214 The Light That Failed all. It is best to forget that wrong whether it be caused or endured, since it is as remediless as bad work once put forward. “Read it, then,” said Dick, and Alf began intoning according to the rules of the Board School — “T could have given you love, I could have given you loyalty, such as you never dreamed of. Do you suppose I cared what you were? But you chose to whistle everything down the wind for nothing. My only excuse for you ts that you are so young.” “That’s all,” he said, returning the paper to be dropped into the fire. “What was in the letter?” asked Mrs. Beeton, when Alf returned. “I don’t know. I think it was a circular or a tract about not whistlin’ at everything when you're young.” “I must have stepped on something when I was alive and walking about and it has bounced up and hit me. God help it, whatever it is — unless it was all a joke. But I don’t know any one who'd take the trouble to play a joke on me... . Love and loyalty for nothing. It sounds tempting enough. I wonder whether I have lost anything really?” Dick considered for a long time but could not remember when or how he had put himself in the way of winning these trifles at a woman’s hands. Still, the letter as touching on matters that he preferred not to think about stung him into a fit of frenzy that lasted for a day and night. When his heart was so full of despair that it would hold no more, body and soul together seemed to be dropping without check through the darkness. Then came fear of darkness and desperate attempts to reach the light again. But there was no light to be reached. When that agony had left him sweating and breathless, the downward flight