BEING NO CHAPTER AT ALL, BUT AN INTERLUDE FOR THE ORCHESTRA And so the years slipped by--monotonous years they seem now, so far as this story goes.

Because little happened worth the telling; for growth is so still and so dull and so undramatic that it escapes interest and climax; yet it is all there is in life.

For the roots of events in the ground of the past are like the crowded moments of our passing lives that are recorded only in our under-consciousnesses, to rise in other years in character formed, in traits established, in events fructified.

And in the years when the evil days came not, John Barclay's tragedy was stirring in the soil of his soul.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the management, let us thank you for your kind attention, during the tedious act which has closed.

We have done our best to please you with the puppets and have cracked their heads together in fine fashion, and they have danced and cried and crackled, while we pulled the strings as our mummers mumbled.