
 round with some astonishment. 
 
 "I mean," Trafford explained, half apologetically, 
 "that if, in any particular instance, you had the chance 
 to facilitate the thing " 
 
 "Of course, of course. Were you thinking of any 
 one especially ?" 
 
 "No no that is I know you've befriended the 
 family of that that young Winship who who 
 painted a portrait " 
 
 "Quite so. We were speaking of him at lunch this 
 morning, if you remember." 
 
 "You may not be aware that his father was an old 
 opponent of mine." 
 
 "I know the circumstances vaguely." 
 
 "Then I won't go into them further than to say he 
 was the kind of old fellow you couldn't spare. I did 
 my best to save him and his family from ruin, but when 
 they were bent on running into it, I had to let them. 
 That's all over years ago. Now he has this son and 
 an old-maid daughter. Don't you understand, Wilt- 
 shire, that with more money than I know what to do 
 with with money of which I could take three-fourths 
 and bury it in a hole in the ground and still remain a rich 
 man don't you understand that I should be glad ?" 
 245
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 He stopped as if searching for a word. 
 
 "I quite understand," Wiltshire hastened to say. 
 "But isn't it the case that Winship is getting beyond 
 the need of generosity of that sort ?" 
 
 "No one is beyond the need of what he can get. And 
 whether he's so or not, I want the fellow to have the 
 money. I want to know that he's taken it. What he 
 does with it afterwards, or what his sister does with it, 
 won't matter a twopenny damn as far as I'm con- 
 cerned ; but I want to know that they've had it. I'd 
 leave it on his door-step, I'd stuff it down his throat, 
 just for the satisfaction of getting rid of it." 
 
 He laughed grimly, and threw the stump of his cigar 
 on the ash-tray. 
 
 "Why don't you tell him so?" 
 
 "I've done so," Traffbrd answered, after a moment's 
 hesitation. "He wouldn't take it." 
 
 "Then what would you expect me to do ?" 
 
 "Do ? Do anything, so long as they take the money. 
 I don't care a jot about their knowing it's from me. 
 I'll give you a million dollars two hundred thousand 
 pounds to juggle into their pockets by any tale you 
 can invent. Gad ! when I think how easy it's been to 
 make money, it seems like the irony of the very Lord 
 above to find it so difficult to throw it away." 
 
 There were several pertinent remarks in Wiltshire's 
 mind, but he withheld them. As a matter of fact, he 
 was slightly appalled by the lifting of this corner of the 
 veil on the rich man's conscience. From the beginning 
 of their acquaintance he had been interested in Traf- 
 
 246
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 ford, as the type of American success, while he had been 
 drawn to him by a certain bigness and generosity 
 in Trafford's character; but he shrank from contact 
 with the details of his business career, with the distaste 
 of the hereditary grand seigneur. It was a relief to him 
 when Trafford rose, and, assuming another tone, af- 
 fected to take the matter lightly. He himself tried to 
 do the same. 
 
 "Winship is as pig-headed a chap as was ever driven 
 to market," he said, as they went towards the drawing- 
 room, "but I know him pretty well, and, if it's any 
 service to you, I'll try to influence him for his good."
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 PHE appearance in the New York Magazine of 
 1 the famous series of articles, in which the history 
 and methods of the Vermont Mining Company were 
 exposed, had a clarifying effect on Paula's chaotic 
 thought. Till then she had not been without the per- 
 sistent hope that some way of reconciliation might be 
 found between Winship and her father. "Roger loves 
 me," she argued to herself, in the first days of the 
 separation. "He'll come back, and take the money, 
 for my sake." But when she had read to a close the 
 first of the articles that fell under her notice, she had 
 none of that hope left. "He'll not take it," she said 
 to herself then. "No man who knew this could." 
 As she made the reflection, there floated through her 
 mind Lovelace's couplet: 
 
 "7 had not loved thee, dear, so much, 
 Loved I not honor more." 
 
 The lines brought her a vague consolation. She re- 
 peated them often after that. They seemed to justify 
 Winship for what had appeared to her like cruelty. 
 
 That was in July. She had picked up the current 
 
 248
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 number of the New York Magazine quite casually at a 
 news-stand, not suspecting that it could contain any- 
 thing of special interest to herself. She learned from 
 it that the articles had been appearing since the previous 
 March, and ordered all the numbers to be sent to her. 
 
 The first instalment dealt, among other things, with 
 the origin of the Trafford family, and contained many 
 details of which Paula herself had little knowledge. 
 It informed her that in the early eighteen hundreds 
 William Trafford had been a laborer at Cannock 
 Chase, in Staffordshire. He married a girl named 
 Sarah Paul, by whom he had a large family, several of 
 their descendants being miners at Cannock Chase to- 
 day. John Trafford, their second son, emigrated to 
 America about the year 1833. He settled as a farmer 
 near Cumberland, Vermont, where he married Jennie 
 O'Mara, a pretty Irish girl, servant in the house of 
 Julius Murray, a coal merchant in the neighboring 
 town. 
 
 John and Jennie Trafford were thrifty, industrious 
 people, with that instinct to rise in the world which dis- 
 tinguished the earlier emigrants from the British Isles. 
 Unable themselves to read or write, they were eager to 
 give their children the best educational advantages the 
 neighborhood afforded. These were exhausted, ap- 
 parently, when Andrew was fourteen and Paul was 
 twelve. Then both lads went to work, Andrew remain- 
 ing with his father on the farm, while Paul found 
 employment as office-boy, with Julius Murray, in the 
 town. 
 
 17 249
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 From that point the biography dealt chiefly with the 
 younger of the two. It recounted in detail Paul's first 
 bit of business inspiration, in which the boy showed 
 himself as father to the man. A letter from Peter 
 O'Mara, his mother's brother, who worked in the 
 Dundee Mines, in Pennsylvania, had hinted at one of 
 those early difficulties between miner and employer 
 which were afterwards organized into strikes. Julius 
 Murray told, during all the rest of his life, how Paul 
 had rushed into his office breathless with the news, 
 He was fond of describing the lad, as he stood there, 
 straight and erect, in all the dignity of his thirteen 
 years, his hands behind his back, and his blue eyes 
 flashing. "Wouldn't it be well, Mr. Murray, to buy 
 up all the Dundee coal you can get between to-day and 
 to-morrow ? By the day after that everybody else will 
 know the news as well as we." Julius Murray, un- 
 accustomed to wisdom from the mouth of babes and 
 sucklings, laughed at the boy's ardor and pooh- 
 poohed his advice. When he awoke next day to the 
 fact that he was letting a great opportunity slip by, he 
 had only twenty-four hours in which to do the work of 
 forty-eight. The money he made when, in the follow- 
 ing winter, Dundee coal went up to the price, unheard 
 of in those days, of eleven dollars a ton, was that which 
 gave Miss Julia Murray the claim to be considered an 
 heiress when she eloped with Paul Trafford in 1870. 
 
 In subsequent numbers Paula read the history of the 
 Trafford rise, step by step, scheme by scheme, million 
 by million, lawsuit by lawsuit, fight by fight a great, 
 
 250
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 sordid epic of finance, in which reputations were ruined, 
 homes wrecked, lives blasted, and a whole country's 
 commercial, legal, political, and moral honor brought 
 painfully into question. 
 
 Paula read with no more than a vague comprehension. 
 There were so many characters in the play lawyers, 
 bankers, merchants, capitalists, speculators, senators, 
 governors, engineers, journalists, and politicians of 
 every sort that she grew confused among them. The 
 scene shifted so often now to San Francisco, now to 
 Chicago, now to Washington, now to St. Louis, now 
 to New York that her mind could not keep pace with 
 the action. There were so many questions involved 
 legal, legislative, geological, and economical that her 
 simple intelligence reeled in the effort to understand. 
 
 Where there were dramatic personal events, she 
 grasped the subject more fully. She could follow the 
 story of the ruin of the Winships from beginning to end. 
 She could do the same with those of the Marshalls, of 
 Turtonville, of the Brewers, of Albany, and of poor 
 Jackson, of Ohio. But whether details were clear to 
 her or not, one great fact surged up out of this weltering 
 mass of testimony that the father she adored had 
 fought his way to success by means which made her 
 shudder. Nothing she had guessed at, nothing she had 
 feared, could equal this heaping up of testimony from 
 every corner of the land. Nothing she had ever imag- 
 ined of Russian tyranny or Turkish misrule could be 
 more merciless than the despotism with which her 
 father and his associates, in a country considered free* 
 
 251
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 had been able to club and crush and gag and grind into 
 helplessness whatever lifted itself against them. And 
 he was her father ! She was his child ! She was bone 
 of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She could no more 
 dissociate herself from him and his work than she could 
 from the line of laborers and servants from whom she 
 sprang. However confused she might be about facts, 
 she had no doubt as to her duty here : it was to stand by 
 the man who depended upon her; to stand by him all 
 the more now, when, in his old age, the storm of popular 
 wrath was gathering and breaking about him. 
 
 All through July, August, and September she had 
 been reading these articles secretly. That her father 
 was reading them secretly, too, she knew from seeing 
 in the New York Herald or the Times an occasional 
 statement from his legal representatives, in which this 
 or that accusation was denied. How deeply he re- 
 sented this history of himself she could see from his 
 increased depression as each new number of the series 
 appeared. Now, on one of the last days of September, 
 the October issue was in her hands. 
 
 She had just finished reading it, in her favorite corner 
 of the English garden. It had been especially pitiless 
 to her father in the piling up of charges against him. 
 She closed the volume, and with hands clasped upon it 
 gazed vaguely across the lawn, indifferent to its sunlit 
 spaces, as well as to the masses of dahlia and canna, 
 gorgeous with autumn bloom. 
 
 "No, no," she kept saying to herself, "Roger couldn't 
 take that money. It's blood -money. And I must 
 
 252
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 keep it. There's no way by which I could give it up. 
 If I did, it would kill papa. I must go on, all my life 
 clothed in the ruin of beggared men and of hungry 
 women and children. Roger said that, and it's quite 
 true. My pearls are their tears and my rubies are 
 their sweat of blood. And yet I must wear them, for 
 papa's sake, whatever the world may think, whatever 
 Roger himself may believe of me. O Rogerl O my 
 love! How can I go on all through the years without 
 you? Oh, God help me!" she prayed, with a sudden 
 lifting of her eyes. "Oh, God, help me! I'm so weak. 
 I'm so tired. I've so little strength left to keep the 
 struggle up." 
 
 Her breath came in hard gasps, the tears blinded her. 
 She had just time to control herself, and dash her hand 
 across her eyes, as she saw Wiltshire coming towards 
 her through the trees. 
 
 She was not surprised. She knew he would be look- 
 ing for her somewhere in the grounds. During the 
 week after their first meeting, he had come every second 
 day to the Pavilion de la Reine. During the week after 
 that, his visits had been daily. In the third week, 
 Trafford had invited him to move out to Versailles and 
 become their guest. 
 
 To this arrangement Paula had given the welcome of 
 acquiescence. Though she was aware of what her 
 father meant, she was sensible, too, of the relief which 
 Wiltshire's presence brought into the tension of their 
 daily life. Whenever he was with them there was a 
 return to something like the old-time happiness. Her 
 
 253
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 father seemed to grow younger in his society, and she 
 herself drew comfort from the knowledge that this good 
 man's support was near. She could not bear to check 
 his gentle, tentative advances; still less could she bear 
 to give back cold refusal to the silent pleading in her 
 father's eyes. 
 
 Little by little she began to see all that this marriage 
 would mean to him. It would be more now than any- 
 thing he had said when he had first spoken of it, months 
 ago. Then the advantages of protection and position 
 were to be for her; now she could see that he was not 
 without need of them himself. It gave her a feeling 
 that the foundations of the earth were loosened to think 
 that he, whom she had looked upon as almost omnipo- 
 tent, should require aid. But there was no doubt that 
 his position in the world was shaken as much so as his 
 moral courage or his bodily frame. The strong, re- 
 sourceful, self-dependent man had reached the moment 
 when he was beginning to hold out his hands for help. 
 
 It was help which she could give him only to the ex- 
 tent of her love and tenderness. These she could still 
 offer to the father, when she had nothing for the financier. 
 From the clamor of his countrymen against him she 
 would gladly have transported him into another world, 
 where all attack would be powerless. She remembered 
 suddenly that it was what he had wanted to do for her, 
 when he had been eager to see her become Wiltshire's 
 wife. The reflection struck her like a blow, but she 
 did her best to remain firm and calm beneath the weight 
 of it. The other world for her, she argued, would be 
 
 254
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 the other world for him. That was clear. With Wilt- 
 shire as a son to him, he would have an ally whose 
 strength it would be hard to overestimate. She had no 
 skill in calculation, and little knowledge of the world; 
 and yet she could not be unaware that an English duke, 
 rich, powerful, highly placed, and full of good-will and 
 sympathy, could not be other than an able friend to any 
 man with needs and ambitions like her father's. 
 
 So the days at Versailles were slipping by, with cour- 
 age growing in Wiltshire's heart and hope brightening 
 in Traffbrd's, while in her own she was searching for 
 strength to make the sacrifice. 
 
 As Wiltshire drew near, his increased confidence was 
 expressed in his eyes, his smile, his attitude, and the 
 very tones of his voice. It was not until he had drawn 
 a wicker chair near to hers that he noticed the emo- 
 tion she had been unable to conceal. 
 
 "You've been crying," he exclaimed. 
 
 "Not quite," she said, trying to smile at him through 
 the mist of her tears. "I've been reading this." 
 
 She held up the magazine, at which Wiltshire looked 
 with a certain air of embarrassment. 
 
 "You know what's in it," she went on, as he said 
 nothing. "You've read it, too." 
 
 "I hope you don't let these things distress you," he 
 said, after a minute's hesitation. 
 
 "If they were said of your father, wouldn't they dis- 
 tress you ?" 
 
 He leaned forward and drew the magazine gently 
 from her hands. 
 
 255
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " It's always well to remember," he said, in a kindly 
 voice, "that one story is true till another is told. It's 
 perfectly astonishing how many different versions you 
 can get of what seems like one plain, unvarnished 
 tale." 
 
 "Oh yes; like the 'Ring and the Book,' for instance. 
 But this," she continued, with a little break in the voice 
 "this doesn't seem to me the same sort of thing. 
 There you have different points of view, and here it's 
 a succession of facts." 
 
 "Facts are to the writer what objects are to the 
 painter. He produces different impressions as he 
 presents them in different lights. The writer of these 
 articles has chosen the atmosphere which will be most 
 unfavorable to your father. Some one else might treat 
 the very same incidents in a way which would give you 
 quite another effect." 
 
 "Could any one treat them in a way that would prove 
 that that everything was right ?" 
 
 "Suppose they couldn't," he reasoned, gently; "even 
 so, we've one important condition to remember, and 
 that is the imperfect conception of honor that exists 
 in the financial world." 
 
 "I don't see why that should make any difference," 
 she declared, with a touch of honest indignation. 
 
 "It does in this way, that it's very hard for any but 
 the highest moral natures to be superior to the sur- 
 roundings ,n which they live. That is, it's a phase 
 of the much-discussed question of environment. It's 
 even more than that. It's a phase of the far larger 
 
 256
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 question of the standard of rectitude by which the 
 human race chooses to measure its public conduct. 
 No one can deny the fact that it's far from an ideal one. 
 While we accept in theory the principles of honor and 
 honesty and fair dealing and truth, we have recognized 
 systems of not living up to them. Some of our most 
 respected institutions would have to be made all over 
 again, if we were to put forth any pretension to follow 
 the Golden Rule of Christ." 
 
 The tiny furrow deepened between her brows, and 
 she regarded him with the expression of perplexity he 
 had not seen for so many months. She was trying to 
 understand the strange method by which men regulated 
 their affairs, and of which even Wiltshire spoke with 
 tolerance. 
 
 "What institutions, for example?" 
 
 "Well take the governments of the world as an il- 
 lustration. They're fairly good governments, on the 
 whole most of them. And yet practically all are in- 
 spired by an insatiable greed, and the most ferocious 
 determination to make one country's gain out of an- 
 other country's loss. It's not much of an exaggeration 
 to say that envy, hatred, and malice are the normal 
 sentiments of every nation towards every other. You 
 can't open a newspaper, even in the most piping times 
 of peace, without seeing that the growling of cabinets 
 at each other, in London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, 
 Washington, Vienna, Tokio, and Rome, is as savage 
 and incessant as that of a team of Esquimaux dogs. 
 We have a whole honored profession whose duties are 
 
 257
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 in the field of hoodwinking, half-truths, and evasion. 
 We dress it up in gold lace and a cocked hat, and give 
 it a high place in our society. We have another pro- 
 fession, of which the work is to shed blood and wreck 
 homes and spread ruin. We give it a sword and a 
 uniform, and call it noble. Now, I cite these merely 
 as examples of the way in which mankind contents it- 
 self with a defective moral standard. It's difficult to 
 blame the soldier if he kills, or the diplomat if he equivo- 
 cates, or the statesman if he crushes another people to 
 aggrandize his own. It's what's expected. It's the 
 way the world acts." 
 
 "I don't see that that makes it any better," she ar- 
 gued, with feminine dislike of compromise. 
 
 "It doesn't make the act any better, perhaps, but it 
 helps us to understand the agent. Few people question, 
 few people are able to question, the moral conditions 
 they find around them. They accept them and live in 
 them. And," he added, significantly, "most men en- 
 gaged in financial affairs do like the others." 
 
 "You mean that they conform to a low standard." 
 "I'm afraid that's what I have to mean." 
 "And I always thought my father's standard was so 
 high. That's what hurts me. Oh, Duke, don't think 
 that I'm blaming him, or trying to argue against him. 
 I oughtn't to talk of it at all, perhaps. But I'm so 
 very unhappy, and I've no one in the world to speak to, 
 as I can to you." 
 
 "I like you to speak to me about it. It's possible 
 that I can help you. And in any case I know that you 
 
 258
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 could never harbor a disloyal thought towards any one 
 in the world and least of all towards him." 
 
 "You see," she stammered, "it's all so so ignoble." 
 
 "Doesn't it give it a somewhat different aspect when 
 you consider that it's probably not more ignoble than 
 what's going on in eight business houses out of ten, in 
 London, Paris, New York, and every other great city 
 in the world ?" 
 
 "I don't see that a wrong thing becomes less wrong 
 because a great many people do it." 
 
 "Perhaps not; and yet if we know that public opinion 
 is wrong it helps us to make allowances for the in- 
 dividuals who are governed by it. And that's what I 
 assert about the commercial and financial worlds 
 their moral tone is defective; their conception of honesty 
 is imperfect. The so-called revelations made, let us 
 say, by the Crcnier tragedy in Paris, and the Insurance 
 scandals in New York, are not revelations at all. 
 Every one who has much to do with business knows 
 that to make money by hook or by crook, but to make 
 it somehow, is the one law of the game. The people 
 who are shocked are chiefly the people who haven't 
 made it. And that's the sort of virtuous indignation I 
 find in these articles about your father. I've read them 
 carefully, over the lines and between the lines, and for 
 one word against his methods I find twenty against 
 his success. You see, Paula I may call you Paula, 
 
 '^ T 5 
 
 mayn t 1 r 
 
 " If you like," she murmured, letting her eyes drop. 
 "You see Paula that you and I, whose ideas are 
 259
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 different, ought not to be surprised if a man like your 
 father, who has probably not studied the question of 
 ethics to any great extent, conforms to the general stand- 
 ard around him. After all, he's only in the same case 
 with thousands of other men, who, on every point but 
 that of making money, are among the most high- 
 minded in the world." 
 
 "I know you want to comfort me " 
 
 "I should like to do more than comfort you," he 
 said, with a sudden change of tone. 
 
 "It's the money," she hurried on, confusedly, giving 
 him a frightened glance. "There's so much of it, and 
 it will all come to me. I shall have to take it. It 
 would kill papa if he thought I wouldn't. I don't want 
 it. I hate it. If I could only find a way to give it 
 back" 
 
 "Paula, let me say something. Perhaps I'm daring 
 too much, but I'm going to take the risk. Did you 
 know I'd begun to hope again ? No, don't speak. I'm 
 not going to ask you the same question as at Monaco. 
 I shall ask none at all. I've thought more than once 
 since then that perhaps I was wrong not to accept 
 just what you could give me. I feel it the more strongly 
 now, when I think I have something better to offer you 
 than anything I had then." 
 
 "Oh, but you couldn't have!" 
 
 "If it isn't something better, it's possibly something 
 of which you have more need. I know your trouble, 
 and I understand it. I don't believe that anybody in 
 the world could feel with you more thoroughly than I. 
 
 260
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 It's my trouble, too. It couldn't be more my own, if I 
 was your father's son." 
 
 Paula gave a little start. The words were so exactly 
 the utterance of her own thought that they, sounded to 
 her like the summons of destiny. While she sat out- 
 wardly composed pale, still, with hands clasped and 
 eyes downcast, her heart was calling its last drown- 
 ing farewells before going down into the sea of sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 "It's coming now," she was saying to herself. "I 
 can't help it. I can't cling any longer. I must let go. 
 Oh, Roger, good-bye!" 
 
 "And since the trouble is not only yours but mine," 
 Wiltshire went on, tenderly, "why couldn't I bear it 
 with you?" 
 
 "I don't think anybody could." 
 
 "Nobody could but I. I could. I could take you, 
 and shelter you, and hedge you all round with so much 
 protection, that this great question, so insistent in your 
 life now, would pass into the second plane." 
 
 She lifted her eyes in interrogation. 
 
 "This is what I mean," he pursued, quietly. "To 
 my wife even such a great acquisition of wealth as you 
 might receive from your father could make no ex- 
 ternal difference. It would increase her actual pos- 
 sessions, but it would add nothing to her outward train 
 of life. From the mere necessities of her position, that 
 would already be as sumptuous and splendid as it's 
 right for any one's life to be. Whatever came in ad- 
 dition would be a mere pouring of the Pacific into the 
 
 261
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Atlantic. You won't think that I'm speaking in vulgar 
 boastfulness " 
 
 "Oh no." 
 
 "I'm only stating the facts as they are. Don't you 
 see, then, what I mean ? If you were my wife, all this 
 money could come to you, and you could use it as you 
 chose. No one would know, not even your father, 
 that you didn't spend it on yourself. You could give 
 it away to the last farthing. You could do more than 
 that. I know that your aim would be not merely to give 
 the money away, but; as far as possible, to give it back 
 to the people who used to own it. I would help you 
 in that. We should make it our life's work. It would 
 be a difficult task, and I don't know how far we should 
 be successful, but at least we could try it. Here, in 
 these pages," he went on, tapping the cover of the 
 magazine, "there is mention made of hundreds of 
 families. We could hunt them up and see what we 
 could do. We should have to work discreetly, cau- 
 tiously, secretly, perhaps, and safeguard in every way 
 the honor of your father's name. But we could do 
 our best; and even if we only succeeded once it would 
 be worth the trying. Wouldn't it mean something to 
 you just to be making the attempt ?" 
 
 "How good you are! How well you understand!" 
 
 "I do understand, Paula, dear. That's my one jus- 
 tification for offering you a sort of bribe. And yet, 
 God knows, I don't mean it as a bribe. It's only the 
 eagerness of my love to protect you from everything 
 that could hurt you or make you unhappy. When the 
 
 262
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 gods of old saw those they loved in trouble or danger, 
 they threw a cloud about them and snatched them 
 away into a place of safety. And that's what I want to 
 do for you, Paula. I can do it, if you'll let me. When 
 I see you in the midst of this huge, unworthy battle, 
 I'm in terror lest some of its arrows may wound you. 
 But as my wife you'd be safe that is, as safe as any 
 earthly conditions can make you. I won't force the 
 great question between us. I won't ask you again if 
 you love me " 
 
 "Oh, Duke," she broke in, impulsively, "I do love 
 you in a way." 
 
 "Then I won't ask you what that way is," he said, 
 quickly. "If you can say as much as that, I shall be 
 content." 
 
 When a minute or two had passed in silence, he took 
 her hand and raised it to his lips. Leaning back, with 
 eyes closed, she allowed him to repeat the caress. But 
 she was thinking of the day when, beneath the ques- 
 tioning eyes of the woman in black and green, Winship 
 had told her that he loved her.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THERE were several reasons for keeping the fact 
 of Paula's engagement to the Duke of Wiltshire 
 a temporary secret from the outside world. Trafford 
 himself was receiving only too much publicity at the 
 time, and he shrank from seeing his daughter's name 
 brought prominently into the American press, as it 
 would be if the news were known even to a few. As 
 the wedding was to take place in January, it was de- 
 cided that it would be soon enough after Christmas to 
 let the information get abroad. 
 
 These details were arranged between Wiltshire and 
 Trafford alone. Paula acquiesced with a submission 
 which barely concealed her listlessness. The two men 
 gave themselves up to the enjoyment of their happi- 
 ness with an odd unanimity. They made confidants 
 of each other, and discussed their respective hopes far 
 into every night. Paula was posed like a goddess in a 
 shrine, while they found mutual delight in singing 
 hymns and weaving garlands in her praise. They 
 were, in fact, too busy with the service of the temple 
 to observe that their divinity grew thinner and thinner 
 and paler and paler, day by day. Because she smiled 
 at them, and consented to all their arrangements, they 
 
 264
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 failed to notice that, in the hours they spent together, 
 the number of words she uttered could be counted. 
 
 It was not till they returned to Paris for Christmas 
 and the wedding that Trafford and Wiltshire received 
 the first shock of enlightenment. 
 
 "What have you been doing to her ?" more than one 
 old friend exclaimed. "If I had met her in the street, 
 I don't believe I should have known her." 
 
 The impression made on the father and the lover 
 was one of uneasiness rather than of alarm. Instead 
 of their plans for London in February, with the open- 
 ing of Parliament and the presentation of the new 
 Duchess at an early Court, they began to talk of Egypt, 
 Algiers, and Biskra. Trafford had no doubt that she 
 would be better when she was married. Wiltshire was 
 sure she would regain strength and color in the eager- 
 ness of putting into practice the great scheme of resti- 
 tution they had planned. 
 
 It was for this reason that he began thinking over 
 the matter of the million to be forced upon Winship. 
 He had done nothing in that cause as yet, though Traf- 
 ford had referred to it once or twice as a promise Wilt- 
 shire had made him. The business which had been 
 repugnant at first began to have aspects that appealed 
 to him when he thought of the pleasure his success 
 would give Paula. 
 
 During the three months since they had become en- 
 gaged, he had been slowly forming his own theory of 
 the situation between her and Winship. That there 
 was a situation was clear to him from the something 
 18 265
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 guarded in her words and attitude, whenever his name 
 was mentioned. The young man had fallen in love with 
 her, he thought, and had asked her to be his wife. She 
 had resented rhe liberty, while, woman-like, she had 
 condoned the offence. The opportunity had been 
 taken to offer him the money Trafford was so eager 
 to get off his conscience, and Winship had refused the 
 proposal, as an outrage to his dignity. 
 
 The more Wiltshire reflected, the more exactly did 
 this version seem to fit the facts of the case. The ele- 
 ments it presented were not very difficult for a man of 
 the world to deal with; and so, on a bright afternoon 
 in January, he set out for the studio in the Passage de 
 la Nativite. If he could come back with the news that 
 the victory had been won, he knew that to Paula the 
 tidings would be more precious as a gift than all the 
 jewels he could offer her. 
 
 And yet, when face to face with the artist in the 
 atelier, Wiltshire found the subject less easy to intro- 
 duce than he had expected. Like the other actors in the 
 drama, Winship, too, had changed much during the 
 passage of a twelvemonth. With the exception of a 
 few minutes on two occasions at Monte Carlo in the 
 previous winter, the Duke had seen nothing of Winship 
 for several years. He still thought of him as "Alice's 
 protege," a clever, hard-working, immature young man, 
 to whom he could speak with a certain amount of 
 authority. It disturbed his ideas at the outset to dis- 
 cover that time, assurance, and success had evolved 
 a personage quite different from that which he had 
 
 266
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 thought to find. He had the disagreeable sensation 
 with which the patron always sees that his subordinate 
 has sprung on to a level with himself. In theory, he 
 would have been the last person in the world to object 
 to it; but, in fact, it caused him something akin to irri- 
 tation. The very ease with which Winship welcomed 
 him seemed to lack respect. The matter-of-course hos- 
 pitality with which he offered him an extremely good 
 cigar seemed to savor of the man who has made money 
 quickly. Winship's keen eyes and hard mouth and 
 determined manner were so much at variance with the 
 timid deference of the lad of eight or ten years ago that 
 Wiltshire found his sense of annoyance deepening as 
 the conversation passed from one topic to another. He 
 knew at last that, if the object of his errand were to be 
 attained, it must be by diving into the subject brusque- 
 ly; and so he tried to jerk himself back into the manner 
 of speaking that would have been natural with "Alice's 
 protege" on one of his annual visits to Edenbridge, 
 years ago. 
 
 "I say, Winship," he began, suddenly, "I've looked 
 in on you to offer you some advice." 
 
 "That's very kind of you, Duke," Winship returned, 
 easily. " I'm sure I must need it, when you put your- 
 self to so much trouble." 
 
 "I rather think you do. We all require a friendly 
 word at one time or another in our lives." 
 
 "I've wanted it many a time, when I didn't get it," 
 Winship laughed, "and so I'm all the more grateful 
 to you now." 
 
 267
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 There was a minute's hesitation, during which Wilt- 
 shire flicked the ashes from the end of his cigar with 
 his little finger. He seemed to be quite absorbed in 
 that operation, while Winship waited, in not unnatural 
 curiosity. 
 
 "I believe," Wiltshire said at last, "that there's 
 been some little misunderstanding between you and 
 my friend, Mr. Paul Trafford." 
 
 Winship's manner changed at once. His hard mouth 
 became harder, and he sat rigidly upright in his chair, 
 fixing Wiltshire with the stare of his brilliant eyes. 
 
 "On the contrary," he said, quietly. "Your friend, 
 Mr. Paul Trafford, and I understand each other very 
 well." 
 
 The slightly ironical tone gave an additional prick 
 to the Duke's mild temper. 
 
 "Now, don't be an ass, Winship," he said, impa- 
 tiently. "Mr. Trafford has been extremely magnani- 
 mous to you, and you've been behaving like an imbecile. 
 Any man of the world would tell you that." 
 
 "Are you in his confidence, Duke?" 
 
 "I am to the extent of knowing what he would be 
 -willing to do for you." 
 
 "And his reasons for wishing to do it?" 
 
 "That, I understand, is one which does him credit. 
 He has learned that in certain transactions with your 
 family, some years ago, the loss entailed on you is 
 greater than it should have been. He is eager now to 
 jnake the loss good. That's all." 
 
 "I wonder if that's his way of putting it, or yours ?" 
 268
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "That has nothing to do with it." 
 
 "No, it hasn't. It's merely a matter of curiosity on 
 my part, because it's rather neat. Your friend, Mr. 
 Paul Trafford, has been a long time learning the fact 
 of which you speak. His mind must have been recent- 
 ly opened to knowledge. Perhaps," Winship added, 
 laying his hand on a pile of numbers of the New York 
 Magazine that were within reach "perhaps he got 
 some of his information here." 
 
 "Rot!" Wiltshire exclaimed, contemptuously. "If 
 you're going to be guided by stuff like that " 
 
 "No, no, not at all. There's very little here that I 
 didn't learn with my catechism. My sister, Marah, 
 would be an excellent historian of that great man's 
 life. She's followed his career, and treasured his say- 
 ings, and marked his doings down, as Boswell never 
 did with Johnson. I grew up to the knowledge of it 
 all as I did to the art of painting." 
 
 "That's very natural. Your sister is a woman who 
 has suffered much. She has her own point of view, 
 from which you couldn't move her. But I shouldn't 
 think a man like you would go by any opinion but his 
 own." 
 
 "I don't. In all that my sister feels towards your 
 friend, Mr. Trafford, I entirely agree with her." 
 
 "But on slightly different grounds, I presume." 
 
 There was something so significant in the Duke's tone 
 that Winship looked at him a minute before replying. 
 
 "Possibly," he admitted at last. "I'm not sure 
 that I follow you, but " 
 
 269
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Oh yes, you do, Winship. You follow me well 
 enough. Don't let us have any beating about the bush. 
 The matter is too serious for that. I may say that I'm 
 here in the interests of all the parties concerned. Have 
 I your permission to speak right out, as an old friend, 
 and, perhaps, one of your best friends ?" 
 
 "Certainly, Duke; but if your object is to get me to 
 accept money " 
 
 "That's my first object, but not the most important 
 one. I must say that for a man like you to refuse a 
 sum that would raise him to a position of affluence 
 seems to me insane. As I understand, it's money to 
 which you put forth a claim." 
 
 "No, no, Duke. May I correct you? The system 
 by which your friend, Mr. Paul Trafford, ruined my 
 family was a perfectly legal one, leaving us no claim 
 at all. His plan of attack is always to dodge behind 
 the law, whenever any one attempts to defend himself 
 or to hit back. Where there are no laws to shelter him, 
 he buys legislatures to pass them. It's a very safe 
 method, and stops effectually anything like what you 
 call a claim unless it be a moral one." 
 
 "Then let's say a moral one. That's the second 
 point I want to make. The whole matter is removing 
 itself to moral grounds, to a greater degree than you 
 may be likely to think probable. Traffbrd's not a bad 
 sort, at heart. He's far from being the cold, calculat- 
 ing monster the fellows in that magazine would try to 
 make him out. To my mind he's one of your char- 
 acteristic American primitives, possessed by the fury 
 
 270
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 of making money, as earlier primitives were possessed 
 by the fury of battle. And, just as with them the zest 
 lay not so much in the conquest as in the fight, so with 
 him it's not so much in the money as in the game of 
 getting it. Now that he's had enough of the sport, 
 now that the money is piled up around him, other 
 primitive impulses are beginning to awaken. I won- 
 der if you can guess ?" 
 
 "I needn't guess. I know. It was never an un- 
 usual thing for the robber-baron to be seized with re- 
 morse." 
 
 "That's it. You've hit it. It's a curious thing to 
 watch, as I've had the opportunity of doing in the past 
 few months, the slow dawning in the mind of this gi- 
 gantic, materialistic, spiritually inorganic creature of 
 the knowledge that he has a soul. It's like the first 
 uneasy groping after higher things on the part of pre- 
 historic man. There's something in it which is at 
 once amusing and terrible. Simple conceptions of rec- 
 titude, that are matters of course to you and me, are 
 strange, new discoveries to him. On Trafford's part it 
 translates itself by the repetition of a certain phrase 
 'To make me successful a good many poor devils have 
 had to fail. By George, I'd like to set them on their 
 feet again!' Now, I say, Winship, why should you, 
 from a mere sense of pride, block the path to a blind 
 man, feeling his way to doing what's right ?" 
 
 "And not make his repentance as easy for him as 
 possible?" Winship added. "That's what you mean v 
 isn't it?" 
 
 271
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "Something of the sort,*' Wiltshire admitted. 
 
 "Then I may say at once, Duke, that I've no inten- 
 tion of making anything easy for your friend, Mr. Paul 
 Trafford, that I can render hard. It's impossible for a 
 man like you, whose life has been cushioned from his 
 cradle, to enter into the feelings of people like our- 
 selves, who, during long years, have been the victims of 
 a great and wanton wrong." 
 
 Winship spoke quietly, and drew two or three puffs 
 from his cigar before he went on again. 
 
 " I can recall the time when, as a boy of eight or ten, 
 I first heard the name of Trafford whispered in our 
 household. From the way in which it was spoken there 
 came to be, in my imagination, something evil and 
 ominous in the very sound. It grew to be the theme 
 of all my parents' conversation, and never failed to in- 
 spire anxiety, anger, and fear. I don't suppose you 
 know anything about the misery a young lad goes 
 through as he watches his elders battling with some 
 great trouble which he can't understand. The thing 
 is all the more terrible from its impalpability and vague- 
 ness. I don't exaggerate in the least when I say that 
 it robbed me of all the happy, careless ease of mind 
 which means so much to any young thing's normal 
 development. I had no boyhood. Paul Trafford 
 crushed it out of me. He ground us all into powder, as 
 you know very well. We all had to suffer, but in some 
 respects I suffered most, though no one took note of it. 
 I was the lad who had to weep behind the walls, while 
 the women went forth to fight. That humiliation is 
 272
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 unimaginable to you, who have probably never known 
 an hour's indignity." 
 
 "That's all you know about it," Wiltshire threw in, 
 with a touch of bitterness. 
 
 "Well, to cut it short," Winship pursued, "I vowed 
 from my boyhood to hale Paul Trafford into some court 
 where there would be a surer justice than any meted out 
 by man. It's a curious fact that, while I never saw my 
 way, I never lost the conviction that some day I should 
 find it. And I've done so. I've stumbled into it. Or, 
 rather, I've been led into it by the one hand on earth 
 that has power to inflict on him the very chastisement of 
 Heaven." 
 
 "You must mean his daughter's." 
 
 " I do mean hers. I've found all the justice I wanted 
 in the fact that she knows him as he is." 
 
 "Don't you think it was knowledge that might have 
 been spared her ?" 
 
 "There can be no way of sparing Paul Trafford's 
 daughter, as long as the sins of the father continue to be 
 visited on the child. That's a law which nature never 
 relaxes. If there had been any way of escape for her, 
 I, of all men, should have been bound to find it." 
 
 "Why you of all men ?" Wiltshire asked, with an ef- 
 fort to maintain his calmness of tone. 
 
 "Because I love her," Winship cried, fiercely. "Be- 
 cause I'm the one man who can save her. Because her 
 one chance of any kind of happiness lies in marrying 
 me." 
 
 The Duke grew white. His hand trembled so that, 
 273
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 after trying to raise his cigar to his lips, he threw it 
 away. He knew that he must not lose his self-control. 
 
 "I dare say it isn't unnatural for you to feel like that, 
 Winship," he said, with an attempt at speaking kindly. 
 "And if you do care for Miss Trafford, the way is open 
 for you to make her happy as it is. You could take the 
 money her father offers you." 
 
 "Never! She knows as well as I that it's impossible. 
 What the law has given him, he shall keep. If I touched 
 a penny of it, I should feel as guilty as himself. She 
 knows that. I've told her. She didn't understand it 
 .at the minute, but I'm convinced she does to-day. 
 How could she expect me to take it when I've given up 
 everything given up my love given up her in order 
 to keep my honor ? But no! I haven't given her up. 
 The time will come when her love will bring her back 
 to me. She loves me, Duke, as I love her with that 
 kind of love which is for once and always. She gave 
 me up to stay with him. I honor her for it, and love 
 her the more. But we're young. We can afford to 
 wait. There will be a day when she will be free to cast 
 that cursed money from her, and come to me without 
 it, as she would have come already if it hadn't been for 
 him. She loves me, Duke," he repeated, speaking 
 rapidly, and with gestures, "She loves me. I know 
 she will never change or love another. You know her. 
 You know how pure and holy and true she is. I can 
 wait for her, for however long the time may be, she'll 
 come to me. I tell you all this, Duke, because I want 
 you to understand why I don't take the money. She 
 
 274
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 herself would condemn me for it now. She'll come to 
 me, one day, without it, and " 
 
 "For God's sake, stop!" Wiltshire cried, hoarsely. 
 "Paula is to marry me next week." 
 
 He sat rigid and white in his chair, his fingers twitch- 
 ing nervously. Winship, leaning from his own seat, 
 gazed at him with blazing eyes. 
 
 "Paula is to ? Oh no, Duke, no." 
 
 "Yes," Wiltshire whispered, just above his breath, as 
 though the admission had in it something of the terrible. 
 
 "Great God!" Winship muttered to himself, and 
 sank back limply in his chair. 
 
 Minutes passed without sound or motion on either 
 side. Dusk was gathering in the long studio. The 
 high north light began to take on a faint tinge of red, 
 caught from the winter sunset. The two men sat in 
 such dead silence that the mild tinkle of the door-bell 
 startled them. Each sprang to his feet and stood 
 listening, as if in expectation. 
 
 "Excuse me," Winship said at last. "I'm alone 
 here. I must answer it." 
 
 "In any case, I ought to go," the Duke returned. 
 He followed Winship towards the door, with the in- 
 tention of making his escape when the new-comer was 
 admitted. But he stopped again at the sound of 
 Winship's voice. 
 
 "Paula!" 
 
 Winship stood with the door open, as if unwilling to 
 let her pass. 
 
 "I had to come, Roger," she answered, from the 
 275
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 threshold. "Don't be angry. Don't blame me. I've 
 something to tell you. I didn't want you to hear it 
 from any one but myself. Oh, Roger, let me come in. 
 I had to see you just this once more. It's only to say 
 good-bye." 
 
 "Hush!" Winship whispered. 
 
 But it was too late. Paula was already in the room, 
 and face to face with Wiltshire.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 PHERE was no hesitation on Paula's part. She 
 1 went directly to Wiltshire and held out her hand. 
 
 "I didn't know you were here, Duke," she said, 
 without embarrassment. "I came to tell Mr. Winship 
 something I wanted him to learn from me, myself. 
 Perhaps, if you're not in a hurry, you could come back 
 for me." 
 
 "If your carriage is here," Wiltshire returned, as 
 calmly as he could, "I think I won't come back. Alice 
 is to arrive to-day, and I told her to expect me at the 
 Hotel Bristol about five." 
 
 "Then you'll bring her to dinner, won't you ? She 
 wrote me she'd come if she wasn't too tired from the 
 journey." 
 
 "That's it," Wiltshire muttered. "We shall meet 
 this evening. Good-bye, Winship. Au revoir, Paula." 
 
 He shook hands with both, and departed with the 
 dignified air of a man who sees nothing unusual in the 
 situation. When the door closed behind him, Winship 
 seized Paula's hands and almost dragged her to the 
 light. 
 
 " Paula, you've been ill," he cried. "What have they 
 been doing to you ?" 
 
 277
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 She released herself and drew away from him. 
 
 "No, Roger, I haven't been ill. I only think that 
 perhaps I'm I'm dying." 
 
 "My God!" he muttered to himself. "They'll pay 
 for this." 
 
 He tried to take her in his arms, but again she stepped 
 back from him. 
 
 "No, Roger, don't. We're all alone here, aren't we ? 
 Isn't Marah in ?" 
 
 "Marah is out. We're all alone." 
 
 "Then I must only stay a minute," she hurried on. 
 "I came to tell you to tell you Oh, Roger, I don't 
 know how to say it. It seems like a blasphemy, now 
 that I'm face to face with you again. It's like a crime. 
 I who love you so that I can make no pretence at not 
 doing it I'm going to marry some one else." 
 
 "Then it's true, Paula?" 
 
 "Yes, it's true, Roger. Did he tell you ?" 
 
 "Oh, it isn't true. It can't be true. You won't do 
 it. Say you won't do it." 
 
 "I must Roger. I have to do it for papa's sake. 
 There are other reasons, too. Everything is forcing me 
 into it. I don't know what else to do. I'm like a lost 
 person. And I love you, Roger. I shall always love 
 you. No marriage will keep me from doing that." 
 
 "Then your marriage will be a crime, Paula, as you 
 say. You must reflect. You must ask yourself if it's 
 just towards him." 
 
 "Yes; I think it's quite just. He knows I don't love 
 him as I might do." 
 
 2 7 8
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 " But have you told him that you love some one else ?" 
 
 "He never asked me. He said he wouldn't ask me 
 anything." 
 
 "You must tell him, Paula. You must tell him 
 that you love me. He must hear it from yourself." 
 
 " Oh, Roger, what's the use ? It would only make 
 new complications, and I'm so worn out with those that 
 exist already. I've told you that I think I must be 
 dying, and I believe it. I don't seem to have the force 
 to live. There's nothing the matter with me, really, 
 only it's all been so hard for me. You know I haven't 
 much strength of character; and so, in the effort to stand 
 alone, I've just sunk down. I've come to the point 
 where I'd rather they did just as they will with me 
 than struggle any more." 
 
 " Oh, Paula, you mustn't feel like that when I love you. 
 You'd be strong if you had my arms to uphold you." 
 
 "Yes," she smiled. "I'd be strong then. But, you 
 see, it can't be." 
 
 "Why can't it be? Why should you be sacrificed? 
 Why should we both be sacrificed? You're offering 
 yourself up in an effort that will never bring happiness 
 to any one. Leave it all behind you, and come to me. 
 Come to me, as I asked you to come, that day in June. 
 You could go to England with Lady Alice Holroyd. 
 She knows our story, and we have her sympathy. I'd 
 follow you, and we could be married there." 
 
 "No, no, Roger. I couldn't do anything like that. 
 Don't hope for it. I couldn't do anything in flight or 
 secrecy." 
 
 27Q
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "You must be reasonable, Paula, my darling. This 
 isn't a matter where one can follow the rules of a book 
 of etiquette. It's a case of life and death of your life 
 and your death. There's no other question here than 
 that of saving you." 
 
 "Nothing can save me, Roger. The situation is such 
 as to leave me no way of escape. If I were to do what 
 you suggest, it would kill my father." 
 
 " But you mustn't let him kill you." 
 
 "He doesn't mean to. He hasn't a thought but for 
 my happiness. You remember how he yielded in 
 everything last spring. If you could only have ac- 
 cepted his offer " 
 
 "Suppose I did it now, Paula. Would that help 
 you ? Would it make you any happier ?" 
 
 "I couldn't let you do it now. I know things now 
 that I didn't know then. I see that you were right. I 
 see that you couldn't take the money. I'm glad you 
 didn't accept it, even for my sake. But I have to keep 
 it. I can't separate myself from my father, to secure 
 either your happiness or mine. It's especially my duty 
 to be loyal to him now, when so many others are con- 
 demning him." 
 
 She moved away from the window and dropped into 
 a chair. 
 
 "I'll sit down a minute," she murmured. "I'm not 
 very strong, and I'm easily tired." 
 
 "Let me get you some tea," he begged. "I can do it 
 quite quickly, even though I'm alone here." 
 
 "No, don't do that. I've only a minute to stay. 
 280
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Perhaps I shouldn't have come at all. But I couldn't 
 face what I have to do next week without seeing 
 you once again. I shall feel stronger now, and more 
 resigned." 
 
 " It's monstrous, Paula," Winship broke out, bitterly. 
 "You must not throw away your life " 
 
 "Roger, dear," she said, softly, "don't let us talk 
 any more about it. Take a chair and sit near me. 
 There not quite so near there. Now let me look 
 about this dear room. You know I haven't been in it 
 since the day your mother joined our hands together. 
 That's her chair," she continued, gazing around the 
 darkening room. "There's Marah's table, with her 
 paints and brushes. There's your easel, and the lay- 
 figures, and the old piano. Ah, how familiar it all is! 
 I was so happy during the weeks I used to come here. 
 You didn't know what bliss it was to me to sit before 
 you, to hear you talk, and watch you work. I didn't 
 know it myself then. I was anxious and fearful, al- 
 ready, wondering how it was to end. But now, as I 
 look back, I can see that that was the good time. Why 
 couldn't I have been some girl-student, like those I see 
 at the Art Club ? whom you might have loved, who 
 might have loved you, with no great, vexed question 
 between us. How happy I should have been if I'd been 
 poor. That's what nature meant me for. I've often 
 wondered why I could never feel as if wealth were a 
 matter of course to me, like so many girls I know, who 
 would think it strange if they didn't have all the money 
 they want to spend. I suppose it's because I'm like the 
 281
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 people I'm descended from. I've been reading about 
 them in those dreadful articles every one is quoting. 
 Jennie O'Mara, my grandmother, was a servant. They 
 say I resemble her, that I have her eyes. You see, I'm 
 nothing but a simple girl of the people, without either 
 the instincts or the antecedents of greatness; and yet 
 I'm to be the richest woman in the world. How strange 
 it is ! and how wrong ! That's one reason why I'm 
 marrying the Duke, Roger, dear. As his wife I shall be 
 able to slip out of all this, without attracting any notice 
 to myself. Even papa needn't know it, so the Duke 
 says." 
 
 "Paula, don't say that again," Winship pleaded. 
 "You can't marry Wiltshire. It's out of all reason and 
 possibility. I'll go to your father. I'll take anything " 
 
 She rose quietly and slipped towards him through the 
 dusk. She laid her hands on his shoulders and looked 
 down into his eyes. 
 
 "I came, Roger, for help and strength. You've 
 given them to me. Just to see you, to hear your voice, 
 and to know that you love me still, has made me braver. 
 But if I stay any longer you'll take your help away. 
 So I must go." 
 
 "No, no," he protested. "Not yet not yet." 
 
 He seized her hands and pressed them to his lips. 
 When he released them she stooped and kissed him. 
 
 "Good-bye. Good-bye," she murmured, and glided 
 towards the door. 
 
 Winship was wise enough to let her pass out, and go 
 her way alone. 
 
 282
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 TADY ALICE HOLROYD, dressed still in her 
 I/ travelling -gown, sat drinking tea and munching 
 toast in Wiltshire's sitting-room at the Hotel Bristol. 
 Her air was abstracted, and, as she ate, her gaze was 
 fixed absently on one spot in the carpet. 
 
 "I mustn't overdo it," she mused, "and, above all, I 
 must be sympathetic. It would spoil everything if he 
 thought I had objections on my own account." 
 
 So, when her brother entered, she rose and kissed him 
 cordially. 
 
 "You see I've come," she exclaimed. "I couldn't 
 wait another day, after getting such news as that." 
 
 Wiltshire threw his hat and over<!oat on one arm- 
 chair and sank wearily into another. 
 
 "So you've come to congratulate me," he said, in a 
 tone of which the slightly suggested irony did not 
 escape her,. 
 
 "I've come to wish that you may be very happy, 
 Ludovic." 
 
 "Ah! Why the distinction?" 
 
 " I'm not aware that I make any distinction. If I do, 
 it's because your happiness is the first of all considera- 
 tions to me." 
 
 283
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 "Give me some tea," he requested, with the air of a 
 man who is very tired. 
 
 "Your happiness is my first and only consideration," 
 she continued, as she prepared the tea. " It's very nat- 
 ural that it should be. Of course, you know as well as 
 I do that I used to have other hopes for you; but that's 
 neither here nor there when once you have made your 
 choice. Your wife would be my sister, even if you 
 picked her out of a music-hall." 
 
 "Well, I haven't gone as far as that." 
 
 "I'm only an old maid, Ludovic," she went on, 
 passing him his cup. "I'm an Englishwoman, a coun- 
 trywoman, and an aristocrat. I've got all the traditions, 
 limitations, and prejudices of my class. I'm neither 
 modern nor democratic nor cosmopolitan. But all 
 that is nothing to me the minute you've found the 
 woman you love and who loves you." 
 
 She pronounced the last four words in a natural tone, 
 and without the slightest emphasis; but Wiltshire gulped 
 down all his tea at once, and passed her back the cup. 
 
 "No one would ever accuse me of being a sentimen- 
 talist," she pursued, as she filled the cup again, "but 
 I've lived long enough, and seen enough of the world, 
 to know that love mutual love is the only thing. 
 Nothing else counts neither wealth nor descent nor 
 family pride nor anything. So I say again, Ludovic, 
 that if you love her, and if she loves you, there's no ques- 
 tion about it but that you've done the best thing pos- 
 sible. It's a pity that there should be all this publicity 
 about her family history; but I give you my word, 
 
 284
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Ludovic, that nothing of the sort shall weigh against her 
 with me as long as she loves you." 
 
 "Thanks," Wiltshire murmured. 
 
 "And how is the dear thing?" Lady Alice inquired, 
 in another tone. 
 
 " I think you may find her changed. She isn't very 
 well." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "You'll see for yourself. We are going to dine with 
 them this evening." 
 
 "What do you mean by changed? You don't sup- 
 pose she has anything on her mind, do you ?" 
 
 " On her mind ? What should she have ?" 
 
 He glanced up at her sharply, but he turned his own 
 eyes quickly away before the scrutiny in hers. He had 
 the uncomfortable suspicion that she knew more of his 
 affairs than he did himself. He remembered that Win- 
 ship had stayed with her at Edenbridge, not long ago, 
 and might easily have taken her into his confidence. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know," Lady Alice responded, vaguely. 
 "Girls often have ideas which they'll allow to consume 
 them away before they'll speak of them and espe- 
 cially nice girls like Paula." 
 
 "I'm afraid I don't understand you," Wiltshire said, 
 affecting a tone of indifference. "I think I'll go and 
 dress now. I hope they've given you comfortable rooms. 
 We ought to leave here at eight." 
 
 But, having passed into his room, he did not dress. 
 He sent his man away, and once more threw himself" 
 wearily into an arm-chair, where he sat pondering. 
 
 285
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Yes, it was clear that Alice knew something that had 
 "been kept from him. Her repetition of the clause "if 
 she loves you," " as long as she loves you," which had 
 seemed to him a few minutes ago like a stab delivered 
 unconsciously, now came to him like a note of inten- 
 tional warning. Alice knew what Winship knew, what 
 Paula knew, what Trafford knew, what every one knew 
 but himself that Paula did not love him. She was 
 marrying him because she could not see what else to do. 
 There had, indeed, never been any secret about that. 
 It was the ground on which he had approached her. 
 He had caught her in the snare of her troubles, and 
 bribed her by the promise of deliverance. He had 
 nothing to complain of. She had never owned to loving 
 him otherwise than in a way. He knew now what the 
 way was. He should never have had any doubt about 
 it. It was the way she had already acknowledged that 
 day at Monaco. It was in another way than that that 
 she loved Roger Winship. 
 
 As the name crossed Wiltshire's mind he buried his 
 face in his hands, and groaned. The life-long humilia- 
 tion, against which manhood and pride had enabled him 
 to erect some kind of barrier, swept over him now with 
 the whole force of its bitter flood. He was the man so 
 cursed with physical insignificance that no woman 
 could love him for himself. He had been wounded by 
 the fact even when he had been half indifferent. He 
 had noticed often enough that the proud beauties, who 
 had let him see that they were willing to bear his name 
 and wear his coronet, shrank from his personal contact. 
 
 286
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 But this was the crowning instance of all. Paula did 
 love him in a way. That is, she honored and es- 
 teemed him. She trusted him with the secrets which, 
 he believed, she would never confide to any one else on 
 earth. She was ready to marry him, not out of am- 
 bition, nor from any worldly motive whatever. And 
 yet, even she, as she came to him, held out despairing 
 hands to a Roger Winship a pauper a nobody a 
 man who could give her no proud place in the world, 
 nor, indeed, anything but himself. 
 
 In spite of his native simplicity, Wiltshire could not 
 help feeling this last fact to add gall to his wormwood. 
 It emphasized his condition of personal inferiority. 
 No one could have greater advantages of position, 
 wealth, and character; and yet, because he was short 
 and ugly and dull-eyed, he could neither command 
 love nor win it. The utmost he could hope for would 
 be the sort of tempered affection which Paula gave 
 the affection of one who could look below the surface 
 and honor him for what was hidden there. 
 
 Then as the first bitterness of his reflections passed 
 away, there came the thought, Why not be content with 
 what he could get ? Since life offered him only half a 
 loaf, was it not better to take it than to go hungry ? 
 It was out of the question for Paula to marry Roger Win- 
 ship, in any circumstances in which she could be placed. 
 Then why not make the best of the situation by marry- 
 ing her himself? The conditions would not be ideal for 
 any one concerned, but he would take care that they 
 involved no actual misery. Of whatever suffering there 
 
 287
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 might be to bear, he would accept the lion's share as his 
 own. That would be better anything would be bet- 
 ter than to give her up. 
 
 It was cold comfort, but he had no other. Such as it 
 was, it gave him the courage to dress, and go with Lady 
 Alice to dine with Paula and her father. It supported 
 him through the ordeal of the evening, and helped him 
 to conceal his pain, as he watched Paula's jaded efforts 
 to infuse into her regard for him something which was 
 not there. 
 
 It was when he was driving back to the hotel with his 
 sister that the current of his thoughts changed again. 
 
 "Well, how did she seem to you?" he asked, with 
 evident anxiety. 
 
 Lady Alice did not reply. 
 
 "Did she strike you as being altered, since you saw 
 her last?" 
 
 Lady Alice looked out of the carriage window, and 
 still kept silence. 
 
 "Why don't you answer ?" he persisted. 
 
 "Because I'm trying to think of what to say." 
 
 "You mean, of what will give me the least pain." 
 
 "Yes, Ludovic." 
 
 "I don't think you need mind about that now. I 
 appreciate your hesitation, but it's more or less needless. 
 You know things that I don't, and yet I do know more 
 than you may suppose." 
 
 "That's rather enigmatical." 
 
 "No, it isn't. It means only that I've learned so 
 much that you needn't be afraid to tell me everything." 
 
 288
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "What makes you think that I have anything to tell ?" 
 
 "Roger Winship spent two nights with you at Eden- 
 bridge" 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "I don't imagine that you discussed pictures all the 
 time." 
 
 "We didn't." 
 
 "No; he took you into his confidence, and told you 
 about himself and and Paula." 
 
 Lady Alice seemed lost in the contemplation of the 
 lights and carriages as they crossed the Place de 
 1'Etoile. 
 
 "Aren't you going to speak ?" Wiltshire went on. 
 
 "What's the good of speaking, Ludovic ? If Roger 
 Winship said anything to me, it's best to bury it in 
 silence. You and Paula are to be married next week, 
 and so " 
 
 "The good of speaking lies in the fact that I need to 
 know. Circumstances that touch me most closely are 
 familiar to you, to Winship, to Trafford, to Paula in 
 short, to every one but myself. There's no one to 
 whom I can turn for the information so naturally as to 
 you." 
 
 " But, Ludovic," she cried, in tones of astonishment, 
 "I should think you'd see it." 
 
 "See what?" 
 
 Lady Alice had to brace herself before she replied. 
 It was no easy thing to deal at her brother the blow 
 which must inflict on him a lifelong pain. She had to 
 remind herself again that he was the head of the house 
 
 280
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 of Holroyd, and must, at all costs, be true to the his- 
 tory and traditions of his race. Paula Trafford might 
 be charming in herself, but no Holroyd could look upon 
 the marriage as other than a family disaster. "The 
 daughter of a notorious, low-born Yankee freebooter," 
 their uncle, Lord George, had called her, when the en- 
 gagement was announced to him; and much as Lady 
 Alice liked Paula for her own sake, she could not deny 
 that the designation was just. It was a case in which 
 Ludovic had to be saved from himself, but, even so, 
 Lady Alice argued, she would have had the weakness 
 to spare him if Paula had only loved him. 
 
 "See what?" she exclaimed, echoing her brother's 
 words. "See that the girl is dying on her feet, be- 
 cause " 
 
 "Because," he broke in, "she's going to marry me." 
 
 "Not quite that, Ludovic. But because she isn't 
 going to marry Roger Winship." 
 
 "You don't know," he cried, desperately. "You've 
 only his word for it." 
 
 "I haven't only his word, I've hers. I know what 
 happened and what's happening." 
 
 "What do you mean what's happening?" 
 
 "I've told you. She's fading out of life. You must 
 all be blind not to see it." 
 
 "And what happened?" 
 
 "You make me say it, Ludovic, mind you. I would 
 have kept it from you if I could. Last spring, about 
 the time you came back from the Cape, Paula became 
 engaged to Roger Winship. The father consented, and 
 
 290
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 they might have been married, only that Roger 
 wouldn't accept, nor let her accept, any of the Trafford 
 money. Then it was all broken off, naturally enough. 
 There! Now you know all there is to know. You'll 
 hate me as long as you live for telling you, but, you see, 
 you've made me." 
 
 "You've done quite rightly," he murmured, from the 
 depths of his corner of the carriage. " It would have 
 been better if I had known it before." 
 
 As they rolled on the rest of their way in silence, Lady 
 Alice reflected sadly on the amount of heroism it some- 
 times takes to be loyal to one's membership in a great, 
 historic family.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 T"^ ARLY in the next forenoon Wiltshire was ushered 
 I/ into Traffbrd's office. He entered with an apology 
 for the untimely hour, but Traffbrd stopped him with 
 the assertion that, had he not come, he himself would 
 have gone forth to seek the Duke at his hotel. 
 
 "The fact is, Wiltshire, that I'm worried about her. 
 This morning she's going around the house like a ghost. 
 It's no use blinding ourselves to the fact that she's very 
 ill." 
 
 Trafford leaned heavily on his desk, and fingered the 
 paper-weights nervously. 
 
 "What do you suppose is the matter with her ?" Wilt- 
 shire asked, with some slight hesitation. 
 
 "I've had Robin to see her. I didn't tell you that." 
 
 "Well, what does he say ?" 
 
 " Oh, he made up some cock-and-bull story, as doctors 
 always do when they're afraid to confess their ignorance. 
 Said he thought she was suffering from some secret grief. 
 I told him that wasn't possible." 
 
 "Are you sure it isn't, Trafford ?" 
 
 "How could it be?" 
 
 "I think I could tell you." 
 
 "You?" 
 
 292
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 Trafford raised his head with sudden attention. 
 
 "Yes, I. Doesn't it strike you that, between us, you 
 and I are killing her ?" 
 
 Traffbrd stared at Wiltshire a long half-minute before 
 answering. 
 
 "How?" he asked, laconically. 
 
 " By urging her into a marriage in which she has no 
 heart." 
 
 "Oh, but you must be mistaken, Wiltshire. I know 
 she's fond of you " 
 
 "Yes, as she would have been fond of an elder 
 brother, if she had one. It's because she's fond of me 
 in that way that she hasn't the heart to hurt me by 
 refusing " 
 
 He paused, half hoping to be contradicted again. 
 But when TrafFord spoke his tone implied little in- 
 clination to dispute the question. 
 
 "Do you think so?" was all he said. 
 
 "Aren't we obliged to think so? Haven't we the 
 proof before us ?" 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "In herself. No woman who was going joyfully to 
 her wedding-day would look as she does. Mind you, 
 I don't say that what she's doing she's doing unwil- 
 lingly. On the contrary, she's making a willing 
 sacrifice the sacrifice ' of all her own happiness for 
 the sake of pleasing you and me. We're forcing 
 her" 
 
 "No, no; not that, Wiltshire. I've never put the 
 slightest constraint upon her. She's always been as 
 
 293
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 free as the wind. When it comes to sacrifice, I'm 
 willing to anticipate hers by mine in everything." 
 
 "Not more so than I, Trafford," the Duke said, 
 quietly. "And yet I repeat what I said: we're forcing 
 her by the very fact of letting her see how much it means 
 to us. We don't realize that she's just the nature to 
 break her own heart rather than wound yours or mine. 
 The question for us to decide is whether or not we're 
 going to let her." 
 
 "Of course we can't let her if you're right." 
 
 Trafford spoke with difficulty, finishing his sentence 
 with a sort of gulp. He bent his head again, and once 
 more began pushing the paper-weights about. 
 
 "And you know I am right," Wiltshire persisted. 
 
 Again Trafford hesitated before answering. 
 
 "Then what do you propose to do ?" he asked at last, 
 with a certain huskiness. 
 
 " I've thought that over, and I see that here our united 
 action ends. If her happiness is to be secured and I 
 suppose that is the dearest wish of both of us then I 
 have one task and you have another. I have the right 
 to speak of mine, but I can't speak of yours, unless you 
 give me leave." 
 
 "Say what you like. This is no time for too much 
 punctiliousness. Whatever is necessary I shall have to 
 do. I've long begun to recognize that I can't be 
 stronger than she is, not any more than the chain can 
 be stronger than its weakest link. Now, tell me what 
 you mean." 
 
 "It's soon said," Wiltshire went on. "I can free her 
 294
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 from the man she doesn't love; but it's for you to let her 
 marry the man she does." 
 
 Trafford sprang to his feet. 
 
 "There's a man she does love?" 
 
 "You ought to know it," Wiltshire answered, quietly. 
 "A girl like Paula hasn't forgotten in January the man 
 she promised to marry in June. I don't reproach you, 
 Trafford " 
 
 "Oh, reproach me if you like," Traffbrd groaned, im- 
 patiently, as he strode up and down the room. 
 
 " I will say, however, that if you had only told me 
 what I ought to have known, none of us would have 
 been in the position in which we find ourselves to-day." 
 
 " I give you my word of honor, Wiltshire, I thought 
 it was all over. Paula did promise to marry the man, 
 but since the affair ended she seemed never to think 
 of him again." 
 
 "And I can tell you that she thinks of nothing but 
 him. If I were in your place " 
 
 "You'd let her marry him. Yes, I know," Trafford 
 broke in, impatiently, "but you'll be surprised, perhaps, 
 when I tell you I'd consented to the match, only the 
 man refused my money. But what's the use of dis- 
 cussing it. The whole thing is out of the question 
 unless unless her life depended on it." 
 
 "Are you sure it doesn't?" 
 
 "Look here, Wiltshire," Trafford cried, wheeling 
 round. "What are you trying to say? Speak right 
 out, for Heaven's sake!" 
 
 "I mean that, for your sake and mine, Paula has un- 
 295
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 dertaken a task beyond her strength. In the effort to 
 carry it out she's being physically and mentally and 
 spiritually exhausted. The question in her mind is 
 a more complicated one than that of giving up the man 
 she loves to marry the one she doesn't love. That's 
 an experience many girls have had to face, and they've 
 lived through it. Paula could do it as well as they. 
 But in her case she has other troubles " 
 
 "Other troubles?" 
 
 "And I think you ought to know it, Trafford." 
 
 "But, good God! what other troubles can she 
 have ?" 
 
 "Your own. She isn't ignorant of the campaign 
 they're carrying on against you over there." 
 
 "Well, what of it?" 
 
 " I've no more to say on the point. I mention it only 
 to explain why the accumulation of her experiences 
 during the past few months has been such a drain on 
 her vitality." 
 
 "Do you mean to say that she attaches importance to 
 the rot they've been writing about me in New York ?" 
 
 "I think I can go as far as that." 
 
 "Importance in what sense ?" 
 
 The low tone of Trafford's voice, the stillness of his 
 attitude, and the intensity of his deep eyes betrayed the 
 fear with which he awaited Wiltshire's reply. 
 
 "That's a question I've no right to answer. Any 
 discussion of it should be between you and her." 
 
 "That sounds as if you were afraid of breaking bad 
 news. Well, I won't press you." 
 
 296
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 For a few minutes Trafford resumed his walk up 
 and down the room, his hands clasped behind 
 his back and his head bent. When he stopped at 
 last in front of Wiltshire, he astonished him by say- 
 ing: 
 
 "Let's go and talk it out with Paula." 
 
 Wiltshire objected, on the ground that he preferred to 
 have his own interview with her in private. 
 
 "No, no," Trafford urged. "I must be there. I 
 must know what you say to each other. I must know, 
 above all, what she says. The question touches me too 
 closely to have it decided in my absence. Come, Wilt- 
 shire," he insisted, taking the Duke by the arm and 
 almost dragging him from his chair, "come along, and 
 we'll reach an understanding together." 
 
 Reluctant as he was, Wiltshire suffered himself to 
 be led away towards Paula's boudoir. As they ap- 
 proached the half-open doorway they heard women's 
 voices within. Wiltshire held back, but Trafford 
 pushed the door open and entered. Two women were 
 on their knees, with pins in their hands and between 
 their teeth. There was a third woman farther off, 
 looking on with critical attention. Paula stood in the 
 midst, tail, pale, grave, crowned with orange-blossom, 
 veiled in lace, and shimmering in the white and silver 
 of her wedding-dress. 
 
 She gave a little cry as her father entered. 
 
 "Don't be alarmed," he said, with a forced laugh. 
 "It's no one to be afraid of. Come here, Duke, and 
 you'll see something."
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "No, no! Please!" Paula implored. 
 
 But Trafford insisted on Wiltshire's entering. Since 
 things had gone as far as this, he was not without a 
 lingering hope that it might be too late for turning 
 back.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 AS they were actually in the room, there was noth- 
 1\ ing for Paula to do but receive them with the best 
 grace she could command. She came forward to meet 
 the Duke with hand out-stretched, but she held herself 
 rigidly, as though on guard against any warmer greeting. 
 The attitude did not escape him, and its significance 
 confirmed him in the feeling that he was right in what 
 he proposed to do. 
 
 While the three women withdrew at a nod from 
 Trafford, Paula stood before Wiltshire trying to cover 
 up her embarrassment with smiling cordiality. 
 
 "It had to be done, you know," she said, spreading 
 her hands apart in a gesture of apology. " Even wed- 
 ding-dresses have to fit." 
 
 "If you have to wear them," Wiltshire added, trying 
 to smile in response. 
 
 "And as I'm going to do so " Paula began. 
 
 "We've come in to talk about that," Wiltshire said, 
 bluntly. 
 
 "Talk about what?" She looked wonderingly, as 
 she spoke, from the Duke to her father. 
 
 "Wiltshire thinks you'd rather not marry him," 
 Traffbrd declared, with intentional directness of attack. 
 
 299
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 '* Oh, how can he ? You must both know that I'm 
 doing it willingly." 
 
 "It's precisely because I do know that that I'm won- 
 dering whether I should let you," Wiltshire said, gently. 
 
 " But I thought you wanted to." 
 
 "It isn't a question of what I want, Paula. It's the 
 far bigger question of what's right. And I've come 
 to the conclusion that it isn't right for me to let you 
 throw away your life for mine." 
 
 "Is it because you saw me at Mr. Winship's yester- 
 day that you bring this up now ? Papa, dear," she 
 added, turning to Trafford, " I went to see Mr. Winship 
 yesterday. I felt that I had a right to do it. I wanted 
 to bid him good-bye. Is it," she continued, looking 
 again at Wiltshire " is it because of that that you want 
 to to release me ?" 
 
 " I know why you went there. As you say, it was to 
 bid him good-bye. But if you hadn't loved him you 
 wouldn't have wanted to do it." 
 
 There was no reproach in Wiltshire's tone. He tried 
 to keep out of it everything but a mere statement of the 
 fact. 
 
 "I do love him," Paula said, after a minute's hesi- 
 tation. "I needn't deny it. A lot of people know it. 
 Your sister knows it, and papa, and " 
 
 "I swear I didn't, Paula," Trafford cried. "I thought 
 you had given the man up." 
 
 "So I have, papa. But don't you remember that I 
 told you I should always love him even if I married 
 some one else." 
 
 300
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "You see, then " Wiltshire began. 
 
 "But that doesn't keep me from loving you," she 
 went on, quickly, "just as much as I've always loved 
 you. Only it isn't the same thing. It isn't even the 
 same sort of thing. If you think I've changed towards 
 you, Duke, or that I don't want to keep my word, you're 
 quite wrong." 
 
 " But I don't think so, Paula. I know you're ready 
 to marry me, and I know you'd do it from the highest 
 motives that can rule in human conduct, but I couldn't 
 have the heart of a man and allow you to do it." 
 
 "Let's sit down," Traffbrd suggested, with some- 
 thing like a groan. 
 
 When they had taken seats, Wiltshire defined the 
 situation between them. He took the responsibility for 
 it entirely upon himself. He had practically laid a trap 
 for her. He had placed her in a position in which it 
 had been almost impossible for her to refuse him. He 
 had known that at the time. He had been quite aware 
 that unless she had other reasons for doing so she could 
 not marry him for love. He would say in his own 
 defence that he hoped that the love which was lacking 
 now she might learn to give him as their lives went on 
 together. It was a hope founded on the assumption 
 that if she did not love him much, at least she loved 
 no one else more. Now that he knew to the contrary, 
 he must beg her not to sacrifice herself in an effort that 
 could only fail. She listened with downcast eyes. Her 
 face was pale and drawn, and though she maintained 
 her self-control, her emotion betrayed itself in the 
 
 301
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 nervousness with which she twirled round and round 
 the one ring she wore her engagement-ring. She was 
 unconscious of the action, but Wiltshire noted how 
 loosely the ring clung to the thin white finger. 
 
 "I don't think you do me justice, Duke," she said, 
 when he had finished speaking. She raised her eyes 
 and looked at him with apparent calmness. "You 
 seem to think I have taken this step without knowing 
 what I was doing, or counting the cost. But I did all 
 that beforehand. If I hadn't believed that I could be 
 a good wife to you, I shouldn't have undertaken to try. 
 That I loved some one else differently was something I 
 never intended that you should know. It wouldn't 
 have been necessary. I don't suppose that any two 
 married people know everything about each other or 
 that they need to know. You'd have been happy with 
 me" 
 
 "Ah, but would you have been happy with me, 
 Paula ?" 
 
 "A woman's happiness, Duke, is very easily secured. 
 A large part of it the very largest part of it is in the 
 happiness of those she cares for. If you and papa were 
 pleased, that in itself would mean a great deal to me. 
 I don't say that it would be enough to make me put 
 aside all positive desires of my own, if there were no 
 other reason. But there is another reason " 
 
 "What ?" 
 
 "Papa knows. I needn't explain it. It's enough to 
 say that it exists. I couldn't marry Mr. Winship, 
 however much I cared for him. And since that is so, 
 
 302
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 why shouldn't I take what's left of my life to bring some 
 comfort into yours ?" 
 
 Wiltshire sprang up and crossed the room towards 
 her. 
 
 "No, no, Paula. It can't be. You wouldn't be 
 bringing comfort into my life when I knew you were 
 desolating your own. It isn't as if everything were 
 surely over for the love you own to. If it were, then, 
 perhaps who knows ? I might let you come in to the 
 poor shelter I could offer you. But everything isn't 
 over " 
 
 "Oh, Duke, don't say that," she cried, in a sharp 
 tone of pleading. 
 
 "I do say it. I say it and repeat it. Reasons that 
 exist to-day may not exist to-morrow. What should I 
 feel if the time ever came when you might be free to 
 marry him, if you had not been tied to me ?" 
 
 She started with a little gasp, raising her hand as if 
 to brush the thought away from her. It was the hand 
 on which her engagement-ring hung so loosely. Wilt- 
 shire caught it, holding it firmly in his own grasp. 
 
 "I'm going to take this off, Paula. It should never 
 have gone on." 
 
 She looked at him piteously, big tears beginning to 
 roll down her cheeks. Trafford sprang from his chair, 
 with an inarticulate sound of impatience. Wiltshire 
 drew the ring so slowly from the finger that he seemed 
 to be counting the seconds by which his own life ebbed 
 away. 
 
 In the long minute of silence a discreet tap on the 
 33
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 door sounded startlingly loud. To Trafford's quick 
 "Come in," his secretary entered, apologetically offer- 
 ing a card. 
 
 "The gentleman said his errand was urgent," the 
 secretary explained, "otherwise I shouldn't have vent- 
 ured " 
 
 "You're quite right, Smithson. Ask Durand to show 
 the gentleman in here." 
 
 "But who is it, papa ?" Paula cried, rising, "I can't 
 see any one." 
 
 "You'd better see him" Trafford said, gruffly. 
 
 He handed the card to Wiltshire, who, having read it, 
 passed it on to Paula. 
 
 "You see, I was right," he said, softly. "Everything 
 isn't over yet." 
 
 " But, papa," Paula protested, with an air of distress, 
 " I can't see Mr. Winship with this this wedding-dress 
 on." 
 
 "Then take it off." 
 
 "Yes, take it off, Paula," Wiltshire said, with a sad 
 smile. "As long as I live I shall remember with joy 
 that you were willing to wear it. Now I am going to 
 say good-bye. You mustn't be sorry for anything 
 that's occurred, because, even as things are, I'm a 
 great deal happier than if than if I didn't love 
 you." 
 
 "Oh, Duke" she began, brokenly. 
 
 "Hush," he whispered. "Don't try to say anything. 
 Winship will be here in a minute, and you must go and 
 take that off. But you can lay it away somewhere 
 
 304
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 can't you ? and keep it in memory of the sacrifice- 
 from which I saved you." 
 
 Again Paula tried to speak, but he turned quickly 
 from her. With a rapid pressure of Trafford's hand, 
 he left by one door, while Paula went out by another. 
 Trafford was thus left alone to wait for WJnship.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 V/'EARS of use had developed into an instinct Traf- 
 I ford's faculty for rapidly seizing the salient points 
 of a situation. He never lost sight of the end to be 
 attained, or suffered side issues to divert his attention. 
 His victories had been won less by the success of his 
 plans than by the execution of new moves when his 
 plans were thwarted. He wasted no time in forcing 
 the manoeuvre that could not be carried out, or in 
 lamenting the one that had failed. Whether the means 
 were in men or in money, he prized them only in so far 
 as they reached the aim on which his mind was fixed. 
 His promptness of judgment, quickness of action, and 
 concentration of purpose excluded sentiment for those 
 who had ceased to fight by his side. Even if he had the 
 will to think of them, he had not the time. 
 
 When Wiltshire closed the door behind him, he dis- 
 appeared from Trafford's plan of action as completely 
 as if he had never been in it. It was one more instance 
 of the tool that had been bent in the hand, and could 
 only be cast aside. He had been singled out to insure 
 Paula Trafford's happiness, but circumstances had 
 rendered him unsuited to the task. Very well; there 
 was nothing to be done but to turn to some one who 
 
 306
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 would be equal to the undertaking, even though it were 
 a Roger Winship. Trafford was subconsciously aware 
 that a day would come when he would have leisure to 
 look back with regret to the hopes he had built upon the 
 Duke, but events pressed too closely to allow of his 
 doing it now. 
 
 During the few minutes that passed between the 
 Duke's departure and Winship's appearance, Traf- 
 ford reviewed, in his rapid way, the points of the situa- 
 tion, one by one, and prepared himself for any step he 
 might be called upon to take. 
 
 The meeting between the two men was cold and for- 
 mal. Each kept himself on his guard. It was impos- 
 sible for Winship's trained observation not to see that 
 Trafford was a broken man, and equally so for Traf- 
 ford, with his habit of quick scrutiny, not to perceive 
 in Winship a certain development in command and im- 
 portance, since their meeting of six months ago. 
 
 "I must thank you for receiving me," Winship began, 
 when they had taken seats. "I shouldn't have vent- 
 ured to disturb you, if I had not something of im- 
 portance to say." 
 
 "I'm very willing to see you, Mr. Winship," Traf- 
 ford said, with a faint suggestion of friendliness. 
 
 "My business may be briefly stated," Winship con- 
 tinued, "but my motives may require a word of ex- 
 planation." 
 
 "I'm entirely at your service for anything." 
 
 "Six months ago," Winship pursued, with some 
 evident difficulty, "you offered my sister and myself a 
 
 307
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 large sum of money. That is to say, while no defi- 
 nite sum was named for me, you contemplated, I 
 think, something of the sort." 
 
 "You're quite right." 
 
 "We refused the money then. We meant that re- 
 fusal to be final; but since last night we've reconsidered 
 the matter. If you are still in the same frame of 
 mind" 
 
 "I am." 
 
 "We should be willing to accept it." 
 
 "I shall have the matter arranged at once. I believe 
 I said five hundred thousand for Miss Winship. If 
 you'll permit me, I'll double the sum for you; or, if you 
 prefer it, I will double that again." 
 
 "The amount is of no consequence. Neither of us 
 could ever use the money for ourselves. As far as we 
 are concerned, its transference to our names would be a 
 mere formality. I know we lay ourselves open to the 
 charge of compromising with the man who ruined our 
 father and mother " 
 
 "Couldn't we discuss the subject, Mr. Winship, 
 without bringing that point up again ?" 
 
 The curious gentleness of Traffbrd's tone struck Win- 
 ship strangely. 
 
 "I'll try," he said, briefly. 
 
 "I'll tell you why," Traffbrd explained. "I know 
 you're doing this for my daughter; and I've reached a 
 point where I can't bear that there should be bitterness 
 of speech in anything where she's concerned." 
 
 "That's right," Winship said, with more emotion 
 308
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 of tone than he had displayed hitherto. "I ought to 
 have remembered it especially as my errand here this 
 morning is to say that my sister and I want to bury the 
 sword at your daughter's feet." 
 
 "In what way, Mr. Winship ? Will you be good 
 enough to tell me exactly what you and Miss Winship 
 mean ?" 
 
 "Our impulses are different. My sister's is a very 
 simple one. She has always treated Miss Trafford 
 harshly unjustly. But she has done it with a sort of 
 kicking against the pricks. Now that she realizes her 
 goodness, her elevation of character, she is ready to do 
 anything, however hard, to make amends. It's not an 
 unusual manifestation of remorse. My own motives 
 are somewhat more complicated just as the whole 
 question is a complicated one. I understand that Miss 
 Traffbrd is to be married in a few days to the Duke 
 of Wiltshire. Well, I rebelled against that when she 
 told me yesterday for you may not know that I saw 
 her yesterday. But the night brings counsel, and I've 
 come to see that, in all the circumstances, it's perhaps 
 the best thing for every one. Wiltshire is a good man, 
 and, if he can't make her happy, he will at least sur- 
 round her with love and kindness. I'm the only one 
 who could have made her happy " 
 
 "And you wouldn't do it," Traffbrd broke in. "You 
 threw away your chance." 
 
 " I don't think I really had it. The Cid and Chimene 
 were not separated by so impassable a barrier as she 
 and I. At all events, if I've made a mistake I'm ready 
 
 309
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 to pay the penalty. She's not happy, and she's not 
 well. Any one can see that. I think it might help her 
 towards being both if she knew I had taken the money. 
 She feels strongly on the point more strongly, I fancy, 
 than any of us is aware of." 
 
 "That is, she thinks mind you, I'm speaking quite 
 calmly, Mr. Winship, I'm merely trying to state the case 
 as it is she thinks I've done you and your family a 
 wrong, and she would be happier if she thought I had 
 righted it." 
 
 "I think that's her conviction." 
 
 "And you're willing to make it seem as if I had right- 
 ed it, in order that she may be more at peace." 
 
 "Quite so. Miss TrafFord need never know any- 
 thing more than that I have taken the money. Before 
 she is married I shall have sailed for New York, where 
 I mean to live. It's hardly likely that our paths will 
 cross again; and so, in the course of time " 
 
 "May I ask if you are going to America also on 
 my daughter's account?" 
 
 "Only partially. The time has come for me to return 
 there, in any case. I'm only hastening my departure." 
 
 For a few minutes there was silence. Winship, 
 having stated his case, had little more to add. TrafFord 
 looked musingly at the floor, and even when he spoke 
 he did not lift his eyes. 
 
 "Look here, Winship, "he said at last, "why shouldn't 
 you wait a few days and take my daughter with you ?" 
 
 There was a second or two of dead stillness before 
 Winship replied, "I don't understand." 
 310
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "It's easy enough, however," Trafford pursued, still 
 without looking up. " Paula is not going to marry the 
 Duke of Wiltshire." 
 
 "Oh!" Winship started, 
 
 " He came here just now to release her. He'd learned 
 that Paula didn't love him that, in fact, she loved you. 
 And since she does and you love her and you've met 
 me half-way by offering to take the money why 
 shouldn't we ?" 
 
 "I didn't expect this," Winship gasped. 
 
 "No, of course you didn't. Naturally it would put 
 you back in the same position as before before you 
 dealt that blow at me in June. Now, don't speak, 
 Winship. Let me give you the thing from my point of 
 view." Trafford looked up and spoke with more 
 animation. "You've grown up in the idea of working 
 off on me a bit of family revenge. Chance put you 
 in the way of doing it. You would have carried off 
 my daughter, and left me childless. You would have 
 done it in such a way that the very manner of her going 
 with you would have been the severest condemnation 
 of my life and me. You didn't quite succeed, and yet 
 you haven't wholly failed. My daughter stands by me 
 before the world; she only condemns me in secret, she 
 only shrinks from me by ways which she thinks I don't 
 see or understand. As a matter of appearance she's 
 still my child, but as a matter of fact I've lost her. You 
 see, then, that you've done the most important part of 
 your work you've effected between her and me that 
 sort of moral separation that nothing can ever heal. 
 
 3"
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Whatever happens now, whatever turn events may 
 take, she'll never be to me again what she used to be. 
 You see, you've done as much as that. It's part of 
 what you wanted, isn't it ?" 
 
 Winship hesitated a minute before replying. "Yes," 
 he said at last. 
 
 "But there's one thing you haven't realized," Traf- 
 ford went on, in the same calm voice. "You've made 
 me suffer, but I'm not the only one. I'm not sure, 
 even, that I'm the one who suffers most. You couldn't 
 have guessed beforehand what it would mean to a 
 nature like my little girl's to lose her faith in me. But 
 you must know it now, if you saw her yesterday. She 
 didn't look like that when you saw her first, did she, 
 Winship ? That's "your work. As the Duke said this 
 morning, she's not dying merely because she gave up 
 one man to marry another; she's dying because she finds 
 herself in a world so tainted that she can't breathe in it. 
 You see, then, Winship: you wanted to kill me, and 
 you've gone far towards killing her. There's just one 
 thing that will bring her back to life. Do you want me 
 to tell you what it is ?" 
 
 Winship was gazing at Trafford with haggard eyes, 
 but he did not speak. 
 
 "Our reconciliation," Trafford said, with the same 
 unemphasized intensity. 
 
 Winship rose slowly to his feet. 
 
 "I'm only a man," he said, hoarsely. "I've no 
 power to work a miracle." 
 
 "Then, for God's sake, couldn't you pretend to do 
 312
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 it ?" Trafford cried, springing up in his turn. "You're 
 ready to make sacrifices for her sake, you're ready to 
 take the money, you're ready to go away, you're ready 
 to tear out your own heart and hers too. Is it so much 
 easier to do all that than merely to take the hand out- 
 stretched to you ? True, it's my hand, the hand, you 
 will say, that crushed your father and struck your 
 mother down; but even so, wouldn't you rather touch 
 it just touch it than grind the life out of a sweet 
 and blameless child ? I know your revenge is dear to 
 you but you've got it. You've got it in the very fact 
 that I, Paul Traffbrd, come pleading to you, as I never 
 expected to plead to any man. I've used men as the 
 mere bricks with which to build my castle, and yet I'm 
 brought to the necessity of begging you for a recogni- 
 tion. Can't you afford to laugh, man ? Can't you 
 afford to triumph over me ? You couldn't gloat at the 
 sight half so much if you saw me in my coffin as you 
 can now in watching me at your feet. God Almighty 
 has put me at your mercy, in menacing my poor child's 
 life; but you'd be a monster, and not a man, to keep 
 me there." 
 
 He paused, waiting for a reply; but for a minute or 
 two Winship said nothing. He stood erect, his hands 
 behind his back, his lips tightly set, and his deep eyes 
 gazing off into the distance above Trafford's head. 
 Trafford himself watched with an expression of rather 
 pitiful beseeching. 
 
 "I find my position a very hard one," Winship said, 
 slowly. He spoke in a low voice, but with what seemed 
 
 313
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 to Trafford curious distinctness. "I have to put it to 
 you crudely very crudely in order that you may see 
 how hard it is. I thought I was ready to make any 
 sacrifice for Miss Trafford, merely to give her peace of 
 mind. Now I have to hesitate to save her life. But 
 I've never contemplated the possibility of even a nomi- 
 nal reconciliation with you. If it were only a question 
 of private enmity, I shouldn't shrink from it. But it's 
 more than that. It's a great point of honor. If I do 
 as you suggest, I shall be allying myself, openly and 
 before the world, with a man whose life, work, and 
 character I look upon as a national evil. I shall be en- 
 tering into a system of organized depredation which is 
 already bringing our country into disrepute, and may 
 lead it to disaster. I shall be abandoning my own 
 principles of simplicity, honesty, and self-respect, to 
 take up or to seem to take up those of plunder, 
 cruelty, and greed. I must ask you to forgive me for 
 speaking in this way. I shouldn't do it if it were not 
 for the sake of making my position clear. You must 
 see yourself that it was one thing for me to try to take 
 your daughter out of the life you stand for, but it's quite 
 another to be willing to go into it with her. But that's 
 what it comes to. However nominal my act might be, 
 that's what I should be doing. I repeat that I can 
 forget all the reasons I've had for personal hostility. 
 But I can't forget that you're the chief of that group of 
 men who, as I believe in my heart, are the corrupters " 
 " I won't trouble you for further explanations of that 
 sort," Trafford interrupted, without show of anger. 
 
 3H
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I've been treated to such a lot of eloquence on the 
 subject, at one time or another, that I know in advance 
 exactly what you want to say. I shall only ask you to 
 remember that if I've never said anything in my own 
 defence, and if I say nothing now, it doesn't follow that 
 I've no defence at all. At the same time I may admit 
 that I see your point, and in spite of the fact that it isn't 
 flattering to me, I'm not without a certain respect for 
 your position. Don't give me an answer now. Think 
 over it. Then, if you can't do it, why we shall just have 
 to bear the consequences, that's all. But remember 
 this, Winship: that if what you call your honor out- 
 weighs what you call your love, and my little girl dies, 
 it won't be because you wouldn't marry her. She's 
 no such weakling as to break her heart for that. It 
 will be, as I've said already, because the world will have 
 become unfit for her to live in. Now go and think it 
 all over. If we talk about it any longer we may say 
 the wrong thing. Remember that you're on the point 
 of making a big decision, and take your time. To-day 
 is Tuesday. Suppose you were to come to see me again 
 on Thursday afternoon ?" 
 
 After further discussion it was settled in this way, 
 and Winship rose to go. He was at the door when he 
 paused and turned. 
 
 "It often happens," he said, in a tone of voice he had 
 not used hitherto, "that men who are furthest apart in 
 matters of principle find some place for mutual sym- 
 pathy when they come into personal contact. I've 
 been twice put in situations where I've had to speak 
 
 315
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 out my mind with something more than plainness; and 
 yet the superb patience with which you've borne what 
 I've had to say has made me feel as if I were shooting 
 into the air. I should like to add, however, that it 
 won't be necessary for me to begin in that strain 
 again." 
 
 "My dear fellow," Traffbrd responded, warmly, 
 "nobody appreciates a good fighter like an old soldier. 
 It would never occur to me to resent anything you say; 
 I'm too much occupied in trying to make you think 
 differently. That's my form of winning a victory. 
 Who knows but what we may both live to talk over all 
 these things, as I've heard two old soldiers of the 
 North and South, each giving his account of the same 
 battle from his own point of view ?" 
 
 Winship made no reply to this, but he allowed Traf- 
 ford to take his hand and hold it for a second, with a 
 pressure that was not unkindly.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 IN spite of what he knew of Marah's changed atti- 
 tude towards Paula, it was a surprise to W'iship 
 to find that she counselled him at once to fall in with 
 Trafford's plans. 
 
 " It's a case that admits of no hesitation," she said, 
 as they talked the subject over in the long, red studio 
 that night. " If anything were to happen to her " 
 
 "Why should you suggest that?" 
 
 "I must suggest it, Roger. And if anything did hap- 
 pen to her, it would be little comfort to you then to re- 
 member that you hadn't done violence to your scruples. 
 I don't deny that you're in a difficult position. When 
 a man's right course is to throw in his fortunes with what 
 he believes to be wrong, he offers a curious problem to 
 the casuist. And yet it seems to me there's no doubt 
 as to what you ought to do. We're human beings first 
 and members of a social order afterwards. If Paula is 
 as ill as you say, there can be no thought for any one 
 but her." 
 
 They sat at the table from which the servant had 
 cleared away their simple evening meal. Marah had 
 brought her paints and brushes to the light, and Win- 
 ship had opened mechanically a portfolio of drawings, 
 
 317
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 at which he did not look. He sat smoking pensively, 
 allowing Marah to pursue her thoughts without in- 
 terruption. 
 
 "At the same time," she continued, "you'd have to 
 count the cost. We should both have to do it. It's 
 in the very nature of the circumstances that, whatever 
 compromise must be made, I should have to share it." 
 
 " That's hard on you," Winship said, absently. "You'd 
 be paying the price without securing any of the reward." 
 
 "My reward doesn't matter," she snapped. "It's 
 too late now to think of happiness for me. If I can get 
 the reflection of yours it will be enough. And you 
 would have it. It's no use talking as if you were mak- 
 ing a great sacrifice to get nothing in return." 
 
 "I don't think I ever did. If I have scruples, they 
 come entirely from the fear of buying my happiness at a 
 price I ought not to pay." 
 
 "Of course; but that's not the question any longer. 
 It often happens in life that it's your duty to spend on 
 some one else the money which you wouldn't be justi- 
 fied in wasting on yourself. That's the position here. 
 If your only thought was of what you were to get you 
 wouldn't do it. You'd be the man who was gaining 
 the whole world and losing his own soul. I'm sorry to 
 say that that was the light at which I looked at it in 
 June. I didn't see that there was another side to it. I 
 thought of Paula only as a Traffbrd; and I didn't realize 
 that good things could come even out of Nazareth. 
 Now I feel as if life couldn't be long enough to make 
 her the necessary reparation."
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 She stopped, with a little quiver in her voice. Bend- 
 ing her head, she made sharp, tiny strokes on the un- 
 finished miniature before her. 
 
 " But we must be clear in advance," she pursued, after 
 a few minutes of silence, "that the price you'd have to 
 pay would be a heavy one. You mustn't be blind to 
 that fact now, and indignant when the world calls you 
 to the reckoning afterwards. In the first place, you'll 
 be looked upon as a successful fortune-hunter. Oh, 
 you needn't frown, because no one, outside theTraffbrds 
 and ourselves, will have any other opinion about you. 
 They'll ignore the fact that Paula is a girl whom any 
 man might be eager to marry for herself. Even our 
 own best friends won't give you the benefit of the doubt 
 in this case." 
 
 "I shall be able to live without it," he interrupted, 
 dryly. 
 
 "Of course you will. But you won't be able to live 
 without many a twinge of pain arising from the fact. 
 And there'll be even worse, Roger. In our little group 
 of intimates, where you've been the chief, where your 
 ideas have converted so many to sane and simple views 
 of life, where you've inspired them to go home, and 
 fight, against greed and corruption, and to work for 
 whatever is pure and lovely in American life, from the 
 aspect of the streets to the attitude of the mind there 
 you'll be looked upon as worse than a lost leader, as 
 more despicable than a turncoat. After all, a man has 
 a right to change his mind, and to adopt new principles 
 if he wants to; but they won't allow you that privilege. 
 
 3*9
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 You'll be considered simply as a traitor as the man 
 who denied his faith, and went over to the enemy, for 
 the sake of a big prize. There, again, you'll be able to 
 live without their good opinion; the very magnitude of 
 your fortunes will enable you to do that; but you must 
 face the trial of becoming the object of their scorn, and 
 of being made to feel it. The very fact that you'll be 
 so far removed from your old friends in circumstance 
 will make you want to cling to them all the more in 
 heart; and they'll reject you." 
 
 Winship still puffed pensively at his pipe, looking far 
 away into the darkness of the long, dimly lighted 
 room. 
 
 "And yet," she continued, speaking calmly, "you 
 wouldn't be the first man to live under the unjust con- 
 demnation of the world. It isn't so hard, if you once 
 steel yourself to do it. It will be easier in your case than 
 in most, for the simple reason that, in your position, 
 you'll be surrounded by a host of new friends and 
 flatterers who'll stand well between you and those you've 
 left behind. Besides, there will be a lot of people by 
 whom you will be treated with sincere respect, as the 
 man who got the best of the great Paul Trafford. You 
 will be the conqueror's conqueror, and that fact alone 
 will give you a high place among those whose approval 
 you despise. But having won that, you'll have to live 
 up to it. Having accepted the position, you'll have to 
 show yourself equal to its tasks. All your own simple 
 tastes and habits of life must be abandoned. You'll 
 have to give up your art " 
 
 320
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "No," he thundered, bringing his clinched hand down 
 on the table. 
 
 "Yes, Roger. You need only reflect a minute to see 
 how incongruous your art will have become in your new 
 surroundings. An artist is essentially a worker, a 
 toiler, and, relatively, a poor man. You, on the con- 
 trary, will have become one of the few very rich men in 
 the whole world. You can see at once how absurd it 
 would be to go on painting portraits at five or ten or even 
 twenty thousand dollars apiece. In the first place, 
 you'd be taking the bread out of other men's mouths; 
 and in the second, your new duties wouldn't allow you 
 the time. The first thought of a man as rich as you will 
 be must be his money the care of it, the spending of it, 
 or even the giving of it away. Art will mean no more 
 to you then than a crutch would mean to an eagle. 
 You've got to face that fact. I'm only putting it before 
 you now so that you won't rebel against it when it's too 
 late. It will be easier for you to give it up beforehand, 
 of your own free choice, than to have the renunciation 
 forced upon you, when you don't want to make it. 
 But, on the other hand, you'll have Paula. There'll be 
 that compensation at least. If there's to be a revolu- 
 tion in your life, it will be the kind of revolution that 
 comes to a man when he's torn away from the interests 
 of this world, to go and live in heaven." 
 
 Marah said much more, but Winship followed with 
 only a wavering attention. He was realizing with 
 greater fulness what his acceptance ofTrafford's prop- 
 osition would mean. The reversal of his aims became 
 
 321
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 more complete as he saw it in the light of her direct, 
 feminine observations. Hitherto he had thought chiefly 
 of the Change to be produced within himself of the 
 giving up of his pursuit of vengeance, and of the aban- 
 donment of those altruistic social principles which he 
 had urged upon others as being of the American re- 
 public's very soul. He had not seen himself as he 
 would figure in the eyes of those who formed his world 
 the men and women who had looked up to him, who 
 had encouraged him, and whose mouth-to-mouth ap- 
 plause had been a large element in his present incipient 
 celebrity. They were the generous, eager, enthusiastic 
 young souls whom Paris had drawn from every corner 
 of the Union, to send them back again with ideas 
 heightened, broadened, and clarified by touch with the 
 accumulated wisdom of mankind. For ten years Win- 
 ship had gone in and out among them, sharing their 
 ambitions, their follies, and their tasks, gradually sober- 
 ing to one steady vision of the good they would all do 
 when they "went home." His heart had gone out to 
 theirs, and their hearts to him, in that sort of trust 
 which contains the element of a life-long bond, defying 
 chance and change. It would have been hard enough 
 to turn his back on them in any case; it was harder still 
 to know that after he had done it they would hoot him 
 down with pitiless, jeering anathemas. They were still 
 young and ardent enough to show no mercy on the man 
 who could sell his ideals for a fortune. 
 
 When Marah went to bed he paced up and down the 
 studio thinking of them. He came back from them to 
 
 322
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 himself again, and passed from himself to the thought 
 of the beloved art he must abandon with the rest. He 
 had not accepted Marah's opinion when she first ex- 
 pressed it, but, little by little, as he reflected, he saw that 
 she was right. The hugely wealthy portrait-painter 
 would be futile and anomalous. Art was in some sense 
 the daughter of necessity, and he would become in- 
 capable of work when he had entered into the Nirvana 
 of Paul Trafford's money. 
 
 He went about the room taking up and laying down 
 the familiar objects connected with his painting. It 
 seemed to him already as if he came back to them like 
 a disembodied spirit, unable to handle them any more. 
 He drew the cloth away from the newly finished por- 
 trait on the easel, and stood gazing at it, as if bidding it 
 a mute farewell. When he lit his candle and went to 
 bed he knew that his mind was made up. He knew, in 
 fact, that it had been made up from the beginning. 
 Whatever might be his pain at forsaking his old life, he 
 could have no real hesitation when Paula had need of 
 him to make hers anew. 
 
 On Thursday afternoon he went to give Trafford his 
 reply. 
 
 For father and daughter the intervening time had 
 passed in a kind of lull. From the fact that Traffbrd 
 said nothing of the purpose of Winship's previous visit, 
 Paula gathered that something was in suspense. As 
 Traffbrd watched her, it seemed to him that she was 
 better and brighter, as if her new freedom had brought 
 her relief already. Her step was lighter as she went 
 
 3 2 3
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 about the house, and in her cheek there was a tinge of 
 color like the first hint of coming dawn. When at 
 luncheon on Thursday he asked her to remain at home 
 during the afternoon, her blush betrayed the knowledge 
 that some decisive moment was approaching. 
 
 Trafford waited in the small sitting-room that had 
 been his wife's, adjoining Paula's boudoir. 
 
 "It's a queer world," he mused, "and we old ones 
 have tumbled into the midst of a strangely constructed 
 generation. I'll be hanged if I can understand it. 
 Here's a young fellow who, I suppose, is typical of 
 the twentieth century, hesitating to marry the loveliest 
 girl and the biggest fortune in the world. By gad! 
 it was different in my time. It's true that in my time 
 there were no such heaps of money lying around, to be 
 scooped up with a wedding-ring. I've set the new pace 
 in that. I've piled up wealth, till the very thought of it 
 is staggering, and it's just as if nobody wanted it." 
 
 He smiled bitterly to himself, as he made the reflec- 
 tion, while there floated through his mind a verse of 
 the Scriptures that had found a place in his memory, 
 he knew not how: 
 
 41 For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth 
 himself In vain ; he heapeth up riches and cannot tell 
 who shall gather them." 
 
 "It's almost as if those words were written for me," 
 he mused on. "I've done the thing, and what's the 
 good of it, after all ? I've heaped up the riches, but 
 
 324
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 who's to gather them ? Paula would rather be rid of 
 the money than take it; George has as much as he 
 knows what to do with; I go begging to old Roger Win- 
 ship's son to take the stuff off my hands, and he hesitates 
 to do me the favor. Lord! if I could wave a fairy wand 
 and conjure it all back to where it came from, I'll be 
 blowed if I wouldn't do it. It's a curious Nemesis to 
 overtake a man like me. I've had the most stupen- 
 dous luck that any one ever had on earth ; and now I 
 can only say that I've walked in a vain shadow, and 
 disquieted myself in vain." 
 
 Winship came at four. From the manner of his 
 entering, Trafford knew that this much of the cause was 
 won. He strode in, looking very tall, erect, and grave, 
 and held out his hand. Trafford rose and took it, with 
 sudden gravity on his part. For a few seconds they 
 stood, with hands clasped, staring each other in the 
 eyes. It was difficult for either to find words to express 
 the situation. 
 
 "You needn't say anything," Trafford said, at last, 
 as they moved apart. " I know you mean to do it, and 
 that you'll do it well. It will be for me to show that I 
 appreciate your action." 
 
 " It will only be necessary for each of us to remember 
 that whatever we do we do for Paula's sake, to make 
 what's difficult easy." 
 
 " That's well spoken, Winship. You can trust me 
 not to forget it, as I am sure you won't. Now let me 
 call her." 
 
 When she appeared on the threshold, the scene 
 325
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 brought back so painfully her similar entry, on the 
 similar occasion in June, that Trafford hastened for- 
 ward and took her by the hand. 
 
 "Come here, dear," he whispered. "Let me lead 
 you to him. There, take her," he added to Winship; 
 "and no man on earth ever received so rare a gift." 
 
 "No man on earth could value it more preciously," 
 Winship returned. Taking her hands gently in his 
 own, he stooped and kissed them both. 
 
 The whole action was so sudden that it took Paula by 
 surprise. With her hands still in Winship's, she looked 
 at her father, and from her father back again to Win- 
 ship. 
 
 "What does it mean ?" she asked. Whatever color 
 had been in her face died away now. 
 
 "It means, dear," Trafford replied, "that the two 
 hearts who love you most have become one in you." 
 
 "Is it true, Roger?" 
 
 "It's true, Paula after all." 
 
 With her hands still in his, she looked once more 
 towards her father. 
 
 "You wish it, papa ?" 
 
 "I do, dearest. In going to the man you love, you 
 go with all my good-will." 
 
 " And without without the money ?" 
 
 The question was unexpected. For a moment nei- 
 ther of the men replied. When Trafford spoke it was 
 stammeringly. 
 
 "He's he's going to take it, dear." 
 
 "Then I can't let him," she said, firmly. She with- 
 326
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 drew her hands and fell back a step or two. "It's what 
 I was afraid of," she went on, speaking in tones of quiet 
 decision. "I thought he had come to say so the other 
 day. But I could never consent to it." 
 
 " But, darling " Trafford began to implore. 
 
 "No, papa. I've thought it all over in the last two 
 days, and I see what he would be doing for me. He 
 knows how I've been suffering. And to save me he's 
 willing to commit a great apostasy." 
 
 "But, Paula" 
 
 "You needn't speak, Roger. I know your heart 
 better than you do yourself. No one has firmer con- 
 victions than you; no one is more sure of what he con- 
 siders right. And yet, for my sake, you'd renounce 
 what you believe in, just as, in a time of persecution, 
 some Christian might renounce his God, and his eternal 
 hopes, for the sake of a heathen maiden. But how 
 can I accept such sacrifice ? The Duke of Wiltshire 
 wouldn't let me do far less than that for him. Papa, 
 dear," she pursued, "you mustn't be offended at any- 
 thing I say; but it must be clear to us all that Roger 
 hasn't the same ideas about life that that we have. 
 I don't say that his are necessarily right and ours wrong; 
 they're only different. He couldn't possibly give up his 
 and accept ours without doing violence to his nature. 
 He may pretend to be a convert, but he isn't; and we 
 know that nothing is so hollow, or so hard to keep up, 
 as a conversion in which there's no faith." 
 
 "But I should put faith into it, Paula." 
 
 "Don't say that, Roger. It pains me. I like to 
 
 327
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 know that you're living for your own aims, and for 
 nothing else. For you to abandon them would seem to 
 me a good deal more than a desertion. I could never 
 lend myself to such a plan, or be satisfied to see you 
 carry it out. No, Roger. Your way isn't ours, nor 
 ours yours." 
 
 "You didn't think so six months ago," Trafford 
 broke in, despairingly. 
 
 "I've learned a great deal in six months, papa. I 
 understand now things that I knew nothing about then." 
 
 "What things?" he demanded, with the quickness 
 of one who feels touched where he is sensitive. 
 
 "Very serious things. I've thought about them, and 
 read about them, and prayed about them, until I've 
 obtained some small degree of insight. I know that 
 some are higher and some are lower, and that Roger's 
 are the higher. How could I ask him to come down ? 
 How could I bear to be the very instrument of such a 
 renunciation ? You mustn't feel hurt, papa, at my 
 saying this. Your life is my life, and I'm going to lead 
 it; but I couldn't let Roger come and share it. He'd 
 be wretched with us, and, when we saw it, we'd be 
 wretched with him. Better let each live for his own 
 he in his way, and you and I together." 
 
 "You and I together in the lower way," Trafford 
 said, sadly. 
 
 " I don't say so, papa. I've been thinking that over, 
 too, and it seems to me that different generations have 
 different uses. You belong to the great age of material 
 effort. That's the age we've been living in, and there 
 
 328
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 must be good in it. It hasn't only made the country 
 rich and powerful, but it has developed the great store- 
 house God has kept laid up in it, until mankind had 
 need to come and use it. That's been part of your work, 
 papa, and it would be wicked to say that it hasn't its 
 noble aspects. But mayn't it be that, now that so much 
 of it is done, we're passing on to other phases phases in 
 which we sha'n't have to think so much of the material, 
 and so may be free to lift up our hearts to something 
 else ? Aren't there signs of it everywhere among all 
 classes of our people ? Don't think me foolish," she 
 continued, spreading her hands apart in a gesture of 
 appeal " don't fancy that I suppose for a moment 
 that I can teach you. But I've had to go over it all in 
 the last few months, and it does seem to me as if I could 
 feel the stir of a great spiritual awakening. As I look 
 over the new books, as I turn the pages of the maga- 
 zines, as I listen to sermons or read reports of them, as I 
 see in the papers the new kinds of effort that are being 
 put forth, I can't help the conviction that our whole 
 country is groaning and travailing in pain together to 
 burst its bonds and let its soul go free." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "By getting beyond the idea that the greatest thing 
 in the world is to make money and live in luxury," she 
 replied, promptly. "We've only had to do it to see 
 how unsatisfying it is, and we're feeling after something 
 better. There are people going before us to show us 
 the way, and the impulse is coming to the rest of us to 
 press in behind and follow on." 
 
 329
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "She looks like a prophetess," Traffbrd whispered to 
 Winship. 
 
 "I often think," she continued, heedless of the in- 
 terruption, "that when God kept our continent hidden 
 for so many generations it was in order that we might 
 have virgin ground on which to begin all over again, 
 with a civilization that could be truer to the principles 
 of Christ. I believe that in our heart of hearts we know 
 it. I believe that there's not an American anywhere 
 who doesn't feel, in some obscure depth of his being, 
 that we've missed our calling hitherto. We've been sent 
 to preach the gospel to the poor and heal the broken- 
 hearted, and we haven't done it. But I'm sure there's 
 a growing sense that we ought to, and that we must. 
 There are men and women starting up in all directions 
 to tell us how. Roger's one of them, and I couldn't 
 call him back. He has his word of the message to 
 deliver, and I couldn't ask him to be silent. I can see 
 now that what happened last June was for the best 
 the very best. Roger, dear," she continued, turning 
 towards Winship, " I thank you for what you're willing 
 to do for me. You know I love you that I shall al- 
 ways love you. I haven't made a secret of it, and I 
 never shall. But I couldn't I couldn't " 
 
 She faltered, her hands crossed on her breast, and 
 her lips quivering. 
 
 The two men looked at each other helplessly. 
 
 "You see that you and I have to live for such different 
 things that no marriage papa, darling, don't turn 
 away," she implored, as Trafford took two or three 
 
 33
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 strides towards a window. "You mustn't be angry 
 with me. You mustn't think I don't want to stay with 
 you. I do. I do. With love like Roger's and mine 
 we can be happy even if we're apart can't we, Roger ? 
 even if we never see each other any more. Our 
 being married is of no consequence, papa," she went on, 
 following after him. "It's one of the beauties of such 
 a great, great love that it doesn't want anything but to 
 do the best. Papa, papa," she begged, clinging to his 
 shoulder, "turn round, look at me, kiss me. Don't 
 think for a moment that I can want anything in this 
 world half so much as to see you happy in the love of 
 your little girl. Roger doesn't want it, either do you, 
 Roger ; Look at me, papa, and kiss me, and make me 
 feel that you want to keep me at your side." 
 
 For a long half-minute Trafford remained motion- 
 less. When he turned, it was so suddenly that he shook 
 her from him. His face was crimson, but he astonished 
 them both by bursting into a loud and pealing laugh. 
 Paula stepped back from him, half afraid, half wonder- 
 ing. Traffbrd smote his hands together, and laughed 
 again, louder and longer than before. 
 
 "Gad!" he cried, as if stifling in his mirth. "Gad! 
 How easily the little thing is taken in! Didn't you see, 
 dear ? Didn't you understand ? Why, it's all a trick 
 it's all a bit of play-acting. Ton my soul," he con- 
 tinued, coming nearer to her, "I didn't think you could 
 be imposed upon like that. Roger isn't going to take 
 the money," he roared, seizing her in his arms with a 
 passion that almost hurt her. "He isn't going to take 
 
 331
 
 THE GIANT'S STRENGTH 
 
 the money, and I don't mean to offer it. You're to go to 
 him without it. It's all settled and understood. You're 
 to live anywhere and anyhow that suits you, and the 
 money can go to blazes. There's only one thing that 
 matters on God s earth that my little girl should be 
 happy, and that she should owe some of her happiness 
 to her old papa. Here, Roger !" 
 
 "No, no, papa," she cried, clinging to him. "Don't 
 let me go. I'm afraid. I'm afraid. Don't let me 
 
 go-" 
 
 "Here, Roger," Trafford shouted again. "Take 
 her." 
 
 He flung her from him with a wild force that would 
 have been brutal had not Winship caught her in his 
 arms. He laughed again as he groped, like a blind 
 man, feeling his way from the room; but, being unused 
 to comedy, he betrayed himself by stopping too abrupt- 
 ly, when he had banged the door behind him. 
 
 Within the room the silence was strange and sudden. 
 Paula hung panting and helpless in Winship's arms, 
 while Winship rained kisses on her lips and eyes and 
 hair, in the unloosed passion of his long-pent-up love.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 "HTHAT'S done," Traffbrd panted to himself, when 
 1 he was in the corridor. "It's done and settled 
 for ever and ever. By God! I did it well. Very few 
 men would have pulled it off like that. I don't believe 
 there's another father in the world who would sacrifice 
 himself as I've done. It's all over. I've lost her. I'm 
 beaten. I had to let her go. There are very few men 
 who would have done it like that." 
 
 Though he was sustained by a sense of his own 
 heroism, the way seemed long between Paula's room 
 and his own library-office. He stopped at every few 
 steps, and muttered to himself. 
 
 "That's it. I've lost her. Oh, there's no use trying 
 to shirk the fact. She'll go her way and I'll go mine. 
 There's nothing else for us to do. I've lost them all 
 now. Let me see. It was Harry first, then Arthur, 
 then Constance, then Jennie, then poor Julia, and now 
 now she's gone, and I'm all alone. I've walked in 
 a vain shadow, and disquieted myself in vain. Well, 
 all right, all right. If nobody wants to gather the riches 
 I've heaped up, then, at least, I can give 'em back. By 
 George! what a stir it would make if I did itl P^ul 
 Trafford resolving his immense fortune into its constitu- 
 
 333
 
 . THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 ent elements! Andrew Carnegie wouldn't be in it be- 
 side me. Well, it would be occupation for my lonely 
 old age, at any rate. But what's the use of dreaming ? 
 Money can no more be returned to where it came from 
 than a rose could be reduced to the earth and water 
 from whence it grew." 
 
 He tottered on a few paces farther, and stopped 
 again. 
 
 "It's hard, though. It's damned hard. What's the 
 world going to be to me now ? I've got an income that 
 I can't count, and nothing to do with it. I've got half 
 a dozen big houses stuffed with luxury, and no one to 
 live in them. She'll go back to New York, and stifle in 
 a six-room flat at Harlem, while I shall be alone in my 
 sixty rooms in Fifth Avenue. Why ? Why ? Why ?" 
 
 He smote his hands together and groaned. 
 
 "Why? Why? Why ?" he repeated. "And yet, I 
 suppose, I know why. She won't put it into words, but 
 she means it none the less. I seem born to be mis- 
 understood. Even she misunderstands me. After all 
 the good I've done, after the churches I've built and the 
 institutions I've endowed, I'm still looked upon as a 
 sort of monster living for nothing but his money. 
 Well, they shall learn better. I'll teach them. I'll 
 show them that I made money just because I chose to 
 make it, and I'll fling it back among them, and laugh 
 to see them scramble for it. It '11 be sport for me to 
 watch them squirming in the mud, to pick up what I 
 disdain and chuck away." 
 
 He held himself more erect at the thought, and walk- 
 334
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 ed down the corridor with firmer tread. He had reach- 
 ed his own door, when he paused again. 
 
 "And yet, I suppose Paula would think that wasn't 
 the right spirit. She'd say the highwayman doesn't 
 atone for robbery by giving the money to a church the 
 only place for it would be the pockets it was taken from. 
 Well, I agree with her. It's just what I'd rather do, 
 if it was possible. But I don't believe it is. There are 
 some I could hunt up. I know that Brewer, of Albany, 
 has a son working as a clerk at Wanamaker's; and then 
 there are the Rosses and the Brents and the Dowlings 
 and a few more. Rawson, who hanged himself in 
 Fitchburg, left a family, I believe; and that fellow 
 Jackson, who stabbed my agent, Pitts, has a wife, if not 
 children. He must have served fifteen years of his 
 sentence by this time, and I might get him a pardon. 
 Then there was old Marshall but, Lord! I'm not 
 going on with this sort of catechism. I should go daft. 
 They took their chances, just as I did. Whatever I may 
 do for them or their families now I shall do as an act of 
 mercy. Paula herself couldn't make me think other- 
 wise." 
 
 He turned the handle of his door and entered. As he 
 did so, the click of his secretary's type-writer came to him 
 from the adjoining room. At the very sound, instinct 
 and habit resumed their sway, and a few minutes later 
 he was seated at his desk plunged into the details of 
 work as profoundly as if no great crisis had changed the 
 nature of his domestic life. He read the three or four 
 cablegrams that had come during the afternoon, and 
 
 335
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 told Smithson what to say in reply. He ran his eye 
 over the secretary's answers to the day's correspondence, 
 and signed his name where it was needed. He dashed 
 off two or three important letters with his own hand, 
 addressed and sealed and stamped them. He informed 
 the Oregon & Ohio Railway that in their fight with 
 the United Power Company he would stand behind 
 them with unlimited money, while he indicated several 
 important congressmen, whose influence had already 
 been his, for proper consideration. He ordered George 
 to spare nothing to get control of the Kansas, Leaven- 
 worth & Baltimore line, and to push the Jay-Berryman 
 combine until it went under. He instructed his Hart- 
 ford agents, Messrs. Taft & Reed, to appeal against 
 the verdict for two thousand dollars in favor of old 
 Mrs. Breen, and to carry the case to a higher court. 
 It put new nerve into him to feel that the impulse to 
 fight till he won was as strong in him as ever. It an- 
 noyed him that the Scriptural words should sweep 
 across his mind again: 
 
 "For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth 
 himself in vain ; he heapeth up riches and cannot tell 
 who shall gather them" 
 
 As he dwelt upon the words, the faint upleaping of 
 courage that had come from his half-hour of work died 
 down again. He leaned his head wearily on his hands 
 and pondered. What was the use of it all ? Why 
 should he fight against the United Power Company ? 
 
 336
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Why should he try to get control of the K., L. & B. ? 
 Why should he hinder poor old Mrs. Breen from getting 
 the damages rendered her for the husband killed in his 
 employ ? He did not grudge her the money. He had no 
 enormous interest in smashing the Jay-Berryman com- 
 bine. As for the United Power Company, he had no 
 object but to drive it into a corner where it would have 
 to capitulate to him. But why should he ? Was it 
 necessary to fight simply because he had the instinct ? 
 Was it necessary to wield a giant's strength simply be- 
 cause he had it ? Was there no such word as enough ? 
 Was there no such quality as mercy ? Was it outside 
 the rules of business to spare ? 
 
 "Business! Business! Business!" he repeated to 
 himself. "That's been my God, and I've worshipped it 
 as if it were a misshapen idol. I suppose that if I'd 
 served my Maker half as much I shouldn't be here, 
 alone, to-night. I wonder if I could do a big, new thing 
 that wasn't business at all ? I wonder if I could start 
 out on a course that would shock the business world to 
 its foundations ? I believe I feel myself coming to it. 
 I've dreamed of it hitherto. Now, I think the minute 
 has come for me to wake up and do." 
 
 He leaned forward and touched a bell. A few 
 seconds later the secretary entered the room. 
 
 "Turn on the light, Smithson, please," Traffbrd said, 
 with sudden briskness of tone. "You may remember 
 that a few months ago I asked you to send to America 
 for all the papers connected with the cases of Marshall 
 versus the Vermont Mining Company, and of the 
 
 337
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 Turtonville Improvement Company versus Marshall. 
 I hope you have them." 
 
 "Yes, sir. They're in my safe. Shall I get them ?" 
 
 "Please." 
 
 "You've looked them over, as I suggested ?" he asked, 
 when Smithson had laid the documents before him. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Marshall failed for about three hundred and fifty 
 thousand, didn't he?" 
 
 " Between that and four hundred." 
 
 "You've made the inquiries I asked you to look up ? 
 The daughters are all living ?" 
 
 "They were all living in October, sir. One of them 
 was ill, and not expected to live long." 
 
 "Thanks, Smithson. That will do for the moment. 
 Don't send any of those cablegrams to-night. I'll 
 speak about them again to-morrow. No, you needn't 
 post these letters. I'm not sure yet that I shall send 
 them." 
 
 Smithson retired, and Trafford began to turn over the 
 papers before him. He did not read them consecutive- 
 ly. A word here and there would arrest his attention 
 and send him off dreaming. 
 
 "It's curious," he reflected. "I was in the right 
 throughout this case, and yet it's one about which public 
 opinion has given me no quarter. All the laws of supply 
 and demand, of cause and effect, were on my side; but 
 because old Marshall shot himself, leaving four daugh- 
 ters unprovided for, I've been made to appear as the 
 instrument of the disaster. I don't feel so myself not 
 
 338
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 wholly so, at any rate; but Paula would agree with the 
 public, if she knew about it. Well, I'll try to patch it 
 up before she does. The wind will be taken out of that 
 sail, at any rate." 
 
 He sighed, and went on with his desultory inspection 
 of the Marshall papers. He was still occuped in doing 
 so when a knock came to the door. Before he had 
 time to look up and say "Come in," the door was 
 pushed open and Paula entered, followed by Winship. 
 Trafford remained seated. They advanced together, 
 till they stood before his desk. 
 
 "We've come in to say that we can't do it, papa," 
 Paula began, abruptly. "I can't go and leave you 
 alone." 
 
 "I will not take her from you like this," Winship 
 added. " It seems to me a sort of robbery. It wouldn't 
 be blessed. If there's a sacrifice to be made, it must be 
 ours. We're younger and stronger " 
 
 "Stop," Trafford said, softly. "Stop." 
 
 Winship ceased, and there was a long silence. Traf- 
 ford still remained seated, gazing absently at the papers 
 on the desk before him. Winship and Paula wait- 
 ed in motionless attention. There was no sound but 
 the click-click-click of the type-writer in the adjoining 
 room. 
 
 Still without speaking, Trafford rose. Coming to 
 them, he passed one hand through Paula's arm and 
 one through Winship's. 
 
 "My little girl is willing to stay with me after all, is 
 she?" 
 
 339
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 "I'm not only willing, papa, but I want to." 
 
 "Then, darling, you can't. You can't, because I'm 
 going on a long journey." 
 
 As he spoke he turned them gently round, and 
 began leading them towards the door. 
 
 "A long journey, papa?" 
 
 "Yes, dear a journey that will take me all round, 
 and round, and round the United States. I mean to 
 go to New York when you go, after you've been married. 
 Then I shall have to leave you." 
 
 " But where are you going, papa, dear ?" 
 
 "I'm going first to a place called Turtonville, Wis* 
 consin " 
 
 "Not to see the old Miss Marshalls ?" came from 
 Paula, like a long-stifled cry. 
 
 Trafford started. 
 
 "Ah! What do you know about them?" 
 
 " I know all about them." 
 
 " Then I'm going to see them," he hurried on. " After 
 that I'm going to see more people then more then 
 more. When it's all over, I shall come back to you. 
 Now kiss me kiss me and go." 
 
 "Oh, papa, darling, how good you are!" 
 
 She kissed him, clinging to him, but he released her 
 arms from about his neck. 
 
 "Now go both of you," he insisted, opening the 
 door. 
 
 "First let me say," Winship began, "that I beg your 
 pardon for anything " 
 
 "Oh, you needn't, Winship," he interrupted, with a 
 340
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 weary smile. "I know how you've felt. I should 
 have felt that way myself. You've been a good fighter, 
 and you've only found out what all we fighters have to 
 learn in time that when we've struck, the blow hasn't 
 given us the satisfaction we expected. Don't think any 
 more about it. I'll do myself the justice to say that 
 I've always respected you, even at the worst of times. 
 Now go go off together. I've a great deal to do 
 that I can only do alone." 
 
 He forced them gently from the room, closing the 
 door behind them. For a second he leaned against 
 it, as if for support, till his habitual energy came 
 back. 
 
 "That I can only do alone," he repeated to himself. 
 "By God! I shall do it to the bitter end." 
 
 He strode back firmly to his desk and sat down 
 again. With head erect and lips set, he was for an 
 instant like the Paul Trafford of old. 
 
 " But the end may not be a bitter one," he reflected. 
 "In the hair-shirt and penitence, Charles V. found some- 
 thing better than he had ever known upon the throne. 
 Well, why shouldn't I ? True, the hair-shirt will look 
 queer in Wall Street, but I'm not afraid of that. If it 
 has taken a giant's strength to do what I've done 
 hitherto, it will require more to fulfil what lies before 
 me. But I shall have it I shall have it the giant's 
 strength and more God and my little girl helping 
 me." 
 
 He rang the bell and called for Smithson. The new 
 orders took the secretary so much by surprise that he 
 
 341
 
 THE GIANTS STRENGTH 
 
 was obliged to have them repeated two and three and 
 four and five times before he mastered them. When 
 he did so he was the first member of the great American 
 public to call Paul Trafford mad. He was also the 
 first to qualify the madness as divine. 
 
 THE END
 
 JOHN FOX, JR'S. 
 
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