heir home. He might return to the
world he knew so well; might do so to-morrow, without inconvenience or
loss. What then? He would merely be measuring the length of his chain,
or, if he succeeded in breaking it, would be relinquishing the pearl of
great price which he had found here in a far corner of the earth when
least expecting any such marvellous discovery, any such unspeakable
blessing to be obtained by mortal man.

For so he had come to regard it. Yes, the symptoms this time were
there. Nothing was wanting to them now. He had been under the delusion
that that which they had represented was, for him, a thing of the past,
and in his solitary life and unconscious craving for sympathy and
companionship--yes, and even for love, had almost acted upon that idea.
But for a timely diversion he would so have acted. Now he could hardly
formulate to himself a sufficiency of gratitude to Heaven, or
circumstances, or whatever it might be, that he had not.

The narrowness of his escape he realised with a mental shudder. What if
this strange new experience, opening as it did such an irradiating vista
of possibilities, had come upon him a day too late, had discovered him
bound--bound, too, by a chain he well knew there would be no loosening
once its links enfolded him? His usual luck had stood him in good stead
once more, and the thought suggested another. Would that luck continue?

Would it? It should. He would soon put it to the test. He went over
in his mind the whole period of his acquaintanceship with Aletta. It
was short enough in actual fact--only a matter of weeks, yet viewed by
the aspect of the change it had wrought it seemed a lifetime. He
recalled how he had first beheld her, and indeed many a time since,
bright, laughing, infecting everyone, however unconsciously, with the
warmth of her sunny light-heartedness. No outcome was this either of a
shallow unthinking temperament. She could be serious enough on
occasions, as he had more than once observed during their many talks
together, that, too, with a quick sympathy which pointed to a rich depth
of mind. He reviewed her relationship towards her own people, which, as
an intimate friend of the house, he had enjoyed every opportunity of
observing, and here again he found no flaw. It was clear that the whole
family came little short of worshipping her, and through this ordeal too
she had come utterly unspoiled. The idea brought back the recollection
o