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True, he did not profess to love Iris Wayne as he had loved Hilda Ryder; for no other woman in the world could ever fill the place in his life left vacant by that untimely shot in the dawn of an Indian day

Until the hour in which he learned of Miss Ryder's tragic death Bruce Cheniston had been an ordinary easy-going youth, cleverer in soarded his outlook on life and its possibilities He had never been very deeply one se with quite passable success and cos His love for Hilda Ryder was the best and highest thing in his whole life; and in his atteher mental and moral stature than he had ever before attained

And then had coirl he had loved and the incentive to a better, worthier manhood which her love had supplied For her sake he could have done s, the selfish weaknesses which marred his not otherwise unattractive character; but when Hilda Ryder vanished frorew older, harder, more cynical His sunny boyishness, which had effectually masked the cold deterarment; and the real ed and had resolved to conquer, came to the surface

He felt, perhaps naturally, that he had a grudge against Fate; and the immediate result was to eliminate all softness from his character, and replace such amiable weakness by a harsh detern, if indeed strength of purpose and a relentless lack of consideration for any other living being could compass such an end

Fate had beaten him once He was deter the last few years Bruce Cheniston had been known as a man who invariably achieved his object in whatever direction such achievement lay--a o far; while his enemies, a small number, certainly, for on the whole he was popular, labelled him ruthless in the pursuit of his particular aims

Perhaps he was not to blame for the metamorphosis which followed Hilda Ryder's death For the first ti better than himself; so that the reaction which fell upon his spirit when he realized that his love was no longer needed was in its very nature severe