The tree was coming into bloom. Soon it would bear the most luscious fruit imaginable. How long had it taken to grow? Too long! There had been too many slights, too many indignities suffered over the last ten years and more. But then, ‘of human virtues, patience is most great.’ That is what the teachers at college had said. ‘Everything comes to he who waits.’ The wait had been long, certainly. There were times when it had been tempting to act; to let battle commence. Caution had won the day on every previous occasion, and rightly so.

The momentous hour was now at hand. All was ready; nothing taken for granted; everything planned and executed. Burchill, Burford, Smith - dead; Stanford George, and his ‘uncle’ - discredited; Banks – compromised; Temple Mann - irrelevant. Time...

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