fountain of first knowledge. You
have seen and done much in the past year; and the end of it all is more
fitting than the most meticulous artist could desire or conceive. You
will adorn the new sphere into which you enter. You are of those who do
not need training or experience: you are a genius, whose chief
characteristic is adaptability. Some people, to whom nature and
Providence have not been generous live up to things; to you it is given
to live down to them; and no one can do it so well. We have had good
times together--happy conversations and some cheerful and entertaining
dreams and purposes. We have made the most of opportunity, each in his
and her own way. But, my dear Jasmine, don't ever think that you will
need to come to me for advice and to learn to be wise. I know of no one
from whom I could learn, from whom I have learned, so I much. I am
deeply your debtor for revelations which never could have come to me
without your help. There is a wonderful future before you, whose
variety let Time, not me, attempt to reveal. I shall watch your going
on"--(he did not say goings on)--"your Alpine course, with clear
memories of things and hours dearer to me than all the world, and with
which I would not have parted for the mines of the Rand. I lose them
now for nothing--and less than nothing. I shall be abroad for some
years, and, meanwhile, a new planet will swim into the universe of
matrimony. I shall see the light shining, but its heavenly orbit will
not be within my calculations. Other astronomers will watch, and some
no doubt will pray, and I shall read in the annals the bright story of
the flower that was turned into a star!

"Always yours sincerely, IAN STAFFORD."

From the filmy ashes of her letter to him Stafford now turned away to
his writing-table. There he sat for a while and answered several notes,
among them one to Alice Mayhew, now the Countess of Tynemouth, whose
red parasol still hung above the mantel-piece, a relic of the
Zambesi--and of other things.

Periodically Lady Tynemouth's letters had come to him while he was
abroad, and from her, in much detail, he had been informed of the rise
of Mrs. Byng, of her great future, her "delicious" toilettes, her great
entertainments for charity, her successful attempts to gather round her
the great figures in the political and diplomatic world; and her
partial rejection of Byng's old mining and financial confreres and
their belongings. It had all culminat