for him. When John was announced he felt a thrill of tender feeling to
which he had long been a stranger. He got up and waited. The young man
with his mother's face and the eyes of an enthusiast was coming down the
long corridor.

John Storm saw his uncle first in the spacious old cabinet room which
looks out on the little garden and the Park. He was a gaunt old man with,
meagre mustache and hair, and a face like a death's head. He held out his
hand and smiled. His hand was cold and his smile was half tearful and
half saturnine.

"You are like your mother, John."

John never knew her.

"When I saw her last you were a child in arms and she was younger than
you are now."

"Where was that, uncle?"

"In her coffin, poor girl."

The Prime Minister shuffled some papers and said, "Well, is there
anything you wish for?"

"Nothing. I've come to thank you for what you've done already."

The Prime Minister made a deprecatory gesture.

"I almost wish you had chosen another career, John. Still, the Church has