our present doubts and difficulties would be resolved.

She rose, as I rose--with the tears in her eyes, and the blush on
her cheeks.

"Kiss me," she whispered, "before you go! And don't mind my
crying. I am quite happy now. It is only your goodness that
overpowers me."

I pressed her to my heart, with the unacknowledged tenderness of
a parting embrace. It was impossible to disguise the position in
which I had now placed myself. I had, so to speak, pronounced my
own sentence of banishment. When my interference had restored my
unworthy rival to his freedom, could I submit to the degrading
necessity of seeing her in his presence, of speaking to her under
his eyes? _That_ sacrifice of myself was beyond me--and I knew
it. "For the last time!" I thought, as I held her to me for a
moment longer--"for the last time!"

The child ran to meet me with open arms when I stepped out on the
landing. My manhood had sustained me through the parting with the
mother. It was only when the child's round, innocent little face
laid itself lovingly against mine that my fortitude gave way. I
was past speaking; I put her down gently in silence, and waited
on the lower flight of stairs until I was fit to face the world
outside.

CHAPTER XXIX.

OUR DESTINIES PART US.

DESCENDING to the ground-floor of the house, I sent to request a
moment's interview with the landlady. I had yet to learn in which
of the London prisons Van Brandt was confined; and she was the
only person to whom I could venture to address the question.

Having answered my inquiries, the woman put her own sordid
construction on my motive for visiting the prisoner.

"Has the money you left upstairs gone into his greedy pockets
already?" she asked. "If I was as rich as you are, I should let
it go. In your place, I wouldn't touch him with a pair of tongs!"

The woman's coarse warning actually proved useful to me; it
started a new idea in my mind! Before she spoke, I had been too
dull or too preoccupied to see that it was quite needless to
degrade myself by personally communicating with Van Brandt in his
prison. It only now occurred to me that my legal advisers were,
as a matter of course, the proper persons to represent me in the
matter--with this additional advantage, that they could keep my
share in the transaction a secret even from Van Brandt himself.

I drove at once to the office of my lawyers. The senior
partner--the tried friend and adviser of our family--received me.

My instructions, naturally enough, astonished him. He was
immediately to satisfy the prisoner's creditors, on my behalf,
without mentioning my name to any one. And he was gravely to
accept as security for repayment--Mr. Van Brandt's note of hand!

"I thought I was well acquainted with the various methods by
which a gentleman can throw away his money," the senior partner
remarked. "I congratulate you, Mr. Germaine, on having discovered
an entirely new way of effectually emptying your purse. Founding
a newspaper, taking a theater, keeping race-horses, gambling at
Monaco, are highly efficient as modes of losing money. But they
all yield, sir, to paying the debts of Mr. Van Brandt!"

I left him, and went home.

The servant who opened the door had a message for me from my
mother. She wished to see me as soon as I was at leisure to speak
to her.

I presented myself at once in my mother's sitting-room.

"Well, George?" she said, without a word to prepare me for what
was coming. "How have you left Mrs. Van Brandt?"

I was completely thrown off my guard.

"Who has told you that I have seen Mrs. Van Brandt?" I asked.

"My dear, your face has told me. Don't I know by this time how
you look and how you speak when Mrs. Van Brandt is in your mind.
Sit down by me. I have something to say to you which I wanted to
say this morning; but, I hardly know why, my heart failed me. I
am bolder now, and I can say it. My son, you still love Mrs. Van
Brandt. You have my permission to marry her."

Those were the words! Hardly an hour had elapsed since Mrs. Van
Brandt's own lips had told me that our union was impossible. Not
even half an hour had passed since I had given the directions
which would restore to liberty the man who was the one obstacle
to my marriage. And this was the time that my mother had
innocently chosen for consenting to receive as her
daughter-in-law Mrs. Van Brandt!

"I see that I surprise you," she resumed. "Let me explain my
motive as plainly as I can. I should not be speaking the truth,


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