Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/224

212 manners and morals could not alter the nature of that gem of creation, the heart of a trusting woman.

Later on Flora Houghton found a consolation for her wounded feelings. James Tarrant had always admired and loved her in the days of his intense scientific labours, and now he laid his fame and his heart at her feet. At the conclusion of the war he made a triumphant return to London at the head of the fleets to which he had given victory. All classes vied with one another in doing him honour. He was made Prince of Kairet, Duke of England, Admiral of the Fleet, Field-Marshal of the Anglo-Saxon Empire, and the President of hundreds of scientific and learned societies. But loaded as he was with the honours of the Universe, he felt that there was one thing wanting, and that was a woman whom he might hold dearest of all. He loved Flora the best of all the women he had ever known, and she returned his love; for the girls of the twenty-third