THE KING S HIGHWAY.
 
 CHRISTIAN : 
 
 Apollyon, beware "what you do, for I am in the King s 
 Highway, the way of holiness ; therefore take heed 
 to yourself. 
 
 APOLLYON : 
 
 Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth 
 of the way, and said : "/ am void of fear in this 
 
 matter." 
 
 PILGRIM S PROGRESS: John Bunyan.
 
 THE 
 
 KING S HIGHWAY. 
 
 
 BY 
 
 \\ 
 
 AMELIA E. BARR. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 1897.
 
 rs 
 
 Copyright, 1897, 
 BY Louis KLOPSCH. 
 
 Copyright, 1897, 
 BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 
 SHntbersttg ?iress : 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
 
 THIS NOVEL 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
 
 2To mg Dear JFrttnti, 
 MRS. LOUIS KLOPSCH.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE LOOSE SCREW i 
 
 II MATRIMONIAL PLANS 19 
 
 III JESSIE S AFFAIRS 42 
 
 IV A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 63 
 
 V MEN PROPOSE, WOiMEN DECIDE .... 92 
 
 VI "WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MlNE ? " . 119 
 
 VII STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 144 
 
 VIII "I MUST SEE JESSIE" 176 
 
 IX JESSIE S AMBITION AND NICHOLAS LLOYD S 
 
 FAILURE 201 
 
 X A GREAT VICTORY 228 
 
 XI STEVE is WANTED 254 
 
 XII THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE .... 278 
 
 XIII CLEAR THE KING S HIGHWAY .... 299 
 
 XIV JESSIE S HARD LESSON 315 
 
 XV COMING BACK 331 
 
 XVI "THY KINGDOM COME" 352
 
 THE 
 
 KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 IF the mere accumulation of money be a good 
 thing, then Nicholas Lloyd had accomplished 
 something on which he might congratulate 
 himself. He was certainly a rich man. With 
 out being either good, or wise, or great, he 
 had overcome the world ; that is, he had broken 
 into its treasure-houses, and helped himself to 
 gold and silver, to houses and lands, and to 
 whatsoever represents the wealth for which so 
 many men give their lives and lose their 
 souls. 
 
 This struggle had left indelible marks on the 
 man, both physical and spiritual ; and he was 
 mutilated body and soul, though he knew it 
 not. Indeed, he was rather proud of his cold, 
 unruffled mien, and of that hardness of heart 
 and head which no game of Wall Street could 
 intoxicate. Thoroughly American, he had the 
 genius of those great financial operations which 
 move the world ; but he saw all love, all merit, 
 i
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 all goodness through the coldness of his own 
 nature. He was without enthusiasm, he had 
 schemes instead of passions, and those who 
 knew him best found it easy to believe that he, 
 at least, was made out of the dust of the 
 earth. 
 
 He stood one morning in June at an open 
 window of his country house. The roses were 
 blowing in the garden, the cows browsing in the 
 wet meadows beyond ; the keen salt air of the 
 sea was in his nostrils, the sweet babbling of the 
 linnet in his ears ; but he was conscious of none 
 of these things. His thoughts were of dingy 
 dollars, and what heart he had was full of an 
 angry ache; for his domestic affairs had not 
 prospered to his liking, and the only son, for 
 whom he had planned so much, and so ambi 
 tiously, was a perpetual care and disappointment. 
 
 He had not seen him for months, and he had 
 resolved to put him out of his mind ; and yet, 
 at the beginning of the day, when he needed 
 every faculty fresh for his business, this unfortu 
 nate lad would intrude himself among his specu 
 lations. So he turned impatiently from the 
 window, and rang the bell to hurry forward his 
 cup of coffee. As he did so, his daughter Alice 
 entered the room. 
 
 " I am afraid we are late this morning, father," 
 she said. "Mother is not well; she will not 
 2
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 come down ; so I will give you your breakfast 
 at once." 
 
 " Yes, you are eight minutes late. The time 
 table is beyond a woman s comprehension. I 
 want only a cup of coffee, Alice ; my stomach 
 has gone wrong, and refuses to be comforted. 
 I was thinking of Stephen have you heard of 
 him lately? " 
 
 "Yes. He came home last night." 
 
 "In what condition? " 
 
 " Well, and as happy as a bird." 
 
 " And without a cent, or a decent garment? " 
 
 " I think it very likely." 
 
 " And I began my life in that condition, and 
 Stephen sees and knows what I have brought 
 out of nothing. It is incredible ! God never 
 made a bigger fool." 
 
 "Does God make all the fools? And do 
 clever, prosperous men make themselves, 
 father?" 
 
 " Alice, don t talk nonsense." 
 
 " But Stephen is not a fool. He took high 
 honours at his college, and has a noble heart 
 beneath his soiled coat." 
 
 " I am not talking about his heart. His heart 
 is well enough at home ; but a man s heart can t 
 make money for him. He shut his ledger five 
 years ago and left Wall Street in a passion. 
 He said then, he would be happy if he could 
 3
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 study art ; and I finally consented. What is 
 the result? He has abandoned the studio, just 
 as he abandoned the office." 
 
 " Why not? He found out that he had made 
 a mistake. He says now, that if all the pictures 
 in the world were destroyed they would be little 
 missed. Hills, woods, and all the beauties of 
 land and sea would still remain. Why then 
 should Stephen spend his life in making poor 
 pictures of them? I think he will yet become 
 a very wise and admirable man." 
 
 " He may but it is very improbable." 
 
 " It is very improbable but he may," and 
 she smiled confidently into the face of the 
 improbability. 
 
 Lloyd did not answer ; the horses were stamp 
 ing impatiently at the open door, and he, at 
 least, comprehended the time-table. With some 
 hurry he went away ; and Alice watched the 
 carriage out of sight, and then returned to the 
 breakfast table. Her face was thoughtful, her 
 manner expectant ; she was evidently waiting 
 for some person, or event. The situation, how 
 ever, did not ruffle her ; she had the composure 
 of a goddess, a charming young face, eyes 
 with long lashes, and luminous as those of a 
 child, and the kind, simple heart that never 
 grows old. 
 
 It was this fresh, faithful heart that inspired 
 4
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 her ; genius she did not possess. Little womanly 
 traits made her still more attractive ; she was 
 proud of her college ; she carried Horace in 
 her pocket, and considered herself to be 
 "strong-minded," being quite unconscious that 
 she was really the veriest sentimentalist. In 
 clothing herself she had a natural gift ; and 
 though her costumes were never easily remem 
 bered, they always did credit to her dressmaker. 
 
 This morning, as she sat crumbling her bread 
 to her sombre thoughts, no one would have 
 noticed her gown particularly : it was simply 
 all that was proper for the occasion ; but few 
 would have been indifferent to the general air 
 of freshness that added charm and lustre to her 
 loveliness. It might have come from her dress, 
 but it seemed to be a part of herself. And yet, 
 for a special and noble purpose, she had that 
 morning taken great pains with her toilet, for 
 her brother whom she dearly loved was to 
 be influenced by it. 
 
 He came lounging into the room ten minutes 
 after his father s departure ; and he had probably 
 been waiting for that event. Alice stood up as 
 he entered ; then she went to meet him, putting 
 both her hands in his hands, and lifting her fair 
 face to one tanned by every wind of heaven. 
 
 " Oh, Steve ! " she cried softly ; " how nice 
 you do look ! I have been waiting breakfast 
 5
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 for you. Sit down, dear. It is so good to see 
 you once more." 
 
 " I am glad you waited, Alice. I do not 
 mind eating a fanciful meal with you ; but I did 
 not feel able for father, so early in the day. A 
 dispute at dinner may be borne; but disagree 
 able words in the morning give me an indiges 
 tion yes, dear, I will, of course, take sweet 
 breads ; and how spicy that coffee smells ! " 
 
 He was a tall, strong, well-made man, with 
 wonderful eyes eyes of heroic form, dark and 
 lustrous, with full lids, and long lashes. No 
 one would have denied his beauty, many would 
 have called him handsome ; and his chin fully 
 redeemed his wilful face, for it was of fine 
 mold, and quite unblunted by the animal pas 
 sions of human nature. And Alice at least 
 knew well what a true, loving heart he had, 
 though it did not stir readily to other hearts ; 
 its glow and motion answering best to the 
 mighty voices of Nature, to the winds, the 
 cries and songs of wild creatures, and the mur 
 mur and roar of the ocean. Evidently Stephen 
 Lloyd was a soul astray in the luxurious home 
 of the wealthy financier; he ought to have been 
 in a frontier hut, or on a sailing ship far away to 
 the north, with every stitch of canvas set, and 
 the green seas flying over her cross-trees. 
 
 Such as he was, however, Alice dearly loved 
 6
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 him. He troubled his mother, he angered his 
 father, and disappointed all the hopes that had 
 been centred on him ; but Alice loved him. 
 She fought his home battle continually ; she 
 would not suffer him to be forgotten, and she 
 did really prevent his falling many degrees lower 
 than he had done. For she sent him money ; 
 and money is often salvation. The mammon of 
 unrighteousness has a savour of life, as well as a 
 savour of death. 
 
 It was the first topic of their conversation. 
 " I was hard up, Alice, when I got that last 
 hundred dollars," he said. " It made me grossly 
 rich. It gave me a glorious spring, my dear 
 sister." 
 
 " Tell me about it. You were in Denver, I 
 think?" 
 
 " Yes ; I had just come from my winter quar 
 ters in Arizona. I was dead broke, and I wanted 
 to get to New York in time for my summer 
 plans." 
 
 "What are they?" 
 
 " I will go to sea for a few months : perhaps 
 on one of the big liners. I am a good man 
 before the mast; or I can turn myself into a 
 waiter, and serve tables." 
 
 " Oh, Steve ! With your education, is there 
 nothing better that you can do. You know 
 father will " 
 
 7
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "Dear Alice, father s plans for me have been 
 discussed to the last letter. I will not get money 
 as he does. I will work for every dollar I put 
 in my pocket so much labour for so much 
 money." 
 
 " Father works with his brains ; brain work is 
 as real a thing as hand work." 
 
 " We need not discuss that question. My 
 brains are not working brains ; they won t keep 
 accounts, they won t plot and scheme; they 
 can t teach, they refuse to recognize any mone 
 tary symbol, the click of wires, and the roar 
 and babble of Broadway and Wall Street, dis 
 tract them. The woods and the sea, and even 
 the Arizonian desert, talk sensibly to me. I can 
 work with my hands, I can stand at the wheel 
 of a ship, I can guide a reaper, I can drive 
 cattle, or do any sensible thing that a man s 
 brains order him to do with his two hands. I 
 can t sell things that have no existence. I can t 
 work with intangible figments of thought. I 
 want to see and handle my work. Such as I 
 am, I am. I was made so." 
 
 " But even the work you see and handle does 
 not always induce you to labour." 
 
 " Generally speaking, little girl, I do as much 
 work as is necessary. Now and then I get into 
 a tight place, or I feel a sense of hurry, and 
 write to you for help ; and bless your sweet
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 heart ! I always get it." He laid down his knife 
 and fork, and looked at her with a face radiant 
 with affection ; and Alice went to his side, and 
 put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. 
 
 " This time," he continued, " I was in a hurry. 
 I could have come East with some horses, and 
 got a free passage and a mouthful ; but I sud 
 denly got seasick, I mean, sick for the sea, 
 and the thought of its great free spaces haunted 
 me day and night, and I heard the roar and 
 murmur of the waves wherever I turned. I 
 hear them now. I am going to-day to look for 
 a summer berth, where I may be free of all they 
 can give me." 
 
 " Steve, if you love the sea so much, why not 
 go into the navy? A naval officer is very 
 respectable." 
 
 " You dear little ignoramus. Have you been 
 as far as Vassar without divining how much 
 naval officers pay for their respectability? 
 What study ! What limitations ! What obedi 
 ence ! What unceasing attention to details ! 
 Thank you, dear, for the compliment; but 
 whatever could I do on a man-of-war? I, who 
 am only a wayfarer, a bird of passage, who 
 would perish if my wings were cut ! " 
 
 " Have some more coffee, Steve, and some 
 rice cakes? " 
 
 " Yes, I will. I am going to tell you a 
 9
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 strange thing, Alice. I have found some very 
 old friends of father s ; indeed, they are related 
 to us, though not very intimately, the fami 
 lies intermarried a generation ago, and there 
 has been a friendship extending backward 
 through many generations. But these are evil 
 times for loving-kindness in any form ; every 
 thing wears it away." 
 
 "Where did you meet these people? Are 
 they nice?" 
 
 " I met them in New York. I have been 
 staying a week with them." 
 
 " How long since? " 
 
 "I left them yesterday very sorry to do 
 so but 
 
 " You have been a week in New York ! You 
 never let me know ! And you never came to 
 see me ! Oh, Steve, how could you ! " 
 
 " I saw you at Nora Leffert s marriage. You 
 looked as sweet and lovely as a rose. You were 
 the loveliest girl there." 
 
 "How could you see me? Surely, you were 
 not there? " 
 
 Steve laughed heartily at the question. " I was 
 not there," he answered, " though Nora and I 
 are old friends. I read about the marriage in 
 the newspapers, and I was sure you would be 
 present. I had a great longing to see you, so I 
 strolled up Broadway as far as the church, and 
 10
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 I had my reward. It is n t many fellows that 
 can boast of a sister so good and beautiful and 
 loving as you are, sweet Alice." 
 
 "Steve, I can return the compliment, very 
 truly. It is n t many girls that can boast of a 
 brother so handsome, and so good, and so lov 
 ing, as you are. Don t contradict me ; you are 
 handsome, when you are well dressed, as you 
 are this morning ; you are good, as far as you 
 understand what goodness means ; and nobody 
 knows better than I do how loving and true you 
 are." 
 
 " Don t you think I understand what goodness 
 means?" 
 
 " Mother says you do not. If you did, she 
 is sure you would think of others before your 
 self. You know her idea is, that until we bury 
 self entirely, we are still subject to evil." 
 
 " Who can bury self entirely? " asked Steve, 
 a little crossly. " I think mother expects too 
 much. She measures people by too high a 
 standard. When I saw you at the wedding, 
 John McAslin was with me. He saw you, also." 
 
 " I suppose John McAslin is one of the family 
 with whom you stayed a week? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes. John is the eldest child, and the only 
 
 son. There are two girls, beauties, both of 
 
 them, if I understand what beauty means, 
 
 and a father and mother. Now I am going to 
 
 n
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 surprise you. The mother ought to have been 
 our mother. Father was engaged to her for 
 four years. She was making her wedding 
 clothes when she heard of his marriage." 
 
 "Oh, what a strange, dreadful thing! " 
 
 " It is a common tragedy enough. Merci 
 fully, women forgive and forget, and learn to 
 love again. If they did not, this world would 
 be a broken-hearted kind of a place." 
 
 "How did you find all this out?" 
 
 " I heard them talking of Senstone Valley, 
 and I said I had a schoolmate who came from 
 there, a lad called Lloyd. And Mrs. McAslin s 
 face instantly lighted, and she began to wonder 
 if he was Nicholas Lloyd s son, and to speak 
 of father, of his fine appearance, and his clever 
 ness, and his marriage with the rich Marian 
 Valliante, and of his present great wealth and 
 influence. And I understood the whole story 
 of her love and desertion, though she never 
 said a word about it. It was Flora McAslin, 
 the eldest daughter, who told me that chapter 
 of father s history, and it was Jessie McAslin 
 that said she was right glad her mother did not 
 marry such a selfish, bad man as Nicholas 
 Lloyd ; she thought her dear old papa, with his 
 thousand dollars per annum, a great deal the 
 finer gentleman." 
 
 " Perhaps Jessie McAslin does not know
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 father well enough to make comparisons ; and 
 you have not told me yet how you became 
 acquainted with this critical young lady." 
 
 " Don t judge until you know all the facts in 
 the case, Alice ; it would not be like you. 
 Jessie McAslin is not critical, she has the kind 
 est heart. I met her brother John in the train 
 just outside of Chicago. We sat together, and 
 we talked together until we reached New York. 
 It was in the morning, and I was a little jaded 
 and hungry, and John asked me to what hotel 
 I was going. I told him I never went to 
 hotels. He asked if I were going home, and I 
 answered, I have no home. Then he put his 
 arm through mine and said, Go home with 
 me. " 
 
 " It is your own fault, if you have no home, 
 Steve." 
 
 "Perhaps and perhaps not. That isn t 
 the question, now. I went home with John 
 McAslin." 
 
 "In what part of New York is his home?" 
 she asked. 
 
 "On the East Side, in some nice little flats 
 near St. Mark s Place. I dare say you never 
 heard of the locality. There was no one pres 
 ent when we entered but Mrs. McAslin. She 
 adores her son, and she made me welcome as 
 his friend. A good breakfast was soon ready 
 3
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 for us, and then she sent us to bed. When I 
 woke up I heard pleasant voices and the noise 
 of cups and saucers. John had already risen. 
 I made myself as respectable as possible, I 
 had bought this suit in Chicago, and, guided 
 by the sound of the conversation, soon reached 
 the little dining-room. Father and mother, 
 brother and sisters, were eating dinner together, 
 and they made a place for me. A few hearty 
 words and a smile from Jessie by whose side 
 I found a chair set me at ease, and I 11 vow 
 I never ate a better or a more cheerful meal. 
 Is that enough of the McAslins?" 
 
 " No. I wish to hear all about them. How 
 did you spend the evening? What can you say 
 about the family? " 
 
 "I will answer your last question; the other 
 is of little importance. The father is a clerk in 
 an importing house ; not clever, not ambitious? 
 but fond of his home and family, one of those 
 rare men who are cheerful at six o clock in the 
 morning, and who have a child s capacity for 
 small, fleeting joys." 
 
 " And a little, insignificant-looking man, I 
 suppose? " 
 
 " Yes no I can t say. I should recog 
 nise him if we met, but 
 
 " You cannot describe him. Then he is cer 
 tainly a man of no force." 
 14
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 " I should not like to hazard that opinion, 
 Alice. I think a blow in the right place would 
 smite fire from him. The mother is a pleasant, 
 domestic woman. She does not fret herself, or 
 others ; she has no fads, no vanity, no littleness 
 of any kind. She has been a beauty. Flora is 
 like her." 
 
 " Pray, then, what is Flora like? " 
 
 " She has a sweet, calm, innocent face. She 
 is a dressmaker, and is going to marry one of 
 Tiffany s working jewellers. They think it a 
 good match. Flora will not come into any 
 one s life now but the working jeweller s 
 she is that kind of a girl. Jessie is dif 
 ferent." 
 
 " I can see that Jessie is your favourite. How 
 does she differ? " 
 
 " Every way. Jessie is small and witchy. 
 She has bright, piercing eyes, and curly brown 
 hair. There is no hesitancy in anything she 
 says or does. Her voice is clear, and has the 
 ring of sincerity. She is a hard-headed, soft 
 hearted mite, mistress of herself, and very lady 
 like. That is Jessie McAslin as I saw her. 
 She is her brother s favourite, and she is mine. 
 If I could ever think of a wife, Jessie would be 
 my sweetest dream." 
 
 "Why not Jessie, then?" 
 
 " Impossible utterly and finally impossible !
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 I must not talk of her. I must not even think 
 of her." 
 
 "Is the brother like Jessie?" 
 
 " No one is like Jessie," said Steve to his 
 sister. "John has her pluck and fibre, and 
 one feels that he is made of superfine blood and 
 iron, and betters it with a noble spirit. But 
 Jessie is fair and John is dark. Jessie is small, 
 and John is tall. Jessie is more piquant than 
 beautiful; John is handsome as the morning 
 and cheerful as light. I was once complaining 
 of my fate. I said, I had been born under evil 
 stars, and John answered, No matter what stars 
 we are born under, Steve, they all tell us to 
 look up. For if we did not come into this 
 world to better ourselves, we might as well have 
 stayed where we were. I tell you, Alice, those 
 words went into my heart. I shall never com 
 plain of my stars again. John ought to be a 
 preacher." 
 
 "What is he?" Alice asked. 
 
 "A student of law a writer of essays a 
 newspaper scribbler a man fighting the world 
 with his pen, until his tongue is armed for the 
 conflict. But when the law has furnished him 
 with weapons, he will be a grand pleader. I 
 would be willing to get into a net of circum 
 stantial evidence, just to watch John pull it all 
 to pieces." 
 
 16
 
 THE LOOSE SCREW 
 
 " I think he must be the most interesting of 
 this wonderful family. I should like to see John 
 McAslin." 
 
 " I would not have you run into such danger, 
 Alice." 
 
 She laughed uneasily, being embarrassed by 
 the boldness of her own desire. So she put an 
 end to the conversation by rising from the 
 table. " Mother does not like you to smoke, 
 Steve. She says smoking is the first vice, 
 drinking the second. I did not say a word last 
 night of your arrival," Alice continued, " for 
 had she known you were in the house, it would 
 have been impossible for her to sleep." 
 
 " Poor little mother ! I wish she had a better 
 son ! Does she go out much now? " 
 
 " Less and less." 
 
 " I am sorry. I think she makes a mistake. 
 One should not go through the world with 
 closed eyes." 
 
 "But if angels lead you, what then? And 
 mother finds it best to shut her eyes to so 
 much." 
 
 "I know; I saw father in the park a few 
 days ago. He was with a very gay party. I 
 won t tell you who composed it. Money flies 
 in such company; and father counts his money 
 so carefully. It is a wonder to me ! " 
 
 " And you are a wonder to him. And so it 
 17
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 is few of us understand those whom we ought 
 most of all to know." 
 
 They were going hand in hand up the wide, 
 polished stairway, and they spoke in very low 
 tones. As Stephen drew near to his mother, 
 a marked change came over him. The 
 kindly bravado of his manner to Alice dis 
 appeared; and the white feather of personal 
 shame was very evidently tinging his love and 
 longing with a certain reluctance. He hesitated 
 at the closed door; if Alice had not been at his 
 side, he would have retreated. She watched 
 him enter; then she turned backward, for she 
 knew that these two souls needed no interpreter. 
 Indeed, he was barely within the room ere she 
 heard the sweet, half-veiled tones of welcome 
 tones like a caress. 
 
 "Oh, Steve! Steve! Oh, my boy! My 
 dear boy ! " 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 WHAT passed between the mother and son 
 remained secret. Steve came downstairs with 
 humid eyes, and an air of gloom that was al 
 most sullen. This air, however, was only the 
 veil he assumed in order to hide his unusual 
 mood ; for his mother had a wonderful influ 
 ence over him, though it was no more practical 
 than her own piety. For Marian Lloyd was a 
 mystic in the largest sense of the word. She 
 dwelt with this Spirit of the Cloud in a constant 
 sense of a spiritual world, which surrounded and 
 might at any moment claim her. 
 
 Really, her soul was naturally full of mystic 
 flashes, native and sweet, and far beyond her 
 own endeavour ; and therefore, as soon as she 
 realised the falseness of earthly love, and the 
 vanity of earthly desires, she had turned wholly 
 to things invisible to the Father of Spirits, 
 with whom there is no variableness ; to pleasures 
 immortal, and beyond the touch of disappoint 
 ment. And yet her intense realisation of that 
 great spiritual force which any man or woman 
 9
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 may lay hold of by faith, and make their own 
 came not by any intellectual process of theology ; 
 it was the power and fervour of the indwelling 
 soul, burning within, and developing that sixth 
 sense by which we see " things invisible." 
 
 Still, a life is beautiful and fit just in propor 
 tion as it fits its duties and environments. 
 Marian Lloyd did not perceive that the finest 
 materials for religious happiness and spiritual 
 growth were at her fireside, among her family 
 affections and her home duties. She desired to 
 obtain a condition " above the meanness of fear 
 and the selfishness of hope ; " but she forgot 
 that she was lawfully bound to those who might 
 be influenced for good, by her fears and hopes ; 
 she forgot that the heart has two great powers, 
 the power of prayer and the power of lov 
 ing, and that the more homely one gives glory 
 to the higher makes for it wings, and teaches 
 it those singing, shining omnipotent words that 
 reach the ear of the Ineffable One. 
 
 Something of this condition of affairs was 
 divined by Steve ; though he had far too large 
 a reverence for his mother to voice plainly his 
 opinion. He went into the quiet garden, and 
 paced up and down the gravelled walks, and 
 communed with his own heart in a way that was 
 far from bringing him stillness, or peace. In 
 fact, he was glad when he saw Alice coming 
 20
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 towards him. Her white dress fell in soft folds 
 to her feet ; she had a white parasol over her 
 uncovered head; and he said to himself: "She 
 is straight, and white, and pure as a lily. No 
 one but John is worthy of her." 
 
 "So you have had your talk with mother?" 
 she inquired. 
 
 "Yes a solemnly sweet talk. " 
 
 " She looks very frail. I wish she would go 
 out more." 
 
 " If she would only go about the house more ; 
 if we could see her at table if, indeed, she 
 could only make up her mind to serve us, as 
 well as pray for us, it might be better. I 
 don t think mother understands the power of 
 those indirect influences that distil from a holy, 
 loving life. They seem intangible, but they 
 may be more than effort. " 
 
 "I cannot bear to think of mother ruffling 
 her calm soul with the frets of the house 
 father s tempers and unkindness my little 
 vanities and social annoyances and the never- 
 ceasing worry, and unreasonableness of the ser 
 vants." 
 
 " I don t know about that, Alice. I remem 
 ber reading of a man who received as a precious 
 gift a block of sandal-wood. He was a fine 
 carver, and he resolved to make out of it a 
 lovely image of a saint. And he worked and 
 
 21
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 worked, until the block was all cut away; and 
 his ideal was as far from being realised as when 
 he began. But one night a servant brought 
 in a block of oak-wood for the fire, and on this 
 homely wood he began to try again ; and as he 
 did so, his dream grew in beauty, and his knife 
 in skill ; and he made from the common wood 
 that grew at his door an image lovely and won 
 derful, though he had cut the priceless exotic 
 sandal-wood away in vain endeavour. The same 
 is a parable, Alice, if you can read it. I am 
 going away again in an hour or two." 
 " Will you not wait and see father? " 
 " For what good end? Father does not care 
 to see me, unless I am ready to say, Your will, 
 sir, and not mine. I am not ready to say that. 
 I must have liberty. " 
 
 "Is liberty, then, so great a good? Women 
 have to do without it." 
 
 " Life and liberty are both gifts of God ; lib 
 erty is the greatest of the two. The fetters of 
 women are small, uneasy things : they chiefly 
 affect the body; the fetters of business, arms, 
 government, which bind men, rust into the soul. 
 I am going to the sea for a few weeks." 
 " Are you still sick for the sea, then? " 
 " You can t tell how much so. Even here in 
 the green peace of the trees, I hear the waves 
 purring, softly with little treble sounds, against
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 the sides of the ship. This turf seems firm to 
 your little feet; but it is like the pulsing floor of 
 the sea to me, and my heart leaps, and I could 
 laugh outright, as I think of wave after wave 
 rolling in torrent rapture." 
 
 "When will you go to sea? " 
 
 " Next Saturday." 
 
 " You may not get work by Saturday. Have 
 you money? A desire like yours is a very 
 sickness I have some money left." 
 
 " I have a friend a sailor. I can go to sea 
 whenever I want to go." 
 
 " It is only Thursday. Where will you stay 
 until Saturday? " 
 
 " With John McAslin." 
 
 "Then you will see Jessie, also? " 
 
 " Yes, I shall see her. Alice, I wish you 
 could see her. She teaches music. Can t you 
 take some lessons? You don t play as well as 
 she does." 
 
 " Steve, why can t you learn to say pleasant, 
 flattering things? I don t play as well as this 
 Jessie McAslin. Is that the way to coax me? 
 You dear old stupid, you ! " 
 
 " Will you take some lessons, Alice?" 
 
 " I will think about it." 
 
 "Do. It will please me so much." 
 
 " Send me her professional card. I suppose 
 she has one." 
 
 23
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "Will you really, dear?" 
 
 " I will do any right, reasonable thing to 
 please you, Steve. You know that." 
 
 She looked at him as she spoke, and to her he 
 seemed very good and desirable. The rough, 
 restless life he had led for nearly three years 
 had not left traces that repelled her. It was the 
 hand of Nature that had tanned and marked 
 him; but as yet the vices of humanity had not 
 signed themselves on his open face. Doubtless 
 he had met them in his strange experiences, 
 perhaps he had entertained them as passing 
 guests ; but they had not become his familiars. 
 She sent him away with kisses and good wishes ; 
 and she was not jealous of Jessie McAslin, 
 though she knew he was longing to see her. 
 Alice loved her brother unselfishly; she had 
 already divined that Steve might be won by 
 a large, noble nature that controlled his own, to 
 lead a more useful life ; and if Jessie could thus 
 save and bless him, she was glad to hope in 
 such a salvation. 
 
 After Steve s departure, she sat all the after 
 noon making plans to bring about an acquaint 
 ance with this girl. She was sure that Steve 
 already loved her; and she would not believe that 
 there was any invincible reason for regarding the 
 marriage as hopeless. Her own faith in her 
 brother was perennial ; she had the conviction 
 24
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 that if Steve were surrounded by the proper 
 circumstances, he would be a man after any 
 good woman s heart. A home would be an 
 anchor to the restless spirit, and its obligations 
 would sweetly compel to industry of some 
 laudable kind. 
 
 As she sat in the summer sunshine, stitching 
 gold and silver threads into a square of pink 
 satin, she planned for Steve all kinds of domes 
 tic happiness. He must have a farm ; he must 
 have animals dependent on his care ; he must be 
 near the woods, and not far away from the sea. 
 He must have a home not too fine for daily use, 
 and yet fine enough to keep him bound to conven 
 tional decencies. He must have the right kind 
 of a wife above all things ; and she felt certain that 
 Jessie was the right kind. Steve said " she was 
 hard-headed and soft-hearted," and Alice con 
 sidered this an excellent combination for her 
 reckless, affectionate brother. Her want of 
 fortune was also an advantage ; money would 
 have given her special rights and privileges, 
 which would have irritated and made Steve re 
 bellious ; it was a necessity that he should have 
 a wife who would repose absolute confidence 
 and reliance on his love and exertions. As for 
 social equality, there could be no question on 
 that matter. Steve laughed at all such distinc 
 tions. He declared that he had found gentle-
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 men and ladies in all classes, and that the 
 accident of birth, or education, or wealth, or 
 station, had little to do with their existence. 
 With the unselfishness that was so large a part 
 of her nature she began at once the work which 
 she fondly hoped was to regenerate her brother. 
 " I must give up my three months at Newport," 
 she said with a sweet decision. " I must tell 
 father that I wish to stay at home to practise my 
 music. The expense will be so much less, and 
 I am sure there will be no objection." 
 
 Contrary to her expectation, there was a 
 serious objection. That very day Mr. Lloyd 
 had begun to plan for his daughter s future, 
 a thing which had hitherto never troubled his 
 speculations. He came home full of unusual 
 hopes, and looked at Alice with a critical re 
 gard, that gradually became a settled approval. 
 
 " I had no idea she was so beautiful, " he said 
 to himself as he dressed for dinner. Coming 
 downstairs he stepped slowly and with enforced 
 dignity, holding his head up to his thoughts, 
 which were of titles and coronets and courts. 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd had been an uncertain factor in 
 Alice s plans; she was unable to say how her 
 mother would regard them ; and she hoped to 
 strengthen her own opinions with her father s 
 approval before it was necessary to explain her 
 change of purpose. 
 
 26
 
 For once Alice Lloyd was not sorry to see 
 her mother s place at the dinner-table vacant. 
 She felt that it would be easier to draw her father 
 into conversation, that he would be more amen 
 able to reason and less disposed to contradict 
 and oppose whatever others desired ; and this re 
 flection made her sigh, for she understood that 
 these moods were generally assumed for the 
 very purpose of annoying the woman whom he 
 had vowed to love and cherish. 
 
 This evening he came into the dining-parlour 
 with a singularly subdued excitement. He con 
 descended to praise the weather, he told Alice 
 that she was looking very well, he was willing 
 to allow that the soup was excellent and the 
 wine properly cooled, and in short, for once he 
 brought to his own table the urbanity and sat 
 isfaction that he usually reserved for strangers 
 and mere acquaintances. But the rare mood 
 rather frightened Alice ; she did not like to dis 
 turb it; if she made him angry, he would be 
 sure to point out reproachfully the fact that 
 whenever he tried to be good-natured at home 
 he was imposed upon. She involuntarily be 
 came silent and thoughtful, and was quite igno 
 rant that her father was observing with approba 
 tion the beauty of her downcast face and the 
 still grace of her reflective pensive mood. 
 
 Finally the servants left the room, and Alice 
 27
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 felt that she might now change the conversation 
 proper before them to one more private and 
 personal. Mr. Lloyd had the same thought, 
 and was more prompt to realise it. Before 
 Alice could form her request, he had asked, 
 " Is Stephen in the house yet? " 
 
 The question, put without interest and with 
 out anger, grieved her. She involuntarily felt 
 this absence of anger to be a wrong. It argued 
 a want of feeling which would be far harder to 
 influence than the most bitter resentment. She 
 answered coldly, 
 
 " He has gone away again." 
 
 " He did not care to see me, I suppose? I 
 don t wonder. But I am astonished he had 
 such a proper sense of shame." 
 
 " He would have liked to see you, father, but 
 he thought you did not care to see him. He is 
 going to sea on Saturday." 
 
 " He is a mental and physical tramp. I sup 
 pose your mother has been crying and praying 
 over him all the day." He drank a glass of 
 wine hastily, and then turned to Alice, who had 
 risen from the table, and asked, " When do you 
 go to Newport? " 
 
 " I do not want to go this summer, father. I 
 wish if you have no objections to take some 
 lessons, and perfect myself in music." 
 
 "What new fad is this?" 
 28
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 " It is not a new fad. I have often told you I 
 would like to be proficient in some one thing." 
 " I want you to go to Newport. I have a 
 particular reason for it, and I may as well tell 
 you now as again. To-day I have been able 
 to oblige, in a very essential way, a young Eng 
 lish nobleman. He is going to Newport. Can 
 you not see that this circumstance may contri 
 bute considerably to your eclat there? I intend 
 to bring him out here on Saturday, and intro 
 duce him to you. The rest is in your own 
 hands." 
 
 " I will not pretend that I do not understand 
 you, father, but " 
 
 " That is right ! That is right ! I knew you 
 were a sensible girl. If your brother had only 
 a thimbleful of your intelligence he might, at 
 least, learn how to spend the money I make for 
 him. The fact is, Alice, this young nobleman 
 is of the best blood in England; you have, or 
 will have, lots of solid American gold. He can 
 take you to courts, give you a title, rank, pres 
 tige, and what not ! You can give him the 
 means to keep up the splendour of his nat 
 ural position. I own that I should like to be 
 father-in-law to an earl, and I am willing to pay 
 for it." 
 
 During this speech Alice had been thinking 
 rapidly, and she concluded that it was not yet 
 29
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 the time for opposition. She felt strong in her 
 ability to temporise, until she had carried out 
 her plans for Steve afterwards afterwards 
 well, afterwards was perhaps a long way off; 
 she need not, at any rate, go to meet " after 
 wards." So when her father ceased speaking 
 she asked gravely, but yet with a show of 
 interest, 
 
 " What is your opinion of this nobleman, 
 father?" 
 
 " He is gentlemanly looking, I hear people 
 say that he is handsome. I am no judge of 
 Apollos." 
 
 " And yet you are yourself a very handsome 
 man, father." 
 
 "Am I, little girl? Well, at least I have a 
 very handsome daughter." He was much 
 pleased with the genuine compliment, and also 
 with the bright smile that answered his reply to 
 it. For once they were ready to begin a dispute 
 in a thoroughly good-natured mood ; and Alice 
 opened it by saying : 
 
 " You would not wish me to marry a man 
 who did not love me, or for whom I had neither 
 love nor respect? " 
 
 "Have I said such a thing?" Then he 
 added scornfully, " Love is supposed, in all 
 marriages." 
 
 " At Newport a girl has great disadvantages. 
 3
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 All the beauties of the Continent are gathered 
 there. It takes a fortune to dress yourself. 
 The simplicity style will not pass now. It is 
 dowdy. No matter how much a man is in love, 
 he cannot offend the conventionalities ; he can 
 not devote himself. There are more engage 
 ments broken off in Newport than there arc 
 made. And this young Earl will be the idol of 
 the season. Plenty of girls quite as pretty and 
 as rich as I am will offer him sacrifices that 
 Alice Lloyd could not think of. If you really 
 wish me to marry this noble Englishman, father, 
 you must let me have a fairer field than New 
 port for his conquest, " said Alice, smiling. 
 
 "Where then?" 
 
 " This house is beautiful. The surroundings 
 are romantic. Everything here is my ally. 
 I have no contingents to bother me. This is 
 the kind of home a man desires after the buzz 
 and babble and hollowness of Newport ; he will 
 come here and find that out." 
 
 " You may be right. I will bring him here 
 on Saturday. Women understand the tactics 
 of matrimony better than men. You have no 
 other lover, Alice? You are not in love with 
 any other man?" 
 
 " I am not in love with any man. I have no 
 lover. I never had one. You forget that I am 
 just out of college."
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " College ! That has nothing to do with it. 
 Love rather affects a gown and cap now. He 
 is become a B. A. ; " and he laughed good-hum- 
 oredly at his own idea. 
 
 " Perhaps he has, father," said Alice. " At 
 any rate, if you do not object, I should like to 
 become a Doctor of Music. I only need a good 
 teacher to do so." 
 
 " Very well ; but mind this, I will have no 
 foreign, long-haired woman s darling coming 
 to teach you. Get a sensible, commonplace 
 American, who wears a necktie and gets his 
 hair cut." 
 
 " I thought of a young lady who has been 
 highly recommended to me, a Miss Jessie 
 McAslin." 
 
 Alice had determined to name the McAslins 
 very carefully; and then, without intent or con 
 sideration, the word slipped off her tongue. 
 She watched its effect breathlessly. For a mo 
 ment it appeared to awaken no memory ; then, 
 swift as light, it penetrated the dust and forget- 
 fulness of years; and the man s face paled, and 
 the glass in his hand trembled, and he said, as if 
 to himself: 
 
 " McAslin ! McAslin ! Where have I heard 
 the name? Jessie! Jessie! Jessie McAslin !" 
 
 " I dare say you have seen the name very often, 
 without consciously putting it into your mem- 
 3 2
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 ory, " answered Alice. " Miss McAslin has a 
 brother, a clever young man, who writes for the 
 reviews and newspapers." 
 
 " Now I remember ; very sensible articles they 
 are; just my views on the gold standard." 
 
 " Then you have no objection to my employ 
 ing Miss McAslin? " 
 
 " No. If you are right about Newport, she 
 may help to pass the summer profitably. I wish 
 it was over, for my part." 
 
 The conversation was dropped without any 
 answer to this remark. Alice did not think it 
 wise to ask for reasons, which would give op 
 portunity for saying disagreeable things; she 
 handed her father his newspaper, and went into 
 the next room and played softly a pretty noc 
 turne. The music did not offend him, as it too 
 often did ; he let the sweet dreamy notes sink 
 into his consciousness ; and memory set herself 
 to them. He was twenty-two again. The bloom 
 of young desire, the purple light of love, were 
 his own ; and pretty Jessie Allison was walk 
 ing hand in hand with him, through the sweet 
 clover of the home meadow. He had hopes 
 then, sweet innocent hopes ; now, he had only 
 their memories. 
 
 Anon he began to wonder about the Mc- 
 Aslins. Jessie had married a man of that name ; 
 could these young people be her children? He 
 3 33
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 felt an unusual interest in this question. Why 
 should he care? He told himself that he did 
 not care; and yet faces and voices long for 
 gotten came back to his inward eye and ear ; 
 and he grew nervous at last under the unusual 
 companionship. As the shadows deepened, he 
 rose up and called for lights and the evening 
 papers, and in their astonishing records of 
 struggling, sinning, game-playing humanity 
 found an habitual and congenial atmosphere. 
 He was at once his own man in it; and the 
 wraith of his youth with its dreams and hopes 
 passed away from him. 
 
 In the morning, early, Alice wrote to Jessie 
 McAslin. She wished her to receive the note 
 before Steve went to sea: for she judged it 
 likely he would hear about it, and so under 
 stand that his sister was disposed to sympathise 
 with his wishes and friendships. It was of course 
 a formal little note; and yet somehow, notes do 
 carry the spirit in which they are written. Un- 
 thoughtful of this occult influence, Jessie was 
 yet sensitive to it. " What a nice note ! " she 
 said to herself as she read it. It found her also 
 in an hour favourable for consideration. She 
 was sitting alone with Steve, when the sharp 
 whistle of the postman penetrated the room. 
 Mrs. McAslin was busy about her household 
 affairs, and her husband sat reading and talking 
 34
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 beside her. Flora and her lover had gone for a 
 walk. John had been invited to some Trade s 
 Hall, to discuss with its members questions re 
 lating to their position. Steve, who was gen 
 erally delighted to go with John to such meet 
 ings, had this night declined to do so. 
 
 He had placed himself in a comfortable posi 
 tion at one open window of the parlour; Jessie 
 sat at the other. She had a book and pencil in 
 her hand, and appeared to be making notes, or 
 entries ; really she was speculating about Steve, 
 and the book and pencil were only a pretence. 
 She was weary of it, when the postman s whistle 
 blew a fresh interest into the room. Steve in 
 sisted on going downstairs for what had been 
 left, and Jessie made no objections. He brought 
 up two letters, one for John, and one for Jessie. 
 Jessie took her letter with a little curiosity : its 
 appearance was unfamiliar. In a moment or 
 two she was possessed of its contents, and she 
 rose up in an excited manner, and went to her 
 father and mother. Steve sat down again in his 
 seat by the window. He knew the letter was 
 from Alice, and he expected to hear it dis 
 cussed. He was quite prepared when she re 
 turned to the room with her mother, both of 
 them in a glow of pride and pleasure. 
 
 " Steve, " cried Mrs. McAslin, " what do you 
 think? Jessie has a note from Miss Lloyd 
 35
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Nicholas Lloyd s daughter asking Jessie to 
 give her music lessons. Do you remember our 
 conversation about the Lloyds? You said you 
 knew the son at school?" 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " What kind of a boy was he? " 
 
 "In some ways he wasn t a bad boy. He 
 couldn t learn anything useful, or up-to-date." 
 
 " That does not matter, mother, " interrupted 
 Jessie. " The boy might be very stupid and 
 disagreeable, and the girl clever and delightful. 
 The thing that puzzles me is, who told Miss 
 Lloyd about my playing and teaching? I know 
 no one who visits in her set." 
 
 " Sets run over and into each other in New 
 York, and inquiries are made from all kinds of 
 people, " answered Steve. " I suppose you will 
 give her lessons, Jessie? " 
 
 " I will go to see her to-morrow. She has 
 sent me a marked time-table, and if I let her 
 know what train I will take, she says the car 
 riage will meet me. I will telegraph her 
 to-night. I wonder which will be the most 
 convenient train?" 
 
 " Ten-thirty, " said Steve, promptly. 
 
 " How do you know? " 
 
 " I have acquaintances up the river. I always 
 take that train. It is an express. Shall I go 
 and telegraph for you? " 
 36
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 " I wish you would, Steve." 
 
 He went at once to obey her wish, and 
 Jessie discussed the affair and laid out her best 
 walking-suit, and retouched her black hat for 
 the expedition. In this way she wearied her 
 enthusiasm a little, and Steve found her on his 
 return sitting in the parlour, silent and depressed. 
 " Steve was going away." Her heart iterated 
 this complaint, and refused to be consoled by 
 any mere financial good fortune, for Steve had 
 become a large part of Jessie s thoughts and 
 imaginings. He constantly surprised and puz 
 zled her. John said he was a fine classical 
 scholar, and he did not appear to be in need of 
 money. His good breeding was evident, and 
 when he attempted to use slang or popular 
 language, he could not do so as one born to 
 its peculiarities. 
 
 Steve, Jessie reflected, had the carriage of a 
 gentleman, and that air of distinction only 
 attained by a childhood passed among refined 
 people and surroundings. Yet he was going to 
 sea as a steward s assistant. He would have to 
 obey orders, write out menus, make lists of 
 stores, and do work which she could not fancy 
 a man of fine instincts and habits being willing 
 to do. He even hoped to exchange this work 
 at Liverpool for that of a man before the mast ; 
 and he spoke of such employments as if they 
 37
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 were natural and native to him. What was he? 
 Or rather, who was he? Even to John, he said 
 nothing of his antecedents ; or if he had done 
 so, John was as reticent as Steve could possibly 
 desire. 
 
 These circumstances of mystery made a fav 
 ourable atmosphere for the growth of love ; and 
 before Jessie was aware of the fact, she was 
 more interested in Steve than she would have 
 admitted, even to her own consciousness. She 
 realised one thing, however that she had a 
 heartache about his going away. In less than 
 two weeks he had made himself a part of her 
 happiness ; already she felt the loneliness of the 
 house without him. How good-hearted he was ! 
 How ready to help ! How self-contained ! 
 How gentlemanly in the best sense of the word ! 
 How handsome ! She hesitated at this declara 
 tion of her heart. She was not prepared to say 
 Steve was handsome, but he was certainly clever ; 
 and in some directions John thought him well 
 educated, and John s opinion was final with 
 Jessie. 
 
 As she was considering this list of his excel 
 lencies, Steve returned. He had sent the tele 
 gram, and Jessie was now under an obligation 
 to take the ten-thirty train for Lloyd s Station. 
 " I am so sorry, " she said, " for I intended to 
 see you sail in the morning, and now I cannot 
 38
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 do so. I am half inclined to send another tele 
 gram. I am so sorry, Steve ! " 
 
 " Jessie, those words are very pleasant to 
 me. Did you really intend to go down to the 
 steamer?" His eyes, glowing with tender fire, 
 sought hers, and he took her hands within his 
 clasp. She saw the love words on his lips ; 
 another moment of such feeling and he must 
 have made them audible. Alas ! he did not 
 venture on that moment. With a great sigh he 
 turned away, letting her hands fall from his 
 with a hopelessness which Jessie could not but 
 feel and understand. The silence following was 
 embarrassing, and Steve made no effort to break 
 it. Jessie was wounded by the advance and re 
 treat ; and her pride taught her to affect igno 
 rance and indifference. " John likes you so 
 much," she said, " that I am sorry you are 
 going away. Do you know where John is speak 
 ing to-night? I wish I could hear him." 
 
 " Nothing can be easier. It is a lovely night, 
 and the hall is but twelve blocks away. Put on 
 your hat and we will go there." 
 
 There was something in Steve s voice she 
 liked to obey. They went out together and 
 loitered down Second avenue. The broad way 
 was yet busy; men and women touched them 
 on either hand, and the children singing to their 
 games on the sidewalks gave an air of happiness 
 39
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 and holiday to the scene. The park invited 
 them to its green shadows, and they strolled to 
 a bench and sat down. Jessie was nervously 
 anxious to talk, silence revealed too much, 
 and she could think of no subject but the sea. 
 
 "It is strange you love it so much ; were you 
 born near it?" she asked. 
 
 " I was born on Twenty-third Street. But my 
 mother s family were sailors. It is in the blood. 
 I love the sea as I love my mother and my 
 native land. I hear it calling me to-night, as 
 plainly as if it had a human voice. I must feel 
 as Euripides felt when his incomparable invoca 
 tion to the sea was written." 
 
 "I should like to hear it," she said softly; 
 and the words that had been singing in Steve s 
 heart came instantly in rhythmic ebb and flow 
 from his lips : 
 
 Would God I were now by the Sea ! 
 
 By the winding, wet-worn caves, 
 
 By the ragged rents of the rocks ; 
 And that there as a bird I might be, 
 
 White-winged, with the sea-skimming flocks, 
 Where the spray and the breeze blow free, 
 
 O er the ceaseless mirth of the waves, 
 
 And dishevel their loose grey locks. 
 I would spread my wings to the moist, salt air, 
 And my white, wide wings should carry me 
 Lifted up, out over the Sea. 
 
 Carry I heed not where ; 
 40
 
 MATRIMONIAL PLANS 
 
 Somewhither, far away; 
 
 Where the breast of the breeze is sprinkled with spray ; 
 Where the restless deep is maddened with glee, 
 
 Over the waves wild ecstasy ; 
 
 Through the wild blown foam ! 
 
 As he spoke the divine longing and rapture 
 of those who are " bond to the deep " touched 
 her. She forgot the avenue. She forgot the 
 stress of human hopes and fears that filled her 
 heart. The sense of the sea was in her soul, 
 its wild and solemn grandeur, its mysterious 
 beauty ; for one moment she felt through Steve, 
 for that moment she understood him.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 SHE found it far more difficult to understand 
 him an hour later. They were then in the half- 
 filled, half-lit Trades Hall. John s speech was 
 over, and a swarthy, untidy man was on the 
 little platform, haranguing the restless men and 
 women. John leaned on the back of a chair, as 
 if waiting for reply; he saw Jessie and Steve 
 enter, and motioned them to the vacant chairs 
 beside him. The speaker was urging on a strike, 
 with passionate invectives and much clap-trap 
 oratory. 
 
 " You need not believe anything he says," 
 whispered Steve to Jessie ; " the making of 
 noise is his business." 
 
 " The worker is constantly more and more 
 imposed upon, " screamed the orator. " If it 
 were not for the Trades Unions, he would be a 
 serf! " 
 
 " That is nonsense, " said John. 
 
 " It is the truth, sir." 
 
 " I say again, that is nonsense. The last 
 twenty years, wages have been largely increased ; 
 42
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 hours of labour have been shortened. The work 
 ing man has gained more political power, more 
 social sympathy, more comfortable homes. In 
 every way he has been favoured. Has he im 
 proved these advantages ? Is he better at home ? 
 Is he friendlier with his employers? Is he wiser 
 in managing his own affairs? I leave you to 
 answer these questions." 
 
 " Whatever good has come to him, has come 
 through Trades Unions, " insisted the speaker, 
 
 " I deny that," answered John. " I assert 
 that the Unions often forbid men to do as well 
 as they can, or to work as hard as they wish. 
 I say, they often exercise an oppression that 
 few would endure at the hands of the legal 
 government. I say, they throw thousands out 
 of work who have no concern in their quarrels, 
 nor any share in their funds. I say, they rob 
 the industrious man of his labour and the able 
 man of his skill. I accuse them of intimidation, 
 and of creating privileged bodies of workmen. 
 No amount of affected sympathy with the 
 working-man will get rid of facts like these." 
 
 "Who gives him sympathy?" was the retort. 
 " Not the rich, sleek sinners, whom God and 
 the devil leave alone, to succeed and prosper; 
 such men as A, and B, and C. and D, and 
 Nicholas Lloyd, are they not the incarnation 
 of selfishness and covetousness? " 
 43
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Then Steve leaped to his feet, and finally 
 went forward to the platform. " I will not de 
 fend A, and B, and C, and D, and Nicholas 
 Lloyd, " he cried ; " let their works and their 
 charities defend them ; what I want to say is this 
 the working-man is as selfish and as covet 
 ous as the rich man." 
 
 His words fell full, clearly rounded, and with 
 an invincible air of authority, as he stood with 
 flashing eyes waiting for a reply. For a minute 
 there was an intense silence, followed by an 
 audible murmur. Then the chairman of the 
 meeting rose and said : 
 
 " The gentleman owes the assembly an apol 
 ogy. He will please to make it." 
 
 " He owes them a statement of his position," 
 answered Steve, " and he will make it in a few 
 words : When a poor man within half a dollar 
 of starvation marries, he is selfish. When he 
 spends his wage on beer, and leaves his wife 
 and children hungry, he is selfish. When a poor 
 man hoards his dollars in an old stocking, he is 
 as covetous as the rich man hoarding his dollars 
 in a bank. The mechanic who does bad work 
 instead of good work, the man who does not 
 give a day s work for a day s wage, the hands 
 who dawdle about the factories, and take con 
 tinual holidays, knowing that their families 
 must suffer for them, the thriftless, lounging 
 44
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 idlers, who are everybody s enemies as well as 
 their own, because their example is a poison, 
 and their vice a crime against the feeble, whom 
 it helps to corrupt all these are as selfish 
 and covetous as the rich usurer or the rich 
 debauchee. Say what you will of the selfishness 
 and covetousness of the rich, the poor are just 
 as bad. Any man is a selfish, covetous scoun 
 drel who sits down at the feast of life and tries 
 to slink away without paying his reckoning. 
 I am a poor man, and I know that in this respect 
 I am both selfish and covetous." 
 
 The last sentences of this speech were flung 
 into the assembly with all the passion necessary 
 to make them heard above the tumult of dis 
 satisfaction they caused. Cries of " Silence ! " 
 "Turn him out!" " Who is the scab?" "Give 
 him a lesson! " grew more and more insistent; 
 and finally a big, swaggering fellow left his seat 
 and walked straight up to Steve. Jessie could 
 have shrieked aloud ; she entreated her brother 
 to interfere. 
 
 " Let him alone, " answered John. " He had 
 no right to say such words here unless he was 
 prepared to defend them ; " yet John rose and 
 intently watched the proceedings. 
 
 The new character in them stood squarely 
 in front of Steve, and said : " Our Chairman has 
 45
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 already told you to make an apology, sir. You 
 had better do it at once. " 
 
 " What if I decline ? " asked Steve. 
 
 " I shall then make you do so." 
 
 " How will you make me?" 
 
 " Take off your coat and I will show you 
 how." 
 
 In a moment two coats were flung to the end 
 of the platform ; in the next, Steve had forced 
 his antagonist into a chair, where he held him 
 with the grip of a clamp of iron. There was 
 a swift and tumultuous interference, cries of 
 "police," shrieks of women and John went 
 rapidly forward to the help of his friend. Jessie 
 clasped her hands distractedly, and urged him 
 to " hurry; " but there was no need to help 
 Steve in his dilemma. Every man present 
 understood the meaning of that swift blow and 
 movement, which had nonplussed and made 
 powerless the recipient ofit. Watchful as a 
 bird, and not to be surprised, Steve went for 
 his coat and put it on with the greatest delibera 
 tion. His look and attitude were unmistakable ; 
 and there was not only a subsidence of oppo 
 sition, but also a kind of breathless admiration 
 for the swift, indisputable reply he had given 
 his challenger. No one even answered him, 
 when he walked to the front of the platform 
 and scornfully thanked the Union for " the farce 
 46
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 of asking men to a free argument and then 
 giving them such a sample of fair play." 
 
 Calm as he appeared, he was really much 
 excited, for he passed John, and saw him not ; 
 and he would also have passed Jessie if she had 
 not grasped his hand and called his name. Then 
 he stopped. All his soul was in his face as he 
 looked into Jessie s eyes. And surely he saw 
 some answering gleam in hers, for he drew her 
 arm within his own and clasped it tight, and so 
 passed out of the hall. No one stopped him ; 
 the noble inner man was in command, and men 
 and women felt his influence, and fell back to 
 the right and the left as Steve went forward. 
 He was followed by no word of disapproval ; 
 rather they gave him an involuntary respect 
 and admiration. 
 
 " You see what men are, " he said to John, 
 as he was joined by his friend. 
 
 "They can understand animal force; they 
 want to knock Truth down. 
 
 1 How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
 How complicate, how wonderful is man ! 
 
 You taught me that quotation, Steve, " said 
 John, " and so I have the right to give it back 
 to you." 
 
 All were much excited by the events of the 
 evening, and they sat until long after midnight 
 47
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 discussing them. Then, when the family re 
 tired, Steve bid all but John " good-bye." He 
 said he should be away before they were up in 
 the morning, though perhaps he was influenced 
 by a more personal motive. At that hour every 
 one was at his best and kindest, and Steve s fare 
 well would have its deepest significance. 
 
 " I am sorry to leave you, " he said, giving 
 his hands to Mr. and Mrs. McAslin. "I owe 
 you for much happiness and hospitality." 
 
 " You have paid handsomely for your room 
 and board, Steve Morrison, " said Mr. McAslin, 
 "and you will be very welcome in my house 
 whenever you desire to come to it." Mrs. Mc 
 Aslin gave him a motherly kiss, Flora a kind 
 "good-bye;" then he turned to Jessie. 
 
 "God bless you, Jessie," he said. She an 
 swered softly, " God bless you, Steve ! You will 
 come back to us?" 
 
 "If I live, I will come back." Then they 
 looKed straight into each other s eyes, and a 
 certain subtle something passed between them, 
 and both knew that their hearts had longed for 
 a warmer and sweeter farewell. 
 
 It was Steve, however, who played the woman s 
 part in this love affair ; his was the romance, the 
 ideality, and the sweet unselfishness of the pas 
 sion. Jessie was a girl of her era, and the ne 
 cessity of money-making was her prime instinct. 
 48
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 She was in love as a man is in love. Her busi 
 ness had to be fully attended to ; her love was 
 for her hours of relaxation and pleasure. But 
 Steve s business was to love. 
 
 Jessie had never been in love; she had al 
 ways been sufficient for herself for her needs 
 of every kind. It was true that there was in 
 her heart a tenderer feeling for Steve than she 
 had ever before known ; and his last eager, lov 
 ing look had perforce drawn from her an an 
 swering one ; but she quickly took herself to 
 task for her weakness. "He is the best man I 
 ever knew, " she thought, as she carefully put 
 up her hair in its crimping pins, " but I do not 
 intend to lose myself on unknown ground. He 
 was grand to-night when he faced that crowd of 
 whimpering, complaining men and told them 
 the truth for once in their lives. And the swift, 
 satisfactory way in which he pinned that bully 
 down was splendid ! I was frightened a little, 
 but I would like to be frightened very often in 
 that kind of a way. Heigho ! I wish he were 
 rich; or, if I were rich it would do as well 
 perhaps better. But poverty and matrimony 
 no, no ! there is something else for a girl than 
 that combination, these days." 
 
 This train of thought reminded her of Miss 
 Lloyd, and she began to deliberate about her 
 " terms." She was afraid to ask too much, and 
 4 49
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 still more afraid to ask too little. Finally, she 
 concluded to call at Pond s as she went to the 
 train, and find out what was the maximum price 
 for out-of-town lessons. Steve went to sleep 
 thinking of her beauty, her kindness, and her 
 cleverness ; Jessie went to sleep thinking of the 
 role she had to fill the next day, and laying her 
 plans for securing all her rights and every tittle 
 of her self-respect. 
 
 In the morning she was silent, preoccupied, 
 and full of importance ; the rest of the family 
 said she was cross. Not quite that; but she 
 had drawn to her centre all her forces, and 
 therefore this morning she had no alms of good 
 humour and good-will to scatter. Even her 
 mother s natural curiosity annoyed her. Why 
 should she want news of her old lover, of his 
 wife and house and children? Alas! twenty 
 years does not understand that the memories of 
 age are as full of sentiment and sweetness as the 
 hopes of youth. 
 
 Her mind on the journey was solely occupied 
 with counselling her conduct in the strange and 
 unexpected position in which she found herself. 
 " Destiny loves surprises, " she thought, " but I 
 shall try to be ready for any phase of this 
 event. I will not be offended by ceremony nor 
 be made effusive by kindness. I will have no 
 friendship with my pupil, and I will permit no 
 5
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 unwise familiarity. If the son whom Steve 
 knew is at home, I will not encourage any ac 
 quaintance with him. Poor Steve! I wonder if 
 he has reached the open sea yet." She thought 
 it very improbable that Miss Lloyd knew any 
 thing of her father s first love, or that if she had 
 heard the story, she would care to mention it to 
 the daughter of the woman he had treated so 
 badly. But if circumstances brought this his 
 tory into conversation, then Jessie made up 
 her mind to treat the subject as mythical, as 
 of no importance, and now quite forgotten. 
 Many other resolves of the same kind she made 
 as the train sped swiftly to Lloyd s Station, and 
 then when she met Alice face to face, she suf 
 fered them all to slip from her mind. 
 
 It is so easy to reckon without our host; and 
 that was precisely what Jessie had done. She 
 had calculated very fairly her own strength, but 
 she made no allowance for the influence Alice 
 might exert over her. And the influence of 
 Alice, though not very apparent, was permeat 
 ing and persuasive. From the first moment of 
 their meeting she took an initiative that the 
 really stronger woman could not resist. Jessie 
 had prepared herself for an entirely business 
 interview; the social footing on which she was 
 received took her by surprise, and she fell with 
 out resistance under the charm of Alice s unaf- 
 5 1
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 fected kindness. The lofty rooms with their 
 revelations in artistic furnishing, the ceramic 
 treasures, the pictures, the books, the noiseless 
 service, the beautiful garden to all these in 
 fluences Jessie was far more sensitive than she 
 believed herself. 
 
 Still she adhered to her " terms." They were 
 given her without inquiry or dissent, and then 
 teacher and pupil went together to the music- 
 room. There Jessie honestly earned her money, 
 for she was not only conscientious, but she also 
 entered into the very spirit of her work. The 
 piano delighted her. Never before had she felt 
 such finely strong notes under her fingers, 
 and she said with great feeling: 
 
 " Oh, Miss Lloyd ! can you imagine what it 
 is to play on an instrument that understands 
 you? My piano is not to be compared with 
 this; yet it is acquainted with me; we are 
 friends ; it comprehends my confidences and 
 my moods, and we laugh and cry together." 
 
 " I have not yet made a friend of my instru 
 ment," replied Alice. " I do not do it justice. 
 It responds to your fingers in a way that amazes 
 me. And yet often at twilight I hear strange, 
 sweet voices in the strings. Where do they 
 come from? Have you ever thought of that? " 
 
 " Do you think simple wire outstretched 
 makes them ! Oh, no ! Listen to this ! " said 
 5 2
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 Jessie ; and in a kind of inspiration she brought 
 forth in low, soft tones the Mermaid s Song 
 from " Oberon." Its passion of longing sad 
 ness, its delicious pain and exquisite abandon 
 ment, thrilled both girls. Under Jessie s long, 
 small hands the keys responded as if they 
 were living, loving things, and her lifted face 
 reflected every word of the song, for her heart 
 was singing it. Alice, with sweet, proud eyes, 
 watched the sensitive evoker of such melody, 
 and thought of Steve with something like 
 elation. 
 
 It was at this moment that both were suddenly 
 aware of some strange, intruding influence. 
 Jessie became silent, and the piano seemed to 
 fall an octave in tone. Alice turned slightly, 
 and saw her father and a stranger standing be 
 tween the portieres. As they came forward 
 the music ceased altogether, and Jessie stood 
 up. But on her face there was the reflection 
 of the song ; her eyes glowed, her lips were 
 slightly parted, she was the incarnation of its 
 sweet, sad melody. Mr. Lloyd introduced Lord 
 Medway to Alice ; then Jessie heard her own 
 name, and she was compelled to lift her eyes 
 and acknowledge the courtesy. Afterward, 
 every moment was an embarrassment. She 
 was entreated to play the song again, and she 
 consented ; but there was something wanting 
 53
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 which she had given to Alice. Mr. Lloyd stood 
 by her side, observing her with great interest, 
 though he said little. Lord Medway was enthu 
 siastic in his compliments. Jessie acknowl 
 edged their praises with a smile, and took her 
 departure. She was trembling with excitement, 
 and glad when she found herself in the crowded 
 solitude of the railway car. 
 
 In this confessional she grew rapidly angry 
 with Jessie McAslin. " To think," she men 
 tally ejaculated, " to think that I should have 
 fallen so absolutely and absurdly under that 
 girl s influence ! And what is more humiliating, 
 under the influence of chairs, and tables, and 
 pictures, and china cups! It makes me sick! 
 And then that lord business ! Why did they 
 introduce me? I don t want to know any 
 lords. And why, oh, why, did I sing that song 
 again? " 
 
 She tormented herself all the way home, 
 and was glad to find no one present but Flora. 
 Flora was busy with her sewing, and she asked 
 Jessie no questions, and the girl, pleading 
 fatigue, went to her room to rest. Fortunately 
 she soon fell asleep. When she awakened, the 
 sun was nearing the western horizon, and she 
 heard her father s voice and John s laugh 
 answering it. She rose rapidly to her feet, 
 and her first thought was a healthy, physical 
 54
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 desire for her dinner. Sleep had calmed and 
 refreshed her, and she was now ready to do 
 herself justice. 
 
 " After all," she reflected, " I behaved cred 
 itably. Things went better than I expected. I 
 looked my best, I sang well, and I was neither 
 discourteous nor presuming. I think I may 
 say, with that egotistical old Rousseau, I do 
 not know a better person than myself. " 
 
 This little bit of conceit amused her; she 
 bathed her face and smoothed her hair to the 
 smile it evoked, and then joined the family. 
 Every one had a welcome for her, and John 
 drew her fondly into the empty chair set next 
 his own. "I kept it for you, Jessie," he said. 
 " Flora declares you came home too tired 
 to talk." 
 
 " Flora did not ask me to talk. She had a 
 new paper pattern on her mind, so I saved my 
 news for more appreciative listeners." 
 
 " Did you get your pupil?" asked her father. 
 
 " Yes on my own terms, too." 
 
 " Is she nice? Is she pleasant-tempered? " 
 
 " I don t think, mother, that the word nice 
 suits her. A nice woman is one who always 
 behaves like other women. I think Miss Lloyd 
 would judge for herself, under all circumstances. 
 She is, however, beautiful, and I think she has 
 a sweet and gracious disposition." 
 55
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "What did she wear?" 
 
 "A gown of Indian mull, and real Valen 
 ciennes. I was covetous of it, John." 
 
 " Did you see Mrs. Lloyd?" 
 
 " Yes, mother. I saw her for half an hour. 
 She is tall and walks very softly. Her face is 
 thin and worn, but her eyes are remarkable ; 
 they are so dark and lambent, and I noticed 
 them constantly dilating not to what was 
 said, but to her own thoughts. Mr. Lloyd 
 came in just before I left, and Lord Medway 
 was with him." 
 
 Then there followed a conversation largely 
 composed of ejaculations and descriptions. It 
 wearied Jessie; but she knew how much her 
 father and mother loved to see this other life 
 through her eyes. So she told them all about 
 the house and the garden ; the furniture, the 
 equipage, and the order of the lunch; and as 
 far as her casual knowledge permitted, she gave 
 them her impressions of Mr. Lloyd and his 
 guest, Lord Medway. But she was glad when 
 they were satisfied, and she could go away 
 with John and express herself after her own 
 desire. And she was not so hopeful as might 
 have been expected. 
 
 "John," she said, "I think I have begun too 
 well. When people are so pleasant at first, the 
 pleasantness does not last." 
 56
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 " Sometimes it does. All will likely depend 
 on your pupil." 
 
 " Women get on pretty well if men don t 
 interfere. Generally speaking, we agree to 
 believe in each other, until they do. I fear 
 the man in this case." 
 
 "Who is he?" 
 
 "Lord Medway. He gave me a glance he 
 had no right to give; for I think he is Miss 
 Lloyd s lover." 
 
 " What kind of a glance? " 
 
 " One of inquisitive admiration. It was as 
 if he. had said, I wonder who you are? I 
 admire you very much ! 
 
 " I don t see how a flash of the eyes could 
 say all that, Jessie." 
 
 " When the time comes for you to say all 
 that you will understand how in a moment 
 your eyes can say it." 
 
 " But why should they ? Have I not a 
 tongue? " 
 
 " Your tongue will be too slow. Tongues 
 need to be taught. Eyes talk naturally." 
 
 " Has Steve been giving you any such 
 glances?" 
 
 " One or two." 
 
 " Have you returned them ? " 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " Then keep whatever promise they have 
 57
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 made. To raise a hope or confidence and 
 then deceive it, Jessie, I think nothing can be so 
 mean or so treacherous." 
 
 " I wish I knew something about him. I 
 wish I felt sure in my own mind." 
 
 " If ever you have a doubt about any way 
 or any work, turn back, or give it up ; doubt is 
 error." 
 
 "Why doesn t he explain himself? Why 
 not say plainly who he is and where he 
 comes from? " 
 
 "That is his affair as yet. When are you 
 going to the Lloyds again? " 
 
 " Next Wednesday. As I have told you, I 
 don t know how long it will last. I do not trust 
 such fair beginnings. However, from every 
 harvest I have always got my ear of corn." 
 
 " Don t be so mercenary, little woman. And 
 I do wish you would trust humanity more. If 
 you lose faith in men and women, you will 
 soon lose faith in God and yourself. All men 
 are not liars. All friendship is not feigning." 
 
 " I saw one class of men and women in the 
 hall last night. I saw another class at Lloyd 
 Park to-day; how am I to judge them, 
 John?" 
 
 "Do not judge them. Believe in them. There 
 is a love of goodness in men and women 
 to which you may always appeal, and never in 
 53
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 vain. Shipwrecks, epidemics, fires, disasters 
 of any kind, bring to the front, without fail, 
 some heroic, compassionate spirit." 
 
 " As for being mercenary, John, we have to 
 be mercenary. What is life without money? 
 And it is a constant fight to get your share of 
 it." 
 
 " Certainly, Jessie, you don t want money 
 simply for your own luxury or pleasure, or for 
 the sake of hoarding it? " 
 
 " Certainly, I do not." 
 
 " Then are you able and willing to be one of 
 God s stewards and dispense wealth properly 
 for him? Understand, it is no light work. 
 There will be an audit to meet which you must 
 daily and hourly prepare for. No one s wealth 
 is accidental. 
 
 " Wealth, " continued John, " is given to be 
 spent in good works, and the holders are agents 
 for him who declares the silver and the gold are 
 mine. As for me, I should fear the awful respon 
 sibility of wealth. Godliness with content 
 ment is the great gain I desire." 
 
 " Yet you are admitting that wealth is a power 
 for good." 
 
 " At the same time, I do not say it is necessary 
 
 for the noblest work. Did Paul, or Luther, or 
 
 Whitefield, or Wesley depend upon it? Indeed, 
 
 no ! When Pope Leo the Tenth realised that 
 
 59
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Luther could not be bought, and said angrily, 
 This German beast cares nothing for gold, he 
 hit the truth about all great moral leaders. As 
 a social regenerator, gold in the hands of a good 
 man is a potent factor. It can build churches 
 and colleges and libraries. It can bind men to 
 gether with the iron ties of railways and cables 
 and telegraphs. It can prepare succour for the 
 sick and dying in hospitals. It has a thou 
 sand great works to do for the uplifting and 
 comforting of humanity- But if wealth is not 
 spent in this manner, then the increase of wealth 
 means only the increase of misery." 
 
 " But, John, how few rich men do spend their 
 wealth in social regeneration ! They hoard it 
 and luxuriate in it, and then leave it to their 
 children." 
 
 " Then they must pay the dreadful penalty of 
 false stewards. Their hearts will grow as fat as 
 brawn and cold as ice, until upon their sinful 
 selfishness crashes the awful message, Thou 
 fool ! this night ! " 
 
 " John, you terrify me. Are we then to live 
 only for others?" 
 
 "Oh, Jessie, in living for others we live for 
 ourselves best, and most of all. We are the 
 children of the King of heaven and earth, and 
 we serve him not for wages, but for love. We 
 are taking the journey of life through this world 
 60
 
 JESSIE S AFFAIRS 
 
 on his order. We are in the King s high 
 way. " 
 
 " It is a very sorrowful and dangerous way to 
 many." 
 
 "It is, Jessie. The devils of murder and 
 robbery, of drunkenness and lust, of greed and 
 oppressions of every description are to be met 
 on it. Apollyon has straddled over the whole 
 width of the way; but then, what are we here 
 for but to prepare the way of the Lord and to 
 make its paths clean and straight, and utterly 
 destroy whatever defiles it? When men have 
 done this the millennium will be here." 
 
 " You make life such a terribly solemn thing 
 John." 
 
 " Solemn, but sweet; for we have so much love 
 and loving-kindness, as we take it together; 
 father and mother love, brother and sister love, 
 husband and wife love ; friends, and books, and 
 neighbours, and fellow-travellers ; good men and 
 women, all going the same way the way of 
 holiness, the King s highway." 
 
 " You ought to be a preacher, John, and not 
 a lawyer." 
 
 " Every man and woman may be a preacher 
 in the home, on the railways, out in the high 
 ways and byways. For instance, in teaching 
 Miss Lloyd music, you may teach her many 
 other things." 
 
 61
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Miss Lloyd is an uncertain quantity, John. 
 She may be able to teach me other things. 
 I will tell you more about Miss Lloyd a month 
 hence. Now, John, I have had a hard day and 
 am very tired. I must go to sleep." 
 
 Then she kissed him, and, it must be admitted, 
 put away from her consideration all that he had 
 said. Her interest did not lie in that road at 
 present. She let the thought of riches and the 
 obligations of riches slip from her consciousness, 
 and began to wonder where Steve was, what 
 he was doing, and if he were thinking of her. 
 Then with a sigh she closed her eyes and whis 
 pered to herself, " What is in my heart shall 
 lie quiet a little while. I am tired tired of 
 everything." 
 
 62
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 THE month which Jessie had allowed herself 
 for determining the value of her first kind re 
 ception at Lloyd Park passed swiftly away; 
 and Alice disappointed none of the expecta 
 tions that her gracious behaviour had raised at 
 the first meeting. Indeed, in spite of Jessie s 
 doubting, touchy individuality, a kind of friend 
 ship had grown up between the girls ; though 
 Jessie was more and more puzzled as to what 
 possible circumstances had brought them to 
 gether. For it was soon evident to her that 
 Alice was no enthusiast about her music ; she 
 would have shirked her lessons if her conscien 
 tious teacher would have allowed her to do so. 
 She preferred, evidently, to ask Jessie questions, 
 and to talk to her endlessly about her life and 
 likings. And though Jessie was not destitute 
 of that dubious dislike and suspicious want of 
 confidence which seems the natural condition 
 between employer and employee, she found it 
 hard to maintain it in the presence of Alice. 
 63
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Had Jessie known that she was being wooed 
 for Steve s sake, she would have resented the 
 familiarity ; but who of us is proof against kind 
 ness which we believe to be given freely to our 
 person and attributes? Jessie s " unselfishness" 
 vanished gradually before the girlish confidences 
 that followed the usual music lesson; for there 
 was always a delicate little lunch ready at its 
 close ; and if people do not become good-na 
 tured while eating together, then they ought to 
 drop their association at once and for ever. 
 
 Their first confidence related to Lord Med- 
 way. For two weeks he remained at Lloyd 
 Park, and the music lessons were much inter 
 rupted by his intrusions. He himself was re 
 ceiving at the same time a lesson which his 
 vanity could not comprehend until it was put 
 into unmistakable English for him. Jessie had 
 divined his admiration at their first meeting ; at 
 their second, he made it still less equivocal. He 
 had discovered by this time that she was pres 
 ent simply as Miss Lloyd s teacher; and his 
 ideas about women were always modified by 
 their rank or wealth. His underhand, furtive 
 admiration deeply offended Jessie ; but he would 
 not accept such tokens of her annoyance as it 
 was in her power to give without making her 
 self and him also unpleasantly conspicuous. 
 At her fourth visit, she found him in the train, 
 64
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 when she entered it to return to her home, and 
 he immediately addressed her in language about 
 whose affectionate tenor there was no mistaking. 
 
 She looked at him with a calm and sovereign 
 contempt, and answered : " We have nothing in 
 common, sir. My affections are placed far be 
 yond you. I would not marry you for all the 
 coronets in England." 
 
 He tittered, but he was angry enough as he 
 continued : " I did not ask you to marry me. 
 Telling a pretty girl you love her is a long way 
 from wishing to marry her." 
 
 " Not in my case, sir. Loving a girl is the 
 way to marry her, as I have been taught. But 
 there is no question of love between you and 
 me. I should find it impossible on my part." 
 
 " You are a saucy little minx. And yet you 
 are so piquantly and provokingly tempting 
 that I intend to " 
 
 " If you say another word to me, sir, I will 
 report you to the conductor. Therefore, if you 
 do not wish to be left on the roadside, you will 
 do well to find another seat. I will not endure 
 your company any longer." 
 
 Then he lifted his hat and went to the other 
 end of the car, an angry and a mortified man ; 
 and Jessie smiled serenely at the courtesy. "It 
 is the force of habit," she thought ; " he is one 
 of those creatures who always lift their hats to 
 5 65
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 women, but never, under any circumstances, re 
 spect them." In this decision, however, Jessie 
 was wrong. It was the force of virtue that for 
 once bared the nobleman s head ; and in spite 
 of his mortification he watched the proud, self- 
 respecting girl with a very sincere admiration 
 and esteem. 
 
 When she went to Lloyd Park the following 
 Saturday Lord Medway was in Newport, and 
 Alice took Jessie into her confidence. " I think 
 he wishes me to marry him," she said, " and 
 perhaps I may do so ; for father desires the 
 match very much. Have you ever been in love, 
 Jessie? " she asked. 
 
 " No not quite that is, I don t know. I 
 have met a young man lately whom I could 
 love, if it were prudent to do so." 
 
 " Oh, then, you are not in love ; you are in 
 prudence. What kind of a young man? Is he 
 handsome? " 
 
 " No, and yes. I will tell you what kind of a 
 young man he is. He was at a Trade s meeting 
 with my brother John and me, one night, and 
 some one speaking there called A, and B, and C, 
 and D, and Nicholas Lloyd hellish incarnations 
 of selfishness and covetousness. He leaped 
 upon the platform and told the workingmen 
 there and then to their faces, that they were in 
 their way every bit as selfish and covetous. And 
 66
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 a big bullying fellow ordered him to make 
 an apology, and Steve flung off his coat and 
 knocked the man down before he knew what 
 had happened." 
 
 " Oh, how splendid ! I would have given a 
 thousand dollars to have been there ! Did you 
 say his name was Steve? " 
 
 " Yes ; Steve Morrison." 
 
 " How can you help loving a man like that ! 
 Does he love you? Let me kiss you for him." 
 Her face was one charming smile, her eyes 
 full of radiant tears. She was thinking to her 
 self that in spite of the misunderstanding be 
 tween Steve and his father, Steve would not sit 
 still and hear his father called a " hellish incarna 
 tion." " Good ! Good ! " she ejaculated ; " and 
 indeed, Jessie, I cannot see how you can help 
 loving such a man as that ! What hinders? " 
 
 " I don t know who he is. He says nothing 
 of his past; nothing of his future; nothing of 
 his friends. He admits that he is lazy, and too 
 fond of travel. He is a fine scholar ; and yet, 
 when he needs money he does any kind of 
 rough, menial work to obtain what he wants 
 that, and no more. He has the carriage and 
 manners of a well-bred man, and yet he is poor. 
 He is an enigma; and no sensible girl wants to 
 marry an enigma. Now with Lord Medway it 
 is different. You know who and what he is, 
 67
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 and where he comes from ; and you may imag 
 ine fairly enough the kind of life you-would be 
 likely to lead with him. This Steve Morrison 
 may be a proper person and he may 
 not." 
 
 " Oh, I am sure there is nothing wrong with 
 him ; I think I could trust him." 
 
 " You know only the right side of the gar 
 ment of life. I have seen the rough, frayed 
 inside. I go with John among the labouring 
 classes sometimes, and in our own home we have 
 learned what pinching and want means, not 
 lately, not since John and I could work; but 
 the scars of poverty are never obliterated by 
 any number of years. I don t want, therefore, 
 to marry a poor, struggling man. I never wish 
 to see my husband toil and suffer as my father 
 has done. I could not bear it so sweetly as 
 mother bears it. I should become cross and 
 disappointed, and perhaps wish for anarchy to 
 reign in every one s affairs." 
 
 " So, then, this poor Steve Morrison will have 
 to become rich Steve Morrison before you per 
 mit yourself to love him." 
 
 " I don t want riches. I want competence 
 and security. I like work. I should be glad 
 to help him ; but he must like work also : I 
 mean steady, respectable work." 
 
 " I can understand that to be just and right ; 
 68
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 and yet, it does seem a pity that Love has to 
 take money into consider tion." 
 
 " Money is a never-ceasing consideration with 
 the poor. How is it with the rich ? " 
 
 " Much the same. Do you believe Lord 
 Medway would marry me if I were a poor 
 girl?" 
 
 " Perhaps not." 
 
 " I am sure not. I should be as much out of 
 his thoughts as a three-roomed cottage to live 
 in, or a ready-made suit of clothing to wear." 
 
 " If you look at the matter in that light, 
 Alice, I would drop it altogether. There ought 
 to be love between you ; money is not enough." 
 " Yet, you will not love without money. I 
 have always read that love was the first and the 
 last thing; that we ought to marry for love, and 
 work for money and so on." 
 
 " We must do as the world does, and not as 
 it says. The world frowns on imprudent mar 
 riages. I think it is right. Steve himself told 
 the workingmen that if they married within 
 half a dollar of starvation they are brutally sel 
 fish ; and they are." 
 
 " Nevertheless, I am sorry for the poor, 
 splendid fellow. I wish you could love him 
 just for himself." 
 
 " You wish me to marry for love. Do you 
 love Lord Medway? " 
 
 69
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " He is pleasant and kind, and I am proud of 
 his position. I like to think of the title I shall 
 bear ; of the magnificent old home I shall go 
 to ; of the society and travel, yes, and of the 
 grand wedding father has promised me. Any 
 girl would like such things, and would not dis 
 like the man who gave them to her unless he 
 was remarkably ugly or disagreeable. Lord 
 Medway is fairly good-looking ; he has an aris 
 tocratic way with him, and he professes to think 
 me the loveliest woman he ever saw. After he 
 went to Newport I certainly missed him for a 
 day or two. I suppose, then, I have a little 
 love for him a little love, which time and cir 
 cumstances may make greater." 
 
 " Still, Alice, I do not think you are in love. 
 I remember the first night I met Steve. We 
 were all sitting at dinner when he came to us. I 
 thought I had never seen a man with such a 
 radiant face." 
 
 " He had such a happy, careless, uphead 
 manner, " continued Jessie, " such kind, thought 
 ful ways. His eyes were full of light and laugh 
 ter; and if I speak the truth, I must say that I 
 loved away myself in one short hour; yes, in 
 one short minute. And I confess, moreover, that 
 I never was so happy in my life. It was joy to 
 be in his presence ; and even when he had gone 
 away, the sense of the delight remained." 
 70
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 " How I envy you, Jessie ! " said Alice. 
 
 " That night I said to myself, Love is not 
 our choice, it is our fate. Afterwards, I brought 
 reason to my condition; for I feel pretty sure, 
 Love only conquers when we dare not, or will 
 not, reason with him." 
 
 " But, oh, why wish to conquer, or to reason 
 away so sweet an experience? If I could feel 
 such love, I would give up everything for it; 
 that is, if the man who inspired it was a good 
 man, and worthy of a good woman s love." 
 
 " I doubt it. You would think of what peo 
 ple might say. Your prospective title already 
 fills your imagination. Your wedding and 
 your wedding dresses have become familiar 
 thoughts. Your talk is very much of the Eng 
 lish Court, and of English Society; and if your 
 one true lover were now to appear, and he was a 
 poor man, you would feel it as hard to accept 
 him as I feel it difficult to accept Steve Morri 
 son, with all the uncertainties of his position." 
 
 " I might. I am not sure for I know not 
 Love. Still, I have a presentiment that I shall 
 never marry Lord Medway why, I cannot tell. 
 Do you believe in presentiments ? " 
 
 " I see no reason for not doing so. A good 
 
 man or a good woman is allied to the heavenly 
 
 intelligences only a little lower than the 
 
 angels. Why should they not be informed and 
 
 7*
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 impressed by their allies? I have a presenti 
 ment that I shall in the end marry Steve ; and 
 yet my reason is against it. What does Mrs. 
 Lloyd think about your marriage with Lord 
 Medway?" 
 
 " She is very much opposed to it. She does 
 not wish me to go so far away from her. Father 
 says " 
 
 At that moment the door opened, and Mr. 
 Lloyd entered the room. He was much pleased 
 to find Jessie there, and said, " I was going to 
 write a few lines to your brother, and tell him 
 how much I approved his last paper in The 
 Forum. It was a lucid and forcible argument. 
 I should like to have a conversation with him. 
 Can he dine with me on Monday? Tell him I 
 shall have two or three gentlemen present who 
 are of his way of thinking." 
 
 " I will give John your message, sir. I am 
 sure he will be pleased to accept your invi 
 tation." 
 
 This courtesy made quite an excitement in 
 the McAslin home. Mrs. McAslin thought, 
 " Nicholas still remembers. He favours my 
 children because he has not forgotten the old 
 days." John thought, " Mr. Lloyd is a sensible 
 man. He may be covetous and selfish, but on 
 the financial aspect of national affairs he holds 
 sound opinions." Mr. McAslin said with some 
 72
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 pride, "Well, children, we may not be rich, but 
 the McAslins are of the best blood in Scotland. 
 If we look back on our history, John is like a 
 page out of a romance. My page has been but 
 a dull and difficult one, but who can tell what 
 adventures and what good fortune may come 
 to John?" 
 
 If John had any presentiment of an adventure, 
 he kept it still in his heart, and when Monday 
 arrived, prepared for his visit with an air of real, 
 or affected, unconcern. He said it was " unfor 
 tunate Jessie could not go with him ; " and Jessie 
 answered : 
 
 " Monday is the one impossible day in the 
 week for me. I have pupils until after the last 
 train for Lloyd s Station that is available for 
 the dinner hour and pupils are of more im 
 portance than a social entertainment; so you 
 will have to go without my protection, John." 
 
 When we cross the threshold of a strange 
 house, it is always an event to be noticed. 
 Nothing of perceptible importance may follow ; 
 and again, our footsteps may be full of fate, 
 and leading us on a road from which there is 
 no return. John crossed the Lloyd threshold 
 with every feeling held in abeyance, and yet at 
 high tension. He knew nothing of the ground 
 he was on; but he was alert, and watchful of 
 himself; and in that neutral mood of equi- 
 73
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 poise which is ready to accommodate itself 
 to whatever is pleasant and equally ready to 
 repel whatever is antagonistic. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd met him cordially. He had two 
 gentlemen with him, Mr. Moran, a wealthy 
 capitalist, and Max Lehman, a fiery advocate 
 of Karl Marx s opinions. They soon fell into 
 a lively discussion, and John was particularly 
 interested in Max Lehman. He had heard of 
 him often. He was associated, in his mind, 
 with East-side sweating shops and Trades halls, 
 and all other places where dissatisfied labour 
 congregated. The argument, dropped for a 
 few moments at John s entrance, was soon 
 renewed. 
 
 "I am for the transfer of land and capital, 
 and of all the material and instruments of pro 
 duction, from the individual to the state. The 
 government ought to organise labour," said 
 Lehman, curtly. 
 
 " If the government organised labour," an 
 swered Mr. Moran, " it would soon come to 
 a square fight between the government and the 
 working classes ; that is, if they imposed upon 
 the government as some do upon their present 
 employers." 
 
 " They would not impose on the government. 
 They would be willing that the government 
 should hold property that they are not willing 
 74
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 to have in private hands. Proudhon s famous 
 saying that property is robbery, is not far from 
 the truth." 
 
 " I admire your frankness, Mr. Lehman," 
 said Lloyd. " You would then do away with 
 capitalists? " 
 
 " It was understood that I was to speak 
 frankly when I accepted your invitation. As 
 for capitalists, yes, I would do away with them ; 
 they are by no means necessary adjuncts to 
 capital. In every good business there is a 
 surplus value. This surplus is produced by 
 the labourer, but it is intercepted by the capi 
 talist, who gets it without paying for it. State 
 organisation would do away with this element 
 of personal selfishness and aggrandisement." 
 
 " Mr. Lehman," said John, " there is more 
 than one kind of labour in any good business. 
 You are supposing that there is only one kind 
 that of the hands. You are leaving out 
 of account altogether that of the head. The 
 inventor, the improver of processes, the dis 
 coverer of new markets, the whole work of 
 management and direction, is paid for out of 
 surplus values, and this mental work fully earns 
 its payment. Without head work there would 
 be little hand work, and one class of workers 
 are as worthy of payment as the other." 
 
 " That is right," said Mr. Lloyd. 
 75
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Besides," continued John, " it is very doubt 
 ful if the government would be any more liberal 
 than the capitalist. Under present circum 
 stances it gets its work done at the very lowest 
 figure possible. How are you going to prevent 
 buyers buying in the cheapest market?" 
 
 "Legislation, sir, will " 
 
 "Legislation, Mr. Lehman," said John, "is 
 out of the question. It is as much beyond 
 legislation as are the fogs of the Atlantic. You 
 cannot kill the capitalist goose and retain the 
 income of the golden eggs. Say that legisla 
 tion equalises capital to-day, who would make 
 capital for the needs of the future? Men are 
 not bees ; if their honey was taken as soon as 
 their hives were full, they would cease to make 
 honey." 
 
 " The state would then take the place of the 
 capitalist." 
 
 " No state could take the place of that great 
 band of capitalists who, at this hour, are sus 
 taining the industries of the country." 
 
 " It is a false condition. We want a fairer 
 division of wealth. Capital and property are 
 fatal to the equal rights of men. All should 
 be equally well off." 
 
 "But to make all equally well off we shall 
 have to vastly increase production. How is 
 this to be done?" 
 
 76
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 " Organisation communism the diffusion 
 of power will lead to the diffusion of wealth." 
 
 At this point a servant announced dinner, 
 and the gentlemen rose; but as they went to 
 the dining-room the conversation was contin 
 ued " Yes, sir, organisation and suffrage, as 
 an experiment; if it fails " 
 
 "What then?" 
 
 " We will try communism. Property is fatal 
 to equality." 
 
 " Communism is fatal to liberty." 
 
 They were just within the door as John 
 uttered the words. They fell from his lips 
 with a force and conviction that left on his 
 handsome face a very becoming dignity, and 
 the next moment a beautiful woman stood be 
 fore him. His eyes caught her eyes, and then 
 Mr. Lloyd introduced his daughter to John. 
 Both went through the same strange, vivid 
 experience, but what it meant neither of them 
 at the time knew or cared. They had simply 
 found each other. The recognition was instan 
 taneous ; the greeting mutually happy and free 
 from doubt; the influence on both distinctly 
 exhilarating. Mr. Lloyd perceived nothing 
 unusual in this meeting; the mystical mother 
 was clearer-eyed. She saw in both faces a 
 fine intangible revealing of something not yet 
 known to themselves ; she saw it in their smiles, 
 77
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 and in the quick, wide opening of their eyes, 
 for the eyes are ever the leaders in love. 
 
 " This is the beginning of some predestined 
 end," she thought; and through all the clash 
 of contradiction and assertion she watched John 
 with an interest he was quite unconscious 
 of. 
 
 A conversation so absorbing to all parties 
 could not be long interrupted by minor subjects. 
 Mr. Lloyd praised his fine wines, as if their 
 possession were a personal merit ; but that sub 
 ject raised little enthusiasm ; and Max Lehman 
 quickly returned to his communistic dreams. 
 Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Moran put in occasional 
 denials of his position, but John listened until 
 the German Socialist had exhausted his argu 
 ment. Then he spoke with a calm decision 
 that had in it no element of fret or doubt. 
 
 " The destruction of capital and the transfer 
 of land to the government this, then, is what 
 you want ! But these things mean pillage, 
 bloodshed, national madness, misery and ruin, 
 not only to the rich and to the middle class, but 
 most irretrievably of all to the poor. To teach 
 the ignorant, the lazy, and the criminal that 
 their property is plundered from them by the 
 manufacturer and the capitalist is to turn partial 
 distress into universal catastrophe." 
 
 " In the midst of so much poverty and wrong, 
 78
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 are we to sit still and do nothing, John Mc- 
 Aslin ? " asked Lehman, passionately. 
 
 " God forbid ! " John answered, with an equal 
 fervour. " There is work enough for all to do. 
 But is it not better to cut off the causes than to 
 dally over effects? " 
 
 " That is what the Socialists desire to do." 
 
 " No ; they flatter or they madden their 
 audiences. They do not dare to tell them that 
 a great deal of their misery is caused by their 
 own laziness and vice. They harangue against 
 the sins and self-indulgence of the rich ; they 
 have not the courage to point out the sins and 
 vices of the poor their thriftlessness, their 
 disgracefully early and improvident marriages, 
 and above all, their drunkenness." 
 
 " They are no worse than others." 
 
 " They profess to be better, and they are not, 
 and you know they are not. The poor clergy 
 man and the poor clerk are thrifty. In many 
 cases they make no more than the skilled work 
 man, yet they bring up their families decently 
 and live within their narrow means. When 
 wages are high do the working classes save for 
 a bad time ? No, they are not only extrava 
 gant, they are wasteful. They do not seem to 
 realise that luxury and extravagance are as bad 
 in the poor as in the rich. In the middle classes 
 a man does not marry until he can support a 
 79
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 wife and family; a labourer will marry on a 
 dollar, take his wife into squalid, crowded rooms, 
 and bring into the world such stunted, wretched 
 children as, in the terrible language of South, 
 are not so much born as damned into the 
 world. But drunkenness is the master fiend of 
 their poverty and distress ; and drunkenness is 
 in itself a whole world of sin. If there were no 
 other sin, it would be sufficient to bring to us 
 every calamity. Communism will not make the 
 poor man thrifty, self-denying, and sober; on 
 the contrary, it would increase his extravagance 
 and self-indulgence and intemperance." 
 
 " At any rate, it would be well to try the 
 effect of more money and more leisure on him." 
 
 " You have not considered that there is a 
 destiny in riches, and that they are beyond our 
 control. Riches do not come by chance or by 
 accident. And I, for one, do not consider the 
 possession of great wealth an enviable condition. 
 No thoughtful man would do so." 
 
 " For what reason ? " asked Mr. Lloyd. 
 
 " Because of the responsibility attached to it, 
 a responsibility not to be shirked, and for 
 which there will be a strict accounting. Wealth 
 is blessed and honourable, when the holders of 
 it understand that they are the stewards of it, 
 and not the owners. God gives wealth to be 
 employed in good and great deeds." 
 80
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 " But if rich men add million to million, for 
 their own glory and pleasure, what then, Mr. 
 McAslin?" 
 
 It was Mrs. Lloyd who asked this question, 
 and her soft, even voice had a singular thrilling 
 quality. It penetrated, as soft rain penetrates 
 the earth; and there was a moment s pause 
 ere John answered : 
 
 " You have doubtless read, madam, what St. 
 James says of such men. Go to, now, ye rich 
 men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall 
 come upon you. Your riches are rotted, and 
 your garments moth-eaten. " 
 
 " Then," said Mr. Moran, replying to John s 
 remark, " it is a kind of calamity to be rich, 
 if to riches is attached a constant care of 
 the poor. Who wants such a disagreeable 
 responsibility?" 
 
 " Nevertheless," answered John, " the rich 
 man is responsible, always and absolutely. 
 There is no such thing as irresponsible riches! 
 They may be buried in real estate, or in bonds, 
 or hidden away in the vaults of the Chemical 
 Bank ; but their owner will have to render an 
 account of their usage, even to the uttermost 
 farthing, and that to One who cannot be im 
 posed upon." 
 
 "So! So!" cried Max Lehman. "This is 
 very good. If this be your Christian Social- 
 6 81
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 ism, I like it ! I had no hope that you were 
 so wide-awake and so sympathetic." 
 
 " The poor never had a greater friend than 
 Christ; and there are few men more wide 
 awake to existing conditions than the Christian 
 clergy of the present day." 
 
 "I cannot believe that," replied Lehman, 
 scornfully. 
 
 "You must believe their own declarations. 
 The Bishop of Winchester predicts a tornado, 
 generated by the zones of enormous wealth 
 and degrading poverty. Cardinal Manning 
 declares that the world of capital is combining 
 in alarm against the world of labour. Cardinal 
 Gibbons warns us of a struggle, the signs of 
 which fill us with disquiet; because the thirst 
 for wealth is daily more insatiable; and the 
 cries of the distressed more poignant and vio 
 lent. Lazarus/ says the Rev. Mr. Hughes, 
 is no longer lying on the doorsteps of Dives, 
 in the quiescence of sullen despair; he is 
 vehemently gesticulating to hungry men at the 
 corners of the streets. Bishop Berry says, The 
 working classes are now demanding that Chris 
 tianity should be tried by its power to serve the 
 welfare physical, intellectual, and moral of 
 the great mass of men ; and the Bishop of 
 Derry says, What there is in the Gospel to 
 rectify the relations of human life, to elevate 
 82
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 the selfishness of capital and chasten the sel 
 fishness of labour, that will find eager listeners. 
 But to the men of the near future, religion will 
 appear a barren and worthless thing, unless it 
 bear the fruits of human love. " 
 
 Lehman looked irresolutely at the two ladies. 
 He wished to launch out his most extreme 
 opinions on religion and social limitations, but 
 was restrained by the saintly, introspective face 
 of Mrs. Lloyd, and equally so by the sym 
 pathy in the girlish countenance of Alice. It 
 was a relief to him when Mrs. Lloyd stood 
 up and said to John : " Sir, I am glad to 
 have heard you. If I have been a careless 
 steward hitherto, I will err no more." Then 
 Alice rose, and John rose also, and opening 
 the door he stood by it until the ladies had 
 passed out of the room. It was a wonderful 
 experience to him. The sway and movement 
 of Alice s gown deliciously troubled his senses; 
 and her sweet, shy glance of recognition for 
 service went to his heart like wine. 
 
 Lehman attacked him vehemently as soon as 
 the restraining influence of the ladies was re 
 moved, Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Moran patiently 
 encouraged his diatribe; they wished to hear 
 what extremities his class held in reserve, and 
 were not astonished to learn that if Com 
 munism was not possible, they were quite will- 
 83
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 ing to try " barricades and bayonets." Yet 
 even to these two men, who had practically 
 made go ld their God, there was something terri 
 ble in the wholesale abrogation of every divine 
 claim and social restriction ; and they were glad 
 to hear John s impetuous, ardent denial of all 
 Lehman s assertions. 
 
 "You are blindly mistaken, Max Lehman," 
 he said. " There is no nation on the earth 
 willing to be without God, and without his 
 worship. Will men indeed ever give up their 
 idea of home, and purity, and their belief in 
 all goodness? Will men ever cease to love 
 their parents, and their wives and children, and 
 to respect all good women? No! No! No! 
 A thousand times, No ! " 
 
 As John uttered these words, Mr. Moran took 
 out his watch, and with a sombre, hurried man 
 ner said he " must hurry away, in order to get a 
 train ; " and Lehman also remembered that he 
 " had an engagement." Then Mr. Lloyd said 
 he would drive both gentlemen to the station ; 
 and John proposed to accompany them, but 
 this his host would not permit. " I wish you very 
 much to remain," he said. " I have some parti 
 cular business to talk over with you. I dare say 
 you will find Mrs. and Miss Lloyd in the next 
 room, and they will be pleased with your com 
 pany for an hour, I know."
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 The sound of a piano very softly played led 
 him to the apartment. Alice was alone with her 
 dreamy, inconsequent music, and she stopped 
 suddenly at John s entrance. Then they fell 
 naturally into a conversation about Jessie, and 
 the musical world in general, illustrating the 
 opinions and likings by a verse or a few bars from 
 the song or piece in discussion. Nothing puts 
 two strangers so readily and so surely at ease as 
 music, and there was indeed a most enthralling 
 and dangerous power in the small courtesies 
 and guarded familiarities of the position in which 
 John and Alice found themselves. Their hands 
 frequently touched on the ivory keys; when 
 John bent forward to scan or to turn an un 
 known page, he could not escape the sense of 
 delicious nearness, and in the blending of their 
 voices they were conscious of a still more subtle 
 and delightful consonance. 
 
 Finally, as Alice was looking through a musical 
 folio for a song she wanted, John asked, " What 
 melody were you playing as I entered ? It was full 
 of sadness. Why were you playing it? For it 
 really sounded as if it were an interpretation." 
 
 " I do not know what it was. I was simply 
 playing an accompaniment to my thoughts. 
 And as they were on the subject you had been 
 talking of during the dinner hour, is there any 
 wonder if they were sad ? I .should think if 
 85
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Socialism has any music, it must be of the most 
 melancholy kind." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " he answered, with a radiant face, 
 " Christian Socialism has divined its triumph and 
 is already singing of it. If you will permit me, 
 I can let you hear how it sings." 
 
 Then Alice gave place with a smile that set 
 John s heart singing, and he struck the keys in 
 a few masterful chords. And nothing is more 
 remarkable than the way in which men acquire 
 music. Women spend years in its study and 
 practice and achieve but small results ; men 
 never take regular lessons, but " pick up " the 
 knowledge at odd hours, and yet in some occult 
 way attain a skill that is instantly recognised. 
 
 As soon as John evoked those few distinct, force 
 ful unisons, Alice knew he could make her piano 
 say whatever he wished it to say. Then his voice 
 joined the rhythmical march of melody, and Wil 
 liam Morris s famous inquiry was in her ears : 
 
 What is this dread sound and rumour? What is this that 
 
 all men hear ? 
 Like the wind in hollow valleys, when the storm is 
 
 drawing near, 
 Like the rolling of the ocean, in the eventide of fear ? 
 
 T is the people marching on ! 
 
 Hark ! the rolling of the thunder, 
 Lo the sun, and lo thereunder, 
 Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder, 
 And the host comes marching on ! 
 86
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 The words went in swinging, ringing phrases 
 to the grand, magnetic, prophetic music of 
 " John Brown," and the enthusiasm with which 
 they were sung kindled in Alice a like warmth 
 of feeling. Unconsciously she leaned towards 
 the singer, just as the sunflower sways to the 
 sun. 
 
 They had forgotten time and place and social 
 circumstances ; they were but two young, sym 
 pathetic hearts, full of the same noble regrets 
 and hopes for humanity, and as yet not aware 
 that their love and pity for all suffering and 
 oppressed had found a personal interpretation 
 of its unselfish sweetness in their own mutual 
 regard. 
 
 Only for a few minutes were they permitted 
 this memorable experience. As John finished 
 the first verse, Mr. Lloyd opened the door of 
 the parlour, and there was an instantaneous chill 
 and change. John struck the last chord into 
 discord, and rose with a slight embarrassment, 
 for Mr. Lloyd s face was dark with disapproval 
 and he said sharply: 
 
 " That is a good song for a Labour Meeting, 
 but hardly for a girl s parlour. Alice, your 
 mother wishes to see you. You need not re 
 turn, for Mr. McAslin and I have now some 
 business to arrange." 
 
 She went away depressed and saddened. A 
 87
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 few moments before she would have given 
 John her hand and a kind "good night," but 
 her father s words and manner had taken all 
 light and confidence out of her heart. She 
 bowed slightly, and with a sense of wrong went 
 slowly upstairs. Her mother had not wished 
 to see her. That message was a fabrication 
 to secure her absence. Why had her father 
 thought it necessary? Had her face, her man 
 ner, or her voice betrayed more interest than 
 he approved? 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd expressed no surprise and asked 
 no questions. She was not, according to her 
 usual custom, seated before her window look 
 ing off into space and lost in reveries of mys 
 tical devotion. She was walking restlessly about 
 the room, with her hands dropped and clasped 
 in front. Her face had lost its quiescent look, 
 the placid pool of her soul had at last been 
 troubled. 
 
 " If it is all true, Alice ! " she said in a voice 
 low and tremulous with emotion, " if it is all 
 true, what shall we do to be saved.? I cannot 
 sleep. I dare not sleep. I have tried to keep 
 in the Way of Holiness and not to let the sight 
 or even the thought of sin come near my soul. 
 And what if this should be the Way of Selfish 
 ness? You must leave me to-night. I have to 
 answer this question to my Maker, and I do not 
 88
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 know how I am to answer it ; " and she suddenly 
 covered her face with her hands in an abandon 
 ment of contrition. 
 
 Alice was not sorry to be dismissed. The 
 questioning and anxiety of an awakened con 
 science were not at that hour interesting. Her 
 own heart was tossed to and fro, and tumultu- 
 ously demanding consideration. She went to 
 her room without a word of protest, and for a 
 few minutes sat there motionless. Then she 
 rose and locked the door. She wanted some 
 tangible evidence that she was alone with the 
 great problem it was now imperatively neces 
 sary for her to settle, and that at once. Its con 
 sideration drew her brows together and set her 
 mouth firm and tight, as she went about disrob 
 ing. Not a muscle of her face moved, not a 
 smile brightened its sombre air of perplexed 
 thought, as she folded away her gown and then 
 uncoiled her long, brown hair. Many times 
 during this occupation her mind and feelings 
 dominated her so entirely that her hands ceased 
 their duty and fell listlessly to her knees. For 
 a while there would be an utter unconsciousness 
 of this action, then suddenly she would force 
 herself to resume her toilet, only once more to 
 fall into an idle reverie. And yet, evidently, 
 during this semi-lapse of physical consciousness, 
 she was in a state of abnormal mental activity. 
 89
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 In fact, she was probing her heart that night as 
 severely and truthfully as her mother was prob 
 ing her conscience. 
 
 In about half an hour it had come to a ques 
 tion of argument, and she talked back to herself 
 with a constantly increasing sense of right, and 
 a constantly increasing determination to do right. 
 Then her actions became more rapid and alert, 
 and her face more expressive. She abruptly 
 ceased brushing her hair and pinned it quickly 
 into its usual night coil. All her other prepara 
 tions for sleep were promptly accomplished, and 
 she finally turned the key of her jewel case, and 
 began to drop into it the sparkling rings that 
 shone upon her fingers. A letter lay, with an 
 almost offensive prominence, upon the upper 
 most velvet cushion. She looked at it fixedly 
 as she let ring after ring fall into its place 
 then she lifted the crested paper, and tore it 
 with slow decision into many pieces. 
 
 The letter was from Lord Medway. 
 
 We know but little of any event from its mere 
 name. Mr. Lloyd, in inviting John McAslin and 
 Max Lehman as representatives of two distinct 
 methods for the regeneration of society, called 
 the meeting a dinner. But the appellation in 
 no way fitted the circumstance, and its results 
 were very different from what had been intended. 
 90
 
 A STRANGE DINNER PARTY 
 
 Their effect upon Mrs. Lloyd was quickly evi 
 dent. When she came down to breakfast the 
 following morning even her husband glanced at 
 her with curiosity. She looked as if some one 
 had rudely wakened her from sleep. There was 
 the same startled expression, the same trem 
 bling uncertainty, with that forced alertness 
 which gradually settles into vigilant attendance 
 the whole attitude making a very marked con 
 trast to her usual abstracted manner. 
 
 No notice, however, was taken of the change 
 during the meal. She asked if Mr. McAslin 
 was to eat it with them, and Mr. Lloyd answered : 
 " No ; he returned to New York by a very 
 early train. I have engaged him as my confi 
 dential secretary, and he may now, therefore, 
 be frequently in the house. I advise both you 
 and Alice to talk very little to him, and not 
 to talk at all to him on the subject introduced 
 last night. It is not one for women to inquire 
 into."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 MR. LLOYD had spoken gruffly, and with a 
 decision they both understood and generally re 
 spected ; though at this hour, had he cared to 
 look at the people whom he advised, he would 
 have been doubtful of their acquiescence. For 
 at his words an electric spark leaped into Alice s 
 eyes, a vivid colour flashed to her cheeks, and 
 she assumed the erect air of one ready for an 
 encounter, though she did not attempt to pro 
 voke it. Mrs. Lloyd also remained silent, but 
 Alice saw on her face an unusual expression, 
 one which impressed her with the idea of an in 
 vincible purpose that might be delayed and 
 opposed, but which would, in the end, be uncon 
 querable. She remembered, when a child, see 
 ing the same look constantly on her mother s 
 face. It meant then the determined resolve to 
 escape from the material world into the spiritual 
 one, and she speculated as she drank her coffee 
 as to what its meaning might be in the present 
 case. 
 
 92
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 After the breakfast had been removed, Mrs. 
 Lloyd, with the suddenness of one who knows 
 she touches dangerous ground and is yet de 
 termined to go on, said, 
 
 " Nicholas, I wish to see my lawyer." 
 
 If she had fired a pistol at her husband he 
 could hardly have been more unpleasantly 
 startled. " What the mischief do you want 
 with him ? " he demanded, flinging the daily 
 paper to the floor. 
 
 " I have a great deal of business with him. 
 It is a long time since I went over my affairs. 
 I want to know how they stand how much 
 money I have how much more I am likely to 
 have and so on." 
 
 " And so on? What does that mean?" 
 
 " Simply that I want to know whether he is 
 doing right or wrong, whether my money is be 
 ing put to good uses or bad." 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! You have got McAslin s steward 
 ship on your brain, I see. Well, now, get rid 
 of that nonsense at once. I suppose, however, 
 you will have to see Telford ; for of course you 
 will wish to settle something on Alice at her 
 marriage. Lord Medway and I have come at 
 last to an understanding on financial matters. 
 Have you considered the subject? Are you 
 prepared to name the exact sum? Such a 
 decision will be necessary immediately ; at any 
 93
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 rate before the antenuptial contract is drawn 
 up." 
 
 "Father! Father!" 
 
 "What is it, Alice?" 
 
 "Are you talking of my marriage?" 
 
 " You know very well that I am talking of it." 
 
 "To Lord Medway?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 " I have made up my mind not to marry Lord 
 Medway. I do not like being bargained about. 
 Am I so very disagreeable that you are willing 
 to give a stranger and a foreigner a large sum 
 of money to take me away from you? " 
 
 " I am giving a large sum of money for your 
 benefit and ennobling. I am buying you an 
 earldom, and all its honours and privileges." 
 
 " You are buying me a husband, and he is 
 costing you millions. Of the two transactions, 
 I would rather be sold for millions. It would 
 be less humiliating to have a husband give mil 
 lions for me, than for you to give millions in 
 order to induce some titled foreigner to marry 
 me. I do not want an earldom, and I have 
 fully determined to be neither bought nor sold." 
 
 " You look very handsome when you are in 
 a temper, Alice; but your determination is a 
 little too late. I have already promised you. 
 The affair is being talked of throughout the 
 financial and fashionable world. You cannot 
 94
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 now draw back. It is impossible. There would 
 be a certain amount of personal disgrace in it, 
 and more humiliation than either you or I 
 would like to face." 
 
 " Mother, what do you say?" Alice asked 
 the question without any hope of her mother s 
 interference. She was accustomed to see her 
 retire from all disputes and quarrelsome deci 
 sions, and she was, therefore, amazed to hear 
 her answer, 
 
 " Unless you love Lord Medway I think you 
 will do wrong to marry him." 
 
 " I do not love him." 
 
 "Then, let me tell you, Alice," said Mr. 
 Lloyd, "you have behaved shamefully to the 
 young man. You accepted his attentions and 
 permitted him to write to you. I am confounded 
 by your behaviour, which places me also in a 
 false and shameful position. I am not going 
 to allow a foolish notion to ruin your life! 
 Nor will I allow you to make a fool of me ! I 
 have gone to no end of trouble to secure your 
 future, and I shall take very good care that 
 you fulfil your part of our obligation to Lord 
 Medway." 
 
 " I have no part in any obligation to Lord 
 Medway." 
 
 " You have. Actions speak as well as a 
 written bond. You have accepted Med way s 
 95
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 attentions yes, miss, accepted them with 
 smiles, and now you propose to jilt the man 
 you have allured on to a false position." 
 
 "Jilt! Allured! Nicholas, you ought not 
 to use such words to your daughter." 
 "She ought not to deserve them." 
 " I do not deserve them. You asked me to 
 receive Lord Medway, and try to like him. I 
 received him as I would any other guest of 
 yours. At first I even thought it might be 
 possible to do as you wished me. I was daz 
 zled, as any young girl might be, by his title, 
 and by the new life I might share with him. 
 But I never suffered him to see that I was in 
 fluenced by these thoughts. We walked, and 
 drove, and spent some hours together every day, 
 of course; but common hospitality to a guest 
 demanded so much attention and courtesy." 
 "He made love to you, and you accepted it." 
 "He said such pretty words as young men 
 say to young women whom they wish to please 
 for the sake of millions of money. I ac 
 cepted his compliments at my own valuation 
 which was less than nothing at all." 
 " He has not written you love letters ? " 
 " He has written me two letters, both within 
 the last four days ; that is, since he was satis 
 fied with the premium you have promised 
 him if he will only marry me. I answered 
 96
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 neither of the letters. I have destroyed both 
 of them." 
 
 "Nicholas," said Mrs. Lloyd, "we know 
 what a loveless marriage means. Surely you 
 will spare " 
 
 He would listen no longer. With a rude 
 anger he turned away, muttering, even while 
 he put on his hat and overcoat, expressions of 
 his passion and determination that were more 
 forcible than considerate or refined. Left 
 alone, a sudden silence fell between mother 
 and daughter. Alice went to the window, and 
 looked out with that vacant gaze which per 
 ceives nothing. All her being was swallowed 
 up in feeling. Mrs. Lloyd sat pondering the 
 new perplexity that had forced itself into her 
 already disturbed mind. She was little used 
 to taking the initiative, and the force of habit, 
 added to her uncertainty, made her now wait 
 for Alice to open the conversation. Alice 
 waited for sympathy; she was hurt that it did 
 not flow to her with a quick spontaneity, and 
 when she did speak it was in a tone of indig 
 nant injury. 
 
 "Thank God!" she cried, "men can no 
 longer bargain their daughters away like cat 
 tle. Mother, I wonder you could bear it ! 
 Why did you not tell father that I was free 
 born, and a citizen of no mean country? I 
 7 97
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 will marry no man unless I wish to marry him. 
 If I love him and he loves me, I will give up 
 everything and dare everything, and bear every 
 thing for him. I want to be loved. I want to 
 be loved more than any other thing. I never 
 have been much loved. Father loves nothing 
 but money, and I am not good enough for you 
 to love, dear mother. You pity me, and you 
 pray for me, but how can you love me ? " 
 
 "Oh, Alice! Alice! Do not say such cruel 
 words." 
 
 " Are they not true ? " 
 
 " No ! No ! I love you with all my soul." 
 
 " Then talk to me, and advise me, and com 
 fort me. Have I not the right to love and to 
 be loved? Did you not marry for love? Yes, 
 you did ; for you were very rich and father was 
 poor then. You must have loved him ! " 
 
 "There ought to be love on both sides, 
 Alice, or else there is sorrow enough for both. 
 I loved, indeed, but when love is continually 
 thrown back upon itself, it dies; it dies cruelly 
 hard, but it dies. " 
 
 "Forgive me, darling mother! Have I made 
 you cry? Oh, how I despise my selfishness! 
 I see it all now. Father has never loved you, 
 he cares for nothing but his business, nor for 
 any one but those who can help his schemes in 
 some way; no, not even Steve, the dear, noble
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 boy, whom he takes no trouble to understand. 
 I see, I see at this hour, the long, loveless 
 years that you have lived; the sad doubting, 
 and fearing, and hoping, and final despairing. 
 How did you bear it ? I wonder you did not 
 die." 
 
 " I did not die because in my great sorrow I 
 found within myself internal light and strength 
 that the world knows nothing of." 
 
 " I have not found that, and I must come to 
 you. Shall I marry Lord Medway because 
 father says I must ? " 
 
 " You are the keeper of your own heart and 
 conscience, Alice. Do what they tell you to 
 do. Never throw your decisions on others ; at 
 the last you will take your desire or suffer in 
 its want." 
 
 " Is it wrong to love ? " 
 
 " It is right to love. Nearly always some 
 unknown force draws a girl to the one man in 
 the world for her. " 
 
 " Hardly any one now believes in that expe 
 rience, mother." 
 
 "Yet it is the only divine right on earth. 
 When people do not believe in it, it is because 
 they are incapable of such a grand passion, or 
 else unwilling to abide with it; for you must 
 know, Alice, that love in some way or other 
 always demands the austere sweetness of sacri- 
 99
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 fice. And so few dare to try the blessedness of 
 giving up. 
 
 " Mother, I want you to stand by me in this 
 matter. I do not want money; I want love. 
 Please do not send for Mr. Telford on my 
 account." 
 
 " I am not sending for him on your account. 
 There has been a revolution in my soul during 
 the past night, Alice. The words I heard yes 
 terday from the two men at the dinner-table 
 put all my spiritual nature in disquietude and 
 distress. I perceived that I had been a very 
 selfish worshipper of God and goodness. And 
 just before dawn this morning a more excellent 
 way was shown me. I intend to take it at 
 once. I shall want money in order to do so. 
 I shall want a great deal of money. But if my 
 affairs have been handled honestly, I ought to 
 have more than sufficient, and I believe they 
 have. " 
 
 "Mr. Telford is a good man. Grandfather 
 Valliante trusted him implicitly. Mother, what 
 must I do about Lord Medway ? What will be 
 father s next move in the matter? " 
 
 "I think it will be to bring him out here. 
 In that case, I would be perfectly polite and 
 perfectly honest. You must wait for events, 
 you cannot force them." 
 
 To the young heart full of feeling, this wait-
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 ing for events is the great trial. Alice wished 
 for Lord Medway s arrival, in order that she 
 might at once put an end to his hopes, and her 
 own connection with them. But that day not 
 a person of any kind called, and the hours went 
 by with an exhausting monotony. It was, 
 however, some comfort to anticipate Jessie s 
 visit the following morning. She was sure 
 Jessie would approve her rebellion. Jessie 
 always admired women who had the neces 
 sary courage to stand by their wishes or their 
 opinions. But Jessie heard Alice s confidence 
 with a face that quite dashed her, and with a 
 silence that was most unlike Jessie s usual 
 readiness to advise or sympathise. Alice was 
 at last forced to a direct question. 
 
 "Have I not done wisely, Jessie?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "I don t think you have. If you wish my 
 opinion, I think you have acted very foolishly. 
 What excuse have you for throwing away so 
 much ? " 
 
 " I throw away Lord Medway because I do 
 not love him." 
 
 " Do you love any one else? " 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 "And yet you give up a coronet for some 
 thing so intangible you don t know whether 
 you have it or not. Mr. Lloyd has reason to 
 
 101
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 be angry with you. Think of what people will 
 say. No one will believe for a moment that 
 you refused Lord Medway; they will look on 
 you with that contempt maids all forlorn and 
 maids deserted get from them. They will each 
 render their own version of his Lordship s rea 
 sons for refusing to marry you for only this 
 morning I saw your marriage announced in all 
 the principal papers." 
 
 "Jessie McAslin!" 
 
 "It is the truth." 
 
 " It is impossible ! I have never given any 
 one authority to make such a statement." 
 
 Jessie unfolded the morning paper she held 
 in her hand, and Alice, to her utter consterna 
 tion, saw her own and Lord Medway s portraits 
 in united circles. The marriage was definitely 
 spoken of as certain to occur during the sum 
 mer, and some entirely gratuitous statements 
 were made concerning the bride s age and 
 requirements; her reputed fortune; the mar 
 vellous presents she was to receive, and the 
 magnificent trousseau in preparation. 
 
 She read the article through with indigna 
 tion, her tears fell fast and hot upon the offend 
 ing paper. " It is my father s doing," she said. 
 " He thinks after this public report of it I will 
 be compelled to acquiesce. I will do nothing 
 of the kind." 
 
 IO2
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 " I am sorry you cannot persuade yourself to 
 accept good fortune. Most girls would marry 
 a much less desirable man for the sake of his 
 title?" 
 
 "I think Alice Lloyd just as pretty a name 
 as Lady Medway," was the reply. "To be 
 an American girl is distinction enough. What 
 worth is there in a title? " 
 
 " No worth at all," said Jessie, " but titles are 
 like the feathers in a cock s tail, or the ruffles 
 round a girl s neck; they are ornamental and 
 please the majority. All the way here this 
 morning I have been dreaming so pleasantly of 
 your marriage. I wish you were going to be 
 Lady Medway." 
 
 " Why should you wish that?" 
 
 " Oh ! I may as well confess that my reasons 
 were thoroughly selfish ones. I expected pleas 
 ure and tclat from the event. I hoped in some 
 humble fashion to take part in it, and I thought, 
 perhaps, if I managed a trip to England in a 
 year or two, you would invite me to visit you. 
 There ! there ! I have told the truth, and the 
 whole truth, for once. Not many girls would 
 have been so honest. Let us go to our music 
 lesson now." 
 
 "Just a moment I think you are in love 
 with that handsome fellow you call Steve 
 Morrison? " 
 
 103
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Suppose I am; what then? " 
 
 " Would you give him up for Lord Medway, 
 or any other lord ? Would you ? Tell me the 
 truth, and the whole truth, once more." 
 
 Jessie dropped her eyes and held her chin 
 reflectively. She evidently desired to return a 
 truthful answer, and Alice waited patiently for 
 it. In a few minutes it was ready. The eyes 
 of the girls met, a smile rippled over Jessie s 
 face, and she said with a frank decisiveness, 
 
 "No; I would not." 
 
 Then Alice laughed joyously as she answered, 
 " I thought you were better than your words. 
 Now, if you like, we will go to the piano." 
 
 Alice was quite right in attributing the public 
 avowal of her marriage to her father. Nicholas 
 Lloyd was a wise man where money was in 
 question ; he was a foolish man where women 
 were concerned. He had one fixed standard 
 for them, not understanding that one standard 
 will not at all times measure even one woman ! 
 There are so many women in one woman ! He 
 had left his wife and daughter on the previous 
 day in a mood of great irritation, but their 
 opposition affected him in no other way. Ex 
 tremely sensitive to public opinion himself, he 
 found it impossible to believe in the indifference 
 of Alice to a power he so cringingly respected. 
 The idea of announcing her forthcoming mar- 
 104
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 riage struck him in the cars, and he considered 
 it a remarkably clever one. Indeed, many 
 wondered that morning at the serene smile of 
 satisfaction on his countenance, and some of 
 the knowing ones predicted the condition 
 of certain stocks from it. 
 
 As soon as he reached the city he sent to 
 the family photographer and procured some 
 late portraits of his daughter. He put them in 
 a conspicuous position on his private desk. 
 He expected Lord Medvvay to call, and about 
 noon that gentleman arrived. He read over 
 the draft of the papers relative to his marriage 
 and to Alice s fortune, and expressed his per 
 fect satisfaction, adding cheerfully: 
 
 " There is nothing, now, Mr. Lloyd, to pre 
 vent me wooing my bride, and fixing the date 
 of the ceremony as early as I can persuade her 
 to make me happy." 
 
 " Nothing but Miss Lloyd s consent," an 
 swered the father, with a touch of sarcasm ; for 
 his pride in both his money and his daughter 
 was offended by the young man s air of 
 easy acceptance. " Miss Lloyd astonished and 
 annoyed me very much yesterday by asserting 
 her right to choose her own husband, and her 
 disinclination to accept you in that capacity." 
 
 " But why does she now object to me? " 
 
 " Girls are queer," he answered musingly. 
 105
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Her pride is roused. She talks about mar 
 rying for love, and for love only. I thought 
 Alice was a thoroughly up-to-date girl, and then 
 as soon as marriage is named she is as full of 
 sentiment and romance as women have always 
 been. I don t know what to make of it, nor yet 
 what is to be done." 
 
 Medway looked much troubled. He was 
 not a mercenary young man, in the worst sense 
 of the word, but he had thought of Mr. Lloyd s 
 millions, and of Mr. Lloyd s daughter, until 
 they had become part and parcel of his life and 
 estate. Also he had talked of his good fortune 
 to both his friends and his creditors, and he 
 could not bear to think of the scornful doubts 
 which would surely follow his disappointment. 
 
 Lloyd perceived his perplexity and divined 
 its cause, and he so played upon the young 
 noble s chagrin and fears that he was willing 
 to do anything to consummate so desirable a 
 marriage. Then Lloyd lifted his daughter s 
 picture, looked at it with thoughtful specula 
 tion, and asked Medway if he had any of 
 himself. "You see," he continued, "if your 
 pictures were published together, and the mar 
 riage formally announced, it would be next to 
 an impossible thing for Alice to decline it. 
 She could hardly bear to go into society again 
 if it were broken off. " 
 
 1 06
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 "To force the young lady into marriage by 
 such means would be a cruelty," Medway an 
 swered. " I could not do it. There must be 
 some other way," yet even while he was mak 
 ing this disclaimer he was considering that a 
 public announcement of this kind would exon 
 erate him from any suspicion of trying to de 
 ceive or of trading on a lie, even if the affair 
 did finally fall through. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd smiled at his scruple. He did 
 not understand a man who was not ready and 
 willing to accomplish his ends and serve him 
 self by any sure means within his power. 
 "Alice s hesitations," he affirmed, "were sim 
 ply a girl s romantic fancies." He was certain 
 that the man who dared boldly to put them out 
 of consideration would, in the end, win her 
 love and gratitude for his courage and wisdom. 
 "Besides," he added, "if you think it best, lay 
 the whole blame on me. If it be a fault to 
 make a daughter accept a great fortune, then 
 I will take the blame. It is mine, and I am 
 proud to take it. Allow me to manage this 
 affair. I know Alice Lloyd better than you 
 do. I know the sex also. Nothing pleases a 
 woman more than to be forced into doing the 
 thing she has already determined in her own 
 heart to do." 
 
 "Shall I call on her to-day ?" 
 107
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "To-morrow will be better. Send me down 
 immediately some of your photos. I will, in 
 the meantime, give instructions to reporters, 
 and to-morrow morning Miss Lloyd will find 
 herself absolutely committed to a marriage that 
 she will be proud enough of, as soon as she 
 understands it is inevitable. Why, it will 
 bring her everything a woman desires, even 
 that perpetual sympathy which is the sweetest 
 of feminine morsels. She will cry a little to 
 all her friends as she shows her finery, and 
 say she is being forced into matrimony, and 
 they will condole with her and envy her at 
 the same time. That is a kind of bitter-sweet 
 that women enjoy so much that they easily 
 reconcile themselves to its occasion." 
 
 "It is not a very honourable transaction." 
 
 " It is perfectly honourable. You cannot do 
 with women as with men. They don t under 
 stand a straightforward manner, for they are a 
 crooked sex. After your marriage you can tell 
 Alice all about it, and she will smile at our 
 clever diplomacy. Anyway and all ways are 
 fair in love." 
 
 And Nicholas Lloyd really thought so. His 
 moral character, by constant wear and tear in 
 the money market, had become thin, tentative, 
 and provisional. It spoke, or it was silent, at 
 his pleasure. But yet he did not like the 
 108
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 thought of meeting Alice, and he concluded to 
 take his new secretary home with him. His 
 presence would be a restraint, and the first ex 
 planation be softened by the social necessity 
 of control in the company of strangers. 
 
 Alice thought this meeting with her father 
 to be extremely important, and she came into 
 the dining-room with the offending paper in 
 her hand. Her eyes bore the traces of her 
 weeping, her face was white and troubled, and 
 yet there was an air of pride and anger in her 
 address that seemed likely to assert itself above 
 all conventionalities. She saw John at her en 
 trance, and a flash of feeling, clear and swift 
 as light, passed between them. His presence, 
 however, did not deter her from the inquiry 
 she intended to put to her father. She touched 
 her father lightly on the arm, and he looked up 
 from a letter he was reading, and said with an 
 affectation of pleasant surprise: 
 
 " Ah ! then, it is you at last. Now we can 
 have dinner. Is your mother coming down 
 stairs?" 
 
 " Mother is coming, and dinner is ready ; but, 
 father, first of all, you must look at this ; " and 
 she put the paper into his hand. 
 
 " So you have seen the report ? " he said. 
 "Well, what about it?" 
 
 "What about it? Everything wrong and 
 109
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 shameful about it. I expect you to punish the 
 makers of such lies." 
 
 "Lies? Nonsense! It is, perhaps, a little 
 premature. McAslin, how do these reporting 
 fellows catch on to things ? " 
 
 "Generally some one tells them, sir." 
 
 " And my picture, too, father, how did they 
 get it ? " 
 
 " From the photographer, I suppose. Come, 
 my dear, I am hungry, and I don t want my 
 dinner spoiled by silly complaining. Most 
 girls would like to be so " 
 
 " Placarded ! No, indeed, they would not. 
 It has nearly broken my heart. I am so mor 
 tified so indignant " 
 
 "Oh, rubbish! Don t be foolish, Alice. 
 You can t help it. Nobody blames you. I 
 have seen Medway, and he is quite pleased at 
 the compliment." 
 
 " Oh ! Perhaps it was his doing. I will 
 never speak to him again. I will not permit 
 myself to be compromised into marriage. 
 People may say what they like. I won t! I 
 won t!" 
 
 " Mr. McAslin, give your arm to Miss Lloyd. 
 We will have dinner before controversy. " Mrs. 
 Lloyd entered as he spoke, and he immediately 
 joined her and proceeded to the dining-room. 
 " We can discuss the matter later in the even- 
 no
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 ing, Alice," he said, turning his head to make 
 the remark, which he did with an unusual gra 
 cious indifference, as if it were a subject of lit 
 tle moment. 
 
 Alice then accepted the requirements of the 
 hour, for further discussion at that time would 
 have involved the taking of the servants into 
 the family confidence. So she allowed a smile 
 to brighten her face, and became suddenly 
 lovely, for the sole reason that she suddenly 
 knew herself beloved. How did she know it ? 
 How does the flower know when the sun shines ? 
 John did not say a word; he did not even dare 
 to glance into her face, but she knew he loved 
 her. There was a silent, secret understanding 
 between his soul and her soul. Perhaps their 
 angels had confidences, and had agreed upon 
 the marriage. Or perhaps Love had always 
 stood waiting at the door of their hearts, and 
 the very moment a glance set it on the latch 
 he had entered. Yet, though both were con 
 scious of their guest, neither had yet dared to 
 say, " Welcome, beloved ! Come in, and dwell 
 with me." 
 
 It was to Mr. Lloyd s interest to keep the 
 conversation as far as possible from society 
 affairs, from newspapers, dress, marriage, and 
 the like ; but so few subjects, except money and 
 the relations of money, ever entered his mind 
 in
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 that he could think of nothing to say. There 
 was a short silence, in which every one was 
 extremely self-conscious and uncomfortable; 
 then Mrs. Lloyd broke the embarrassing pause 
 by an inquiry about Max Lehman; and Mr. 
 Lloyd took an immediate advantage of the 
 question. Any subject far enough from Lord 
 Medway was welcome, even Socialism. 
 
 "Lehman," he said, "is a passionate, vio 
 lent man, is he not, Mr. McAslin?" 
 
 " He is of the people, and for the people, 
 sir; but he is at least sincere." 
 
 " Perhaps, but sincerity is not truth. Error 
 of the worst kind is often sincere. He has a 
 bold voice and a few taking phrases, and these 
 things go a long way with such audiences as 
 Lehman has ; in fact, they go all the way. " 
 
 "I cannot say that," answered John. "The 
 people whom he addresses are mostly poor and 
 distressed, and like all sufferers they are look 
 ing for a remedy." 
 
 "There is no suffering and no want that is 
 not cared for in the city of New York. Look 
 at our hospitals, schools, libraries, charities of 
 all kinds and descriptions." 
 
 "But, Mr. Lloyd," said John, "these very 
 things convict our social condition of its sins; 
 they are the medicine of disease, not the bread 
 of life. The mere giving of money is not suf-
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 ficient if we are morally blind; we must do as 
 Lehman does, enter into the feelings and suf 
 ferings of others. Then our emotions will en 
 lighten our understandings, and we shall try to 
 prevent rather than to cure." 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd looked at John with a face so 
 eager, so full of question and desire, that even 
 her husband was astonished by its unusual ex 
 pression. " To prevent ! " she cried. " Oh, if 
 we only could! But how is it to be done?" 
 
 "There are so many ways possible to the 
 rich." 
 
 " That is so easily said. If you could be 
 more specific ! " 
 
 " I can. I think a rich man should set him 
 self some one great and possible work. He 
 could rebuild some of the worst parts of the 
 city, and give to the poor homes in which it 
 was possible for them to live cleanly and virtu 
 ously. He could found a university in which 
 there should be absolutely free tuition, and no 
 one could compute how much this one good 
 deed would change the world in a single gener 
 ation. He could keep the House of Legisla 
 ture pure " 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! Come now, Mr. McAslin ! you 
 are magnifying the power of gold in the wrong 
 direction." 
 
 "No, Mr. Lloyd," replied John McAslin, 
 8 113
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " I am not. A great fortune could keep the 
 house pure by supplying funds for prosecutions. 
 If members knew they would be called to ac 
 count for bribery and corruption, for perjury 
 and for every malfeasance of office, small and 
 great, they would not render themselves liable 
 to indictment. A great fortune could found 
 free libraries in a large number of villages, 
 and it is from healthy, intelligent villages that 
 our large cities ought to be reinforced. A 
 great fortune could found local hospitals suffi 
 cient for every need. Oh, there are so many 
 ways, all equally noble and necessary, so many 
 things that rich men could do, and be happy 
 in the doing, far more happy than they are in 
 collecting pictures or indulging themselves in 
 luxury, or in simply amassing money." 
 
 " You are laying the regeneration of society 
 and the elevation of the poor upon the rich," 
 said Mrs. Lloyd. " It is too great a work for 
 any class. Religion is the only power able for 
 it. Suppose we denied ourselves to the utter 
 most, and gave all we possessed to the poor?" 
 "It would be as nothing without charity." 
 "But is not giving up everything charity?" 
 " No, indeed ! The rich man must give him 
 self as well as his gold. If he wants to taste 
 the greatest blessing in the world, to know be 
 forehand the very happiness of heaven, he must 
 114
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 live for others. There is no true happiness till 
 this law is fulfilled, and the vainest of things 
 is to dream that denying self will do as well. 
 To die to self we must live for others." 
 
 "I do not understand." 
 
 "We must feel with others, be touched oy 
 their suffering, and busy for their happiness. 
 We must do as Christ did, lay our hands upon 
 the poor, and even the leper, and not stand afar 
 off and throw them a piece of gold." 
 
 "But that is the business of the church." 
 
 " Mrs. Lloyd, the church of the past is dying 
 now of its own respectability; the church of 
 the future must make the divine secular, and 
 the secular divine." 
 
 " But how ? " 
 
 "It must cover the whole ground of ordinary 
 life, with its multitude of interests and re 
 quirements. It is a miserably selfish religion 
 which busies itself about what will happen 
 when we die, which goes to church and repeats 
 creeds, and totally ignores the great law of 
 human brotherhood set forth by Christ as the 
 very rule of his Kingdom." 
 
 "The world has got to be carried on, sir," 
 said Mr. Lloyd, with a little temper, "and pray 
 tell me, how is the law of human brotherhood 
 to be brought into business? It is pure non 
 sense ! Who cares for this brotherhood ques- 
 "5
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 tion, when it is a matter of push, or the chance 
 of making a corner, or of cutting prices, or of 
 buying in the cheapest market ? You may rant 
 about equality, human brotherhood and liberty, 
 but what does it amount to ? There are no such 
 things in the market-places of the world." 
 
 " Yet no one can deny that these very words 
 represent the aspirations and hopes of untold 
 millions. And if the church of the future does 
 its duty, it will not leave a revolutionary press 
 and atheistical expounders to be the only teach 
 ers to use them. The church of the future will 
 take these magical words up in the name of 
 God, and give to them their truest and noblest 
 conception." 
 
 " Your sister Jessie, Mr. McAslin, has often 
 said to me, My brother John ought to be a 
 preacher. I agree with her," said Alice. 
 " You have an evident call for this church 
 of the future the church that shall teach the 
 brotherhood of men, liberty, and equality." 
 
 " There never can be any such thing as equal 
 ity," said Mr. Lloyd. 
 
 "There is an equality and there is an ine 
 quality, and both are of the ordination of God. 
 All men in his sight are of equal value. All, 
 according to their ability, are equally respon 
 sible. But until men and women are born 
 equally good and clever, equally healthy and 
 116
 
 MEN PROPOSE, WOMEN DECIDE 
 
 industrious, inequality in this world must ex 
 ist, and, indeed, as we advance in civilisation, 
 it will be more and more in evidence." 
 
 "Then you admit at least one irremediable 
 evil?" said Mr. Lloyd. 
 
 "I do not think this inequality an evil, 
 quite the contrary. Is it an evil in the family 
 where the weakness of age, the helplessness of 
 infancy, or the sickness of one of its members 
 calls forth all that is beautiful and self-deny 
 ing in love? Indeed it is not." 
 
 "You think, then, Mr. McAslin," said Mrs. 
 Lloyd, "that the weak member of a family I 
 mean weak in any respect ought to be con 
 tinually pitied, borne with and helped? " 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " And what if he fails again and again ? " 
 
 " He must be helped again and again. If 
 there is some weakness to be borne with, there 
 is always some good to be strengthened." 
 
 "Yes! yes! He must be helped again and 
 again!". Her face flushed, her eyes were 
 gleaming and tender. 
 
 But Mr. Lloyd rose up hastily, and with evi 
 dent annoyance. 
 
 " Come ! Come ! " he said, " we have had 
 
 enough, and more than enough of this. Let 
 
 us go to the drawing-room, and Alice will give 
 
 us some music. " But he was not any happier 
 
 117
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 under the charm of song. In the midst of mel 
 ody he could not keep Lord Medway out of his 
 mind, nor yet look at his daughter without an 
 uncomfortable feeling, though he kept privately 
 assuring himself that he had only done his 
 duty, and that in the long run Alice would 
 thank him for doing it. 
 
 118
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 "WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE?" 
 
 IT was easy enough for Mr. Lloyd to reason 
 himself out of everything he ought to believe 
 and to feel; and while Alice and John were 
 making melody, and forgetting all else, he 
 slipped quietly out of the room. He wished 
 to avoid any discussion about Lord Medway; 
 for he believed that every hour the subject 
 could be deferred would make it more man 
 ageable. There was a little room on the ground 
 floor which he called his private office, and 
 thither he retired. Alice had never ventured 
 to trouble its selfish seclusion at any time, and 
 he threw himself on a comfortable lounge with 
 the easy reflection that he was safe at least for 
 that night. 
 
 In less than half an hour he was amazed to 
 see his wife intrude upon his privacy. Such 
 an event was unprecedented. He was not pre 
 pared in any way for a visit so unusual, and he 
 asked, with a show of anxiety, " Is any one ill ? 
 Is the house on fire? What remarkable thing 
 has happened ? " 
 
 119
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "I have come to talk to you about Alice," 
 she answered. 
 
 "This is a new departure," he said scorn 
 fully. " Since when have you begun to con 
 sider your daughter s affairs? " 
 
 " If I have appeared remiss in the past, there 
 is no necessity to continue the error. I wish 
 to spare Alice as much as possible; and I know 
 any conversation about Lord Medway will be 
 painful to her." 
 
 "Your duty is to talk to her on that very 
 subject. Any other mother would do so." 
 
 "I might talk to her in a way you 
 would not approve. If she does not love 
 Lord " 
 
 " Love ! love ! love ! It is all women think 
 of. I don t believe there is such a thing. I 
 intend Alice to marry Lord Medway, whether 
 she imagines herself in love with him or not. 
 The business part of the alliance is satisfac 
 torily completed; if you have any regard for 
 Alice s future, you will persuade her to get 
 through the sentimental part as soon as possi 
 ble. The young man will not wait too long 
 on her fancies ; not even for the pile of money 
 he gets with her." 
 
 "We know, Nicholas, what a loveless mar 
 riage means. " 
 
 "Yes, we do. You are right there." 
 
 120
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 "Do you wish Alice to suffer all I have 
 suffered ? " 
 
 "You have chosen to imagine yourself ill- 
 used. I can t help that. You have had every 
 thing a woman needs to make her happy." 
 
 " Everything but love. It would have been 
 better if I had had love and wanted everything 
 else. I insist upon Alice having perfect free 
 dom in the matter of marriage. She shall not 
 be forced into a life she hates. I will protest 
 against it even to the altar." 
 
 " What is the matter with you ? And as for 
 insisting, that is sheer folly." 
 
 " You will not find it so. I came here to 
 night on business. I am ready to make a bar 
 gain with you, for it is the only argument you 
 understand. You have a very large sum of 
 money belonging to me in your hand, or in 
 your business. You have it on call. If you 
 refuse the requests I am going to make, then I 
 refuse to allow you the use of this money any 
 longer. I shall instruct Telford to collect it 
 at once. " 
 
 He looked at her with anger and anxiety. 
 " What do you want ? " he asked. 
 
 " I want Alice to have her free will in the 
 
 Medway matter. If she wishes to marry him 
 
 I will not oppose her; if she does not wish to 
 
 marry him, I will not have her frightened, or 
 
 121
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 persuaded, or in any way talked into a loveless 
 union ; no, not for all the gold in America and 
 all the nobility in Europe. And I must in 
 sist upon you authoritatively contradicting the 
 statements made in to-day s papers." 
 
 " I cannot contradict them. I myself gave 
 the reporters the main part of the information. 
 Of course they added to it " 
 
 " You must contradict it. You must say, at 
 any rate, that the news is premature; that Miss 
 Lloyd s education is yet unfinished, and that 
 her marriage will not be considered for at least 
 another year. This restoration of Alice to her 
 place, as a girl not yet in society, is impera 
 tive. It must be done." 
 
 "Have I been mistaken in you all these 
 years? What makes you talk to me in this 
 strain? You are surely out of your mind. I 
 shall send a physician to see you to-morrow." 
 
 "Will you agree to these two things con 
 tradict the report of to-day, and leave Alice 
 perfectly free to make her own decision about 
 Lord Medway ? " 
 
 " What if I do not agree ? " 
 
 " Then you will find it more difficult to pay 
 Lord Medway the money you have promised 
 him than you imagine it to be now." 
 
 " Ah ! That is your move. Very clever 
 indeed ! Alice is to have her way or else you
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 will make it impossible for me to have my way. 
 Who put you up to this plan? Telford? " 
 
 "Will you do as I want you to do? Or will 
 you give up my money? " 
 
 " I cannot possibly pay your money back 
 at present. In some respects it would mean 
 ruin to me. Why, it turns me gray to think 
 of it!" 
 
 " In every respect it is ruin to any girl to 
 marry without love. Alice may be spared a 
 marriage she does not desire, you may be 
 spared a repayment you dread by two small 
 acts of simple justice. Will you do them ? " 
 
 " I suppose I must. You ought to have gone 
 into stocks, Marian ; you drive a Shylock bar 
 gain no consideration at all for a man s word, 
 or bond, or feelings." 
 
 "Nicholas, whenever did you feel for any 
 one s word, or bond, or feelings? Have you 
 cared for my feelings ? Or for poor Stephen s ? 
 Or for Alice s? I am no Shylock. If I could 
 have appealed to your heart I never should 
 have thought of your purse. Will you do to 
 morrow morning what I ask of you? " 
 
 " Yes and what will you do ? " 
 
 " I will pay the price of it." 
 
 "Very well. You have made your bargain. 
 I suppose Medway can see Alice to-morrow?" 
 
 " Certainly. I wish her to judge fairly. Let 
 123
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 him ask for himself. Let her answer for her 
 self." 
 
 With a calm "good-night" she then went 
 away to the quiet little room which had for 
 many years been her place of meditation and 
 prayer, the room from which she had brought 
 so often the peace that passeth understanding 
 and the rest that no earthly love can give. She 
 was trembling all over, her heart beat rapidly, 
 her face was set to her purpose, her eyes shin 
 ing. But this " closet apart " was full of peace ; 
 the spiritual emanations of years clung to it. 
 A great seriousness fell like a mantle all over 
 her, and to be serious is to be at repose. It 
 was not long before she could put the earth 
 beneath her feet ; then her soul, feeling its im 
 mortality, sat light upon its temporal perch, 
 and knew a joy past utterance, a sense of di 
 vine presence, a serene amazement in which 
 all trouble and questions and conclusions were 
 lost. Her face had a radiance that was not 
 colour, but a direct spiritual effluence; the shin 
 ing of the soul through mere flesh and blood, 
 for it is the soul that makes the body, and 
 inward beauty seldom fails to express itself 
 outwardly. 
 
 The opening and shutting ot a door, and a bar 
 or two of a hunting song in which Alice s voice 
 mingled with John McAslin s, dissolved the 
 124
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 glory, and recalled her to temporal affairs. But, 
 oh, the divine tranquillity in which her sorrow 
 for Steve and her care for Alice were lost ! Her 
 own heart-longing and heart-aching, and all the 
 heaviness of life s great tragedy had become 
 lighter than a grasshopper; and though the 
 spiritual tide ebbed quickly out, nothing could 
 rob her of that calm repose it left behind. 
 
 In that prescient condition she saw clearly 
 the end to which Alice and John McAslin were 
 drifting, and the knowledge brought no fear 
 with it. "He is a good man," she said softly, 
 "and he loves her. I will neither meddle 
 nor make, nor in any way try to influence her, 
 for a hand wiser than mine is weaving their 
 destiny." 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd held to this position even with 
 regard to Lord Medway, though, at her daugh 
 ter s urgent request, she accompanied her in 
 the morning to the interview which Lord Med 
 way desired, but she took little part in their 
 conversation. The young noble had never be 
 fore looked so handsome, and never before 
 been so self-effacing. He regretted, with ap 
 parent sincerity, the publicity given to his as 
 pirations, because they appeared so egotistical 
 on his part, and because Alice had felt this 
 publicity to be an offence. He declared his 
 affection to be sincere and lasting, and asked 
 "5
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 permission to renew his addresses, when a year 
 in society should have better enabled her to 
 know her own position and what was demanded 
 of it. 
 
 Alice felt it to be impossible to say any of 
 the disagreeable things she had intended to 
 say. When a man puts himself, metaphori 
 cally, at a woman s feet, it is hard for her to 
 wantonly insult him. She found no presump 
 tion to snub, and no claims were made on her 
 future kindness which she thought it necessary 
 to deny. And Medway really felt the disap 
 pointment in his pocket, and his pocket greatly 
 influenced his life. His dreams of unlimited 
 credit and unlimited expenditure were over, or 
 at least postponed, and another year of finan 
 cial straits and annoyances was before him. 
 The thought of this condition impressed a de 
 spondency on his face and manner which Alice 
 was led to believe she was entirely answera 
 ble for. It had its effect, for when he asked : 
 " May I return to Lloyd Park next summer ? " 
 she was unable to give a decided refusal. So 
 he went away with a hope that he trusted 
 time and social influences would bring to 
 perfection. 
 
 As soon as he was really gone Alice experi 
 enced a kind of regret. All that he could give 
 her appeared for the moment so desirable. She 
 126
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 said to her mother. " I cannot feel certain about 
 anything. What do you think, mother?" 
 
 "Well, Alice, there is one test of both men 
 and matter that of practice. The world al 
 ways asks of everything, Will it work? If 
 not, it must go. Ask yourself, Do I love 
 him well enough to live with him all our lives, 
 to bear with all his faults, to forgive his neg 
 lect, to nurse him in sickness, to take an inter 
 est in all that interests him? If not, a 
 marriage with him will not work. It must 
 
 go-" 
 
 "Then I think it must go, mother." 
 "Be sure in your own mind, Alice." 
 "Why didn t father speak to me this 
 morning? " 
 
 " There was no need to trouble you. I had 
 a conversation with him last night, while you 
 were singing with Mr. McAslin. He prom 
 ised me to deny authoritatively the report of 
 yesterday, and also to allow you the fullest and 
 freest choice in the matter of your marriage." 
 "Oh!" 
 
 It was all she said; it was all she wished to 
 say, at the time. That strange indecision 
 which gives to whatever we are likely to lose 
 a renewed worth and interest was troubling her 
 heart. Between Lord Medway and her father s 
 paid secretary there was a social gulf whose 
 127
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 width and depth she was able pretty accurately 
 to measure, and for a moment she told herself 
 it was impossible to cross it. Then she re 
 membered that between Lord Medway and 
 John McAslin, as men, there was a mental and 
 moral gulf greater than the social one. John 
 would lift her higher than all her hopes and 
 aspirations. To walk on the same plane with 
 Lord Medway, she must sink lower than her 
 self every way. John s voice and presence set 
 her soul vibrating like music. For Lord Med 
 way she had, at most, an experimental inter 
 est, made up of flattered vanity and tolerant 
 indifference. "It won t work," she said to 
 herself. " He may go back to England and 
 stay there." And yet she sighed, and won 
 dered "why the nice lover was always the poor 
 one." 
 
 After this crisis was fairly over, there was 
 one of those pauses in life which generally fol 
 low periods of great feeling or great excite 
 ment. Jessie began to think her visit to Lloyd 
 Park a little monotonous, and to wonder at the 
 stupid life some rich people endured. 
 
 "The same things occur every day, and at 
 the same hour," she said to John, "and though 
 the place is pretty and the house beautiful, 
 river views and fine furniture do not seem to 
 be wholly satisfying things." 
 128
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 "But Miss Lloyd reads and plays and sings, 
 and has friends. These are satisfying things, 
 Jessie," answered John. 
 
 "Oh, John, you tire of books; they do all 
 the talking; and you cannot be always playing 
 and singing to yourself. And as to friends 
 who all pay their visits on the same afternoon, 
 and who dare not say one unconventional word, 
 what pleasure is there in them ? " 
 
 "But the coolness and verdure of the coun 
 try, its " 
 
 "John, I do not believe in the coolness of 
 the country. And the dense green of the woods 
 is depressing beyond everything. The river 
 glares. The long, dusty lanes are awful. I 
 prefer the city. No place in summer is so 
 cheery and comfortable as New York. You 
 are never disappointed in its supplies. Ice 
 creams and the best of fruits are at every 
 corner. I find Central Park sylvan enough. 
 The streets have always a shady side. There 
 is a constant point of interest somewhere 
 a concert, a show, a lecture, or a labour 
 meeting. Yes, I wish the Lloyds would come 
 back to the city. I am tired to death of the 
 country." 
 
 " I enjoy my visits there very much. " 
 
 "Apparently Alice enjoys them also." 
 
 "What makes you say that, Jessie? " 
 9 129
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " She talks a great deal about you in an un 
 derhand way." 
 
 "I don t like the word underhand, Jessie. 
 What do you mean by it ? " 
 
 " I mean that she gets me to talk about you. 
 I say to myself constantly, If Miss Alice 
 wants to pull out the stop called John, she 
 shall play on it herself; and then, before I 
 know, I am telling her about your last speech, 
 or describing some of your Western adventures, 
 or explaining how good you are to father and 
 mother, or in some other obvious way preach 
 ing for my saint. And she sits smiling and 
 listening, and answering me, and encouraging 
 me in monosyllables, and I call that under 
 hand. But it must give her pleasure or she 
 would not always begin such a conversation. 
 However, John, even with you to talk about, 
 the time goes very slowly, and I am ready for 
 a change. I wonder where Steve is. When 
 did you hear from him?" 
 
 "Yesterday. He said he was going to the 
 Baltic. He is a queer fellow." 
 
 "He is nice enough. A great many people 
 are much less interesting than Steve Morrison." 
 
 Change, however, does not come because it 
 is wished for, nor can it ever be safely forced. 
 Indeed, it is a wise provision that for the ma 
 jority duty stands guard over wayward inclina- 
 130
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 tions. Duty kept Jessie safely on its homely 
 sward, and the weeks went not unhappily away. 
 The most wearisome days were those she spent 
 at Lloyd Park, and Alice finally found it im 
 possible to detain her beyond her business 
 hours. She felt the sweet alleys of the garden 
 lonely, and the stillness and method of the fine 
 house oppressed her. After its ceremony and 
 quiet, it was a joy to step lightly to the New 
 York pavements, to feel at liberty to be her 
 self, to look as cross or as happy as she wanted, 
 to walk as quickly as she felt like walking, to 
 speak with all the plainness or emphasis she 
 desired. 
 
 It was different with John. The sweet, 
 lonely alleys of the garden, the shadows of the 
 woods, even the long vistas of the dusty coun 
 try lanes were full of all delights to him, for 
 Alice was very often his companion in them. 
 She frequently drove to the railway station for 
 her father and John, and then in the moonlight 
 evenings and the early mornings they found 
 themselves together without any special plan 
 ning for the meeting. There were always roses 
 to be cut, or the bees to look at, or the grapes 
 to gather, or a new chrysanthemum to clas- 
 sifyr Oh, love had a thousand excuses ! Love 
 made all events to serve his own desires and 
 
 purposes
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 And the silence and ceremony of the Lloyd 
 household pleased John. It seemed the proper 
 atmosphere for Alice. She made glory in its 
 dimness, and music in its silence. The flutter 
 of her white garments, the rose-like loveliness 
 of her face, the grace and harmony of her move 
 ments, all these things seemed to John but the 
 outward manifestations of a pure and guileless 
 soul. He wondered at Jessie s waning enthu 
 siasm ; Lloyd Park was to him the loveliest spot 
 on earth; it was the home of Alice, and her 
 presence, or the memory of it, invested the 
 whole place with the glamour and glory of love. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd had not the slightest suspicion of 
 this attachment ; indeed, it was unconfessed by 
 the lovers themselves. Both knew it, but John 
 feared to speak, lest he had been too presump 
 tuous. Alice feared to listen, lest words should 
 destroy the indefinable, ineffable charm of their 
 conscious silence. She did not wish to be 
 brought to resolution and acknowledgment. 
 In such case, she would have to decide a ques 
 tion she did not wish to consider. She was too 
 happy to make inquiry about her happiness. 
 She feared to do so. She had an instinctive 
 apprehension that the delicate bloom on the 
 wings of Psyche might easily be soiled and 
 wasted by too much examination. And John 
 had the same delicacy of feeling. He divined 
 132
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 that while love was shyly advancing and re 
 treating, it was well to let well enough alone. 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd was not so ignorant as her hus 
 band of the condition of affairs between her 
 daughter and John McAslin ; for she was nat 
 urally an observing woman, though her sense 
 of observation had been dulled by long neglect. 
 She had so carefully trained herself not to see 
 what pertained to this life that a sentiment so 
 delicate and undemonstrative might have easily 
 escaped her notice; yet in a fitful, passing 
 manner she was aware of it, and the knowl 
 edge did not trouble her. "John is good, and 
 clever, and likely to have a brilliant career, 
 and Alice might do much worse than marry 
 him," was generally the conclusion she came 
 to, if she gave the matter consideration; a 
 thing that circumstances as yet did not often 
 compel her to do. 
 
 Besides, during these summer and fall 
 months, she had been entertaining a new and 
 absorbing interest. Her interview with her 
 lawyer had been one of pregnant importance. 
 To her amazement, she had found him not only 
 willing, but anxious to aid her in the great 
 work she was slowly planning. For the words 
 spoken by John McAslin had sunk into her 
 heart, and troubled its still depths into active, 
 aching consciousness. The force and meaning 
 133
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 of these words remained with her; their actual 
 order she could not remember. 
 
 "But, Mr. Telford," she said, " I was made 
 to understand that my money is not mine ; that 
 I am only a steward for others; that I must 
 not only render unto God the things which are 
 God s, but also unto man the things that are 
 man s; and that if I do not do this I shall 
 have the fate of the unjust steward. And that 
 outer darkness and the binding hand and 
 foot terrifies me. What can it mean ? Help 
 me to escape from it at any labour and cost." 
 
 " I will be your friend and helper in this 
 matter most gladly," he answered, "and I am 
 thankful that you have realised your responsi 
 bility before it is too late. Your father made 
 money and left it to you, and you have sim 
 ply buried it in a napkin. Even its silent 
 growth accuses you. It has been silent money 
 too long. Now, madame, make it speak." 
 
 "What shall it say?" inquired Mrs. Lloyd, 
 eagerly. 
 
 "First," replied Mr. Telford, "it might tell 
 you to pull down those shameful old tenements 
 
 in H Street, from which you derive so 
 
 much yearly income. They are responsible for 
 incredible suffering, and incredible wrong and 
 crime. Send for architects and let them de 
 vise homes in which men and women and chil- 
 J 34
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 dren may be able to live like human beings. 
 Remember, if they can t pray, they can wash; 
 and cleanliness is a kind of godliness, and leads 
 to higher things." 
 
 This suggestion, received with enthusiasm 
 by Mrs. Lloyd, was strenuously opposed by her 
 husband. "Our poor," he said, "are mostly 
 Irish, and they like to crowd. If they wanted 
 decent homes, capital would flow into building 
 them, just as it flows into building saloons and 
 beer gardens." When arguments failed he 
 tried scorn and anger, and finally such arts of 
 affection as might once have availed, but which 
 were now only to be placed among the futile 
 efforts on which are stamped those sad, inef 
 fectual words Too late ! 
 
 She took no counsel of him, but with wise 
 deliberation carried out the plan suggested. 
 Her time was occupied with architects and 
 philanthropists of various kinds, and she threw 
 off as she might have thrown off a garment the 
 mysticism and solitude which had been for 
 years the air she had loved to breathe. "A 
 more excellent way has been shown me," she 
 said ; and she renewed even her physical youth 
 in its invigorating action and sympathies. 
 
 She talked much to John on the subject, and 
 he was always ready to prevent the material 
 side of her efforts claimin too much for them-
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 selves. For there was a tendency in the work 
 to which she had put her hand leading to 
 the exaltation of mere human means, and 
 John regarded this as a distinct lowering of 
 that Brotherhood which he was always advo 
 cating. 
 
 " If we are to love humanity and labour for its 
 welfare," he said, "then we must look at hu 
 manity from its noblest destiny and responsi 
 bilities. We must consider that man is not 
 only a citizen of this world, but an inheritor of 
 the kingdom of heaven. Comfortable houses, 
 good food, perfect drainage and education, are 
 but means to a loftier end. For man is not a 
 mere animal to be cultured and cared for, so 
 that he may get through life as pleasantly as 
 possible, and then be done with it; he is the 
 child of God, made for eternal life, and all our 
 loving service for him must be based on our 
 love for God." 
 
 " You mean that from the fatherhood of God 
 must spring the brotherhood of man ? " asked 
 Mrs. Lloyd. 
 
 "Yes," answered John. "This is the great 
 charter of our salvation, that first we love God 
 with all our heart, and soul, and mind; then, 
 without fail, we shall love our neighbour as 
 ourselves. And if any man or woman, Chris- 
 tain, Jew, Buddhist, Mohammedan, reach this 
 136
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 height, that man or woman has attained unto 
 salvation." 
 
 In this way, and through such conversation, 
 she was prevented from falling into those ex 
 tremes of feeling which usually attend conver 
 sions of any kind; for coming directly out of 
 the cloud of mysticism into the vivid day of 
 actuality and labour, it was very difficult for 
 her not to overrate the importance of the 
 work growing so visibly under her care and 
 generosity. 
 
 Never before had a summer passed so swiftly 
 and pleasantly to Mrs. Lloyd. She was aston 
 ished when Alice became restless and anxious 
 to get back to the city; yet, as soon as the 
 subject was taken up by her own mind, she 
 was equally eager for it. She would be nearer 
 to her work, nearer to her lawyer and adviser, 
 nearer to the people whom she wished to 
 benefit. So the early days of October saw the 
 large house on the aveune opened again, and 
 Mrs. Lloyd and her daughter, each through 
 their own hopes and desires, looking forward 
 to a winter that should answer all their ex 
 pectations. 
 
 Jessie also was gratified. She was very un 
 willing to give up her pupil, but she was very 
 weary of her pupil s surroundings, and quite 
 elated over her first visit to the Lloyd city 
 37
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 house. It was an exceedingly handsome home, 
 and satisfied her conception of a rich man s 
 dwelling. Its stately splendour reflected a sort 
 of honour on her; she even fancied it influenced 
 Alice, that it made her more reticent and dig 
 nified, and less inclined to familiarity and con 
 fidences. But if there was any truth in this 
 fancy, it arose from circumstances hardly real 
 ised even by Alice herself. 
 
 The girl had quickly found that John, in the 
 city, was much more frequently present, and 
 she feared the constant proximity. Some days 
 Mr. Lloyd did not go to his office at all, and 
 John brought the correspondence to him and 
 answered the letters at the house. Then he 
 usually dined with them, remaining with his 
 employer an hour or two afterwards, occupied 
 with business, or sometimes attending the 
 ladies to an entertainment or passing the even 
 ing with them in their own drawing-room. 
 And Alice had reached that stage of love when 
 love is silent and shy, because it has come to 
 understand that all of life s joy is in the power 
 of another. Undoubtedly Alice loved John 
 with the sweet fervour that marks a first affec 
 tion, and yet she was not free from reservations 
 and little social anxieties. And she knew well 
 how angry her father would be at the destruc 
 tion of all his hopes regarding Lord Medway, 
 138
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 while she was equally certain that he would 
 visit his anger on John. 
 
 Also, she was not oblivious of what her 
 friends and acquaintances would say; and it 
 was easier to contemplate their opinions in the 
 country than in their very presence, surrounded 
 by all the circumstances which gave authority 
 to social judgments. There were also hours in 
 which she suffered from the uncertainties of 
 love when she wondered if her love would 
 bear John s steady and increasing devotion to 
 ideas which she did not altogether approve 
 hours when Jessie s intimacies fretted her 
 sense of what was perfectly high-bred and 
 lady-like; and when the thought of John s 
 family, and its possible intrusions, was not 
 endurable. So she was often depressed, as 
 those must be in whom perfect love has not 
 cast out fear. 
 
 These feelings certainly found no expression 
 in words, but they made an atmosphere which 
 Jessie felt and resented so far as to retire 
 promptly into her position as teacher, a po 
 sition Alice appeared to be quite ready to ac 
 cept. But this appearance was in reality the 
 indifference which Alice felt to all .other sub 
 jects but the great one which was to decide 
 her future life. Her feelings toward Jessie 
 had not changed; it was the constant growth
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 of feeling regarding John which compelled her 
 to assume that veil of dignified calm, behind 
 which she hid all emotion, but which Jessie 
 thought the result of pride, of self-appreciation. 
 Others had the same opinion, for "what airs 
 Alice Lloyd puts on since that affair with Lord 
 Medway," was a very usual comment of visitors 
 at the Lloyd dwelling. 
 
 One November day, just as the lamps were 
 being lit on the avenue, Jessie came down the 
 steps of this dwelling with an angry heart. 
 "I will give no more lessons in that house," 
 she said to herself. "Alice has become Miss 
 Lloyd with emphasis. She is decidedly 
 changed. She has put on city airs. She 
 thinks I shall expect to be invited to her en 
 tertainments, and that it is necessary to snub 
 me in advance. Pooh ! I want nothing she has, 
 or can give me;" then she laughed a little 
 to herself, and added, " Yes, I want her money 
 for my labour; and I won t throw that away for 
 a little false pride. Oh, dear, I wish ! I wish ! 
 I wish I did not have to teach ! " 
 
 But the smile of her mother as she entered 
 the house, the cheerful supper-table, the glow 
 ing fire in the little grate, put all dissatisfac 
 tion quickly out of her mind. As she took off 
 her wraps and brushed back her hair, she heard 
 her father and John coming up the stairs to- 
 140
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MIN.E 
 
 gather. "After all," she told herself, "I have 
 John ! Alice wants him, but she can t make 
 up her mind to accept him with his etceteras 
 of unfashionable opinions and unfashionable 
 relations. And I would n t change places with 
 her if I had to change my opinions and my 
 relations. John is worth twenty of her! Who 
 are the Lloyds, anyway ? " 
 
 She put down her brush with considerable 
 accent, and went into the dining-room hum 
 ming a melody that had sprung from her heart 
 as an unconscious explanation of her mood. 
 As soon as she entered the room, it stopped 
 suddenly. Steve stood in the middle of the 
 floor watching for her, and the next moment 
 he was holding her hands, while a thousand 
 joys and hopes lit up his beaming face. They 
 met in each other s arms, the meeting being 
 perfectly unconsidered and natural. Before 
 either of them were aware of the act Steve 
 had kissed her. He had called her "dear Jes 
 sie." He had led her with the air of one who 
 had the right of possession to the chair beside 
 his own. And then he slipped into her hands 
 a little box full of ornaments made of amber 
 from the Baltic Sea, amber that looked like 
 crystallised sunshine, and a coral comb for her 
 hair that he had bought in Naples, and a set of 
 rich laces from the Isle of Malta.
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Jessie was delighted. What woman is insen 
 sible to presents, especially such presents as 
 are for the adornment of her beauty? She 
 could not eat her supper. She ran into her 
 room and came out brilliant with amber glory 
 and silky, white lace. Then Steve could not 
 eat for very admiration of her; and their joy 
 spread as fire spreads, and every heart was 
 aflame with love and friendship, and the de 
 light of welcome for one who had been far 
 away and had come back to his home again. 
 Nothing explicit had been said, and yet every 
 member of the family felt that Jessie and 
 Steve belonged to each other; and as Flora was 
 visiting her betrothed s sister, and John had 
 business with Mr. Lloyd, and Mr. and Mrs. 
 McAslin remained together in the dining-room, 
 there seemed to be a propitious arrangement 
 by which Steve and Jessie had the parlour to 
 themselves. Steve went there with his pur 
 pose plainly written on his face. Jessie hid 
 her intelligence of the position under a pretty 
 access of vanity in her new and precious be 
 longings. But all pretences fell away when 
 they stood alone. Steve made no attempt to 
 delay his fate. He said simply, yet with great 
 tenderness : 
 
 "Jessie, you know how truly I love you! 
 What have you to say to me ? " And the words 
 142
 
 WHAT AILS THIS HEART OF MINE 
 
 Jessie said went like wine to Steve s head and 
 heart, and he took her in his arras and an 
 swered with truest, fondest kisses : 
 
 " Oh, you dear, dear girl ! God bless you, 
 Jessie ! I will try from this instant to be 
 worthy of you ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 THE man who cuts himself loose from the or 
 ganised prejudices of his time and contempo 
 raries is always regarded as a fool; and Steve 
 could not escape this verdict, even from those 
 who loved him. It did not give him serious 
 trouble. He knew that the world in general 
 looked on many things as "foolishness" which 
 the Eternal that makes for righteousness holds 
 to be the highest wisdom; and his simple, wan 
 dering life had been only in accord with that 
 stream of tendency by which all things seek to 
 fulfil the law of their being. 
 
 For freedom he had joyfully given up home, 
 and kindred, and great wealth. To escape the 
 trammels of conventional life, he had been con 
 tent to work with his hands for such things as 
 were necessary for his existence. The reli 
 gious doubts which assail thoughtful youths he 
 had conquered, not in a martial, disputatious 
 attitude, but on his knees in desert places, 
 among woods and mountains, when he was 
 alone with God. Solitudes and wide horizons 
 144
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 had given to his mind an equal plenitude. " If 
 it be possible to believe too much in God," he 
 once said to John, " I desire to be guilty of 
 that sin." His faith in man was equally 
 wide. His opinions were large, hopeful, and 
 honest. They did not lurk in insinuations, 
 nor were they ambushed in plausibilities; he 
 put them boldly forward and asked no quarter 
 for them. 
 
 Such a man was not likely to let love dom 
 inate him unchallenged. He was sure in the 
 long run to inquire of its tendencies how it 
 would influence, and where it would lead him. 
 So it was, that in the loneliness and storm of 
 the Baltic shores, and in the heavenly beauty 
 of the Mediterranean, he had fought out, dur 
 ing the past summer, the greatest battle a man 
 can fight, as regards this life, the battle be 
 tween the absolute freedom that was his soul s 
 highest atmosphere, and the captivating love 
 that was his heart s sweetest hope. Freedom 
 had nearly won him many times; perhaps if he 
 had remained in the stress and storm of the 
 bleak, tossing Baltic for a little longer, free 
 dom would have gained the final victory; but 
 under the soft Italian skies, and in the warm 
 sunshine of the South, love had the atmosphere 
 of its being. Memories of Jessie floated in the 
 perfumed winds; and in its lovely languors he 
 10 MS
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 dreamed only of her beauty and brightness, and 
 thus love easily won the day. 
 
 A change, therefore, in his whole life had to 
 be contemplated. He had asked Jessie to be 
 his wife, and she had consented to his request; 
 and he was well aware that marriage meant a 
 home, and all its attendant cares and responsi 
 bilities. He would have to shut himself once 
 more within four walls. He would be com 
 pelled to perform some regular work. He 
 would be obliged to live day after day in the 
 same place. No more wanderings over the 
 length and breadth of the land; no more 
 sleeping and dreaming under the stars, with 
 his knapsack for a pillow. He had taken one 
 dear, lovely woman to his heart; and he must 
 take with her all the cares as well as all the 
 joys woman inevitably brings. 
 
 Steve was so much in love that the prospect 
 did not frighten him. Jessie was not accus 
 tomed to a large income; and he thought it 
 would be easy to obtain work which did not 
 chain him to a desk. Anything but that ! He 
 thought, too, as he was going to marry and set 
 tle down, his father would have some faith in 
 his social reformation. And as he had loved 
 Jessie s mother, surely he would feel some in 
 terest in the daughter of the woman he had 
 once intended to make his wife. Of course 
 146
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 there must be an interview, and Steve did fear 
 that. Nicholas Lloyd always brought to the 
 front the worst side of his son, and Steve rec 
 ognised this result, and was angry at it. 
 
 For a little while, however, he made no 
 movement in regard to the future. He said to 
 Jessie, " In three weeks I will speak to your 
 father, and I hope satisfy all his reasonable 
 desires for your comfort, and in the interval 
 let us be happy, darling." And for once the 
 clever, careful little woman was willing to be 
 happy, to take the sweetness of the present 
 moment, to put cares out of reckoning, and 
 all considerations as to marriage and money 
 matters beyond her horizon. She was during 
 these three weeks delightful. She gave Steve 
 a great love. She allowed her best nature full 
 freedom. She forgot to consider herself. She 
 grew more beautiful every day. Her voice was 
 softer, her manner more gentle. She com 
 pletely captivated Steve; he thought himself 
 to be the happiest man in New York, and was 
 ready to assert with all his heart that "the 
 world was well lost for love." 
 
 Also, during these three weeks, Flora was 
 married and went to her own house a pretty 
 little flat in Twelfth Street. The furnishing 
 and adorning of its six small rooms was very 
 much in Jessie s hands; and Steve went with 
 J47
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 her and helped her, and supplied many pretty 
 accessories. And what happy thoughts of his 
 own home he had while doing so might be 
 seen in his eyes, in his radiant face and boyish 
 manner. Not unfrequently these heart-dreams 
 found expression in pretty personal ambitions; 
 thus, one afternoon as they were unpacking a 
 present of china from the bridegroom s em 
 ployer, Jessie said, 
 
 "What lovely cups and saucers, Steve!" 
 
 "We can have a set like them." 
 
 "Oh, how delightful that will be! Do you 
 know that this china is very fine, and conse 
 quently very expensive?" 
 
 "I think we can afford it." 
 
 "I don t like the parlour curtains, do you, 
 Steve?" 
 
 " No indeed ! I hope we shall show more 
 taste." 
 
 Thus, in the happiness of others they laid 
 the foundation of their own, and time went 
 swiftly by, as it has a way of doing when the 
 heart is light and the days are full of joy. 
 After Flora s marriage, Steve began to think 
 seriously of preparing for his own, and, as a 
 first step towards it, he resolved to see his 
 mother and sister. As he walked up the av 
 enue, he reproached himself with being so 
 laggard a son and a brother, and yet his re- 
 148
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 luctance to go home was a natural feeling. He 
 feared his mother s calm, sad face, he feared 
 that Alice would censure him; for it was not 
 unlikely she had heard through Jessie that he 
 had been in New York some weeks. He hated 
 to make excuses, for he knew he would be sure 
 to blurt out the truth, which was that Jessie 
 had occupied all his thoughts and all his time. 
 
 It was a cold, snowy morning, and as he 
 made his way through the fast-falling flakes, 
 he asked himself seriously if this new love had 
 slain, or even wounded, the old loves. No, 
 and again, no ! In his heart he knew that 
 mother and sister were just as dear as ever. 
 But then he was sure of their love. It had 
 been tested a thousand times and found faith 
 ful. There was no wooing of it necessary. It 
 was the treasure put safely away. Jessie s love 
 was the treasure still in speculation. It had to 
 be watched and cared for, and worked for until 
 the happy hour of its appropriation arrived. 
 
 "That is the whole matter," he said posi 
 tively, as he ran up the whitened steps and 
 shook himself free of the gathered snow. How 
 sweet and warm it was in the house ! Too 
 sweet and warm for Steve, who liked far better 
 the snap of the frosty air and the brisk stimu 
 lant of the northwest wind. But the sweetness 
 and warmth seemed just suitable for the lovely
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 girl who turned with a cry of joy to welcome 
 him : 
 
 "Oh, Steve! Steve! Is it you at last? 
 When did you come to New York?" 
 
 " I have been here more than a week or two. 
 I have been busy wooing a wife. Did she not 
 tell you?" 
 
 "Who? Do you mean Jessie McAslin?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Of course you have won her. She used to 
 talk about you without rhyme or reason." 
 
 " Does she not talk about me now? " 
 
 " I have not encouraged her to talk about 
 you for a long time. I have begun to doubt 
 whether she is really the best kind of wife for 
 you." 
 
 " She is the only wife for me, Alice. And 
 she has promised to marry me very soon." 
 
 " Steve, do not marry just yet Wait a 
 little." 
 
 " I thought you wanted me to marry and 
 settle." 
 
 "I do but Oh, Steve, it is such an im 
 portant thing ! You will also have to tell her 
 who you are. I don t like that but you can 
 not marry her under the name of Morrison. " 
 
 "Certainly I cannot." 
 
 "And how will you support her? Jessie is 
 an ambitious woman. She loves pretty things
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 of all kinds. I suppose all women do that. 
 Are you going to accept the offer father made 
 you, and go back to Wall Street? " 
 
 "Not in this life, and I have a good hope 
 that my next life will not retrograde." 
 
 "Then, pray how are you going to live? Do 
 you think Jessie will tramp east and west with 
 you, or even endure your long absences ? " 
 
 " I shall not ask her to do either. I shall 
 get some employment which will let me have 
 a little freedom, and keep a home in comfort." 
 
 "But you cannot give your cake away and 
 then eat it. You give up your freedom for a 
 wife. It is your own exchange. Then do 
 not grumble at its limitations." 
 
 " How does father feel towards me ? " 
 
 "I do not think he has changed his position 
 in the least. You have not changed yours, 
 why should he ? Try now and accept the offer 
 he leaves open to you from year to year." 
 
 " I cannot do so, Alice. I will not do a busi 
 ness that is founded on the principle of taking 
 without giving, and claiming without earning. 
 I will have nothing whatever to do with 
 stocks, and shares, and usury. I will not live 
 on interest, and dividends, and appropriated 
 balances." 
 
 "Very good people have to do with them, 
 and also live on them."
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " I have nothing to do with these very good 
 people. I keep only my own conscience." 
 
 " How do you know your conscience is right ? " 
 
 " Conscience is a crowned truth, armed 
 from birth at every point." 
 
 " I do not think so. It has to be educated 
 in a great many people. Else what good is 
 there in our reformatories ? " 
 
 " I don t know. Do you ? " 
 
 " I know you are as impossible as ever. 
 Suppose you go and see mother. She is so 
 much changed." 
 
 " Do you mean that she is ill ? " 
 
 " Go and see for yourself. I will wait here 
 until you return. You had better speak to her 
 about your marriage." 
 
 Steve nodded assent and went slowly up 
 stairs to his mother s room. She had always 
 seemed to live so near to heaven that Steve 
 could anticipate no other change but that 
 which would remove her to the land of her 
 hopes and prayers. And dearly as he loved 
 her, he knew that he had given her many, 
 many hours of anxiety and sorrow. So he went 
 with heavy heart and lingering steps to her 
 presence. Her door was ajar, and he pushed 
 it gently open. Mrs. Lloyd sat at a table 
 facing him, surrounded by papers and busily 
 writing. She had the air of a happy woman. 
 152
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 She was handsomely dressed and looked much 
 younger than her age warranted, for the culti 
 vated, heavenly calm in which she had passed 
 so many of the most vivid years of life had 
 preserved her youth and beauty. 
 
 As Steve entered, she looked up quickly, and 
 in that simple movement Steve recognised the 
 great change that had taken place. Her face 
 was alive with interest, her cheeks slightly 
 flushed, her whole presence that of alert satis 
 faction. And as soon as she saw Steve an 
 other wondrous change appeared; a sudden 
 transformation from the life of the intellect to 
 the life of the heart. The intense love she 
 had for her son was no longer pressed down 
 and backward. It sprang into her eyes and 
 illumined her countenance, it forced her to rise 
 to her feet and outspread her arms, and Steve 
 felt, even at the threshold, the warmth of her 
 irrepressible attitude and cry 
 
 " Steve ! Steve ! I was thinking of you a few 
 moments ago. I was wishing you were here ! 
 And you come and answer my wish ? Oh, you 
 dear boy ! " 
 
 The last words were said upon his lips, when 
 Steve had folded her to his heart, and was 
 laughing and crying in the same moment, and 
 telling her she was the handsomest mother a 
 man ever had, and the dearest and the sweet- 
 153
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 est, asking between whiles, "What have you 
 been doing to yourself, mother? Whatever 
 have you been doing?" 
 
 " I have been doing something I want you to 
 help me in, my own boy ! Sit down here at my 
 side and let me tell you all about it." 
 
 She began with Max Lehman s visit and told 
 him all, even something of that marvellous ex 
 perience through the night of her conviction, 
 when she abandoned the selfishness of caring 
 only for her own salvation, and determined to 
 give herself to others, and then trust God for 
 herself. She showed him the plans and the 
 estimates for the first duty she had assumed, 
 and as she talked grew luminous and eloquent 
 over her hopes and intentions. In fact, she 
 quite enthused Steve. His heart beat to her 
 heart; his face caught the light on her face; 
 his tongue echoed all she said ; they were clasp 
 ing hands over her sacred bond and duty, and 
 were not aware of it. 
 
 " Now, you must see what I want of you, 
 Steve. Mr. Telford cannot give his whole 
 time, even though he gives his whole heart, to 
 this work. I want you to act for me in busi 
 ness that I cannot well attend to, and in places 
 I do not care to visit. There are materials to 
 contract for, and these ought to be examined, 
 for we want the very best, there are journeys 
 154
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 to take, and people to see, and papers to au 
 thenticate, and papers to sign, and workmen 
 to look after, and a score of other things to at 
 tend to that a woman has neither the prestige 
 nor authority to profitably take in hand. You 
 say you like work if it keeps you in the open 
 air and permits you to walk about. This is 
 your opportunity, Steve. Will you be my 
 agent in this good work? Will you see to it 
 that not a dollar of the money I give for the 
 benefit of my poor brothers and sisters is di 
 verted from its right purpose ? " 
 
 "Mother, I ll fight for every cent. I will 
 see that the builders keep every tittle of their 
 obligations. I will take care that the masons 
 do not put more sand than lime in their mor 
 tar. The contractors shall do their full duty, 
 the workmen shall do theirs. Send me when 
 ever and wherever you wish on this work. I 
 am with you, heart and soul." 
 
 "You make me exceedingly happy, Steve. 
 When can you begin ? To-day ? " 
 
 "This very hour if you wish me." 
 
 " What are you doing now ? " 
 
 He hesitated a moment, and then answered : 
 " I have been wooing a wife the last few weeks. 
 All summer I was at sea." 
 
 "A wife!" A sudden coldness, a chill that 
 could be felt was in her voice. In fact, both 
 [ 55
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Steve s mother and sister experienced a quick 
 aversion to the thought of him marrying. They 
 had urged him to entertain the idea, they had 
 decided that marriage would be a good thing 
 for him, but when the idea became fact, their 
 first strong impulse was to repel it. It was a 
 natural impulse, and Steve understood the feel 
 ing of which it was the outcome. He had been 
 their idol, none the less so because he had 
 caused them endless anxieties and required fre 
 quent help. To give him up to some strange 
 woman ! To become second where they had 
 been first ! No mother and sister ever loved 
 thus fondly, and then relinquished without a 
 sigh and a heartache. 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd, however, was not only conscien 
 tious, she was generous, and in a few minutes 
 she recovered herself so completely that she 
 was able to ask, with a smile, 
 
 " Who is the young lady, Steve ? " 
 
 "It is Jessie." 
 
 " Jessie McAslin?" 
 
 " Yes, to be sure. I forgot there might be 
 some other Jessie. She is the only Jessie to 
 me. I hope you like her, mother." 
 
 " She has many good qualities, Steve. Her 
 brother is an exceptionally fine young man." 
 
 "John is perfect. So is Jessie. " He looked 
 so brave and so happy as he said the words that 
 156
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 it was impossible for Mrs. Lloyd to restrain 
 sympathy with him. She let her little jeal 
 ousies slip away from her consciousness. She 
 leaned forward, kissed him, and said with ten 
 der enthusiasm, 
 
 " I am so glad you are going to marry, Steve. " 
 
 Tears of rapture came into Steve s bright 
 eyes; he thought himself the happiest man in 
 the world. Such a noble mother! and Jessie 
 also ! There was not a king nor kaiser he 
 would have changed places with. He could 
 not speak for very joy, but he lifted his 
 mother s hand and kissed it. 
 
 "You see," she continued, "it will be so 
 nice for you to have a pretty home of your own. 
 Jessie will like that, every good woman does, 
 and as I shall give you a fair salary, is there 
 anything to prevent your marriage taking place 
 very soon? If you look at to-day s newspaper 
 you will see that I have advertised for an agent. 
 I intended to give him two thousand dollars a 
 year. Will that sum satisfy you, Steve? I 
 hope so, for your salary will come out of the 
 money that is no longer mine, out of the 
 money that I must use as a steward. Mr. Tel- 
 ford thought two thousand dollars a year a 
 good salary for the work." 
 
 "It is more than good. I will be content 
 with much less." 
 
 ] 57
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "Right, for every one, is right. You will 
 have a wife to support." 
 
 "Jessie is very careful and prudent. She 
 has been used, not only to making money, but 
 to saving it. You would wonder if you knew 
 how economical she is." 
 
 "We shall see, we shall see, Steve. The 
 next thing is your home. You must take that 
 from me. I want you to have a pretty home. 
 A great deal of happiness depends upon it. 
 Steve, my boy, I do hope you are going to be 
 happy at last ! " 
 
 As she spoke she opened her desk, took out 
 her bank-book, and wrote a check for a thou 
 sand dollars. "A mother does not marry her 
 only son every day," she said, with a pleasant 
 laugh. "I may never have this good oppor 
 tunity again, Steve, so you must let me humour 
 my whim now. Here is a one thousar,;"; dollar 
 check. It will furnish such a house as you 
 need to begin life with." Then she walked to 
 her toilet table and lifted a handsome ring. 
 " Give that to Jessie, with my love, and go at 
 once, Steve, for I want you to begin work this 
 afternoon. " 
 
 "Darling mother! How can I thank you?" 
 
 " Your happy face thanks me. Your loving 
 heart thanks me. Now I will give you my 
 orders for this afternoon, and then you will not
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 have to come back here to-day. We must have 
 an office, Steve ; a pleasant room in some build 
 ing where you can put a safe for cash and pa 
 pers; a place to which all this mail can be sent, 
 where people on business can call and see you, 
 where contracts can be made and signed, and 
 so on. Hitherto I have used Mr. Telford s 
 office, but it is no longer proper or convenient; 
 so this afternoon rent a room, and buy a safe 
 and such office furniture as is necessary, no 
 extravagance, mind, and then to-morrow at 
 ten o clock report to me." 
 
 " Cannot I answer that pile of letters for 
 you before I go, mother ? " 
 
 " Not this morning. You are longing to tell 
 Jessie what a good thing has come to you. Go, 
 and be happy with her for an hour or two. To 
 day T will do this part of your work. And 
 now I must begin at once, so good-bye. I 
 shall see you every day now, Steve. What a 
 pleasure that will be ! One moment have you 
 seen your father? " 
 
 " Not yet. Do you wish me to see him ? " 
 
 "Yes. I think I would say a kind and 
 cheerful word to him. He loves you as well as 
 he can love any one, Steve; and he has not 
 been quite himself lately. Changes that even 
 I can notice have taken place lately. He 
 ought to give himself a holiday, a long holi-
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 day, and he will not. He ought to see a 
 good physician, and he will not." 
 
 " What changes have you noticed ? " 
 
 " A month ago he was so eccentric, and did 
 things that puzzled all of us. Twice this sum 
 mer he has had extraordinary fits of extrava 
 gance. His egotism and boasting about Lord 
 Medway s attentions to Alice are very unlike 
 your father, or else I have never known the 
 man. He has also assumed a slowness of 
 speech, which I suppose he thinks adds to his 
 dignity; but it does not. However, Alice 
 says he is much better the last three weeks, 
 so do not say anything to irritate him." 
 
 "I will not. Shall I tell him of my in 
 tended marriage ? " 
 
 " I would. For some reason he seems to 
 have taken a great liking to the McAslins. " 
 
 " What of my engagement in your affairs ? " 
 
 " Do not speak of that. We must wait a 
 little; a favourable opportunity will come." 
 
 Steve had walked very slowly and heavily 
 upstairs to the interview with his mother. It 
 was over, and he came down them as if he were 
 treading on air. Such good fortune seemed 
 almost incredible. Nothing that he could have 
 planned for himself would have been half so 
 consonant with the peculiar necessities of his 
 nature and ideas. And he could not help re- 
 160
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 fleeting, how all summer, while he was appa 
 rently drifting, his mother had been uncon 
 sciously working for him while she had thought 
 herself altogether working for others. But not 
 until that very morning scarce half an hour 
 before his visit had it struck her that the 
 needed overseer and agent might well be her 
 own son. Thus it is always in life ordered by 
 God. We build, and we build far better than 
 we know or intend, for the Master s hand is 
 invisibly directing and controlling events to 
 far nobler ends than our own wisdom or fore 
 sight had intended. 
 
 Swift as light these thoughts passed through 
 Steve s mind; they induced a momentary fer 
 vour, and he did not perceive the opening of the 
 parlour door until his father came slowly out 
 into the hall. They met at the foot of the 
 stairs, and Steve said in the cheerful voice of 
 one who has a heart at ease, 
 "Good-morning, father." 
 " You ! Where have you come from ? " 
 " From the Baltic and the Mediterranean." 
 "From Jupiter and dreamland! Tut, sir! 
 And pray where are you going to now ? " 
 " I am going to stay in New York." 
 " Tired of roaming at last ? " 
 " Yes. I am going to be married." 
 " Tip-top folly ! How are you going to sup- 
 ii 161
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 port a wife ? Whoever the girl may be I am 
 sorry for her. You must know that she mar 
 ries you because you are my son. She thinks 
 you will have plenty of money." 
 
 " She does not know I am your son. She is 
 marrying me because she loves me." 
 
 " I hope you are going to make her a decent 
 living." 
 
 "I hope so." 
 
 " Very well, then, go down to the office with 
 me this morning. I have to hire a stranger to 
 do the work you ought to be glad to do for me. 
 What are you hesitating about ? " 
 
 "The old trouble, father. You know all 
 about it. Why should we open that question 
 again? There are so many things we can talk 
 pleasantly about." 
 
 "There is only one question between you 
 and me. We must settle that question first. 
 Come, Steve, I have never let any one sit at 
 your old desk. I always thought you would 
 come back to it." 
 
 " I can never go back to my old desk, father. 
 I wish you would put it out of your sight and 
 your memory. Besides, I have at present some 
 other work, which will take up the whole of my 
 time for I know not how long. Father, forgive me 
 that I cannot be what you would like me to be." 
 
 "Then whatever did you come here for?" 
 162
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 And a torrent of passionate words fell from his 
 trembling lips, after this question, words that 
 shocked and shamed, and that fell like stones 
 on Steve s heart. He was confounded by the 
 anger he had raised, and as he opened his 
 mouth to try to soothe the wrathful man, 
 Alice appeared. She stood between her father 
 and Steve, though it was with some displeasure 
 she asked her brother " why he came home, if he 
 had nothing but disagreeable news to tell, and 
 nothing to do but put his sick father in a passion. " 
 So quickly does trouble tread on the heels 
 of joy ! So quickly does disappointment shadow 
 the glory of hope ! Steve had to suffer both, 
 for when he reached home, he found that Jessie 
 had unexpectedly received a visit from an old 
 friend whose home was in Princeton, and had 
 gone back with her for a couple of days. There 
 was a loving little note for Steve, but the writ 
 ten words did not atone for the delicious expec 
 tations that had lost their first grace in anger 
 and delay. However, Steve accepted the cir 
 cumstances which he could not alter as cheer 
 fully as possible, for many experiences had 
 taught him how often 
 
 All earthly pleasures vanish thus : 
 So little hold of them have we, 
 
 That we from them, or they from us, 
 May in a moment ravished be. 
 163
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 It was well that he had his mother s com 
 missions to attend to. They occupied him all 
 the afternoon, and in the evening he looked 
 forward to John s society. He intended then 
 to reveal his real name and position, and prove 
 that he had deserved the confidence and friend^ 
 ship that had been so freely given him. But 
 John did not return to dinner, and Steve, re 
 membering his father s anger, concluded that 
 the business and correspondence of the day had 
 been delayed by it. If it had not been for the 
 ring and the check in his pocket, he might have 
 doubted the hopes of the morning, so quickly 
 and absolutely had they been dashed by disap 
 pointments. He even fancied that Mr. and 
 Mrs. McAslin were less friendly than usual; 
 so much so, that he had not the heart to tell 
 them anything, and was glad to recollect a 
 trades meeting in whose affairs John had ex 
 pressed an interest. It was not unlikely he had 
 gone there directly from Mr. Lloyd s, and 
 pretty certain that he would visit the men 
 some time during the evening. 
 
 In some respects these suppositions were 
 correct. John had been detained. Mr. Lloyd 
 had found it impossible to attend to business 
 with his usual devotion. In spite of himself, 
 his interview with Steve troubled him. He 
 could not forget his son s happy face and cor- 
 164
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 dial gladness of manner, nor yet his own brutal 
 interruption of their discussion. A vague feel 
 ing that he was " not master of himself " at the 
 time made him tremble with apprehension. 
 He clung to John and talked to him of many 
 things apart from their ordinary affairs; and 
 when John finally rose to leave, Mr. Lloyd 
 said "he would walk down the avenue with 
 him." 
 
 A newsboy passed them immediately, calling 
 " Extra ! The Great Strike ! Extra ! " and Mr. 
 Lloyd stopped and bought a paper. " What 
 folly!" he said. "The mice might as well 
 rise against the cats as labour against capital. 
 These men are only consuming their savings 
 and the funds of their union. " 
 
 "It will be a long strike," said John, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 "All the worse for the strikers then," 
 answered Mr. Lloyd. "Their strength lies in 
 the beginning of a fight and is exhausted as it 
 proceeds. The employer dreads most the 
 breaking up of contracts and the suspension of 
 work ; but as soon as the first shock is over, he 
 makes new arrangements, and the strike s con 
 tinuance does not trouble him. He has suf 
 fered the worst and can bide his time. You 
 know what biding their time means to the 
 strikers? "
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " It means hunger, and sickness, and trouble 
 of every kind," said John. 
 
 "And when you have talked till you are 
 tired, the last meaning of it all is that to 
 attack capital is to diminish wages; right or 
 wrong, that is the end of it." 
 
 "I don t think so," was John s reply to Mr. 
 Lloyd. " It is an old theory that wages are 
 paid out of capital, and that to increase wages 
 you must increase capital. I don t think in 
 any dispute between masters and men, the 
 question as to whether the capital sunk is suffi 
 cient to increase wages is ever raised, the 
 dispute is whether prices will allow of the in 
 crease. The men then look to production, not 
 to capital, as the fund out of which wages are 
 to be paid. That, however, is not the ques 
 tion now. I do not see what this strike will 
 accomplish. There is no necessity for it. 
 Work is plentiful and wages are not bad. They 
 will have no public sympathy. It is the wrong 
 time," said John, with an air of worry. 
 
 "That is just it. When other people have 
 a good market before them, they set themselves 
 to make the best of it. Working-men, driven 
 by their unions, choose that lucky period for 
 strikes and idleness. But they can t coerce 
 customers as they do employers; and by all 
 that s fair and just, there is a point when even 
 1 66
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 employers will abandon work that does not pay 
 them." 
 
 " Is it not right that working-men should do 
 what they think best for themselves ? " 
 
 " A conspiracy against free labour is not good 
 for any one, John McAslin. Why do you stand 
 still ? " 
 
 "To say good-night, sir. I turn eastward 
 here." 
 
 " Are you going home ? " 
 
 "No; I am going to a Socialist meeting." 
 
 " I should like to go with you." 
 
 "You may hear some unpleasant truths, sir." 
 
 "Still, I would like to go if you have no 
 objections." 
 
 John said he had none, and the two men 
 walked across the city together. " I want to 
 know what your Socialism means, John," said 
 Mr. Lloyd. " Of course, I know that it looks 
 to an entire change of society." 
 
 " If Socialism meant only a change of society 
 without a change of its heart, it would mean no 
 change at all, except on the surface. Socialism 
 means a changed conception of human life, a 
 higher conception of human dignity." 
 
 " Is humanity not dignified enough ? " 
 
 "No. We want a dignity that will scorn to 
 claim what it has not earned, a dignity that 
 will not feel itself degraded by any kind of 
 167
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 honest labour. Socialism means the simplify 
 ing of life as much as possible. It means the 
 defence of all weak members of the great human 
 family; it means courage to live by our per 
 sonal convictions; it means charity for the 
 failings of others; in short, it means the appli 
 cation of the Christianity of the first century 
 to the daily life of the nineteenth century." 
 
 As well as the noise and confusion of the 
 streets would permit, this argument was con 
 tinued until they reached their destination. A 
 group of men stood before it, smoking; John 
 said a few words to them in an undertone, and 
 then assisted Mr. Lloyd up the narrow, dimly 
 lighted stairway. He was quite excited by his 
 adventure, and he said to himself and meant 
 it "this is far better than sitting alone plan 
 ning and worrying." 
 
 The room, a fairly large one, was well filled, 
 even to the door. Nothing could be less in 
 viting than its general appearance. The seats 
 were of unpainted wood, and the solitary iron 
 gas-burners protruded at intervals from the 
 bare, plastered walls, and yet the humanity 
 filling it gave to these meagre appointments a 
 visible and unquestionable dignity and inter 
 est. John appeared to be well known and well 
 liked. Men made way cheerfully for him, and 
 a youth rose and gave Mr. Lloyd his seat. It 
 1 68
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 was a voluntary mark of respect for age; noth 
 ing was known of his wealth or influence. 
 
 Then John was aware of some strong feeling 
 agitating the whole assembly, a feeling of 
 anger and dissent, and lifting his eyes to the 
 platform, he saw Steve standing aggressively 
 in front of the audience, his hands in his 
 pockets, his head thrown forward a little, his 
 lips tight set, his eyes flashing with that elec 
 tric spark that distinguishes the modern eye. 
 
 "You have nothing to fear, sir," said John 
 to his companion, for he saw Mr. Lloyd s face 
 pale, and a visible tremor pass down his large 
 body. "I know that speaker. It is his delight 
 to see how far he can stir these men up. He 
 has been defying them now about something or 
 other. I know he has. Look at him ! " 
 
 It was easy to look at the handsome, disdain 
 ful youth, for he seemed to stand alone, and to 
 thoroughly enjoy the storm he had raised. It 
 was the more remarkable because of its silence. 
 Hisses and groans would have been less dis 
 maying to most men than the still wrath of that 
 voiceless crowd. Evidently he was waiting for 
 the words which no one had the courage or the 
 ability to give him. 
 
 "Nothing to say!" he ejaculated. "Of 
 course you have nothing to say. Then I will 
 tell you once more that it is all muddish non- 
 169
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 sense, our clamouring about our rights. We 
 don t know how to use the rights we have. 
 Talk about shorter hours! Hadn t we better 
 give up working altogether? Most of us have 
 already found out how little work we can do in 
 our present hours. Who ever sees a good day s 
 work done in these times ? We should be far 
 more ashamed of it than of doing real bad work. 
 I ll tell you what! We are a lot of dishonour 
 able idlers, who take money for work we do 
 not do." 
 
 "It s a lie! A lie as big as the United 
 States ! " shouted a man from the audience. 
 
 "It s the solid truth," retorted Steve. 
 "Denying truth doesn t make truth a lie. I 
 know it s the truth, for I m in with you. 
 There is not a bigger idler anywhere than I am. 
 But I like justice, it is a sixth sense with me; 
 I like justice for every man, I don t care 
 whether he is rich or poor. And I say that 
 just as long as we take money for work we do 
 not do, we can hold our tongues about rich 
 men living on interest and dividends. We 
 are birds of the same feather. Sweep the cob 
 webs out of your brains, and give rich and poor 
 alike fair play." 
 
 " Do you mean to say, Steve Morrison, that 
 a poor, badly paid working-man, taking his 
 work as easy as he can, is as big a thief as 
 170
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 well, say, old Nicholas Lloyd, gormandising 
 and drinking and sleeping, while a lot of poor 
 souls are sweating and worrying to make his 
 interests and dividends? " 
 
 "Six of one and half a dozen of the other," 
 answered Steve, with a complaisant smile. "I 
 happen to have done something for the rich 
 man you name. He isn t a worse sort than 
 the crowd of us in this room. He does riot 
 gormandise; his servants eat far richer food 
 than others, and twenty times more of it. Sup 
 pose he does drink, are all of us strictly 
 temperate? As for poor men sweating and 
 worrying about their work, I don t know any 
 that do it; but I do happen to know that Nich 
 olas Lloyd can t sleep of nights for worrying 
 about his investments. Do any of us want to 
 join the dividend dance of the present day? I 
 should say not ! Do we want to welter down 
 to idiocy? Do we want the shadow of paresis 
 following us to a premature grave? You 
 imagine these kings of the stock market build 
 palaces. No, they build private asylums. We 
 may as well let the rich man and his troubles 
 alone; he has plenty of them." 
 
 "He has that," said Mr. Lloyd, thumping 
 his stick on the floor and drawing on himself 
 the curious gaze of many eyes. 
 
 "He does not know what freedom is," con- 
 171
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 tinued Steve. "He is the prisoner of society; 
 he is the prisoner of his very servants. He 
 can t whistle or sing on the street or shout 
 across it to a friend; it would not be respec 
 table. He can t put a bundle on a stick and 
 take a long tramp with nature. We can. The 
 rich man has to wear particular clothes at par 
 ticular times, and in particular ways. Which 
 of us would do that ? Their trusteeships and 
 their bonds and scrip, and their lawyer s visits 
 and their dyspepsia, and gout, and biliousness, 
 and nervous prostration, ought to make us fear 
 the sight of gold, but it does n t. We are as 
 mad after it as they are. We are a lot of 
 frauds altogether one as bad as the other 
 and Socialism won t save us; no, not by the 
 whole circumference of the world." 
 
 He poured out these words with such passion 
 and fluency that no one interrupted, though 
 many rose to their feet to do so. As soon as 
 he stopped there was an angry clamour, a shout, 
 the forward movement of disputing men, the 
 muttering wrath of those that remained behind. 
 Mr. Lloyd was greatly excited ; he rose to his 
 feet, he called out loudly, " Steve ! Steve ! 
 John McAslin, let me go to Steve ! I want to 
 tell these born idiots the truth for once. " 
 
 " Sit down, sir ! Sit down, sir ! We are 
 going to have trouble, I fear." The next 
 172
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 moment he called to a man in front of him, 
 " Franz Fontaine, sing these noisy men quiet, 
 or there will be more than the music to pay." 
 
 Then a bright little Frenchman stood up on 
 his chair, and in tones of sonorous melody 
 began the "Marseillaise." Some one else in 
 stantly started the " Star Spangled Banner," and 
 Steve cried out in a voice full of mockery and 
 command, " Stop that music ! We will not have 
 the Marseillaise flirting with our national 
 hymn. John McAslin, you know what we 
 want, and if you can t start it I will," and with 
 his bright face aglow, and smiling and stepping 
 to its majestic swing and music, Steve rolled 
 out the battle hymn of Christian Socialism : 
 
 The day of the Lord is at hand, at hand; 
 
 Its storms roll up the sky; 
 The nations sleep starving on heaps of gold, 
 
 The dreamers all toss and sigh. 
 The night is darkest before the morn, 
 When the pain is sorest the child is born : 
 
 And the day of the Lord is at hand ! 
 
 Gather you, gather you, angels of God. 
 
 Freedom, mercy, and truth ! 
 Come, for the earth is grown coward and old, 
 
 Come down and renew us her youth. 
 Wisdom, self-sacrifice, daring, and love ! 
 Haste to the battle-field, stoop from above, 
 
 To the day of the Lord at hand ! 
 
 173
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Steve came down to his friend singing the 
 last line. He was having what he considered 
 a glorious time, and he looked radiantly tri 
 umphant as the fervent, confident words fell 
 sharply to his footsteps. Mr. Lloyd rose as he 
 advanced. He was full of excitement, and 
 hesitated, as he regarded Steve, between anger 
 and approbation. Steve broke the last word of 
 his song in two when he saw his father, but 
 he made no effort to escape the impending 
 interview. 
 
 "Steve, you did pretty well," said the old 
 gentleman. " I have a great mind to forgive 
 you. Go to the platform again, Steve, and I 
 will go with you. I can tell these people their 
 faults as well as you can, and it is only fair 
 some rich man had an opportunity with them." 
 
 "No, sir," answered John, quickly. "It 
 would not do at all. Besides, the members are 
 dispersing. I am sure also that you are very 
 much tired." 
 
 " I never enjoyed a night so much in my 
 life. It has been the best kind of entertain 
 ment. John McAslin, this is my son, Stephen 
 Lloyd." 
 
 "We know each other well already, sir," 
 answered Steve. "John and I are brothers. I 
 am engaged to marry John s sister, Jessie." 
 
 " Then you are a very lucky fellow."
 
 STEVE S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 But John said nothing. A sudden reserve 
 attacked him ; he left Mr. Lloyd in the care of 
 his son and went thoughtfully home. Steve s 
 reticence regarding his family did not please 
 him. Under the circumstances he thought he 
 ought to have been more confidential. He 
 would much rather have had no acquaintance 
 ship between Alice and Steve. He feared this 
 relationship would be an injury to his own 
 hopes. For love quickens the apprehension, 
 and he had long perceived that Alice had lost 
 much of her liking for his sister Jessie. He 
 therefore understood, without reasoning on the 
 matter, that she would be very apt to think her 
 brother s marriage to Jessie was "enough of 
 the McAslins. " And this feminine probability 
 so exercised his heart, that the perilous fas 
 cination of "knowing the worst of it" took 
 possession of his intellect, and he resolved, on 
 the first opportunity, to put to Alice the ques 
 tion on which his whole future happiness 
 depended. 
 
 75
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " I MUST SEE JESSIE." 
 
 IT was Jessie and Steve s wedding-day, and 
 they sat together in the McAslin flat, talking 
 over their last preparations. Their own beauti 
 ful home was ready for occupancy, and after 
 the ceremony they were going to it. Steve 
 had ordered the flowers for its decoration ; the 
 table was laid for their wedding dinner; a 
 capable servant was at that moment cooking it. 
 There was a rapture of love on Steve s hand 
 some face as he drew his bride toward him, and 
 an adorable shyness and answering tenderness 
 on Jessie s. 
 
 "We shall meet no more until we meet in 
 God s house," said Steve. "I shall take you, 
 darling, as from his very hand. " And then he 
 drew her closer to his heart, and kissed her fair 
 face with a fervid and solemn affection. 
 
 Affairs had gone very well with Steve after 
 
 those memorable interviews with his mother 
 
 and father. He took to the work provided for 
 
 him, and gave it a supersensitive attention. 
 
 176
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 Nor did he dislike it. There was a variety 
 of interest and a constant movement, which 
 afforded scope for his restless disposition. To 
 be sure, the recurrence of certain duties at cer 
 tain hours made him often impatient, but as 
 yet he had never given way to that impulse 
 which longed to defy whatever in life was posi 
 tive and periodical. 
 
 There was also a better feeling between Mr. 
 Lloyd and his errant son. The older man 
 could not forget the bold recklessness of 
 Steve s philippic at the socialist meeting. 
 He liked it. He felt a pride in his manner 
 and his eloquence, and he smiled involuntarily 
 whenever he thought of Steve s defence of him 
 self, and his description of rich men in general. 
 Then he usually permitted his mind to wander 
 away in speculations which ended with the ad 
 mission, " Steve is no such fool as one would 
 think. He could manage my business, with 
 my advice, just as well as he does his mother s 
 trumpery benevolences if he would if he 
 would if his ideas about money were not 
 all aslip and aslant, and if he was not as 
 stubborn as a mule." So that as far as his 
 home went, many years had passed since 
 Steve had been able to visit it with so much 
 satisfaction. 
 
 But when it came to his actual marriage with 
 12 I77
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Jessie, Steve did not get the sympathy that he 
 expected. Both Mrs. Lloyd and Alice felt as 
 if there were hurry and mistake. When they 
 had first thought of a wife for Steve it was as 
 a last hope for his respectability; a kind of 
 heroic treatment for which there now appeared 
 no necessity. Jessie had gone out of date. 
 They felt it difficult to accept her. Good 
 women as they were, they were not above 
 imagining Jessie s pride and satisfaction in 
 finding out that she had captured the son of a 
 millionaire in entertaining an unknown guest 
 They spoke of it to themselves with little 
 sighs, and Alice, who had some imagination, 
 pictured Jessie s excitement and pride in a 
 variety of ways. 
 
 In reality the girl had taken the denouement 
 in a very different manner to any of Alice s 
 suppositions. On that night when Nicholas 
 Lloyd so unconsciously assisted in it, Steve, 
 after seeing his father home, went directly to 
 the McAslins to finish the explanation. It 
 was a litle difficult for John to accept it, but 
 he was honest enough to realise that his own 
 hopes about Alice made this difficulty. Steve 
 then went exhaustively into the circumstances 
 that had made him a wanderer ; and when John 
 complained, and with some reason, of the con 
 fidence withheld from his best friends, Steve 
 178
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 fortified his position by a positive assurance 
 that his only motive had been a desire to win 
 Jessie s affection without a suspicion of money 
 influencing her. He then explained the pur 
 pose, and the payment of his mother s proposal, 
 and showed the ring she had sent Jessie and 
 the check given for their home-making. 
 
 So John put the little selfish ache in his heart 
 down below all show of feeling, and gave Steve 
 his hand in token of their renewed friendship 
 and alliance. There had evidently been an 
 effort of some evil influence to thwart Steve s 
 happiness, but his clear honesty drove away all 
 suspicions. And pray, how many of us are 
 proof against the prospect and power of money? 
 Mr. and Mrs. McAslin were both excited over 
 the circumstance, Mrs. McAslin s pride being 
 also strongly tinctured with a pious sentimen 
 tality. Considering her early relations with 
 Nicholas Lloyd, and his cruelty to her, she 
 found it easy and satisfactory to relegate the 
 whole affair to a just and retributive Providence. 
 She was so anxious for Jessie s return that she 
 could not sleep by night nor eat by day, and 
 the solemn importance of her countenance im 
 pressed her daughter before she had taken the 
 pins out of her hat. 
 
 "What is the matter, mother?" she asked 
 nervously. " Has anything gone wrong? Has 
 179
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 any one done wrong? You look as if you had 
 more to carry than you could bear." 
 
 " A very strange thing has happened, Jessie. 
 We have found out something about Steve." 
 
 " You have found out nothing wrong, I am 
 sure, mother. I won t believe that you have 
 done that. I won t ! I won t ! " 
 
 " His name is not Morrison. Morrison is 
 only his middle name." 
 
 " What of that? I am going to marry Steve, 
 right or wrong, and I do not fear any wrong 
 that may come through him. If his name is not 
 Morrison, pray what is it?" 
 
 " Lloyd ! " 
 
 " Hum ! it might be worse, and it might be 
 better ; that is, if names have any influence over 
 the people that bear them. I wonder if he is 
 any relative of the Nicholas Lloyds ? " 
 
 " He is the son of Nicholas Lloyd." 
 
 " Oh! the brother of Alice Lloyd, then?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I am rather glad of it. That accounts for 
 much and sundry!" Poor Jessie! Her face 
 flushed rosy, her whole attitude became suffused 
 with a well-controlled but haughty satisfaction. 
 She felt that she must be alone in order to 
 realise properly the good fortune that had come 
 to her. 
 
 When Steve came home to dinner she was 
 1 80
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 shy but gracious. She had put on her best 
 dress and given her appearance an air of holi 
 day. He took her part at once. He gave her 
 his mother s ring and message, and showed 
 her the generous check which was to prepare 
 their home. The interest of all this was so 
 wonderful and so great that dinner was half 
 over when they came hand in hand to the table. 
 Their eyes were shining with happy tears ; they 
 were above and beyond hunger; they had had 
 food to eat that God gives but rarely in life 
 the food of heaven the satisfying joy of per 
 fect love. Indeed, they could talk as little as 
 they could eat. They were too happy to say 
 how happy they were. But it was Steve only 
 that felt that sensitive deprecation of great hap 
 piness which fears to wound by too much evi 
 dence of joy before those who are less fortunate. 
 The weeks which followed these incidents 
 were weeks of unparalleled pleasure to Jessie. 
 She selected her own home, an uptown flat, 
 with all the adornments and conveniences which 
 have taught people with limited incomes un 
 limited extravagance. Then she necessarily 
 furnished it up to the walls, and mantels, and 
 mirrors, showing such exquisite taste and de 
 light in the work that Steve could not find it in 
 his heart to name the expense to her. Her 
 wedding garments also were to order, and be- 
 181
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 tween the house and the modiste, she found 
 herself every night exceedingly weary and ex 
 ceedingly happy. A street costume of dark 
 silk that could do service afterwards had been 
 Jessie s first idea of a wedding gown, but the 
 house so enlarged her conceptions of what was 
 beautiful and proper, that the dark silk was 
 given up for white satin. Then the small home 
 wedding, with only their most intimate friends 
 present, was resigned; the white satin dress 
 asked for a church ceremonial, to which every 
 one she knew could be invited. 
 
 These changes came so naturally and so 
 gradually, and were so bewitchingly advised, 
 that Steve had no power to deny his sanction. 
 " You see, Steve," she argued, " anybody can 
 go to a church. There will be no sense of deg 
 radation in going there, but your family would 
 not like to come to a little flat near St. Mark s 
 Place, and it would be a great pity to begin our 
 relationship with a sense of scorn and a feeling 
 of unkindness. We must keep good friends, eh, 
 dear?" 
 
 This argument seemed reasonable to Steve. 
 He could find nothing to say against it. The 
 church being granted, it naturally demanded 
 the accessories of a church wedding. Jessie 
 affirmed it, and Steve s own experience proved 
 her assertion. This point gained, it followed 
 182
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 that all her old pupils, all her friends and ac 
 quaintances, every respectable person she knew, 
 must swell the crowd who would gather on the 
 seventh of February to do her honour. 
 
 Nothing could possibly have been more at 
 variance with Steve s desires and opinions. He 
 thought, with grim smiles, of his socialist con 
 freres, and imagined the words they would say 
 to him. He thought of himself tramping 
 through the Rockies and riddling and singing to 
 the birds. He thought of himself driving cattle, 
 working before the mast, cutting wheat, rolling 
 barrels, in fact in every antagonistic condition 
 that he had filled. But he could not smile at 
 the contrast; he was too much in love to oppose 
 Jessie s desires in anything, and he told himself 
 that it was the obvious duty of the bridegroom 
 to submit to every whim of the bride, yet 
 somehow the vision of Hercules with a distaff 
 instead of a club always slipped into these 
 reminiscences. 
 
 The seventh of February brought this condi 
 tion of enthusiastic devotion to a climax. Steve 
 would have sworn on that morning that all and 
 everything was a too small concession to the 
 satin-robed, bewitching little woman who laid 
 her hand in his with such a charming confi 
 dence. At that moment, neither of them knew 
 or cared who was, or who was not, present. 
 183
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 But the outside world noticed that Mrs. Lloyd 
 alone represented Steve s immediate family, and 
 the criticisms on this shabby support were as 
 various as the people uttering them. 
 
 " Old Lloyd was afraid he would have to give 
 a big check." 
 
 " The girl was a music teacher, and Mrs. Lloyd 
 a Valliante. The Valliantes are a very proud 
 family. I don t suppose the Lloyds have any 
 family to talk of." 
 
 " But so few people have." 
 
 " We must speak as we know. My own fam 
 ily is very, very old. I wonder at Miss Lloyd s 
 absence. She is said to be so amiable." 
 
 " She adored her brother. Girls who adore 
 their brother do not usually adore that brother s 
 wife." 
 
 " Do you think so ? Now my sister-in-law wor 
 ships me. She asks my advice about everything." 
 
 " What a phenomenon ! You are to be hugely 
 congratulated." 
 
 " I heard Miss Lloyd was sick." 
 
 " She has chagrin. You know she is engaged 
 or was engaged to Lord Medway." 
 
 " Oh ! that match is off, I assure you. Here 
 comes the bride ! Is she not pretty? " 
 
 " Is that Steve Lloyd ? Why ! how changed 
 he is ! The man is positively and audaciously 
 handsome."
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 " Gentlemanly, too ; and I have heard such 
 dreadful reports about him." 
 
 " Hush ! The service begins." 
 
 And what a marvellous service it was to 
 Steve ! Mystical, wonderful words that gave 
 him the right to take from her father and 
 mother, and brother and sister, the woman he 
 loved, and bind her to his own life and soul for 
 ever. He was conscious of nothing but this stu 
 pendous gift and obligation. The words of the 
 officiating minister beat on his ears and heart as 
 if they came from afar off, and with some special 
 authority. He was astonished at his own voice, 
 and the slipping of the ring on Jessie s hand was 
 a miracle of grace. Jessie was at last his wife. 
 A delicious destiny led them to a waiting car 
 riage ; they entered it with happy words in their 
 ears ; they were alone in the travel and traffic of 
 the streets, and anon, they stepped over the 
 threshold of their own home. The world bade 
 them Godspeed ! and left them, and their future 
 happiness was in their own hands. 
 
 The suppositions of the company regarding 
 the absence of Mr. Lloyd and Miss Lloyd were 
 as correct as suppositions usually are. Nicholas 
 Lloyd whose behaviour had been lately more 
 and more erratic and contradictory gave no 
 reason for absenting himself from his son s mar 
 riage, except a general disapproval of his son s 
 185
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 conduct. " Steve will do nothing to please me," 
 he said to Steve s mother, " and therefore he has 
 no right to expect anything from me." Alice s 
 absence was absolutely beyond her control. 
 She was prostrate with a nervous headache, 
 which did not suffer her to move, or speak, or 
 endure the light. She said truly enough, that 
 if it had been her own wedding service, she 
 could not have been present. The world, how 
 ever, put its own construction on her absence, 
 and John was not more charitable. He believed 
 that she remained away to prevent meeting him 
 under circumstances which would demand if not 
 familiarity, at least a show of friendliness. 
 
 For the admitted relationship of Steve to his 
 sister had produced precisely the effects John 
 foresaw. Alice did not really say " This is 
 enough of the McAslins," but she felt it, and she 
 permitted herself to act upon that feeling. She 
 kept out of John s way. If forced to meet him, 
 she withdrew her sweetest self, and gave him 
 only a polite courtesy which he had no power to 
 refuse, and yet which he felt to be a great 
 cruelty when offered in lieu of those nameless 
 evidences of interest yes, of affection which 
 had sweetened his life and made his days one 
 bright hope. 
 
 The injustice of her action was a conscious 
 one. She regretted the wrong, she frequently 
 186
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 resolved to atone for it, she wondered why she 
 should make herself and John miserable because 
 she had taken a dislike to Jessie ; but a perverse 
 spirit ruled her whenever an opportunity of 
 fered of putting the wrong right. Honestly she 
 had intended to make the marriage ceremony a 
 kind of day of atonement ; she had prepared a 
 dress of wonderful beauty to emphasise her sub 
 mission to events, and then all her kind inten 
 tions were frustrated by circumstances quite be 
 yond her control. 
 
 Her experiences in society during the winter 
 had also greatly embarrassed her attitude 
 towards John McAslin. She had been ques 
 tioned and twitted and congratulated about the 
 Medway affair, until she felt it would require a 
 great effort to escape the net of circumstances 
 binding her to it. There were days when she 
 did not think she cared to make this effort, when 
 luxurious appointments and beautiful living and 
 the glamour of riches and honours were set in 
 such sharp contrast to poverty, and all the 
 unlovely straits of life, that to prevent contact 
 with or even knowledge of them seemed a 
 personal duty. God had set her in pleasant 
 places, why should she then go down into the 
 valley of Baca and make it a well, or else suffer 
 its misery and drought? was the almost angry 
 question in her heart. 
 
 187
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 John divined this struggle in the girl s feel 
 ings, for a pure love knows best of all the 
 things that are never told. But he made no 
 attempt to interfere ; he knew that Alice s de 
 cision to bring happiness to them must be self- 
 evolved. And yet while his dearest hopes 
 were thus held in abeyance he did not suffer 
 as Alice did. The longing for John s respect 
 and regard never left her heart; never once 
 did she feel that his opinion " made no dif 
 ference." On the contrary, her first thought 
 about every event that touched her was, " What 
 will John think of it?" This pervading quality 
 in love is essentially a feminine attribute ; the 
 great majority of men remain unconscious of 
 the strength of their affections, for their occupa 
 tions prevent them making them, as women do, 
 the subject of their constant contemplation. 
 So, then, while Alice s love flavoured all the 
 small exercises and social functions of her days, 
 John s though of really more vigorous and 
 potent character was compelled to give place 
 to duties that were necessary and imperative. 
 
 Indeed, his duties as regarded Mr. Lloyd had 
 gradually assumed not only a very extensive, 
 but also a very grave character. It was impos 
 sible any longer to ignore the changes that had 
 taken place in the man. These changes, re 
 mittent and insidious, had puzzled John so much 
 188
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 at first that he had come to believe there were 
 two Nicholas Lloyds, and that sometimes the 
 one and sometimes the other had the ascend 
 ancy. One of these was a prudent, forecasting, 
 far-seeing business man; the other a reckless, 
 plunging, visionary speculator. One was a man 
 of extreme dignity, inclined to avarice, reticent 
 and reserved ; the other was a practical joker, 
 boastful, extravagant, and egotistical. The latter 
 character at the beginning of his engagement 
 came only very seldom to the front, but it had 
 now become alarmingly evident, and in the 
 early summer John felt that Mrs. Lloyd s at 
 tention, if not already drawn to the fact, ought 
 to be aroused. 
 
 One day, while these thoughts were forced 
 upon him, a letter from Lord Medway arrived. 
 Mr. Lloyd was greatly excited. He read it to 
 John with such extravagant comments as " She 
 must be willing I 11 have no drawbacks now 
 I 11 give her all I promised and ten times more 
 I 11 give her the State of New York if he 
 wants it she is going to be a lady. She may 
 become a countess she may be anything she 
 likes I ll find the cash for it John, I want 
 you to write to Lord Medway at once No, 
 I 11 write myself. I 11 double Miss Lloyd s 
 fortune " 
 
 " Sir, permit me to write for you," said John. 
 189
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " It is not well to let these Englishmen value 
 themselves too much." 
 
 " To be sure," he answered with a sudden 
 caution. " I thought last year he did not think 
 enough of my girl and my money." 
 
 " He could not, sir, for the first article of the 
 creed in which Lord Medway has been brought 
 up is, the inherent superiority of Englishmen. 
 They not only call all other nations foreigners, 
 but they feel that their existence is an anomaly 
 hard to be explained, without discrediting a 
 wise and good Providence." 
 
 " Come, come, John ! You are too hard. 
 Medway is a fine fellow ; and any woman that 
 marries him is a fortunate woman. I will an 
 swer him myself." 
 
 There was then no more to be said ; but that 
 afternoon John went out to Lloyd Park to see 
 Mrs. Lloyd. She received him with enthu 
 siasm. She was honestly glad to see him, and 
 she let him feel her pleasure. Then she en 
 tered at once into a description of what she had 
 accomplished and of what she was doing. John 
 told her he had seen her new " Homes " and 
 said they were all that could be desired. He 
 did not tell her, however, how severely he had 
 heard working-men and women criticise them. 
 He did not tell her that the children quite 
 neglected the play-room she had made for 
 190
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 them, and still played, by preference, in the 
 streets. He did not tell her that the women 
 refused to use the common laundry, and reso 
 lutely did their washing in their kitchens. He 
 could have pointed out these and many other 
 disagreeable results of her efforts, but since 
 Steve had not named them, he also kept silent. 
 
 He understood Steve s motive, for one day 
 he said to him very despondently: "John, I 
 see that men and women have to be taught to 
 Love order and cleanliness. They are no more 
 natural products than are honour and truth. 
 Here and there a soul brings such attributes 
 into the world with it; but mostly, they have to 
 be acquired. And when men and women have 
 learned dirty, slovenly ways, how can you 
 expect them to undo old habits, and learn new 
 ones by simply putting them into new condi 
 tions? It won t work." Then John had asked : 
 "What is to be done, Steve? Can you not 
 reason with them?" and Steve had answered: 
 
 " Reason with ignorant men and women set 
 in their own ways and opinions? You might 
 as well go about to convince a bull ! I have 
 come to the decision that progress is a plant 
 that grows very slowly. We can t have an era 
 per annum, John; and yet the temper of to-day 
 looks to results, and to results rapidly achieved. 
 Do we take centuries to raise elaborate cathe- 
 191
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 drals now? No, we build our modern churches 
 on contract. That illustrates our ideals ; whether 
 they be good or bad, I am not prepared to say." 
 
 Steve made these remarks with such an air of 
 despondency and utter weariness that it troubled 
 John for many days, and this feeling was renewed 
 on his visit to Mrs. Lloyd s, for he met Steve in 
 the park with just the same dissatisfied expres 
 sion. 
 
 "What is the matter with you, Steve?" he 
 asked, laying his arm across his brother-in-law s 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Oh, John, how good it is to see you ! 
 What is the matter? The old, tired-of-every- 
 thing feeling. Life is such a monotonous grind, 
 for no good end, that I can see. Here is 
 mother wasting her money and her life, and 
 not one of the people she is trying to help 
 cares whether she lives or dies." 
 
 " Gratitude is the last virtue learned, Steve. 
 Your mother is not working for the gratitude 
 of any man or woman, or she might as well give 
 up at once. I am sorry she is not well. Your 
 father, I think, is seriously ill. He ought to go 
 away from business of every kind. Travel 
 might be good for Mrs. Lloyd also. I am 
 going to speak to her about it. How is Jessie ? " 
 
 "Well but " 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 192
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 " Nothing she has the disease also." 
 
 "What disease?" 
 
 " She is out of love with life. That some 
 thing that infects the world has touched her as 
 well as the rest of us. We are a lot of dissatis 
 fied creatures. There are so many things to 
 want now, and we want them all. I would like 
 to be in the heart of the mountains to-day with 
 a crust and a fiddle, and a stream of running 
 water." He laughed as he said the words, and 
 went off at his usual swinging pace, with a back 
 ward look at John full of feeling. And John 
 was more troubled than he had been before. 
 Steve was changed. How he was changed he 
 could not instantly say, his clear face reflected 
 such a complexity of emotion ; but as he went 
 forward to Mrs. Lloyd s room he suddenly said 
 to himself, and without any reasoning towards 
 the decision, " I must see Jessie." 
 
 This thought was with him all the time he 
 was listening to Mrs. Lloyd s plans and expec 
 tations. Of Steve s depression she said nothing, 
 so that it was likely Steve had kept his trouble 
 whatever it was to himself, and John felt 
 no obligation to bring it to her notice. He 
 spoke, however, with great emphasis about 
 Mr. Lloyd s eccentricities, which he said 
 " could be no longer regarded as peculiarities 
 of temperament." 
 
 3 i93
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "You think he is ill?" 
 
 "I do. Lord Medway s letter to-day excited 
 him very much." 
 
 "Ah! Did you see the letter? What was 
 its purport? Why did it excite him? " 
 
 " Mr. Lloyd read me the letter. Lord Med- 
 way desires to fulfil his engagement with Miss 
 Lloyd." 
 
 " There is no engagement between them." 
 
 " Lord Medway believes there is." 
 
 " Such engagements depend finally on the 
 lady. Miss Lloyd has made no decision. I 
 ought to know that, and I do know that. I 
 thank you for the information you give me 
 concerning Mr. Lloyd s health. I have long 
 been watching the same peculiarities. Advise 
 him, I beg you, to see Dr. Anson at once. I 
 will do the same. If he will not go to the doc 
 tor then the doctor must be sent to him, and 
 he must be compelled to listen to the truth." 
 She laid her face in her hands, and her atti 
 tude of sorrowful abstraction gave John excuse 
 enough to quietly leave her presence. 
 
 He took a certain path through the garden, 
 leading to a small shady lawn much frequented 
 by Alice. She was sitting as he hoped she 
 would be under the trees. Her sewing lay 
 on the grass at her feet. She had a letter in 
 her hand. He looked at her with all his soul 
 194
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 in his eyes. There was a change even in her. 
 She was no longer the lovely maid with heart 
 untouched, singing and smiling in the morning 
 of life. A shadow of trouble and perplexity 
 was on her face, and John caught this expression 
 before she saw him coming, and it gave him some 
 confidence and comfort. For he knew intui 
 tively that the letter in her hand was from Lord 
 Medvvay, and that she was thinking about its 
 contents, and yet the expression on her face 
 was not that of a woman dreaming happily of 
 her lover ; it was that of one who weighs and 
 considers, who is perplexed and suffers, and is 
 in a strait betwixt two. 
 
 She rose as John came near her and slipped 
 the letter into her work-bag. The trees, bending 
 and swaying above her, had a look as irresolute 
 as herself as she stood waiting for John s ap 
 proach. They met silently, and she was the first 
 to speak. The words were all questions : her 
 hand trembled as it lay in John s hand, and she 
 was nervously at the point of tears. 
 
 " Have you been well? Is it not a fine day? 
 Have you seen mother and the bees as you 
 came by the limes, are they not busy? " she 
 asked with that pretence of interest which would 
 fain believe itself the true one. 
 
 John answered none of these questions. He 
 said simply: "Will you sit down again or do
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 you prefer to walk? I have something to say 
 to you." 
 
 She sat down and John stood leaning against 
 the tree at her side. " Alice," he said, " I came 
 here purposely to find you. Unfaithfulness is 
 a thing I have never understood, yours least of 
 all. Tell me before we part forever what I said 
 or did to deserve your anger or indifference." 
 
 " Do not say indifference. I have never 
 been indifferent to you, never since the hour we 
 met. Some things have angered or annoyed me, 
 and others have drawn me this way or that way 
 from you. Also you are much to blame, for you 
 have come more and more seldom to the house ; 
 you have avoided me when you did come ; you 
 have worn an air of injury that was unjust to me, 
 because, at first, there was no reason for it." 
 
 " In short, dear Alice, there has been a 
 thorough misunderstanding." 
 
 " One that you might have explained away 
 while it was but a little shadow. You were 
 too proud to do so. You were too busy with 
 money, and real estate, and political and social 
 questions to care for my trifling feelings. If I 
 had been an over-worked factory hand you 
 would, perhaps, have wondered what made me 
 so pale and unhappy, but because I am rich, 
 you were sure I cared only for myself, or that I 
 was false and proud." 
 
 196
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 " These are hard charges, Alice. I think they 
 are not fair ones." 
 
 " Do me the justice to think a little longer 
 and you will understand how fair they are." 
 
 " I would much rather throw myself on your 
 mercy. If you have even thought me wrong, 
 then I have been wrong. Forgive me, dearest. 
 I know we must part, but I cannot bear to part 
 in anger." 
 
 " You know we must part. So you come to 
 tell me so to renew all my love for you to 
 make me feel wretched in the losing of you if 
 you can. This is your love ! I think it a very 
 selfish thing. I would have slipped out of your 
 heart softly and imperceptibly, as unobserved in 
 my going as possible. I would rather have 
 been misjudged than have given you an addi 
 tional heartache. I would rather myself have 
 suffered wrong than let you suffer from wounded 
 love and self-appreciation. If love is not un 
 selfish it is nothing at all. You know we must 
 part, this is what you seek me out to tell Oh, 
 John ! How cruel ! If we are to part why 
 should you try to give me more heartache?" 
 
 " Alice ! Alice ! I love you. I love you 
 only. I shall love you for ever. Forgive what 
 has been wrong or unkind." 
 
 " When forgiveness is asked too late, it is an 
 additional wrong. You know that Lord Med- 
 197
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 way has renewed his offer you must have 
 seen his letter to my father and now you try 
 to embarrass my actions, to prejudice my future, 
 to disappoint my father, to make me miserable 
 by coming to me as you have done. John, it 
 was a cruel thing to do, it was a foolish thing 
 also, for it sets my heart in revolt against 
 you." 
 
 Alice rose as she said these words. Her face 
 was pale but resolute, and John was confounded 
 and distressed by the attitude she had taken. 
 He was totally unprepared for it. He hardly 
 knew what he had expected, certainly nothing 
 like this tone of accusation, and for a moment 
 he was shaken to the very citadel of his being 
 by the truth as Alice saw it. It is, however, 
 the business of Reason and Experience to 
 fence off Truth and to defy impressions, and 
 John almost instantly began the process. 
 
 Alice, however, was not inclined to prolong 
 the interview, and if John had understood 
 women better he would have seen that she was 
 at that extreme tension that soon makes the 
 strongest impatient and hysterical. It required 
 all her efforts to preserve the quiet dignity of 
 manner she had assumed. She was impatient 
 to be alone and free to give herself relief from 
 a restraint so painful and exhausting. What 
 he said of excuse and penitence was hardly 
 198
 
 I MUST SEE JESSIE 
 
 comprehended ; she only knew that neither of 
 them had dared to touch the real cause of 
 offence it seemed so shamefully small and 
 unjust his sensitive knowledge of her dislike 
 to Steve s marriage, and her unreasonable aver 
 sion to Steve s wife. They were making ship 
 wreck of their love, and it was their own fault. 
 There was no storm, it was the little leak in 
 the boat itself that invited destruction ; a leak 
 they could easily have stopped, if they would 
 only have recognised its presence. 
 
 As it was, John could not prolong so un 
 satisfactory an interview. He offered her his 
 hand, and she took it, and there were tears in 
 her eyes as she did so. For a moment it lay in 
 his hand, then he bowed his head and kissed it. 
 " Farewell, Alice," he said, and with a great sigh 
 he turned and went quickly down the path lead 
 ing to the gateway. It was all over. Alice as 
 yet hardly realised her suffering; the pang of 
 conflict with it was to come ; but as she sat very 
 quiet under the trees, the delicate antennae of 
 the soul began to tell her it was near. John 
 had more hope, for though he felt that a great 
 silence and coldness had fallen over his life, he 
 was an unconscious believer in sequences. He 
 said to himself, "I will not despair. Very 
 few events break off in an absolute way, and 
 threads that are dropped may be lifted again. 
 199
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 She loves me yet. I love her. That we are to 
 be parted forever is an incredible thing: 
 Destiny is reserving her best gifts, that is all 
 and I seem to have made mistakes I have not 
 understood a woman so proud and sensitive 
 I must think this thing fairly out doubtless it 
 is my fault." He was silent, after this admis 
 sion, for a long time, but finally reached what he 
 believed to be the first right step 
 
 " I must see Jessie." Suddenly he remem 
 bered Steve, and he asked himself anxiously 
 "what was the matter with Steve? I must see 
 Jessie." 
 
 200
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION AND NICHOLAS LLOYD S 
 FAILURE 
 
 JOHN was not in the fairest of tempers when 
 he arrived at Jessie s home, and her appearance 
 further irritated him. She had grown physically 
 much handsomer since her marriage, and she 
 drcs. c ed herself with consummate taste and effect, 
 but she did not please her brother. There was 
 the same air of insurgent dissatisfaction on her 
 face that there is on the surface of the sea after 
 a passing storm. Her mood explained Steve s 
 mood, and both of them emphatically declared 
 a wrong of some kind ; so much so, that John s 
 first remark was, 
 
 "What is the matter now, Jessie? " 
 " Oh, life is such a disappointment, John ! 
 Nothing turns out as it promises." 
 
 " Sometimes it turns out better, as it did 
 between you and Steve. Who would have 
 thought he could have furnished you such a 
 lovely home? And what a becoming gown you 
 have on ! A remarkably lucky woman I call 
 you." 
 
 201
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " I don t know about that. When we are 
 sure things are beyond our means, we do not 
 long for them, any more than we do for Queen 
 Victoria s jewels; but when we see the desire 
 of our heart within our reach, and are prevented 
 from taking it by an unreasonable man, then we 
 are naturally indignant." 
 
 " Do you mean Steve? And in what does he 
 prevent your happiness?" 
 
 " I want to go into the society Mrs. Stephen 
 Lloyd ought to go into. I want Steve to do 
 what his father wishes him to do. It is all 
 well enough for a man to follow his own vagaries 
 when he is unmarried, but after he has a wife, 
 she ought to be consulted. Steve won t do a 
 single thing I ask him to do." 
 
 " Then I am sure you ask very unreasonable 
 things." 
 
 "I don t! I don t! I only ask the place he 
 gave me. Fancy Nicholas Lloyd s only son 
 living in a miserable little sixty-dollars-a-month 
 flat ! We ought to have a house on the avenue, 
 and a cottage at Newport, and what is more, I 
 mean to have them." 
 
 " Then you will have to have them without 
 Steve. I can tell you that, you ungrateful, 
 unreasonable woman ! Do you prefer a fine 
 house to your husband ? " 
 
 " Nonsense ! There is no use talking heroics 
 
 202
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 to me, John. I want my husband in a proper 
 house, that is all. What is the good of money, 
 if you do not do yourself good with it?" 
 
 " Money ! money ! money ! I wish I could 
 get out of the sound of the word ! " 
 
 " You cannot. Life runs to it. If love used 
 to make the world go round, it is money that 
 does it now. Steve ought to have hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars ; he might have them if he 
 had a bit of sense, and then he could let me 
 travel and dress and do as I want to do." 
 
 " You want hundreds of thousands of dollars 
 to travel and dress and amuse yourself? " 
 
 " Yes, I do. I could spend millions comfort 
 ably. I want a town-house, a cottage at 
 Newport, a pretty steam-yacht, fast horses, fine 
 stables and carriages, and a Parisian modiste." 
 
 "Did you tell Steve your ambitions before 
 you married him?" 
 
 " My ambitions have grown. They were but 
 scrubby little intentions when I married. Why 
 should we not live as handsomely as Alice 
 Lloyd does?" 
 
 " Alice has money of her own. Her mother 
 is very rich. Her father is very rich. You 
 know how poor we are, and how poor we have 
 always been. Jessie, don t be a foolish woman, 
 and throw away love for gold. It won t pay 
 you. You will be very wretched." 
 203
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " If Alice married you, she would be expected 
 to share your poverty. Why then should not 
 I expect to share Steve s riches?" 
 
 " Steve is poor. He resigned all right to his 
 father s money when he refused to assist his 
 father in making and taking care of it. Nicholas 
 Lloyd will leave him nothing ; Steve does not 
 expect a cent from him ; more, he does not 
 want a cent; more, he has no right to a 
 cent." 
 
 " He has. He is Nicholas Lloyd s son." 
 
 "There is a right far greater than birth the 
 right of obedience and duty. Nicholas Lloyd 
 had the right to expect this duty and obedience 
 in the precise way that seemed good to him. 
 Steve, having come to man s estate and knowl 
 edge, had the right to render that duty, and 
 expect the recompense for it; or he had the 
 right to refuse the duty and resign its reward. 
 Steve could not conscientiously do the duty his 
 father asked ; he declined to perform it, and he 
 is much too honourable to expect results which 
 he has refused to earn. That is the whole case, 
 Jessie ; Steve will never be a rich man through 
 his father. Mrs. Lloyd may leave him a com 
 petence. I do not think she will do more. She 
 has already discovered that he does not know 
 the value of money." 
 
 " Indeed ! Do you really acknowledge the 
 204
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 value of money? I thought you were among 
 the scorners." 
 
 "I know that money is the grandest of 
 powers; I know its value thoroughly. It is 
 the mammon of righteousness as well as of 
 unrighteousness " 
 
 " For goodness sake, John, don t preach." 
 Then she suddenly stopped, for she heard her 
 husband s step, and her face clouded, and she 
 threw herself backward in her chair with an air 
 of indifference to every earthly thing. 
 
 It pained John deeply to mark the change 
 that had come over both husband and wife. 
 There was no hurrying to meet each other, no 
 kiss, no fond inquiries, no haste to bring refresh 
 ment and comfort. Jessie preserved her indolent 
 attitude, and kept her eyes on the fine hand 
 kerchief, whose lace she plaited and unplaited 
 in her fingers. Steve said only, " Well, Jessie, 
 still in the blues? " and giving John his hand, he 
 sat down by the open window. He looked like 
 a man thoroughly out of temper with life and 
 with all life s duties and belongings. 
 
 " John," he said, after a minute s silence, " I 
 am thinking of the mountains the mountains 
 a long way off the Rockies. What would I 
 not give to hide myself in their cool solitudes 
 to-day!" 
 
 "Then why do you not go there, Steve?" 
 205
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 asked Jessie, with a provoking and yet alluring 
 nonchalance. 
 
 " You may ask that question once too often, 
 Jessie," he answered. 
 
 She only laughed mirthfully, as if the covert 
 threat amused her, and John, anxious to turn 
 the wretched conversation, said : - 
 
 " Your sister will marry Lord Medway, I think, 
 Steve. He has renewed his offer and all is now 
 favourable." 
 
 " I am very sorry, John." 
 
 " A lucky thing for her," said Jessie. " Steve, 
 I intend to go to the wedding. You must 
 manage that for me, at least." 
 
 " I shall have nothing to do with the affair, 
 Jessie. It is much against my wish. As to the 
 people who will be present, mother and Alice 
 will decide that matter I shall not be 
 there." 
 
 " I never saw such a family ! Your sister 
 would not come to your wedding, and now you 
 are going to pay her back in her own coin. 
 That is your Christianity, I suppose." 
 
 " Christianity has nothing to do with it. 
 Alice could not come to our wedding. I told 
 you that before. I don t know Lord Medway, 
 and I don t want to know him. Alice and I 
 understand each other." 
 
 " A good thing if you do. I defy any one else 
 206
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 to make rhyme or reason out of either of your 
 actions." 
 
 " Can we have dinner, Jessie?" 
 
 " I suppose so. Ring for it. Sit down, 
 John. " 
 
 " I will stay no longer, Jessie. I am sorry I 
 came here." He arose angrily, and clasping 
 Steve s hand, went away without a word to his 
 foolish sister, though he heard her crying 
 hysterically before he reached the outer door. 
 
 It seemed, then, as if Love was cruel, whether 
 it was successful or unsuccessful ; and if so, was 
 it not better to get his disappointment before 
 marriage? He forgot his own trouble in Steve s, 
 which seemed so much more unnatural; and 
 he found himself, at the close of every train 
 of thought, ejaculating, " Poor Steve ! Poor 
 Steve ! " 
 
 He did not know what good cause there was 
 for his pity. In the few months that had elapsed 
 since Steve s marriage, Jessie s desires had grown 
 with the prodigious celerity that attends the 
 increase of whatever is bad. Indeed, the very 
 knowledge of Steve s parentage had been the 
 dropping of the evil seed. It lay unseen during 
 the first joy of their nuptials, but it was full of 
 vitality, and steadily pushing its way to a more 
 active condition. Before the honeymoon was 
 over, she was contemptuous of all her pretty 
 207
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 surroundings, because her imagination had 
 already furnished far more splendid habitations. 
 She was well aware that these dreams depended 
 for realisation on Steve s submission to his 
 father s will and plans, and she was determined 
 that he should submit. She introduced the 
 subject continually. All their confidences and 
 conversations ended in it. There was never a 
 meal eaten that it did not spoil, for in some 
 form it was present, either for discussion or for 
 silent dissatisfaction. If Steve complained of 
 weariness, he was told to take his proper place 
 and work. If he spoke of the sorrows of the 
 poor families he visited, he only introduced 
 another phase of the daily quarrel ; indeed, there 
 was scarcely a circumstance of life that was not 
 a text from which to preach the same sermon. 
 Had Steve been an ordinary man, such 
 persistence of attack might have succeeded, but 
 he was not an ordinary man. Had he been cast 
 in the common mould, he would never have 
 closed his ledger and given up his fine financial 
 prospects in order to live the life of simple 
 freedom he desired to live. Jessie might have 
 understood from his antecedents that her hus 
 band had a will equal to her own, and that in 
 any contest about a point so vital she would not 
 find him an easy conquest. But she had that 
 womanly habit of mind that sees only one side 
 208
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 of a question, and the still more womanly habit 
 of converging all her forces into one form of 
 attack. Jessie saw clearly the social position 
 she desired to occupy; she understood that it 
 must come through Steve s compliance ; and all 
 her powers were used to force this compliance. 
 He had been complacent on all subjects but 
 this one ; here she found all the sweet stratagems 
 that love employs to compass its desires useless, 
 and she finally abandoned them and began a 
 course of nagging sarcasms, sullen dissenting, 
 or miserable complaining, that would have 
 brought any man of vague character to what she 
 considered a reasonable submission. 
 
 Jessie s conduct had a contrary effect on 
 Steve. Above all things, Steve loved justice. 
 No one could coax him beyond his conscience, 
 and he was not to be worried into doing wrong 
 for the sake of peace. Of course he suffered. 
 Every one of his wife s tantrums was like a storm 
 that stretched and strained his heart-strings 
 nearly asunder. He felt that some day the 
 point of breaking might arrive, and he trembled 
 in the fear, for he still loved the foolishly 
 ambitious woman. That day he had come home 
 very needful of comfort. The hot weather had 
 given him an overpowering longing for the peace 
 of mountain solitudes and the freedom of a life 
 without dinner-time and dressing for it. If 
 14 209
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Jessie had met him with a kiss and a loving 
 word, if she had pitied his longing a little, if 
 she had sung to him some lulling melody as 
 he sat by the open window, then he could 
 have mastered the spirit craving within him, and 
 bent his will to hers in everything necessary for 
 their happiness. 
 
 But the first sight of her rebellious beauty, 
 and of John s troubled face, roused in him a 
 resistance she little understood. When John 
 shut the door behind her crying, Steve shut his 
 heart against the same irritating sound. He 
 would not soothe it, he would not listen to it, 
 he sat gloomy and silent until there was a cessa 
 tion of the storm. Then he said : " I am hungry, 
 Jessie." 
 
 "Dinner is ready; go and get it," she 
 answered. " I don t want to eat. I am ill. I 
 have no appetite." 
 
 He went; he ate his dinner alone, and Jessie, 
 who did want to eat, was incensed by his 
 obedience. She expected him to coax her to 
 the dining-room. It was the first time he had 
 ever taken her at her word. If she had been 
 wise she would have pondered the meaning of 
 that step. On his return to her presence, he 
 said : 
 
 " Now, Jessie, go and eat. I will not disturb 
 you."
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 " I have told you I have no appetite. I want 
 a change of air. I want to go to the sea-side. 
 The doctor says I must go." 
 
 " You never left New York in the summer 
 before." 
 
 " I was never married before." 
 
 " That is true. Well, then, you must make 
 inquiries about some place that we can afford. 
 We are lots in debt, but I don t suppose your 
 going away will make much difference." 
 
 " Indeed it will. I want to go to Newport. 
 Alice is going, your mother is going, and I want 
 to go also." 
 
 " I cannot afford Newport, Jessie." 
 
 " Then I shall go anyway. Your name will 
 get me credit. Alice and Mrs. Lloyd will be 
 compelled to notice me; indeed, they may as 
 well entertain me as not." 
 
 " Jessie, neither I nor you have a right to 
 intrude on my family. Mother has already paid 
 a great deal for us." 
 
 " She ought to give you far more than she does." 
 
 " She gives me sufficient. I will ask her for 
 no more." 
 
 " Then I shall." 
 
 " If you beg or borrow money in my name, I 
 will never forgive you." 
 
 " We shall see." 
 
 At these words Steve rose, and taking his hat 
 
 211
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 from a table, threw over in his reckless haste a 
 trifle of glassware with a rose in it. The glass 
 was shivered to pieces, the rose lay on the table, 
 and the water ran down upon the pretty carpet. 
 Jessie rose in a passion. " Oh, my lovely vase ! " 
 she cried. " Oh, my lovely vase ! It is broken 
 to pieces ! Look what you have done, sir ! " 
 But Steve did not turn his head ; he pressed 
 his hat down on his brows, and left the house 
 with that unmistakable clash at the door which 
 is a declaration of domestic war. And Jessie 
 picked up the bits of her broken vase and wet 
 them with her angry tears, but she did not 
 remember the shattered love in the great 
 affectionate heart of the man her evil temper had 
 just driven from his home. 
 
 These events introduced a summer full of 
 change to the Lloyd family. The first of im 
 portance was the recognised engagement of 
 Miss Lloyd to Lord Medway, and immediately 
 after it Mrs. Lloyd accompanied her daughter 
 to Newport. Both circumstances took place 
 without any participation on the part of Steve. 
 He had already refused to meet the foreign 
 nobleman who was to marry his sister and re 
 ceive so large a slice of the Lloyd estate, and 
 Jessie s rebellious indignation, both at his refusal 
 and at his family s acceptance of it, probably 
 induced a certain amount of stubbornness in 
 212
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 Steve s actions. Jessie blamed Alice entirely. 
 She was sure that Alice had great influence 
 over her brother, and she thought she under 
 stood that as Steve s presence must have in 
 cluded hers, Alice preferred to do without her 
 brother s support rather than permit her to have 
 any share in the bridal ceremonies. In reality 
 there was some truth in this surmise, but it 
 arose from a feeling that was as yet carefully 
 hidden in Alice s own heart. For, assure her 
 self as she would, a certain irrefragable pre 
 sentiment of unfulfilment pressed upon her, 
 and she did feel that any trouble coming would 
 be more intolerable by Jessie s intermeddling 
 in it. 
 
 For herself she knew not whether this presen 
 timent gave her the most pain or pleasure. That 
 she was not in love with Lord Medway she 
 frankly acknowledged ; indeed, she had made 
 one last effort to free herself from the entangle 
 ment which had somehow grown with the day 
 and night around her. But this final appeal to 
 her father had been met with such disastrous 
 consequences to his already shattered health as 
 to lead the physician in attendance to remon 
 strate almost angrily with her. For he could 
 not believe the girl was in earnest, and so he 
 characterised her attempt to deliberate as a 
 cruel bit of affectation. 
 
 213
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " It is pretty enough, Miss Lloyd," he said, 
 " to hesitate and to stand with reluctant feet on 
 the brink of matrimony, and no doubt it is 
 stimulating to the bridegroom, but I can assure 
 you it is death to your father;" and, wounded 
 and offended by the frank remark, what could 
 Alice do but avoid a repetition of a rebuke so 
 unjust, and yet so beyond her power to answer? 
 
 So as the weeks went by she rode and walked 
 and danced with her betrothed, and tried to for 
 get that John McAslin had ever loved her. 
 " Every one has something to sacrifice," she 
 thought, " and how could I hope to be happy if 
 I pleased myself and killed my father? And 
 after all, what is a love match? Steve s was a 
 love match if there ever was one, and yet he is 
 not happy! I know it. I feel it in his words 
 and manner. Perhaps, then, a marriage for duty 
 may turn out as well as a marriage for love." 
 And then she would rebel a little and protest, 
 " I know not how I came into this snare." 
 
 Alas, she had not reflected in time that the 
 slightest concession is the first ripple of circum 
 stance, and that after it the tide rises, and the 
 wave behind impels the wave before. 
 
 But even this slight revolt against destiny 
 
 was one morning brought to truce, for while 
 
 such thoughts were making her walk up and 
 
 down the long parlour to their restless tenor, she 
 
 214
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 saw a book that some visitor had been reading 
 and left open, leaves downward. Her sense of 
 order made her stop to shut the volume, and 
 her eyes met the far-seeing eyes of the great 
 Dryden, and these were the words he said to 
 her: 
 
 Receive my counsel and securely move, 
 Intrust thy fortune to the powers above ; 
 Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant 
 What their unerring wisdom sees thee want 
 
 Lines noble in themselves, and serving as a 
 finger-post to the still more beautiful and fami 
 liar ones : " Commit thy way unto the Lord, 
 and he shall direct thy path." 
 
 When a certain destiny has been accepted it 
 is natural and wise to make the best of what 
 ever advantages it has. Alice was young and 
 hopeful, and she was not insensible to the 
 promises her lover made her. 
 
 For a few weeks she was happy; she put 
 down resolutely all thoughts disloyal to her 
 engagement; she suffered no regrets from the 
 past to darken the horizon of a future which 
 she was honourably bound to make joyful for 
 others as well as herself. In the mean time she 
 had whatever of passing 6clat and pleasure were 
 incidental to her betrothal, and she liked it. 
 That she should do so was natural and honest. 
 215
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 It would have been the merest affectation to 
 pretend a sentimental regret, or to affect a 
 sacrificial resignation to a fate which at least 
 was not distasteful to her. 
 
 Still there was at the bottom of all her expec 
 tations a doubt that chilled her hopes and pre 
 vented her from relinquishing her affections. 
 About the beginning of August this doubt 
 became a fear. Nicholas Lloyd s condition was 
 no longer subject to long or short intermissions 
 of lucidity and comparative health. He had 
 become quite inattentive to business, and his 
 egotism and extravagance moral perversions 
 in direct opposition to his natural character 
 caused general remark. Physical changes just 
 as striking were also in evidence, and his physi 
 cian wrote in unmistakable terms to Mrs. Lloyd. 
 " It is the beginning of the end with him," he 
 said. " I think you should be here as soon as 
 possible, and if Mr. Lloyd has not yet arranged 
 his business affairs and made his will, you must 
 tell him I say he has no time to lose." 
 
 This letter was of the gravest importance as 
 regards Alice s affairs, and for a while Mrs. Lloyd 
 hardly knew how to act. A delay in her mar 
 riage would be most unfortunate, and yet it was 
 not possible for her to urge its immediate con 
 summation. Nor could she keep this sorrow in 
 her own heart; it was necessary to take Alice 
 216
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 at once Into its sad intricacies. She found her 
 in her room sewing and singing to her hopes. 
 " Alice," she said, " I have sad news this morn 
 ing, my dear. Your father is seriously ill, and 
 Dr. Anson thinks I ought to return immediately 
 to New York." 
 
 " Cannot father come here ? If you go to 
 New York, I must also go. And to leave New 
 port in the height of the season, mother, is so 
 remarkable. What will Arthur think of it? " 
 
 " Your father cannot come here. He requires 
 the constant medical care he can only get in 
 New York ; also there is much business to settle 
 and numberless other things. I, at least, 
 must go home at once." 
 
 For a few minutes Alice could not speak. 
 The thing that she feared had happened to her. 
 Her heart turned faint as she thought of all the 
 humiliations and disappointments that were 
 sure to come. She wanted to weep and she 
 could not. She turned her mind this way and 
 that way to see if perhaps some means of es 
 cape could not be found for her. It was use 
 less; she could only imagine one outlet an 
 immediate informal marriage. And there was 
 something to her apprehension unspeakably 
 selfish even in the unuttered wish for such an 
 escape she could not name it. Yet she was 
 not sorry to hear her mother say : 
 217
 
 " Arthur must now be told the whole truth. 
 We can no longer attribute to eccentricity of 
 character what is really mortal disease. When 
 he understands that your father must necessa 
 rily grow worse and worse, and that the only 
 hope of relief is in death, and when he considers 
 that death means at least a year s delay in defer 
 ence to family and social feeling, I am sure he 
 will urge an immediate marriage. I should 
 agree to it, Alice. Of course it must be of the 
 simplest character, but I think your father would 
 be glad to know that his greatest hope was fully 
 accomplished. I am going to make preparations 
 for our return, and you had better send at once 
 for Arthur." 
 
 " He will be here in an hour. I need a little 
 time to consider, mother. I am very sorrow 
 ful." Then she laid her head on her mother s 
 breast, and was comforted as far as mother-love 
 could comfort her. 
 
 But her heart was heavy with premonition of 
 trouble. For the past ten days she had been 
 conscious of some difference in her lover, a dif 
 ference that could scarcely be called a change, 
 but which might easily grow to change. It had 
 begun with the advent of Miss Adelaide Leaven- 
 worth into Newport society, and Adelaide 
 Leavenworth had always been unfortunate to 
 her. As girls in the same school, they had been 
 218
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 constant rivals for every distinction, and Ade 
 laide had always won. She had an irrepressible 
 " go " about her, she was beautiful in a modern 
 way, that is, she had style and chic with a 
 preponderance of the nervous system. Her 
 dresses were marvellous creations, and she had 
 a fortune in her own power that was more than 
 equal to the rather grudging generosity of 
 Nicholas Lloyd. 
 
 For two years the girls had not met, and then 
 unexpectedly one night, as Alice was promenad 
 ing with Lord Medway, they came together face 
 to face. " Why, Alice ! " cried Adelaide, with 
 affected delight, "is it really you?" And then 
 she received the introduction to Lord Medway, 
 which was her object in speaking to Alice, and 
 by one upward and downward glance captured 
 his curiosity and interest. After that meeting 
 their intimacy had grown rapidly, for either 
 chance or management had constantly thrown 
 them together, and Alice had suffered often 
 from a sense of wrong she found it impossible 
 to characterise. Now, if she had to leave New 
 port, she resigned the field to her enemy, 
 for such she really felt Adelaide to be, and 
 she suffered in anticipation all the little slings 
 her clever sarcastic tongue was sure to indulge 
 itself in. 
 
 The only possible escape from this dilemma 
 219
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 was her mother s suggestion, and surely if Lord 
 Medway was in earnest he would only be too 
 glad to anticipate his marriage-day. But she 
 did not find him so. 
 
 Alice fancied that there was a sense of 
 pleasure or relief in the inevitable delay which 
 her father s condition involved. If the idea 
 of an immediate marriage occurred to him he 
 did not entertain it. He simply professed the 
 greatest sympathy and disappointment; but he 
 made no effort to take the advantage it offered, 
 and Alice was dumbly injured by his attitude. 
 And yet how could she complain? The man 
 had said everything that was conventionally 
 kind and respectful. But, oh, how little that 
 was ! For how poor are the words when deeds 
 are possible ! And how ineffectual the love 
 that falls short of love s expectations ! There 
 was not a word uttered which could indicate 
 the loosening of the tie between them, and yet 
 Alice said " farewell " with a conviction that 
 the tie was broken for ever. 
 
 So she returned to New York with her 
 mother, and the closed house was reopened 
 and Dr. Anson notified of their arrival. He 
 called on them at once, and in accord with 
 Mrs. Lloyd s pathetic entreaties, promised to 
 see her husband and urge upon him the abso 
 lute necessity of relinquishing affairs which he
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 could only bring to confusion and ruin. He 
 had frequently had a similar duty to perform, 
 but custom had not robbed it of its sad and 
 awful circumstance, and it was always a piti 
 fully conscientious act. He made several little 
 delays on the way to Mr. Lloyd s office, but the 
 inevitable arrives, and at last he was admitted 
 to the rich man s presence. Mr. Lloyd had a 
 letter from Lord Medway s lawyer in his hand, 
 and his passion over its contents was extreme. 
 " The man professes to be doubtful about the 
 securities I offer him," he said, and the tremor 
 of his tongue and lips hardly permitted him to 
 articulate. 
 
 " Mr. Lloyd," said the physician, laying his 
 hand firmly on the millionaire s shaking form, 
 " Mr. Lloyd, you must stop business altogether. 
 I have come here especially to tell you to do so. 
 Listen to me, for I am in earnest, and I am go 
 ing to tell you a great truth. You are a dying 
 man. If you had a weak, cowardly soul I 
 would not tell you the truth, but you are no 
 poltroon, so I say plainly to you, settle your 
 affairs with this world. Make your will if it is 
 yet to make, and then prepare to meet your 
 God." 
 
 These words were spoken with the utmost 
 solemnity, and the miserable man to whom 
 they were addressed listened perforce to them. 
 221
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Hitherto he had refused all attempts at warn 
 ing, but this morning his condition made him 
 passively silent, as the fateful words smote and 
 smote upon his brain and entered and pierced 
 his ears like a dart. He tried to protest to 
 entreat but his tongue failed, and he buried 
 his head in his hands and wept like a child. 
 
 When he was able to draw his scattered 
 forces together, and to uncover his face, he 
 found himself alone. The physician had de 
 livered his message and left him to digest it in 
 solitude. He went to a little closet and took 
 out of it a mirror and looked at himself. Then 
 he rang a bell sharply, and sent the clerk who 
 answered it for his lawyer. And whatever of 
 misery a money-maker and a money-lover can 
 feel in the prospect of resigning his occupation 
 for ever, Nicholas Lloyd then felt. He looked 
 round his familiar office as men look farewell 
 on a scene beloved. Its solid splendour, its air 
 of riches, its big chair, from which he had 
 issued financial edicts, were these things no 
 longer his? He opened his private safe and 
 took out a canvas bag, and let the gold slip and 
 slide through his fingers, and laughed aloud as 
 he did so. He gathered in one swoop securi 
 ties of the first value, and fingered them back 
 ward and forward, and assured himself that he 
 was yet their lawful owner. 
 
 222
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 He was comforting himself in this manner 
 when the summoned lawyer arrived. " Phil 
 lips," he said, with an excitement which shivered 
 his words to pieces as they fell from his lips, 
 "Phillips, have I not made my will? If not I 
 am to make it this morning. Dr. Anson has 
 just given me the order. Sit down, sir. What 
 are you gazing at? Confound you." 
 
 " Mr. Lloyd, in Heaven s name what is the 
 matter with you?" 
 
 " I have received my death warrant that 
 is all. Get to work, sir. Give me a minute or 
 two and I will be calm and clear enough hard 
 lines though hard lines." He sat perfectly 
 still, grasping the arms of his chair, and Mr. 
 Phillips, though very sceptical about the validity 
 of any will made under such evident aberration 
 of normal conditions, prepared to obey what 
 ever the sick man desired. 
 
 " Go on, Phillips." 
 
 After a short pause the lawyer said, as he 
 followed the transcribing pen : " I give and be 
 queath," then he looked into the face of his 
 client for instructions. A very powerful ex 
 pression of dissent was on it, and he raised his 
 hand and brought it down with a frantic force 
 as he said passionately : 
 
 "I I can t ! I won t give and bequeath 
 what is my own my very own I won t give 
 223
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 it! I won t bequeath it! It is mine. Mine 
 only. I must keep it ; yes, even in the grave, I 
 must keep it. How can I keep it? If you are 
 a lawyer worth your salt, Phillips, tell me 
 that." 
 
 " Lend it, Mr. Lloyd, lend it to whoever you 
 like. Lend it for good interest, and devise the 
 interest for any purpose you choose. You are 
 used to lending money; you can bear that." 
 
 " That will do ! that will do ! Yes, I can bear 
 to lend it. But to whom? " 
 
 " That is the question. Your daughter is 
 provided for? " 
 
 " Yes. She has taken more than enough to 
 that greedy foreigner, millions and millions, 
 and a silver mine, and a southern plantation, 
 and a Western ranch, and a vineyard in Cali 
 fornia, and other trifles " 
 
 " What are you talking about, Mr. Lloyd ? I 
 would n t have such fancies, if I were you. You 
 know better. Don t give me any Aladdin s 
 lamp nonsense. I am here for business, you 
 know." 
 
 "To be sure. Miss Lloyd is is is all 
 right. Lend the rest of my estate to my son, 
 Stephen. The boy is a fool, but he might as 
 well have the spending of the dollars as the 
 lawyers. I am sensible enough now, Phillips. 
 I want a will made that a lawyer cannot pick. 
 224
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 They pick wills as other scamps pick pockets 
 that is about the truth of it." 
 
 " I think we had better delay the subject, sir. 
 I doubt whether you are in a legal condition." 
 
 " Hang the condition ! Lend Steve the 
 money, eight per cent., the interest to be in 
 vested in lighting or water companies ; principal 
 to be loaned to Steve s children and grand 
 children. Great Scott ! What an idea ! I shall 
 own the gold, if I am dust. The land and the 
 houses will be in my name for generations. The 
 gold will grow beyond counting ; the land will 
 become gold. It is a great scheme ! A tre 
 mendous scheme ! And I can think it all out, 
 though Anson does talk as if my brain was 
 degenerate. That is the word, is n t it? Thanks 
 to that doctor who taught us such a convenient 
 term it is a little more respectful than saying 
 a man is mad, but it means the same thing, I 
 fear." 
 
 " Mr. Lloyd, let me call a carriage and take 
 you home. Then I will make the will as you 
 wish it made." 
 
 " All secure a loan, mind nothing but a 
 loan and eight per cent. Lend it to Steve 
 he is a fool but a good boy stood up for 
 his father, and spoke out like a man at that 
 beggarly meeting. He did n t howl with the 
 wolves, not he ! Lend the gold to my son, 
 15 225
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Stephen Lloyd, and his heirs. Make all tight 
 and secure." 
 
 " Lloyd, you know me ; tight as a trivet. 
 Come, I want to go to your house ; you may as 
 well go with me." 
 
 And thus the rich man went that morning out 
 of his money-making den for ever. The place 
 that had known him so potent and so worldly- 
 wise was to know him no more. But at the 
 last moment he did not think of this possibility. 
 He called a clerk, gave him some orders, locked 
 his desk, and with his mind full of this new idea 
 of loaning his wealth to his descendants, shut 
 the door of his office against himself, and went 
 away without turning one glance backward. He 
 never more entered the room where he had 
 ruled so absolutely; for, as he left its threshold, 
 he put his feet into those waste dominions of 
 the blasted intellect where men sit brooding on 
 their unprofitable gold, in the hell of their own 
 making. For greed of gold as surely ruins the 
 mental powers as sensuality ruins the moral 
 nature. 
 
 As they rode homeward, the sick man began 
 to realise his condition. He felt as if he had 
 suddenly been cut off from the busy, happy 
 world around him. The physician s words re 
 turned, as if newly spoken, and his heart was 
 sick with terror. A dismal, sullen stillness suc- 
 226
 
 JESSIE S AMBITION 
 
 ceeded to his noisy excitement, and he entered 
 his home with a sultry thunderstorm in all his 
 veins. His wife met him at the door. She 
 opened her arms and folded him in them, and 
 her cool, sweet presence was like a breath of 
 heaven. For a moment he would not answer 
 her love and pity; then the thought of his 
 desolate condition terrified him, and he said, 
 " Marian ! Marian ! I am come back to you. 
 I am going to die. Do not send me away from 
 you and from my home." 
 
 " I will never leave you, Nicholas. I will stay 
 at your side until the very end." 
 
 " Whatever the end may be?" 
 
 " Whatever it may be. Steve will help me. 
 Alice will help me. You shall never be left to 
 strangers ; never ! " and she put his arm through 
 her arm and comforted him with her tender 
 eyes and words as they went apart together. 
 
 For the worst was now known and acknowl 
 edged, and she could stay by his side, and do 
 whatever love might do for him. He had 
 treated her for years with that brutality which 
 is always polite but which makes a woman 
 shudder; but at this hour she put all such mem 
 ories away, and only remembered that she had 
 once loved him and believed in his love, and 
 that she had vowed to stand by him in sickness 
 and health until death should part them. 
 227
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 THESE events were made known to Jessie through 
 the newspapers, and they added greatly to the 
 importance she assumed at the fashionable New 
 Jersey watering-place where she was " leading " 
 society to her heart s ambition. So much she 
 had obtained from Steve s love and generosity, 
 but on the subject of Newport he had been im 
 movable as a rock. In some way, the particu 
 lars of which she did not inquire into, he had 
 found the necessary funds for her elaborate 
 dressing and entertainment; he had seen her 
 established in pretty rooms facing the noble 
 beach, and he had then frankly told her " not 
 to expect any visits from him." He said " he 
 was going on a long solitary tramp, far from 
 every one he knew, and he hoped in September 
 they might be as glad to meet as they were 
 then to part." 
 
 Jessie vowed such words were cruel and un 
 just, and she did her best in the last hours they 
 were together to draw tighter the bonds that 
 Steve seemed so glad to break away from. 
 228
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 And the man still loved her. It was easy yet 
 for her to make him forget all but her beauty 
 and brightness, for the strange strong mystery 
 which binds man and wife together is not easily 
 broken. He left her finally with an ache in his 
 heart and tears in his eyes; she watched his 
 tall figure and long swinging stride until he had 
 passed out of her sight. 
 
 Then she turned to the new delights sur 
 rounding her. She was resolved to taste them 
 in all the fulness which had been her dream 
 during those years when she had been tor 
 mented with large desires and means that did 
 not go half their length. Her toilets were 
 in themselves commanding; besides, she had 
 " the air " which carries a good toilet beyond 
 itself. In a few days she became the undis 
 puted leader of the small but fashionable colony 
 of women filling the closet-like rooms of the 
 great hotel and making its broad piazzas aflame 
 with moving colour and brilliant life. 
 
 It was to Mrs. Stephen Lloyd that all ques 
 tions pertaining to the frivolous life in which she 
 moved were referred. The host consulted her 
 about entertainments, the ladies about dress 
 and social matters, and her fiat was felt to be 
 final and satisfactory. With this power she 
 put on a more radiant beauty and that kind of 
 amiability which is the result of fulfilled wishes. 
 229
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Also, she developed a reckless extravagance in 
 costumes, and all the pretty addendas to 
 costumes. 
 
 " Steve will scold, and then find the money 
 to pay for them," she reflected, " and I can 
 afford to buy the summer s 6clat with a morn 
 ing s ill temper at the end of it." So foolishly 
 did this selfish woman rate love a few weeks 
 glitter and show and flattery to be paid for by 
 the wounding and wronging of the good heart 
 that trusted in her. 
 
 The sudden departure of the Lloyds from 
 Newport had to be accounted for, and as soon 
 as Mr. Lloyd s collapse was known every re 
 porter understood the consequences to Miss 
 Lloyd and Lord Medway. Each and all com 
 mented on it in their own way, and where lead 
 ing facts were unknown, did not scruple to 
 invent them. Jessie was equally unprincipled. 
 
 She pitied " poor Alice " with sighs and 
 shrugs, and intimated that this result was pre 
 cisely what she had always expected. She had 
 met Lord Medway at the beginning of the affair, 
 and well, it was better to say nothing about 
 it. But the soft, dreamy smile on her face and 
 the irrepressible sigh suggested any amount of 
 friendship between Medway and herself that 
 her listeners chose to imagine. And of course 
 there were imaginations vivid enough to weave 
 230
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 numberless pretty romances out of the un 
 spoken materials, so that the general impres 
 sion was that Jessie ought to have been Lady 
 Medway, and would have been but for her 
 sister-in-law s superior financial attractions. 
 
 All this personal and relative gossip gave her 
 additional influence, and she increased it by a 
 run up to New York City to " see poor Alice." 
 This visit happened to be on a morning when it 
 was particularly unwelcome. Mr. Lloyd had 
 just suffered an attack of paralysis, and the 
 house was so full of gloomy despair that Jessie s 
 bright gown and fluttering ribbons appeared to 
 mock in its atmosphere. Alice received her, 
 however, with the most perfect courtesy. She 
 excused her mother and asked when Jessie had 
 last heard from Steve. " We are very anxious 
 for his presence," she said sadly. " He is much 
 needed now, and we fully expected he would 
 have been at his father s side ere this." 
 
 " Indeed," answered Jessie with a little laugh, 
 " I don t suppose Steve has an idea of his 
 father s serious illness. He is off to the moun 
 tains, but I have not the slightest notion what 
 mountains. After bidding me good-bye, he 
 said he did not intend to read a newspaper or 
 write a letter, or even accept a letter until he 
 came back in September. Of course it is very 
 disagreeable for me." 
 
 231
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " I should think so. Are you not very 
 anxious? " 
 
 " No. Steve can take care of himself, but it 
 is annoying when you are in a large hotel to 
 know that people are wondering if you have a 
 husband, and if so, where on the earth he 
 is." 
 
 " Yes," answered Alice, and then there was 
 silence, and Alice s eyes looked afar off, as if 
 seeking her brother; and after a pause she 
 sighed and said softly, " Poor Steve !" 
 
 " I came to ask if there is anything I can do," 
 said Jessie. " If you would like me to look 
 after the house affairs, or write letters, or see 
 inquirers, you know there are a score of un 
 usual obligations in a time of this kind." 
 
 " No, thank you. You are very thoughtful, 
 but all such obligations are provided for." 
 
 " I am so sorry about the interruption to 
 your marriage. It was fixed for October, was 
 it not?" 
 
 " There is no time fixed now. How could 
 I think of marriage with my father dying up 
 stairs?" 
 
 " I did not suppose it possible. Still, you 
 must feel the disappointment." 
 
 " I am not different from other women." 
 
 "Will Lord Medway remain in America?" 
 
 " He will doubtless be governed by circum- 
 232
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 stances. We all are. Will you take lunch? I 
 see it is ready." 
 
 " Thanks. I am hungry. Have you seen 
 my brother John lately?" 
 
 " No. His engagement with Mr. Lloyd ter 
 minated some weeks ago." 
 
 " I am sure I don t know what is the matter 
 with John. He hardly ever comes to see me 
 now. He goes to see Flora. Flora has a baby 
 girl, and " 
 
 "Flora?" 
 
 " My sister Flora." 
 
 " Oh ! " 
 
 Then there was a cool silence and a very dull 
 lunch. Alice was naturally depressed, and 
 Jessie was tempted to make remarks about her 
 position which were more foolish than really 
 unkind. " I shall have to hurry back," she said 
 with a consequential air. "There is an enter 
 tainment to-night, and every one looks to me in 
 some way or other. But I am sure I shall not 
 feel equal to much dressing to-night. And yet 
 dressing is expected of one. Still, when I think 
 of Mr. Lloyd and you " 
 
 " Pray do not permit our sorrows to interfere. 
 If there are entertainments there must be toilets, 
 of course. I do wish you knew anything about 
 my brother Steve." 
 
 " Steve is having what he calls a good time. 
 233
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 He is awfully selfish about it, I must say. He 
 can t bear any one to know where he is. It is 
 peculiarly embarrassing to me." 
 
 " And to us at present. Father has asked for 
 him several times lately. He ought to be here." 
 
 Beyond this point neither woman seemed 
 able to get. Attempts to eat and attempts to 
 talk all fell flat and hopeless, and Jessie finally 
 rose, shook out her fluttering skirts impatiently, 
 and said she must go, as she had a train to 
 catch. She was not asked to repeat her visit, 
 and she thought of that omission as she rode 
 back to the hotel, and mentally vowed that if 
 Steve went home at this time she would go also. 
 
 " That is certain," she said decidedly. " I don t 
 mean to be put down by Alice s cool ways. 
 Any other girl would have talked about her 
 marriage. She is as peculiar as Steve; a queer 
 lot altogether." Then she remembered her own 
 family, and felt sorry for a moment that she had 
 not visited them. "Mother would have been so 
 glad to see me," she thought. " I wish she 
 lived higher up-town. St. Mark s Place is out 
 of the world now." 
 
 That night Jessie considered it decorous to 
 dress with a dark splendour that was very be 
 coming to her. She declined to dance, and her 
 face wore the expression of one who has seen a 
 great sorrow and is full of the sympathetic re- 
 234
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 membrance of it. All these circumstances gave 
 a certain Mr. Belton a good excuse for linger 
 ing at her side, in order to give her what com 
 fort he could by talking over the sad family 
 events. He had known Nicholas Lloyd well, 
 and he was not averse to speaking his mind 
 plainly about the financier. 
 
 " I see that his affairs are in the hands of 
 Phillips & Co. for settlement, and that they have 
 advertised for your husband, madam. Upon 
 my word, a strange thing ! An incomprehensi 
 ble thing ! " 
 
 " But why? I think it very natural." 
 
 " First, that he should ever be able to leave 
 your side. Second, that you at least should not 
 know where he has gone to." 
 
 She was a little offended at this doubt of her 
 influence over Steve, and she answered sharply: 
 " If I had insisted on knowing, my husband 
 would have told me. But I am quite aware 
 that his chief desire is to get free of every human 
 claim. My husband is not like other men ; his 
 nature is too large to respond all the time to 
 mere humanity. He wants the companionship 
 of the sea and the woods. I see you do not 
 understand." 
 
 " Do you? " 
 
 " Not always. I only feel that Stephen Lloyd 
 is somehow far better than I am." 
 235
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " There is no one better, or cleverer, or lovelier 
 than yourself in the wild world, and the man is 
 a fool who cannot see that." 
 
 He said these words with the force and intent 
 of a man with an object before him, and Jessie 
 knew well what it was. She did not say a word 
 in answer, but with eyes downcast sat still as 
 death for a moment or two. Then she rose, and 
 with an air of offence went to a party of ladies 
 at the other end of the room. 
 
 But she had listened. The words, veiled 
 as they were, had sunk into her heart, and 
 Belton smiled as he watched her departure. "I 
 shall get the word divorce out some day 
 soon," he thought. " And by my soul, that 
 woman ought to have a husband that knows 
 how to value her myself, for example a 
 scamp like Steve Lloyd ought to be easily got 
 rid of I wonder if she loves him. Some one 
 told me she was a poor girl married him for 
 money likely if so, she will unmarry for more 
 money;" and he strolled into the moonlit 
 grounds, lit a cigar, and thought it all over and 
 out. 
 
 Jessie, in her way, acted very much like him. 
 She chatted a few minutes with her acquain 
 tances, complained of feeling sad and weary, and 
 declared the whole day had been so trying she 
 could not endure the noise and light of company 
 236
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 any longer. She thought she had fully covered 
 her retreat by these words, and could go to her 
 room without exciting any feeling but one of 
 admiration for her sympathetic heart. And yet 
 these were the remarks that at a discreet dis 
 tance followed her exit. 
 
 " Mr. Belton was at her side all the evening." 
 
 " I saw him there." 
 
 " He has just gone into the grounds." 
 
 " She has gone to her room." 
 
 " Has there been a quarrel? Or " 
 
 " She is much too prudent." 
 
 " Who knows? She is so vain." 
 
 " And so undeniably beautiful. I never saw 
 her look so handsome." 
 
 For a moment or two Jessie had the same 
 thought. She turned the lights fully on and 
 looked steadily at herself ere she removed a 
 single ornament. As she did so she recalled 
 the almost angry admiration of Mr. Belton, and 
 a crimson blush rushed over her fair neck and 
 reddened the alluring pallor of her white cheeks 
 and brow. " Why did I listen? " she asked her 
 self. " I have given him no right to speak to 
 me in such terms I will certainly have no 
 more to say to him yet his admiration gives 
 me eclat and I mean no wrong; I wouldn t 
 wrong Steve by a single thought ; Steve ought 
 to be notified of his father s condition ; I dare
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 say Mr. Belton will understand the best way to 
 trace him, and I may as well use the man. If 
 I drop him altogether, women are so ill-natured 
 they will be sure to suppose this and that and 
 the other ; and it is a fact that a man has come 
 too near a good woman when he dares to say 
 what she ought not to listen to. I cannot give 
 a crowd of gossipers such an opportunity; no, I 
 can t do it for Steve s sake as well as my own. 
 As for Paul Belton, I rather think I can keep 
 him in his proper place." 
 
 If a moth reasons about a candle flame it is 
 probably in much the same manner ; and if an 
 original basis of clamouring selfishness be al 
 lowed, almost any disguise, even that of extreme 
 virtue, will be assumed to compass its ends. Yet 
 Jessie had been too well brought up not to know 
 that she was on dangerous ground. Two things 
 had happened that day which she could not 
 misunderstand Alice s refusal to accept her 
 offer of assistance, and Mr. Belton s avowal of 
 undisguised admiration. In her heart she felt 
 the one to be as condemnatory as the other. 
 She knew as well as Alice knew that she was 
 incapable of leaving the gay attractions of her 
 hotel life for the gloomy surroundings of a house 
 in which Death sat watching a dying man. 
 And she knew as well as Alice knew that there 
 must be something wrong in the conditions 
 238
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 between Steve and herself, or he could not have 
 so completely severed the tie between them, 
 though it was only for a few weeks. 
 
 But the conviction of her faults brought no 
 regret with it. If her conscience troubled her, 
 she virtually said to it, " Let my sins alone. I 
 am not disposed to repent of them at present." 
 She had no desire to change the gay piazza for 
 the death-room, no special wish even for Steve s 
 presence at that time, since his return would 
 mean her own return to the narrow bounds of 
 the despised flat, which had once been so beau 
 tiful in her eyes. Alas ! the very sweetest and 
 truest of mortal love is insufficient to lift the 
 earthy woman above earth. It needs the fire 
 of Almighty God to warm the cold, selfish 
 instincts of a worldly nature into the glow of 
 sacrifice and the ideality of love. 
 
 In the mean time, nothing could be more lonely 
 and sorrowful than the Lloyd mansion on the 
 avenue. The outside of a house has often as 
 much expression as a human face, and there was 
 a positive air of trouble about it. For humanity 
 does impress itself on mere wood and stone, does 
 impregnate the rooms of a house with its own 
 spiritual emanations, and there are undoubtedly 
 dwellings so tainted by the sins and sorrows 
 which they have witnessed, that they are vir 
 tually haunted by presences created in them. 
 239
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Yea, there are rooms in houses which we should 
 tremble to enter, if we knew the tragedies that 
 still cling to their walls and frequent their void 
 places. 
 
 In the large upper chambers of this splendid 
 dwelling such a mortal tragedy was being lived 
 out as could not be confined within its walls. 
 Its mournful effluences drifted down the great 
 stairways and filled the beautiful parlours and 
 looked out of the half-closed windows, compell 
 ing the passer-by to a wondering, half-frightened 
 glance which he could not understand and so 
 put quickly away. For here the rich Nicholas 
 Lloyd had come to die. Here he sat, waiting for 
 the hour of fate. In his brain that wondrous 
 world with one inhabitant he lived in profound 
 and awful depths, where things vague and fearful 
 were half revealed and half hidden by mist of 
 dreams. Led by old desires and ancient hates, 
 tormented by the sins of vanished years, and 
 pushed by hands that were dust long ago, into 
 recesses dim and dark through treacherous 
 sands and storms of flame, he suffered even 
 in this life the awful penalty of the " outer 
 darkness." 
 
 It was now that the long neglected wife came 
 
 grandly up to the far back promise of her love. 
 
 All that gives life its meaning and earnestness, 
 
 and death its solemn and mysterious signifi- 
 
 240
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 cance, moved her to superhuman cares and 
 faith. Her soul stretched itself out to a tran 
 scendent credence in the love of God. She 
 dared to believe that all things, even the salva 
 tion of one so unconscious of his own danger, 
 were possible to Omnipotence. And since he 
 could not pray, she prayed for him. Night and 
 day ministering to his bodily necessities, she 
 cried out incessantly, "God be merciful to 
 him." Faith crushed down every creed but 
 that grandly surpassing assurance that " He 
 was not willing that any should perish." Then 
 why should she limit this glorious zone of 
 the divine mercy? So whenever her husband 
 would or could listen, the ineffable name was 
 on her lips. 
 
 He heard it silently or tremblingly, looking 
 at her with eyes so wide and pitiful that their 
 gaze nearly broke her heart. Oh, was it pos 
 sible that the thought of God could enter the 
 brain demented and corrupted by the lust of 
 gold? She knew not, but she believed that 
 prayer was omnipotent. There might be one 
 sane, clean moment granted in the which he 
 could say, " God be merciful to me a sinner." 
 And if so, surely he could not have been more 
 sinful than Christ was holy. When a man was 
 fighting death and hell, then, if ever, a loving 
 wife must pray for him. And no apparent use- 
 16 241
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 lessness made her cease from prayer. She 
 knew her husband must die. Medical science 
 has felt its way only too surely. When it says 
 " There is no hope," there is none. But faith 
 for the soul s salvation will not so despair. It 
 spurns impossibilities ; it relies upon the unseen 
 and the unknowable. 
 
 Into this valley of the shadow of death Alice 
 Lloyd also passed, and its gloom, and suffering, 
 and despair were all the more noticeable be 
 cause she left for it the very sunshine of life s 
 gayest verities and sweetest hopes. No one 
 willingly takes this narrowest and darkest of 
 roads ; and Alice wept secretly as she inclined 
 her heart and head and whispered obedience to 
 the circumstances she could neither avoid nor 
 control. She hoped her lover would at least 
 frequently step aside and comfort her loneli 
 ness, and bring renewed promise to her disap 
 pointment. And at first it seemed as if her 
 hopes would be realised. Within two days 
 after her return to New York, Lord Medway 
 called at the afflicted house. Alice was de 
 lightedly surprised ; and Medway must have 
 seen the transfiguration of love and hope on 
 her face when he entered her presence unex 
 pectedly. Adorably shy and self-conscious, 
 she retreated behind her book as behind a 
 barrier, but the young man was so especially 
 242
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 tender and sympathetic that she was easily 
 led to respond to the comfort he offered. 
 
 Never had she appeared to him more lovely 
 and desirable, yet he did not understand that 
 what delighted him that day in her visible 
 beauty was the invisible, the spiritual evo 
 lution of accepted sorrow illumining the phys 
 ical evolution, for the face is always the very 
 portrait of the soul. Half reluctantly at first, 
 afterward with great apparent desire and sin 
 cerity, he urged their immediate marriage. He 
 said, " As to the business part of their union, 
 what was yet unfinished, he could trust to her 
 if she could trust to him ; " and he appeared to 
 be altogether so unselfish and affectionate that 
 Alice gladly believed in all he said. At that 
 hour she almost loved him. He won from her 
 by his faithfulness in sorrow far more than he 
 had ever gained in the sunny hours of so-called 
 pleasure. Then, she had been coy and hard 
 to please and chary of her lightest favour ; but 
 at this dark hour his fidelity awoke in her heart 
 that overplus of womanly gratitude which is so 
 near akin to love that Medvvay was charmed 
 by its delicious sweetness, and he went through 
 the shadowed hall and down the steps of the 
 sorrowful house a very happy man. 
 
 " How sweet and good she is ! " he whispered 
 to himself as he drove through the avenue. 
 243
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " All her affections are like the dews on roses, 
 fair as the flowers themselves, as sweet and 
 gentle ! " And then he smiled pleasantly at 
 his own remembrance of the apt classical quo 
 tation. And surely at that moment his heart 
 was true to his promise; he had no intention 
 of breaking his renewed vow ; he was fully de 
 termined to make Alice his wife with the least 
 possible delay. And Alice had promised to 
 consult her mother at once, and the next morn 
 ing name the day for their marriage. 
 
 " I will be here to-morrow at the noon hour," 
 he said with a loving caress, and she held his 
 hand for a moment and looked into his eyes, 
 and felt sure that she had bade him " farewell " 
 for ever. For so pitilessly kind is that pre 
 science which accompanies the pure in heart, 
 that even with this engagement in her ears 
 Alice trembled in the gloom of its certain fail 
 ure. Not that Lord Medway intended this 
 result, even Alice, with a severe justice, ex 
 onerated him so far, but weak men are easily 
 cruel through their selfishness, though they may 
 not, as a rule, plan cruelty. 
 
 Medway, however, went directly from Alice 
 to his lawyer s office, and he was frightened by 
 the doubts and cautions he received there. 
 This man had never favoured his client s marriage 
 with Nicholas Lloyd s daughter. He detested 
 244
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 Lloyd, who had done him some wrong in the far 
 distant years of his early struggle for business, 
 and throughout the whole negotiation he had 
 quietly striven to delay and embarrass affairs. 
 Indeed, his provoking contradictions and sus 
 picions had been a large factor in developing 
 the disease which had driven his old enemy 
 to the chamber of death. He felt that this was 
 the final struggle, and he put forth all his powers 
 to such excellent purpose that he induced the 
 young man to leave early the next morning for 
 England. To the last moment he remained 
 with him, and Medway, uncertain and per 
 plexed, and completely under the influence of 
 a man of tremendous resource and mental ac 
 tivity, went aboard the steamer unresolved, and 
 miserably conscious that he was a consummate 
 scoundrel. 
 
 " I will see the young lady," were the man s 
 last words, as he held Medway s hand, " and 
 make it all right. She is Nicholas Lloyd s 
 daughter, and bound to be a sensible girl." 
 
 "I don t know, Mr. Rives; it seems to me all 
 shamefully wrong, I declare it does. I think I 
 will go on shore again." 
 
 " You must not. I will tell her you had a 
 
 cablegram about important business. Take my 
 
 advice and drop the whole affair. Have I any 
 
 motive but your advantage? As far as I am 
 
 245
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 concerned, it would be better for me that you 
 should marry the girl." 
 
 "Then why do you fight against your 
 advantage?" 
 
 " I have been young. I made a mistake my 
 self. I won t see any fine young man get into 
 a hole if I can help it. Lawyers are not al 
 together Sancho Panzas ; there is something 
 of Don Quixote in most of us. It is the last 
 moment. Good-bye." 
 
 "But Mr. Rives " 
 
 " Good-bye ! I will see Miss Lloyd before 
 noon. Write to her at your leisure." He said 
 these words on the loosened gangway, and as 
 the great ship began to move, he called out, 
 " Don t write at all. Let the matter drop en 
 tirely." Then as a parting shot: "I am ready 
 to take up the Leavenworth affair as soon as 
 you are." 
 
 Answer to this remark was impossible, but he 
 noticed Medway laugh and lift his hat, and he 
 said with a sigh of relief, " He is safe now." 
 Then he put his hands in his pockets and walked 
 thoughtfully to his coupe. It was too soon to 
 call on Miss Lloyd, so he drove to the Hoffman 
 House, ate a good breakfast, smoked a couple 
 of cigars, and then resolved to get the business 
 off his hands as far as the young lady was 
 concerned. He was fully conscious of the re- 
 246
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 vengeful part he had played, and it was with a 
 sense of well-deserved triumph he entered the 
 house which he told himself he had " helped 
 considerably to pull down." 
 
 The parlour of the Lloyd mansion was dark 
 ened to keep out the heat. The house was 
 very still. Mr. Rives had to wait twenty min 
 utes before Alice was ready to see him, and 
 in that twenty minutes thoughts that he could 
 not prevent crowded even gratified revenge to 
 the wall. Since Nicholas Lloyd so wantonly 
 wronged him a great tide of events had flowed 
 between them, and the straits of Time widened 
 and widened ; but he had never forgotten the 
 wrong, never ceased to watch for an opportu 
 nity to repay it, with interest. The opportunity 
 had come, and he had taken every advantage of 
 it. In a few minutes he would taste the sweet 
 est morsel of his revenge, for he resolved to 
 tell Miss Lloyd the story of the far-back injury, 
 and leave her no grounds for doubting who it 
 was that had come between her and Lord 
 Medway. 
 
 When Alice entered the room he saw at once 
 that she had been weeping, but it did not move 
 him to pity, for his anger, ingrained, had be 
 come a hatred which desired its satisfaction, 
 even upon the innocent. And if his injustice 
 touched him at all, he reminded himself that his 
 247
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 own daughter s prospects had been blighted just 
 on the verge of her womanhood by the sudden 
 poverty which Nicholas Lloyd had brought on 
 him. " T is but justice, bare justice," he mut 
 tered ; " my girl suffered the wreck of all her 
 hopes ; his girl shall suffer as mine did. Yes, I 
 will spare her nothing. " 
 
 As he was thus instructing himself, Alice 
 entered. She was dressed in white, even to her 
 shoes; and as she stood in the dim room, she 
 made a kind of radiance. He was startled by 
 her pallor, by her air of noble sorrow, and by 
 her large proud eyes, which affected him like 
 an accusation. 
 
 "You are Mr. Rives?" she asked, advancing 
 a little, but declining, by a slight motion, the 
 chair he offered. 
 
 " I am. I called to tell you that Lord Med- 
 way left for England this morning." 
 
 " I know it, sir." 
 
 " Ah ! " he ejaculated. He could only imag 
 ine that Medway, in spite of his advice to the 
 contrary, had written to her, and he was slightly 
 dashed by this unconscious throwing back of 
 his first stone. But he continued with more 
 animus, 
 
 " I do not know when he will return." 
 
 " He will not return at all." 
 
 Irritated by this calm, positive assertion, he 
 248
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 denied at once its truth. " He will return about 
 Christmas, I think." 
 
 " You are mistaken, sir. He will not return." 
 
 " How do you know that? " he asked sharply. 
 And she made no answer, for how could she 
 tell him that he saw only with his eyes, but that 
 she saw with her heart? 
 
 The profound silence that ensued was most 
 embarrassing, though it lasted but a minute. 
 Indeed, he forced with brutal directness a pas 
 sage through it. " Mr. Lloyd is very ill, I 
 suppose? " 
 
 "Very; he dies daily, by hours and minutes." 
 
 " Is he ever sufficiently sane to remember 
 past events? " 
 
 " Sometimes he is. Do you wish me to ask 
 him for some information?" 
 
 " Yes. I wish you to ask him to remember 
 the twelfth of October, twenty-three years ago. 
 On that day he robbed me of all I had, and in 
 so doing blasted my little Annette s prospects 
 for life. By fraud and falsities he has heaped 
 damnation on himself before God has damned 
 him, and I hope he will go to the devil when 
 that day comes around again ! " 
 
 He spoke with a rapid passion that admitted 
 
 of no interruption, even if Alice had desired to 
 
 interrupt him ; but she stood still and white as 
 
 death, looking at the accuser. Very soon, 
 
 249
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 however, her calm, stern voice broke the un 
 natural stillness that instantly followed the un 
 natural outbreak. 
 
 " God has brought his sins to his remembrance. 
 My father does not require that you or I should 
 touch his memory. It would be well to pray 
 that our sins be not so brought to remembrance. 
 As to the future, Nicholas Lloyd has to do with 
 Almighty God, and not with John Rives." 
 
 Her grave rebuke, severe in youthful beauty, 
 had an invincible authority. He was ashamed 
 of his profane, relentless cruelty, and he added, 
 " If you only knew how cruelly he wronged 
 me!" 
 
 " The reconciling grave is now between you. 
 In a few weeks, or days, or hours, it may be too 
 late to send the message you ought to send; 
 for you must remember that your trespasses 
 will be forgiven as you forgive those that have 
 trespassed against you." 
 
 " If you only knew ! " he reiterated ; " if you 
 only knew, you would not wonder that I hate." 
 
 " I am sorry for you. Hatred is such a bitter 
 self-punishment. And very likely you judge 
 my poor father too hardly. If he had com 
 mitted any crime against his fellow-men the 
 law " 
 
 " He never committed a crime ; he was too 
 clever for that; but he did far worse to me." 
 250
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 " Well, then you have seen your desire on 
 your enemy, as all those who suffer ultimately 
 do. This is your opportunity. Forgive any 
 wrong father has done you. If I ask him to re 
 member John Rives, I must give him a merciful 
 reason for doing so. What am I to say to 
 him? " 
 
 " I cannot forgive him. Let him go to his 
 own place." 
 
 " You also may need mercy some day, Mr. 
 Rives. Is this the answer you wish to your 
 prayer for it? " 
 
 " I cannot forgive Nicholas Lloyd ; but I am 
 sorry that I have so steadily worked against 
 your marriage with Lord Medway. I regret 
 that. I will try to undo it." 
 
 " You need not regret it, as far as I am con 
 cerned. All things will work together for my 
 good, for I trust in One able to make them do 
 so. Do not, therefore, try either to do or to 
 undo in my affairs. I have committed my cause 
 to God, and not to John Rives. But if you have 
 the message of a Christian gentleman to send to 
 my dying father, I will gladly take it." 
 
 She ceased speaking, and stood waiting, and 
 the stillness was such as might be felt. The 
 roll of the carriages outside the darkened win 
 dows only intensified it. Alice heard them as 
 in a dream. John Rives heard nothing but the
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 rapid beat, beat, beat of his heart, where anger 
 and hatred remained as in a fort. But suddenly 
 his sullen defiance heard a Voice, prophetic in 
 its power, kingly in its authority, priestly in its 
 blessing and cursing the Voice of Conscience, 
 of the pervading and besetting God "Thou 
 also art a mortal man." And he recognised the 
 majesty of this reminder, and did reverence to 
 that within him which is eternal. 
 
 " You may tell Nicholas Lloyd that I 
 forgive him," he said. The words were bro 
 kenly and softly spoken. Indeed, he hardly 
 knew the tones of his own voice, and he was far 
 down the avenue ere he understood fully that 
 he had obeyed that wondrous Power which 
 works neither by insinuation, flattery, nor threat, 
 but by simply holding up the naked law of God 
 within the soul that Imperative which says 
 to every man, if he will listen to it, " Thou 
 ought" and " Thou must." 
 
 He did not look at Alice as he passed her, 
 nor see the brightening paleness of her face, nor 
 comprehend that he had been with one of those 
 finer spirits who amid the jar and jangle of 
 daily life and the sighs and cries of suffering 
 still keep the melodious memory of the everlast 
 ing chime. But Alice knew that she had been 
 on a great battle-field, and witnessed a great 
 victory, and that henceforward that shrouded 
 252
 
 A GREAT VICTORY 
 
 parlour must be a sacred place, for in it she had 
 seen a sinful soul meet its Maker and render 
 obedience. 
 
 " Surely," she whispered, " he has gone to 
 his house justified. It is good for him and it is 
 good for father. Poor father ! When a man is 
 fighting death it would be foul play indeed to 
 let flesh and blood interpose against him." 
 
 253
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 STEVE was as yet ignorant of these events. 
 After leaving his wife at the watering-place she 
 had chosen, he went straight to a little cot he 
 knew of in the heart of the Hudson Highlands. 
 It was the home of a wood-cutter and his wife, 
 and there were no other homes near it. The 
 old woman had cared for him before ; the old 
 man "had the virtue of extreme reticence. 
 Neither of them troubled themselves about 
 Steve s coming and going; he gave them 
 money, they gave food and shelter for it, and 
 asked him no questions. Steve was never sure 
 whether their apparent apathy was indifference, 
 or stupidity, or a fine sense of personal pecu 
 liarities with which they had nothing to do. 
 
 Towards the end of August he was sitting 
 one night on the doorstep of the cottage. The 
 wood-cutter was in a chair tilted against a big 
 maple tree, and was smoking one of Steve s 
 cigars, an act of politeness he very seldom 
 committed, for he much preferred his own old 
 pipe and black tobacco. They had nodded 
 254
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 to each other when they met at the supper- 
 table ; they had nodded again when the cigar 
 was offered and accepted, but they had not 
 spoken. Neither of them wished to do so. 
 They were content to wait until they had some 
 thing to say. Cynthia, the woodman s wife, 
 was scarcely more talkative. Her vocabulary 
 consisted of a few questions and a few excla 
 mations. She had said to Steve when he re 
 turned from a day in the woods, " Be you come 
 home to supper?" and then put an extra plate 
 on the table. She was now moving quietly 
 about her cottage, washing the dishes and lay 
 ing the table for the early breakfast. 
 
 A great peace was all around. The sun had 
 just set, the robins were piping the birds to bed, 
 the woodman s collies sleeping at Steve s feet. 
 They always attached themselves to Steve when 
 he visited their master, for the collie is a gen 
 tleman and knows a gentleman when he meets 
 one. Like Steve, they abhored evil and deceit, 
 and they meant whatever they suggested. One 
 dog rested his head on Steve s foot ; Steve s 
 hand lay across the head of the other. The 
 stars came out one by one, " keen glancing 
 from the Immensities," the selfsame stars 
 under which Abraham worshipped and David 
 kept his sheep and Columbus sailed, Arcturus 
 pale and calm as angelic stars should be; the 
 255
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Pleiades with their " sweet influence," and the 
 Belt of Orion with his "binding" one. Plants 
 and trees and rivers and stars all spoke of in 
 calculable beneficence to Steve, and made the 
 earth on which he trod consecrated ground. 
 Was he lonely then? No! the loneliness of a 
 good or great soul is all nonsense ! It has 
 infinite relationships. 
 
 Yet when Cynthia had gone to bed and there 
 were no longer the echoes of the sounds her 
 movements made, Steve looked at his com 
 panion as if he wished him to speak. He knew 
 what to expect from him in the way of conver 
 sation, short, sharp sentences like pistol shots, 
 and he felt as if one or two of them would not 
 be amiss. 
 
 " Martin Bloch," he said, " I know that I 
 seem to you a queer fellow. You wonder at 
 me?" 
 
 " I wonder at nothing." 
 
 " I mean, at the idle life I lead. But don t 
 you think every man ought to get as much 
 happiness as possible in his own way?" 
 
 " Is happiness all life means?" 
 
 " We can only live once." 
 
 " You have n t read your Bible, Steve. That s 
 clear." 
 
 " I mean we only live this particular life 
 once." 
 
 256
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 "Would you like to live this particular life 
 twice?" 
 
 " No. It is too full of injustice." 
 
 " That s it. I see Wilmot has lost his case 
 again." 
 
 " Yet it was a good one." 
 
 " The case is bad when the client is poor." 
 
 " Don t you think a poor man can obtain a 
 decree against a rich man?" 
 
 " As the Bible says : with man it is impos 
 sible, but all things are possible to God. " 
 
 After a long pause Steve continued : " You 
 never spoke of your politics? What side are 
 you for? " 
 
 "The side that s up." 
 
 "How is that right?" 
 
 "Well, it s natural to think that Providence 
 knows best." 
 
 " I have been disappointed in X." 
 
 " You should n t have been." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because ten never becomes twelve." 
 
 " His idea of the whole world is a political 
 one." 
 
 "That s it. Men to him aint fathers and 
 citizens, they are Republicans or Democrats." 
 
 " I have often wondered, Martin, if you were 
 born in these woods, and to this life?" 
 
 " I was not." 
 17 257
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "You met calamity? And bravely, too, I 
 have no doubt?" 
 
 " Yes, as a good soldier meets a shot." 
 
 " You had a loving wife to help you? " 
 
 " Yes, I had." 
 
 " And health? Health is good fortune." 
 
 " It s the salt of life." 
 
 " And you don t fear death?" 
 
 " The fear of death may bully the world ; it 
 does not bully me." 
 
 "You have a reason for that confidence?" 
 
 " Yes. I know Him that was dead, and is 
 alive, and living for ever. " 
 
 Then Steve stretched out his hand, and 
 Martin shyly took it, and the silence was deeper 
 than ever. An hour passed, then Steve rose, 
 stooped and petted the dogs, and said with a 
 yawn, " It is getting late, Martin, and you go to 
 work so early in the morning." 
 
 " Not to-morrow. The job I was on is fin 
 ished." 
 
 " Some day you will finish your last job." 
 
 " That s it. It won t matter." 
 
 "You think so?" 
 
 " Not to others. We are in a world where 
 there s always plenty of fresh hands." 
 
 " That s true, too. Good night. I am going 
 to sleep." 
 
 " I doubt it." 
 
 258
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 " Eh ! What do you mean? " 
 
 " Flesh and blood may sleep, but does the 
 soul sleep?" 
 
 " No. Sleep sets it free like a bird from a 
 cage." 
 
 " I thought so." 
 
 But Steve did not hear this answer, for as 
 Martin spoke, a clear, soft, penetrating voice 
 filled his ears and his heart. He stood still, 
 and his whole frame vibrated to the powerful 
 influence. Awed, and yet informed of his duty, 
 he bowed his head and his will to the message. 
 It was imparted swiftly as thought, and yet it 
 brought with it a strange conviction of impera 
 tive necessity. He waited until he knew the 
 presence had departed, and then he said, 
 
 " Martin, did you hear anyone speak? " 
 
 " Not a word." 
 
 " I did. I shall not go to bed now. I am 
 going home. My mother called me. She is 
 needing my help in some way." 
 
 " Then go to her. Don t loiter. She may 
 be in trouble." 
 
 " I fear she is." 
 
 " And it may be about yourself. Men 
 should n t make mothers weep. God counts 
 their tears." 
 
 In ten minutes Steve had packed the little 
 valise he carried, and was on his way to the 
 259
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 nearest railway station. But it was long after 
 midnight before he was at the door of the Lloyd 
 mansion in New York. He had debated with 
 himself on the journey as to whether he would 
 call there, or go at once to Newport, but had 
 concluded that it might be best to see if his 
 father were not in New York. If so, Steve was 
 sure anything unusual would have been tele 
 graphed to him. He was a little astonished to 
 see lights in the house ; more so when he rang 
 the bell and it was promptly answered, and the 
 sight of the servant whom he knew had gone 
 with the family to Newport sent a quick terror 
 to his heart. 
 
 "You here, Kelly? " he ejaculated, and the 
 man answered, " Mr. Lloyd is very ill, sir. The 
 family are all in New York." 
 
 The man preceded him into the parlour, 
 turned up the lights, and then went to notify 
 the mother and sister of Steve s arrival. He 
 was too restless to sit, too sensitive to the 
 atmosphere around him to doubt what presence 
 was waiting there. But full of anxiety as he 
 was he resented this gloomy anticipation of the 
 change which affected the whole house. 
 
 "I wonder what we are Christians for?" he 
 
 mentally exclaimed. " We never see anything 
 
 but terror in the visit of death. The pagan 
 
 Athenian, caressing his dog ere he cheerfully 
 
 260
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 went out and fared to the house of the Lord of 
 Many Guests/ might teach us a lesson. There 
 is no fear of the terrible in his face or attitude. 
 He knows that all good things await the new 
 comer to Hades, and that Happiness is be 
 trothed to him in a garden of myrtles. Then 
 why should not a Christian take leave of his 
 life and his friends in the same cheerful, hopeful 
 spirit?" 
 
 He had not finished this strain of thought 
 when Mrs. Lloyd and Alice came into the room 
 together. He was shocked at the change in 
 their appearance, and when he heard something 
 of the great burden they were bearing he felt a 
 burning shame and anger at his own careless 
 neglect. "I ought to have known that father 
 was not fit to leave," he said, " and I did know 
 it, but in my selfish carelessness I hoped things 
 would go on as usual until I had had my 
 holiday." 
 
 " You ought at least to have left us some 
 idea of where to find you, Steve, in case of 
 serious trouble. I thought my heart would 
 break to-night, with the very longing for the 
 comfort and help you could be. If prayer could 
 have reached your ear, as well as the ear of God, 
 you would, you must, have heard my cry." 
 
 " I did hear it, and I answered it at once. I 
 will not leave you again, mother." 
 261
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "Your father s sickness may be tedious, or it 
 may end suddenly and there is Jessie." 
 
 " Jessie is very happy. I have not the 
 slightest doubt of that." 
 
 " But you must go to her," said Mrs. Lloyd. 
 " She ought to know that you are here. She 
 must be anxious about you." 
 
 " She does not expect me, mother, until 
 September," replied Steve. " I do not think 
 she will care to have her visit shortened, or made 
 less brilliant by a knowledge of our trouble." 
 
 " She knows everything already," said Alice ; 
 " she has been here. And she did offer her 
 help in any possible way. But she could not 
 tell us where you were, and that was the first 
 and great thing we needed." 
 
 " Steve," asked Mrs. Lloyd, " are you behav 
 ing unkindly to Jessie?" 
 
 " Not at all, mother. She understands. She 
 had no objection to being left alone until 
 September." 
 
 " Nevertheless, you ought to go to her." 
 
 " Then I will go." 
 
 At this juncture some food was brought for 
 Steve, and they sat with him as he ate, and 
 talked of their father s sad case, and of Alice s 
 matrimonial affairs, until the clatter of the milk- 
 wagons, and the summer dawn warned them 
 that another day was at hand. 
 262
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 Following his mother s advice, Steve went as 
 soon as possible to visit his wife. He did not 
 give her any information of this visit, for he 
 had still some of that boyish love for surprises, 
 which never give the satisfaction the preparer 
 of them anticipates. He reached the hotel just 
 before dinner, and was told that Mrs. Lloyd 
 was out riding. So he sat down on the piazza 
 to watch for her return, and a dark spirit of 
 jealousy began to stir in his breast. 
 
 " She knows what trouble we are in," he 
 thought, " and yet she can go galloping over 
 the country with some fool or other." Then he 
 reminded himself that he was blaming her with 
 out knowledge, that he knew not who was her 
 escort, that Jessie had often said " to ride horse 
 back was her great desire," and that he ought 
 not to expect more than a conventional recogni 
 tion of his father s illness from her ; also, that 
 he himself was to blame, since his very willing 
 desertion had left her dependent for courtesy 
 and escort upon strangers. 
 
 In spite of such sensible thoughts, he sat with 
 lowering brows watching for his wife s return 
 home. She lingered till the sun was dropping 
 low, but he finally saw her coming at a rapid 
 speed up the long, smooth road. There was 
 no mistaking the small erect figure, the proud 
 carriage of the head, the dash and daring that 
 263
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 were as much a part of her as was the trig fit of 
 her riding-habit and the faultless set of her hat 
 A gentleman rode at her side, and he had an 
 air of familiarity or right in that position which 
 instantly offended Steve. At this moment he 
 could not take into consideration the fact that 
 he had voluntarily abdicated his place; he only 
 saw another where he ought to have been, and 
 saw that other treated with a merry intimacy 
 which he did not at all enjoy. 
 
 As the riders neared the hotel Steve stepped 
 forward, and before Jessie realised who was at 
 her horse s head he was ready to assist her 
 from her saddle. 
 
 " O Steve," she cried, " how glad I am to 
 see you ! " And the ring of pleasure in her voice 
 was so genuine that Steve s heart rose high as 
 heaven, and he took her in his arms regardless 
 of onlookers, and kissed her. Then she intro 
 duced him to Mr. Belton. " He has been so 
 kind to me, Steve," she said. " He has taught 
 me how to ride and how to swim, and I do not 
 know how I should have got through the time 
 but for him." 
 
 And Steve lifted his hat and muttered some 
 thing that might have been " thank you," but 
 which had the tone of a very contrary greeting. 
 Then he took Jessie on his arm and carried her 
 off triumphantly. And as they who have the 
 264
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 best of a situation can afford to be magnani 
 mous, Steve was in a reasonable temper and 
 ready to listen with a happy heart to all his 
 wife s witty and pretty explanations and de 
 scriptions. 
 
 Her dressing amazed and delighted him. He 
 could hardly bear to dash the beauty and spirits 
 of the brilliant little woman he loved by any 
 reference to his father s condition. But as he 
 was hesitating, Jessie herself introduced the 
 subject. 
 
 " Your father is very ill indeed, Steve," she 
 said. " Have you heard about his condition ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I have been home." 
 
 "Before coming to see me? I don t think 
 that was nice. I do not value your visit 
 now." 
 
 " It was after midnight when I reached New 
 York. I was very unhappy about mother, and 
 I could not at that hour get a train out here. 
 So I went home first, and I am glad I did so. 
 I am much needed there. Alice told me you 
 had offered to do anything you could. It was 
 very good of you." 
 
 " Yes; I made the offer and got the coldest 
 kind of refusal." 
 
 " They are very miserable." 
 
 " They are very proud. And I don t care a 
 pin about their pride. I have been having a 
 265
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 real good time. Have you enjoyed yourself, 
 Steve?" 
 
 "A little. I missed you, Jessie, far more than 
 you can believe. I shall be glad to have you 
 home. When can you be ready?" 
 
 "Ready? What for?" 
 
 " To go home." 
 
 " Do you mean that stuffy little flat when you 
 say home? 
 
 " We have no other home. I shall be a 
 great deal with father. I think from what 
 mother says I ought to be with him every hour 
 except those hours necessary for sleep and rest. 
 It will be such a great comfort to have you at 
 home, Jessie. The very sight of you makes a 
 new man of me." 
 
 " Steve, I have told you often that I hate 
 that flat. I will go to a hotel and board 
 rather than go back to it. But if you must 
 stay near your father, then your proper place 
 is your father s house. I am sure it is big 
 enough to spare us a couple of rooms." 
 
 Steve looked at her in gloomy amazement. 
 But a few months ago that flat had answered 
 her highest ambition. And he did not like the 
 idea of a hotel. Who had put that alternative 
 into her head? As for taking her to his father s 
 house, he had no right to do so ; yet rather than 
 allow her to begin hotel life, he would ask his 
 266
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 mother and Alice to agree to Jessie s demand. 
 But these thoughts passed very reluctantly 
 through his mind, and Jessie said sharply: 
 
 " You do not seem to have an opinion of your 
 own, Steve. Why don t you say something ? " 
 
 " I was thinking," he answered. " I wish you 
 would go to our own home, Jessie; for my 
 sake, dear ! At any rate go for a little while, 
 at this hard time. Do me this great favour, 
 darling." 
 
 " Go to that wretched little flat ! In this 
 broiling weather ! No, thank you, I won t do 
 any such thing. I wonder how you can ask 
 me to leave this place until the season is over. 
 When it is over I will come back to New 
 York, but I shall live wherever you live. If 
 your father is alive, I suppose it will be in his 
 house. If he is dead, everything, of course, will 
 be different. You will have, whether you like 
 it or not, to take your proper place." 
 
 " Jessie, I have often told you that my father s 
 death can make no difference in our income, or 
 in our social position." 
 
 " Nonsense, Steve. If he has made an im 
 proper will, we must break it." 
 
 " I would rather beg my bread than attempt 
 to break my father s will." 
 
 " If he has made no will, then we are all 
 right." 
 
 267
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " God help me, Jessie ! Are you really spec 
 ulating over my dying father? He has bought 
 his money with his life, and surely he has a 
 right to do as he will with such dear gold." 
 
 " We shall see. How do I look, Steve? " 
 
 " You are marvellous, Jessie. You are dressed 
 like a picture. Where did you get all these 
 beautiful things?" 
 
 " You will find out pretty soon, Steve. But 
 I really had to dress. People even think it 
 strange that I wear no diamonds. Stephen 
 Lloyd s wife and no diamonds seems so absurd 
 to them." 
 
 " It would be far more absurd if you did wear 
 diamonds. Will you go home with me to 
 morrow? Do, Jessie ! " 
 
 " I won t go back to the city, Steve, until the 
 weather is cooler. Then you can come for me. 
 Nearly every one is going away in two weeks to 
 the mountains. I should like to go somewhere, 
 if possible ; but if you wish me, I will then go 
 back home with you." 
 
 "To our own home? Thank you, Jessie." 
 
 " No, sir. I will not go back to that flat. I 
 have made some very stylish friends here, and 
 I simply could not ask them to call on me in 
 such a place. Your father s house is all right. 
 I will go there." 
 
 " Callers there are out of the question, 
 268
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 Jessie. I wonder you can think of such a 
 thing." 
 
 " I don t think of it, stupid ! But my address 
 will be there, that is sufficient; the future can 
 grow from that. Steve, dear, I want a lot of 
 money. I have used up all you left me, and am 
 a good deal in debt. Gracious ! I wish I had 
 a million." 
 
 " Always money, Jessie ! I wish there was n t 
 such a thing. The very thought of it lies on the 
 heart like a great stone, and seals up every good 
 and kind feeling." 
 
 "That is all right. The heart ought to be 
 sealed up these days. When are you going 
 back to New York?" 
 
 " To-morrow morning. First train." 
 
 " Do you wish me to go with you and see 
 your mother and Alice?" 
 
 " If you wish but but " 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 "Nothing." 
 
 However, though she went to town, she did 
 not call on Steve s family. She had a lot of 
 shopping to do, and she had thought over 
 affairs, and concluded that the position she 
 wished would be best taken by surprise. If 
 she advanced step by step, Alice was shrewd 
 enough to circumvent her rights. For by con 
 stantly assuring herself that she had " rights " 
 269
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 in the Lloyd home and property, she had come 
 to regard her non-possession as a great personal 
 wrong. 
 
 As they rode into town the next morning 
 Steve asked his wife concerning her brother 
 John. " He is in Day & Darling s law office," 
 she answered with an air of injury, "but 
 he is become a worse crank than ever. Of 
 the people, and for the people, that is his 
 motto, and much good the people will do 
 him. I think he is crazy, or next door to 
 it." 
 
 " Then I wish we were all crazy, Jessie. John 
 has a great heart." 
 
 " Too great when it goes out to the whole 
 world. He loves so many that he loves no 
 body. He lectured two weeks ago at the 
 Cooper Union, and said things that made re 
 spectable people angry at him. I heard him 
 severely criticised by Mr. Belton and many 
 others, and I was ashamed to acknowledge 
 him as my brother." 
 
 " Poor John ! Pray what did he say to offend 
 Mr. Belton and many others? " 
 
 " He said that if we saw any injustice or 
 cruelty and did not oppose it, we also were 
 positively and actively immoral. Such non 
 sense ! A man who lived up to that rule would 
 be constantly in a fight." 
 270
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 " We ought to be in a constant fight against 
 evil. What else did he say? " 
 
 " He spoke badly about what he called the 
 worthy sort of people, and said they were 
 mostly cowards. " 
 
 Steve laughed heartily, and answered : " This 
 is interesting, Jessie. Why did he call them 
 cowards? " 
 
 " He said if they saw a wrong they shut 
 their lips and took their supper and forgot all 
 about it. Or if they read of some great misery 
 they said, Poor fellow ! and then went off to 
 the comic opera, or to dance all night at the 
 house of their most respectable friend, forget 
 ting that because of their silence, injustice and 
 fraud and cruelty cut the throats of the poor 
 and the unfortunate at their pleasure." 
 
 " Very good, and very true words. How did 
 the people listening like them?" 
 
 " The newspapers said John spoke in a blaze 
 of anger and pity, and set the people on fire, 
 but the more worthy sort of people, the very 
 ones whose help he wanted, did not go with 
 him. John is a fool. If he would turn his fine 
 talents to politics, Mr. Belton says, there is no 
 office he might not aspire to, governor, Presi 
 dent, what not! He has the rabble at his 
 heels." 
 
 " And if it is the rabble that make governors 
 271
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 and presidents, who would be a thing of their 
 making, Jessie? " 
 
 " It would be very nice to have a brother 
 President of the United States, no matter who 
 or what made him so. Here we are at Twenty- 
 third Street. You may leave me now, for I 
 have a great many little things to buy." 
 
 So Steve left his wife at one of the great dry 
 goods stores, and went to watch in his father s 
 death-room. Jessie was happier than usual. 
 She had discovered that after all she was the 
 dominant key in her husband s life, and that 
 allowing for a certain amount of opposition 
 she would be very likely, in the long run, to 
 get her own way in anything she was deter 
 mined about. And she was determined never 
 to go back to the narrow life she had left. She 
 had been gradually throwing off the claims of 
 father and mother, brother and sister; all she 
 desired was gold. It might be the price of a 
 soul, it might be the price of love, of domestic 
 happiness, of honour and friendship, but she 
 wanted gold, gold to push herself to the front 
 of a crowd of frivolous men and women ; gold 
 to outdress and outfeast and outdance the mul 
 titude at her heels; gold to buy luxury and 
 power and flattery ; gold that was to be spent 
 absolutely upon her own indulgence, unsanc- 
 tified by a single charitable gift. And Steve 
 272
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 knew her desire and her intention, and he 
 trembled, because he doubted his own ability 
 to resist the entreaties, the smiles and tears 
 and cleverly sustained pressure that would be 
 brought against him. He had the faculty, how 
 ever, of letting things drift, and this question of 
 the future was not yet to be decided. But he felt 
 certain that as soon as she wished to do so, 
 Jessie would accomplish the desire of her heart 
 and make herself one of the Lloyd household. 
 
 So the thing expected happened, and Mrs. 
 Lloyd and Alice, with the supcrsensitiveness of 
 good women, rather overdid the concession 
 granted. They were so afraid of not being 
 courteous enough that they resigned something 
 of their own rights, and were so conscious 
 of their own dislike to the intrusion, that they 
 covered it with more than an ample ceremony. 
 The best guest rooms in the house were allotted 
 to Jessie ; a carriage was placed at her disposal, 
 and the servants were instructed to give her 
 every attention and obedience. 
 
 Jessie was clever enough to make good her 
 own standing ; to gradually render herself almost 
 indispensable. She lifted so many little cares, 
 did so much necessary shopping, saw people 
 whom Mrs. Lloyd and Alice did not wish to see, 
 wrote notes of ceremony, etc., etc., and day by 
 day so encroached on every one s duties, that 
 18 273
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 the keys of the Lloyd mansion, figuratively 
 speaking, fell absolutely into her hands. And 
 through all these changes Steve was becoming 
 daily more and more infatuated with his wife s 
 beauty and cleverness, and more and more 
 subject to her influence and control. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted that Jessie s 
 rapid accession to power was greatly aided by 
 Alice s careless abrogation of it. The unhappy 
 girl was walking through the Valley of Humilia 
 tion, and it is a fact that most of us prefer to 
 take that lowly road without witnesses. After 
 her interview with Mr. Rives she had written a 
 few sad but positive words to Lord Medway, 
 releasing both of them from an engagement 
 that seemed so allied to misfortune and disap 
 pointment; and the young man had accepted 
 his " unhappy destiny " without any gainsaying. 
 Across that chapter of her life she had written 
 " finished," and she knew that it was finished. 
 She knew, also, that she had done right; but an 
 approving conscience does not relieve or release 
 from consequences. These have been created, 
 and must be borne ; and it is well for us that 
 there is no release from them. Such experi 
 ences bring the sweet austerity of sacrifice, and 
 that serenity of submission which is the harvest- 
 song of inward peace. Alice had not yet at 
 tained unto this excellent condition, but she was 
 274
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 slowly following after it. On the bread of 
 bitterness, she was growing to her full stature; 
 and then one day this thing happened to her. 
 
 Another nurse was needed very urgently. 
 Steve could not leave his father; Jessie was out 
 for the day, and Mrs. Lloyd asked Alice to go 
 to a certain address near Chelsea Square. " I 
 have seen the man, and he is very suitable," she 
 said ; " and I could write for him, but if you will 
 take the carriage, and drive to his home, we 
 shall have him here some hours earlier." 
 
 " I will go at once, mother ; " she answered ; 
 and she did so. Having finished her errand, 
 she was driving past the Theological Seminary 
 in that locality; and the quaint, vine-covered 
 building, which she had never seen before, 
 arrested her attention. " It is like a corner from 
 some old English cathedral town," she thought; 
 " such a bit of beauty, and rest, and peace, near 
 the river, is simply wonderful." And as she 
 gazed, she saw several men and women, with 
 prayer-books in their hands, enter the building. 
 Her message was delivered, her curiosity was 
 aroused; nay, it was something wiser and more 
 potent than mere curiosity; it was that warm 
 impression of the soul to which we give the 
 name of presentiment that whispered to her, 
 " Go in and be comforted." 
 
 She bade the coachman wait for her, and fol- 
 275
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 lowed the " two s and three s " through the gate 
 way into a lovely little chapel. The organ was 
 preluding the service in a nobly majestic invo 
 cation, and ere it was finished a large orderly 
 body of young men filed into the stalls and 
 knelt in prayer. The little congregation bowed 
 with them, then came the officiating pastor, and 
 his sweet, clear voice filled the whole space with 
 those pathetic entreaties with which sinful men 
 best approach their Maker : 
 
 " Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all 
 my iniquities. 
 
 "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a 
 broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not 
 despise. To the Lord our God belong mercies 
 and forgiveness ; though we have rebelled against 
 him. 
 
 " O Lord, correct me, but with judgment ; not 
 in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. 
 
 " I will arise and go to my father, and will 
 say unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
 heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son." 
 
 Music and intercession, the thrilling march of 
 young men singing, " The Lord is a man of 
 war," the pathos, and the calm assurance of 
 the responses, the verbal music of the pastor s 
 noble reading of the noblest words in the 
 language, all these went to Alice s heart, and 
 276
 
 STEVE IS WANTED 
 
 melted its frost with infinite tenderness, and 
 watered it with the rain of sorrowful tears, and 
 filled it with the joy of believing. 
 
 "My dear Lord God!" she prayed, "take 
 me to the rest of Thy Will be Done! " Then 
 she was comforted. She rose with the congre 
 gation, and the sweet music of the benediction 
 fell upon her heart She had accepted, and she 
 had been accepted ; and she went back to her 
 home literally a changed woman. God had 
 spoken a word to her. Is any one ever the same 
 after that wondrous experience? 
 
 Who that one moment hath the least descried Him, 
 
 Dimly and faintly, hidden and afar, 
 Doth not despise all excellence beside Him, 
 
 Pleasures and powers, that are not, and that are? 
 
 277
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 THE experience which does not make us better, 
 makes us worse; and there was in Jessie s case 
 a constant disintegration of character. She had 
 obtained the uttermost desire of her vain, ambi 
 tious heart; and she considered this result to be 
 the fruit of her own tact and superior wisdom. 
 No credit was given to the force of circum 
 stances ; none to her husband s love ; none to 
 the unselfish tolerance of Mrs. Lloyd and Alice. 
 She believed that she had forced the position, 
 and she prided herself on her strategy and 
 sagacity. 
 
 All the long, dreary winter she held firmly 
 the reins of the Lloyd household, and she was 
 never weary of pointing out to Steve how cleverly 
 she did so. And as Steve was not accustomed 
 to look below the surface of events, he was 
 amazed and delighted with Jessie s social suc 
 cess. He even began to have some respect for 
 a society that was capable of appreciating and 
 indorsing his idea of a beautiful woman and 
 a desirable wife. Yet Jessie, after all, ruled 
 278
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 only because of favourable circumstances. Mrs. 
 Lloyd s exhausting watch by her husband s side 
 left her no time for either domestic or social 
 duties, and Alice bore this burden in a large 
 measure with her. 
 
 Besides which, Alice had trouble which was 
 peculiarly her own. Soon after Christmas there 
 began to be reports of a marriage between Miss 
 Leavenworth and Lord Medway. Some papers 
 averred this to be the case, and others as posi 
 tively asserted that the engagement between Miss 
 Lloyd and Lord Medway was still in force, and 
 the marriage only delayed by the illness of the 
 bride s father. Reporters vexed her by re 
 quests for an interview, callers and acquaintances 
 hinted or spoke plainly on the subject ; there 
 were still stray offerings from distant friends of 
 congratulations or wedding gifts, and the un 
 happy girl was thankful to escape from actual 
 contact with a world that at this hour had 
 nothing but annoyances to offer. 
 
 And no one could deny that Jessie filled the 
 place she had taken with great success. She 
 dressed to it with taste and decorum ; she un 
 derstood the servants intuitively, and made them 
 fulfil their contracts and do the last tittle of their 
 duty, and she won for herself a very real personal 
 adherence and admiration among the acquaint 
 ances of the Lloyd family. " I am making 
 279
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, as 
 John would say," she laughingly told Steve. 
 " When we have our own house again, my visit 
 ing list will compare with the best in the city." 
 And Steve had not the courage to oppose this 
 intangible idea. He thought it would be best 
 to wait until there was a proposition to realise it. 
 
 Just as Good Friday dawned, this unnatural 
 condition of family affairs was brought to its 
 climax. Alice was awakened by her mother 
 out of a deep sleep, and she saw that on her 
 face which needed no explanation. " Go back 
 to him," she whispered, " and I will be with 
 you in five minutes." Then she drew up the 
 blind and let in the pale gray light, and as she 
 did so felt the miserable influence of the evil 
 comet then saddening the skies, and the wrack 
 of clouds driven onward by the wind. Insen 
 sibly, she was terrified for the departing soul, 
 and as she put on some clothing she began to 
 pray. Her words were full of the stress and 
 hurry of the parting hour, and as she hastened 
 up the dim stairway to the death-room, she 
 could but iterate over and over with a constantly 
 increasing intensity, " Lord Jesus ! save him, for 
 thy mercy s sake ! " 
 
 The end was close at hand, the silver cords 
 binding the mortal to immortality were loosened. 
 Nicholas Lloyd was drifting rapidly beyond the 
 280
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 reach or ken of earthly love. Whether he was 
 conscious of his departure or not it was impos 
 sible to determine. His wide-open eyes were 
 full of a sombre gloom, and pitifully restless. 
 He was evidently imploring some last gratifica 
 tion. Steve understood this, and watched him 
 with a reluctance and sorrow that was inexpres 
 sible. " Mother," he finally whispered, " I 
 know what he wants. Shall I give him it?" 
 She looked her assent, rather than spoke, and 
 Steve took from his pocket some bank-bills, and 
 put them into the fingers that were already 
 clay. 
 
 But the dying man was no longer able to feel 
 and finger them. His last earthly consolation 
 had departed. It was a present death. Perhaps 
 he then, for the first time, realised it, but speech 
 was gone. He looked with awful inquiry into 
 Steve s eyes, and then became suddenly still. 
 A desperate calmness, a terrible desolation of 
 soul marked that last hour, and the hearts of 
 those that loved him were filled with dread and 
 sadness. 
 
 Yet this last solemn journey of the freed soul 
 was accompanied and followed by love and 
 prayer. Wherever its course tended, it took 
 with it the implorations of other souls that be 
 lieved and trusted in the infinite, illimitable 
 mercy of God. "Surely," said Alice, to her 
 281
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 mother, " the mercy which has begun with man s 
 forgetfulness will be crowned with God s for 
 giveness. Father himself will now see right and 
 wrong with the eyes of immortality. Do you 
 think his soul will cease to pray when it has left 
 the body? Perhaps, dear mother, it may now 
 pray with a stronger and deeper sense of its 
 need." 
 
 " Oh, Alice, if I could only think thus ! " 
 
 " Is it not better, mother, to trust God too 
 much than too little? May we not plead 
 for a man with God as man pleadeth for his 
 neighbour? " 
 
 " My doubts are great." 
 
 " My faith is beyond all doubts, for it rests on 
 the love of God ; and who shall separate us from 
 that love? Neither height nor depth, nor any 
 other thing;" and her face shone, and her asser 
 tion had all the conclusiveness of an intuition. 
 
 " But we are taught, Alice " 
 
 " Ah, mother, I have come to believe that 
 nothing goes to heaven but love, and that love 
 can open the kingdom of heaven to all who 
 pray at its gates. Anyway, we will not des 
 pair. Dr. Robertson says that is the unpar 
 donable sin and a heavier weight than all the 
 sins committed. " 
 
 Alice knew of what she was speaking. She 
 had arrived at that point where the satisfied 
 282
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 soul can be glad for " the good time when it 
 was unhappy." Her days of affliction and dis 
 appointment had been turned into days of 
 silence and prayer, flowing on like drops from 
 the honey-comb ; a spiritual joy utterly incom 
 prehensible to the pride of drudging souls sworn 
 to mammon; a spiritual faith founded on that 
 tender revelation God is love. Therefore she 
 believed the anger of God to be but for a mo 
 ment, and his pity to be eternal. He had com 
 manded us to love our enemies, and she could 
 not believe that he would disobey his own com 
 mand. On her knees she humbly tried to hope 
 that mercy might be shown even to one who 
 had so slighted and disdainfully used the in 
 finite loving-kindness. 
 
 Now, if perfume be sprayed into a room it 
 may not be visible to the eye, but we are sen 
 sible of its presence, and so this element of 
 hope in God s mercy lifted the intolerable gloom 
 of despair and made it possible for the living to 
 endure the stress of days and nights that held no 
 other hope. For the home in which Nicholas 
 Lloyd had been the pervading thought in a 
 very few days knew him no more. All tokens 
 of his suffering presence were removed ; his very 
 name was unspoken. Dead and buried, who is 
 so soon forgotten as the merely rich man? His 
 gold is his no longer, and he has nothing else 
 283
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 to leave. There were a few paragraphs about 
 the dead millionnaire in the daily papers an 
 account of the funeral and then oblivion 
 nothing, not even pity or regret 
 
 It was found that no will executed by Mr. 
 Lloyd, of recent date, existed except the one 
 made to satisfy the whim of a mentally sick 
 man. This was not worth consideration. The 
 other, made ten years previously, left everything 
 to Steve after his mother s and sister s portions 
 had been provided for. But Mrs. Lloyd de 
 clined all participation in her husband s wealth. 
 She said she " had already more than she could 
 wisely use and distribute," and she entreated 
 Steve to take care of his father s accumulations 
 and render out of them the charity belonging 
 to God and the poor. As for Alice, the portion 
 assigned her as the bride of Lord Medway 
 was considered to be lawfully hers ; but when 
 this and all other claims had been satisfied, 
 there still remained nearly six million dollars 
 in real estate and in bonds and securities of 
 the first class. 
 
 " It is your money, sir," said Mr. Phillips to 
 Steve, " and you cannot put aside the claim it 
 has on your wise management." 
 
 Steve flushed and trembled, and was aware of 
 a sudden feeling of unlimited pleasure and 
 responsibility. He had so often vowed not to 
 284
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 encumber himself with riches, so often declared 
 he would be terrified to be the steward of 
 enormous wealth, so often and so sincerely 
 asserted that his father s death would not en 
 rich him, that he felt all at sea, tossed to and 
 fro without rudder or anchor, drifting with cir 
 cumstances that were totally unexpected and 
 unconsidered. 
 
 And it was in this perplexity and perturbation 
 of mind that he was subjected to the entreaties 
 of his wife, mother, sister, and lawyer. He was 
 told by the latter that it would be an affectation 
 of the worst kind to refuse his own on a mere 
 social quibble. He was coaxed by the women 
 of the family with plausible arguments, and 
 half convinced that he had a mission to fulfil in 
 the proper dispensation of so much gold. He 
 was swayed by some internal charm, he knew 
 not what, and became hourly more conscious 
 of that authority which the mere possession of 
 money creates. And thus pushed onward by 
 unseen influences and outward powers, he 
 gradually grew appreciative of his position and 
 felt though he did not realise it the thrall 
 of riches upon his spirit. 
 
 Jessie was now radiantly happy. The house 
 
 on the avenue, the cottage at Newport, the 
 
 carriages and horses, and steam yacht, were 
 
 all within her grasp. The yacht fitted into 
 
 285
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Steve s life-long dream, and he was so eager to 
 realise this dream of his own, that he did not 
 oppose whatever his wife wished as its equi 
 valent. Jessie now, therefore, took upon her 
 self the gratification of her desires. And this 
 time she resolved to leave nothing for the 
 future to fret over. The poor little flat was 
 never again visited. Some cheap appraiser 
 valued its contents and gave her a " paltry 
 little check" for them, and then she felt free 
 to build a home that would be a fitting one 
 for her position. 
 
 This resolve, of course, implied time to 
 perfect it; but Jessie s apparent good fortune 
 did not desert her. Circumstances occurred 
 soon after Mr. Lloyd s death which placed the 
 Lloyd mansion at her disposal, and she was 
 thus enabled at once to live in the style she had 
 resolved to affect, and also to keep a close 
 watch on the progress and development of her 
 future plans. For very soon after Easter Lord 
 Medway married Miss Leavenworth, and this 
 event made it possible for Mrs. Lloyd and Alice 
 to take the long holiday of travel they desired. 
 After their weary watch and seclusion, it 
 seemed indeed a most desirable change; but as 
 long as Lord Medway was unmarried, there 
 was a possibility of gossip which neither woman 
 liked to face. 
 
 286
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 "It will be said we are running after him 
 that as he will not come to us, we go to him. 
 Alice," Mrs. Lloyd ejaculated, " the thought of 
 Europe at present is impossible. I wish it were 
 not. I would like nothing better than a 
 leisurely stroll through Italy with you." 
 
 Lord Medway s marriage was therefore not 
 an unpleasant surprise. Possibly Alice had yet 
 some sore feeling about the matter, but it was 
 not hard to hide it under the satisfaction arising 
 
 o 
 
 from the freedom it permitted. Instantly they 
 began to plan for a two years absence, and 
 these plans included the occupancy of their 
 New York and Newport homes by Steve and 
 Jessie. Jessie considered this arrangement " a 
 Providence," and Steve smiled at her consequen 
 tial air and her ready appropriation of Provi 
 dence, but did not deny the exorbitant stretch 
 of her claim upon a divine planning for her par 
 ticular wishes. In fact, all winter he had been 
 gradually becoming more and more subject to 
 his beautiful wife, and Jessie had almost begun 
 to think him so far her bond slave as to make 
 further charming and conciliation unnecessary. 
 
 Early in May Mrs. Lloyd and Alice left 
 America for Italy, and Jessie, though she did 
 not voice the thought, said mentally a very 
 emphatic " Thank heaven for it ! " When the 
 steamer left its moorings she considered her en- 
 287
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 franchisement complete. Hitherto, in spite of 
 all her efforts, she had been conscious of Mrs. 
 Lloyd and Alice as controlling forces. There 
 were certain things she did not like to do in 
 their presence. Their look of calm dissent 
 spoiled her finest aggressions. Their polite re 
 fusals infused doubt and often failure into her 
 daring innovations. She was now absolutely 
 mistress of her desires and of six million 
 dollars. 
 
 The first pleasure she gave herself was one 
 in which it delighted Steve to join her. This 
 was the settlement of her father in Steve s posi 
 tion as agent of Mrs. Lloyd s " Homes " and 
 other charities, and the buying and furnishing 
 of a pretty country place for her mother. The 
 delight and surprise of the ageing McAslins was 
 very genuine and very great, and Jessie might 
 have learned from this experience that it is our 
 labours for others that make us cheerful, while 
 labour for self always leaves behind a vague 
 melancholy dissatisfaction. 
 
 Once more, then, Steve saw his idolised wife 
 completely happy. In her splendid residence 
 she ruled autocratically; she gave orders and 
 received callers, and laid all sorts of splendid 
 plans for her future social supremacy. And it 
 was not difficult for Steve, in his own way, to 
 follow her example. His way was the way of 
 288
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 the sea. He was resolved to have the finest 
 yacht that could be built. To be skipper of 
 such a craft would be his most improbable 
 dream come true. He spent his time in pre 
 paring for such a realisation. To put off into 
 space, to get out of sight and sound of all 
 humanity but such as he could control, to leave 
 all obligations behind him, to forget there were 
 such things as letters, or papers, or plans, or 
 settlements, to be alone with God and the ocean 
 and the great winds that revel on the ocean, 
 this was the heaven upon earth which in cer 
 tain moods the restless, vivid young man most 
 ardently desired. 
 
 While he was in uncertainty about his father s 
 money, and even while accustoming himself to 
 the feeling and state and circumstance of his 
 new position, he had kept out of the way of 
 John McAslin. He heard of him, he read of 
 him, but he made no effort to see him. And 
 John would not force the old friendship between 
 them. He knew the transforming power of 
 gold, and thought it quite probable Steve would 
 like to forget the past. Nothing was further 
 from Steve s intention, but the fresh responsibili 
 ties he had assumed sat with difficulty on him, 
 and he was hardly ready to be himself under 
 them. One night, however, in the latter part 
 of June, he went eastward to look for John. He 
 19 289
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 knew where he was to speak, and he wished to see 
 for himself if the old John remained unchanged. 
 He wondered too how the opinions he had been 
 wont to indorse would now affect him. He 
 wished to try to test self by an unprepared 
 judge and ordeal. 
 
 He found John in the lecture room of a 
 church on Fourth Avenue. There was no 
 crowd there, no jostling, no bandying of jokes 
 or greetings, no enthusiasm, and none of that 
 ready oratory and disposition to deny, argue, 
 and answer back that was always a marked 
 feature in more secular places of meeting. A 
 fair proportion of the audience was composed 
 of women, but men and women alike were of 
 that calm, respectable class which are not easily 
 moved by any force outside the narrow circles 
 of their own domesticities. Indeed, there was 
 on the faces of many a set opposition, and as 
 soon as Steve had listened a few minutes he was 
 not astonished. For John was arraigning the 
 Church in general in such language as could 
 not permit any one to shirk the questions he 
 touched. 
 
 " The Church has practically lost all effectual 
 hold on the working classes," he was saying, 
 " and there is an awful shipwreck of redeemed 
 humanity, of which the responsibility falls on 
 the Church." 
 
 290
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 "Facts! Facts! Mr. McAslin," interrupted 
 an aggressive-looking man near the platform. 
 " We came here for facts, not for generalities. 
 Take some great question of the day and tell 
 us how the Church has neglected her duty." 
 
 " Socialism, for instance," said a woman by 
 his side, with a little frightened laugh. 
 
 John bowed to her and accepted the propo 
 sition. " Socialism," he cried, " is the essential 
 spirit of Christianity. Not the socialism of the 
 Nihilist assassin, or the Communistic petroleuse, 
 but the socialism of the New Testament. What 
 is the socialism of the New Testament? It is 
 the brotherhood of mankind springing from the 
 fatherhood of God. It is the cheerful coming 
 under the burdens of others in order to elevate 
 and bless. It is the spirit of your own homes 
 carried into the larger homes of your villages, 
 towns, and cities of your country, and of the 
 whole world. Say that you have sons and 
 daughters. One may be clever and beautiful, 
 another much less so. One may be healthy 
 and strong, another weak and suffering. Is 
 there therefore jealousy and oppression on 
 your hearthstone? Not if a true family bond 
 unites you. All will rejoice in the success of 
 the brilliant brother or the lovely sister. All 
 will unite to help the weak or the deficient. In 
 a loving family who is more powerful than the 
 291
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 baby ? Who is better beloved and served than 
 the invalid? This is the true socialistic spirit. 
 If our hearts and our churches were filled with 
 this spirit of Christ, we could do as he did and 
 carry this influence into the world around us. 
 This is the Gospel of the first century. It is 
 the Gospel of the nineteenth, and will be the 
 Gospel until time shall be no more. But this 
 socialism the Church does not practise; she 
 does not even preach it." 
 
 "Proof! Proof! Proof! " came from various 
 parts of the assembly. 
 
 " I will give it. Take the words Liberty, 
 Equality, Fraternity. Have not the shining 
 letters of these names a tremendous fascination 
 for all mankind? They are the most powerful 
 words in any language. They stir the hearts 
 of the suffering and the oppressed like a trum 
 pet blast from heaven. These words belong 
 by right to the Church. They are among her 
 most glorious watchwords ! They represent 
 the powers and principalities of her sacred 
 kingdom! What use has she made of them? 
 None. She has left Nihilists, and Communists, 
 and Positivists, and Anarchists, and Atheists, 
 and a revolutionary press to preach from these 
 charmful texts. While the Church has been 
 teaching men dogmas, and wasting her time, 
 and money, and arguments, and strength on 
 292
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 creeds of men s making, she has left false 
 teachers to preach a false Utopia from the 
 most glorious words of her own holy charter." 
 
 " Then, John, you would have the Church 
 preach socialism?" asked Steve, from his seat 
 at the edge of the assembly. 
 
 The voice, the tone, the bright face of the 
 speaker, who stood with one hand on the back 
 of his chair and the other stretched out toward 
 the platform, instantly raised in John s heart an 
 access of enthusiasm. 
 
 "I would have the Church preach Frater 
 nity, Equality, Liberty, as Christ taught them. 
 The purest, truest, sweetest, loftiest socialism 
 is in the New Testament. The Church of the 
 future will have to preach it or be silent alto 
 gether. She will have to tell men to undo 
 heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free 
 and break every yoke; that is, she will have to 
 preach against all the sins of cheapness, adul 
 teration, unpaid labour, all the bargains to 
 which human flesh and blood and spirit have 
 contributed, whether they come from the sweat 
 of the hands or the sweat of the brain. She 
 will have to drop creeds and dogmas, and feed 
 the hungry, and clothe the naked, and house 
 the homeless. How many millions of money 
 are sunk in churches that are closed, even 
 against prayer, six days out of the seven? And 
 293
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 yet they are called Houses of God, and thou 
 sands of God s children have not where to lay 
 their heads. 
 
 If Christ should suddenly stand upon Broadway, 
 And if the poor and homeless round him flocked, 
 Where would he lead them ? To the churches ? Nay ! 
 At those shut doors no Christ would stand and knock. " 
 
 "Go on, John," cried Steve. "Tell us more 
 about the Church of the future." 
 
 " The Church of the future will have to teach 
 men a different measure of success, or of what 
 is called success. She will not honour those who 
 grow rich without a conscience, and then build 
 a college and give a gift like a sop to the 
 Almighty, and to the public whom they have 
 robbed. Rich men must grow rich innocently, 
 or she will not indorse them. She will not 
 teach men Methodism, or Presbyterianism, or 
 Catholicism ; she will teach them justice, truth, 
 tolerance, humanity to the whole animal world, 
 and a boundless loving-kindness and pity for 
 the sick, the morally and mentally deficient, the 
 poor and the suffering. She will not pass by 
 any wrong that may spring from the circum 
 stances of the day; she will be justly angry at 
 it, and with unrelenting perseverance get that 
 wrong definitely stamped and transfixed." 
 
 " You are setting the Church of the future a 
 294
 
 tremendous work. Who is able for it? Who 
 is to do it?" cried a listener. 
 
 " We are to do it," answered John. " Every 
 single one of us is our brother s keeper. It is 
 our place to consider the signs of the times. 
 It is our place to defend the rights of the 
 poor and oppressed. Even now God is asking 
 Whom shall I send, and who will go with us? 
 Which of you will answer, Here am I ; send 
 me ?" 
 
 " The power of the Church is in her unity," 
 said some one, and John lifted the word instantly 
 and repeated it. " Unity ! that is it. If the 
 Church would only unite, without regard to 
 name or creed, she would be invincible. The 
 gates of hell should not, could not, prevail 
 against her. She might do anything she wished 
 to do. She might abolish drunkenness. She 
 might make a dishonourable, unkind, selfish deed 
 unfashionable, and it would go out of fashion. 
 The Church, as a united force, abrogating creed, 
 standing on the simple foundation of the father 
 hood of God, and the consequent brotherhood 
 of man, might make any reform she wished to 
 make. How much reforms of all kinds are 
 needed you may see for yourselves if you will 
 go from out of this meeting, not to your own 
 comfortable homes, but down into the haunts of 
 those poor men and women who have no homes, 
 295
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 and among that congregation of miserables that 
 inspired the pitifully majestic invocation of 
 Hilaire Belloc: 
 
 Almighty God, whose justice like a sun 
 
 Shall coruscate along the floors of heaven ; 
 Raising what s low, perfecting what s undone, 
 
 Breaking the proud and making odd things even, 
 The poor of Jesus Christ along the street 
 
 In your rain sodden, in your snows unshod, 
 They have no hearth, nor roof, nor daily meat, 
 
 Nor even the bread of men, Almighty God. 
 The poor of Jesus Christ whom no man hears 
 
 Have called upon your vengeance much too long. 
 Wipe out not tears but blood, our eyes bleed tears ; 
 
 Come, smite our damned sophistries so strong, 
 That thy rude hammer battering this rude wrong 
 
 Ring down the abyss of twice ten thousand years. 
 
 I have nothing to-night to add to this grand 
 prayer," said John. He almost whispered 
 the words, and yet they were audible through 
 every corner of the still room. And men and 
 women, with hearts burning, and with eyes 
 heavy with tears, and cheeks flaming with 
 emotion, or pale with pity, looked wonderingly, 
 gratefully, even reverently at the man who had 
 so moved their highest selves, and they went 
 quietly to their houses, pondering the words they 
 might never, never forget; yea, though it might 
 be the fires of remorse or of too late repen 
 tance that brought them again to remembrance. 
 296
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE 
 
 Steve waited for his friend. He was quieter 
 than usual, but trembling with feeling. " John ! 
 Dear John ! " he said, " you have done me good. 
 Come home with me. I have much to say to 
 you." 
 
 " I will. How is Jessie? " 
 
 " She is in Newport. I believe she is well." 
 
 "You did not go to Lloyd Park this year?" 
 
 "No. The place is virtually shut up. Jessie 
 
 preferred Newport. I shall go there also in a 
 
 few days. John, you have made me tremble 
 
 to-night. Tell me what I ought to do with all 
 
 this money that I can neither refuse, nor yet, I 
 
 fear, use properly. It is a great burden. What 
 
 shall I do with it?" 
 
 " Open up the King s Highway ! Prepare it 
 for the coming of the Lord ! Apollyon has 
 indeed straddled over the whole width of it, and 
 under his evil wings drunkards, thieves, and 
 oppressors of every kind find shelter. The 
 poor are tormented, the broken in heart terrified, 
 the sick and suffering can hardly find their way 
 to the grave. Go out like another Greatheart; 
 feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the 
 sorrowful. Steve ! Steve ! there are such great 
 opportunities before you ! I am terrified lest 
 you neglect them. What is it to be? Are you 
 going to prepare golden futures of love and 
 work? Or must life go by fruitless, and you 
 297
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 not dare to search your will and your heart till 
 at the last hour the past shall clang and flash 
 for you as for a drowning man?" 
 
 " I hope not, John ! I can see there is much 
 to be done, and I can feel that I am not the 
 man to do much. The very magnitude of the 
 work oppresses me and makes me hopeless." 
 
 " With the magnitude of the work you have 
 nothing to do, Steve. It is not incumbent on 
 us to complete the work, but not therefore must 
 we cease from it ; that is from the Talmud 
 but it is good Christianity. And why should 
 you fear? The light is on your face, and the 
 shadows all behind your back." 
 
 Steve sighed, but he went into his house 
 grasping John s hand, and he was strengthened 
 by its touch, and his heart was full of a great 
 purpose. 
 
 298
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CLEAR THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 THE two men went straight to Steve s private 
 room. The windows were open, and the light 
 and stir of the avenue entered through them. 
 They sat down without turning on the gas; the 
 dim reflection from the street-lamps was suffi 
 cient for their conversation. Steve was pressed 
 by his emotions and opened the conversation 
 with eagerness, even as they drew their chairs 
 to the window. 
 
 " I want to give a million dollars away, John," 
 he said. " How shall I do it wisely? " 
 
 " You mean that you want to give it for the 
 purposes of charity? " 
 
 " Yes. That is what I mean. It is only right 
 and just that I should do so ; besides, it fits all 
 my noblest inclinations." 
 
 " It is also wise, Steve. Charity is the salt of 
 riches; it preserves them. Riches have wings, 
 but Charity clips them. I am glad that it is 
 both your duty and your pleasure to remember 
 those ready to perish." 
 
 2Q9
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "But I cannot disburse such a sum person 
 ally," said Steve. "Even if it were possible, 
 I should make a great bungle of it, for if I ever 
 attempt to give a dollar, I have to give another 
 dollar, and I am at my wit s end as to what I 
 ought to do." 
 
 " Very few men know how to give, Steve," 
 answered John, " and for such, vicarious charity 
 is not only all, but it is also the best they can 
 do. Charity, however, is not a matter of acci 
 dent or of feeling. It is not casual. It is an 
 habitual well-doing which will work out its own 
 channels, and not be diverted from them." 
 
 " We must find out together, John, some great 
 co-operative ways and facilities for doing good." 
 
 " We have already a great many charitable 
 societies, Steve, with which you are more or less 
 acquainted. And then there is the McAuley 
 Mission, and the Cremorne Mission, and the 
 Florence Mission, and that wonderful Bowery 
 Mission for men that you and I stepped into 
 accidentally one night. I say accidentally, 
 Steve, because what we call accident is Provi 
 dence, and is usually God s part in any event. 
 Do you remember?" 
 
 " I am not likely ever to forget those four 
 hundred poor fellows. What pathetic experi 
 ences of temptation, and fall, and repentance 
 they told ! I knew only too well how true they 
 300
 
 CLEAR THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 were; I, myself, had been in similar straits. 
 Oh, John, what can we do to help such weak, 
 unhappy, struggling men?" 
 
 " We can strengthen the hands of those al 
 ready familiar with the work. You cannot per 
 sonally go down among them, and see that they 
 are fed, and washed, and clothed, and work 
 found for their hands, and comfort for their 
 hearts, and divine instruction for their souls; 
 but you can give the wherewithal to provide 
 these necessities. Give them a substantial lift 
 to start with. They want a chapel, they want a 
 reading-room, they want better dormitories and 
 baths; oh, they want so many things ! You can 
 increase their comforts and their usefulness on 
 every side. How many hundreds are, at this 
 moment, wandering in the darkness and despair 
 of this great city, that could be saved and 
 blessed if there was room to take them in, and 
 money to provide for their urgent necessities!" 
 
 " John, these worthy charities for men shall 
 have their aid in good season. We will see 
 about it to-morrow morning, as soon as possible. 
 Oh, my heart goes out to every man, without 
 love and home, in the outer darkness of these 
 stony streets ! How easy it is for them to do 
 wrong ! How hard to do right ! " 
 
 "With all my heart I will go with you. Have 
 you no special idea with regard to spending so 
 301
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 much money? You have been much and famil 
 iarly among the poor ; you have seen and tasted 
 their life in its bitterness; is there then from 
 your own experience no special light on the 
 subject?" 
 
 " Yes, John. I will tell you a charity greatly 
 needed it is a Transportation Fund for work 
 ing mechanics and labourers." 
 
 " I don t understand, Steve." 
 
 " I will explain. When I was last in Chicago 
 there were hundreds of bricklayers, stonema 
 sons, and plasterers out of work. Nothing to do 
 in Chicago, and yet plenty to do in New York. 
 But they could not get to New York. They 
 had not the money. This is but one small 
 example of a condition constantly occurring. 
 Now, then, what is needed is a fund for trans 
 porting sober, bona-fide workers of all kinds 
 from place to place, as the exigencies of labour 
 demand them. I think it would be better to 
 send them to where work is than to open soup 
 kitchens and dole out bread to enforced idleness." 
 
 " It would be much better and much more 
 honourable and just. It would be giving the 
 workers good with their own hands, which is 
 God s way of helping. There would doubtless 
 be cases in which it would be proper also to 
 send the family with the father of it ; but this and 
 other contingencies must be well considered and 
 302
 
 provided for. Your idea, however, is a very 
 good one, Steve, and the help it promises is 
 much needed." 
 
 " Well, then, the Transportation Fund is our 
 second object. What is the next?" 
 
 " I heard the other day of a proposal to buy 
 a little isle washed by the ocean, and to make 
 it a sunshine land for the poor miserable chil 
 dren who have never, in all their lives, known a 
 day s pleasure, never had any childhood, never 
 had any play or any playthings, never tasted 
 the sweets which are as necessary as food to 
 their growing frames, never known what love and 
 laughing, and singing and praying, and clean 
 beds, and nice eating, and kind words might 
 mean. To give these wronged, unhappy babies 
 a chance for a little happiness, to put them on 
 the right road, to see as far as possible 
 that they keep to it, to make them believe in 
 God s love, because they feel man s love, and 
 believe in the happiness of heaven because they 
 have tasted happiness on earth 
 
 " Oh, John ! John ! This is best of all ! I 
 believe in the children most of all. You can do 
 a great deal with a child, a great deal with a 
 boy that you can t do with a man, a great deal 
 with a girl that you can t do with a woman." 
 
 "That is true; so, then, the children must 
 have a wide and gracious showing, for life is so 
 33
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 hard and grim that if we take the joy of the 
 children out of it we shall learn to believe that 
 joy is dead. What else, Steve?" 
 
 " I have had one other dream for humanity 
 that I would like to make come true though 
 in ever so small a respect. When I wandered 
 about the great Western wildernesses, in which 
 no man stays, I wondered and wondered at their 
 lovely solitudes, but whenever I came back to 
 this city, crowded with humanity, I wondered 
 more and more, and I was haunted by four lines 
 day and night, and set my footsteps to them, 
 and let the problem they involved drive me 
 helplessly hither and thither : 
 
 The soil lies fallow, the woods grow rank, 
 
 Yet idle the poor man stands ; 
 Oh ! millions of hands want acres, 
 And millions of acres want hands ! 
 
 Something can surely be done to bring these 
 two wants together, John ! " 
 
 " Certainly, Steve. We shall have to invoke 
 legislation, perhaps, and delay will be necessary 
 in order to be sure we are going right and 
 doing right, but the project is highly possible. 
 Suppose we plant one hundred homes in these 
 fertile wilds of the West, how many homes 
 would spring from the hundred? Enough in a 
 generation or two to make the desolate places 
 34
 
 CLEAR THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 wave with golden wheat, and blossom like the 
 rose. And though men and women would 
 bring their sins and sorrows into the innocent 
 places, they would also bring the music of 
 psalm and song, and the imploration and joy of 
 prayer and praise. We must then have a Land 
 Fund as well as a Transportation Fund. But, 
 Steve, have you not some favourite object of 
 kindness, some peculiar good that you would 
 like to do, just because it would give your heart 
 a real, personal pleasure? " 
 
 " Yes, I have, John. I have an object which 
 had my full consideration and my whole heart 
 when I had not a dollar to give it, and never 
 expected to have a dollar. I want to give one 
 hundred thousand dollars perhaps more to 
 increase, if possible, legislation for the protec 
 tion of animals." 
 
 " Legislation for animals ? " 
 
 " Yes, for I have discovered that it is im 
 possible to make the popular mind connect 
 guilt with things the law does not punish." 
 
 " But for animals?" 
 
 " Yes, and a hundred times, yes ! " 
 
 "Animals! when there are men, women, 
 and children?" 
 
 " Yes, and a hundred times, yes ! " 
 
 " The beasts that perish " 
 
 " Do they perish? Dare you affirm it? " 
 2 35
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " But, Steve," John persisted, " supremacy 
 over animals is distinctly given to man." 
 
 " If so, then we have made it like Satan s, a 
 supremacy of pain. Our animal code is written 
 in the blood of the helpless, confiding creatures 
 who have to trust in us." 
 
 " Consider their inferiority." 
 
 "In what?" 
 
 " Well, even physically." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Men have physically inferior 
 senses to animals. Our teeth are yet primitive. 
 A dog has a more serviceable nose than a man 
 has. The eagle has a far better eye. What do 
 you think of the dragon-fly with twelve thousand 
 lenses in his eyes? The sheep has a better 
 ankle-joint than we have. The horse s foot is a 
 single, compact elastic toe; its heel is carried in 
 the air, and never touches the ground, which 
 gives it a spring and motion far beyond the 
 capacity of the human plantigrade. Whatever 
 lightness of step man possesses comes through 
 his intellect. Have you not noticed, John, that 
 whenever the mental powers suffer, or are weak, 
 the man slouches." 
 
 " Still, only to man has God given speech." 
 
 " How can you say such a thing? We don t 
 speak dog and horse language, and dogs and 
 horses don t speak human language. It is un 
 reasonable to expect it. But consider dogs, with 
 306
 
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 which we are both familiar. Different races of 
 dogs have different voices. Listen to the bark 
 of the English mastiff, and compare it with that 
 of the French poodle, or the Danish hound, or 
 the Scotch terrier. How different are the barks 
 of joy, anger, and danger ! Can you not easily 
 distinguish between the whine of impatience, 
 the howl of pain, the gradations of tail-wag 
 ging, forepaw lifting, ear-cocking, smiling, and 
 bowing? You do, John. You know them well. 
 The speech of horses is just as intelligent, 
 though mainly a sign language. Birds have a 
 large vocabulary. Did you never listen to two 
 or three cocks challenging each other? They 
 are polite also, and wait as patiently as the heroes 
 of Homer, while their opponents relate the so 
 norous narratives of their birth and prowess. 
 There is speech, John, among all living creatures. 
 Even the humming of the bee has elaborate gra 
 dations that our poor senses cannot realise. 
 And I wish often that I could understand the fine 
 speech that goes on in the language of the an 
 tennae. You may be very sure that what you 
 call the dumb creation have a mother tongue 
 of their own that answers all the purposes of 
 our most perfect speech." 
 
 " We know so little of them, Steve." 
 " And we ought to be ashamed of our igno 
 rance. But we do know, at least, that they 
 307
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 are singularly like ourselves. Why, even the 
 night side of Nature casts its gloom and terror 
 over them. Indeed, it is likely they have in a 
 degree greater than ourselves a sensitiveness to 
 the occult, unseen world around us. This is 
 specially true of dogs and horses. It has been 
 said that storks can foresee the burning of a 
 house on whose roof they have built, and that 
 they remove their nest before the catastrophe. 
 Rats will leave a doomed ship. No bird will 
 willingly stay in a cage in which a bird has died. 
 To it, the cage is haunted. We are ready enough 
 to endow animals with our bad qualities, very re 
 luctant to share with them our higher ones." 
 
 " Then you imagine they have moral claims 
 on us?" 
 
 " Balaam was reproved for striking his ass 
 unjustly. Any animal to which we can be 
 unjust has moral claims we have no right to 
 outrage." 
 
 " You will become a crank on this subject, I 
 fear, Steve." 
 
 " I hope so. Oh, John, remember all the 
 cruelties you have witnessed this past year; and 
 then think that hundreds of thousands have 
 seen, each, a different series of cruelties in the 
 same time ! " 
 
 " I never imagined we were a cruel people." 
 
 " Because you have not considered the 
 308
 
 brutalities inflicted upon animals in passion, in 
 deliberate revenge, in unprovoked love of tor 
 menting, in barbarous carelessness of all their 
 needs and pain. Think what they suffer from 
 people whose business it is to take them to 
 slaughter ! Think of their slow deaths by com 
 pulsory labour beyond their power ! Think of 
 what they suffer from hunger and thirst, from 
 cold and from heat! Think of how they are 
 mangled for what is called science ; worse 
 still for what is called sport ! Think of the 
 docked horses, and of horses uselessly tortured 
 by the bearing rein! Yet men, calling them 
 selves gentle men, ride behind these suffering 
 animals without one qualm of conscience or one 
 feeling of shame." 
 
 " Don t get into a passion, Steve." 
 
 " I do well to get into a passion, John. I 
 have thrashed a good many men and boys for 
 brutality to animals and birds. I consider these 
 thrashings the finest actions of my life. Oh, 
 John, if I had your tongue; if I had the 
 tongues of angels, I would go through the 
 length and breadth of the land, and preach to 
 men and to women and to children from this 
 text, Am I not a beast and a brother? 
 
 " I will admit that Christianity has not made 
 this subject of sufficient importance." 
 
 " And this omission is, and has been, ever 
 39
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 the weak spot in Christianity. Celsus, eighteen 
 centuries ago, brought this charge against it. 
 Priests were accustomed to turn shrines into 
 shambles. Long after Rome was christianised, 
 the most brutal and degrading combats between 
 men and beasts continued, and were not put a 
 stop to until the monk Telemachus leaped into 
 the arena and separated the combatants, and 
 was stoned to death by the angry Christian 
 spectators. Only a few rarer spirits among the 
 Christian clergy, such as St. Francis, John 
 Wesley, and Bishop Butler, have thought of 
 pleading the cause of animals." 
 
 " Is it not a subject for home teaching, rather 
 than for the pulpit? " asked John. 
 
 " If so, then parents are shamefully negligent 
 in this matter. They suffer their children to 
 glut their cruelty on cats, frogs, or any other 
 helpless creature that cannot protect itself. 
 Teachers have not yet accepted it as a duty, 
 though they might do a great deal to make 
 the future man and woman merciful." 
 
 " We have done a great deal within the last 
 fifty years, Steve. At the beginning of this 
 century Sir Walter Scott did not hesitate to 
 make James Fitz-James, in the Lady of the 
 Lake, ride a noble horse to death. Any 
 magistrate now would convict and punish a 
 man for such cruelty, and no respectable writer 
 310
 
 CLEAR THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 would dare to make his hero guilty of such a 
 brutal crime." 
 
 " I am grateful for what has been done, and 
 I look forward to a day when cruelty to animals 
 will rouse the same pity and indignation in the 
 hearts of all that cruelty to children, or to 
 slaves, or to prisoners, or to any helpless portion 
 of humanity rouses. The great trouble is " 
 
 " What is the great trouble, Steve? " 
 
 " That we live in the world of the Levite. 
 Non-interference is our rule. We hate a scene, 
 and therefore we suffer the wrong we see and 
 know to be a wrong to go unpunished. Our 
 non-interference makes us selfish, and selfishness 
 makes us indifferent. Now, John, in your Church 
 of the future mercy to animals and a clear rec 
 ognition of their rights must have a place. It 
 will be a great factor in the moral uplifting of 
 men." 
 
 " How do you see that, Steve? " 
 
 " In this way. We do not flog even criminal 
 men, because we believe we brutalise men by 
 flogging them. Yet we let them brutalise them 
 selves by permitting them to flog and torture the 
 creatures within their power. This injustice and 
 ferocity must be stopped ! You must do your 
 best to stop it ! " 
 
 " It is a new subject of thought to me, Steve. 
 But I can see and feel its importance."
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Then speak for it, John. Put your heart 
 into it. I will put my gold into it. What a joy ! 
 what a blessing to be able to do it ! Whatever 
 else we do, we will at least try to clear the 
 King s Highway of some of those brutes that fill 
 it with the groans of creatures innocently bruised 
 and beaten and done to death with unmerited 
 tortures ! " 
 
 " There are many other grand objects that 
 this one will fit well into, Steve ; but they must 
 be well considered. Charity cannot be casual. 
 It must be, as I said at first, an habitual 
 well-doing, working along its own well-defined 
 channels." 
 
 " That is right. We will have even charity 
 done wisely and in order. I want every dollar 
 to do its full measure of good; and though 
 charity, shooting at random, can hardly miss a 
 mark, yet I am well aware that some marks are 
 better than others, and that picked shots are 
 best of all." 
 
 " One million dollars ! Steve, we will start 
 The King s Highway Fund with it ! We will 
 not stop at a million ! How many millions of 
 money must be spent, how many noble lives 
 given up, ere the Way of the Lord is made 
 straight, and all its rough places smooth, and 
 all that defiles it removed, and the width and 
 the length of it regained from Apollyon, who 
 312
 
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 walks there seeking souls that may be snared or 
 slain ! " 
 
 " It is a great work, John, but we will not be 
 discouraged. Remember what you said, It is 
 not incumbent on us to finish the work, but not 
 therefore must we cease from it. " 
 
 And the young men impulsively stood up, 
 clasping hands as they did so, and the vow in 
 their hearts was none the less binding because 
 it found no speech worthy of it. And for one 
 moment, in this exaltation of full surrender, they 
 touched the highest peaks of spiritual joy. 
 
 Then all too soon came the reaction that ever 
 follows such rare moments. Both felt suddenly 
 weary, and Steve said, " How thoughtless I have 
 been ! You must be worn out, John. Come, 
 and I will show you a room where you can 
 sleep and rest." The glory of the spiritual had 
 passed, but it had left behind that enlargement 
 of soul which could never be satisfied with any 
 thing less than the love, and will, and work of 
 God ; then 
 
 Deem not profitless these fleeting moods 
 Of shadowy exaltation, not for this, 
 That they are kindred to our purer mind 
 And intellectual life ; but that the soul 
 Remembering how she felt but what she felt 
 Remembering not retains an obscure sense 
 Of possible solemnity.
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Such moments are testimonies to the large 
 ness of a spiritual life, whose voice must ever be 
 to us in our mortal state 
 
 Like sighings of illimitable forests, 
 And waves of an unfathomable sea.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 FOR three years there were only such changes 
 in the Lloyd and McAslin families as would 
 naturally flow from the tide of events which 
 had thrown their destinies together. Mrs. 
 Lloyd and Alice remained abroad, wandering 
 at their leisure from one famous city to an 
 other, and doing good in many small, unob 
 served ways only known to themselves and 
 the recipients of their benevolence. For Mrs. 
 Lloyd was no longer solely occupied with her 
 own soul and her own salvation ; she had dis 
 covered that they who wish to go to heaven 
 alone are not likely to get there. Solitary 
 prayer and meditation on her own spiritual 
 condition, though not abandoned, were subor 
 dinated to that active faith in God which proves 
 itself by continual help to man. She had taken 
 into her heart as the ideal Christian life that 
 little saying of Saint Peter s about Jesus of 
 Nazareth "a man approved of God, who 
 went about doing good."
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Alice was her cheerful and ready helper. 
 Her great delight was in the musical facilities 
 offered in European cities, and these very facili 
 ties were frequent opportunities for the wisest 
 charity. Through them she was brought nat 
 urally into contact with refined and educated 
 people suffering the straits and pangs of un- 
 confessed poverty, young women, mostly of 
 her own land, struggling bravely against un- 
 considered necessities, deluded with false hopes, 
 despairing for some slight encouragement, home 
 sick, poor, and friendless, and many of such 
 cases found help and hope from Alice Lloyd. 
 
 The chagrin and disappointment resulting 
 from her relationship with Lord Medvvay had 
 slipped from her mind like a disagreeable 
 dream, and the slow, sweet hours passed in 
 gaining knowledge and in doing good brought 
 her only that content which is another name 
 for happiness. The one thorn in her heart was 
 her treatment of John McAslin. The wound 
 others had given her was healed ; the wound 
 she had given herself still pained her. She felt 
 that she had been unjust to John. She had 
 thrown upon him a faithlessness she alone was 
 to blame for. She had ignored rights John 
 might reasonably have claimed, and then been 
 angry with him for the manly reserve that 
 made him choose to bear his suffering alone.
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 She still loved, for a first true love is not 
 easily slain, but she did not hope. She was 
 sure John had forgotten her, and she never 
 spoke of him; for the feeling that comes with 
 the revelation that all is over is gathered silently 
 into the heart. 
 
 Sometimes there came a letter to Mrs. Lloyd 
 from John, but it was solely on business. He 
 was now Steve s lawyer, and the manager of 
 all his immense property, and occasionally cir 
 cumstances came up in which it was necessary 
 to consult Mrs. Lloyd, or to obtain her co 
 operation. These letters had the clear, straight 
 forward tone of John s nature and methods, 
 but they never exceeded the legitimate cour 
 tesy of the position. Every one of them gave 
 Alice pain. For a day or two after the receipt 
 of any missive from John, she abandoned her 
 heart to vain longing and regrets, and to de 
 spairs hard to control and vanquish. One day, 
 while thus suffering, she suddenly became very 
 homesick. 
 
 " Mother," she said, " I want to go back to 
 America. We have been a long time away." 
 
 " Then we will go back, Alice. I, too, shall 
 be glad to return. The wish has been lying in 
 my heart for a long time. I will write to Steve 
 this morning and see if he can come and help 
 us. We have gathered many treasures, and 
 3*7
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 these it will it be necessary to pack properly. 
 Then there are the custom-house liabilities and 
 formalities which I do not understand, and 
 would not dare to face." 
 
 " Do you think Steve will come? " 
 
 " I am sure he will come if he is able." 
 
 " Jessie may stand in the way." 
 
 " Not of Steve s duty. And I think Steve 
 will consider our comfort his duty." 
 
 So the letter was written, and it reached 
 Steve one morning as he was eating his break 
 fast. Strangely enough, there was a letter to 
 him from Mrs. McAslin also. Steve still re 
 tained his habit of early rising, and as it was near 
 the noon hour when Jessie usually appeared, a 
 solitary breakfast was inevitable. Sometimes 
 his little son Jack took his bread and milk 
 beside him, and sometimes the nurse brought 
 little Miss Lucy for her father s morning kiss; 
 but as a regular thing Steve took his breakfast 
 with his own thoughts, or the daily papers. 
 His mother s letter pleased him very much. 
 He longed to see her and his sister, and he 
 longed with all his soul for some lawful and 
 desirable change. He felt as if his whole best 
 being were in a state of atrophy ; he had even 
 ceased to rebel against a life that was yet an 
 intolerable demand. To go to sea; to feel 
 the fresh salt winds in his face; to throw out 
 318
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 of his memory dinners, and dances, and dress 
 ing, oh, what a miracle of relief it would 
 be ! He had not one hesitation about the 
 journey. He was only too thankful for so good 
 an excuse. 
 
 Suddenly he remembered his wife, and a 
 frown darkened his sunny face. For the re 
 lation between them had become a very formal 
 one. Steve still loved her, and Jessie loved her 
 husband perhaps far better than she knew. But 
 before all love and all family duties, Jessie put 
 her social success. It had been a very pro 
 nounced and steady success. She had reaped 
 all the honours of that " leadership " which had 
 been her ambition ; but with these honours had 
 come obligations which gave her no time for 
 personal affections, and which demanded so 
 much from her, in mere physical strength, that 
 she had no ability to cultivate her home pleas 
 ures. They slipped out of her grasp ; they were 
 delayed from day to day, until they gave her a 
 sense of reproach, and were then relegated to 
 some paid servant. She was carrying a cup full 
 to the brim, but there was nothing satisfying 
 in it, and she was just beginning to confess so 
 much to her own heart. 
 
 That very morning, as she came downstairs, 
 she had stepped into her nursery and kissed her 
 babies and felt in their prattle and embraces a 
 3*9
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 purer joy than all the adulation of fashionable 
 crowds had ever given her. " I will go to 
 Lloyd Park next week," she thought, " and with 
 the children watch the spring break into lilies 
 and lilacs. I am tired to death, and I look tired 
 almost haggard in the morning light. I 
 will tell Steve to have the house put in order. 
 He will be pleased at that. Poor fellow, he 
 has n t had much to please him for a long 
 time ! " 
 
 She did not expect to see her husband. He 
 was usually with John at that hour; but when 
 she opened the door of the breakfast parlour, 
 Steve was sitting there. His face had lost its 
 happy glow; he looked troubled, and as Jessie 
 entered his eyes involuntarily fell upon the open 
 letter at his side. She said " good morning," 
 and Steve answered the greeting; then he lifted 
 her mother s letter and gave it to her. She 
 read it with a look of annoyance that deepened 
 to anger. 
 
 " I cannot possibly go to-day," she said, as 
 she threw the irritating message on the table. 
 " You know, Steve, that this ball to the Princess 
 Kara will be the ball of the season. My dress 
 is ready for it, and it has cost a mint of money. 
 I am in the Princess" Quadrille, and my absence 
 is simply out of the question." 
 
 " Still, from your mother s letter to me, I 
 320
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 should imagine she was very weak and 
 sick." 
 
 " Typhoid fever leaves every one who has it 
 very weak and sick. I am sure I have sent 
 every earthly thing I could think of in the shape 
 of wines and delicacies, and I have been out 
 twice to see her." 
 
 " Flora has been with her five weeks, and she 
 is now compelled to go to her home." 
 " Flora has not the obligations I have." 
 " She has a husband and three babies." 
 " She had all her children with her. I won 
 der how mother endured them. They were so 
 noisy they gave me a headache, and my travel 
 ling dress was utterly ruined by their dirty little 
 fingers." 
 
 " Did you read the letter through? " 
 " No, I did not. I saw it was the same old 
 complaint why don t you come and see us? 
 I am tired of it. I go as often as I can." 
 
 " Then you do not know what is said about 
 your father?" 
 
 " Is there anything wrong with father? " 
 " He is losing his eyesight that is all 
 losing it so rapidly that your mother says if 
 you do not come soon he will never see your 
 face again. He asks constantly to see you." 
 
 " Poor father ! I will go to-morrow or the 
 next day." 
 
 21 321
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " Go to-day, Jessie." 
 
 " I cannot go to-day. Why do you ask me, 
 Steve? Do you want to make me miserable? 
 It is too bad ! No one seems to have the least 
 pity on me. Yet I am sure no one is more 
 weary and worn out. My engagements have 
 been something frightful the last month the 
 pace is simply killing me ! " 
 
 " Then stop it. You are not forced to such a 
 treadmill. There is no sentence of hard la 
 bour against you. Stop it all, Jessie! Oh, 
 how good it would be to get into the country 
 and live like sensible human beings once 
 more ! " 
 
 " Indeed it would." 
 
 " Do you really mean that, Jessie? " 
 
 " I do." 
 
 " Thank God, then ! " 
 
 " I said to myself, as I came downstairs, 
 that I would ask you to get Lloyd Park ready 
 for us. I want to take the children there and 
 let them see the spring come now, what are 
 you hesitating about ? I thought that for once 
 I would be asking you to do the thing you 
 wanted to do." 
 
 " I 11 tell you, Jessie. There is a little 
 
 contretemps something quite unlocked for. 
 
 Mother and Alice are coming home, and they 
 
 are sure to go to the Park when they return. 
 
 322
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 You know it is mother s own house. But I will 
 tell John to look for a beautiful place and buy 
 it for you." 
 
 "The idea of your mother and Alice coming 
 from Europe when every other person is going 
 there. That is precisely their way. And you 
 have grumbled in season and out of season 
 about my devotion to city life; yet the moment 
 I wish to go to the country there is a little 
 contretemps. " 
 
 " Can I help it that mother is coming home? " 
 
 " I dare say you are delighted." 
 
 " I am. I love my mother, and if you loved 
 yours, you would go to her this very day. At 
 any rate, your poor father s case 
 
 " Steve, mind your own affairs. I am quite 
 capable of honouring my father and my 
 mother without your advice. If you know 
 anything you know that this ball, of all others, 
 is indispensable. I must go." 
 
 " Can t you run out and see them for an 
 hour? You can take the six o clock train 
 home, and be in time for the ball." 
 
 " Can I perform a miracle? " Jessie demanded. 
 " No matter how much will I have, for such an 
 undertaking I have not the strength." 
 
 "Then I think I will go for you," said Steve. 
 
 "All right! You may as well go there as 
 loaf around John s office." 
 323
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 "Jessie, I must go to Europe next Saturday." 
 
 "What do you say?" 
 
 " I must go to Europe. Mother and Alice 
 need me." 
 
 " I need you, too." 
 
 " You can get along very well without me, 
 Jessie. I am only needed to escort you to 
 drawing-rooms, or hold your fan or bouquet. 
 John will look out for a country place if you 
 really wish one, and there you will have no use 
 for me." 
 
 " Don t be absurd, Steve ! And for Heaven s 
 sake don t look so lackadaisical and lasslorn." 
 
 Then Steve shrugged his shoulders and rose 
 to leave the room, and Jessie set down her 
 coffee cup and looked curiously into the pained, 
 sombre face of her husband. He was going out 
 with the listless trail his thoughts induced when 
 she called him back. 
 
 " Steve," she said, " if you see mother tell 
 her I will certainly come to-morrow or the next 
 day." 
 
 " I shall not go to see her I could not give 
 her such a message." 
 
 " You are as disagreeable as you usually are." 
 
 " Is there any other thing I can do for you? " 
 
 " Stop in at Thorley s and order some orchids 
 for me." 
 
 "Anything else?" 
 
 3 2 4
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 " Don t get your ticket for Europe. I want 
 you here." 
 
 " Mother has asked nothing from me for three 
 years, Jessie. I am now going to Europe to 
 bring her safely home." 
 
 " You shall not go." 
 
 " I shall assuredly go to Europe on Saturday 
 next, as you will go to the ball to-night." And 
 the declaration was a true one, though neither 
 of them at that hour knew how awfully true it 
 was. 
 
 Then Steve went down-town to talk with John 
 about a country place, and to take a passage 
 for England, and Jessie leisurely finished her 
 breakfast and glanced at the headings of the 
 daily papers. Before she left the room she 
 lifted again her mother s letter, and this time 
 read it to the last word. It pained her, and it 
 angered her. " Why did n t mother put off 
 writing for one day longer?" she mentally ex 
 claimed. " Then I would have answered her 
 letter in person I want to do right, but every 
 one and everything is against me. I am sure I 
 have been very good to father and mother, and 
 Steve has done everything in the world to make 
 them happy; mother knows my days are cut 
 into fifty pieces she is unreasonable, and 
 that is the long and the short of it. Poor 
 father ! I am sorry for him ! He was always 
 325
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 so cheerful and so patient, and so hardworking ) 
 so happy to get us any little pleasure; as for 
 Flora, it is easy for her to be at home ; one 
 place is as good as another to a woman in her 
 position; what disagreeable children she has! " 
 
 Then she rang the bell, and ordered her car 
 riage, and went down to Tiffany s to see if her 
 opals had been reset to her satisfaction. She 
 expected Steve to be at home for dinner, but 
 he was not present; so then she concluded he 
 had gone to comfort her mother after all. " It 
 would be just like him ! " she whispered, and 
 it did please her to think of the duty being 
 done ; did please her that any one would do it 
 for her; for she was not willing in any way to 
 weary or disappoint herself in order to fulfil it. 
 Nor was she angry with herself for her selfish 
 ness. She was only angry with destiny for not 
 arranging her duties at convenient times, and 
 with her mother for putting before her as a duty 
 what she wished to regard as a kindness, within 
 her own time and convenience. 
 
 It was an unpleasant day altogether. The 
 nurse said the children were cross ; the house 
 keeper had trouble in the kitchen ; there were 
 some disagreeable callers, and when her dress 
 came home and was tried on, several alterations 
 were needed. She had determined to rest her 
 self and keep her mind as composed as possible, 
 326
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 and after all she was in such a state of nervous 
 tension that she could not begin dressing until 
 some restorative had been taken. She ordered 
 a cup of strong tea, and poured into it a stimu 
 lant. It was not an habitual thing with her; 
 she knew it was destruction to her complexion, 
 and that it always produced in her an exalta 
 tion of feeling that approached recklessness, but 
 she considered that there would be plenty of 
 time before leaving home for this exaltation to 
 become a pleasant languor or high-bred ennui. 
 
 But the contradictious, annoying spirit which 
 had dashed all the day was not exorcised by 
 her personal stimulation. Two things were 
 especially aggravating, Steve s absence, and 
 the sick headache of her maid. " Steve, of 
 course, has missed the train," she reflected, 
 " and now he cannot be home until it is fully 
 time for me to leave the house. I shall have to 
 wait for him. It is too bad; " and just as she 
 came to this conclusion she was told that her 
 usual dresser was " unable to lift her head, and 
 that Corinne," the French nurse, "would take 
 her duty at madame s toilet." 
 
 " It is a part of the whole day s misfortunes," 
 she thought, as she gloomily seated herself before 
 the glass, "the Lloyds coming back just at 
 this time mother s sickness father s calam 
 ity Steve s going away when I want him to 
 3 2 7
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 take charge of our removal to the country 
 the house in insurrection sick children 
 sick maid, and Corinne to dress me for the ball 
 of the whole winter ! I wonder what evil star 
 is over me? " 
 
 Poor Corinne had a bad hour of it. The beau 
 tiful dress on which French modistes had ex 
 hausted their taste and skill was declared to 
 " be an abominable failure." It was too tight. It 
 was not becoming. It was bad style. In vain 
 the opal necklace flashed its sprite-like flames 
 above the gorgeous silk and lace ; Jessie was thor 
 oughly dissatisfied with her appearance. How 
 ever, there was at last one good thing she 
 heard, through all her grumbling and complain 
 ing, Steve s strong, quick step, and she sent 
 Corinne to tell him that she was already dressed 
 and waiting for him. 
 
 As the girl hurried on her mission Jessie 
 suddenly remembered that she had not exam 
 ined "the hang" of the dress. She arranged 
 the glass for this purpose and walked off to see 
 the effect of the long train. The lights were 
 above her head. She wanted light lower down. 
 She lifted two of the wax candles burning at 
 the side of her mirror, and set them on the 
 floor. The next minute she was in the midst 
 of mounting flame. Piercing shrieks filled the 
 house, though she retained her self-control and 
 328
 
 JESSIE S HARD LESSON 
 
 tried to stifle the blaze. It was impossible. 
 She herself was burning, and with the crazy im 
 pulse of unspeakable terror and agony, she fled 
 towards the door. 
 
 At that moment Steve came leaping down 
 stairs to her rescue. Once before, in California, 
 he had heard those shrieks of burning humanity, 
 and he divined what calamity had now pro 
 duced them again in his ears. In his flight he 
 had seized a blanket, and in this he enfolded 
 her. Servants were already flying hither and 
 thither for doctors; but it was some minutes ere 
 Steve mastered the flames and could carry his 
 insensible wife to her bed. His own hands and 
 face were burned, but he knew it not. His 
 suffering was all for the agonised woman, who 
 came but too soon to the knowledge of the 
 intolerable pain she was enduring. In fifteen 
 minutes there were half a dozen physicians at 
 her side, and she was told that her life depended 
 upon her self-control and resistance to the 
 shock she had received. 
 
 Fortunately Steve s injuries were but surface 
 burns ; but it was an awful night in that dark 
 ened room where the beautiful Mrs. Lloyd lay 
 moaning in woeful agony the dreadful hours 
 away. The opals had been taken from her 
 scorched throat, and the magnificent dress was 
 now only a mass of burned and torn fragments. 
 329
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 But the ball of which she was to have been the 
 particular star went blithely on. The news of 
 the event spread rapidly, and most of the 
 dancers were well aware of the tragedy. They 
 talked about it in whispers for a few moments. 
 They said " Poor Mrs. Lloyd ! " and they 
 waltzed till daybreak at the ball for the Princess 
 Kara. 
 
 330
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 THERE was now no question of Steve s going to 
 Europe for his mother and sister. They left 
 their pictures, bronzes, china, etc., etc., in proper 
 storage and returned at once to America. But 
 they were not able to give either sympathy or 
 assistance, as Jessie positively refused to see 
 any one but her husband and her hired nurses. 
 Her fate hung for two weeks in a balance that 
 the smallest trifle might turn to the grave ; but 
 her extreme physical suffering probably saved 
 her life. For pain is a great conservator of 
 nervous strength. It draws the scattered life 
 forces all to the centre of being, and rallies them 
 for a last desperate effort for existence. In 
 Jessie s case, at least, this was the result finally 
 attained ; but her convalescence was delayed by 
 a very severe attack of fever. 
 
 So that chamber of luxury and beauty in 
 which she had dressed herself so magnificently 
 for admiration and for triumph, became for 
 weeks and months a place of almost inconceiv 
 able sorrow and suffering. Ah, if life could 
 33 1
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 throw open to us beforehand its long suites of 
 chambers ; if from some secret station we 
 could see the halls of tragedy and the rooms of 
 retribution we should have to inhabit, how 
 terribly the anticipation would haunt us ! But 
 there is instead the blessed certainty that God 
 reserves calamities in his own hand to inflict 
 them in due season, and that he never tortures 
 us in advance of the due season. 
 
 It was a terrible summer ; but Steve bore it 
 with a love and patience that was almost divine. 
 No fretfulness, no unreasonableness moved him 
 to anger. His voice was ever the voice of ten 
 der pity and affection. His touch was gentle as 
 a mother s, and deft and easy as that of a man 
 strong to lift and to bear. Through the long, 
 hot days and the sultry nights he sat at her side 
 and ministered to her smallest want. Only while 
 she slept did he leave her for such rest or re 
 freshment as he could obtain in those precious 
 moments. And he did not lose heart because 
 at first she seemed unmindful of his devotion. 
 He remembered that bodily pain is the most 
 exacting of feelings, and he hoped for the hours 
 of rest which were coming. At length, one 
 night, God sent a messenger to her. It was a 
 close, heavy night, with not a breath of air to 
 stir the lace draperies of the mournful room. 
 The nurse was asleep on the sofa. Steve sat by 
 332
 
 the bedside watching his wife. The fever had 
 been at its height, and left her wan and weak, 
 and almost beyond hope. As Steve looked at 
 her still face he doubted whether she lived or 
 not If she breathed it was not perceptible to 
 his senses. He knelt down and, holding her 
 hand, prayed inwardly for her soul. 
 
 Slowly she opened her eyes wide and looked 
 long and solemnly at him. He returned her 
 gaze with one brimming over with love and pity, 
 but he did not speak. He thought it was her 
 last farewell, and he would not break that sacred 
 pause with speech. He answered her soul with 
 his soul. She closed her eyes, and then re 
 opened them. " Steve," she whispered, and he 
 bent his ear close to her lips, " Steve, I am going 
 to live ; God has promised me." 
 
 When she was stronger she spoke again of 
 this promise. It was on one Sabbath evening, 
 while the bells were ringing for church, and the 
 avenue was very quiet. " I was at the verge 
 of life, Steve," she said. " I stood on the outer 
 most shelf of a black barrier of rocks, and a 
 great abyss of motionless water was below. A 
 rushing wind pushed me closer and closer to 
 the edge. I was almost over. Then I heard 
 a voice crying to me : Soul ! Soul ! What 
 is passing in thee now? And I answered: I 
 fear to die. And the voice said : Thou shalt 
 333
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 not die, but live ; and my soul was naked and 
 terrified, and I cried out : Cover me with Thy 
 mercy, Lord Christ ! Then a deep sleep 
 wrapped me round, and when I opened my 
 eyes I saw you kneeling by my side, and I 
 knew that I had come back to you, Steve." 
 
 In many respects she came back a changed 
 woman, though conversion was a slow and 
 tardy miracle in Jessie s case. To some souls 
 God says a word, and they know His sensible 
 Presence and feel the shining of His face on 
 them ever after; but with others assurance and 
 obedience is the fruit of sorrow, and pain, and 
 bitter inquietude. Jessie had to stand upon 
 that isthmus which commands the councils of 
 both worlds, ere she felt through all her fleshly 
 dress 
 
 Bright shoots of everlastingness. 
 
 She had to come under that "over-belief" 
 which we call the supernatural ; a thing to be 
 reverenced, and not mocked at, since at the 
 base of the highest spiritual faculty lies always 
 the supernatural element. She had to accept 
 a lesson that humbled her to the dust and 
 shook her like a tempest, but which also ex 
 alted her to the clouds and steadied her like a 
 frost. Never before this experience had her 
 love conferred happiness, for she had never 
 334
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 sacrificed anything for those she loved ; but 
 now she spent the days of her convalescence 
 in making plans which rested, not on her own 
 happiness, but on the pleasure of others. 
 
 The first symptom of this change was seen 
 in her conduct toward Mrs. Lloyd and Alice. 
 When they returned from Europe and found 
 that their service would not be accepted, they 
 retired to Lloyd Park and waited there for the 
 issue of events. Steve could find no time to 
 visit them, but John went frequently. At first 
 he took only messages from Steve ; but the day 
 came when Jessie also remembered and thanked 
 them for their haste to help, and their consid 
 eration and patience under her refusal to accept 
 the sympathy they offered. 
 
 About the end of September it was found 
 possible to move Jessie to a beautiful country 
 home which Steve had bought for her. She 
 was even then painfully lame, and the bright 
 beauty of her face had undergone the flame, 
 and not yet outgrown its shrivelling influence. 
 But her suffering had taught her many priceless 
 lessons, and among them the value of a good 
 man s love. All her vague contempt for Steve 
 was turned into a kind of reverence. She re 
 membered her unkindnesses to him, her care 
 lessness of his comfort, her indifference to his 
 desires, with a remorse she could not lock out 
 335
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 of her heart. She understood when too late 
 that he had given her everything to make her 
 happy, and that these rich gifts had only made 
 her selfish. Yes, she was forced to admit that 
 in married life a sin against love is as heinous 
 as a sin against fidelity. 
 
 And oh, how delightful was that day when 
 she could at last escape from that sorrowful 
 house, whose every room held bitter memories 
 and inaudible echoes of suffering. In it Steve s 
 father had stumbled along a dark and dreary 
 road to find his grave, and in its splendid 
 chambers she had gone to the very gates of 
 hell. Only when she had passed out of its 
 wide portals did she feel as if her sentence of 
 suffering had been fully reversed. And how 
 fair was the roomy house to which Steve carried 
 her ! It was in the midst of fine gardens, and 
 eastward it looked over the ocean. As she 
 approached it her little son and daughter, who 
 had been many weeks there, came running to 
 meet her with all the joyful abandon of their 
 childhood. Her mother and her blind father 
 stood in the doorway to welcome her, and Mrs. 
 Lloyd and Alice took her to their hearts as 
 they had never before been able to do. Every 
 soul, indeed, that had walked with her to the 
 shoal of life, rejoiced to have her back again. 
 They had bought her with the great price of 
 336
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 their prayers and watching; and they loved 
 her because they had prayed for her. 
 
 What she said to all whose love she had 
 wronged and slighted was for God to hear. 
 Between her and the pardoning Christ it was a 
 confidential, perhaps a speechless confession; 
 and on her mother s breast, and folded in her 
 father s arms, there was no need for many words 
 between their hearts and Jessie s. John, she 
 had already seen often, and he had long ago 
 forgiven her, both for Steve s wrongs and his 
 own. He joined the family party in the evening, 
 and then Jessie was not long in discovering that 
 there was a very sweet understanding between 
 Alice and her brother. It had been growing all 
 summer. Old love is a dangerous thing to 
 touch. It flames at a glance, and John and 
 Alice had not escaped, nor even desired to es 
 cape, this danger. While Jessie lay so ill, though 
 there had been a tender renewal of their interest 
 in each other, there had been no explanations. 
 
 There are strong and inscrutable ties that 
 unite, without our seeing how or when, and 
 John s words were not all of their intercourse. 
 For though he said nothing of love, but " dear 
 Alice," his glance prolonged the impression of 
 the simple address, and went where speech 
 could not reach. 
 
 To take the heart by surprise, oh, this is 
 22 337
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 the way of love ! There had been no intention 
 in John s mind of speaking to Alice on that 
 day. He thought it was yet too early, but 
 when the hour arrives, the deed set for it is 
 always accomplished. She came into the room 
 just after John s arrival, and her presence af 
 fected him with an indescribable delight. Her 
 easy, dignified manner had in it something 
 maidenly, impossible to be described, and as 
 she passed John, the air seemed to imbibe that 
 fragrance it does from a swaying flower. He 
 rose to meet her, and she looked at him with 
 eyes of a religious purity and a sunshine on 
 her face that came from a far sunnier glow 
 within. 
 
 He was suddenly impatient to know his fate. 
 He asked her to walk in the garden with him, 
 and she went, though she knew well what he 
 was going to say to her. She only wondered 
 that he had not spoken before. Silently, hand 
 in hand, they strolled to the outermost wall, and 
 leaning over it, watched the sea, and listened to 
 its voice among the rocks deep and melan 
 choly as a page out of Beethoven. The air 
 around them held a caress of scent; their eyes 
 met; their fingers touched, and John said, as 
 he interlaced them : - 
 
 "This little white, warm hand give it to 
 me ! I love you, Alice ! If you will be my 
 338
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 wife, I will love you more and more, as long as 
 I live ! " 
 
 And Alice answered : 
 
 " I love you, John ! I have loved you ever 
 since we met. I will be your wife." 
 
 These were all the words they said. Their 
 feeling was too deep and too sincere to need 
 superfluities. It was an hour of perfect un 
 derstanding and perfect bliss, and they length 
 ened it until the shadows fell coldly upon them, 
 and the lights shone in the windows of the house, 
 and they knew that inquiry must soon be made 
 for them. Then they went into the midst of the 
 gathered family, and John told the story there 
 was no need to tell. It had been guessed by 
 every one, and every one was glad in its promise 
 and happiness. Suddenly Steve spoke. 
 
 " There is one thing, John," he said, " one 
 thing to be greatly desired, and that is that you 
 should be married immediately and live happy 
 ever afterwards. I think you had better look 
 to this end, and at once; for Alice s fate has a 
 trick of breaking off her marriage." 
 
 The words were said in jest, but taken up 
 very seriously. There was indeed no necessity 
 for delay, and many reasons for not delaying. 
 The principal one was a purpose in Steve s 
 mind of taking a long sea journey. His health 
 had been much impaired by his terrible vigil. 
 339
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 It was imperative that he should have an ab 
 solute change, and the strength of that solitude 
 and sequestration which was his soul s native 
 air. The woods and the sea called him with a 
 voice that he could not deny. They called him 
 whether he was sleeping or waking, and he fret 
 ted and pined like a wild bird in a cage for the 
 freedom they only could give him. 
 
 Jessie had been the first to urge this change, 
 but when once it was spoken of, every one who 
 knew and loved Steve recognised its wisdom. 
 So it had come to be an understood thing that 
 as soon as the winter was over, Steve should go 
 round the world in such leisurely fashion as 
 might occupy a twelvemonth if he so wished. 
 Therefore it was quite natural that John should 
 object to a delay so unnecessary. And when 
 lovers have a point to carry, they generally suc 
 ceed in carrying it. At any rate, John did. He 
 was of course supported by Steve, and not se 
 riously opposed by either Mrs. Lloyd or Alice. 
 So the bliss that he had not dared to hope for 
 came by patient waiting, and one bright morn 
 ing, just before Christmas, Alice Lloyd became 
 the bride of John and happiness. 
 
 Early in the following spring, Steve began to 
 
 prepare for the voyage his soul desired. He 
 
 and John had many long conferences, and John 
 
 was much astonished at the care and thought- 
 
 340
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 fulness for the future the usually careless Steve 
 manifested. He made some remark about this 
 peculiarity, and Steve answered : 
 
 " I am not sure that I shall ever come back 
 home again, John. I wish above all things the 
 continuance and prosperity of the charities we 
 have begun to be assured and placed beyond 
 dispute. It is right also that my own affairs 
 should be put in such shape that Jessie may not 
 have a single anxiety about money matters or 
 the future." 
 
 " What makes you have any doubts about 
 your return home? Have you had any pre 
 sentiment of death? If so, do not leave New 
 York." 
 
 " My death is in the hands of Him who is as 
 much in one place as another, and I am con 
 strained to go. The thought of freedom has 
 become a passion that I cannot control that I 
 do not desire to control. Only Jessie could 
 keep me here, and Jessie is perfectly willing 
 that I should have that respite from conven 
 tional life which is now an imperative demand 
 of my nature. I want liberty. I want to be 
 free. I want it so much that I think the whole 
 world will be too small for my craving. Only 
 eternity can satisfy it. Why, John, if I say but 
 the word freedom my whole nature sings 
 to it."
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " A desire so imperative is more than a de 
 sire; it is a command, Steve." 
 
 " I think so, John." 
 
 " Then God go with you ! " 
 
 " I shall not get beyond His guiding and 
 preserving hand." 
 
 So the preparations for his journey went 
 steadily forward, and at length the time fixed 
 for Steve s departure arrived. On the night be 
 fore it, John and he sat together, long after the 
 household were asleep. Steve had been very 
 quiet and thoughtful all the previous week, for 
 grave and momentous questions, relating to the 
 future of his family and his many benevolent 
 enterprises, had been constantly occupying his 
 mind. John, however, understood his friend 
 at least he understood that Steve had a great 
 nature, never quite at home on this earth. He 
 was at best an exile with the " homing " pas 
 sion stronger than any lure that this life could 
 offer him. Indeed, Steve himself was frequently 
 aware of being something of an enigma even to 
 those who loved him best. He had thoughts 
 and feelings often about which he did not care 
 to speak. That very night, as he had stood 
 with his family watching the sun set, and listen 
 ing to their remarks about the beauty of the 
 scene, he had been intensely conscious of what 
 others had not been conscious of. For even to 
 342
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 John the setting sun was only a yellow disk, 
 disappearing in a purple and golden glory, but 
 to Steve the heavens had been opened, and he 
 had seen a vision in those marvellously tinted 
 clouds, of dazzling temples and the crowded 
 pinions of cherubims, and the multitude no 
 man can number. And this vision, though 
 seen " through a glass darkly," had made him 
 homesick and silent, because he feared to be 
 misunderstood. 
 
 " What are you thinking about, Steve ?" at 
 length asked John. " Are you quite satisfied 
 with the arrangements made for carrying on the 
 work in your absence?" 
 
 " Yes and no. Ought I to leave the whole 
 weight on your shoulders, while I seek my own 
 health and happiness?" 
 
 " But while you are seeking your own, you 
 will find for others. You intend, do you not, to 
 examine the charities of the great European 
 cities, in order to adopt any really good idea?" 
 
 " I do. And I shall keep you posted, John ; 
 for if I find a good thing, you must carry it 
 forward at once. No need to wait for my re 
 turn. And, by-the-bye, I was through a State 
 Institution for the Insane yesterday, and I 
 noticed over all the doors of every depart 
 ment this admirable motto : Put yourself 
 in his place. John, the best of stewards, the 
 343
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 most faithful of philanthropic workers, needs 
 such a reminder constantly. Would the men 
 and women we have put in charge be any 
 worse for such a noble order ever before their 
 eyes ? " 
 
 " I think they would be much better. It 
 would help us, every one. Say that an un 
 employed working-man came for money to go 
 to Pittsburg, would he not be likely to get it, 
 more kindly and cheerfully, if our agent put 
 himself in the man s place? I am sure he 
 would. And the same result would follow in 
 all the branches of The King s Highway 
 Fund. " 
 
 " The Unemployed Workman ! Oh, John, he 
 is as great a tragedy as Hamlet or the CEdipus. 
 How is the Land Scheme going on?" 
 
 " Not so rapidly as I could wish. Men do 
 not want to take the least obligation, and men 
 who do not want to take an obligation so easy, 
 and so self-respecting as you have made it, are 
 not the men who will build up cities in the 
 wilderness, and make the desert blossom as 
 the rose. If you gave them the land absolutely, 
 without pay, or even promise to pay, they would 
 not value it, or cultivate it yet, that is what 
 the majority want." 
 
 " I know," said Steve, with a smile as sad as 
 it was merry 
 
 344
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 " Divide the land among the people, 
 And give it them quite scot free ; 
 To Bridget ten acres, to Pat ten pole, 
 And a thousand to Mrs. O Shea. 
 Answer me now and say." 
 
 What would they do with it, John ? " 
 
 " Sell it for as much cash as they could get. 
 Still, the settlement is growing; and a good 
 charity must grow; it cannot be manufactured." 
 " Well, don t get discouraged, John. It is 
 enough for me to have that failing. So often 
 I say to myself, How small a space I fill in this 
 great teeming world of labourers ! How little 
 I can do ! How marred that little is by my 
 ignorance and inefficiency ! And then my soul 
 is weary and hopeless of its work, and only 
 prays to be counted with those worshippers 
 who lie before God s altar and are still. " 
 
 " No, no, Steve ! It is not our duty to weigh 
 our work or its results. When you feel this 
 spiritual lassitude, then is the time to bid your 
 soul arise and join that nobler band whose 
 worship is not idle, and dumb, and fruitless. 
 Neither you nor I would be happy in the pas 
 sive joys of contemplation ; we want no lotos 
 land of musing, mystical worship; we want the 
 wages of going on and of doing good with 
 every sense we have or shall have. I ex- 
 345
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 pect great things from your European investi 
 gations." 
 
 " You will be disappointed, John. As far as 
 I can read or hear, America is already in the 
 van of charitable Christian work." 
 
 " In the van let her always be." 
 
 "Yes, in some senses. But the van is not 
 always the best place, because it is not the men 
 who press to the van who are the most reliable 
 and serviceable. Now I should always be there 
 with my unsatisfied ideals and longings and my 
 enthusiasms, urging men to impossibilities; but 
 you, John, you are where the leader ought to 
 be just ahead of the great central force. 
 From there you direct those that are too im 
 petuous, and draw on those who have become 
 weary. 
 
 "John," continued Steve, "this very after 
 noon I got a new idea, and whatever comes or 
 goes, it is to be carried out. No man is better 
 fitted to carry it out than you are, and I am 
 much amazed you have not long ago suggested 
 it to me." 
 
 " What is, then, this new idea that I ought to 
 have suggested long ago? " 
 
 " I want us to own and publish a newspaper 
 
 a good paper that will represent God and the 
 
 people. I want a paper that can go where the 
 
 preacher cannot go. Have you considered 
 
 346
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 what a power a few sheets of well-filled paper 
 may become? Why, John, there is no earthly, 
 moral power equal to it." 
 
 " The preacher 
 
 " I do not underrate him ; but you have to 
 go to the preacher and the paper comes to you. 
 If the weather is stormy and the church is far 
 away, the congregation consider that they must 
 dress for church, and get their best clothes 
 spoiled and a cold perhaps into the bargain. 
 The paper preaches to them at their fireside 
 and in their six-days coat. The paper permits 
 them to talk back to it. They say to one 
 another as they read it : Listen to this, 
 mother, or What do you say to that, father? 
 They discuss its theology and ethics freely 
 among themselves, and every one feels interested 
 in a sermon they have a share in. Again, the 
 preacher gives us the truth through one man s 
 heart and mind ; the paper speaks to us through 
 a great many hearts and minds. The preacher 
 is very much restricted as to subjects ; if he goes 
 too far afield, he is afraid to offend ; the paper 
 speaks out boldly, and stop my paper won t 
 stop it from speaking the truth. John, we must 
 have a paper. Call it The King s Highway, and 
 let it tell us all that is being done on that great 
 thoroughfare good and bad." 
 
 " Have you thought of the expense? " 
 347
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 " To be sure I have. You know something 
 about publishing a paper. You know what 
 backing it will need. The Lloyd estate is good 
 for it." 
 
 "Amen! Now what is to be the spirit of 
 this great paper? " 
 
 " It is above all things to be tolerant, and to 
 be the organ of the poor and the needy. It is 
 to speak for the oppressed and the suffering in 
 all lands. If there is a wrong or a sorrow at 
 our antipodes, it is to point out the wrong and 
 comfort and relieve the sorrow, and that with 
 out regard to race, creed, or colour." 
 
 "Amen! What else?" 
 
 " Give the people a good sermon and a good, 
 clean love story. Men and women never tire of 
 either." 
 
 "A love story?" 
 
 " Yes. Old and young read love stones, nor 
 will they ever tire of them until they tire of 
 April s ever-returning mystery of daffodils and 
 crocus buds. Wojnen especially will read love 
 stories ; give them pure, sweet tales of home, 
 and home affections, and say a word or two 
 especially for the women, something that has 
 grown out of woman s joy and sorrow and 
 manifold trials and experiences. John, I am 
 astonished we have not thought of this wonder 
 working paper before ! " 
 348
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 " So am I. Now about the price, Steve? " 
 " Make it so good that every one must have 
 it, but so cheap that every one can pay for it." 
 " You will lose money lots of it in that 
 way." 
 
 " The same thing was said when cheap post 
 age was proposed, but cheap postage has not 
 yet ruined the Government. But suppose I lost 
 money in this way, it would not be lost. No, 
 sir! It would be money out at the best inter 
 est ever humanity pays." 
 
 " Is it to advocate any special creed?" 
 " God forbid. Unless it could show to all 
 mankind how every cause and creed might be 
 combined by love : 
 
 4 Yet not forget 
 
 The fountain whence they rose; 
 As filled with many a rivulet. 
 The lordly Hudson flows. " 
 
 Steve was by this time in a fever of enthusiastic 
 foreseeing. He would hear of no such word as 
 " failure," and when John reminded him of the 
 large sums already disbursed and the large sums 
 necessary for carrying on all his plans, Steve 
 was in no way disconcerted. 
 
 " I have to give for two," he said, " for I am 
 sure if my father could come and speak to me 
 now, he would say, Pay all that I owe to the 
 349
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 poor, Steve. Pay it with both hands. I have 
 five millions left, and you tell me it is increasing. 
 I cannot use it myself. My wife and children 
 cannot use it. Do you want me to bury it in a 
 napkin, and add dollar to dollar, until its very 
 weight will sink me to the lowest hell?" 
 
 " God forbid, Steve." 
 
 " Then help me to do good with it, John." 
 
 " Have you fully told me all your mind? Is 
 there no lingering wish or even fear?" 
 
 " I was wondering to-day if we had given 
 prominence enough to the Locomotion Fund. 
 I am sure, John, that speedy locomotion for the 
 unemployed is as necessary as hospitals for the 
 sick." 
 
 " I think you are right. I will have more 
 said about it." 
 
 " Get the paper to talk as quickly as you 
 can." 
 
 " I will. Anything else? You know we may 
 not have an opportunity for this discussion in 
 many months." 
 
 " We may never have another opportunity. 
 I have been much struck with the power of 
 music and song over those poor fellows in the 
 Bowery Mission. Into all our charities, John, 
 get as much music as you can psalms and 
 hymns and holy songs. I think myself, that 
 even in heaven, King David must remember 
 35
 
 COMING BACK 
 
 The Lord is my Shepherd, and be happier 
 for having sung it." 
 
 He rose as he spoke, and John rose, and the 
 two men went to the window and looked out 
 over the tossing ocean. There were tears in 
 both their eyes, and Steve passed his arm round 
 John s neck, and John looked into his friend s 
 bright, eager face, and then broke quite down. 
 
 "Oh, Steve! Steve!" he cried; "don t go 
 away ! don t go ! I cannot bear to lose you ! 
 Oh, my friend ! my dear, dear brother ! " 
 
 And Steve embraced him, and with great emo 
 tion said softly, " I arn so glad to hear you 
 speak thus, John. I knew you felt it, but oh, it 
 is good to hear it said. I wish men were more 
 often able to throw aside all restraint, and say 
 the kind and noble things they feel." And then 
 both remembered at the same moment the 
 same words, and smiling, said them softly 
 together, 
 
 " O God! That men would draw a little nearer 
 
 To one another ! They d be nearer thee ; 
 And understood." 
 
 351
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 "THY KINGDOM COME" 
 
 BEFORE noon next day, Steve was out on the sea, 
 and his family had to take up their life and order 
 it to his absence. That sense of the irrevocable 
 which always depresses those whom the ocean 
 sunders, paralysed the day of parting. No one 
 could do anything, yet all made it a point of 
 honour to affect a feeling of pleasure in Steve s 
 holiday. Even Jessie bravely fought back tears, 
 and showed Steve a parting face radiant with 
 smiles. But in spite of this assumed satis 
 faction perhaps because of it the reaction 
 was a definite depression. It was the middle of 
 the week, but John could not buckle to work, and 
 the whole family went back with Jessie, and 
 gave the day up to conversation and speculations 
 about Steve. 
 
 The first two weeks were the hardest. After 
 they were over, letters began to come with 
 an unexpected regularity, and the lassitude of 
 regret grew rapidly into an enthusiasm of 
 expectation. Every one wished to do some 
 thing great and unusual before Steve s return. 
 35 2
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 Jessie resolved to build some additions to the 
 house, and to make her flower-garden a wonder 
 and a delight. When Steve came back it 
 should be to a home that would make him for 
 get all other homes, a home such as she had 
 heard him long for, with rooms large, sunny, 
 and airy, and without too much furniture in 
 them, and a garden full of solitary walks, redo 
 lent with fruits and flowers and musical with 
 bees and birds. She recalled all his desires, 
 and was determined to bring them to pass. 
 
 John had the paper on his mind. There 
 was plenty of journalist talent in New York, 
 and money enough to buy it, and in three 
 weeks The King s Highivay was reflecting on 
 paper the work done, and to be done, in order 
 to drive Apollyon off the great thoroughfare, 
 and prepare it for the coming of the Lord of 
 Hosts. Steve was sitting at breakfast one 
 morning in the Salutation Inn, at Ambleside, 
 when the first number came to him. He was 
 so proud of it that he could not eat another 
 mouthful, and instead of loitering in the lovely 
 land a week or two, as he had intended, he was 
 moved to go at once to Glasgow and Edinburgh, 
 to see what material he could find worthy of 
 its pages. 
 
 But, after all, his own forecast was in the 
 main only too true. Go where he would, he 
 2 3 353
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 was dashed by the spirit of rigid economy ob 
 servable in all European charities. It seemed 
 to him that they had to pay, and that their ser 
 vice was chilled and cramped by this necessity. 
 In all his letters to John he magnified the chari 
 ties of his own country. Putting them against 
 those of older lands, he felt compelled to 
 admit that they had nothing to learn in the 
 ories, and a great deal to teach in a generous 
 rendering of theories. 
 
 " I find," he wrote, " that charitable houses 
 are hard to enter, and when the barriers are 
 surmounted, I have only a sense of pity and 
 disappointment. In some respects, I think the 
 criminals of Europe are better cared for than 
 the poor. And I have come to the conclusion, 
 John, that the charities of any land should be 
 indigenous, should spring from its special con 
 ditions and necessities. I think you and I 
 could go through Europe and not find many 
 ideas worth appropriating; but, John, we could 
 not go through the streets of New York with 
 our eyes and ears open and not find more 
 good roads for charity than we could possibly 
 occupy." 
 
 No amount of experience led him very far 
 
 from this estimate. He spent some time in 
 
 Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy, after 
 
 leaving England, but was only impressed with 
 
 354
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 the bitterness of the poverty they had to 
 struggle with, and the inefficiency of their re 
 sources for such a struggle. Asia saddened 
 him still more. " Who is sufficient for such 
 widespread misery?" he asked despairingly. 
 Finally, he resolved to return to his own vine 
 yard, and make it the centre of his labours 
 and interests, " beginning first at Jerusalem" 
 that is, at New York, and yet not forget 
 ting those whom it was possible to help from 
 New York. 
 
 Alternating with his charitable investigations 
 had been many sweet retirements into that 
 solitude he loved. The lonely corries and 
 mountains of Scotland, the hidden valleys of 
 Norway, the deserts of Egypt, the isolated 
 stations of India, and the flowery gardens of 
 Japan, had all given him some sweet, secret 
 place of retreat. In these experiences his soul 
 grew to the perfect stature of the sons of God ; 
 for dear as solitude was to him, he still heard 
 in it the low, sad music of humanity, and thus 
 he rose from the plane of " what shall I do to 
 be saved?" to the far nobler one of "Lord, 
 what wilt thou have me to do? What is it that 
 thou requirest of me?" 
 
 And one day, while sitting in a very elysium 
 of beauty and sweetness near Tokio, he sud 
 denly felt that he must arise from this sensuous 
 355
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 dream and go forward. Where to, and for 
 what purpose, he knew not, only that his days 
 of rest were over. Then he started for San 
 Francisco immediately, and as soon as he felt 
 the stress of civilisation round him, rose to its 
 spirit. A telegram to Jessie was his first 
 thought, and he found the possibility of tele 
 grams and railways to be pleasant. 
 
 This telegram brought a new life into Steve s 
 home; the glad news of his speedy return rang 
 through the house and grounds, and stirred every 
 one to labour and delight. How eagerly then 
 Jessie watched for the letter sure to follow the 
 telegram ! It came as quickly as possible, every 
 word in it glowing with love and expectation. 
 
 " I would take the first train home, my dear 
 one," Steve wrote, " but there are three or four 
 people in this vicinity I ought to see. They 
 helped me in my poverty, and nursed me when 
 I was sick and homeless. I may never get so 
 far West again, and at any rate, dear wife, I 
 could not come here and not remember them. 
 And alas ! I have already heard that one good 
 woman needs my remembrance sorely. Since 
 she watched me through a severe fever, her 
 husband has died, and she is now making a 
 hard struggle to find bread for her children. 
 But oh, Jessie, my darling, after the joy of 
 gratitude, the joy of seeing you ! The joy of 
 356
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 the children ! The joy of home and work and 
 friends ! I am so happy, I cannot say how 
 happy I am ! " 
 
 And Jessie was not much disappointed at the 
 delay. " It is just like Steve," she said, be 
 tween laughing and crying, " and Steve is right, 
 is he not, John?" 
 
 " I am sure he is, Jessie," answered John. 
 " Steve may never be in San Francisco again, 
 and it would wound these old friends if he did 
 not call on them. And if they need his help, 
 the sooner help is given, the more welcome and 
 gracious. At the very longest, Steve should be 
 home in nine or ten days." 
 
 Everything in life now worked to that happy 
 expectation. In nine or ten days Steve would 
 be home. The spring was in all its glory, the 
 shrubs just budding, the tulips and daffodils 
 getting ready to blow open, and in nine or ten 
 days the fruit-trees would be like great white 
 bridal bouquets of blossoms. Jessie was satis 
 fied with the garden, and she went through her 
 house, room by room, adding a touch of colour, 
 hanging a picture in a better light, filling the 
 vases with fresh flowers (for in her heart she 
 expected Steve much earlier than John said), 
 and watching the children lest they should do 
 anything which might mar the spotless beauty 
 of their appearance. 
 
 357
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Neither did she neglect herself. She desired, 
 as every good wife does desire, to be fair in her 
 husband s eyes, and there were still some traces 
 of that terrible ordeal by fire that she had under 
 gone. Her fine colouring had never returned, 
 and perhaps never would, and she was yet a 
 little lame, and perhaps always would be so; but 
 apart from these drawbacks she was a hand 
 some woman. True religion makes women hand 
 some, for nothing is surer than that a lovely 
 soul illuminates and makes beautiful the body 
 it dwells in. Jessie also knew the value of be 
 coming costumes, and her fresh spring toilets 
 of green and white, with little suggestions of 
 amber or pink, carried out that symphony of 
 colour in which Nature had clothed the whole 
 world around her. 
 
 In Jessie s heart there was a faint disappoint 
 ment, when on the evening of the eighth day 
 Steve did not appear. But she was far from 
 acknowledging it. Steve s last letter to her 
 had said he might leave on the following day, 
 and so he could have reached home. But he 
 did not, and there was no letter or telegram to 
 explain the delay. Two more days passed to 
 the same disappointment and silence. Jessie 
 was now angry, and a little fearful, the more so 
 as John came out to ask her if she had received 
 any word from Steve. He affected a cheerful 
 358
 
 confidence in " all being right," but Jessie 
 had a sickening dread that something was 
 wrong. 
 
 The dread grew and spread. Mrs. Lloyd and 
 Alice came to inquire of Jessie the next day, 
 and John, now really anxious, followed them. 
 He cautiously admitted that Steve might be 
 sick, and he thought some telegraphing ought 
 to be done, if it were only to satisfy themselves 
 that there was nothing seriously wrong, and as 
 all urged this method of relief, John immediately 
 put it in practice. The hotel from which Steve 
 had written was first interrogated, and the answer 
 was perplexing. " Mr. Lloyd was here for four 
 days. His trunks are still here and await or 
 ders." A great terror spread swiftly from heart 
 to heart. Telegrams flew to and from every 
 station on the route home, but no information 
 was obtained. Then John went West to make 
 such search as love and gold could make. 
 
 In the mean time, Jessie was nearly frantic 
 with a thousand fears. She tried to pray and 
 could not. She had made John promise if he 
 found Steve sick, to telegraph for her; and she 
 walked restlessly about the room, with her bon 
 net and cloak lying on the table, ready to start 
 for her husband s side at a moment s notice. 
 But John could not find a trace of Steve. At 
 the hotel he was well remembered, but from the 
 359
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 moment he passed out of its doors, no sign of 
 him could be discovered. Fear deepened into 
 despair, and the awful silence of uncertainty and 
 suspense nearly broke their hearts. 
 
 Fortunately there were late photographs of 
 Steve, and John gave these to men who were 
 familiar with the country, and lavished gold 
 in searching every foot of ground in the city 
 and in the adjacent towns and villages. Noth 
 ing came of the quest, and finally John was 
 compelled to return home. Still, he would not 
 give up hope. He reminded Jessie of Steve s 
 erratic impulses to seclusion, and of that habit 
 he had of sinking his identity in some work 
 manlike disguise ; and he thought it probable 
 that he had done so in order to visit his old 
 friends, and that while in this condition, he had 
 fallen sick in some out-of-the-way place, unable 
 to communicate with his friends. 
 
 But even this hope died as weeks and months 
 went by, and no word or token came from the 
 lost man. Jessie utterly succumbed to the long 
 strain of suspense and despair. She lay pros 
 trate and speechless, while forgotten days and 
 forgotten opportunities of loving-kindness called 
 to her in sad, remorseful repenting. Oh, if just 
 once more she could hear Steve s strong rapid 
 step coming towards her ! If just once more 
 she could see him open the door, and look at 
 360
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 her with his smile so full of love and truth ! 
 Only once! Only once, that she might tell 
 him how dearly she loved, how sorry she was 
 that she had ever grieved or undervalued him! 
 For now bygone hours tortured her. They 
 showed her what they had expected from her, 
 and what they would have given her. And it 
 was too late ! Steve s face, as she had often 
 seen it, with a longing disappointed look, 
 haunted her desolate heart. He would come 
 back no more. She had deceived his hopes 
 so often, and now death in some form or other 
 had taken him away for ever ! She recalled 
 times when she might have made him so happy, 
 and she had doled him out the poorest kind of 
 compensation. She remembered times when 
 she had profited by his generosity, only to pro 
 tect her own selfishness. He had loved her, 
 and she had wounded him cruelly. Twice she 
 had made him weep. Certain words she had 
 said, certain looks she had given, secret for 
 gotten unkindnesses all at once became alive, 
 and all said to her, " Too late ! Too late ! " 
 Alas ! the irreparable has this magic freshness, 
 and the soul compelled to remember the love 
 it has wasted and wounded, suffers from such 
 refinements of tenderness real heart-rending. 
 One hour, Jessie prayed for. One hour of the 
 many hours in which she had made Steve un-
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 happy. Only one hour, to tell him how sorry 
 she was, to ask his forgiveness, and kiss her 
 pardon from his lips. No ! No ! Neither to 
 day, nor to-morrow, nor throughout eternity, 
 would she find one of the many hours she had 
 spent in making miserable the heart that loved 
 her so truly and so unselfishly. 
 
 Thus, full of wretched remorse and anxiety, 
 the months went by, and it was again spring. 
 Then one day a dark, rough-looking man en 
 tered John s office. He sat down in a chair 
 opposite him, and, looking calmly into John s 
 face, said : 
 
 " I was with him to the end. I saw every 
 thing. I heard the last words he spoke." 
 
 "You mean Mr. Lloyd?" asked John, look 
 ing at his visitor with sorrowful fear. 
 
 " I mean the man I called Steve. He called 
 himself Steve. Sandy McLaurin of San 
 Francisco told me you wanted to find him. 
 Well, you can t find him, and I am glad of it. 
 He is far beyond the law and the lawyers. He 
 is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and he 
 is. better there than in your clutches, and 
 more, I would n t believe Steve ever did any 
 thing wrong, not if you swore yourself black 
 and blue over it." 
 
 " Stop, my friend ! " 
 
 " I am Steve s friend, not yours." 
 362
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 " I am Steve s friend. I am also his brother." 
 
 " Oh ! that s it ! " 
 
 " If you believe that Steve Lloyd is wanted 
 for anything but love and honour, you are 
 much mistaken. And if you are telling me 
 that Steve is dead, thinking to lead me on a 
 wrong scent, let me tell you, it is a great cruelty. 
 His mother and wife and sister and children and 
 I, myself, still keep a hope of his return. Do 
 not for God s sake kill that hope, unless you 
 have sure and certain knowledge of his death." 
 
 " I have." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " I saw him die." 
 
 "Where? How?" 
 
 " I 11 tell you. I met Steve when I was sec 
 ond engineer on the Alaska. We were mates 
 and friends, and I loved him. Who could help 
 loving, him? I don t take to people in general, 
 but I took to Steve, and I loved him. It is no 
 matter to you what fortune took me to Frisco, 
 but I was there looking for a job, when one 
 morning I saw Steve on the street, and he was 
 so bright and handsome that I could not help 
 but say, God bless you, Steve ! I m out of luck 
 and very shabby, and you needn t speak to me; 
 but I am glad to see you looking like the gentle 
 man you are and always were. Well, sir, if I d 
 been the richest man and the greatest man in 
 363
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 the world, Steve could n t have been more set 
 up to meet me. He asked me where I was 
 staying, and I said at Sandy McLaurin s, and he 
 said, well, then he d stay there, too. We talked 
 a bit, and then agreed to meet at Sandy s for 
 supper at six o clock, and I never thought for a 
 moment that he was going to quit the first hotel 
 in the place to come to me." 
 
 " Stay. Do you remember the date of this 
 meeting? " 
 
 " To be sure. It was on May the sixth of 
 last year." 
 
 "Yes," said John, sadly; "the proprietor 
 told me that he paid his bill on the afternoon 
 of the sixth, and said he would come for his 
 trunks later." 
 
 "Well, sir, he intended to do so, no doubt; 
 but just after I left Steve, the captain of a coast 
 steamer stopped me, and asked if I would run 
 his engines down the water about thirty miles 
 the next day. He was going to take a party of 
 women and children on a picnic to some big 
 orange grove. I said I would go, and I begged 
 Steve to come with me ; and I begged him so 
 hard that he finally consented, though I could 
 see he did n t want to go. And he told me he 
 intended taking the ten o clock train at night 
 for the East, but I assured him we would be 
 back by eight at the latest, and so he would 
 3 6 4
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 have two hours to come and go on. He thought 
 it would be enough, and so went with 
 me." 
 
 " Do you remember the name of the place ? " 
 
 " San Justa; but it is nothing of a place, only 
 some big gardens and a grove and a few houses. 
 All went well enough ; the women had tea-parties 
 under the trees, and the children ate fruit and 
 danced and played ; but the captain spent the 
 day in a drinking-house, and when he came 
 aboard he was reckless and quarrelsome. There 
 was a full moon though, and it was light as day, 
 yet I felt in myself that something was going to 
 happen. I told Steve so, and asked him to keep 
 the captain in sight. Half an hour afterwards 
 a big steamer struck us, and went straight 
 ahead." 
 
 " But she stopped to see what damage she 
 had done?" 
 
 " No, she did n t, and I can t blame her much. 
 She was badly hurt herself, and our captain gave 
 her such blaspheming ill words as were not fit 
 to get help with ; and very likely they thought 
 if we needed help we would have found decent 
 language to say so. Anyway, we were left 
 alone, and I knew what was coming. I went 
 on deck, and the first thing I saw was the cow 
 ardly captain and crew putting off in a boat, and 
 Steve standing by the gunwale, with an iron 
 365
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 bar in his hand, threatening to brain any man 
 who got into a boat while there was a woman 
 or a child to save. I saw him standing on the 
 sloping deck of the fast-sinking ship, helping 
 them into the boats, while the water rose to his 
 knees and higher and higher but he got 
 every woman and child safely off; and he went 
 down with a blessing on his lips." 
 
 Both men were weeping, and John could not 
 utter a word. The stranger continued, " I had 
 stood by him and helped him all I could, and 
 he saw me in the water just as he was sinking, 
 and he called out: Good-bye, David! God 
 help, and save, and bless that is all. But it 
 is enough to comfort you, I hope." Then see 
 ing John take out his check book, he added, 
 " Stop that. I heard about the reward, but I 
 would n t touch a penny for nothing in the 
 world." 
 
 " Take your expenses at any rate." 
 " I will not. I was coming to New York on 
 my own affairs. While Steve was living I would 
 have done anything for him heart and hands 
 could do free and welcome. It is n t likely I 11 
 pocket money for a kindness to the dead. What 
 do you take me for? I am sorry enough for 
 those who loved him, but he died a good death. 
 No man could die better than Steve did. Tell 
 them that ; and good-bye, sir ! " 
 366
 
 Then John sat still with his eyes covered, but 
 seeing the whole tragedy. He understood the 
 situation, the strong arm which would work 
 miracles of salvation, the kind encouragement 
 to the weak*, the sunny trust that at the last 
 moment could pray for help for another rather 
 than for himself, and he could weep no longer. 
 He thought of his friend as knocking all his life 
 long at a door not opened longing and wist 
 fully watching and then suddenly a door 
 opened into heaven, and a voice heard saying, 
 " Come up hither." No, he could not weep for 
 Steve. The long yearning of his heart for 
 freedom was stilled. His soul had slipped the 
 bonds of its incarnation. Steve was for ever 
 among the Freedmen of God. 
 
 So the agony of the long waiting was at last 
 over; the grief not sure was now certain. 
 And in spite of his grief he found grace to say, 
 " Thank God for a death so noble ! " It was 
 best now that all who loved Steve should know 
 the truth. He went out at once to Jessie s home 
 and found Mrs. Lloyd and Alice sitting with 
 her. She had not been expecting John, and 
 the moment he entered she divined the news 
 he brought. 
 
 "What is it, John?" she asked in a whisper. 
 "Is Steve dead?" 
 
 " Steve is alive for ever ! " 
 367
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 Then sitting down by the three women, and 
 mingling his tears with theirs, John told the 
 story of Steve s heroic death. " He gave his 
 life a ransom for many lives, for the helpless 
 women and children who would have been left 
 to perish if Steve had not stood at the sinking 
 gunwale for them. There is nothing to weep 
 for in such a death ; " and yet John bowed his 
 head and wept bitterly. 
 
 Then a marvellous thing took place. Jessie, 
 who had been prostrate in a silent despair for 
 weeks, suddenly rose to her feet, and with 
 clasped hands and uplifted eyes, in a rapture of 
 rejoicing, gave God thanks for Steve s glorious 
 discharge from all the sorrows of mortality. " I 
 can weep no more. There is a better way 
 before me, John," she cried, stretching out her 
 hands to him. " Show me how to stand in 
 Steve s place. You know what good works he 
 planned. I will carry them out and forward. 
 I consecrate my life to this promise. As Steve s 
 wife, I too often failed ; as Steve s widow I will 
 pay to the poor, as long as I live, the debt of 
 love I owe him. Steve, I know, has left me all 
 he possessed. I give with all my heart one 
 million dollars of it as a thank-offering to God 
 for the love he gave, and for the love he has 
 taken away blessed be the name of the 
 Lord ! " 
 
 368
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 " Blessed be the name of the Lord ! " Ah ! 
 there are joys and triumphs for those who sub 
 mit. With heart crushed, and on the very 
 borders of despair, Jessie found strength to say, 
 " Thy will be done," and in that moment the 
 song of the redeemed who trust in the Lord 
 made her glad. From weeping she turned to 
 work, from the thought of herself and her own 
 sorrow to the thought of others and the sorrows 
 of others. In as far as possible she took Steve s 
 place in the labours of TJic Kings Highway. 
 Money she gave with a liberal hand ; and not 
 only money, but time, strength, influence, and 
 life. Many charities, never heard of before, 
 flow this day like an unseen stream among the 
 meadows from her heart and hands, charities 
 having for their object the nameless, little- 
 regarded trials of wifehood and motherhood 
 and girlhood. 
 
 At first she worked with the thought of Steve 
 in her soul ; but she soon rose higher, to the 
 thought of God ; and though sometimes dis 
 couraged, when every other anchor drags, the 
 thought of God steadies her wavering heart. 
 Greatly strengthened and helped by Mrs. Lloyd 
 and Alice, who stand at her right hand and her 
 left, the three women are constantly busy, pre 
 paring the way of the Lord, and lifting up the 
 gates of holiness, so that the King of Glory 
 24 369
 
 THE KING S HIGHWAY 
 
 may come in, and abide in our cities, and fill 
 the whole land with righteousness, and peace, 
 and contentment. 
 
 This good day is coming! Coming in spite 
 of all oppositions and discouragements. The 
 work Steve and John began goes silently and 
 steadily forward. The two millions soon be 
 came too little for its necessities, and Mrs. Lloyd 
 and Alice and many others have added to the 
 fund. The high places of sin are being broken 
 down, and the rough places of suffering smoothed 
 and bridged over ; and the day of the Lord is at 
 hand ! John knows it, and he neither wearies 
 nor falters in well-doing. God inspires him, and 
 humanity inspires him; and if his heart ever 
 fails him for a moment, he has but to cast his 
 eyes upward and around. For all around 
 over the hearth and on the lintels of the door, 
 circling the seal of their work, and on the mar 
 gin of every paper, is the grand prophetic 
 motto Steve chose for it: " Thy Kingdom Conic" 
 It is even carved on the frame of the exquisite 
 portrait of Steve which Mrs. Lloyd has given 
 to the office of the charities he founded ; and 
 John has but to gaze on that radiant face to 
 catch virtue from it. Often he whispers as he 
 stands before it: 
 
 " Steve ! You have been a pillar of fire to 
 me ! Still I can hear you say, Be strong, John, 
 37
 
 THY KINGDOM COME 
 
 be strong, and again, be strong! Oh, brave, 
 kind soul, by what shore tarriest thou now? 
 
 In some far shining sphere 
 Conscious or not of the past 
 Still thou performest the Word 
 Of the Spirit in whom thou didst live. " 
 
 And to this joyful certainty all who love 
 Steve still work, having in their hearts a sure 
 and certain hope that he " in some far shining 
 sphere " is working with them in the great end 
 towards which all creation travaileth together 
 
 Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be clone, 
 On earth as it is in Heaven.
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 OAYLORD
 
 000 545915