en up his claims on the estate in order to pay
the heavy debts of his worthless father.

The home at Beechwood had lost another inmate--for Edmund was now
married--when Guy, first going to Paris, had later sailed for America.
Years passed by, and he became a successful merchant in Boston, and then
one day he wrote home to say he was coming back to the Old Country, and
was bringing with him his partner.

The ship in which Guy and his friend sailed from America was wrecked,
and Ursula, in her grief at the supposed loss of her eldest son, seemed
to be wearing away, when one day a strange gentleman stood in the
doorway--tall, brown, and bearded--and asked to see Miss Halifax. Maud
just glanced at him, then rose, and said somewhat coldly, "Will you be
seated?"

"Maud, don't you know me? Where is my mother?"

The return of the son whom she had given up for dead brought joy again
to the heart of Ursula, and her health seemed to revive, but it was
clear that her days were now uncertain. Scarcely less than the delight
in Guy's return was the discovery that his partner was none other than
the new Earl of Luxmore, who, as plain Mr. William Ravenel, had by his
life in America proved John Halifax was right when he said it was not
too late for him to model his life on lines of true manliness. He had,
indeed, become all that John had desired of him--a man and a
gentleman--so that Maud was, after all, to be the Countess of Luxmore.

But the days of John Halifax himself were now drawing to a close, and he
was not without premonitions of his end; for in his talks with Phineas
Fletcher, who had remained his faithful companion all these years, he
spoke as one would speak of a new abode, an impending journey. Death
came to him very gently one day at sunset, just after he had smiled to
Phineas, when his old friend, looking towards Lord Luxmore and his
future bride, who were with a group of the young people, had said, "I
think sometimes, John, that William and Maud will be the happiest of all
the children."

He smiled at this, and a little later seemed to be asleep; but when Maud
came up and spoke to him, he was dead. While he was sleeping thus, the
Master had called him. His sudden end was so great a shock to the frail
life of Ursula, that when they buried John Halifax in the pretty
Enderley churchyard they laid to rest with him his wife of three-and-
thirty years, who had been a widow but for a few hours.

* * *