r you a full and ample apology--a personal
apology--which only supplements that full public apology that my
principal, sir, this gentleman," indicating the editor of the "Pioneer,"
"has this morning made in the columns of his paper, as you will
observe," producing a newspaper. "We have, sir," continued the
colonel loftily, "only within the last twelve hours become aware of
the--er--REAL circumstances of the case. We would regret that the affair
had gone so far already, if it had not given us, sir, the opportunity
of testifying to your gallantry. We do so gladly; and if--er--er--a FEW
YEARS LATER, Mr. Harcourt, you should ever need--a friend in any matter
of this kind, I am, sir, at your service." John Milton gazed half
inquiringly, half uneasily at Jack.

"It's all right, Milt," he said sotto voce. "Shake hands all round and
let's go to breakfast. And I rather think that editor wants to employ
you HIMSELF."

It was true, for when that night he climbed eagerly the steep homeward
hill he carried with him the written offer of an engagement on the
"Pioneer." As he entered the door his wife's nurse and companion met him
with a serious face. There had been a strange and unexpected change in
the patient's condition, and the doctor had already been there twice.
As he put aside his coat and hat and entered her room, it seemed to
him that he had forever put aside all else of essay and ambition beyond
those four walls. And with the thought a great peace came upon him. It
seemed good to him to live for her alone.

It was not for long. As each monotonous day brought the morning mist and
evening fog regularly to the little hilltop where his whole being was
now centred, she seemed to grow daily weaker, and the little circle of
her life narrowed day by day. One morning when the usual mist appeared
to have been withheld and the sun had risen with a strange and cruel
brightness; when the waves danced and sparkled on the bay below and
light glanced from dazzling sails, and even the white tombs on Lone
Mountain glittered keenly; when cheery voices hailing each other on the
hillside came to him clearly but without sense or meaning; when earth,
sky, and sea seemed quivering with life and motion,--he opened the door
of that one little house on which the only shadow seemed to have fallen,
and went forth again into the world alone.

CHAPER VII.

Mr. Daniel Harcourt's town mansion was also on an eminence, but it
was that gentler ac