own
brother-in-law. And of the compact with Joshua Wream and of Norrie he
told nothing.

"Three days ago I did not know that you could be heir to this property,"
he concluded. "I've been interested in books and have left legal matters
to those who controlled them for me."

He rose hastily, for Burleigh, saying nothing, was looking at him with
wide-open brown eyes that seemed to look straight into his soul.

"I can restore your property to you. I cannot change the past. You have
all the future in which to use it better than my father did, or I might
have done. Goodnight."

He turned away and passed slowly down the rotunda stairs.

When he was gone Victor Burleigh turned to the open window of the
dome. He was not to blame that the beautiful earth under a magnificent
December sunset sky seemed all his own now.

"'If big, handsome Victor Burleigh had his corners knocked off and was
sandpapered down,'" he mused. "Well, what corners I haven't knocked off
myself have been knocked off for me and I've been sandpapered--Lord,
I've been sandpapered down all right. I'm at home on a carpet now. 'And
if he had money'." Vic's face was triumphant. "It has come at last--the
money. And what of Elinor?"

The sacred memories of brief fleeting moments with her told him "what of
Elinor."

"The barriers are down now. It is a glorious old world. I must hunt up
Trench and then--"

He closed the dome window, looked a moment at the brave Kansas motto,
radiant in the sunset light, and then, picking up his tools, he went
downstairs.

"Hello, Trench I he called as he reached the rotunda floor. I must see
you a minute."

"Hello, you Angel-face! Case of necessity. Well, look a minute," Trench
drawled. "But that's the limit, and twice as long as I'd care to see
you, although, I was hunting you. Funnybone wants to see you in there."

Victor's eyes were glowing with a golden light as he entered Fenneben's
study, and the Dean noted the wonderful change from the big, awkward
fellow with a bulldog countenance to this self-poised gentleman whose
fine face it was a joy to see.

"I have a message for you, Burleigh. No hurry about it I was told, but
I am called away on important business and I must get it out of my mind.
An odd-looking fellow called at my door on the night I came home and
left a package for you. He said he had tried to find you and failed,
that he was a stranger here, and that you would understand the message
inside. He insis