Were Archie to marry as many wives as Henry, and have as many children as Priam, it would be no offence to him.

His desires did not lie in that line.

But in this other case, the woman before him who would so willingly have endowed him with all she possessed, had been loved by him before he had ever seen Florence Burton.

In all his love for Florence--so he now told himself, but so told himself falsely--he had ever remembered that Julia Brabazon had been his first love, the love whom he had loved with all his heart.

But things had gone with him most unfortunately--with a misfortune that had never been paralleled.