Part 17 (2/2)

There was no other explanation which seenored the evidence of the e, was it not reasonable to assuht? If this were so, what right had he, William Cecil Clayton, to thwart the wishes, to balk the self-sacrifice of this strangeto save Jane Porter fro her whole future, do aught to jeopardize her interests?

And so he reasoned until the first generous impulse to proclaim the truth and relinquish his titles and his estates to their rightful oas forgotten beneath the mass of sophistries which self-interest had advanced But during the balance of the trip, and for ht Occasionally the thought obtruded itself that possibly at sonanihts

Several days after they reached Baltie to Jane

”What do you mean by early?” she asked

”Within the next few days I land at once--I want you to return with et ready so soon as that,” replied Jane ”It will take a whole lad, for she hoped that whatever called hi She hadher part loyally to the bitter end--if she could h, she felt that she arranted in doing so His reply disconcerted her

”Very well, Jane,” he said ”I aland wait a ether”

But when theto a close she found still another excuse upon which to hang a postpone, Clayton was forced to go back to England alone

The several letters that passed between theht Clayton no nearer to a consummation of his hopes than he had been before, and so it was that he wrote directly to Professor Porter, and enlisted his services

The oldof an old southern faes of a title, which ed that the professor accept his invitation to be his guest in London, an invitation which included the professor's entire little faued that once Jane was there, and home ties had been broken, she would not so dread the step which she had so long hesitated to take

So the evening that he received Clayton's letter Professor Porter announced that they would leave for London the folloeek

But once in London Jane Porter was no more tractable than she had been in Baltimore She found one excuse after another, and when, finally, Lord Tennington invited the party to cruise around Africa in his yacht, she expressed the greatest delight in the idea, but absolutely refused to be married until they had returned to London As the cruise was to consume a year at least, for they were to stop for indefinite periods at various points of interest, Claytonsuch a ridiculous trip

It was Lord Tennington's plan to cruise through the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and thus down the East Coast, putting in at every port that orth the seeing

And so it happened that on a certain day two vessels passed in the Strait of Gibraltar The s toward the east, and on her deck sat a young woazed with sad eyes upon a diahts were far away, in the dile--and her heart ith her thoughts

She wondered if the iven her the beautiful bauble, that had meant so much more to him than the intrinsic value which he had not even known could ever have e forest

And upon the deck of the larger vessel, a passenger stea woman, and the two idly speculated upon the identity of the dainty craft gliding so gracefully through the gentle swell of the lazy sea

When the yacht had passed the man resumed the conversation that her appearance had broken off

”Yes,” he said, ”I like America very much, and that means, of course, that I like Americans, for a country is only what its people htful people while I was there I recall one fa, whohter”

”Jane Porter!” exclaiirl ”Do you mean to tell me that you know Jane Porter? Why, she is the very best friend I have in the world We were little children together--we have known each other for ages”

”Indeed!” he answered, s any one of the fact who had seen either of you”