For years she had sought him, as best she could, as he had sought her, fruitlessly and at last hopelessly.

And she had known that her father was seeking him also, everywhere, that he might drag her to the ends of the earth at the mere suspicion of the Wanderer's presence in the same country.

It had amounted to a madness with him of the kind not seldom seen.

Beatrice might marry whom she pleased, but not the one man she loved.

Day by day and year by year their two strong wills had been silently opposed, and neither the one nor the other had ever been unconscious of the struggle, nor had either yielded a hair's-breadth.