the builder of your own life, the master of your own fate, the
conqueror--if, indeed, you desired to possess?"

She was gone, disappearing through a winding path amongst the bushes
which he had never noticed. He heard the trailing of her skirts; the
air around him was empty save for a breath of the perfume shaken from
her gown, and the song of the bird. Then he heard her call to him.

"This way, Mr. Maraton--just a little to your left. The path leads
right out on to the lawn."

"Is it a maze?" he asked.

"A very ordinary one," she called back gaily. "Follow me and I will
lead you out."



CHAPTER XIII

Mr. Foley and Lord Armley were waiting together in the library--not the
smaller apartment into which Julia had been shown, but a more spacious,
almost a stately room in the front part of the house. Upon Maraton's
entrance, Lord Armley changed his position, sitting further back amongst
the shadows in a low easy-chair. Maraton took his place so that he was
between the two men. It was Lord Armley who asked the first question.

"Mr. Maraton," he enquired, "are you an Englishman?"

"I think that I may call myself so," Maraton replied, with a smile. "I