k of which I spoke to you. Study the question of the
intermingling of the races. If miscegenation is in reality
destroying us, dedicate your soul to the work of separating
the white and colored races. Do not let them intermingle.
Erect moral barriers to separate them. If you fail in this,
make the separation physical; lead our people forth from this
accursed land. Do this and I shall not have died in vain.
Visit my grave now and then to drop thereon a flower and a
flag, but no tears. If in the shadowy beyond, whose mists
I feel gathering about me, there is a place where kindred
spirits meet, you and I shall surely meet again. Though I
could not in life, I will in death sign myself,

"Your loving wife,

"Viola Belgrave."

Let us not enter this saddened home when the seals of those letters
were broken. Let us not break the solemn silence of those who bowed
their heads and bore the grief, too poignant for words. Dropping a
tear of regret on the little darling who failed to remember that we
have one atonement for all mankind and that further sacrifice was
therefore needless, we pass out and leave the loving ones alone with
their dead.

But, we may gaze on Bernard Belgrave as he emerges from the room where
his sun has set to rise no more. His eyes flash, his nostrils dilate,
his bosom heaves, he lifts his proud head and turns his face so that
the light of the sky may fall full upon it.

And lifting up his hands, trembling with emotion as though
supplicating for the strength of a god, he cries out; "By the eternal
heavens these abominable horrors shall cease. The races, whose union
has been fraught with every curse known to earth and hell, must
separate. Viola demands it and Bernard obeys." It was this that sent
him forth to where kings were eager to court his favor.

CHAPTER XV.

WEIGHTY MATTERS.

With his hands thrust into his pockets, and his hat pulled over his
grief stricken eyes, Bernard slowly wended his way to his boarding
place.

He locked himself in his room and denied himself to all callers. He
paced to and fro, his heart a cataract of violent, tossing, whirling
emotions. He sat down and leaned his head upon the bed, pressing his
hand to his forehead as if to restore order there. While thus employed
his landlady knocked at the door and called through the key hole,
informing him that there was a telegram for him. Bernard arose, came
out, sig