l be useless.'

The rector looked at the man's wan face, lit dimly by the light of the
shaded lamp, and falling on his knees, began to recite the prayers for
the dying. A shiver passed through Lucy. In the farmyard a cock crew,
and in the distance another cock answered cheerily. Lucy put her hand on
the good rector's shoulder.

'It's all over,' she whispered.

She bent down and kissed her father's eyes.

* * *

A week later Lucy took a walk by the seashore. They had buried Fred
Allerton three days before among the ancestors whom he had dishonoured.
It was a lonely funeral, for Lucy had asked Robert Boulger, her only
friend then in England, not to come; and she was the solitary mourner.
The coffin was lowered into the grave, and the rector read the sad,
beautiful words of the burial service. She could not grieve. Her father
was at peace. She could only hope that his errors and his crimes would
be soon forgotten; and perhaps those who had known him would remember
then that he had been a charming friend, and a clever, sympathetic
companion. It was little enough in all conscience that Lucy asked.

On the morrow she was leaving the roof of the hospitable parson.
Surmising her wish to walk alone once more through the country which was
so dear to her, he had not offered his company. Lucy's heart was full of
sadness, but there was a certain peace in it, too; the peace of her
father's death had entered into her, and she experienced a new feeling,
the feeling of resignation.

Now her mind was set upon the future, and she was filled with hope. She
stood by the water's edge, looking upon the sea as three years before,
when she was staying at Court Leys, she had looked upon the sea that
washed the shores of Kent. Many things had passed since then, and many
griefs had fallen upon her; but for all that she was happier than then;
since on that distant day--and it seemed ages ago--there had been
scarcely a ray of brightness in her life, and now she had a great love
which made every burden light.

Low clouds hung upon the sky, and on the horizon the greyness of the
heavens mingled with the greyness of the sea. She looked into the
distance with longing eyes. Now all her life was set upon that far-off
corner of unknown Africa, where Alec and George were doing great deeds.
She wondered what was the meaning of the silence which had covered them
so long.

'Oh, if I could only see,' she murmured.

She sent her spirit upon that vas