This window was filled with the armorial bearings of many generations of the Outram family, wrought in stained glass and placed in couples, for next to each coat of arms were the arms of its bearer's dame.

It was not quite full, however, for in it remained two blank shields, which had been destined to receive the escutcheons of Thomas Outram and his wife.
"They will never be filled now, Leonard," said Tom, pointing to these; "curious, isn't it, not to say sad ?" "Oh! I don't know," answered his brother; "I suppose that the Cohens boast some sort of arms, or if not they can buy them." "I should think that they would have the good taste to begin a new window for themselves," said Tom.
Then he was silent for a while, and they watched the moonlight streaming through the painted window, the memorial of so much forgotten grandeur, and illumining the portraits of many a dead Outram that gazed upon them from the panelled walls.
"_Per ardua ad astra_," said Tom, absently reading the family motto which alternated pretty regularly with a second device that some members of it had adopted--"For Heart, Home, and Honour." "'_Per ardua ad astra_'-- through struggle to the stars--and 'For Heart, Home, and Honour,'" repeated Tom; "well, I think that our family never needed such consolations more, if indeed there are any to be found in mottoes.

Our Heart is broken, our hearth is desolate, and our honour is a byword, but there remain the 'struggle and the stars.'" As he spoke his face took the fire of a new enthusiasm: "Leonard," he went on, "why should not we retrieve the past?
Let us take that motto--the more ancient one--for an omen, and let us fulfil it.

I believe it is a good omen, I believe that one of us will fulfil it." "We can try," answered Leonard.

"If we fail in the struggle, at least the stars remain for us as for all human kind." "Leonard," said his brother almost in a whisper, "will you swear an oath with me?
It seems childish, but I think that under some circumstances there is wisdom even in childishness." "What oath ?" asked Leonard.
"This; that we will leave England and seek fortune in some foreign land--sufficient fortune to enable us to repurchase our lost home; that we will never return here until we have won this fortune; and that death alone shall put a stop to our quest." Leonard hesitated a moment, then answered: "If Jane fails me, I will swear it." Tom glanced round as though in search of some familiar object, and presently his eye fell upon what he sought.