Conquest with him! No other hands will ever be found worthier to claim
it!"

That night when tall white candles burned about him there stole a
white-robed figure to the flower-strewn bier. 'Twas Vesta, decked as for
a bridal, her golden tresses falling round her like a veil. They found
her kneeling there beside him, her face like his all filled with starry
light, and round them both was such a wondrous shining, the watchers
drew aside in awe.

"'Tis as the old astrologers foretold," they whispered. "Her soul hath
entered on its deathless vigil. In truth he was the bravest that this
earth has ever known."

The porter was lighting the lamps when Mary finished reading. There was
one directly above her. She moved her hand so that the light fell on her
zodiac ring, and sat turning it this way and that to watch the dull
gleams. By the bloodstone on her finger she was vowing that her courage
should fail not in helping Jack "pick up the gauntlet which Despair
flung down, and wage the warfare to his very grave."

All the way through the story she had read Jack for Aldebaran, and it
should be her part to play the role of the Jester who had led him back
to hope. She opened the book again at the sentence, "The motto written
deep across his heart was this: '_To ease the burden of the world._'"
Henceforth that should be her aim in life, to ease Jack's burden.
Together, "by sheathed sword since blade was now denied him," they would
prove his right to the Sword of Conquest.

Some great load seemed to lift itself from her own shoulders as she made
this resolution. She was glad that she had been born in Mars' month. She
was glad that this little story had fallen in her way.

It gave her hope and courage. Beggared of joy himself, Jack should yet
be "as the eye of Taurus 'mong his fellows."

CHAPTER XIV

BACK AT LONE-ROCK

All the rest of the way to Lone-Rock, Mary's waking moments were spent
in anticipating her arrival and planning diversions for the days to
follow. Now that she was so near, she could hardly wait to see the
family. The seven months that she had been away seemed seven years,
judging by her changed outlook on life. She felt that she had gone away
a mere child, and that she was coming back, years old and wiser. She
wondered if they would notice any difference in her.

That Mrs. Ware did, was evident from their moment of greeting. Never
before had she broken down and sobbed on Mary's shoulder as she did no