k. She drew his head
with soft insistence to her breast.

"My own boy, it's over; forget it all. It wasn't meant to handicap you
always. We'll have another deal now, please God, and start afresh as
partners."

There followed a pause--a silence that had in it something sacred. Then
West raised himself, and took her face between his hands. For a moment
he looked deep into her eyes, his own alight with a vital fire.

Then, "As lovers, Cynthia," he said, and kissed her on the lips.

* * * * *

The Nonentity

I

"It is well known that those fight hardest who fight in vain," remarked
Lord Ronald Prior complacently. "But I should have thought a woman of
your intellect would have known better. It's such a rank waste of energy
to struggle against Fate."

He spoke in the easy drawl habitual to him. His grey eyes held the
pleasant smile that was seldom absent from them. Not in any fashion a
striking personality, this; his kindest friend could not have called him
imposing, nor could the most uncharitable have described him as anything
worse than dull. Enemies he had none. His invariable good temper was his
safeguard in this particular. The most offensive remark would not have
provoked more than momentarily raised eyebrows.

He was positively characterless, so Beryl Denvers told herself a dozen
times a day. How could she possibly marry any one so neutral? And yet in
his amiable, exasperatingly placid fashion he had for some time been
laying siege to her affections. He had shaved off his beard because he
had heard her say that she objected to hairy men, and he seemed to think
that this sacrifice on his part entitled him to a larger share of her
favour than the rest of the world, certainly much more than she was
disposed to bestow.

He had, in fact, assumed almost an air of proprietorship over her of
late--a state of affairs which she strongly resented, but was powerless
to alter. He had a little money, but no prospects to mention, and had
never done anything worth doing in all his five-and-thirty years. And
yet he seemed to think himself an eligible _parti_ for one of the most
popular women in the district. His social position gave him a certain
precedence among her other admirers, but Beryl herself refused to
recognise this. She thought him presumptuous, and snubbed him
accordingly.

But Lord Ronald's courtship seemed to thrive upon snubs. H