il on the morrow; but he was resolute to spare her one
additional pang, and so endured alone the whole burden of the parting
agony. His whole life had been full of deeds of reckless daring; but, in
good truth, this achievement was its very crown of courage.

Now, as heretofore, Cecil was incapable of resisting any one of his
expressed wishes or commands; besides this, physical exhaustion was
beginning to overcome her; and she, too, felt that it was time to go.
She leaned down, without speaking, and their lips met in a long,
passionate kiss. So little of vitality lingered in Royston's, that they
remained still icy-cold under the pressure of these ripe, red roses.

"I will come again, early," she whimpered.

The last relics of a strength that _had_ been superhuman passed into the
lingering pressure of the hand that bade her tenderly farewell. Half an
hour later the surgeon came to Royston Keene. All that night, shrieks
and groans, and other sounds through which human agony finds a vent, had
been ringing in his ears, till they were weary of the din; but the
silence of that chamber struck the visitor yet more painfully. He looked
for a second gravely at the motionless figure; and laid his ear against
the lips; no breath issued thence that would have stirred a feather;
then he drew very gently the sheet over the dead man's face,--a quiet,
steadfast face,--that even in the death-throe had retained its proud,
placid calm.

When Cecil Tresilyan saw that same sight the next morning, she did not
scream or faint. Neither then nor afterward did she prove herself
unworthy of her haughty lover, by demonstrating or parading her sorrows.
Many others besides her have taken for their motto, "The heart knoweth
its own bitterness;" and have carried it out to the end unflinchingly.
Verily, they have their reward. If there is little comfort on this side
the grave, and only vague hope beyond it, it is something to escape
condolence. We follow her fortunes no farther. It is needless to give
all the details of the hospital service which occupied her till the
conclusion of the war set her free; and we will not seek to penetrate
into the retreat in the Far West where she is dwelling still. The gray
manor-house guards its secrets well, though it has witnessed in its time
sorrows and sins that might have wrung a voice from granite. Conscious
of many broken hearts and blasted hopes, is the home of the Tresilyans
of Tresilyan.

I confess to a ce