"Yes, Hubert."
"And you forgive me? Oh, that is more wonderful than all! You bow me to the earth with your goodness—you and your father, Cynthia! What can I do to be worthy of it? He is going to give me his name as well as yourself; and Heaven knows that I will do my best to keep it clean!"
His head sank on her bosom.
"Hubert," she said, "you must not talk in that way! Do you think that I should ever be ashamed of your name, darling? It is just that my father has no son, and does not want his old name to die out. If you will sacrifice your name, instead of my sacrificing mine, as women generally do, you will make him very happy and very proud of you. He wants a son, and you will be as a son to him, Hubert darling, will you not?"
And so the treaty was ratified.
Hubert and Cynthia were married in three weeks; and the marriage turned out an uncommonly happy one. Contrary to even Cynthia's expectations, Westwood and his son-in-law became the very best of friends. Westwood was proud of Hubert's literary knowledge, of his former social standing, of his many gifts and accomplishments. It was he who one day proposed that Hubert should go back to the name of Lepel—the name by which he had been known in the literary and dramatic world, and by which he would perhaps be remembered long after "the Beechfield tragedy" was forgotten. But Hubert refused. He was too proud of the new name that he had won, he said, ever to give it up. As for literature, he had no inclination for it now. In this new home, in a new world, with father, wife, and boys beside him, and a political career which opened out a future such as he had never dreamed of when he was writing his plays and poems in Russell Square—a future made easy to him by Westwood's position and character in the States, and also by the large fortune which Miss Vane had left him unconditionally on her death—he had no wish to change his lot in life. Out of evil had come good; but only through repentance and the valley of humiliation, without which he would indeed have gone wearily and sadly to an end without honor and without peace. But he had won a great victory; and he was not without his great reward.
THE END.
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 11: Changed "at a friend" to "as a friend"
Page 18: Changed "closed first" to "closed fist"
Page 31: Changed "her sister" to "his sister"
Page 122: Changed "infringment" to "infringement"
Page 142: Changed "insistance" to "insistence"
Page 148: Changed "freinds" to "friends"
Page 151: Changed "cutseyed" to "curtseyed"
Page 155: Changed "bettter" to "better"
Page 176: Changed "delighful" to "delightful"
Page 229: Changed "mediated" to "meditated"
Page 242: Changed "Kensingston" to "Kensington"
Page 243: Changed "remenber" to "remember"
Page 274: Changed "profond" to "profound"
Page 280: Changed "lovelinesss" to "loveliness"
Page 307: Changed "grevious" to "grievous"
Page 345: Changed "thoughful" to "thoughtful"
Page 379: Changed "word" to "world"