The world will go on--even although my engagement is
broken off. And _I'm_ going on."

It was bravely spoken, and though Sara was inwardly conscious that in
the last words the spirit, for the moment, outdistanced the flesh, it
served to dissipate the rather strained atmosphere which had prevailed
at Sunnyside since the rupture of her engagement had become common
knowledge.

So, figuratively speaking, the blinds were drawn up and life resumed its
normal aspect once again.

It had fallen to the lot of Audrey Maynard to carry the ill-tidings to
Rose Cottage. Sara had asked her to acquaint their little circle with
the altered condition of affairs, and Audrey had readily undertaken to
perform this service, eager to do anything that might spare Sara some of
the inevitable pinpricks which attend even the big tragedies of life.

"The whole affair is incomprehensible to me," said Audrey at last, as
she rose preparatory to taking her departure. There seemed no object
in lingering to discuss so painful a topic. "It's--oh! It's
heart-breaking."

Miss Livinia departed hastily to do a little weep in the seclusion of
her room upstairs. She hardly concerned herself with the enormity of
Garth's offence. She was old, and she saw only romance shattered into
fragments, youth despoiled of its heritage, love crucified. Moreover,
the Lavender Lady had never been censorious.

"What is your opinion, Miles?" asked Audrey, when she had left the room.

Herrick had been rather silent, his brown eyes meditative. Now he looked
up quickly.

"About the funking part of it? As I wasn't on the spot when the affair
took place, I haven't the least right to venture an opinion."

Audrey looked puzzled.

"I don't see why not. You can't get behind the verdict of the
court-martial."

"Trials have been known where justice went awry," said Miles quietly.
"There was a trial where Pilate was judge."

"Do you mean to say you doubt the verdict?"--eagerly.

"No, I was not meaning quite that in this case. But, because the law
says a man is a blackguard, when I'd stake my life he's nothing of the
kind, it doesn't alter my opinion one hair's-breadth. The verdict may
have been--probably, almost certainly, _was_--the only verdict that
could be given to meet the facts of the case. But still, it is possible
that it was not a just verdict--labelling as a coward for all time a man
who may have had one bad moment when his nerves played him false. There
are