CHAPTER XXIII.

Tracy wrote his father before he sought his bed. He wrote a letter which

he believed would get better treatment than his cablegram received, for

it contained what ought to be welcome news; namely, that he had tried

equality and working for a living; had made a fight which he could find

no reason to be ashamed of, and in the matter of earning a living had

proved that he was able to do it; but that on the whole he had arrived at

the conclusion that he could not reform the world single-handed, and was

willing to retire from the conflict with the fair degree of honor which

he had gained, and was also willing to return home and resume his

position and be content with it and thankful for it for the future,

leaving further experiment of a missionary sort to other young people

needing the chastening and quelling persuasions of experience, the only

logic sure to convince a diseased imagination and restore it to rugged

health. Then he approached the subject of marriage with the daughter of

the American Claimant with a good deal of caution and much painstaking

art. He said praiseful and appreciative things about the girl, but

didn't dwell upon that detail or make it prominent. The thing which he

made prominent was the opportunity now so happily afforded, to reconcile

York and Lancaster, graft the warring roses upon one stem, and end

forever a crying injustice which had already lasted far too long. One

could infer that he had thought this thing all out and chosen this way of

making all things fair and right because it was sufficiently fair and

considerably wiser than the renunciation-scheme which he had brought

with

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The American Claimant