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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Soul, by Kathlyn Rhodes
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Making of a Soul
+
+
+Author: Kathlyn Rhodes
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 4, 2007  [eBook #21674]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A SOUL
+
+by
+
+KATHLYN RHODES
+
+Author of "_The Desert Dreamers_," "_The Will of Allah_," "_The Lure of
+the Desert_," "_Flower of Grass_," _etc_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London: Hutchinson & Co.
+Paternoster Row
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Barry Raymond drew the latchkey out of the door and entered his small
+flat in Kensington just as the clock in the tiny hall chimed the hour of
+ten.
+
+It was a wet night; and he drew off his Burberry and hung it up with a
+sense of pleasure in being again in his cosy little eyrie at the top of
+the chilly stone steps.
+
+Humming a tune, he crossed the diminutive hall and went into the
+sitting-room, where the cheerful crackle of a small wood fire gave an
+air of comfort to the hearth.
+
+On the table, where his admirable man-servant had placed it, was a tray
+bearing glasses, a siphon and a bottle of whisky; and beside the tray
+were the few letters which had come by the last post; while in a
+conspicuous place lay a telegram in its tawny envelope; and this,
+naturally enough, was the first thing Barry touched.
+
+Taking it up, he tore it open decisively; and as the envelope fell to
+the ground he unfolded the pink paper and read the message scrawled
+thereon.
+
+     "Just arrived Southampton will be with you about ten o'clock.
+     OWEN."
+
+The paper fluttered to the floor and Barry consulted his watch hastily.
+
+"Ten o'clock! Why, it's that now. So Owen's home. By Jove, what an
+unlucky day he's chosen!"
+
+He stood still for a moment, rapt, it would seem, in contemplation of an
+unpleasant vision. Then with a shrug of his shoulders he moved to the
+fireplace and turned on more light.
+
+"Well, it'll have to be done sooner or later; but"--for a second a
+rueful smile lit up his despondent young face--"I wish I hadn't got to
+do it ... and at ten o'clock at night into the bargain!"
+
+He looked round him as though considering some serious matter.
+
+"Food--and drink. Here's drink, anyhow. What about food?"
+
+Seizing a hand-lamp from the bureau at his elbow, he quitted the room
+and made for the kitchen, which his man had left, as usual, in the
+perfection of neatness on his departure two hours ago.
+
+Hastening to the cupboard which did duty, in the flat, for a pantry,
+Barry flung open the door and surveyed the shelves with anxious eyes.
+
+Ah! There was plenty of food, of a sort, and suddenly Barry remembered,
+with gratitude, the fact that he had intended to dine at home, and had
+been prevented doing so at the eleventh hour owing to an unexpected
+invitation which he had then regarded as an unmitigated bore, but now
+looked upon as a direct interposition of Providence.
+
+A cold roast chicken, an apple tart and cream, cheese and
+biscuits--surely the traveller could make a meal off these provisions,
+and Barry carried them gaily into the sitting-room and laid the table
+with much good-will and no little celerity.
+
+Knives, forks, glasses--for he intended to share the meal--salt, pepper,
+bread--in a dozen light-hearted journeys he managed to bring everything
+he considered necessary; and he was just standing back to admire his own
+handiwork when the electric bell pealed loudly through the silent flat.
+
+"Here he is, by Jove!" Barry all but dropped the vase of chrysanthemums
+he was carrying to the table, and setting it down hastily he went to the
+door, in a flutter of anticipation, of hospitality, and, if the truth be
+told, of nervousness.
+
+Opening the door:
+
+"Is that you, Owen?" he asked--a superfluous question, for he knew his
+visitor well enough. "Come in, old chap--you must be soaked--it's a
+frightful night!"
+
+"Soaked--I should just say I am!" Owen Rose accepted the invitation and
+stepped inside, shaking himself like a dog as he did so. "Lord, Barry,
+what a climate! I declare I'd sooner live in Timbuctoo!"
+
+"Oh, the climate's all right--only a bit moist," returned Barry
+philosophically. "But come on in--take off your coat and come to the
+fire. Any luggage?"
+
+"No, I've sent it on to my place." He drew himself out of his big coat
+as he spoke. "I thought I'd come up and see you for half an hour first
+of all. Jolly glad you're at home. You got my wire?"
+
+"Yes, a few minutes ago. Come and have something to eat." They were in
+the sitting-room by now. "There's not much, but I hadn't time to kill
+the fatted calf."
+
+"Looks like it." Owen's eyes roamed over the cheerful little
+supper-table. "Barry, you're a fraud. Chicken, apple-pie--what more can
+man desire? But I confess I _am_ hungry, though I didn't come for a
+meal."
+
+"Well, sit down and let's begin," said Barry practically. "I dined at my
+aunt's to-night, and as usual I couldn't get much to eat! She asked me
+so many questions about ..." he coloured and hurried on "... about
+everything, that by the time I'd finished answering them dinner was
+over!"
+
+"I see." Owen accepted the plate Barry handed him. "Well, you're looking
+very fit, Barry. How's things?"
+
+"Oh, fair." Barry paused in the act of pouring out a whisky-and-soda.
+"That's to say, I'm still with old Joliffe, and got a rise of screw last
+quarter."
+
+"Did you! Well, wait till we get the review going, and see if I don't
+tempt you away from that dictatorial old boss of yours!"
+
+"Oh, I'll come to you all right," said Barry gaily. "But in the meantime
+I'd better hang on in the House of Rimmon, hadn't I? You see ..." He
+broke off, the colour mounting to his face.
+
+"Of course. You're thinking of Olive. Quite right, too. How is she,
+Barry? Well?"
+
+"A 1." Barry fell to on his supper with renewed zest. "Longing to see
+you, old chap. By the way"--he slid rather dexterously away from the
+subject--"you promised her a skin or something, didn't you? Have any
+luck?"
+
+"Luck! Rather! I bagged one tiger who was really magnificent--he'll make
+a grand hearthrug for you and Olive. He was a splendid brute and I was
+lucky to get him. Of course, I've had luck all the way through. By gad,
+Barry, there's nothing like big-game shooting to make one fit! You know
+what I was like when I set out--and look at me now!"
+
+Thus invited, Barry looked; and he was bound to admit that his friend
+was right.
+
+Eighteen months previous to this wet night of January, Owen Rose had
+been so severely injured in a motor-accident that his life had been
+despaired of; and although he had eventually recovered, he had been left
+so unlike himself that a return to the normal round was impossible.
+
+There was only one prescription, his doctors agreed, and that was the
+agreeable, if expensive, one of travel. Only by gaining complete change
+of scene, complete change, also, of life and routine, could he hope to
+recapture his old splendid vitality and abundant health; and since
+luckily Owen was by no means a poor man, the prescription was not so
+hard to carry out as might have been the case with another patient.
+
+True, this break in his life interfered with several cherished projects.
+In the first--and most important--place, his marriage must be delayed;
+and although Miss Vivian Rees was only twenty, and might be considered
+fully young to be a bride, the delay, to the ardent lover, was
+vexatious, at the least.
+
+Then the review, to which he had alluded in his conversation with Barry,
+had perforce to be shelved; and although there was plenty of time for
+the production of such a literary newcomer, he had felt, at the moment,
+as though called upon to abandon altogether a beloved ideal.
+
+But the fiat had gone forth; and indeed he had agreed entirely with the
+medical verdict which pronounced him unfit to shoulder fresh tasks until
+his old strength should be regained. Therefore, unwillingly, but none
+the less unflinchingly, he had made preparations to leave England for a
+year's leisurely travel in the East, starting, as it were, from Bombay
+and journeying onwards wherever the fancy took him.
+
+It happened that during his travels he fell in with a couple of old
+schoolfellows who were on the verge of a sporting expedition; and Owen,
+who by that time was tired of his loafing method of travel, jumped with
+alacrity at an invitation to join the party.
+
+They had glorious sport; and in the excitement and vigour of the chase
+Owen regained all his old bodily strength and added thereto a quite
+fresh store of health and spirits. When at length he turned his face
+homewards he knew himself to be in such condition as he had never before
+experienced; and as he sat opposite his host to-night, eating and
+drinking gaily in this quiet room, he presented to Barry a picture of
+such perfect health as is rarely met with in the streets of London.
+
+"Yes." Barry brought his leisurely survey to a close. "You do look
+uncommonly fit, I suppose you've had a gorgeous time."
+
+Thus invited, Owen launched forth into an account of some of his most
+thrilling adventures, and the time flew as he recounted the tale of the
+glorious nights and days he had lived through, or made his hearer laugh
+with his stories of the various attendants and their humours.
+
+The clock had chimed the hour of midnight before the friends left the
+table; and then, sitting by the rosy fire, with pipes alight, each one
+felt that the moment had come in which a deeper subject might well be
+introduced.
+
+Yet Barry, at least, would cheerfully have ignored that subject; for he
+foresaw, with friendship's intuition, that the thing he had to say would
+effectually mar and break the midnight peace; and as the moment drew
+near in which he must strike a fatal blow at his friend's serenity he
+fell into an embarrassed silence very unlike his recent cordiality.
+
+At last it came--the question he had dreaded.
+
+"I say, Barry, have you seen much of Vivian lately?" Although the
+subject affected the speaker so vitally, he was so calmly, confidently
+sure of the reply that his tone was quiet and unagitated. Even though
+Barry paused for a quite perceptible fraction of time before he replied,
+the other man was too certain of the answer to notice the pause.
+
+"I ... I have seen her--yes." He spoke without removing his pipe from
+between his teeth, which might account for the curious thickness of his
+tone.
+
+"And how is she? All right, I suppose? You see"--Owen laughed rather
+diffidently--"my return was to be a surprise to her. I wasn't coming for
+another couple of months, you know, and then all at once I couldn't bear
+it any longer. I simply _had_ to come."
+
+"But--haven't you corresponded all this time?"
+
+"Well, not regularly. You know Vivian hates writing letters as much as I
+do; and I couldn't give her any settled addresses while we were moving
+about, so we agreed that we would not expect much from each other in
+that way!"
+
+"I see. But--you _have_ heard from her?"
+
+"Oh, yes, now and then. Of course she had my banker's address and could
+cable to me from time to time. I got one cable from her in December--on
+my birthday, it was--and she said she was writing, but I never got the
+letter."
+
+"In December. I see." And so he did--saw a vision of half-unwilling
+treachery, of hesitating loyalty, of dying faith, which turned his heart
+sick within him.
+
+"I wrote to her for Christmas, of course, and sent her a card now and
+then." He seemed to be excusing his own quite allowable slackness in the
+matter. "You see, I really had no time for letter-writing, and I knew
+she would understand and forgive me."
+
+"You ... did you tell her you were coming home to-day?"
+
+"Yes. I wired to her a week ago.... I half expected she'd come down to
+meet me." He laughed shamefacedly. "But you know what her people are. I
+expect they'd think it frightfully unnecessary to do that. Of course,
+I'm going there first thing in the morning."
+
+"You ... you haven't been there yet, then?" Barry hated himself for his
+fatuity as he put the question.
+
+"No. Fact is, I was a perfect savage when I landed ... a beard half a
+yard long!" He laughed jovially. "Had to get trimmed up a bit ... but in
+any case she would probably have been out somewhere or other to-night."
+
+"Yes. I see."
+
+"But first thing in the morning, it's a taxi for mine, as the Americans
+say. And I shall catch her alone, after breakfast, before anyone's
+about."
+
+"Yea." Barry paused, cursing himself for his cowardice, and then plunged
+recklessly into the quicksand before him. "Owen, old man, have you heard
+anything about Miss Rees lately?"
+
+"Heard anything?" He laid down his pipe and stared at his questioner.
+"Why should I hear anything? What is there to hear?"
+
+Before replying Barry rose, and stood leaning against the mantelpiece;
+and as he looked down on his friend his heart was wrung within him at
+the cruelty of fate.
+
+"You ... you've not seen her name in the papers?" His throat was dry,
+but he went on bravely.
+
+"Papers? I've not looked at a newspaper for months. And anyway, what
+should I see about Vivian in any paper?"
+
+"Only ... I thought you might have done." Barry was finding his task
+almost incredibly hard, and his brow was pearled with fine drops of
+moisture as he stood before his friend.
+
+"What was there to see, Barry?" Owen's voice was quiet--dangerously
+quiet. "Is there anything wrong with Vivian? Is she--has she been ill?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then ... God! man, what are you trying to tell me?" His forced calm was
+breaking up. "Out with it--whatever it is. Is Vivian--is she _dead_?"
+
+"No--oh, no." He spoke hurriedly, thankful that he could at least answer
+that question in the negative.
+
+"Then ... what is it? Come, Barry"--Owen spoke through his teeth in a
+hoarse tone quite unlike his usual voice--"if Vivian is not dead, not
+ill ... what is this wonderful piece of news I might have read in the
+papers--and did not?"
+
+There was a moment's tense silence, broken only by the crackling of the
+gay little fire on the hearth.
+
+Then Barry said heavily:
+
+"Miss Rees was married to Lord Saxonby this morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+For a moment there was a silence fraught with a thousand possibilities.
+Then Owen sprang from his seat and crossing the intervening space, as it
+were in a bound, seized his friend savagely by the shoulders.
+
+"Say that again, Barry! Say it if you _dare_!"
+
+With a fury of which he was unconscious he shook the other man
+violently; and Barry broke away with an expression of annoyance.
+
+"Good God, Owen, what do you think you're doing? What do you mean by
+attacking me like this!"
+
+"I'm going to knock your damned head off for telling me a lie!" His tone
+was dangerous. "How dare you say that Vivian is married when you _know_
+she is engaged to me?"
+
+"Look here, Owen." Barry stood facing him, panting a little. "It's only
+because you're my pal that I don't retaliate in kind. Any other man who
+calls me a liar has to go through it, and that's a fact. But as it's
+you, and as I know I've done the business badly--well"--his voice grew
+suddenly wistful--"let's sit down and talk it over quietly, shall we?"
+
+Something in his tone made the other man turn cold; and when he replied
+his manner had lost its vehemence.
+
+"See here, Barry, I'm sorry I attacked you like that. The fact is,
+I ... I think I can't have understood rightly what you were trying to
+tell me. You said something just now about Miss Rees being married to
+Lord Saxonby. Well, what, exactly, did you mean?"
+
+The very quietness with which he spoke made it still more difficult for
+Barry to answer him.
+
+"I meant just what I said." He fidgeted nervously with a cigarette as he
+spoke. "Miss Rees was married--quietly--to Lord Saxonby this morning."
+
+"Lord Saxonby? You mean that chap who hung round her before I went
+away?" Owen's voice was studiously self-controlled, but his hand shook
+as he played with a silver pencil-case on the table before him.
+
+"Yes. That's the man."
+
+"I see." For a moment he bent his head over the table, and when he
+looked up Barry understood that he had accepted the truth at last. "So
+she's played me false, has she? Married another fellow without troubling
+to let me know. Well, there's no more to be said, I suppose. I must make
+up my mind to be the laughing-stock of my friends, to be pointed at by
+men and women, jeered at in the clubs, as the fellow who was
+jilted ... thrown over for another fellow!"
+
+He paused; then resumed in a louder tone.
+
+"It's an ugly word, Barry--jilted. And by Jove, it's an ugly thing. Odd
+how naturally women take to it, isn't it? They won't steal, as a
+rule--draw the line at murder, but they think nothing of making damned
+fools of men who are insane enough to believe in them!"
+
+He laughed bitterly; and his eyes looked grim.
+
+"It would have been quite easy to let me know, wouldn't it?" He flung
+the question at his friend. "A sixpenny wire--even a cable wouldn't have
+ruined her, would it? And it would have been much less brutal than to
+let me come home expecting to find a blushing bride waiting for me!"
+
+"I expect she ... she thought you'd see it in the papers," said Barry
+rather lamely. "Although it was kept pretty quiet here there were
+paragraphs about it, of course, and she may have supposed you would see
+them."
+
+"Hardly the thing to leave it to chance," said Owen drily. "After all,
+when one gets out of an invitation to dinner, one generally sends an
+excuse; but ..." he broke off, and his eyes blazed suddenly "... look
+here, Barry, you know, and I know, that this woman has played a low-down
+trick on me. I thought her--well, no matter what I thought her--but
+anyway I know her now for what she is. And I'll be infinitely obliged to
+you if you'll be good enough to drop the subject now and for evermore."
+
+"I say, old chap, I'm awfully sorry----"
+
+Barry's impulsive speech got no further, for the other raised his hand
+to cut it short.
+
+"All right, Barry, we'll take it all as said. Henceforth no such person
+as Miss Rees--I mean Lady Saxonby--exists for me; and if you'll remember
+that it will make things easier for us both."
+
+"Very well, Owen." Barry felt emboldened to light a cigarette; and then,
+with a tactlessness born of mental discomfort, he asked a blundering
+question. "What shall you do now, old man? Have another shot at big game
+for a bit, or what?"
+
+"Another shot--I say, Barry, why on earth should I go back the moment
+I've got home? Oh, I see!" He smiled cynically. "You mean town won't be
+very pleasant for a bit? Well, I daresay it won't, but thank God no one
+will dare to say much to me!" His jaw squared itself rather
+aggressively. "But I don't intend to quit. On the contrary, my firm
+intention is to remain here, do some good work, and, incidentally,
+marry."
+
+Barry swung round and faced him, openly surprised.
+
+"Marry? But--whom?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know ... at the moment; but someone. You look astonished,
+Barry! Why shouldn't I marry? Ah, I see! You think because one woman's
+turned me down no one else will care to risk her happiness with me!
+Well, of course my value is considerably depreciated, no doubt; but
+after all, men are in the minority, and I daresay I'll be able to find
+some girl to take pity on me!"
+
+"Don't talk like that, Owen!" Barry spoke hastily, and his blue eyes
+looked rather stern. "You don't want a girl to take you out of pity, do
+you? That's not much of a basis for a happy marriage, is it?"
+
+"No, Barry." He took the rebuke well. "I was talking like a fool. But
+honestly, I do mean to marry--as soon as possible. Oh, I daresay I'm
+taking it the wrong way, but it seems to me that there's only one thing
+for a man in my position to do, and that is to show that he's not
+heart-broken because one unscrupulous woman has treated him badly!"
+
+"That's all very well--but what about the other woman? Are you going to
+marry the first girl you meet, irrespective of love, or what _are_ you
+going to do? I can understand your feeling for Miss Rees has changed its
+nature--love and hate are akin, I know, but still----"
+
+"No, Barry, you're wrong." He spoke very gently. "I don't _hate_ Vivian.
+Why should I? She merely exercised her feminine prerogative and changed
+her mind. Besides, one only hates big things. Vivian isn't big. She's
+very small, or she'd not have done this thing. If she'd asked me to
+release her, I'd have done it, and never have uttered a reproach. It's
+the heartlessness, the unnecessary cruelty of this that hurts me so. I
+loved her, Barry, and she knew it. Loved her in the right way, in the
+way a man should love the woman he's going to marry; and my love meant
+so little to her that she chucked it away without even telling me she
+was tired of it."
+
+"But to marry, out of revenge, as it were, is small too."
+
+"Out of revenge? Come, Barry, what are you thinking of?" Owen rose and
+spoke with an eerie joviality. "There'll be no revenge about it! Mayn't
+I marry and settle down like another man? I'll guarantee that the first
+woman who wants me can have me; and if she plays the game she shan't
+regret it, for I'll play it too!"
+
+"But where will you look for her?" Barry could not understand this
+attitude of mind.
+
+"Look for her? Oh, I'll look for her all right--and she'll turn up,
+never fear!" He moved restlessly. "There's always some woman ready to
+enter a man's life when he throws the door ajar--and here I'm positively
+flinging it open, inviting the little dears to come in!"
+
+"But, I say, Owen"--Barry looked anxiously at his
+friend--"you ... you'll be careful, won't you? I mean, you won't let any
+twopenny-halfpenny little chorus-girl, or ... or girl out of a shop come
+in, will you? You see, if you let them all know...."
+
+"Chorus-girls are sometimes worth a good deal more than
+twopence-halfpenny," Owen reminded him quietly, "and I daresay a girl
+out of a shop would make a jolly decent wife. But I wasn't contemplating
+them when I spoke."
+
+"Of course not," assented Barry hastily. "I only meant----"
+
+"You only meant to give me good advice," said Owen, more kindly than he
+had yet spoken. "All right, old man, I understand. You must forgive me
+if I'm cross-grained to-night. You see I've had a shock----"
+
+He broke off abruptly.
+
+"There, I'm not going to whine about it. It's over, done with, and a new
+chapter's started." He yawned ostentatiously. "Barry, I shall call upon
+your good offices as best man yet--unless you hurry up and marry Miss
+Lynn first."
+
+"Oh, Olive and I are in no hurry!" He laughed a trifle awkwardly. "You
+see, she is so young--only just eighteen--and her people won't hear of
+it for a couple of years."
+
+"Well, that will soon pass." He turned towards the door. "I must be off
+now, Barry--it's late, and I'm pretty fagged. See you in the morning, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Of course. I say, Owen, sure you won't stay here to-night? I can give
+you a bed, you know."
+
+"Thanks awfully, old chap, but I'd rather get home. I've heaps of things
+to see to. Thanks all the same."
+
+Still talking, the friends crossed the hall, and Barry unlatched the
+door of the flat.
+
+"Well, so-long, Barry. Awfully glad to have seen you again." He gripped
+the younger man's hand, and Barry understood what the grip implied.
+
+"Good-night, Owen. See you to-morrow."
+
+Two minutes later Owen had disappeared round a bend in the staircase;
+and Barry went slowly back into his sitting-room, feeling curiously
+tired, as though he had been indulging in some violent physical
+exercise.
+
+"Poor old chap! What a beast that girl is!" He had never liked Miss
+Rees, and now felt, naturally, that his dislike was justified. "But I
+hope to goodness he doesn't go and do anything rash. He's got a pretty
+good head on him, though, and I daresay a lot of this talk is mere
+bravado."
+
+He turned off the light and went into his bedroom. On the dressing-table
+stood a silver frame holding a photograph; and Barry took up the frame
+and studied the portrait carefully.
+
+"Olive, you'd never play me a trick like that, would you! My God, I hope
+you don't! It would just about kill me to have to lose faith in you!"
+
+The deep eyes looked up at him candidly, the sweet mouth seemed to
+smile; and with a sudden blissful certainty that the original of the
+photograph was as true and straightforward as the picture proclaimed her
+to be, Barry put down the frame again, and began, whistling, to prepare
+for bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A month later Barry relinquished his post as secretary to the man he
+called "old Joliffe," and announced himself to be from henceforth at
+Owen's disposal.
+
+The review to which the latter had alluded was a long-standing ideal of
+Owen Rose's. From his earliest youth he had been attracted by the
+journalistic side of life, and seeing no means of editing a London daily
+at an early age, he had wisely determined to learn the whole business of
+newspaper journalism from the beginning. At the ago of eighteen he was
+sub-editor on a big provincial daily; but his brilliant and versatile
+intelligence soon wearied of the monotony of the life, and he came to
+London to demand the right of admittance into Fleet Street.
+
+At that time, luckily for himself, he was on terms of friendship with a
+well-known editor; and what his own talent might have found difficulty
+in obtaining was placed unexpectedly within his reach. Before he was
+twenty-five he was well-known in the newspaper world; and since, on his
+twenty-fifth birthday, he came into possession of the comfortable income
+left to him by his father many years before, he was able to turn his
+back definitely on any soul-destroying drudgery and devote his time and
+brains to better work. Beneath his journalistic ability there was a
+sound and delicate literary _flair_; and it had long been his dream to
+found a magazine which, while neither commonplace nor unduly "precious,"
+should hit a happy mean between the cheap magazines devoted to more or
+less poor fiction, and the somewhat pompous reviews which held up the
+light of learning and research in a rather severe and forbidding
+fashion.
+
+He would have a little fiction--of the highest order. A comparatively
+large portion of the review was to be devoted to poetry, both as
+regarded original verse and the critical appreciation of modern poetry
+as a whole. Articles on art, music, the drama, were all to find a home
+in his pages; and there was to be a judicious sprinkling of science to
+add a little ballast to the lighter freight.
+
+But what he intended to be the striking feature of the review was the
+tone which was to prevail throughout. It was to be warm, eager,
+enthusiastic, optimistic. He intended himself to write a series of
+articles dealing with the future in relation to the past. Each
+subject--music, literature, humanitarianism, mysticism, and a dozen
+others--would be treated in turn; and while in no wise belittling the
+magic inventiveness of an age which has given us an Edison, a Marconi,
+and a whole host of brilliant explorers, birdmen, and others equally
+daring and distinguished, he intended to remember always the enormous
+debt which we of this century owe to the glorious past.
+
+Possibly in Owen's very enthusiasm, in the eager, ardent spirit of his
+dreams, there was more of the spirit of the future than of the past--but
+he intended to hold the balance as evenly as possible.
+
+On one point he was firm. While hoping that his review would be in every
+way a serious contribution to the more valuable literature of the day,
+the literature which was worth something, he intended it to be strictly
+non-political. There would be no room within its covers for writers with
+axes to grind. No acrimonious discussions, thinly-veiled in pedantry,
+should mar the harmony of the pages; no party cries should echo from the
+editorial offices; and although he aimed, in some measure, at
+instructing and uplifting his readers, it was their betterment as human
+beings, rather than as citizens--so far as the two may be divorced--with
+which he intended to concern himself.
+
+He was fortunate in his collaborators. At his back he had an old friend
+of his fathers', a gifted, if somewhat inarticulate, man of letters, who
+had longed, in his early life, for the opportunity to do what Owen was
+doing; and was generous enough to feel that, though his own working days
+were over, he might well use a little of his wealth in helping another
+man to realize their mutual dream.
+
+Everything was to be on a strictly business-like footing. Owen, as
+editor, was to receive a moderate salary--moderate because he felt that
+in the circumstances the backing he received was worth more than any
+emolument. Also he was sufficiently well-off to waive the matter if he
+chose until the review was on firm financial ground. Barry, as his
+personal secretary and general second-in-command, was to receive a
+generous sum; and the rest of the men, all young, ardent, and fired with
+a whole-hearted belief in Owen as their chief, were to be remunerated
+according to their work and ability.
+
+A certain Miss Lucy Jenkins had been selected as typewriter and
+assistant at what seemed to her the princely sum of forty shillings a
+week; and by the beginning of February activity at headquarters, a
+pleasant, though not palatial suite of offices in Victoria Street,
+Westminster, was in full swing.
+
+The first number of the _Bridge_ was to make its appearance at Easter;
+and Owen was meditating one morning over the possible inclusion of a
+little set of verses which had reached him from a hitherto-unknown
+contributor, when Barry appeared in the doorway leading to his inner
+sanctum with a worried look in his frank blue eyes.
+
+"Hallo, Barry, anything wrong?" Owen put down the paper he held and
+looked at his young colleague with a smile.
+
+"Well, it's no end of a bore!" Barry frowned distastefully. "That stupid
+Jenkins woman has gone and landed herself in Holloway!"
+
+"Holloway?" Owen repeated the word in surprise.
+
+"Yes. I knew she was a Militant Suffragette, but I thought she would
+have more sense than to go mixing herself up in brawls with the police!"
+
+"And she hasn't?"
+
+"No. On Saturday afternoon"--this was Monday--"she went and marched in a
+procession of women out to smash windows or something of the sort, got
+into a row and kicked a bobby in the ribs. The end was she got locked up
+that night."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"Brought up before the magistrate this morning and sentenced to fourteen
+days without an option for violence," said Barry laconically. "I've just
+had a note from her mother, who's nearly distracted, begging me to keep
+her place open for her, but I don't see how we can do that."
+
+"Certainly not," said Owen decidedly. "I'll have no militant women on my
+staff, and the sooner they understand that the better. She wasn't any
+great treasure, either. She was too fond of revising the stuff she had
+to type; and her ideas and mine clashed considerably when it came to
+punctuation."
+
+"I suppose I must advertise for someone to take her place, then," said
+Barry, with a sigh.
+
+"Yes. Get a younger girl this time, if you can. Miss Jenkins had reached
+the certain--or uncertain--age when women take to militant suffragism.
+She didn't like being corrected when she made mistakes, and used to
+argue with me till you'd have thought it was she who ran the office, and
+not I."
+
+"All right. I'll do my best."
+
+"Not too young, though," said Owen, half-maliciously, "or she'll be
+thinking about her best boy all day instead of working. Of course that's
+a bit better than militancy, less upsetting; but women are so
+incomprehensible when they're in what they are pleased to call love that
+it's rather difficult to know what they're driving at."
+
+"Oh, all right!" Owen's flippancy disturbed Barry, and he spoke shortly,
+whereupon Owen smiled meaningly, and Barry went out of the room rather
+hurriedly.
+
+Once safe in his own sanctum he lamented the unkind Fate which had given
+Owen's heart as a plaything into the hands of an unscrupulous woman such
+as Miss Rees had proved herself to be. Although Owen rarely mentioned
+the subject, Barry knew well enough that he had not relinquished the
+idea of a speedy marriage. Once or twice Owen had asked him his opinion
+of this or that woman with whom they were both acquainted; but so far he
+had shown no signs of forming any new engagement, though Barry lived in
+a state of apprehension lest his friend should suddenly announce a more
+or less undesirable tie.
+
+For Owen, perhaps naturally, shunned the women of his own set. They all
+knew too much, knew the history of his disastrous engagement too
+well--were, in many cases, friends of the woman who had jilted him; and
+were therefore no acquaintances for a man in his mood.
+
+But there were other women, with whom, before his departure for the
+East, he had been on terms of casual acquaintance; the daughters of City
+friends, girls who lived in Kensington or Hampstead, girls with brothers
+who had knocked up against the young men in athletic or journalistic
+circles; an actress or two; good-hearted, ordinary young women for the
+most part, commonplace in spite of suburban leanings towards "culture,"
+and in many cases entirely out of sympathy with the aims and ideals of
+both Owen and his friend.
+
+As a matter of fact Owen and Barry were too busy during these strenuous
+days to have time for social delights; but now and then they met one or
+other of these various girls, visited one of the actresses on a "first
+night," dined, reluctantly, in Earl's Court or Belsize Road, and on the
+following morning Owen would ask Barry, half-teasingly, whether Rose or
+Sybil or Gwendoline struck him as the most suitable bride for an already
+jilted bachelor.
+
+Barry never took up the subject, showed plainly by his manner that he
+did not like the jest; but the occasional queries went to show that the
+idea of marriage was still in his friend's thoughts; and Barry was now
+and again seriously uneasy lest some designing woman--that was the way
+he put it--should make the vague possibility into an accomplished fact.
+
+And then, just when the idea seemed to be fading, lost in the pressure
+of work, the interest of bringing forth the first realization of a
+lifelong dream, the woman herself--but she was not designing--came.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Miss Antonia Gibbs came from the typewriting office with excellent
+testimonials. Though but eighteen years of age, she was vouched for as a
+steady, conscientious worker, well-educated and of exceptional
+intelligence. Quick, accurate, and possessed of a capital memory, she
+would seem to be the ideal typist for an office such as that presided
+over by Owen Rose; and after perusing the certificates and other
+documents forming what one might call her _dossier_, Owen had really no
+choice but to engage the prodigy.
+
+When she received the letter announcing the fact Miss Gibbs danced with
+delight.
+
+"Two pounds a week! Think of it!" Thus she besought her cousin Fanny, a
+rather full-blown young woman employed in a "drapery-house" at Brixton.
+"And easy hours--with an hour off for lunch! Isn't it lovely!"
+
+"You'll have the office 'commish' to pay," her cousin reminded her, "and
+I know all about those short hours! Sound well, but they generally want
+overtime out of you--without paying for it either!"
+
+"Do they?" Antonia's joy was momentarily checked. Then she recovered her
+spirits. "Anyway, even then it's a good post, and I can easily pay the
+commission out of two pounds!"
+
+"Yes, of course." Fanny, whose natural optimism was somewhat impaired by
+her experience in drapers' shops, cheered up also. "It's a grand
+opportunity for you, Toni, and mind you make the most of it."
+
+"Rather," returned Toni gaily. "I'm to start to-morrow, so this is my
+last free night. Aren't you glad some people are coming in to tea?"
+
+"Yes." Fanny, recalled to the immediate present, began her preparations
+for the tea-party. "Josh'll be pleased to hear of your luck, Toni; he's
+real fond of you, you know."
+
+"Is he?" Toni, pulling off her flannel blouse, spoke a trifle absently.
+
+"Yes. If I weren't fond of you myself I declare I'd be jealous! Don't
+know how it is, all the boys seem to take to you straight away, Toni,
+and you don't care a pin for any of 'em!"
+
+"Perhaps that's why," said Toni cheerfully, voicing a truth without in
+the least realizing it. "After all, who is there to care for? Jack
+Brown, or young Graves, or that funny little Walter Britton out of Lea
+and Harper's?" She plunged her glowing face into a basin of cold water
+as she spoke.
+
+"No. I s'pose they're not quite your sort." Fanny stared thoughtfully at
+her cousin. "I don't know how it is, Toni--you are my cousin, your
+father was Dad's own brother--and yet you're as different from us as--as
+chalk from cheese."
+
+She in her turn had uttered a profound truth. Between Toni and the rest
+of the commonplace lower-middle-class household was a great gulf fixed,
+a gulf which was the more inexplicable because it was clearly visible to
+the parties on either side of the chasm.
+
+Red-faced, brawny Fred Gibbs, the butcher, his equally red-faced, though
+slightly more refined wife, and their several sons and daughters,
+belonging, most of them, to the category of "fine" boys and girls, were
+a good-humoured, kindly people enough; yet between them and the pretty,
+dark-eyed Antonia there was not the slightest vestige of resemblance,
+either in looks, manners, or disposition.
+
+Not that Toni gave herself airs. On the contrary, she was the most
+cheerful and light-hearted little soul in the world. She flung herself
+bodily into all the family's interests and pursuits, helped her uncle
+with his books and her aunt with her housework, was Fanny's sworn
+confidante and ally in all matters of the heart. The younger children
+adored her for her good looks, her vivacity, her high spirits; and even
+the flashes of rage which now and then marred her usually sunny temper
+were fascinating in their very fire.
+
+Yet--with it all she was not, never would be, one of them. Fanny was
+inclined to put it down to her foreign blood--for Toni's mother had been
+Italian. The elder Gibbs fancied the girl's superior education was
+responsible--for Toni had been to a real "Seminary for Young Ladies," in
+contradistinction to the Council School attended by her cousins; while
+as for Toni herself, though she was as fully conscious as the rest that
+she was "different, somehow," she could never say, with any certainty,
+in what the difference lay.
+
+Perhaps a psychologist would have found Antonia's position an
+interesting one. Briefly, her history was this.
+
+The Gibbs were North-Country people, a good old yeoman family who had
+been in service with an older and more aristocratic people in the county
+of Yorkshire. The family, however, had begun, a few generations back, to
+die out. Instead of the usual lusty sons, only daughters had been born
+to most of the Gibbs, and they in their turn married and died, in the
+nature of things relinquishing their own name, until there were few
+left.
+
+So the race dwindled, until old Matthew Gibbs and his two sons Fred and
+Roger were the last representatives of the old stock; and to the
+father's bitter disappointment neither boy would consent to settle down
+on the farm and carry out the tradition of the family. Fred, always a
+pushing, commercially-minded lad, found farming too slow and
+unprofitable to satisfy him, and he took service in a butcher's shop at
+York, as a first step towards his goal, London, in which city he
+eventually made his home, married a Cockney girl, and settled down for
+the rest of his prosperous life.
+
+The second son, Roger, early showed a desire to travel; and though his
+father would have kept him at home, he realized that after all youth
+will be served, and let the boy go out into the world as soon as he had
+passed his eighteenth birthday.
+
+Being possessed of unlimited confidence, exceptional strength and a
+light-hearted determination to make something of life, Roger was
+successful from the start. As is often her way with those from whom she
+means, later, to exact a heavy toll, Fate smiled upon the good-looking
+young man who faced her so gaily. He got one post after another:
+secretary, mechanic, groom--for he was equally clever with hands and
+head. In this or that capacity he travelled quite extensively for some
+years, and finally, having a natural bent for languages, came to Rome in
+the position of courier to a rich American family. It happened that the
+daughter of the house had an Italian maid, a beautiful, refined girl
+from Southern Italy; and the young people quickly fell in love. In spite
+of his apparent irresponsibility Roger had saved a little money, and
+within six months he had married his Italian girl and carried her off to
+live in a village on the side of a mountain not far from Naples, where
+for four blissful years they lived in perfect contentment.
+
+Old Matthew Gibbs, having in his later years sustained heavy
+agricultural losses, was dead, and there was nothing to call Roger back
+to England. He much preferred, indeed, to remain in the South, and as
+their wants were simple he and his wife were able to live quite
+comfortably on Roger's own little bit of money and the few _lire_ he
+made through the kindly offices of the village priest, who liked the gay
+young Englishman and put many odd jobs--translation, the acting as
+interpreter and guide to tourists, and other things of the sort--in his
+way.
+
+When Toni came to complete the trio, their happiness was complete; and
+for three years after her birth the little house on the hill-side was
+the home of joy and love and all the pleasant domestic virtues and
+graces.
+
+When the child was three years old, the elder Antonia, herself only a
+girl, died, after twenty-four hours' fever; and in one black hour Roger
+paid for all the sunny days with which Fortune had so lavishly endowed
+him.
+
+When at length he summoned up resolution to face the future he
+determined, with a passionate desire to carry out his young wife's
+unspoken entreaty, to devote himself to his child; and with this
+intention he stayed on bravely in the little home from which the
+sunshine had departed.
+
+For nearly six years they lived together in the tiny village near
+Naples; and gradually the pall began to lift from the young man's
+spirit, and the sunshine and the flowers, the blue sky and sea, and the
+snow-capped mountains made their appeal once again to the warm, ardent
+soul which sorrow had darkened.
+
+During these six years father and daughter had lived frugally, almost as
+the peasants lived; yet with a daintiness, an order, which were unknown
+to the peasants. The little Antonia--Toni, as they called her--grew
+straight and strong as she played on the mountain slopes, or ate the
+simple meals of grapes and bread and goat's flesh provided for her by
+the old housekeeper, Fiammetta, who ruled both the pretty child and the
+handsome young father with a rule of iron which yet made life a very
+well-ordered and gracious existence.
+
+But when Toni had almost reached her ninth birthday the change came. The
+good old priest died; and with the death of his sole friend Roger Gibbs
+found life in the village impossible.
+
+Truth to tell, it was a marvel he had borne it so long. Only a numbing
+blow such as he had received could have stunned his faculties into
+acquiescence with this sleepy, uneventful existence; and now, suddenly,
+his soul awoke from its peaceful slumber and demanded life, and yet more
+life.
+
+Italy became all at once unendurable. The nomad spirit was aroused, and
+nothing would satisfy the man but a fresh start in life's pilgrimage.
+
+His little daughter, too, must be educated; and although he loved the
+child with all the concentrated passion of a man who has lost the woman
+of whom the child is his only memento, he yet felt that the time had
+come when he must shake himself free from the trammels of domesticity
+and live once again the life of a man in some free, wild,
+adventure-filled land.
+
+A month after Father Pietro's death Roger and his little daughter
+Antonia were in England. The father's first object was to seek out his
+brother Fred and see if he and his wife would take charge of the child
+for a short time; and this he found both Fred and his comely spouse very
+willing to do. There were other children in the home who were only too
+ready to welcome the pretty little Toni; and after a stay of some weeks
+in the noisy Brixton house Roger Gibbs had bidden his little daughter
+farewell, and had gone forth once more, this time as assistant purser on
+a liner, a post to which one of his former employers had assisted him
+opportunely. It was a chance to see more of the world, and the man
+embraced it gladly enough, though it would certainly prove irksome in
+the end.
+
+After that it was long before Toni saw her father again. At regular
+intervals he sent money for her maintenance; and she grew up with her
+cousins, attending the big Council School in the next street with them,
+and sharing in all the ups and downs of the Gibbs family.
+
+When she was thirteen Roger returned from an expedition to Peru, in the
+course of which he had amassed a respectable sum of money, and father
+and daughter met again, a meeting fraught, on Roger's side, with
+something like disappointment.
+
+Four years of London life had transformed the olive-skinned, dreamy-eyed
+child into a pale, long-legged girl who, although she had not lost her
+soft Southern voice, used the colloquialisms of street and playground
+with unpleasing fluency. True, she wore her shabby clothes with an air
+of grace, but contact with other children had developed her into a
+sharp, somewhat pert _gamine_, who was reputed quick at her lessons, but
+equally, and less meritoriously, quick with her tongue.
+
+Within her father's mind disillusionment reigned supreme. Naturally, it
+was not the fault of the child that she had taken on so quickly the
+colour of her environment; nor, fortunately, was it too late to overlay
+those traits with other and more pleasing characteristics. But thinking
+of the soft-eyed, gentle, loving Italian girl he had married, Roger
+resolved that her child should have another chance before it was too
+late; and with that object in mind he scoured the neighbourhood until he
+found what suited him, a quiet, old-fashioned ladies' school, conducted
+by two prim but kindly women who appeared to him likely to have the
+influence he sought.
+
+The Misses Holland were interested in his story, pleased with the idea
+of softening and refining the child, half-Italian, half-Londoner, and
+made things easy for the bronzed and handsome father; with the result
+that from that time Toni's connection with the Council School ceased,
+and she became a boarder, on surprisingly low terms, at the aforesaid
+School for Young Ladies; where she remained until she was close on
+seventeen.
+
+These years were the turning point of Antonia's life. Here, in company
+with twenty other girls, somewhat above her in station, she learnt,
+among other things, the virtues of gentleness, quietness in voice and
+movement, unselfishness, and many kindred things; and those years of
+happy, monotonous toil, broken only by pleasant, friendly treats, or
+gentle, old-fashioned punishments, were full of use and value to the
+growing girl.
+
+On her seventeenth birthday she was to leave school for good; and it had
+been settled that her father was then to return to England and make a
+home for her--a hope which the girl had hugged to her heart through all
+these quiet years.
+
+But on the very day which should have seen her emancipation something
+happened.
+
+The liner on which Roger was hastening back to England, after a year in
+the East, went down in a mighty gale off Gibraltar; and Roger Gibbs was
+among the drowned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of course all hope of that little home was at an end now. No more
+remittances could be looked for, the store of money left for her
+education was all spent; and though it seemed incredible that Roger
+should have made no provision for his daughter's future, such indeed
+proved to be the fact.
+
+Doubtless he had intended to settle down, to obtain some post in
+England; but as things turned out there was nothing left for Antonia.
+Let it be said at once that her relations behaved well. The Misses
+Holland, too, would have taken her to help in the school but for the
+unexpected advent of a needy niece of their own; but from the first
+Antonia set her face against teaching.
+
+She did not like it, would rather go in for business, she said; and the
+upshot of it all was that after some time she managed to obtain a post
+in a large typewriting office in order to learn the work, after which
+she was required to give her services for a period of twelve months for
+a nominal salary in return for the teaching and business training
+bestowed upon her.
+
+It was not a very good bargain; but she closed with it in lieu of a
+better opening; and when, in a few weeks from the date of her aunt's
+tea-party, she would be free to earn her living in her own way, she
+would be able to defray the expense to which that same aunt had been put
+during her time of apprenticeship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So rapid is thought that between the beginning and ending of the task of
+changing her outdoor shoes and stockings for slightly better ones,
+Antonia's quick mind had flashed back over those years which had, so she
+owned to herself, made all the difference; but not for worlds would she
+have let her cousin know that she recognized any such difference.
+
+"Different! Not a bit of it!" She looked up and spoke with more warmth
+than usual. "And as for the boys liking me--well, you're engaged, and
+I'm not!"
+
+"Well, yes, there is that to be said!" Fanny regarded with affection the
+cheap gold ring, set with imitation rubies, which adorned her plump
+hand. "But you know, Toni, you could got Mr. Dowson any minute if you
+tried!"
+
+"Mr. Dowson!" Toni, occupied in brushing out her black hair, tossed her
+head with a little foreign gesture peculiar to her. "Why, Fan, how could
+I marry Mr. Dowson! He's very nice, and good-hearted, but his chest is
+narrow, and he's going bald!"
+
+"Well, that's not his fault," returned Fanny practically, "and it's not
+with age either, because he's quite young. I expect it's with studying
+so hard."
+
+"I daresay--but still ... of course he's clever," owned Toni rather
+grudgingly, "he must be, to be a dentist, but--no, Fan, I'm not going to
+marry Mr. Dowson, so there!"
+
+"Oh, all right." Fanny was a philosopher. "You know your own business
+best. Will you do me up, dear, and tell me how you like my frock? I
+think myself it's rather striking."
+
+Thus besought, Toni stuck the last pin-casually in her hair and came to
+give her assistance in the matter of "doing up."
+
+Miss Frances Gibbs' dress was composed of a bright rose-pink voile,
+bought cheaply at a sale, ornamented with a sash of ribbon of an equally
+vivid hue of violet; and striking it certainly was, in the sense that
+one felt inclined to collapse at sight of it. Miss Gibbs' figure being
+of the order which dressmakers call "full," the effect was distinctly
+startling; and as Fanny had carefully arranged her abundant hair in as
+many rolls as she could possibly manage, it is to be inferred that she
+presented a more overpowering effect than ever.
+
+Although, possibly owing to her Italian blood, Toni herself had a
+weakness for bright colours, on other people, this daring juxtaposition
+of pink and violet was a trifle bizarre even for her taste; and she
+looked critically at Fanny as the latter paraded under the gas jet in
+order to show off the "creation" to its best advantage.
+
+"Well?" Fanny's tone was anxious; and Antonia flung scruple to the
+winds.
+
+"It's lovely, Fan, and you look scrumptious in it!" She hastily produced
+from a paper bag a bunch of violets she had intended for her own
+adornment. "Here, let me pin these in for you, they will finish you off
+beautifully."
+
+"But they're yours, Toni!"
+
+"Oh, never mind me!" Toni laughed recklessly. "I've not got a Josh
+waiting for me downstairs--and anyway, I don't much care to wear
+flowers, they die so quickly, poor dears."
+
+Her own frock, an oft-washed white muslin, was donned in a second. A
+bright green ribbon round her waist, a pair of greenstone earrings put
+in beneath the clustering black hair, giving her a quaintly picturesque
+look, and Antonia was ready for the evening's jollity.
+
+As the cousins ran downstairs together, an appetising smell of roasting
+chickens came to their nostrils, and Toni sniffed appreciatively.
+
+"I wish Uncle Fred had a birthday every week! Isn't it fun having people
+in and playing games afterwards!"
+
+"Rather, but I wish we'd been going to the theatre!"
+
+"Well, so do I," conceded Toni, "but anyhow this is better than one of
+our usual dull evenings!"
+
+Half an hour later the feast was in full progress. The table in the
+little "front room" literally groaned with good things; indeed, so
+liberally was it provided that half-way through the meal the butcher
+insisted on removing the vase of chrysanthemums which stood proudly in
+the middle on a green paper mat, alleging as he did so that "them
+flowers took up a sight too much room"--an axiom to which he stuck in
+spite of his daughter's remonstrances.
+
+Besides the family there were three guests. Mr. Joshua Lee who was
+engaged to Fanny, naturally had the place of honour beside her; and from
+that vantage ground he played the part of prospective son-in-law to
+perfection, removing the plates, running about in search of a mislaid
+salt-cellar, and generally acquitting himself, so Fanny thought proudly,
+like a perfect gentleman.
+
+The other two guests were less busy. One of them, Mr. Britton, sat
+beside his hostess and carried on an animated conversation with her as
+to the nature and effect of the various patent medicines they had
+mutually sampled; while the remaining guest, Mr. Dowson, sat next to
+Antonia, and endeavoured, without much success, to attract her attention
+to himself.
+
+Halfway through one of his most intimate speeches Toni interrupted him
+ruthlessly.
+
+"Aunt Jean, where's Lu?"
+
+"Got smacked and sent to bed for stealing jam," her youngest cousin
+informed her unctuously. "My! She did howl! I guess Ma thumped her
+pretty well!"
+
+"I did whip her rather hard," confessed Mrs. Gibbs half-apologetically.
+"I was real vexed with her when I found her with her fingers in the jar!
+But there, she's been wanting a smacking long enough, and I expect it'll
+do her good," she finished up cheerfully.
+
+"Poor Lu! And she'd been so looking forward to to-night!" Toni's soft
+heart was wrung for the culprit. "Did she have any tea, Auntie?"
+
+"Not she. I sent her straight off to bed." Mrs. Gibbs' tone was uneasy
+now. "And she didn't eat no dinner to-day, she was that excited!"
+
+"Oh, poor Lu! Can't I take her up something, Aunt Jean?"
+
+Mrs. Gibbs appeared to consider the question, though everyone at the
+table knew very well that her mother-heart had relented towards her
+darling long ago.
+
+"Well, I don't mind if you do take her just a bite," she said presently;
+and amid much laughter and sympathetic joking a tray was fitted out with
+various delicacies and entrusted to the willing hands of Antonia.
+
+Up she went, finding Lu's room in darkness, Lu herself lying sullenly
+awake, refusing to be comforted.
+
+Her plump little person had strongly resented the force of her mother's
+stern hand; but her vanity was more severely hurt by the fact that the
+visitors downstairs would know both the cause and the method of her
+punishment. Therefore she turned away and pretended to be asleep; but
+Toni's gentle hand pulling down the clothes, Toni's soft voice murmuring
+of forgiveness and compensation were too much for the child.
+
+She sat up, disclosing the tear-stains on her round cheeks in the light
+of the candle Toni carried, and allowed herself to be comforted with
+alternate bites of chicken and sips of lemonade.
+
+"That's better!" Toni gave her a plate of trifle, and brushed back the
+tangled curls from the hot little forehead. "Now eat that up and then I
+must run away. They're waiting for me, you know, so when you've finished
+you must give me a kiss and go straight to sleep."
+
+"Yes, Toni." Lu lay obediently down, soothed by the girl's kind tone.
+"I'll go to sleep all right if ... if Ma'll come up and say good-night!"
+
+"Of course she will!" Toni smiled at the child's involuntary clinging to
+the mother who had punished her. "I'll tell her you're waiting--and now
+I must fly! Good-night, Ducky, sleep well!"
+
+She kissed the child, her eyes very soft as she bent over the bed; and
+then, picking up the tray, she ran swiftly downstairs again and
+re-entered the room where tea was rapidly drawing to an end.
+
+"How kind-hearted you are, Miss Toni," said Mr. Dowson admiringly as she
+slipped into her seat beside him. "Lots of people would have said the
+kiddy deserved to be whipped and sent to bed."
+
+"I daresay she did, but that didn't make it any better--for her,"
+laughed Toni, with a vivid remembrance of her aunt's corrective powers.
+"I know what Auntie's whippings are like, you see, and they're no joke!"
+
+"You don't mean to say Mrs. Gibbs ever dared to ... to punish you, Miss
+Antonia?" His pale-blue eyes were aghast at the thought of such
+sacrilege.
+
+"Oh, rather!" Toni laughed joyously at his face of horror. "She's
+whipped me heaps, of times.... I expect I deserved it, too, for I can
+assure you I was never a pattern child!"
+
+"I ... I would like to see anyone venture to lay a hand on you," said
+Mr. Dowson earnestly--too earnestly for Toni's liking. "Miss Antonia, if
+you ... if you would only give me the right ..."
+
+Bang! An hilariously-disposed little Gibbs had exploded a cracker in the
+young man's ear; and Mr. Dowson, blushing to the very edge of his
+extremely high collar, subsided rather wrathfully.
+
+Much to Antonia's relief the party rose from the table a moment later;
+and with a stern determination in her mind not to allow Mr. Dowson
+another opportunity to make the avowal which she knew very well trembled
+on his lips, Toni bustled gaily about, helping to clear the table and
+make things ready for the evening's festivity.
+
+Mr. Dowson's pale eyes followed her about rather wistfully. To him the
+white-clad, black-crowned little figure represented a dream--the
+fulfilment, rather, of an ideal which he had never dared to hope would
+materialize in his own hard-working, rather grey and sordid life.
+
+Although, thanks to a kindly patron, Leonard Dowson had been able to
+carry out his desire and qualify as a dentist, he was under no delusion
+as to his social position. He came of humble, illiterate folk, and he
+knew well enough that in a fashionable, high-class practice he would be
+altogether out of place.
+
+He set up his surgery, therefore, in the populous neighbourhood of
+Brixton; and now, after five years' strenuous toil, he was beginning to
+pay his way, beginning also to dream of a wife to bear him company in
+the dingy, narrow house in which he dwelt.
+
+That Antonia Gibbs would ever consent to be his wife he almost feared to
+believe. He wooed her persistently, quietly, bringing her books--which
+she seldom opened--an occasional bunch of flowers, or, more rarely
+still, a box of sweets of some variety which his professional soul
+warranted harmless, for Mr. Dowson was conscientiousness itself, and
+nothing would have persuaded him to place his lady-love's little white
+teeth in jeopardy, even though by such means she might be brought into
+contact with him.
+
+For her sake he scraped and saved, denying himself the least luxury, so
+that if she came to him he could at least offer her a decent home; and
+every act of petty self-sacrifice was sweet to him because it was
+endured for her.
+
+Yet Toni never gave him a second thought. To her, in her vivid youth,
+Mr. Dowson, with his thirty-five years, his prematurely bald head, his
+narrow chest, was a being of another race than her own. She knew--the
+minx--that the man was deeply and quietly in love with her, but with the
+unconscious cruelty of youth she ignored his suffering, and possibly
+despised him ever so little that he continued to sigh for something
+which he ought to have known was, for him, unattainable.
+
+Yet to-night, her spirits raised by her unexpected good-fortune, Toni
+showed herself more than usually bewitching; and although she managed to
+stave off the declaration which still trembled on the young man's lips,
+she played games with him in the most friendly fashion, and bade him
+good-night at last with so sweet a smile that he almost fell upon his
+knees then and there and kissed the slim little feet in their cheap
+patent shoes!
+
+He did not do it, fortunately. He retained just sufficient common sense
+to know that the proceeding would have annoyed his divinity; and instead
+he merely squeezed her hand and murmured a few inarticulate words which
+meant a good deal more than they contrived to convey.
+
+Then, arriving at home, he went to bed--and dreamed of Toni.
+
+But Toni's dreams--the rainbow dreams of happy youth--were of a very
+different quality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Precisely at nine o'clock on the following morning Antonia presented
+herself at the office of the new review; and was forthwith conducted to
+the editor's room.
+
+Here Owen and Barry were waiting for her; and at the sight of the trim
+little figure in the doorway the faces of both men brightened.
+
+In truth Toni was pleasant to look upon. She had taken off her hat and
+coat in the little ante-room, and as she stood there in her black frock,
+with its demure little white turn-down collar, she looked very young,
+very shy, and if the truth must be told, very pretty. Whereupon Barry,
+who loved all pretty girls in a harmless, kindly fashion, rejoiced
+exceedingly; while even Owen, to whom things feminine were at present
+anathema, owned to himself that she was certainly more attractive to
+have about the place than her sour-faced predecessor.
+
+It was Barry who put her at her ease, of course. Not being troubled with
+shyness he greeted her in friendly fashion, bade her come in, and
+pointed out to her the chair, behind the typewriter, which she was
+expected to fill.
+
+Yes, she said, in answer to questioning, she was used to a Remington.
+No, she had never been connected with journalism before. Yes, she was
+well up in ordinary office work, and--in answer to Owen, this--she knew
+pretty well the rules of composition, grammar, etc.
+
+"That's good." Owen spoke formally, and Toni decided instantly that she
+liked Mr. Raymond the better of the two. "Well, I have here an article I
+want you to type at once, and then--can you read proof?"
+
+Blushing, she owned her inability to do so. Privately, she was not at
+all sure what he meant, but dread of Miss Hardy's wrath should she be
+returned to the office marked "Incompetent" forced her to add quickly:--
+
+"But I'm sure I could learn if--if you wouldn't mind showing me how to
+do it."
+
+"I'm sure you could." Barry spoke kindly and she turned to him with a
+feeling of relief. "When you have typed that article for Mr. Rose I'll
+show you how, and then you'll manage all right."
+
+"Teach her now," advised Rose, looking up from the manuscript he was
+scanning. "This stuff wants a bit of revising, and you might as well do
+something for your living, Barry, you lazy wretch."
+
+Barry smilingly disclaimed any right to the title.
+
+"I'm ready to work as hard as anyone," he said gaily.
+
+"But as I'm only considered fit to do the theatrical criticisms and play
+office-boy to you, Owen, naturally I find time to make holiday now and
+then. Well, Miss ... er ..."
+
+"Gibbs." She supplied him with the name as he hesitated.
+
+"Gibbs? You won't mind being known as 'Our Miss Gibbs,' will you?" His
+tone was free of all offence, and Toni smiled in response. "Now, here's
+a chair for me, and if only our chief will hold his peace for half an
+hour, I'll soon put you wise, as the Yankees say."
+
+He sat down beside her, and pulling a couple of galley proof-sheets
+towards him, began to initiate her into the mysteries of "reading." For
+all his laughing manner he was an excellent teacher; and after twenty
+minutes of his clear and lucid exposition the girl felt she was
+beginning to grasp her lesson thoroughly. She proved, too, wonderfully
+quick at detecting mistakes, and Barry, who had petitioned the heads of
+the office they had selected not to send him any Council School product,
+was pleased to find that her spelling was admirable, her grammar
+passable, and her memory retentive.
+
+As to the meaning which the article they were correcting conveyed to
+her, Barry was a little doubtful.
+
+It was a short summary, by a famous Catholic writer, of some of the
+lesser-understood aspects of mysticism; and Barry suspected that a good
+deal of it was Greek to her, though she did her best to answer him
+intelligently when he questioned her, rather artfully, on the correct
+reading of a somewhat involved sentence.
+
+As a matter of fact, Toni was wondering inwardly what on earth it was
+all about. Her education, though sound so far as it went, had been
+thoroughly old-fashioned; and at this period of her development it is to
+be feared there were whole tracts of mind and brain left vacant--for
+Toni belonged, by adoption at least, to a class who read only for
+amusement and occupation, and are not in the least anxious to try their
+mental teeth on any abstract theories or philosophies of life. She was
+at present all for the concrete. Things seen and known were of
+importance, things unseen were alike uninteresting and incredible. The
+abstract virtues were all very well, but life was much too vivid and
+important to allow itself to be ousted by dreams and speculations.
+
+Something of this Barry, who had an almost femininely swift intuition,
+guessed as he sat beside Toni on this first morning; but Toni was much
+too intent on her work to wonder what he thought of her; and by the time
+she had done a little typing, taken down a few letters, and read a short
+proof all by herself, it was one o'clock, and she was dismissed in
+search of lunch.
+
+When she returned, nearly an hour later, she found Owen alone, studying
+a dummy copy of the review; and seeing she was interested, Owen handed
+it over for her to see.
+
+"The _Bridge_." She quoted the title a little dubiously. "Is that what
+you call it? But--what does it mean?"
+
+Taking it back into his own hands, Owen pointed with a pencil to the
+design on the cover.
+
+"Here is the Bridge, you see, and this stream of people passing over it
+symbolize the present generation. This side of the bridge represents the
+past, from which the present comes; this, over the bridge, is the
+future, towards which the pilgrims are hastening. The idea is to bridge
+the gulf between past and future, between the old worlds and the new;
+and with that in mind we try, while never neglecting the storehouse of
+the past, to point to the future, with all its wonderful, and as yet
+unwon, rewards and discoveries."
+
+She murmured a word or two, and he went on with a note of enthusiasm in
+his voice.
+
+"Personally, I look to the future with confidence. Some people say
+the golden age of poetry, of music and letters generally, is past;
+but I don't agree. I think that there will be a fresh Renaissance
+presently, that there will be found fresh hands to pass on the sacred
+torch ... there's a flood of brilliant youth let loose in the world just
+now; and every bit of help the _Bridge_ can give is at the service of
+that marvellous band."
+
+He broke off suddenly, the light of the visionary gleaming in his eyes;
+but seeing, with a slight pang of disappointment, that his outburst was
+unintelligible to his hearer, he threw down the paper and laughed.
+
+"There, Miss Gibbs, I have finished! Don't start me on the subject
+unless you're ready to be bored. Talk to Barry about it--he is able to
+look upon the _Bridge_ quite sanely, as a means of providing bread and
+butter; but I'm afraid I'm a bit of a fanatic."
+
+Toni, uncertain of her ground, but desperately anxious to appear
+intelligent, murmured something shyly, and Rose pulled out his watch
+with a smile.
+
+"After two already! Well, Miss Gibbs, I'm off for lunch. You might just
+sort these papers out a bit, will you? We seem to have let things get
+into rather a muddle."
+
+"I'll do it at once. There would be plenty of room for everything if
+some of these papers wore tidied up."
+
+"Yes, I suppose you're right." Owen, who loved order, but was too
+impatient to preserve it, spoke dubiously. "Of course some of those
+papers are done with, but you wouldn't know which to keep, would you?"
+
+"Perhaps Mr. Raymond would help me?"
+
+Owen's face cleared.
+
+"Of course--do the idle young beggar good. All right, Miss Gibbs, he
+shall give you a hand this afternoon when he gets back. He's an awfully
+good sort, you know, though I pretend to rag him. He's as clever as you
+please, and with it all as obliging and unspoilt as possible. Well, I'd
+better go. You can get along all right, can you?"
+
+Receiving her reply, he lit a cigarette and went out, assuring himself
+that so far she promised well.
+
+"Pretty little thing, and anxious to please us. Shallow, I expect,
+emotional probably, and not brainy enough to appreciate the symbolism of
+the _Bridge_. Well, we don't want too brilliant a typist, after
+all--Miss Jenkins and her 'culture' were a bit trying at times!"
+
+And then meeting by chance an old friend who insisted on carrying him
+off to lunch, Owen speedily forgot that such a person as Miss Antonia
+Gibbs existed in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It did not take Miss Fanny Gibbs very long to discover that her cousin's
+new post held for her an interest beyond that which an unusually
+congenial situation might be expected to hold.
+
+In Miss Gibbs' world one's "job" was generally of very secondary
+importance to one's private affairs; and the fact is not to be wondered
+at when one remembers that the life of the average shop or business girl
+can by no manner of means be called either pleasant or exciting.
+
+Hitherto Toni had been fully in accord with her cousin's opinion.
+Although the robust, if promiscuous, flirtations in which Fanny, before
+her engagement, had indulged freely had never appealed to the more
+fastidious Toni, she had always been quite ready to join in any fun
+which might be going. She had eaten sweets gaily in the cheap seats of
+theatre or picture-palace, had made one at the many informal and
+harmless little gatherings for which Fanny had a taste; and had
+cheerfully and quite normally grumbled if detained at the office one
+moment longer than she considered fair.
+
+But of late Antonia had altered strangely; and Fanny's shrewd eyes noted
+the change almost from the first.
+
+To begin with, Toni was always in a fidget to get to work. Miss Gibbs
+took her annual week's holiday just then, and had plenty of time to note
+her cousin's behaviour; and the way in which Toni swallowed her
+breakfast and clad herself for the start was a revelation to one who
+knew her former dilatory nature.
+
+Toni had always been careful of her appearance--more so than her cousin
+considered at all necessary; but now she was absolutely ridiculous, so
+thought Fanny, with her new Peter-Pan collars and her fussy attention to
+her pretty hands, set off by tiny lace cuffs to match the collars. Her
+black frock, only a year old, was perfectly good and serviceable yet;
+but the extravagant creature must needs make herself another one in her
+spare time, and never had she been so particular about the cut, nor so
+incessant in her demands on Fanny for a helping hand with the
+"trying-on." She bought herself a new hat, too, a little soft affair in
+which she looked perfectly delicious; and as the days went by it seemed
+to Fanny that her cousin was growing prettier and more attractive every
+week, with a still more bewitching colour in her rounded cheeks, and a
+still more sparkling light in her Southern eyes.
+
+Yet even her woman's wit could not fathom the mystery of Toni's new joy
+in life. When interrogated concerning her employers, Toni was always
+vague. That there were two of them Fanny knew; but from Toni's extremely
+colourless description, Miss Gibbs gathered that neither was at all what
+the girls called interesting; and Mr. Rose, at least, almost
+middle-aged. (Heaven knows what flight of fancy on the part of
+Toni--Toni, whose magic romance was the shyest, most delicate fantasy in
+the world--was responsible for that fallacy!)
+
+That Barry was younger Fanny understood; but so lightly did Toni touch
+upon his kindness that Fanny could not be accused of density in her
+conception of him as a nonentity in whom her little cousin could take no
+interest.
+
+Yet that someone was responsible for Toni's sudden outburst of new
+beauty Miss Gibbs felt assured; and it gradually dawned upon her that
+there were other men about the place to whom Miss Antonia Gibbs might
+well appeal.
+
+When questioned about these others, the subordinates who were workers
+like herself, Antonia at first stared, then coloured impatiently, and
+finally laughed, with a queer note of impishness in her laughter which
+puzzled Fanny more than ever.
+
+That she, who was privileged to breathe the same atmosphere as Owen
+Rose, could be supposed even to realize the existence of any outsider
+was in itself absurd, if not almost insulting; but Toni was quick to see
+that here was the opportunity she sought to conceal her wonderful,
+presumptuous dream.
+
+For she was in love--she knew it now--wildly, deliriously, gloriously in
+love with Owen. To her he was the embodiment of all that was most noble,
+most god-like in man. His voice was music, his commands gifts, his rare
+vexation as the frown of Jove. She trembled and turned pale at his
+footstep, and when he spoke to her suddenly her heart throbbed and her
+colour came and went until she felt as though he must observe her
+emotion.
+
+In a word, she was in love; and when it is remembered that on one side
+of her Toni was purely of the South--the glowing, ardent, passionate
+South--it is not to be wondered at that this new emotion dominated her
+whole being to the exclusion of all else.
+
+Her love, indeed, was pathetic in its young ignorance. Anyone could have
+told her that she was wasting her treasure, that it was the act of a
+fool to pour out her priceless gift at the feet of one who did not want
+it, who would consider it a mere presumption.
+
+Her place in Owen's life was that of a servant, a subordinate; and her
+common sense should have told her that in that light alone would Owen
+inevitably behold her. Vaguely she realized this--knew well enough that
+he never thought of her save as his more or less useful secretary, but
+after all, she could not be expected to reason out this thing too
+closely. Its very vagueness, indeed, lent it charm. Her love was veiled,
+as it were, in a most delicate, most diaphanous mist, which took from it
+all earthliness, and left it intangible, magical as some gift from
+fairyland. So far, no hint of desire had entered into it. It was all
+unselfish, girlish adoration, an almost childish reverence for one
+immeasurably her superior; and though she made her new dress and
+adjusted her little bits of muslin and lace with scrupulous care, it was
+not so much in the hope that she might find favour in Owen's eyes as in
+the personal longing to make herself more worthy of the love within her.
+
+It never entered her head that Owen would suspect her secret. Indeed,
+the whole affair was so dream-like, of so unsubstantial, so gossamer a
+lightness, that merely to speculate upon her romance would have been to
+shatter it, as one might put a finger through a fairy cobweb.
+
+She loved--and at present that was enough. To be with Owen daily, to sit
+in the same room, breathe the same air, obey his wishes, help him with
+his work, was all she desired; and being at heart an incurable little
+optimist, she was content to weave her rose-coloured dreams, spin her
+shining web, with no anxiety about the future to shadow and darken her
+thoughts.
+
+Yet Barry, with his quick intuition, was uncannily aware of the girl's
+infatuation; and it was Barry who, through his very knowledge of her
+secret, precipitated the inevitable revelation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One day during Toni's absence for lunch the two men were sitting
+together in Owen's room when Owen suddenly threw a large unmounted
+photograph across to his friend.
+
+"What's this, Owen? Oh--your house at Willowhurst, isn't it? By Jove,
+it's a lovely place--I wonder you don't live there."
+
+The moment he had spoken he would willingly have recalled his words, but
+Owen gave him no time.
+
+"You forget--I was going to live there!" His smile was forced. "The
+people who have had it for years cleared out last October, and it was
+all put in apple-pie order then, in anticipation of my wife's arrival."
+
+Barry, red and embarrassed, said nothing, but examined the photograph
+with unnecessary minuteness.
+
+"Seems a pity the place should stand idle," went on Owen musingly. "It's
+a jolly old house, and been in the family for centuries--built before
+the river became fashionable--and the grounds are really fine; some
+gorgeous old trees and shrubs in them."
+
+"How far from town?" Barry put the first question that suggested itself.
+
+"Oh, not far--twenty or thirty miles. You can get up easily in a car or
+by a fast train. Greenriver--that's the house--is really charmingly
+situated, with big grounds at the back, and the river just beneath the
+house."
+
+"You lived there as a youngster?"
+
+"Yes. When my father died my mother couldn't bear to live there, and we
+let the place. After her death I could have gone back, but somehow I
+didn't want to. It was only when I met Vivian----"
+
+He broke off suddenly, and springing to his feet, began to pace up and
+down.
+
+"By Jove, Barry, what fools we men make of ourselves over women! Just
+because Vivian was kind, smiled on me, seemed really interested in my
+affairs, I told her everything--all sorts of things I haven't even told
+you, old chap! We used to go for strolls together in the summer
+evenings--once or twice we motored down to Richmond and went for a walk
+in the park ... we used to talk about all sorts of things ... women are
+the very deuce for leading men on to talk. They pretend to be so
+interested, ask such gentle little questions, are so sympathetic, so
+kind ... and when it comes to sport, a girl like Vivian can talk as well
+as any man."
+
+He sighed impatiently.
+
+"We didn't talk sentiment--those days. We were chums--the best of
+chums ... discussed flying, motoring--she used to drive a little car
+of her own. Sometimes we played golf--and, by Jove, she could pretty
+nearly beat me! She was interested in all the things I liked, was a
+rattling good shot with a rifle, and hadn't a nerve in her. Clever, too;
+could talk on all sorts of subjects, and had read books I'd never even
+heard of! She spoke three or four languages ... but--but it wasn't
+that."
+
+He broke off in his rambling talk to light a cigarette, and then
+continued, in the same musing tone.
+
+"It was something else. She was so handsome, so--so fine, somehow. I
+used to think, when we were engaged, that she was like Brunhilde, or
+some of the other Wagnerian heroines. Sometimes I couldn't help
+thinking"--he coloured--"what splendid children a woman like that would
+have. She ... she satisfied one, somehow. You knew she was sound in
+every way--the sort of woman one would always be proud of--and when I
+thought of her as the mistress of Greenriver, I----"
+
+He threw away his cigarette impatiently.
+
+"What a fool I am! What a damned fool you must think me, raving about a
+woman who played me the shabbiest trick a woman could play! God! When I
+think of it--think how I was deceived, I--I hate the woman! I hate
+myself for being such a fool, but I hate her more! Well, she's married
+now--good luck to her!--and there's only one thing for me to do; I must
+get married too!"
+
+"But why?" Barry's blue eyes were very kindly as they looked at his
+friend. "Why not go on as you are for a bit longer?"
+
+"Why not?" He stretched out his arms with a curious, restless gesture.
+"Because I've got unsettled, I suppose. You see, when you've looked on
+yourself as practically a married man, planned everything, renounced
+your bachelor ways and anticipated a new and more settled existence,
+well, somehow you can't go back to the old state of things. There's the
+house, too. I feel as though I wanted to live in it again--the servants
+are clamouring for me to go there. I promised, you know, and the river
+is so lovely in the summer...."
+
+"Well, why not go down and have a car?"
+
+"Go there--alone?" He spoke bitterly. "No, thanks. That would be folly.
+I meant to go with my wife----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped in his restless pacing and faced Barry with gleaming
+eyes.
+
+"By gad, Barry! Why shouldn't I take my wife there after all?"
+
+"Your wife?" Even the quick-witted Barry was at fault.
+
+"Yes. My wife." He laughed at the other man's face. "Oh, I'm not married
+yet, but why shouldn't I be? I swore I'd marry the first woman who'd
+have me, and it's just occurred to me--Barry, do you thing she _would_
+have me?"
+
+"She? _What_ she?" demanded Barry in justifiable bewilderment.
+
+"Why, our excellent little secretary and typist--our Miss Gibbs--our
+Antonia, known at home as Toni!"
+
+Barry's boyish face flushed crimson, and for a second he looked so angry
+that Owen stared in genuine amazement.
+
+"Well, Barry, what's up? I assure you my intentions are strictly
+honourable! If she'll have me, she shall step into the shoes vacated by
+Miss Vivian Rees, and succeed to the house, the car, the boats, and all
+the rest of the worldly goods which weren't sufficient to tempt my
+beautiful _fiancée_!"
+
+"See here, Owen." Barry's voice was quiet. "I suppose you're ragging,
+but let me tell you I think the rag's in execrable taste, and I'll be
+obliged if you'll drop the subject."
+
+For a second Owen seemed about to retort in the same tone. Then, quite
+suddenly, his face changed.
+
+"Say, Barry, why all these frills? You surely didn't think I meant any
+harm--any disrespect to the girl?"
+
+"Of course not." He spoke rather coldly. "Only--well, I don't like to
+hear you joking about marrying Miss Gibbs. She's a decent little thing,
+and far too good to be made a cat's paw in a game of revenge."
+
+Owen looked at his friend quietly.
+
+"You're right, Barry, and if I were only joking it would be a bit
+low-down. But suppose I mean it? Suppose I ask the girl to marry me,
+quite quietly, not entering into any heroics or telling any condemned
+lies, and she accepts me, what then?"
+
+Barry's heart gave a sudden throb of dismay. There was something behind
+Owen's calm manner which made him feel vaguely uneasy. Could it be that
+Owen too had surprised Toni's pitiful little secret--that he knew--had
+known all along that the girl was not so indifferent to him as she
+wished to appear?
+
+For the moment Barry was nonplussed. If it were so, if Owen knew, and,
+knowing, chose to take the risk of the girl's acceptance, had he any
+right to interfere?
+
+That Toni would accept, Barry felt almost convinced; and yet, fond as he
+was of his friend, fond as he was, too, of the girl with whom he had
+worked during these weeks of spring, Barry was clear-sighted enough to
+feel assured that such a marriage would not make for happiness.
+
+It might answer for a time. If Toni wore genuinely attached to Rose, as
+Barry was inclined to believe, it was possible--nay, probable--that her
+affection for him would bring out the best in Owen's nature, and he
+would repay that affection with a real and kindly consideration. But
+when the first freshness had worn off, when Owen should have grown used
+to the girl's shy gratitude and devotion, when her prettiness, her
+radiant youth, her naïve simplicity should have ceased to charm, what
+then would remain?
+
+For all his sporting instincts Owen was primarily a man of letters,
+versatile, brilliant, even distinguished in his way; and Barry foresaw a
+bitter disillusionment for each of the pair when the real dissimilarity
+of their natures should, as must inevitably happen, become apparent to
+both.
+
+To Toni, who never willingly opened a book, her husband's delight and
+absorption in the masterpieces of literature must be a constant wonder;
+while to Rose, Toni's ignorance, her youthful, unashamed lack of
+interest in the "things which matter" would be a perpetual irritation.
+
+Although not so brilliant as his friend, Barry experienced at times
+flashes of almost uncanny insight; and as he contemplated the
+possibility of this marriage he had a sudden clear conviction that it
+would not, could not, turn out successfully.
+
+"See here, Owen"--he faced the other man resolutely--"you must know the
+thing is quite impossible. Miss Gibbs is a nice little girl, a pretty
+little thing and as straight as a die. But she is not your equal in any
+sense; neither socially nor intellectually; and though you may not
+believe it, you would regret the marriage in a week."
+
+Owen looked at him, half-affectionately, half-quizzically, for a moment.
+
+"Why should I, Barry? Toni may not be of very exalted birth, but she is
+a hundred times more ladylike than half the flappers one meets in
+Society nowadays, with their cigarette-cases, their bridge purses and
+their slangy talk. One of those loud young women would be the death of
+me in a week--and you know Toni's voice is delightfully soft, with quite
+a Southern intonation--caught in Italy, I expect."
+
+"But what of her education--or lack of it?" Barry went on relentlessly.
+"You know quite well that the girl is a little ignoramus in reality. She
+has read nothing, been nowhere, learned precious little; and she has no
+more conversation than--than a Persian cat."
+
+"That's a bad simile," said Owen calmly. "A Persian cat doesn't talk
+much, I admit, but it is a most fascinating piece of mystery when it
+sits still and says nothing. And Miss Gibbs may in reality be just as
+mysterious."
+
+"Oh, you're impossible!" Barry spoke impatiently, and Owen's manner
+changed.
+
+"Come, Barry, confess the truth. You're afraid Toni will jump at me--to
+put it baldly. You know"--for a second he hesitated--"you know, Barry,
+I'm not blind, and I can't help seeing that the girl has ... well, taken
+a fancy to me; and if that is so, seeing that the woman I wanted
+wouldn't have me, why shouldn't I offer myself to the one who ... would
+perhaps take me if I asked her to?"
+
+"You really mean to ask her, then?"
+
+"Yes. I know you won't approve, old chap, but I'm going to do it all the
+same. The girl may refuse me, you know, and then there'll be no harm
+done."
+
+And nothing could move him from the attitude he had adopted. The utmost
+concession Barry could wring from him was a promise to wait for a week
+at least before carrying out his plan; and during the whole of that week
+Barry did his utmost to dissuade his friend from taking a step which he
+foresaw would end in disaster.
+
+He argued, cajoled, even thundered, in vain. He spoke of disparity of
+tastes, of habits, of views on life in general; and Owen laughingly
+reminded him that dissimilarity in tastes was supposed to be a good
+foundation for wedded happiness.
+
+He pointed out that although Antonia herself was a lady in the best
+sense of the word, neither he nor Owen knew anything of her family; and
+he endeavoured to alarm Rose by his vigorous sketch of her possibly
+undesirable relations.
+
+"I tell you the girl's an orphan," said Owen, smiling as Barry finished
+painting an imaginary portrait of a very unattractive mother-in-law.
+"She lives with an uncle and aunt and a family of cousins somewhere
+Brixton way."
+
+"Then I suppose the wedding will take place in Brixton," said Barry,
+with an assumption of polite interest, and Owen coloured in spite of
+himself.
+
+"No--at least, not in a church. I can't face a regular wedding, Barry,
+seeing my bride isn't the one I expected to lead to the altar. I think
+the Registrar will have to tie the knot, and we'll dispense with all the
+fuss of satins and veils and white flowers that I was dreading with all
+my heart!"
+
+Something in his tone--a hint of dreary disappointment, of a
+wretchedness hitherto well concealed, made Barry feel compunction for
+his own rough handling of what must have been in reality a sore subject;
+and quite suddenly he abandoned his own superior, not to say
+condemnatory, attitude for a more human, more sympathetic frame of mind.
+
+"I say, old chap"--Owen's eyes lightened with pleasure at the friendly
+tone--"I've been an awful beast all this time. The fact is, I've thought
+only of the girl's point of view. It didn't seem fair she should be used
+as a sort of tool to make your position easier; but after all, I believe
+on my soul she'd ask nothing better than to marry you; and I know you'd
+treat her decently, so--so if----"
+
+"If I like to do it, you'll give me your blessing, eh, Barry?" Owen's
+smile was a little melancholy. "Well, I'll take advantage of your
+permission and put it to the little girl herself. She may refuse me, of
+course--Miss Rees didn't find me irresistible, did she?" A hint of the
+deadly wound she had dealt him coloured his tone. "But unless I'm a
+conceited fool I believe I have a sporting chance at least--and I'd like
+to show Lady Saxonby she's not the only woman in the world for me!"
+
+At that moment Toni herself entered the room; and with an effort both
+men greeted her as usual, and proceeded to the ordinary routine of the
+day's work without giving her any indication that she had interrupted a
+discussion of the highest importance to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Antonia had just returned from lunch on the following day when Owen
+called her to him; and she hastened to obey the summons, still wearing
+her hat and coat.
+
+"Oh, Miss Gibbs"--his tone was admirably casual. "I've been wondering
+whether you would mind helping me this afternoon. I want some books from
+my house down at Willowhurst to verify some quotations in an article I
+am writing for the next number of the _Bridge_."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rose?"
+
+"I intended first going down in the car for them, but as it seems a pity
+to bring a lot of old books up to town, I thought if you would come down
+too, bringing the little Blick typewriter with you, I could get you to
+copy out the quotations I want, and I needn't take the books away."
+
+Insensibly Toni's eyes brightened.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rose. I should be very pleased."
+
+"That's right. Well, I'll go out and get some lunch. Will you be ready
+in half an hour?"
+
+"Yes--I've just time to run through these letters."
+
+"Very well. _Au revoir!_ I'll be back at half-past two."
+
+He went out, and Antonia joyfully pirouetted round the room before
+settling to work--somewhat to the surprise of Barry, who entered at that
+moment.
+
+"Hallo, Miss Gibbs--practising the turkey-trot, or what?"
+
+She stopped, blushing hotly, and tried in vain to look unconcerned.
+
+"No, Mr. Raymond. Only--Mr. Rose wants me to motor down to Willowhurst
+with him about some books--and it's such a lovely day!"
+
+"You like motoring?" Barry could not resist a sympathetic smile.
+
+"Oh, I just love it!" She clasped her hands in rapture. "Of course, I've
+only been in taxis and char-à-bancs and things, but I've always wanted
+to go in a real motor-car--a private one, I mean!"
+
+"Have you never been in one?" Her childish confession made Barry feel
+half pitiful, half dismayed.
+
+"No, how should I?" She laughed, showing her pretty teeth
+whole-heartedly. "You know girls in my position don't go about in
+motors! Of course"--with one of her sudden changes of mood she paled and
+spoke slowly--"if my father had lived things would have been different."
+
+"You lived in Italy together?"
+
+"Yes." She sank into a chair, and went on speaking dreamily,
+her chin cradled in her hollowed hands. "We lived in a village not
+far from Naples. Oh, how beautiful Italy is in the spring, when
+the pink almond-blossom makes the hill-sides look like a great
+rose-garden ... and the oranges and lemons flame out among the
+dark-green leaves--and the roads are hot and white, and the blue
+sea lies at the back of everything, sparkling in the sunshine...."
+
+She paused, but Barry, fascinated by this revelation of a depth, almost
+a poetry, in the nature he had thought shallow and commonplace, said
+nothing; and after a second she continued.
+
+"There was a steep hill behind our little house, and sometimes the sheep
+that browsed there would stray ... so that the boy would sit and pipe to
+them to come back. I used to watch him pipe, and make a garland of
+vine-leaves and put it on his curls, and my father would laugh and call
+him Pan, and say he was really thousands of years old ... and the sheep
+would come up the slope looking so white against the green, and the air
+would be full of the smell of the violets they crushed beneath their
+feet...."
+
+Again she paused, and this time Barry prompted her.
+
+"And when he had found his flock, what did your boy-Pan do then?"
+
+"Then he would drive them away over the hill-side, and we would hear his
+pipe growing fainter and fainter in the distance, until it died away
+altogether...."
+
+She sprang up suddenly.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Raymond, what nonsense I'm talking! That life's over and done
+with, and I've all these letters to copy!"
+
+"All right--I won't interrupt!" He took up some papers. "But just tell
+me this. Do you ever want to go back to Italy?"
+
+She hesitated, considering.
+
+"No, I think not," she said at last. "You see, it would all be
+different. My father wouldn't be there, nor the Padre--and even old
+Fiammetta may be dead by now."
+
+"But the place would be the same--the sea as blue!"
+
+"Ah, I should like to see the sea!" She spoke softly. "Do you know I've
+only seen the sea once since I came to England--when we went to Southend
+for the day. And there it was all cold and grey--and the sands were
+mud ... it wasn't a bit like my sea, and I wished I'd never seen it."
+
+There were actually tears in her eyes, and Barry cursed himself for a
+fool, as he went rather absently into his own room, leaving her to her
+work--which work was done none the less carefully because of the vague
+longings which the conversation had aroused in the worker's breast.
+
+Punctually at two-thirty Owen returned, and Toni ran down the steps with
+a smiling face from which all traces of tears had long since vanished.
+
+The car was waiting in the dingy street, and Toni's foot was actually on
+the step when she turned and looked at Owen with a kind of desperate
+appeal in her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Rose, do you drive the car yourself?"
+
+"Yes. I sit in front, you know--ah, would you like to sit with me?"
+
+"May I?" Her accent was acceptance enough; and two minutes later Toni,
+as happy as a queen, was installed by the driver's side, and the car
+began to glide faster and faster down the street on its way to the open
+country beyond the town.
+
+When they had gone a little distance Owen turned to look at his
+passenger, and for a second his heart stood still at the expression on
+her face. Surely no girl would look so rapturously happy unless some
+magic were at work....
+
+"Are you warm enough? There's a big coat in the car." He spoke abruptly,
+but the girl shook her head gratefully.
+
+"No, I'm quite warm, thank you."
+
+She had tied on her soft little hat with a scarf of some thin material
+which framed her face very satisfactorily, and Owen did not press the
+question.
+
+On and on sped the car, through Putney and Richmond, on past Feltham and
+Staines, eating up the miles so fast that before they knew it they were
+out in the country, flying along the level road between hedges whose
+green had not as yet become dusty with the summer's traffic.
+
+It was a glorious afternoon in early May, and the Thames valley was at
+its best. On either hand were fields sown thick with creamy daisies and
+yellow buttercups. Down in a marshy hollow they caught a glimpse of a
+carpet of golden kingcups, and once they passed a tiny dell in whose
+very heart an azure mist whispered of bluebells; while the blackthorn
+and the may made the air fragrant for miles. The birds were singing
+their hearts out in the mellow sunshine, and now and again the cuckoo's
+call came floating over the meadows from copse or spinney.
+
+Ever and anon as they shot through some village hamlet they caught
+glimpses of orchards in full blossom, the pink and white bloom standing
+out against the pale blue of the sky with the effect of some delicate
+Japanese painting; and in all the little gardens flowers rioted
+joyously.
+
+To Toni, spending her life in dingy Brixton, this afternoon was a
+red-letter day. The soft, clean air which blew in her face was different
+from the stagnant air of the Brixton streets; the scent of flowers was
+grateful after the odours of the City, and the vision, now and then, of
+the flashing river was a delight to eyes tired with much staring at ugly
+houses and shops.
+
+If Toni said little during that magic excursion, it was not shyness
+alone which sealed her lips; and although he cast a look now and then at
+his companion, Owen was too considerate to break into her raptures with
+questioning words.
+
+Only when they were approaching their destination did he begin to point
+out the various features of the landscape.
+
+"That village over there is Willgate, noted for an old Saxon arch in its
+church. My mother used to go over there to evening service, I remember.
+She liked it better than our own church--the one you can just see
+peeping between the trees. The village--Willowhurst, I mean--lies round
+this bend. It's quite a rural-looking place, when you remember that
+after all it is not an hour's journey from Waterloo."
+
+The car glided round the bend as he spoke, and Toni saw the village
+lying in the afternoon sunshine, which winked back from the windows of
+the little houses, built in a queer, old-fashioned manner round a small
+green. There was a pleasant, old-world look about the place which was
+oddly charming; and Toni was quite sorry when the car left the little
+green behind. But in another minute they were on a stretch of white road
+bordered by a high wall, behind which tall trees stood like sentinels;
+and Toni caught her breath as Owen said, in a voice which he tried,
+vainly, to keep steady:
+
+"See, there's Greenriver--my home--beyond the trees."
+
+They had reached the high gates in the wall, and when once they had
+entered and were rolling up the broad avenue Toni gazed eagerly in the
+direction he had indicated.
+
+Greenriver was a stately old place enough. It had been built in the days
+of Queen Bess; and was just such a house as that in which Justice
+Shallow might have entertained Falstaff--a long grey building with a
+porch in the centre and a huge gable at either end--a house with
+deep-mullioned windows and large stacks of chimney-pots.
+
+The house faced the river, to which it led by a terrace of velvety turf,
+broken here and there by gay flower-beds; while the real gardens lay at
+the other side of the building. Here beauty and dignity had joined
+hands, as it were, to preserve the stately loveliness of the grounds,
+under whose tall elms many a joyous company must have roamed when the
+river was the highway of elegance and fashion, and great barges floated
+down the Thames bearing Royal personages reclining on their couches
+covered with cloth of gold. Here on summer evenings the nightingales
+sang to the roses for which the gardens were famous; and for centuries
+the big white owls had hooted from their nests in the tree-tops, or
+flown, like pale ghosts, across the dusky paths.
+
+The grounds were indeed noted all along the river for the magnificence
+of their green, velvety lawns, the size and beauty of the flowers in
+parterre and bed, the wonderful completeness--and in some cases the
+antiquity--of the contents of the famous herbaceous border; and Toni
+never forgot the sensation of awe which overwhelmed her as she realized
+that this glorious place belonged to the man beside her.
+
+She spoke a little shyly as the car came to a standstill at the foot of
+the steps leading to the big door.
+
+"This is your house?"
+
+"Yes, this is Greenriver." He helped her out of the car. "And here is my
+old friend Mrs. Blades coming to meet us."
+
+An elderly, rather prim-looking woman came forward as Owen advanced, and
+in her eyes shone a welcoming light.
+
+"Come in, sir. We were beginning to wonder if you were coming to-day."
+
+"Yes--started rather late." Owen gave her hand a friendly shake. "But we
+shan't have to go back just yet. I want to have a chat with you by and
+bye, Mrs. Blades. This young lady, Miss Gibbs, has kindly come down to
+help me with some work."
+
+"I'm sure the young lady is very welcome," was Mrs. Blades'
+old-fashioned reply. "Shan't I make you a cup o' tea, sir, first of
+all?"
+
+"Well, a cup of tea would be nice ... but I think, if Miss Gibbs isn't
+tired, we'll get on with our work first, and then we'll enjoy it better.
+Eh, Miss Gibbs?"
+
+Miss Gibbs agreed; and five minutes later she was installed, with her
+typewriter, in the library. Owen busied himself, for a few moments, at
+the shelves, searching for the books he wanted; and Toni spent the time
+in gazing round her, wonder, admiration and awe mingling in her gaze.
+
+The room was large and lofty and the big mullioned windows looked out
+upon a beautiful terrace, bordered with wallflowers, jonquils, and
+masses of dancing daffodils. The grass, smooth as velvet, led to a stone
+balustrade, beyond which lay the river, sparkling in the sunshine,
+whilst beyond that again were green fields, broken here and there by
+clumps of majestic trees, the fields in their turn leading to a range of
+distant, misty, blue hills.
+
+The room itself was second only in interest to the view. In all her life
+Toni had never entered such a room--had never imagined, indeed, that
+private houses boasted such apartments.
+
+The furniture was all of dark-green leather--the big saddle-bag chairs,
+the low divan and the smaller chairs all being upholstered in the same
+material, while the wall was distempered a lighter shade of green, and
+the carpet was of a darker tone. In one of the deep window embrasures
+was a bureau, of just the right height to allow anyone sitting before it
+to enjoy the prospect without; while the table at which Toni sat was a
+large, heavy affair, evidently intended for serious work.
+
+But the generally sombre tone of the room formed an excellent background
+for the books which lined its walls. Shelf after shelf of them rose from
+the floor, almost to the ceiling; and since many were bound in soft,
+rich colours, they struck a delightful note in the rather dusky whole.
+
+There were books bound in leather, dark-brown calf, soft red or blue
+morocco; richly-tooled volumes, slim books clothed in tan or purple
+suède, gay with gold edges and lettering; priceless old volumes, rare
+black-letter editions, poets, classics, all the standard novels.... Toni
+had never seen so many books in her life; and it must be confessed that
+she regarded them with something akin to awe.
+
+Who in the world could wish to read these hundreds of volumes? For all
+their beautiful bindings she had a conviction that the contents would be
+appallingly dull; and her eyes fled gladly to the more congenial scene
+outside the windows where the flowers danced gaily in the sunshine and a
+little skiff floated by on the shimmering river, like some magic boat
+gliding to a haven in fairyland.
+
+Presently Owen approached the table, bearing an armful of thin books,
+bound for the most part in soft fawn suède.
+
+"Look, Miss Gibbs, these are the verses I want you to copy." He pointed
+out the poems, and gave her one or two instructions, while Toni,
+conscious that she had been dreaming away her time, hastily uncovered
+her typewriter and took up a sheet of paper.
+
+"If you'll do these, I'll go and have a chat with old Mrs. Blades," said
+Owen presently. "Then we'll have tea, and if there's time I'll show you
+the gardens. They are really worth seeing."
+
+She thanked him shyly and he went out. In the doorway he paused, looking
+back at her as she sat among the books; and if she had looked up she
+could not have failed to observe something odd in the expression with
+which he was regarding her.
+
+But she did not look up; and after a few seconds' scrutiny he went out
+quietly and closed the door.
+
+It did not take Toni very long to finish her task. Almost as she took
+the last sheet of paper out of the typewriter the door opened to admit
+Owen and a staid-looking maid with a tea-tray.
+
+"Well, Miss Gibbs, finished?" Owen came forward with a smile. "That's
+good! Now you shall have some tea to refresh you after your toil. Let me
+see, Kate, where shall we have it?"
+
+The maid suggested that the table in the far window would be suitable;
+and as the afternoon sunshine still streamed in, making a pleasant
+warmth, Owen agreed heartily.
+
+Evidently Mrs. Blades had not been taken unprepared; for there were
+dainty sandwiches, hot cakes, and a big and substantial-looking
+seed-loaf, which was, so Owen informed his guest, his housekeeper's
+special pride.
+
+"Now"--Kate had withdrawn after placing the massive silver tea-pot on
+the tray--"will you pour out for me, Miss Gibbs? And I'll hand the
+cakes."
+
+Blushing gloriously, Toni slipped into the seat behind the tray. In
+honour of the fine day she had discarded her black frock for a serge
+skirt and a girlish-looking white blouse, open at the throat; and now
+that she had thrown aside her veil, her black hair, prettily loosened
+beneath her soft little hat, made an ebony frame for her vivid face.
+
+As he watched her gravely attending to the duties of the tea-tray, Owen
+told himself that he might have made a worse choice.
+
+He had long ago surprised her secret--although Toni had no idea of her
+self-betrayal. At this stage of her development Toni was pure emotion--a
+mere lamp through which love might shine unchecked, casting its beams
+unashamedly upon the object of its devotion. Later she might learn, as
+many women do, to interpose a veil between her soul and the world. The
+lamp would shine with a tempered beam, its glow moderated to a mere
+even, more tranquil light, and none would recognize the quality of its
+burning.
+
+But at present Toni's love was so whole-hearted, so innocently,
+pathetically intense that it was no wonder Owen had divined both its
+nature and its object long ago.
+
+Well, to a heart rendered sore by a woman's callousness, such a warm,
+eager devotion as this was inexpressibly attractive; and if Owen's eyes
+were blinded by suffering, there was surely a chance that Toni's soft
+fingers laid upon their lids might prolong the merciful myopia.
+
+When tea was over there came a sudden little silence. The dusk was
+falling; and the garden wore a ghostly look; while the river lay
+passively unreflecting beneath the twilit sky.
+
+The atmosphere of the room changed with the passing of the
+sunlight--grew tense, electric, almost, one would have said, expectant;
+and Owen realized that the moment for which he waited had come.
+
+Toni, having finished her tea, was sitting rather slackly in her chair,
+gazing dreamily out of the window; and Owen hesitated for a minute
+before he spoke. She looked so young, so wistful, so helpless. It was
+almost unfair, selfish, to speak to the child--and then, suddenly, he
+knew that selfish or no, he must put an end to his own solitary
+sore-heartedness.
+
+"Toni"--she looked up as he spoke, and his utterance of her name set the
+whole atmosphere throbbing with wild, sweet possibilities--"I want to
+ask you something."
+
+She did not speak, only her eyes fastened on his face.
+
+"Do you think, Toni"--for a moment he faltered, then plunged bravely
+on--"you could ever bring yourself to marry me? Oh, I know you're
+surprised--I ought not to spring it on you like this--but if you will be
+my wife I will do my best to make you happy."
+
+There was a silence. Suddenly an owl flew, hooting, past the window, and
+in the dusk his white wings looked ghostly, unreal.
+
+Then, quite quietly, Toni spoke.
+
+"Mr. Rose, do you mean it? You want to marry me?"
+
+"Yes, dear." For an instant he spoke as one speaks to a child, so
+powerful was the illusion of youth in the large-eyed Toni just then.
+"Well, what do you say? Will you have me?"
+
+He was still sitting in the big chair opposite to her, one hand on the
+arm, the other clenched on his knee; and he was unprepared for Toni's
+answer.
+
+With a sudden rush she was out of her chair, and the next moment she was
+kneeling beside him, her face all aglow with love and wonder.
+
+"You mean it?" She could only, it seemed, question his meaning.
+"But--how did you know I loved you, Mr. Rose? I never let you see--did
+I?"
+
+With that soft, sparkling face upturned to his, those Italian eyes
+gazing at him with an intensity of appeal in their liquid depths, one
+answer alone was possible.
+
+"No, Toni, you never let me see that! But if it's true--if you do love
+me a little--well, is it--yes?"
+
+For answer she suddenly laid her head on his knee and burst into a
+passion of wild sobbing. Poor, emotional, overwrought little Toni! Why
+she wept she had no idea, but it was the same emotion which had made
+her, as a child, weep at the sight of a group of violets growing in the
+grass, at the sound of the shepherd's pipe, the scent of the sea-laden
+breeze. Although her heart was so full of bliss that she could scarcely
+bear it, there was a wild, inexplicable sadness in it too, which tears
+alone could assuage; and though she tried to recapture her self-control,
+it was useless until she had cried away the first bewilderment.
+
+But Owen, unused to the complex Southern nature, was thoroughly
+nonplussed by her tears. In vain he besought her to calm herself, begged
+her to listen to him, to refuse him if the thought of his offer made her
+miserable. Toni only cried the harder; and at last, uncertain of his
+ground, but feeling that something must be done, Owen stooped down and
+lifted her bodily on to his knee.
+
+Once in his arms, her tears ceased as if by magic. She lay against his
+heart like a child, and as he felt her little body in his arms a new
+feeling of pity, almost of gratitude, awoke in his heart.
+
+If his love meant so much to her--then it should be hers--if indeed love
+could be bestowed at will. In any case he would marry her and devote his
+life to making her happy; and in his curiously exalted state of mind
+Owen quite lost sight of the fact that when one is the lover and the
+other the beloved, between the two there is often a great gulf fixed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When at last Owen roused the girl, who had sobbed herself into
+quiescence in his arms, the room was nearly dark.
+
+"Come, Toni, it's getting cold and dark in here. What do you say, shall
+we get Mrs. Blades to give us a little dinner and go home by
+moonlight--or would you rather start at once?"
+
+"I would rather go now." She spoke in a low voice, like a child that is
+uncertain of its treatment; and Owen guessed she was ashamed of her
+tears.
+
+He set himself to reassure her.
+
+"Well, just as you like. Wait a moment, though. I'll light a candle, and
+you shall put your hat straight, and tie on that precious veil of yours
+first."
+
+While she tidied herself, rather self-consciously, before a large oval
+mirror, Owen gathered up the papers she had typewritten; and when he
+turned towards her at last she was able to conjure up a rather wan
+little smile.
+
+"Good girl!" He laid his hand kindly on her arm. "Now we'll be off--but
+first, do you mind if I let old Blades into our secret? She's a faithful
+old soul, though her temper's a bit crabby, and she'll be awfully
+pleased!"
+
+She assented, of course; and opening the door Owen led her across the
+dim hall towards the kitchen regions.
+
+Evidently the magic hour of lighting-up was at hand, for when they had
+passed through the green baize door which shut off the servants'
+premises, they found themselves in a brightly-lit passage, at the end of
+which Mrs. Blades' voice could be heard energetically exhorting a maid
+to "be quick and take these lamps."
+
+"Come along, we'll pay her a visit in her room," said Owen, his eyes
+sparkling with fun; and drawing Toni's arm through his he ran with her
+down the passage, and drew up finally in a large square room where Mrs.
+Blades was at work.
+
+In spite of her shyness Toni was lost in wonder at the nature of that
+work. The room itself was lighted with gas, flaring in an iron cage; but
+on the table in front of Mrs. Blades were no less than ten small
+oil-lamps, evidently intended to hang against the wall, and fashioned in
+some wrought metal which gave them a curiously mediæval look.
+
+"Hallo, Mrs. Blades!" Owen's voice made her turn round quickly. "The Ten
+Little Ladies going as strong as ever, I see!"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Owen, they're still on the go." She regarded the lamps
+affectionately. "At first Mr. Leetham used to say a good big lamp would
+be best, at the head of the stairs; but afterwards he got to like the
+Little Ladies, and we've had 'em every night."
+
+"We'll have to go on having them," declared Owen. "Look, Toni, they're
+really quite pretty, aren't they? And thanks to Mrs. Blades they give a
+jolly good light."
+
+"But--the 'Little Ladies'?" Toni looked, as she felt, puzzled.
+
+"Yes, it was a fancy of my father's. He would never have gas anywhere
+except in the kitchens; and the long gallery upstairs, where all the
+bedrooms are, was always as dark as Erebus." He laughed, catching sight
+of the blank look on Mrs. Blades' face at the word. "So my mother
+invented these lamps, years ago when I was a tiny kid, and every night
+they are fixed at intervals along the walls of the gallery."
+
+"But the name?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know who first christened them, but they've always been
+known as the Ten Little Ladies--and always will be, I suppose. Eh, Mrs.
+Blades?"
+
+"So long as I'm here, sir, I hope they will be," rejoined Mrs. Blades
+somewhat formally; and something in her tone made Owen remember his
+resolve.
+
+He looked round. The door was open into the passage, a rosy-cheeked maid
+waiting, apparently, to carry off the tray with the Little Ladies; but
+on Owen approaching with the intention of closing the door she withdrew
+modestly out of earshot.
+
+Coming back to the table Owen took one of Toni's hands in his and turned
+to the old housekeeper, who glanced with sudden shrewdness at the girl's
+shy face.
+
+"Mrs. Blades," said Owen quietly, "Miss Gibbs has promised to marry me;
+and I hope that before many weeks are over we shall come down to live at
+Greenriver. Well, what do you say? Will you welcome us when we come?"
+
+The half-boyish, half-masterful tone in which he spoke seemed too much
+for the old woman, who had watched Owen grow from boy to man, and now,
+after a lapse of years, saw him in his manhood. She looked first at him,
+then at the pale girl by his side, and her features worked oddly.
+
+"Come, Mrs. Blades!" Owen had had enough of tears for one afternoon.
+"Cheer up! Don't look as if we were going to cut off your head! That's a
+poor welcome to Miss Gibbs!"
+
+Thus reproved, the housekeeper did her best to conjure up a more
+cheerful expression; and managed presently to shake Toni's cold little
+hand with a respectful word or two; after which Owen discovered that it
+was high time to go.
+
+Five minutes later Toni was snugly packed into the car again; and Owen
+was about to take his seat when he remembered that he had left the
+typewritten sheets in the housekeeper's room.
+
+"I'll run back for them, Toni." He jumped down from the step. "I won't
+be a moment. You don't mind waiting?"
+
+"Of course not!" She smiled up at him with dewy eyes. "Don't hurry--it's
+so lovely here in the dusk--the flowers smell so sweet."
+
+Re-entering the house, Owen ran down the passage with hasty feet. Mrs.
+Blades, who had a tendency to what she called "chronical brownkitis,"
+had not ventured to brave the night air; and Owen found her still
+regarding the Little Ladies, who burned trimly on the tray before her.
+
+"All right, Mrs. Blades--I've only left some papers!" He snatched them
+up as he spoke, and crammed them into the pocket of his leather coat.
+"That's all--now I'm really off."
+
+He patted her carelessly on the shoulder as he passed her; but to his
+surprise she put out a veined hand to stay his progress.
+
+"Mr. Owen"--her voice shook--"do you really mean that you're going to
+marry the young lady?"
+
+"Of course, Blades." Unconsciously Owen pulled himself together. "Why
+should I say such a thing if I did not mean it?"
+
+"Because..." the old woman faltered "... Miss Gibbs ain't the sort of
+lady you ought to marry. She ... she's not like the other lady you were
+going to bring here as mistress of Greenriver ... the one as was
+presented at Court with all them lovely feathers in her hair."
+
+An expression such as she had never seen before crossed Owen's face. He
+shook off her hand impatiently.
+
+"Oh, you're an old silly, Blades." His voice was grating. "Miss Gibbs is
+a thousand times more suitable to be the mistress of Greenriver.
+The--the other lady thought very small beer of us all down here--she
+wasn't our sort, I assure you!"
+
+"Neither is this one." The old woman stuck to her guns with the
+obstinacy of age. "Mr. Owen, I remember your father bringing home his
+bride--a girl she was, only eighteen--but the highest lady in the land
+couldn't have been evened to her. Miss Gibbs is pretty and a good girl,
+I'm sure, but--but she ain't like your mother, Mr. Owen; and you ought
+to look higher when you marry than her!"
+
+"Don't be a fool, Blades!" Owen spoke angrily now. "If I think Miss
+Gibbs good enough to be my wife that's quite sufficient for everyone.
+After all, I'm not such a great catch," he added bitterly.
+
+"Nay, Mr. Owen, don't be vexed with me!" Too late the old woman
+regretted her foolish words. "I'm growing old, and maybe I'm in my
+dotage ... ah, he's gone--I've driven the lad away with my folly!"
+
+It was indeed so. Owen had flung out of the door angrily; and as she
+listened, half-afraid, she heard his steps receding down the passage
+towards the hall. There was impatience in his very tread; for, truth to
+tell, Owen felt a kind of hot anger welling in his heart as he
+remembered the words she had spoken.
+
+At first he was merely annoyed at what he called her
+presumption--induced, he supposed, by her long connection with the
+family. But suddenly a feeling of vague uneasiness descended upon him,
+and he paused before going out to join Toni in the car.
+
+"She only saw Toni for a moment--barely heard her speak--and yet she
+speaks as though I were making an unsuitable marriage." He frowned
+thoughtfully, anger dying before some feeling whose nature he could not,
+yet, recognize. "I wonder--what could she mean?"
+
+He stood in the quiet hall, fighting down a host of surmises, of
+unwelcome doubts which sprang, it would seem, out of the twilight,
+brought to birth by an old woman's homely words; and in those
+illuminating seconds Owen allowed himself to wonder whether, after all,
+he had committed an action which he would find cause to regret.
+
+But somehow the idea seemed a treachery towards the girl who sat waiting
+so trustfully, so happily for his coming; and with a sudden uplifting of
+his head, Owen went resolutely out to the car.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But Mrs. Blades, left alone, shod a few of the difficult tears of age as
+she went over the little scene. She felt suddenly old; and for the first
+time in her busy, self-satisfied life she questioned her own wisdom.
+
+Then she too shook off her uncomfortable thoughts, and calling the rosy
+Maggie to her, delivered into her hands the Ten Little Ladies, who still
+waited patiently upon the tray for their nightly release.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+On a beautiful midsummer morning Antonia Rose crept softly down the
+broad old staircase of Greenriver and crossed the hall with so
+fairy-light a tread that never a soul in the house could hear a
+footstep.
+
+It was very early, barely half-past five; but the glorious summer
+morning was calling, calling insistently to Toni to come and share its
+glories; and the call was not one to be disregarded, by Antonia at
+least.
+
+Not a thing stirred. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies grew wan and
+faded before the vitality of the daylight; and when, after some
+difficulty, Toni unlocked the big hall door and let in a flood of
+sunshine, they gave up the unequal contest and expired quietly.
+
+Ah! What a world of beauty burst upon Toni's gaze as she stood,
+thrilling delightfully with a sense of adventure, on the big stone steps
+outside the great door.
+
+A rush of perfume from the tall lilies greeted her first; followed by a
+perfect shower of fragrance from the pink and creamy roses growing
+beside the door. Other scents there were--a dozen of them--from the
+flowers massed in glowing ranks in the beds; but the lilies and the
+roses had it all their own way; and Toni laughed with delight as they
+assailed her with their sweetness.
+
+There was music, too, in this pearly dawn. In the trees the birds were
+astir, twittering their songs of morning; and already the velvety brown
+bees were beginning to hum their spinning chorus as they hovered here
+and there among the tall flowers which stood in rows before the windows,
+like marriageable maidens waiting for inspection.
+
+Beyond the terrace lay the river, shining with that strange, ethereal
+effect of silver which water has beneath the early morning sky; and away
+beyond the river the thin, delicate mists of the night were rising like
+vaporous ghosts, to dissolve in the fresh, clean atmosphere of dawn.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful it all is! What a lovely world God made when He
+made--this!" Toni stood on the steps with arms outstretched, like some
+young priestess of a pagan faith welcoming the sun. "And why do we lie
+asleep in stuffy beds when all the birds and flowers have been awake for
+ages!"
+
+She pulled the big door gently to behind her, and then ran through the
+gardens and across the terrace to the big grey balustrade which kept the
+boundary of the garden from the towing path beyond. Leaning her arms on
+the stone she looked out over the shining river, and in fancy her spirit
+roved here and there--to the violet-strewn mountain slopes of Italy
+where she had passed her childhood ... to the wonderful, rocky coast of
+Cornwall where her honeymoon had been spent.
+
+At the thought of the Cornish seas she caught her breath. Those
+marvellous green billows, foaming in the sunshine, dashing against the
+cliffs with a sound like thunder; the gentler wavelets creaming over the
+snow-white sands in lines of lotus-blue; the pools, deep and limpid,
+where in the aquamarine water all kind of strange sea-creatures lived;
+the jagged, tooth-like rocks springing from the depths of the ocean,
+ready to destroy the passing ships; the still more wonderful
+lighthouses, rising, some of them, like tall white needles into the
+turquoise sky; the gulls, flashing grey and white in the sunshine; the
+salt scent of the sea mingling with the pungent fragrance of the yellow
+gorse, hot with the sun ... surely the Cornish coast was a very favoured
+spot, and the Scilly Isles, to which passage could be taken in a queer,
+cranky boat, were indeed the Fortunate Isles, cradled by the bluest,
+most magical, most romantic waters in the world!
+
+Thoughts of the ocean were indissolubly bound up with all Toni's
+thoughts of her honeymoon. Acting on a hint from Barry, Owen had taken
+his bride straight away from the Registrar's dingy office to Paddington,
+thence to Cornwall; and he would never forget the sight of Toni's face
+when first she saw the sea, lying purple and green beneath a stormy sky.
+
+During the long journey she had said very little, shyness enveloping her
+as in a mantle; but when the train began to run along the sea shore, so
+that the whole expanse of ocean lay spread before the window, Toni's
+face changed, her eyes sparkled, and she turned to Owen with a
+spontaneous expression of delight.
+
+Now, looking back, it seemed to Toni that never for an instant had the
+voice of the sea been out of her ears during all those wonderful days
+and nights. Its song had helped her to bear herself properly during the
+long hours alone with the man she had married. Again and again, when
+embarrassment threatened to overcome her at this unusually prolonged
+_tête-à-tête_, the sea whispered to her to take courage; and each night
+she fell asleep to its murmured lullaby.
+
+During the fortnight which they spent down in the genial West Country,
+Owen gave himself up entirely to the service of his young wife. He
+divined pretty well what she was feeling--guessed that her marriage,
+after only three weeks' engagement, must have meant a complete upheaval
+of her entire life; and the very fact that he did not love her gave an
+added gentleness to his intercourse with her; for he could not rid
+himself of a sensation that somehow she had been cheated in this
+bargain, had been cajoled into giving the pure gold of love in return
+for the counterfeit of mere liking.
+
+True, he did not repent his marriage. Rather it seemed to him that it
+might turn out successful after all; and since they spent the days
+exploring the coast, which was new to both of them, there was plenty to
+be said, an abundance of interesting subjects to discuss.
+
+Only once--on the last night of their stay in Cornwall--was there the
+slightest suspicion of a shadow between them; and Owen blamed himself
+entirely for the occurrence.
+
+It happened that Owen was suffering from a very severe headache--a not
+uncommon complaint since his accident--and the afternoon post brought
+him the proofs of an article required for the next number of the
+_Bridge_. An urgent note from Barry accompanied the papers, begging for
+an early revision; and after dinner Owen sat down to run through the
+article in preparation for dispatch in the morning.
+
+But his brain refused to work. His eyes felt as though each eyeball were
+aflame; and his forehead was contracted with the severe pain which had
+racked him all day, so that consecutive thought was almost impossible.
+He tried, again and again, to do the work; but at length, so acute was
+the agony in his eyes, he threw aside the papers with a groan.
+
+Immediately Toni looked up from the magazine she was reading.
+
+"May I help you?" She put the question rather timidly, and by way of
+answer he tossed the bundle of proofs into her lap.
+
+"Thanks awfully, dear. I simply can't see out of my eyes--neuralgia, I
+expect. Do your best, won't you? You know how to read proof as well as I
+do, now."
+
+"Yes." So she did, for Barry had taught her thoroughly; and she had
+applied herself to his lessons with every fraction of her intelligence.
+
+What he had not taught her, however, was an extensive knowledge of the
+master poets and their works; and Toni's ignorance betrayed her
+hopelessly.
+
+At the old-fashioned school she had attended, few poets were considered
+fit for the girls' reading; Tennyson, of course, was included in the
+pupils' studies, and Shakespeare, carefully edited, was a standby; but
+of the works of Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, Keats, Toni was
+lamentably ignorant.
+
+When, therefore, in the article before her she found a quotation from
+one of Robert Browning's poems, followed almost immediately by a line
+from one of the poet's wife's writings, she concluded, hastily, that the
+printers were at fault, and cheerfully amended the latter initials to
+the one magic R. In the same way she confused Keats and Yeats; and
+finished by ascribing to Christina Rossetti one of Dante Gabriel's most
+impassioned utterances; thus destroying whatever value the article might
+have had, as a critical appreciation of the various writers' work.
+
+Having completed her task Toni raised her eyes to look at her husband,
+and found him lying back in his chair watching her with a very kindly
+glance.
+
+"Finished, little girl? That's good. I'll just initial it and send it
+back." He took the sheets she handed him and raised his eyebrows at the
+numerous corrections. "I say, they must be getting careless at the
+office to let all these slips go through!" He ran his eye over the page,
+more from force of habit than because he expected to find any more
+corrections necessary; and suddenly Toni, watching, saw him frown.
+
+"I say, Toni, you've made a mistake." He tried not to speak sharply, for
+after all proof-reading is an art. "This line--'There may be Heaven,
+there must be Hell'--that's Robert Browning all right; but the next
+quotation is from the Sonnets to the Portuguese."
+
+"Is it?" Toni did not understand.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Browning wrote those, you know." He was busy repairing
+Toni's mistake. "And the next is hers, too. And----" he was skimming
+down the page "--why, you little goose, it was Dante Rossetti who wrote
+'The Blessed Damosel.'"
+
+"Was it? I thought her name was Christina." Toni's voice faltered; for
+though she did not yet realize the enormity of her offence, she knew
+that Owen was annoyed by her stupidity.
+
+"_Her_ name? Why, of course _her_ name was Christina; but this happens
+to be his poem, you see."
+
+"His? Whose?" Toni was flustered, or she would never have betrayed
+herself so utterly.
+
+"Whose?" Owen, his nerves strained almost to breaking point by his
+bodily pain, spoke irritably, and Toni shrank miserably into her chair.
+"Why, Toni, have you never heard of the poet Rossetti? Good Heavens,
+child, don't you ever open a book?"
+
+She said nothing, though the tears welled slowly into her eyes; and Owen
+went on reading, finding still further evidences of his wife's lack of
+acquaintance with the giants of literature as he read.
+
+In an ordinary way he would have let her down gently. After all it is no
+crime to confuse two poets of the same name; and to "correct" a
+quotation by transposing two words into a more ordinary sequence is not
+a very heinous offence; but to Owen, racked with pain, the whole affair
+was an instance of the most flagrant ignorance, and he let fly one or
+two biting sarcasms as he bent over the papers, which reduced Toni to a
+state of trembling, impotent misery.
+
+To do him justice Owen repented as soon as he had spoken, and when he
+saw how he had hurt her, he threw aside the proof-sheets and devoted
+himself to making amends for his harshness.
+
+He succeeded finally in winning back something of her usual serenity;
+but to both the incident was oddly discomposing; to Toni because for the
+first time she saw the critic in the husband, and trembled to think how
+often she must fall short of his high standard; to Owen because the
+affair seemed to open up such vast tracts of ignorance in the woman who
+was his wife, and showed, more clearly than ever before, the dividing
+line between intellect and ordinary shrewdness.
+
+For just one illuminating moment he saw Toni as she was; a pretty,
+winning, half-educated little girl, to whom the world of art and
+literature was a sphere apart, its shibboleths mere meaningless babble
+in her ears, its greatest exponents but so many confusing names,
+divorced from any enlightening personalities.
+
+Where, he asked himself half desperately, was there any common meeting
+ground for two beings so widely diverse as they, husband and wife though
+they were? Surely they were as widely sundered as the poles....
+
+And then the sight of Toni's face, her eyes filled with tears, her
+childish mouth quivering, lighted a sudden flame in his heart which
+consumed, for the time being, all doubts and petty vexations. After all,
+she was only a child--and she loved him; and so he took her in his arms
+and kissed away the tears with a remorseful tenderness which might well
+pass--with an uncritical being like Toni--for love.
+
+But Toni was not thinking of that dreadful episode on this brilliant
+June morning. Rather she was trying to realize that she was the mistress
+of this beautiful place, that Greenriver, with its grounds, its flowers,
+its lofty rooms, was to be her home; and to the girl who had lived in
+Winter Road, Brixton, Greenriver was indeed a revelation.
+
+They had been home a week; and so far Owen had not left her for more
+than a few hours, on the occasion of a business visit to London. The
+weather had been superb; and they had spent several long afternoons on
+the river, thereby missing, to Toni's great content, three or four
+callers who had come to see what manner of woman Owen Rose had married.
+That these calls must be returned Toni knew very well; but it must be
+confessed she shivered at the prospect; more especially as Owen had told
+her, laughingly, that she must not count upon his aid on those purely
+social occasions.
+
+As the thought of the terrible duty-calls flashed through her mind Toni
+slipped down from her perch on the balustrade and made her way down to
+the towing path beneath. She often walked beside the river in these
+quiet morning hours, alone unless her dog Jock, an Airedale terrier of
+unimpeachable ancestry and cheerful disposition, was at hand to
+accompany her.
+
+Jock had been presented to her by Barry as a wedding gift; and Toni, who
+had never before been on an intimate footing with a dog, found his
+companionship both delightful and stimulating. Although he was nearly
+two years old Jock was a puppy at heart. He did his best to comport
+himself as a full-grown dog should do: but had lapses into babyhood,
+when a shoe carelessly left about seemed too tempting; or, after a muddy
+walk, a soft satin cushion gave him an invitation to repose which could
+not possibly be denied.
+
+He was a lovable creature, however, and a perfect gentleman as regards
+cats--a very desirable trait in an animal belonging to Toni, who loved
+all cats and would certainly have quarrelled with any dog who waged war
+upon the furry tribe.
+
+To her satisfaction Jock came bounding over the terrace to follow her as
+she stepped on to the towing path; and together they strolled by the
+river in the fresh morning air, Toni gazing half-absently towards the
+distant hills, Jock keeping one eye and ear anxiously cocked in
+anticipation of any unwary rat who should show himself upon the
+river-bank.
+
+Although Willowhurst was comparatively far from town there were a good
+many visitors on the river during the summer months. There was a perfect
+reach for punting just here, and many people came down to occupy the
+bungalows built on the opposite bank to that on which Greenriver stood.
+To Owen these little summer dwellings were in the nature of an eyesore.
+Fond as he was of his own beautiful house he would have liked to keep
+the neighbourhood free from this essentially modern phase of river-life;
+but to Toni the gay little bungalows had a charm of their own. They were
+all specially spick and span just now, having been newly painted and
+garnished with flowers for the season; and Toni looked across the river
+with frank interest at the Cot, the Dinky House, the Mascot, and the
+rest of the tiny shanties. She liked the houseboats, too, with their
+gaily-striped awnings, their hanging baskets filled with gaudy pink
+geraniums and bright lobelia. Their primly-curtained little windows
+amused her; and in the evenings she would lure Owen out on to the
+terrace to look down the river to where the Chinese lanterns hung on
+their poles like globes of magic light against the darkening sky.
+
+Toni and Jock had strolled about a quarter of a mile down the path when
+they were brought sharply to a halt by the sound of a deep bark from the
+other side of the water; and looking across they found they were not the
+only waking creatures in this apparently sleeping world.
+
+In one of the little gardens opposite to where they stood were a couple
+of friends like themselves; but in this case the human being was a man
+in his shirt sleeves, and the canine was a singularly beautiful white
+wolfhound, who stood, at the moment, barking defiance at the intruders
+on the opposite bank.
+
+Jock, whose natural pugnacity was always easily aroused, returned the
+compliment with the most evident sincerity; but the Borzoi, having flung
+down the gage of battle and asserted her dignity, retired gracefully
+from the contest, and walking daintily up to her master rose and placed
+her slender paws on his shoulders, an action which said plainly that
+honour was satisfied.
+
+The animal was so striking-looking, from her long, graceful head to her
+plumy tail, that Toni could not resist a second look; and the dog's
+master had a good view of the girl whom he guessed to be the young
+mistress of Greenriver, the house which he had often admired as he
+passed by in his boat during the summer days.
+
+As she stood, gazing almost childishly across the intervening water, she
+looked barely more than a schoolgirl; and her short skirt and simple
+white blouse aided the illusion. It was only the sight of the coils of
+black hair which bound her head, and the gleam of the gold wedding-ring
+on her finger, which placed her definitely in the category of womanhood;
+and the man who watched her felt a strange sensation of something like
+pity for the girl launched so early on the sea of matrimony, a sea whose
+perils he, of all men, had cause to dread.
+
+But suddenly Toni became aware of the indecorousness of her conduct. It
+was the height of discourtesy to stand staring; and with a blush she
+called Jock and turned hastily away to retrace her steps.
+
+The man and the dog watched her go; and only when she was nearly out of
+sight did they turn back and re-enter the little white bungalow which
+was known locally as the Hope House.
+
+At breakfast Owen asked Toni kindly if she felt inclined for a day on
+the river.
+
+"I thought we might take our lunch and go quite a long way," he said.
+"I'm afraid this must be our last holiday jaunt for a little time. I
+shall have to be busy after this."
+
+"Will you?" She looked a trifle wistful; and Owen was sorry for her.
+
+"Well, I daresay I can manage a day off now and then. To-morrow's
+Thursday, isn't it? I must be up in town then, and I'm afraid I shall be
+late home. There's a dinner I rather wanted to attend, but it would mean
+a long evening alone for you."
+
+"I don't mind." She smiled reassuringly. "I've got Jock to keep me
+company and there are plenty of people in the house."
+
+"Well, Andrews is a pretty sturdy young chap, and of course there are
+three or four women. There's the telephone, too, you know, so you really
+needn't be nervous--especially now, when the river is as full of traffic
+as Bond Street!"
+
+"I'm not a bit nervous," she said. "I ... I was just wondering----"
+
+She broke off, flushing, and Owen felt an unwonted curiosity as to her
+meaning.
+
+"Well?" He spoke kindly, but Toni seemed unable to proceed.
+
+"I was thinking ... I mean ..." Suddenly impatient of her own cowardice
+she took her courage in both hands and spoke bravely. "I was wondering
+whether you would allow me to ask Fanny--my cousin--down for the
+afternoon. You see, if you are away----"
+
+"Why, of course, dear!" Owen spoke the more heartily because he felt a
+slight compunction at the thought of her relations. "Ask your cousin by
+all means. You must remember that this is your house, Toni, and you need
+not ask my leave to invite your friends."
+
+"Thank you." She was looking down as she spoke, but her cheeks were
+scarlet. "I will ask her then ... but ..." suddenly her words came with
+a rush "... I know my people aren't like yours ... I couldn't let them
+meet your friends ... I mean--I'll ask them when you are not at home,
+and then----"
+
+"Don't be a goose, Toni!" Owen hoped his voice betrayed nothing. "Your
+people are my people now, you know, and I don't want you to get any
+silly ideas into your head at the start."
+
+She stretched out her hand impulsively and laid it on his arm.
+
+"Owen, you're too good to me. I know so well that we belong to different
+worlds, but ... if you mean that----"
+
+"Of course I mean it." He rose as he spoke and patted her shoulder.
+"Don't be a little silly--and now run away and write to your cousin at
+once. If she can't come to-morrow, suggest Friday."
+
+"Oh, she couldn't come then," returned Toni naïvely. "You see the shop
+closes on Thursday afternoon, and it's Fanny's only free day."
+
+"I see." Somehow the little explanation, with its picture of a different
+life from that to which he was accustomed, struck a chill to Owen's
+heart; but he hid his discomfort cleverly and bade Toni write her letter
+without delay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Gibbs accepted the invitation joyfully; and on Thursday morning
+Owen went off to town, after bidding Toni keep her cousin to dinner if
+possible.
+
+"She can take the nine-fifteen to town," he said. "I have the car, but
+if she can stay, telephone for a taxi from the station to be here at
+nine. You won't be lonely, Toni?"
+
+"Not a bit!" Indeed she was thrilling with pleasure at the idea of
+entertaining her cousin in her new home. "I've lots to see to. What a
+pity Mrs. Blades is ill to-day."
+
+"Yes, her usual bronchitis, I suppose. She'll be all right in a day or
+two." Owen was hunting for a paper as he spoke. "Confound it, where is
+that manuscript, Toni? You know the one--that article on Alfred Noyes."
+
+"It's here." Toni handed him the paper he required.
+
+"Thanks awfully. You're a first-rate little secretary, Toni! I guess we
+shall miss you at the office!"
+
+He did not observe the rather wistful look which swept over her face at
+the half-careless praise. At that moment Toni felt she would have asked
+nothing better than to jump into the car and journey up to town with
+Owen to take her old place behind the typewriter in Owen's room. She
+hated to see him leaving her, longed to beg him to stay; but something
+stronger than personal longing held her back. A wife, she told herself,
+must be a help, not a hindrance; and since Owen saw fit to leave her, to
+carry on the work in which she had now no place, her duty, plainly, was
+to remain at home and keep everything in her little world in order for
+his return.
+
+Besides, it was a glorious day, the sun was shining, the flowers dancing
+in the breeze; and Fanny would be with her during the afternoon. It was
+a day created for gladness, for rejoicing, and Toni, made wise by love,
+banished wistfulness from her eyes and returned Owen's kiss with a gay
+word of farewell.
+
+But she stood looking after him as the car whizzed down the avenue; and
+the smile which touched her lips was just a little sad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+When Owen was safely gone Toni entered the house with a look of
+determination on her face, and retreating to the little white-panelled
+room known as the morning-room she rang the bell to summon Kate to her
+presence.
+
+It was not Kate who answered the ring, however. In her stead came
+Maggie, the rosy-faced housemaid, who had already fallen in love with
+her young mistress, and was ready to carry out any order which Mrs. Rose
+might give.
+
+"Oh, it's you, Maggie?" Toni looked up from the paper on which she was
+scribbling. "Where's Kate?"
+
+It seemed Kate was busy, poulticing Mrs. Blades, who was suffering under
+one of her usual attacks of bronchitis, and she had sent Maggie, with
+apologies, in her stead.
+
+"Mrs. Blades is really ill? Had she better see a doctor?"
+
+No, Maggie was empowered by Kate to say that a doctor's visit was
+unnecessary. Mrs. Blades often had these attacks, and they knew just
+what to do; but she would not be able to attend to her duties for a
+couple of days at the least.
+
+In spite of herself Toni's face brightened. Not that she wished Mrs.
+Blades to suffer, but she knew quite well that the old housekeeper, for
+all her respectful ways, resented the arrival of a mistress of whom, for
+some reason, she did not approve; and Toni felt rather glad that for
+to-day, at any rate, she could be in reality the mistress of the whole
+establishment.
+
+With the other servants she was on the best of terms. Whatever Mrs.
+Blades might think of Toni's social position previous to her marriage
+she was sufficiently loyal to keep her doubts to herself; and Martha the
+cook, Kate the serious parlourmaid, and Andrews the young man-servant,
+one and all combined to make their new mistress feel at ease with her
+staff.
+
+Maggie, to-day, was full of importance at being allowed to replace Kate
+to assist Toni in her preparation for the afternoon's visitor; and she
+listened attentively to all that Toni had to say.
+
+"I want a really nice tea, Maggie!" Toni looked up from her list with a
+serious face. "Miss Gibbs has to catch an early train from town, and
+won't have time for much lunch." Even the unsophisticated Toni knew
+better than to mention the nature of Miss Gibbs' employment. "So I want
+tea at four o'clock and it must be pretty--well, substantial."
+
+Maggie fully endorsed the suggestion, and waited to see what Mrs. Rose
+considered necessary for the meal.
+
+"Tea and hot cakes, of course. And that lovely plum cake Martha made
+for ..." Toni blushed, but went on bravely "... for our wedding-cake.
+And then--is it possible to get shrimps, Maggie?"
+
+"Why, yes, ma'am--don't you remember cook's shrimp savoury for Sunday
+lunch? And you'd shrimp sauce with the fish last night."
+
+"Of course, so we had. Well, when the man calls from the fish shop,
+order some. You get them by the pint--or is it the pound?" said Toni,
+vaguely remembering her aunt's orders on the occasion of a tea-party.
+
+Maggie thought it was the pint; and in any case she would give the order
+to the young man herself.
+
+"Very well. And then--what else, Maggie? I do want a nice tea."
+
+The little handmaiden eagerly racked her brain for some brilliant idea;
+and finally suggested that Cook was very fond of making "shape."
+
+"Shape? Oh, I see," said Toni a trifle dubiously. "You mean a
+blanc-mange or a cream. But I don't think it would do for tea."
+
+Maggie thought, respectfully, that it would do fine. In her last place
+her mistress always had a shape when company was coming to tea.
+But--suddenly her rosy face grew even more pink--perhaps she was wrong,
+and anyway Mrs. Rose knew best.
+
+Sorry for the girl's evident embarrassment Toni gave the order forthwith
+for a cream; and then turned to the subject of dinner.
+
+"Miss Gibbs will stay to dinner, and we will have it at half-past seven.
+That gives us time to go on the river first; and the cab won't be here
+till nine."
+
+"Cook's sent you a mennyoo, ma'am." Maggie produced a somewhat crumpled
+piece of paper. "She thought perhaps something of this sort would do."
+
+Toni ran her eye over the paper, and her brow cleared.
+
+"Soup, fish, sweetbread and green peas, chicken...." she gave the paper
+back. "Yes, it will do beautifully, and I'm sure Miss Gibbs will like
+Martha's trifle. Well, Maggie, that's all, I think. Have I forgotten
+anything?"
+
+The two girls stared at one another for a moment, their faces quite
+solemn with the effort of concentration. Then Toni relaxed and spoke
+gaily.
+
+"No, that's all, I'm sure ... well, Maggie, what have you thought of
+now?"
+
+"Please, ma'am, the flowers."
+
+"Yes, I'd forgotten! Good girl, Maggie! Well, get me the scissors and a
+basket, and then you might put the vases ready in the little room."
+
+Maggie flew to obey the commands, and Toni, to whom the idea of giving
+orders was still almost ludicrous, strolled to the window to await her
+return.
+
+The room overlooked the river, and on that account was a favourite with
+Toni. It was reached by a short flight of stairs apart from the main
+staircase, and boasted a large casement window, built over the terrace
+below, and giving the river an air of proximity which always delighted
+Toni.
+
+To-day the water sparkled in the sunshine with a very cheerful effect;
+and as Toni looked a cream-white swan drifted by, the sun's light
+turning its feathers into a kind of gilded snow. A punt passed slowly
+with two occupants, one a girl in a white frock, lying lazily on a heap
+of blue-green cushions, her uncovered head protected from the sun by a
+scarlet parasol, the other a bronzed and fair-haired youth, who wielded
+his pole with an athletic grace purely Greek.
+
+Toni's eyes softened as the two glided by. Her own happiness was so
+immense, her love for Owen had been so wonderfully, so completely
+satisfied, that she wished all other girls to be as happy as she was;
+and although the two in the punt were only visible for a few moments she
+thought she could read in their faces the story of their mutual
+attraction.
+
+When Maggie returned Toni took the basket and went out into the garden.
+Gathering flowers was an occupation of which she never tired. Never,
+since her days on the hill-slope above Naples, had she been able to
+indulge her passionate love for flowers; and to the girl who had been
+wont to regard sixpence spent on a branch of golden mimosa, or a handful
+of the big pink carnations which seem indigenous to the London streets,
+as something of an extravagance, the delight of filling bowls and vases
+with unlimited supplies of the loveliest, freshest flowers could not be
+overrated.
+
+To-day she cut more lavishly than usual in Fanny's honour, and when,
+just as the lunch gong sounded, she rested from her labours, the lovely
+old house was a dream of beauty and colour and scent.
+
+Snapdragons, in every shade of yellow and pink and deep, rich rose,
+stood in tall jars, wherever there was a dark corner to be lighted up.
+Big blue bowls held masses of roses of every describable hue, whose
+fragrance scented all the house; and every available inch of space had
+been utilized as a resting-place for one or more vases of the sweetest,
+gayest blooms imaginable.
+
+Even Toni was satisfied at last, and she hurried over her lunch in good
+spirits. Just as she was rising from the table a thought struck her.
+
+"Kate, do you think we might have tea in here? You see--we ought to have
+a table, I think--and it wouldn't matter for once, would it?"
+
+Kate, who had experienced sundry qualms at the idea of a feast of
+shrimps in the charming, old-world drawing-room, gave a decided assent.
+
+"It would be much more suitable, ma'am. I could put a pretty lace cloth
+on the table, and then with some flowers it would look quite nice."
+
+"Thank you, Kate." Toni gave vent to a relieved sigh. "You and Maggie
+are really treasures in helping me. Oh--how is Mrs. Blades!"
+
+Mrs. Blades was better; but Kate, who had a shrewd notion of the old
+woman's real opinion of her pretty mistress, was not ill-pleased to
+inform Toni that the bronchial attack from which she was suffering made
+it impossible for her to supervise the household affairs for to-day at
+least.
+
+"Well, you must look after things for me, Kate," said Toni, smiling in a
+friendly fashion at the girl; and Kate, although she had lived in
+"smart" houses, and knew that shrimps and blanc-mange were not usually
+met with at tea, succumbed still more completely to that friendly little
+smile.
+
+"Why shouldn't she have her tea-party as she likes it?" she said to
+herself as she went out. "The master's away, and she's not likely to do
+this sort of thing when he's about." Kate, who was thirty-one, and
+experienced in the ways of the world, was quite aware of the element of
+awe in Toni's love for her husband--an element of which Toni herself was
+as yet wholly unsuspicious. "And I've no doubt this young lady as is
+coming down isn't used to great things. You can see as Mrs. Rose hasn't
+lived with anyone partikler--but she's a real little lady in her ways,
+for all that," concluded this authority on the ways of gentlefolk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Punctually at three o'clock Miss Gibbs arrived; and was shown into the
+drawing-room, where Toni awaited her coming.
+
+To tell the truth Miss Gibbs was a little awed by the unexpected
+grandeur of her surroundings; and not even the consciousness of her new
+linen frock and elaborately-trimmed hat could give her quite her usual
+assurance.
+
+She followed Andrews meekly across the hall, hardly daring to lift her
+eyes; and when the man threw open the drawing-room door and ushered her
+in, Fanny unconsciously moderated her usual hearty footstep and
+endeavoured to make her entry as inconspicuous as possible.
+
+Toni, who had not heard the cab arrive, jumped up hastily from her low
+chair and ran to meet her cousin, while Andrews discreetly withdrew and
+closed the door.
+
+"Fanny! How glad I am to see you!" Toni hugged Miss Gibbs
+affectionately. "I'd have come to meet you but I was so late with lunch
+that I hadn't time."
+
+"I found a cab waiting for me," said Fanny, returning her embrace. "You
+were a dear to send it, Toni. You're quite a way from the station,
+aren't you?"
+
+"I suppose we are," said Toni carelessly. "But how are you, Fan? And
+Auntie--and Lu and all of them?"
+
+"Mother's first-rate and longing to see you when you can get up to town.
+Everyone's all right," said Fanny comfortably. "Lu's been in mischief
+again, though. She and some of the girls from her school played truant
+t'other day and went to see a County cricket-match. You know cricket's
+the craze this term, and they got their money stolen and couldn't get
+home, and Lu didn't land up till ten o'clock at night!"
+
+"You don't mean it! What did Auntie say?"
+
+"She didn't say much then, 'cause Lu was cryin' and nearly dead with
+tramping for miles; but next day she got a jolly good whipping and was
+shut up on bread and water all over Sunday."
+
+"Oh, poor Lu!" Toni felt very pitiful towards the hapless cricket
+enthusiast. "After all, Fan, you and I once ran away to see the Boat
+Race on our own!"
+
+"Yes, and we got jolly well punished for it, too! I can remember Ma's
+slipper to this day!"
+
+"Well, you ought to be sorry for Lu!"
+
+"Serve her right," said Miss Gibbs with sisterly severity. "Cricket,
+indeed! What do girls want with cricket! Anyhow, she won't do it again
+in a hurry--Ma saw to that!"
+
+"And how's Josh, Fan?" Toni saw that no sympathy was to be looked for
+from the culprit's sister.
+
+"A 1. I say, Toni, where's Mr. Rose?" Fanny, regaining some of her usual
+assurance, looked round her vaguely.
+
+"He has had to go up to town. But I thought you wouldn't mind, Fan. I
+want to show you the house and have a real good talk."
+
+"My! It _is_ a house and no mistake!" Fanny gazed about the beautiful
+room with frank admiration. "I thought the man must be going wrong when
+he turned in here--and what lovely gardens you've got."
+
+"Yes, they are jolly, aren't they? Well, shall we go over the house
+before tea or after? It's very nearly four, and I said we'd have tea
+early."
+
+"I'm glad of that." Fanny beamed approval. "To tell you the truth, Toni,
+I hadn't time for much lunch. We're supposed to shut at one, you know,
+but of course we don't get off at once, and to-day everything went
+wrong! At the last minute I upset a box of ribbons, and the spiteful
+things all went and got unrolled, and then that odious little
+Jackson--you know, the shopwalker I told you about--came and slanged me
+like anything."
+
+"What a shame!" Toni had been one of the workers of the world too
+recently to have lost sympathy with the grievances of those who work. "I
+wish you could leave the old shop, Fanny. Why don't you and Josh get
+married?"
+
+"Too soon." Fanny was of a prudent nature. "We _must_ wait till Josh
+gets a rise, and I can't afford to leave the shop. You see, I must have
+a few clothes before I marry ... by the way, Toni, what about your
+clothes? You didn't get much when you married, did you?"
+
+"No, but before we came here we went up to town and stayed at the
+Russell for two days and did a whole heap of shopping." Toni stifled a
+sigh at the thought of those long hours spent in shops. "You see I
+didn't really know what to get, so Owen went, with me, and I got a lot
+of things ready-made, and was fitted for others, so I have quite a
+trousseau by now!"
+
+"That skirt's well-cut," said Miss Gibbs, surveying her cousin
+critically. "Blue serge always looks well--and that white blouse is good
+thick silk."
+
+"I'm glad you like it. Owen likes me in these low collars, and they're
+cool." Toni looked at the clock. "But come upstairs and take off your
+hat and we'll have tea straight away."
+
+Nothing loth, Miss Gibbs agreed; and went into fresh raptures when she
+saw Toni's bedroom.
+
+"My! What lovely furniture!" She went up to the toilet-table and began
+to examine it. "And these silver brushes and things--are they all
+yours?"
+
+"Yes. Owen gave them to me."
+
+"Well to be you," commented Miss Gibbs briskly. "What a lovely long
+glass, too! Can't you see yourself properly just!"
+
+She stood in front of the glass so long that Toni grew impatient.
+
+"Hurry up, Fan! I'm sure tea's ready and I'm dying for some. I hadn't
+much lunch."
+
+Thus incited, Miss Gibbs laid aside the flowery hat she had been
+admiring, disclosing a much curled and waved _coiffure_, and together
+the cousins ran downstairs, just as Andrews carried in the silver
+tea-pot and the hot cakes.
+
+Kate, true to her word, had made the best of the oval table. She had
+laid upon it the finest, laciest cloth she could find, and had placed in
+the centre a tall jar of lilies, while here and there she had found room
+for small silver bowls of pink roses. The silver tea-tray, with its thin
+china cups and saucers, stood proudly at the head of the table; and so
+far nothing could have been more charming.
+
+But alas! Even Kate could not hide the eminent unsuitability of the
+feast itself to its elegant surroundings. True, the bread and butter was
+of wafer-like thinness, there were hot cakes of the crispest, finest
+variety, and the plum-cake which was Martha's welcome to the bride was
+of the richest, most tempting description.
+
+But side by side with those delicacies was a dish of shrimps, in all
+their native vulgarity; and further down, almost hidden in fact by the
+flowery centrepiece, was a glass dish containing a velvety white cream
+whose real place should have been on the dinner-table.
+
+For a moment Toni's heart misgave her as she saw these things in their
+blatancy; and she wished she had stuck to the usual tiny sandwiches
+which Martha sent up when she and Owen were alone. Then she remembered,
+gratefully, that Fanny was hungry, and common sense whispered that to a
+girl who had lunched lightly a sandwich was unsatisfying fare.
+
+As for Fanny, her spirits, momentarily damped by the sight of the silver
+tray, rose with a bound as she surveyed the table.
+
+"I say, Toni, what a spread! Shrimps, I declare! Well, I thought you'd
+have been much too smart nowadays to think of them!"
+
+"Nonsense!" Toni's depression vanished, and she laughed gaily. "I always
+did like shrimps--and why shouldn't I have them if I want them? Come and
+sit down, Fan--here, by me--and do make a good tea!"
+
+Fanny needed no second bidding. Taking the seat indicated she leaned
+forward to examine the silver in the most open fashion.
+
+"I say, you've got some tiptop things and no mistake! That cloth is
+simply lovely--just look at the lace, as fine as fine!"
+
+"It belonged to Owen's mother," said Toni, passing her a cup of tea.
+"There are lots of things like that in the house. Now, Fanny, help
+yourself--and pass the dish!"
+
+Thus invited, Fanny did help herself; and presently both girls were
+happily eating and talking, Fanny asking innumerable questions and Toni
+satisfying her curiosity without entering into details.
+
+Suddenly Toni jumped up.
+
+"There's Jock at the door. You must see him, Fan--he's a darling, and
+I'm sure you'll love him!"
+
+Almost before the door was properly open Jock hurled himself
+reproachfully into the room, and flinging himself on to his mistress,
+inquired in the plainest dog-language why she had been so slow in
+answering his summons. When she had apologized and received his
+forgiveness, she introduced him to Miss Gibbs, who was won immediately
+by his courteous manner towards her and the friendliness in his nice
+brown eyes.
+
+She cemented the acquaintance by offering him--timidly--a piece of cake;
+and instantly Jock threw dignity to the winds and begged, shamelessly,
+for further morsels; which being denied him caused him to bark
+vociferously and show off his few tricks in the hope of adequate reward.
+
+He was engaged in walking on his hind legs round the room, following
+Fanny, who was laughing excitedly and flourishing a piece of cake, while
+Toni clapped her hands and called out words of encouragement at the top
+of her voice, when a loud whirring sound on the gravel outside made both
+girls turn in the direction from which came the noise--just in time to
+see a big grey car shoot by the window on its way to the front door.
+
+One glance was enough.
+
+"Good gracious, Fan! Visitors! What a bore!"
+
+"Will they come in? Won't your man say you're out?" gasped Fanny,
+hastily dropping the bit of cake she held and pinning up a roll of hair
+which had come down in the game.
+
+"No--they saw us," said Toni wildly. "I never said I wasn't at home--and
+anyway they'd hear us laughing!"
+
+In a dead silence the two girls stood, waiting breathlessly to see what
+would happen; and in the sudden hush they heard the clang of the big
+bell, and Andrews' speedy arrival in the hall.
+
+For one wild moment Toni thought of waylaying him with instructions to
+send the visitors away. The next instant she realized that such a course
+was impossible, and waited helplessly for the next act of the drama.
+
+Andrews opened the door, and Toni heard a gentle, cultured voice ask if
+Mrs. Rose were at home.
+
+For a fraction of a second Andrews, who was young enough to be human,
+and had not yet become a machine, hesitated as though he would fain deny
+his mistress to these invaders; but finally habit triumphed over
+humanity and he replied stolidly in the affirmative.
+
+The next moment Toni, standing by the door, heard the rustle of skirts
+and the firm step of a man, which sounds proceeded in the direction of
+the drawing-room; and with an agonized sign to her cousin Toni flew back
+to her seat behind the tea-tray just as the door opened to admit
+Andrews.
+
+The visitors, knowing themselves unknown, had provided the servant with
+cards; and these Andrews silently presented to his mistress, who took
+them with a shaking hand.
+
+"The Honourable Mrs. Anstey, Miss Olive Lynn, Mr. Barry Raymond----" She
+broke off with a sigh of relief. "Why, that's Owen's friend, Fanny. It's
+not half so bad if he's there!"
+
+She turned to the man.
+
+"Are they in the drawing-room, Andrews?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Oh!" For a second Toni hesitated, then common sense came to her rescue.
+"I will come, Andrews. Fanny, will you come with me?"
+
+"Oh, do let me stay here," begged Miss Gibbs, who was still endeavouring
+to make herself tidy. "I'm such a sight, playing with the dog--but you
+go, Toni ... and p'raps they won't stop long."
+
+Toni walked across the hall with lagging footsteps, preceded by the
+sympathetic Andrews, who threw open the door for her with a
+compassionate air, and then retired to break the news of this intrusion
+to the maids who were anxiously waiting his return.
+
+In the drawing-room were three people; and as Toni made her entrance,
+looking like a veritable schoolgirl in her blouse and short skirt, the
+oldest of the trio came forward with an expression of surprise on her
+beautiful, faded face.
+
+"Mrs. Rose?" She shook hands. "I am so glad to find you at home. This is
+my niece, Miss Lynn, who is staying with me--and Mr. Raymond I think you
+know?"
+
+Toni, feeling shyer than ever, shook hands with the pretty, grey-eyed
+girl who approached at the sound of her name; and then turned, with a
+feeling of genuine relief, to Barry.
+
+"Mr. Raymond! I'm so pleased to see you--but I'm afraid Owen isn't at
+home!"
+
+"I know that!" He laughed. "He is doing a little work to-day, for a
+change--and my call is really on you!"
+
+"Well, won't you sit down?" Toni drew a low chair forward for Mrs.
+Anstey, who accepted it with a smile, while Olive Lynn sank down on the
+couch, where, after a second's pause, Toni also took her seat.
+
+"I had hoped to see you before now," said Mrs. Anstey, with a smile
+which won Toni's impressionable heart. "But I heard you had only just
+got home, and thought I would give you a chance to settle down."
+
+"It is very good of you to come," said Toni simply. "You live some
+distance away, don't you? I think my husband pointed out your house to
+me when we were motoring one day."
+
+"Yes, nearly eight miles off--in the next village, in fact. But as you
+have a motor I hope you'll come over and see me pretty often." She gave
+the invitation with a pleasant note of sincerity. "Just at present my
+niece is taking pity on me, but I am very lonely sometimes."
+
+"I will come, certainly," said Toni, feeling curiously at ease with this
+charming, elderly woman who, in spite of her aristocratic bearing, was
+so delightfully kindly. "I haven't returned any calls yet--but my
+husband tells me I must really start next week."
+
+"Do--and come to tea with me first of all." Mrs. Anstey spoke quite
+unconsciously, but something in her words aroused Toni to a sense of her
+own deficiencies as hostess.
+
+Tea--of course! Owen had told her that it was imperative to offer tea to
+afternoon visitors; and these people had motored eight miles over a
+dusty road--they must be hot and thirsty and longing for tea.
+
+Yet--suddenly Toni felt it would be impossible to ask her guests to
+participate in the feast which she had spread for Fanny. The delicacies
+which had been prepared for her cousin took on a very uncouth
+appearance, and from the bottom of her heart Toni wished she had kept to
+the usual _régime_ of dainty sandwiches and cakes.
+
+Yet she must offer tea--and quickly, before her visitors had time to
+doubt her hospitable intentions. She was so lost in thought that she let
+Mrs. Anstey's remark go unanswered; and Barry, looking at her, wondered
+what had made her suddenly colour hotly and look embarrassed and
+nervous.
+
+Truth to tell, Toni was hot all over. A more experienced hostess than
+she would have rung the bell and requested Andrews to bring tea; and
+doubtless he would have done so without delay, thereby saving the
+situation; but to Toni's mind the fact that tea was ready in the room
+across the hall quite precluded the possibility of having another tea
+brought for the latest visitors; besides which it flashed through her
+mind that these people must have seen the tea-table through the big
+dining-room window.
+
+Olive Lynn, seeing her confusion, but not understanding its cause, tried
+good-naturedly to put her at her ease.
+
+"I think I saw you on the river last night, didn't I? We were in a
+canoe, and you and Mr. Rose were punting."
+
+"Oh--yes!" Toni, still wrestling with her problem, answered rather
+vaguely. "We--we had taken tea with us and were late home."
+
+"That's so jolly, isn't it?" Olive smiled. "We often do that--take a
+tea-basket and have a picnic."
+
+Tea again! Suddenly Toni grew desperate. Tea must be offered; there was
+no way out of this dilemma save a frank acceptance of the situation; and
+with a sinking heart Toni took the plunge.
+
+"I ... we were just having tea, my cousin and I," she said abruptly.
+"Will you ... will you come and have some? I'm sure you must be thirsty
+after your drive."
+
+Mrs. Anstey, with a look at her niece, accepted courteously. It was a
+hot day and the roads were dusty, and in a house like Greenriver one
+need not be afraid of putting one's hostess out by accepting a cup of
+tea.
+
+"Thank you. A cup of tea would be very refreshing--I'm sure Olive thinks
+so, don't you, dear?"
+
+"Oh, I'm always ready for tea," replied the girl, laughing, "and
+motoring does make one thirsty, doesn't it, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Will you come, then?" Toni had risen, and now moved, feeling cold with
+nervousness, towards the door. "We ... we are having tea in the
+dining-room to-day."'
+
+Barry opened the door as she spoke; and together the little party
+crossed the hall to the dining-room. Andrews was hovering about; and as
+he saw his mistress leading her guests he slipped away in search of
+fresh cups and a supply of hot tea.
+
+Inside the dining-room Miss Gibbs, having reduced her appearance to
+something like order, was sitting rather apprehensively in her place;
+and as the door opened to admit the quartette she rose and stood waiting
+nervously for Toni's introductions.
+
+These were soon made. Mrs. Anstey and Olive shook hands with Fanny, each
+of them wondering in her mind at the relationship between her pretty,
+shy hostess and this florid, rather overdressed young woman; but
+convention mercifully intervened to hide their wonder; and Fanny could
+find no fault with their courteous greetings.
+
+With Barry it was quite impossible to feel ill at ease; and he shook
+hands so nicely, making a remark about Jock as he did so, that Fanny
+felt suddenly comfortable again.
+
+The guests, in response to Toni's invitation, seated themselves; Olive
+taking a chair by Fanny's side, while Mrs. Anstey sat next to her
+hostess, and Barry appropriated a stool beside the elder woman.
+
+Andrews entering with fresh supplies, Toni provided her visitors with
+tea, losing her first nervousness as she did so; and for a moment it
+seemed as though the little party would be a success after all.
+
+Mrs. Anstey had just accepted a hot cake, and Olive was begging prettily
+for another lump of sugar, when Jock, who had been sitting quietly
+beside his mistress, suddenly rose and rushed madly over to the window,
+uttering a succession of shrill barks as he did so.
+
+Everyone glanced at the window to see what had disturbed him; and there,
+on the gravel outside, stood two ladies, evidently a little uncertain of
+the Airedale's intentions.
+
+"I think those are some more visitors, Mrs. Rose!" Barry gave her a
+quizzical look. "It never rains but it pours! Shall I ... er ... Jock
+seems a little anxious to send the visitors away!"
+
+Luckily the window was raised a good height from the ground; and Jock
+was obliged to content himself with putting his paws on the window-seat
+and barking still more fiercely at the figures without.
+
+Presently, however, the two ladies appeared to regain the courage they
+had momentarily lost; and vanished from sight in the direction of the
+front door; which was shortly opened by Andrews, who had evidently been
+lurking in the hall listening to Jock's protestations.
+
+It is possible that the man, who was really little more than a boy, lost
+his head; or perhaps he was infected by the spirit of nervousness which
+had gripped Toni earlier in the afternoon. At any rate, whatever the
+excuse, he made no pretence of showing the new-comers into the
+drawing-room, but opened the dining-room door and ushered them straight
+into the presence of his mistress; after which he closed the door and
+leaned against the wall, aghast at his own stupidity.
+
+To make matters worse, he had announced the ladies in so indistinct a
+voice that Toni had not the faintest notion who her visitors were; and
+for a second they stared helplessly at one another, while Jock, who had
+conceived a violent dislike for these latest comers, barked loudly and
+unmercifully throughout.
+
+At last, however, just as Toni mustered up courage to shake hands, Mrs.
+Anstey came to the rescue.
+
+"Why, Lady Martin, I had no idea you were home again. You have come to
+welcome Mrs. Rose, I suppose. My dear"--to Toni--"Lady Martin is your
+nearest neighbour--really near, I mean; only a mile away."
+
+"Less by the fields." Lady Martin spoke magisterially. "And this fine
+weather tempted us to walk, although both the cars were standing idle in
+the garage."
+
+Having thus established her position as the owner of two cars, Lady
+Martin brought forward her daughter and presented her to Toni, who
+received an instant impression of size, teeth and volubility as Miss
+Martin shook hands and expressed her pleasure at finding Mrs. Rose at
+home.
+
+The next thing to do was obviously to provide chairs for the guests, and
+this Toni did, with the help of Barry, who appeared to be on fairly
+friendly terms with the two ladies; and once again Toni turned her
+attention to filling teacups.
+
+Fanny, who had been somewhat overlooked during the last strenuous
+moments, was relieved to hear herself addressed in a friendly tone by
+Miss Lynn, who felt sorry for the girl, so obviously ill-at-ease; and in
+return for the kindly attention Fanny eagerly handed Olive the dish of
+shrimps with an invitation to "try some."
+
+Olive Lynn, who had possibly never met these small creatures in their
+native armour before, hesitated, casting a look at Barry at the same
+moment; but he was engaged in handing Lady Martin some bread and butter;
+and Olive's appeal went unanswered.
+
+Taking Miss Lynn's silence for consent, and being really anxious to help
+Toni by making her guests eat a good tea, Fanny eagerly piled her
+neighbour's plate with shrimps; and at that moment Lady Martin first
+discovered what plebeian dishes the table held.
+
+Ignoring Barry and his bread and butter, she put up her lorgnette and
+deliberately scrutinized the heap of pink shrimps which Fanny, pleased
+with her success, was just pushing across to Miss Martin. For a second
+her ladyship was speechless; then, as her daughter turned a haughty
+stare upon the officious commoner, Lady Martin spoke.
+
+"I think, Lucretia, you had better leave those--er--shellfish alone. I
+understand there is always a danger of ptomaine poisoning with such
+things."
+
+Toni dropped a lump of sugar with a clatter on the tray and turned
+scarlet. Lady Martin's tone was so deliberately offensive, her manner so
+disagreeable, that Toni felt like a chidden schoolgirl; and again the
+enormity of her social mistake swept over her, rendering her quite
+incapable of making any reply to the attack.
+
+But rescue was at hand. Barry, who from the first had felt a chivalrous
+interest in his friend's wife, had seen the colour sweep into her face,
+and had determined that the Martins, mother and daughter, should not
+exercise their well-known prerogative of snubbing any woman who did not
+boast a title.
+
+It is true that Lady Martin was the wife of a soap manufacturer,
+knighted for services to his party; and both sprang from a very humble
+class; but what they lacked in breeding they made up for in arrogance;
+and Lady Martin had early determined that if she wished to become a
+power in the neighbourhood she must assert herself on every occasion.
+Also, she had intended to patronize the young mistress of Greenriver;
+and to find Mrs. Anstey, the only person in the district of whom she
+stood in awe, here before her had disturbed her mean little soul.
+
+Barry, quick as a woman in some matters, read her mind accurately, and
+immediately ranged himself on the side of his embarrassed hostess.
+
+"Are those shrimps, Mrs. Rose? And you never asked me to have any!"
+
+He flashed a laughing glance at her, and drew the dish towards him,
+resolved that he at least would not shirk his duty.
+
+"I ... I'm sorry ... I forgot," said Toni lamely. "But ... please don't
+have any if you'd rather not."
+
+"It seems hardly the hour for these--delicacies," said Lady Martin,
+waving haughtily aside the dish Barry offered her mischievously. "In
+sauce--or _pâtés_--yes ... but now--no!"
+
+"Oh, you're making quite a mistake," said Barry coolly, helping himself
+as he spoke. "They are delicious with bread and butter. Olive, you've
+got some? That's right. Mrs. Anstey, can't I persuade you to try a few?"
+
+Mrs. Anstey, thoroughly understanding the look of appeal which Barry's
+laughing eyes held, smiled very kindly.
+
+"My dear boy, I never eat much tea, as you know--but still--if you'll
+prepare me one or two ... they really look so tempting...."
+
+To her dying day Lady Martin would never forget that afternoon. There
+sat Mrs. Anstey, whom everyone knew to be related to half the "good"
+families of England, eating shrimps, shelled for her by Barry, with an
+air of enjoyment which was in itself an offence. There, too, was Miss
+Lynn, niece to an earl, doing likewise, being assisted in the mysteries
+of divorcing the creatures from their shells by the blowsy, florid young
+woman beside her, with whom she was soon on excellent terms. And there,
+also, was Barry Raymond, a young man for whom everyone had a good word,
+laughing and joking with his hostess as though they were old friends,
+while that same hostess lost her frightened look beneath his geniality
+and did the honours of the tea-tray very prettily.
+
+Only Lady Martin and her daughter were out of it; and when she found
+that her cold looks and biting speeches made no impression on
+anyone--for even Fanny was at ease now with these delightful people--her
+ladyship could bear it no longer.
+
+Rising abruptly, and cutting short a sentence of Toni's as though she
+heard nothing, Lady Martin called her daughter to her side.
+
+"I think, Lucretia, if you have finished your tea"--both ladies had left
+their cups untouched--"we must tear ourselves away. We promised to look
+in at the Vicarage, and you know we are dining with the Batty-Browns
+to-night!"
+
+Having thus made it clear that she was in much social demand, Lady
+Martin advanced upon her hostess and held out her hand aggressively.
+
+"Good-bye, Mrs. Rose. So glad to have seen you. I am always at home on
+Wednesdays in the summer."
+
+Toni shook hands quietly, and Miss Martin followed suit with a limp
+handshake; after which the two ladies took what was intended to be a
+gushing farewell of the other guests, ignoring Fanny as though she were
+not present.
+
+Andrews was in waiting to show the ladies out; and when, a moment later,
+they swept by the window, their high-heeled shoes crunching the gravel
+sternly, Barry heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+"I don't know how it is, but Lady Martin always gives me the creeps.
+Mrs. Rose, is it too late to beg another cup of tea? I assure you I
+really want it, to buck me up."
+
+Toni, who was very pale, filled his cup with rather a trembling hand,
+and Mrs. Anstey saw that the woman's insolence had unnerved her.
+
+Appearing to notice nothing, she began to make conversation, discoursing
+gently on various unimportant topics until Toni grew more like herself;
+and when at length Mrs. Anstey rose to go she had completely won Toni's
+grateful heart.
+
+Toni took leave of her visitors regretfully, and readily promised to
+return the visit as soon as possible; and then she and Fanny accompanied
+them to the door to see them comfortably settled in the big grey car.
+
+Barry was driving, Olive sitting beside him; and the girl turned and
+waved a kindly hand as the car began to glide down the avenue in the
+afternoon sunshine.
+
+"My! Isn't she pretty!" Miss Gibbs' admiration was sincere. "And that
+blue bonnet of hers was a dream--must have cost pounds!"
+
+"I think Mrs. Anstey is beautiful," said Toni, rather dreamily, gazing
+after the car. "I don't wonder Miss Lynn is so devoted to her. She is
+just my ideal of a lady."
+
+"Better than that other stuck-up cat," said Fanny rather viciously. "And
+as for that maypole of a daughter, she's nothing but a gawk."
+
+"Oh, don't let's go in there!" Toni laid a hand on her cousin's arm as
+Fanny turned towards the dining-room. "I don't want to see the tea-table
+any more! Fan, wasn't it _horrible_ when they came first?"
+
+"Well, they were a bit sticky," said Fanny frankly. "But nobody seemed
+to care! Mr. Raymond was just making game of them all the time."
+
+"Well, don't let's think of them," said Toni, shaking herself as though
+freeing her shoulders from an incubus. "We'll go on the river for an
+hour, Fan, and then you shall see the house."
+
+The programme was carried out successfully, and beneath Fanny's
+affectionate chatter Toni regained the spirits she had lost. She took
+her cousin on the river, returning in time to see the old house before
+the summer darkness fell; and after a very satisfactory little dinner
+Miss Gibbs departed, highly pleased with her entertainment.
+
+Owen was not to be home till nearly midnight, and Toni decided not to
+sit up. Indeed, she was tired, and it was barely ten o'clock when she
+went upstairs to bed. Something was troubling her, too; and as she
+walked slowly down the long gallery, lighted only by the Ten Little
+Ladies, she was asking herself a question which, in spite of its
+humorous form, held a hint of tragedy.
+
+"Shall I have to tell Owen everything--how rude she was and what an
+idiot I felt? Must I really tell him about--about the _shrimps_?"
+
+She paused, looking about her as though seeking an answer to her
+question, which held indeed a significance which she dimly understood.
+
+But the Ten Little Ladies had no reply to give her; and with a sigh Toni
+passed on and entered her own room in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Fairly late that night Barry Raymond jumped off his motorcycle at the
+gate of the bungalow known locally as the Hope House. It was a perfect
+June night, and as he unlatched the gate Barry heard a nightingale
+singing its love-song to the moon, the deliciously pure notes ringing
+across the river with a fascinating, almost unearthly, effect.
+
+The garden of the bungalow was full of sleeping flowers, and their
+fragrance stole gently out like a tender welcome to Barry as he strode
+up the path between their ranks, pale-coloured in the moonlight, though
+full of rich, glowing colour beneath the sun.
+
+Another welcome greeted him in a moment. There was a low, deep-toned
+bark, a white streak of something advancing in a hurtling flash, and
+then, as the great Borzoi discovered the visitor to be a friend, she
+dropped into a welcoming march, waving her plumy tail the while.
+
+"Halloa, Olga, old girl! Where's your boss?"
+
+He was not far off, having been warned of the approach of his friend,
+and in another moment the two men were shaking hands cordially.
+
+"By Jove, Barry, it's good to see you again!" There was no mistaking the
+pleasure in the tone. "I thought you'd be looking me up--someone told me
+you were staying down here."
+
+"Yes--only for three days, worse luck. I'm with the Ansteys--you know
+Miss Lynn is Mrs. Anstey's niece, and she is there too."
+
+"I see. Well, come in and have a peg." He led the way hospitably through
+the green door into the bungalow, and a minute later the two were seated
+cosily in the little living-room, which looked oddly attractive in the
+lamplight.
+
+Olga, the wolfhound, followed them in as a matter of course, and when
+her master had mixed drinks for himself and his visitor, and had taken
+his seat, she lay down beside him, her long nose resting on her paws,
+while she blinked sleepily in the mellow light.
+
+"Well, Barry, how goes the world? Cheerily, eh?"
+
+"With me? Yes." He took a pull at his glass, "I'm A 1, and so is Olive."
+
+"Work going ahead? I hear the _Bridge_ is making its way."
+
+"Rather!" He spoke enthusiastically. "The next number will be out in a
+few days, and it's better than ever."
+
+"Good! Of course Rose is an excellent man for the job. If he can't make
+it go, no one can. By the way, he's come to live down here, as I daresay
+you know."
+
+"Yes." Barry spoke slowly, and lighted a cigarette rather thoughtfully.
+"As a matter of fact, Jim, that's partly why I've come to see you at
+this unholy hour."
+
+"Better now than never!" said his host genially. "But I don't think I
+quite understand you."
+
+"No." For a moment Barry said nothing more, and the other man looked at
+him a little oddly.
+
+He himself was worth looking at, in spite of the shabbiness which
+betrayed either a bachelor habit of mind, or a lofty disdain for the
+trappings of life. A man of about forty-one, his face was a curious
+mixture of youth and age, of experience and of idealism. His big, bright
+eyes and curving mouth betokened enthusiasm, fire, a kindly philosophy;
+while the lines upon his forehead and the grey streaks in his abundant
+hair seemed to speak of deeper things. Life had indeed graven with its
+chisel lines and marks ineffaceable. It was the face of one who had
+suffered deeply, who had passed through more than one saddening
+experience. In repose one would have said the man was serious, grave to
+a fault; but when he smiled, it was the face of youth--ardent, eager,
+irresponsible--that the beholder saw before him.
+
+It was a queer, baffling, contradictory face altogether. Only one thing
+about it was certain, and that was written so plainly thereon that even
+a child might read.
+
+It was a face one could trust. Whatever might be the nature of the
+tragic experience which had whitened the crisp locks and drawn the heavy
+lines on the broad brow, there was something so gentle, so
+straightforward, so kindly about the whole man that none could doubt his
+sincerity, his trustworthiness. And side by side with the lines drawn by
+sorrow there were other lines betokening laughter, those fine lines at
+the corners of the eyes which are born from mirth, and even though they
+take away from youth's first unlined smoothness, give value and
+perspective to the countenance.
+
+For the rest, he was fairly tall, though he stooped somewhat; and he
+walked always with a quick, impetuous step, until such times as memory,
+or some other quality, came to life, and gave a queer, dragging effect
+to his usually swift tread.
+
+"Well?" It was the host who spoke, and Barry recalled his scattered
+thoughts with an effort and remembered the cause on which he was
+enlisted.
+
+"Well, it's about Rose's wife that I want to speak to you." Barry looked
+searchingly at his friend, and reading in the bright eyes nothing of the
+cheap cynicism with which some men might have greeted the announcement,
+he went on quickly. "The fact is, she wants someone to give her a
+helping hand."
+
+"Someone--apart from her husband?"
+
+"Yes. You see, she's only a kid and a jolly pretty one. Looks like a
+schoolgirl----?"
+
+"Stay a moment." Herrick laid down his pipe. "Is Mrs. Rose a little dark
+girl, with very bright eyes and a lot of black hair?"
+
+"That's she. You've met her, then?"
+
+"Well, not exactly. Fact is, I have seen a young woman answering to that
+description wandering on the towing-path early in the morning once or
+twice; and I was a little puzzled to know who she might be."
+
+"Well, that's Mrs. Rose. Now the fact is"--Barry grew red suddenly as he
+realized that his interference was quite unauthorized--"I think she
+wants a friend, someone to look after her a bit."
+
+"Why? Is she ... er ... what _is_ she?"
+
+"She is very young." Barry spoke deliberately now, having made up his
+mind to proceed. "And although she is a perfect little lady in her
+way"--thus unconsciously endorsing Kate's verdict--"she has never been
+used to the sort of life she will have to lead down here. To tell the
+truth--I know it's safe with you, Jim--she was our typist in the office
+before her marriage."
+
+"I see. And Rose fell in love with her?"
+
+"Y ... yes." Even to Herrick, Barry could not give away the secret of
+Owen's proposal. "Anyway, he married her, and brought her here; and
+to-day I was witness to a curious little scene in her house."
+
+"I'm all attention, Barry."
+
+"Well, Rose is away for the day, and Mrs. Rose invited a girl-cousin
+down for the afternoon; and to do honour to her, I imagine, she had
+provided a sumptuous tea, including shrimps and one of those wobbly
+white things that you get at lunch."
+
+"I see. Well?"
+
+"Well, we--Mrs. Anstey, Olive and I--chose to pay a call to-day; and
+when, after a little hesitation, Mrs. Rose asked us to have some tea, we
+were taken into the dining-room, where these festal delicacies were laid
+out."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Well, it would have been all right--Mrs. Anstey is a dear, and Olive of
+course is a ripper--and we'd have had a very jolly little party, but
+unfortunately in the middle of it who should arrive but Lady Martin and
+that terrible daughter of hers."
+
+"Lady Martin of soap fame?"
+
+"The same. Well, you know what an utter snob the woman is. In two
+minutes she had Toni--Mrs. Rose--reduced to a jelly--simply by sneering
+at everything."
+
+"Including the--shrimps?"
+
+"Yes. You know shrimps are--well--a bit _vulgar_, aren't they?"
+
+For a second there was silence. Then Herrick stretched out his hand for
+his pipe and spoke slowly in the intervals of filling the bowl.
+
+"There was once, if my memory serves me rightly, an Apostle of the name
+of Peter who chose to consider some of the creatures made by his own
+Maker in the light of vulgarians; and a sheetful of specimens descended
+on Peter's head to warn him against the folly of finding any of God's
+creations common or unclean. Of course we've no proof that shrimps were
+included----"
+
+"I say, Jim, don't rag!" Barry threw away his cigarette rather
+impatiently. "I'm in earnest--oh, I know it sounds beastly snobbish, but
+still, shrimps at tea----"
+
+"Are unusual, though really, if you try them, first-rate." Herrick had
+filled his pipe, and now took up the match-box. "Seriously, Barry, I
+know what you mean. So long as we have false standards of gentility I
+suppose the sight of a shrimp in conjunction with the tea-pot will cause
+us to shrivel up. But I'll guarantee that neither Mrs. Anstey nor Miss
+Lynn turned a hair at the sight."
+
+"Rather not! They ate them as if they really liked them--and if that
+wasn't a snub to the awful Martin woman--well, she went, anyway, driven
+away by our combined vulgarity, I suppose, and we had quite a decent
+time when she had gone."
+
+"Well? If Lady Martin was driven from the field, and you were left the
+victors, what's the trouble?"
+
+"The trouble is this. Lady Martin, being a spiteful woman, and knowing
+perfectly well that Mrs. Anstey meant to teach her a lesson, will lose
+no opportunity of spreading the story abroad; and in time it is certain
+to come to Rose's ears."
+
+"Ah!" He spoke thoughtfully. "That is it, is it? And Mr. Rose
+will--er--resent the tale?"
+
+"You see it's this way." Barry gave way to the impulse to confide in his
+friend, to whom all his boyish confidences had been given. "Rose is a
+real good sort, and wouldn't for the world let Toni suspect that he
+knows he's married beneath him, as the world calls it."
+
+"The world? Ah!" There was a light scorn in the tone.
+
+"Oh, I know--we both know it's all rot, that sort of thing. But still,
+as the world goes, one has to remember it; and somehow, although Rose is
+genuinely fond of his wife, I doubt whether his love would stand
+much--well, ridicule."
+
+"Ah! And I suppose the child did make herself rather ridiculous in her
+attempts to welcome a cousin to whom she is doubtless attached."
+
+"It isn't only that." Having once begun, Barry unburdened himself still
+further. "You know, although I admire Mrs. Rose immensely, and she's a
+ripping kid really, I'm not a bit sure that the marriage will be a
+success."
+
+"Why not, Barry?"
+
+"Well, they're unsuited to one another in heaps of ways. Toni is, as I
+say, a dear little girl, but she's only half-educated, and not in the
+least intellectual. Sharp in her way--the way of a quick-witted
+woman--shrewd, and no fool. But you know Rose is rather an exceptional
+fellow."
+
+"So I have always understood."
+
+"He's clever, you know--and deep, too. Not one of those fellows who are
+always showing off, but really brilliant; and it's rather a dangerous
+thing for a shallow woman to marry a man of that sort."
+
+"It's often done, Barry," said the other man quietly.
+
+"Oh, I know, but that doesn't make it any safer. Toni is an out-and-out
+good sort, as straight as a die, and a merry, light-hearted little thing
+into the bargain; but she's bound to turn out a disappointment to her
+husband all the same."
+
+"I don't see why," said Herrick after a moment's pause. "Lots of clever
+men marry feather-headed women and manage to get along all right."
+
+"Yes, but Owen's not that sort. He's a fellow who will want his wife to
+be a companion, a real comrade, able to go forward side by side with
+him, understand his aims, sympathize with his ideals and so on; and this
+girl can't do it."
+
+"But why are you so sure she can't, my boy? Probably she is very
+different when alone with her husband. All women, as well as men, have
+two soul-sides, you know--'one to face the world with'--the other----"
+
+"Oh, that's Browning's view, of course, but then he was an idealist!"
+Barry spoke rather impatiently. "No, Jim, there's not much hope of that.
+I've made a study of the girl--I don't mind telling you I did my best to
+prevent Rose marrying her--and I'm perfectly certain that as far as
+anything beyond the merest good-fellowship goes, Rose might just as well
+have married a Persian kitten."
+
+"Yet she is fond of him--in her way?"
+
+"Very, I should say; but even then there's an element of something which
+shouldn't exist between husband and wife. There is a sort of quite
+unconscious patronage on Rose's side which matches a pretty gratitude on
+hers; and I have a horrible fear that if ever he found her wanting--and
+showed her so--she would break her heart."
+
+"Oh! Then you don't deny her a heart?"
+
+"Good Lord, no! What I do deny her is--well, I don't quite know. Is it
+brain, or soul, or what?"
+
+"You take an interest in this girl, Barry. Is it possible you are going
+to try to supply this deficiency of brain, or soul, or whatever it is?"
+
+Barry laughed rather defiantly.
+
+"Oh, I know you think I'm a fool for my pains! Yes, that's just what I
+do want to do. I want to wake the girl up, to make her use her
+intellect, fit herself to be Owen's companion. I hate to think of their
+marriage turning out a failure--Owen disappointed in her, feeling
+aggrieved, perhaps, at her inability to go forward with him, while she
+in her turn feels impatient with him for expecting her to be something
+she isn't--and that he ought never to have expected her to be!"
+
+"Wait a moment, Barry." Herrick looked at him squarely. "Isn't there
+something behind all this? Didn't I hear a rumour that some woman had
+jilted Rose--thrown him over for a richer man, or something of the
+sort?"
+
+"Well"--Barry bit his lip--"since you know so much--yes."
+
+"And possibly this marriage was in the nature of a reprisal? Intended to
+show the jilting lady that--to put it plainly--there were still good
+fish in the sea?"
+
+"Yes--in a way it was."
+
+"Ah! Now I understand. And you, having doubtless been forced into the
+position of an accessory before the fact, are anxious that as little
+harm as possible shall be done to either party?"
+
+"Yes--but principally to the girl."
+
+"Of course, seeing that she was probably unconscious of the reason
+behind the match. Well, it seems hard that she should have been used as
+a catspaw, doesn't it?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't as bad as that. Rose really liked the girl----"
+
+"In spite of her want of--soul?"
+
+"Yes. And I thought," said Barry eagerly, "that if you and I, and one or
+two more--Olive, for instance--could give her a helping hand now and
+then, show her how to make the best of herself and so on, things might
+turn out all right."
+
+"Ah, Barry!" Herrick looked at him with a half-humorous, half-sad smile.
+"You're very young--and youth is always--or should be--courageous. Do
+you really think that I, or you, or even Miss Lynn, can alter by a
+fraction the destiny marked out for that pretty child across the river
+there?"
+
+"Destiny--no, perhaps not," said Barry, taken aback by the big word.
+"But we might help her--help her to find herself, as the Ibsenites call
+it--realize her soul, and all the rest of it. The soul's _there_, all
+right, but somehow it seems to be hidden, undeveloped, or something of
+the sort."
+
+For a second the older man said nothing, though his square white teeth
+clenched themselves on the stem of his pipe. Then, removing the latter,
+he said slowly:
+
+"Do you remember what Browning says, Barry?
+
+    'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls
+    And matter enough to save one's own!'
+
+Well, don't you agree with him--and me--that one's own soul takes a vast
+deal of salvation?"
+
+"Yes, of course--but still--I thought you would be ready to help...."
+
+His accent of dejection touched the other man's heart.
+
+"Come, don't look so disappointed. Of course I'll help, as much as I
+can! It ought to be an interesting task, anyway, helping a woman to find
+her soul. And if I can help her in any way, I will."
+
+"Good! But how?" He wanted to clinch the matter.
+
+"Well, I suppose the first thing to do is to make the lady's
+acquaintance. I know Rose, slightly, and a call will no doubt be
+considered neighbourly. And if I can do anything for the child, you may
+depend on me to do it."
+
+"You're a brick, Jim!" In the midst of his relief Barry remembered the
+hour and rose hastily. "Well, I must be off, or the house will be shut
+up. Good-night, old chap. I'm no end obliged to you. I knew you would
+help, if anyone would."
+
+He had turned towards the door when a thought struck him and he turned
+back rather awkwardly.
+
+"I say, Jim"--he was looking down at the floor as he spoke--"I hadn't
+forgotten, but I didn't like to say much. How ... how is--she?"
+
+"My wife, you mean?" Herrick's smile was bitter. "She is pretty well, I
+believe. They say her health has improved lately."
+
+"I'm glad. And--forgive me if I'm tactless, Jim, but when do you expect
+her back?"
+
+"When does she come out?" All the youth had died away from his face,
+leaving it desperately tired and sad. "Some time in the autumn, October,
+I believe. The time isn't really up quite so soon, but there's some
+remission for good conduct, I understand, which shortens the sentence."
+
+"Have you seen her lately?"
+
+"No. She refused to see me last time, and I shall not trouble her
+again."
+
+"I see." Barry fidgeted from one foot to the other, then made a sudden
+grab at his friend's hand. "Well, good-bye, Jim. Ever so many thanks for
+promising to help the kid. You can do lots for her if you will, and I do
+want the marriage to be a success."
+
+"You've come to a queer person to help you, Barry," said the other with
+a twisted smile. "My own marriage has been so wonderfully successful,
+hasn't it? But there, don't let's talk about it now. How are you going
+home? Motor? Ah, all right. Then Olga and I will come and see you safely
+off the premises."
+
+He had regained his former kindly manner, and bade the boy good-night
+with all his accustomed heartiness; but as Barry turned for a last look
+and saw the stooping figure return through the gate, accompanied by the
+graceful Borzoi, a fury of rage gripped his generous young heart.
+
+"Damn that woman--oh, _damn_ her!" He said the words wildly to himself
+as he spun down the moonlit road between the fragrant hedges. "She's
+ruined his life, and will go on doing it as long as they live! October,
+he said. Well, there's time to give poor little Toni a helping hand
+before then!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But in the quiet bungalow behind him Jim Herrick sat alone until the
+short summer night had given way to the glories of the dawn. And in his
+face, as he gazed before him, seeing, perhaps the troubled past, perhaps
+the darkened future, there was now no trace of youth, only a great and
+weary disillusionment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+After all, Jim Herrick's introduction to Mrs. Rose came about in an
+unexpected fashion.
+
+Although he had only seen her two or three times, Herrick felt a decided
+interest in Rose's young wife. From what Barry had told him he concluded
+that there were breakers ahead for the young couple; and since his own
+matrimonial misfortunes had made him very pitiful, he determined to try
+to hold out a helping hand to the girl should the occasion arise.
+
+The occasion arose, indeed, almost before he expected it; but luckily
+Herrick was a man of action and grappled with the opportunity thus
+presented.
+
+One sunny afternoon he was returning from a pull up the river in his
+skiff, when he saw a punt gliding towards him, the pole manipulated,
+rather unskilfully, it must be confessed, by the girl of whom his
+thoughts had been full; and he stayed in his mooring to watch her pass.
+
+To Toni the guiding of a punt was so serious a matter that she had no
+eyes for anything else, and she never even saw the man in the boat. The
+river took rather a curve here, and Toni found it a little difficult to
+negotiate the bend. Becoming somewhat flurried, she directed her punt
+into the middle of the stream, where it hung for a moment as though
+undecided whether or no to swing round in the disconcerting manner
+peculiar to such craft; but Toni, becoming impatient, put fresh vigour
+into her task, and sent the punt triumphantly forward with a masterful
+push.
+
+Her triumph was, however, short-lived. With the treacherous suddenness
+which invariably marks this catastrophe her pole snapped as she drove it
+downwards; the punt glided away immediately, and Toni, clinging
+desperately to the broken pole, went down with it into the river itself.
+
+With an exclamation Herrick sculled his boat strongly to the spot where
+she had gone down, reaching it just as she came to the surface, gasping
+and spluttering, and with an expression of wild terror in her face.
+
+He guessed that she could not swim, and called out to her reassuringly.
+
+"You're all right--hang on to my boat, and I'll get you out!"
+
+She heard him, even in the midst of her terror, and made a frantic grab
+at the side of the boat, only to miss by inches and go down again with
+an involuntary cry.
+
+Hastily shipping his oars, Herrick bent over the boat, causing it to
+heel to one side rather dangerously; and when next Toni came to the
+surface he gripped her strongly by the shoulder, bidding her keep quite
+still, and then lifted her, by sheer force of muscle, into the boat,
+where she collapsed in a dripping little heap at his feet.
+
+"That's all right!" He seized the oars and with a dozen vigorous strokes
+propelled the boat back to the landing-place, where he proceeded to tie
+her up, and then turned his attention to his passenger.
+
+"Hard luck, Mrs. Rose," he said cheerily. "But there's no harm done, is
+there? Now you must come into the house and let me find you some dry
+things to put on. Don't delay--the punt will be rescued somewhere, I've
+no doubt, and you really must get out of those wet garments."
+
+Shivering, dripping, and feeling more than half inclined to cry, Toni
+let him help her out of the boat; and seeing that she was really
+suffering from shock Herrick put his arm round her shoulders in
+fraternal fashion, and led her up the little sloping lawn on to the
+verandah of the bungalow.
+
+Here Toni stopped in some embarrassment.
+
+"I ... I don't think I can come in like this." In spite of the sun her
+teeth were chattering. "I--I shall spoil your carpets!"
+
+"Oh, they're beyond spoiling," he assured her, with a laugh. "Don't
+worry about them! I think, though, you had better come into the kitchen,
+if you don't mind. There happens to be a fire there, and you can get
+warm."
+
+She followed him obediently through the long window into the shabby
+sitting-room, which for all its shabbiness had an oddly harmonious
+effect; and from there he took her into the small, cosy kitchen, which
+was scrupulously tidy and spotlessly clean.
+
+"Now"--he looked at her a little dubiously--"obviously, the thing to do
+is to get off those wet clothes, have a hot bath, and put on something
+dry. Well, if I bring my tub in here and fill it from the boiler, would
+you mind having it in the kitchen? You see, I don't want you to get
+cold."
+
+"Oh, I don't think I need do that," said Toni, between laughing and
+crying. "If you lent me a mackintosh or a big coat I could get home
+quite well."
+
+"What--as you are?" He smiled at her, but so kindly that she could not
+take offence. "Well, to begin with, your punt is miles away by now, and
+anyway you are much too wet to leave this house. Now"--he went briskly
+to the door--"I'm going to fetch my bath and I'll have it filled in a
+jiffy. You'll feel all right after a hot soak."
+
+He went out, leaving Toni, very wet and uncomfortable, in the middle of
+the floor. In a minute he returned, dragging after him a good-sized
+bath, filled to the brim with towels of every description.
+
+"Now, I'll put it here, in front of the fire." He worked as he spoke.
+"And if I fill these two big cans there'll be enough water. What a
+blessing Mrs. Swastika kept a good fire to-day."
+
+"Mrs. Swastika?" In the midst of her discomfiture Toni thought the name
+odd.
+
+"Oh, that's not her real name." He filled the cans vigorously. "She is
+really Swanson or Swanage or something like that--but I never know what
+it is, so I call her Swastika. She is rather like the individual in the
+'Hunting of the Snark,' who 'answered to Hi or to any loud cry,' but
+it's handy having a name to call her by sometimes."
+
+He broke off in his nonsense and disappeared abruptly, leaving Toni
+wondering whether she was intended to begin her ablutions or no. Luckily
+she decided to wait a moment, and was glad she had done so when her host
+returned, bearing in his arms some garments, which he put down on a
+chair rather apologetically.
+
+"I'm really most awfully sorry, Mrs. Rose, but I've no feminine
+fripperies of any sort! But if you can possibly make these things do for
+a bit, I'll send a boy on a bicycle down to your place and tell them to
+put together some clothes for you."
+
+"Oh, will you?" Toni was beginning to find her soaked garments rather
+unpleasantly chilly. "I live at Greenriver--oh, you know?--and if you
+tell the housekeeper to send me everything, she'll know what I want."
+
+"Very well." He had been busying himself with a little saucepan over the
+fire as she spoke, and now he handed her a glass containing some mulled
+wine.
+
+"I'll dispatch a lad at once--in the meantime please drink this--it's
+quite harmless, I assure you!"
+
+As she took the glass he hurried to the door, and went out, pulling it
+carefully to after him.
+
+"Pull down the blind and lock the door," he commanded her through the
+keyhole. "The back door is locked already, so you are quite safe."
+
+As soon as he was gone, and her privacy assured, Toni lost no time in
+doing as he bade her; and it certainly was a relief to slip out of her
+clinging garments and plunge into the hot water waiting for her. She did
+not waste time, remembering his commands; but when it came to a question
+of re-dressing, and she examined the clothes he had brought, Toni gave
+way and burst into a fit of irrepressible laughter.
+
+He had apologized for the lack of feminine garments, but Toni had not
+been prepared for the substitute he had given her. There, beneath the
+heavy dressing-gown, was a pair of silk pyjamas immaculately got up and
+folded; and at the sight of their purple and white glories Toni laughed
+and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+At first she determined that nothing in the world would persuade her to
+don the resplendent pyjamas. Then a glance at her own soaked and now
+steaming clothing gave her courage; and giggling softly to herself she
+got into the silken garments, which by dint of much turning up of hems
+and shortening of sleeves were given some semblance of a fit. Next came
+the dressing-gown, an eminently masculine affair of brown camel's hair,
+with red collar and cuffs, and when she had tied the girdle round her
+waist, and, scorning the evening socks which lay ready, had slipped her
+bare feet into a pair of capacious slippers, Toni was so overcome by her
+own bizarre appearance that once more she burst out laughing gaily.
+
+A knock at the door made her stop short, and she called out in a rather
+quavery voice:
+
+"Yes? Who's there?"
+
+"Only I--Herrick," came the answer. "When you're ready will you come
+into the other room? The sun's blazing in, but I can easily light a fire
+if you feel chilly."
+
+Toni cast a doubtful look at herself in this queer garb, and then
+determined, very sensibly, that it was no good being prudish and silly.
+After all, the dressing-gown wrapped her up completely; and at any rate
+her own clothes would presently arrive to deliver her from this rather
+absurd situation.
+
+"I'm coming in a minute," she called out gaily. "I'm just going to let
+my hair down--it's rather wet, but it will dry in the sun."
+
+She pulled out her hair-pins recklessly, and the black waves tumbled
+wetly on to her shoulders. A few minutes' vigorous drying before the
+fire met with success, and presently Toni found courage to unlock the
+door and sally forth into the little hall.
+
+Mr. Herrick was waiting for her by the sitting-room door, and he bit his
+lip quickly at sight of the funny little figure emerging from the
+kitchen.
+
+He spoke quite gravely, however, and Toni, who had glanced at him rather
+sharply, felt reassured.
+
+"That's right. Now, come and sit down, will you? See, if you take this
+chair, you're in the sun, and it will warm you. You're sure you're not
+cold?"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm quite warm," Toni assured him. "It's only my hair that's
+wet, and it won't take long to dry."
+
+While her eyes wandered casually round the room, Herrick took the
+opportunity of observing his guest more closely; and his scrutiny
+pleased him oddly.
+
+In spite of her ludicrous garb Toni looked quaintly attractive. Her
+youth triumphed, as youth always will, over minor drawbacks, and now
+that she was warm and dry the colour was coming back to her lips and her
+complexion recovering its creamy tone. Even her hair curled bewitchingly
+when damp; and Herrick owned that Barry's description of her as a
+"pretty kid" had not been wrong.
+
+As for Toni, she was much interested in this sunny, shabby room. The
+carpet might be old, beyond spoiling, as its owner described it, but it
+was a feast of soft, harmonious colours all the same, and although
+faded, its very dimness of hue was a charm. The curtains which hung at
+the long windows were of a queer, Persian-looking fabric; and on the
+mantelpiece were a dozen little bits of pottery of a greeny-blue tint
+which harmonized excellently with the grey-papered walls.
+
+Books there were in plenty, on shelves and tables, even on two of the
+chairs; and as she looked about her Toni caught sight of the last number
+of the _Bridge_ lying on the low divan as though thrown there by a
+reader disturbed in his reading.
+
+Herrick's eyes had followed the direction of hers.
+
+"You recognize your husband's review? You've seen it, of course, this
+last number?"
+
+"Yes." She had seen it, though it is to be feared that she had paid it
+scant attention.
+
+"It's better than ever this month." He sat down and took up the paper.
+"There's a little poem--'Pan-Shapes'--which simply delighted me. Did it
+take your fancy, I wonder?"
+
+"I ... I don't think I have read it," she said, wishing suddenly that
+she had not been forced to make the admission.
+
+"No? Well it has not been out long." He was turning the pages as he
+spoke. "There's something else here--another special article on
+Mysticism by Father Garland, which is oddly fascinating. Of course such
+a subject, treated by one of the greatest mystics who ever lived, was
+bound to be of the highest interest; but I never expected anything quite
+so arresting, so satisfying, when I began to read."
+
+He paused, evidently waiting for her to speak; but Toni sat tongue-tied,
+miserably conscious that in her mind no answering enthusiasm could be
+born, since she had neither read nor wished to read a single word of the
+article in question.
+
+A hint of her mental discomfort probably reached the man on the sofa by
+some telepathic means, for he suddenly tossed away the review and spoke
+in a lighter tone.
+
+"How long have you been punting, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Oh, a very short time," she said rather apologetically. "My husband has
+given me some lessons since we came down here. He doesn't know I
+sometimes go out alone," she added ingenuously. "I don't go very often,
+because I know I'm not much good. But to-day I saw some people coming to
+call and I ran out of the house and jumped into the punt so that I could
+escape."
+
+Herrick smiled.
+
+"What--are you like me? Do you avoid your fellow-creatures on
+principle?"
+
+She looked a little puzzled.
+
+"Oh no, I don't avoid people when I know them. But I've had such heaps
+of callers, and it's such a waste of time making conversation over tea
+when one wants to be out in the sunshine."
+
+"In fact you prefer nature to human nature?"
+
+"I suppose I do." She frowned rather thoughtfully. "At least I would
+always rather be out of the house than in it. And it's so lovely by the
+river in the summer. I go for walks before breakfast with my dog, and
+the world is so beautiful in the early morning before the mists have all
+vanished in the sun."
+
+"Ah! That reminds me!" Herrick rose. "You haven't seen _my_ dog! I'll go
+and bring her in; she's lying in the shade at the back at present."
+
+He went out, returning in a moment with the stately Olga, who had been,
+as he suggested, sleeping in the shade. He kept his hand on her silver
+collar as she advanced, fearing that Toni's queer mixture of garments
+might upset her canine mind; but Olga apparently took her master's
+friends on trust, and presently strolled over to Toni and laid one long
+paw tentatively upon her knee.
+
+Toni, delighted, stroked the beautiful creature affectionately, and
+Herrick said to himself cheerfully:
+
+"Come, she's got one thing in her favour anyway! If she can't appreciate
+good literature she understands dogs--and after all they are worth more
+as humanizers of the race, than any amount of books."
+
+"She's lovely, Mr. Herrick!" Toni lifted delighted eyes. "What do you
+call her? Something nice, I hope."
+
+"Her name is Olga," he returned. "Not very original for a Russian dog, I
+confess, but she was already christened when she came to me. You like
+her?"
+
+"I think she's a darling, and Olga is quite a nice name. A friend of
+mine at school had a dog like her, and we used to take her into
+Kensington Gardens for a run on Saturday afternoons. Her name was Pearl.
+It's a pretty name for a white wolfhound, isn't it? They're like pearls,
+somehow, so smooth and shining."
+
+She was stroking the dog's satiny head as she spoke, and did not notice
+the change in the man's face; but when he remained silent she looked up
+as though to see why he did not respond.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick, what's the matter?" Toni was frightened by his pallor.
+
+"Nothing--nothing!" He shook off his mental disturbance with a strong
+effort. "I ... I sometimes have a sort of pain--in my heart--but it's
+gone, quite gone, now."
+
+Toni was not altogether satisfied with the explanation and asked herself
+remorsefully what she had said to vex him; but she could not think of
+anything which would be likely to give offence to her host, and decided,
+finally, that he had spoken truthfully.
+
+She could not know how intimately the tragedy of Herrick's life was
+bound up with the thought of a string of shining pearls; and her very
+unconsciousness served to show the man she had spoken in all innocence.
+
+"Your husband must be very busy with this review in hand," he said
+presently, remembering Barry's entreaty to him to examine the situation
+for himself. "Does he work at home or has he to spend much time in
+town?"
+
+"Oh, he does both," she said, relieved by his return to his former
+manner. "He is in town to-day, but he has been at home a good deal
+lately."
+
+"I see. It must be rather dull for you when he is shut up writing," he
+went on tentatively. "Writers and men of letters generally like to be
+left to themselves pretty much."
+
+"Oh, I don't think my husband does," said Toni blithely. "I often go in
+and sit with him while he works, and if I promise to go to bed early he
+sometimes brings his papers into the drawing-room at night."
+
+Herrick felt a sudden spasm of amusement, mingled with a distinct
+impulse of sympathy for the unfortunate writer.
+
+"Oh! I should have thought it would be too disturbing to work in the
+room with anyone else--even one's wife," he added with a smile.
+
+"Why should it be?" Toni opened eyes of amazement. "I sit quite still--I
+hardly ever speak--and Jock and I--my dog--play little games together
+ever so quietly."
+
+"You don't help him in his work?"
+
+"No." She shook her head. "I'm not clever enough for that. I do typing
+for him sometimes, but even then I'm not really much use."
+
+"You are not an expert, perhaps?"
+
+"Oh, I can use the typewriter all right--I've had heaps of practice. But
+when it comes to revising things, sort of making up an article out of
+rough notes, I'm no good. To begin with I can never understand what the
+things are about, and I always get quotations hopelessly mixed."
+
+"I see." In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "You are not a great
+reader, then?"
+
+"No--I hate books," she replied frankly. "Somehow it seems a waste of
+time to read when you can be doing nicer things. Besides, my husband
+doesn't like to see me reading what he calls trash, and I simply can't
+get through the things he gives me!"
+
+"Well, after all life's the most interesting book of all--when one's
+young," he said indulgently. "But I'm afraid you'll wish you'd developed
+a taste for reading when you get like me, middle-aged and dull."
+
+"But you aren't dull----" she was beginning eagerly, when a loud knock
+at the back door of the bungalow interrupted her sentence, and she broke
+off hastily.
+
+"That'll be my messenger back," said Herrick, rising. "With garments for
+you, I suppose. I'll go and see."
+
+He went out, returning presently with a neatly-strapped suit-case which
+he held up with a smile.
+
+"Your maids have packed you a change of raiment," he said, "and have,
+moreover, sent a car for you to return in. I gather from the boy that
+two of your people squabbled as to which of them should have the
+privilege of bringing your things to you, but in the middle of the
+discussion the chauffeur, thinking, no doubt, that you were still
+wearing your wet garments, got impatient and started off without either
+of them!"
+
+Toni had risen, and now stood hesitating a little with her hand on the
+suit-case.
+
+"You'll like to change at once, I daresay." He spoke in a business-like
+tone. "Will you come into my little guest-chamber? There's a glass
+there, and you'll be able to dress comfortably."
+
+She assented, and he took her into yet another of the rooms in his tiny
+domain, a small, bare little place which had a rather pathetically
+unused look about it.
+
+Here she made a rapid toilet, finding everything she required with the
+exception of a hat, which had evidently been forgotten. A brush and comb
+had been tucked into a corner, however, and she thankfully brushed her
+hair and made it into two thick plaits, which for want of hair-pins she
+was forced to leave hanging over her shoulders.
+
+When she sallied forth once more she found Herrick waiting for her with
+a tiny tea-tray.
+
+"You must have a cup of tea before you go." He poured it out as he
+spoke. "And a biscuit--one of Mrs. Swastika's specialities. She's an
+excellent cook, and proud of her cakes, so do try one--to please me--and
+her!"
+
+Toni drank the tea gratefully and found both it and the little cakes
+delicious. The next thing to do was to collect her soaked clothes, and
+in spite of Herrick's protests that Mrs. Swastika would see to their
+safe return she crammed them ruthlessly into the suit-case before going
+out to the waiting motor.
+
+As she shook hands with Herrick, after thanking him very prettily for
+his kindness, Toni ventured a shy invitation.
+
+"Will you come to see us at Greenriver, Mr. Herrick? I'm sure my husband
+will wish to thank you for fishing me out of the river."
+
+"Thanks," he said quietly. "I will certainly come. It will give me great
+pleasure to meet Mr. Rose."
+
+He tucked her into the car, shook hands again, and then stood
+bare-headed in the sunshine watching the motor spin round the white and
+dusty road.
+
+At the bend Toni turned and waved her hand to him gaily, and he
+responded with a smile, which faded as the car vanished from sight.
+
+Somehow his meeting with the girl had saddened him oddly. There was
+something rather pathetic about Toni at this moment of her existence,
+though it would have been hard to say exactly wherein the pathos lay. In
+spite of himself Herrick was haunted by the little picture she had drawn
+of her life with Owen Rose. He could fancy the two sitting together at
+night in the lamp-lit drawing-room, the man writing, or trying to write,
+as though alone, the young wife sitting silently by doing nothing, or
+playing quiet little games with her dog to relieve the monotony of an
+evening uncheered by any interesting book or engrossing study.
+
+A worker himself, Herrick knew very well the deadening influence exerted
+by an unoccupied companion during working hours; and the fact that Toni
+did not care for books, and confessed to non-comprehension of her
+husband's work, struck Herrick as unfortunate, to say the least.
+
+To this man, forced by circumstance into a more or less secluded state
+of life, Toni's lack of social experience weighed very lightly. She had
+not, perhaps, the manner or style of the girls one met in Mayfair or
+Belgravia, but she was simple and natural and unaffected; and Herrick
+found himself hoping that Mr. Rose knew how to value the traits of
+simplicity and straightforwardness at their true worth.
+
+Then it was possible that the marriage might be a success in spite of
+the evident disparity of tastes between the two; but remembering Barry's
+gloomy forebodings, Herrick was bound to admit that the prospect of
+happiness seemed rather doubtful.
+
+At present, however, he could do nothing; and with a resolve to call at
+Greenriver at the first available opportunity he went back into his
+little bungalow, which seemed strangely lonely as the twilight fell over
+the river-banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+As the summer glided by, in a succession of golden, cloudless days, Owen
+began to ask himself, rather drearily, whether his marriage was going to
+turn out a success or an irretrievable failure.
+
+When once the novelty of Toni's companionship had worn off, when he had
+grown used to her pretty, childish ways, accustomed to the sense of
+youth and light-hearted joy which she diffused about the old house, he
+began to find, to his dismay, that these were not all the attributes a
+man looked for in the woman he had made his wife.
+
+He had never expected to find Toni clever in an intellectual sense; but
+neither had he deemed her quite so shallow as she was proving herself to
+be. She seemed absolutely incapable of making any mental effort; the
+world of art and literature was a closed book to her, and, what was
+still more disappointing, she cared nothing for any of the social or
+political questions of the day, and took absolutely no interest in the
+contemporary life of the world about her.
+
+Reading she disliked. Music appealed to her, for Toni was emotional,
+with the quick, facile emotionalism of the South; but she was no
+musician herself, and the grand piano in the drawing-room was silent
+through these sunshiny days. She had rather a talent for housekeeping,
+and in a smaller establishment would doubtless have been a success; but
+at Greenriver there was little for her to do, and she knew quite well
+that the housekeeper resented any interference with her particular
+province. Toni's household duties, therefore, were confined to the
+arrangement of the flowers and the care of her husband's desk--a labour
+of love which she performed with so much good will that Owen felt it
+would be churlish to find fault with any inconvenience arising
+therefrom.
+
+Owen often wondered how his wife managed to fill the days which must be
+so terribly empty. He himself was working harder than usual, since
+beside the review he was contributing articles, by invitation, to
+several well-known journals; and he often worked till late into the
+night; but Toni had no work, no hobbies, nothing with which to fill the
+long, sunny hours.
+
+She did not complain. Indeed, she seemed happy enough in her idleness;
+and by this time she knew a good many people in the neighbourhood,
+though she had not made many friends.
+
+At the Vicarage she was not looked upon with much favour, owing to an
+unfortunate conversation with the Vicar's wife, when in response to
+various leading questions Toni had shown a lamentable ignorance of the
+great gulf which yawns between Church and Chapel--a quite conceivable
+ignorance on the part of the London tradesman's niece, who had attended
+Chapel with her aunt and uncle on Sunday evenings as cheerfully as she
+joined in the more attractive service in the Church which the genteel
+Fanny generally patronized on Sunday mornings.
+
+When, further, Toni innocently admitted that, although baptized into the
+Church of England, she had usually attended the Roman Catholic Church
+and Sunday School during her Italian childhood, the wife of the Vicar
+was appalled; and ever afterwards she spoke of Mrs. Rose as unsound in
+her views, a condemnation which in the somewhat old-fashioned
+neighbourhood carried full weight.
+
+Lady Martin also strongly disapproved of the young mistress of
+Greenriver, though probably only she herself and her spinster daughter
+could have adduced any reason for their dislike of Toni and all her
+works.
+
+The story of the shrimps had long since amused Lady Martin's large
+circle of acquaintances; and although no one had ventured to breathe a
+word before either Owen Rose or his wife, it was hardly surprising that
+Toni came to be considered rather amusingly unsophisticated; so that the
+slightest _gaucherie_ into which the unconscious Toni was betrayed
+during those first weeks of her introduction into the society of the
+district was eagerly noted and joyfully magnified in a dozen
+drawing-rooms.
+
+There was the laughable story of the Roses' late arrival at an important
+dinner-party, and Mrs. Rose's ingenuous explanation to her rather
+irascible host that she had torn her frock at the last moment while
+playing with her dog, and had been obliged to change it for another--and
+this to an elderly man who "liked dogs in their proper place," by which
+statement one may measure the depth of his liking very accurately.
+
+There was the occasion on which Mrs. Rose, being pressed by a
+mischievous fellow-guest, had accepted a cigarette under the impression
+the other ladies were about to do likewise--an impression quickly
+dispelled by the stony glare of her hostess and the ominous whispers of
+the other women.
+
+The hostess, indeed, had uttered one short, biting comment which had
+reduced Toni, already overwhelmed by the magnitude of her offence,
+almost to tears; but though it is only fair to say that her tempter
+apologized most handsomely, and was her firm friend and defender ever
+afterwards, the description of Mrs. Rose as a half-foreign and
+wholly-Bohemian young woman, of cigarette-smoking tendencies, was duly
+retailed at several dinner-tables during the following weeks.
+
+At first Toni took her social failures very much to heart; but Owen, who
+was no snob, reassured her valiantly; and since Toni was only too
+anxious to be comforted she did her best to dismiss these unpleasant
+experiences from her mind.
+
+Presently, indeed, she found two congenial spirits. The doctor's pretty
+old house, known locally as Cherry Orchard, harboured two lively and
+athletic young women who were only too pleased to be friends with the
+merry and vivacious Toni. They were honest, unintellectual girls,
+enthusiastic over all sports and excelling in most; and they took Toni
+to their sporting hearts and promised to introduce her to the local
+tennis and golf clubs without loss of time.
+
+On her part, Toni felt at ease with them immediately, and when once she
+had learned to distinguish between Molly and Cynthia--a distinction made
+the more difficult owing to their peculiar habit of addressing each
+other as Toby--she thoroughly enjoyed their companionship.
+
+In the matter of tennis, Toni, who had only played occasionally at a
+third-rate suburban club, was at first no match for them; but the two
+Tobies, who were the essence of good nature, coached her so well and so
+vigorously that before long she was a capital player; and when once Toni
+realized that Owen wished her to be as hospitable as she could possibly
+desire to be, she rejoiced in giving little impromptu tea-parties on the
+lawn, under the shade of one of the noble elms which were a feature of
+Greenriver.
+
+Sometimes she took the girls motoring; and between tennis, golf, river
+picnics and motor excursions, the days simply flew for Toni; so that at
+last even Owen began to realize that he need not pity her, since she was
+living a life which exactly suited her.
+
+Once he realized this, his pity was directed towards himself.
+
+This was not the sort of married life he had contemplated; and although
+he was too just to blame his wife for her lack of sympathy with his aims
+and ideals, he began to wish that Toni would sometimes lay aside her
+frivolity and exchange her light and ceaseless chatter about trifling
+matters for a slightly more profitable style of conversation.
+
+Owen had called upon James Herrick at his bungalow, the Hope House, to
+thank him for rescuing Toni; and the other man had duly returned his
+call; but although Owen gave Herrick a very cordial general invitation
+to Greenriver the two men had not much in common save a mutual love of
+good books.
+
+Owen thought Herrick peculiar, eccentric in his ways. It seemed odd for
+a man to live alone as he lived, doing his own work except for the
+occasional aid of a woman whom he called Mrs. Swastika. If he had had
+any particular work or hobby which necessitated solitude Owen could have
+understood it; but Herrick seemed to spend his days as idly, as
+aimlessly, as Toni herself.
+
+He went on the river a good deal, took long walks with his dog, but
+beyond that he seemed to do nothing but lounge in a chair on the lawn,
+shabbily clad, with a pipe between his lips and a book, generally
+unopened, on his knee. His political views seemed to Owen to be as vague
+as were Toni's; and he had an irritating habit of setting aside any
+recognized standard of perfection as though the world's seal of approval
+meant less than nothing.
+
+He would demolish a given institution in a few lazy words, but he never
+attempted to set up another in its place. He seemed content to put his
+finger on the weak spot in any system without troubling to point out a
+remedy; and to Owen, whose eager mind was ever ready to remedy abuses,
+this attitude of half-pitying, half-amused toleration was vaguely
+irritating.
+
+Herrick seemed to view life, indeed, with a kind of large detachment, as
+though from the height of some soaring pinnacle one might watch, with
+only half-awakened interest, the doings of the dwellers on the plain;
+and Owen, who liked to be in the midst of things, to add his quota to
+the world's doings, found in this attitude of mind a pose, a
+half-insolent pretence at superiority, which was galling.
+
+Without saying a disparaging word Herrick appeared to belittle the
+efforts made by Owen and his fellows to enlighten the world; and since
+everyone knows that the criticism of a non-worker is a hundred times
+more irritating than that of a co-operator, Owen may be excused for
+finding Herrick uncongenial.
+
+And yet by nature Herrick was a kindly, cheery soul enough, who had been
+fired in his youth by an excessive love for humanity--for all the
+humanities. But shortly after his marriage he had faced a tremendous
+crash; and though, when the first shock was over, he had pulled himself
+together, and gathered up, as best he might, the fragments of his life,
+he had lost for ever that eager, humane, half-Quixotic spirit which had
+made his young manhood pass like a joyous race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As time went on Owen got into the habit of spending most of his days in
+town, where he found it easier to work than at home. He begged Toni to
+tell him honestly whether she found herself lonely in his absence, but
+Toni assured him truthfully that she was perfectly happy sitting in her
+beautiful old garden or taking lunch and tea on the river, either alone,
+or in the company of her friends, Molly and Cynthia Peach. Punting alone
+was forbidden, but seeing Toni's disappointment, her husband had
+purchased for her a stout little dinghy in which she was perfectly safe,
+and this same craft was a source of delight to its owner.
+
+At first Owen had asked Toni to come up to town with him, to do some
+shopping or go to a _matinée_, but London in summer was no novelty to
+Toni, and she infinitely preferred to stay at Willowhurst and amuse
+herself in her own way.
+
+One night it chanced that Owen arrived home much earlier than usual. The
+weather had broken a day or two previously, and the air was heavy with
+thunder. Consequently Owen's head ached furiously, with one of the
+neuralgic headaches which since his accident he had good cause to dread;
+and the fact that he had an important piece of work to finish without
+loss of time fretted his nerves to racking-point.
+
+London was particularly hot and malodorous to-day; and it was with a
+sigh of relief that Owen steered his car away from the stuffy streets
+towards the green and fragrant valley of the Thames. There was a coppery
+glow in the sky which presaged a storm, and puffs of hot air blew
+gustily into his face; but it would be fresher at Willowhurst, and if
+the storm should break there would be a delightful hour or two
+afterwards, when the earth, cooled by the rain, would send up its
+incense of sweet odours into the summer darkness, and the evening breeze
+would bring refreshment to weary, throbbing brows.
+
+True, the work must be done, if human endurance could do it; and with a
+sigh of relief Owen remembered that Toni would be disengaged and able to
+help him in some way, if only by typing the manuscript when he had
+brought it to a close. There was also a little research work to be done,
+one or two quotations to be verified, a few short extracts to be
+made--work which came well within the scope of Toni's powers; and he
+knew that she would be only too pleased to give him what help she could.
+
+But he had reckoned without his host. On leaving home in the morning he
+had told his wife he would probably be late in returning, and had
+apologized for leaving her so long alone. So far from feeling aggrieved
+at his absence, however, Toni seized the opportunity of inviting Mollie
+and Cynthia over for tennis; and the girls accepted blithely, bringing
+over with them a young cousin, just through Sandhurst, who was an adept
+at the game.
+
+Toni welcomed the boy happily; and the four young people played tennis
+vigorously, with an interval for tea, until the elder Toby began
+regretfully to talk of going home.
+
+There were already rumblings of thunder, and the sky behind the big
+cedar trees looked strangely lurid; and Toni, who hated a storm, was
+loth to let them go.
+
+An idea striking her, she begged them all to stay and have a late supper
+with her; after which Mr. Cooper and Mollie, being musical, might give
+the others an impromptu concert--a plan to which, after a little decent
+hesitation, the trio assented gaily.
+
+Toni, pleased that she was not to be left alone to face the storm, took
+them indoors to get tidy, and then danced off to the kitchen to
+interview the cook.
+
+Mrs. Blades, lighting the Ten Little Ladies earlier than usual on
+account of the gloom, was inclined to look askance at the invasion; but
+Martha and Maggie--the latter filling the place of Kate, enjoying her
+"evening off"--fell into the plan with alacrity; and while the former
+brought out the cold chickens and the galantine intended for the
+morrow's lunch, Maggie bustled round the oval table laying extra places
+and making such preparations as commended themselves to her ever-fertile
+mind.
+
+Owing to the stormy dusk it was necessary to light the candles on the
+supper-table, where bowls of great crimson roses made pools of colour on
+the white cloth; and very attractive the table looked to the four hungry
+people who presently sat down to eat and chatter.
+
+There was plenty of gay laughter over the meal. Jokes were bandied
+hither and thither, shocking puns were made and greeted with shrieks of
+mirth, and if the conversation was eminently frivolous, at least it was
+good-humoured, hearty, wholesome frivolity.
+
+Yet when Owen reached home in his car and entered the hall with rather a
+weary step, the somewhat noisy merriment which greeted him brought a
+frown to his forehead.
+
+He questioned Andrews as to what was going on, and the young butler
+informed him, with a complacency which Owen in his present mood found
+irritating, that Mrs. Rose was entertaining the two Misses Peach and a
+gentleman to supper.
+
+"Oh!" Owen paused in his walk towards the dining-room door. "In that
+case, I think I will just have a whisky and soda in the library--and a
+few sandwiches."
+
+"Very good, sir," the man was beginning, when there was a peal of
+laughter from behind the closed door; and the next moment, Toni came
+flying out of the room, holding aloft a large bunch of grapes, while Mr.
+Cooper pursued her hotly, making grabs at the fruit as he did so.
+
+Unable to stop herself, Toni cannoned violently into her husband, and
+the unfortunate youth from Sandhurst, brought to an unexpected halt,
+found himself face to face with an unknown man whose expression was not
+exactly inviting.
+
+"Owen, is it you? How you startled me!" Toni lifted two sparkling eyes
+to her husband's face. "When did you come? You said you wouldn't be home
+till after ten!"
+
+"I've just arrived," he said, striving hard to keep any hint of
+annoyance out of his tone. "You were making such a noise you didn't hear
+the car! Well, Toni, won't you introduce me to your friend?"
+
+On being presented, Mr. Cooper, held out his hand rather awkwardly.
+
+"I'm afraid we were making an awful din," he said, apologetically. "We
+got ragging over the dessert and Mrs. Rose stole my grapes----?"
+
+"Oh, you fibber!" Toni was not going to stand that. "They were mine, and
+you took them off my plate when I wasn't looking!"
+
+"I'm afraid they aren't much good to anyone now," said Owen with a
+smile. "They are pretty well squashed, Toni, and I fancy your frock's
+got the worst of the encounter!"
+
+"Well, it's only my tennis-frock," said Toni, her first involuntary
+qualms driven away by the friendly sound in Owen's voice. "We'll go back
+and finish now. You'll come, Owen? I'll tell Maggie to bring back the
+food."
+
+"No, don't bother." He spoke quietly. "I'll go and brush off some of the
+London dust while you and your friends finish your supper. I'll have a
+bite later on. Don't worry about me." He turned to the boy. "I'm afraid
+we're in for a storm. I felt a few drops as I came up the drive."
+
+Somewhat reluctantly, Toni left her husband and returned to the
+dining-room, where the Tobies anxiously awaited her coming. They had
+practically finished their meal, and a few moments later rose from the
+table and went into the drawing-room, where Toni presently excused
+herself and went in search of her husband.
+
+She found him in the library, where Andrew had just brought him a
+slender repast; and even the unobservant Toni was struck by the look of
+fatigue which brooded over his face as he sat poring over some
+closely-written sheets.
+
+"Owen, I'm sure you ought not to do that now. Do leave it till to-morrow
+and come and listen to some music in the drawing-room instead."
+
+She laid one small hand on the sheets as though to wrest them from his
+grasp; but he lifted her fingers aside with a rather weary gesture.
+
+"No, dear, I can't leave this." His voice was flat and toneless. "I've
+promised to send it off the first thing to-morrow morning, and there's a
+lot to be done yet."
+
+"But I'm sure you're ill! Have you got neuralgia again?"
+
+"A little--oh, it's nothing, only the thunder in the air. You might tell
+Andrews to bring me some phenacetin, will you, dear? And now, my child,
+run away to your guests--they'll think it queer if you leave them alone
+much longer."
+
+Toni turned obediently to the door, but she was not yet easy in her
+mind.
+
+"Owen, are you sure there is nothing I can do?"
+
+"Nothing, thank you, dear. I believe the storm is passing after all."
+
+He spoke the truth, for with a few more mutterings the thunder died away
+in the distance; and though the promised coolness did not come, both
+Owen and Toni were relieved by the lightening atmosphere--Toni because
+she was an arrant coward where thunderstorms were concerned; Owen
+because he felt that the clash of the elements would render the
+neuralgic pains in his head almost unbearable.
+
+For long after Toni, relieved, had gone back to her visitors he sat
+doing nothing, lacking the energy to attack his task. Now and then he
+heard a few notes on the piano, and once he opened the door to listen to
+the elder Miss Peach's rendering of a song he knew, for Mollie Peach had
+a sweet, limpid soprano voice which no amount of chatter and noisy
+laughter could destroy.
+
+When, however, the young man from Sandhurst started to shout a comic
+song, Owen shut the door hastily and wished the boy at Jericho.
+
+He began to think the visitors would never go. At first he had hoped
+that their departure would set Toni free to help him after all; but when
+the clock in the hall chimed the half hour after ten, and still the
+music and laughter continued, he knew it was useless to expect any aid
+to-night.
+
+At eleven the party broke up. The bicycles were brought round, and the
+four went gaily out of the front door to light lamps and see to
+suspiciously slack tyres.
+
+Owen had charged Toni with polite messages to the two girls; and they,
+being somewhat in awe of a real live writer, were not sorry to avoid a
+meeting with their host; but Toni seemed so loth to part with them that
+she detained them all on the steps, chattering eagerly while the stars
+winked down out of the clearing sky and the owls hooted in melancholy
+fashion from the tops of the tall trees behind the house.
+
+Finally the last farewells were said, the last appointments made; and
+Toni, yawning, turned to Andrews and bade him lock up safely.
+
+She was still yawning when she came into the library a moment later; and
+in the lamplight Owen caught a glimpse of her little red mouth gaping
+behind her hand as she came up to the table.
+
+"How sleepy I am!" Indeed her eyes were bright, like those of a sleepy
+child. "Aren't you coming, Owen? It's ever so late."
+
+"Why didn't you pack your friends off a little earlier then?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't want them to go." She yawned childishly once more.
+"Owen"--suddenly a thought struck her--"you're not cross, are you? You
+didn't mind me having them here? You know, I thought it was going to be
+a storm----"
+
+"Of course I didn't mind," he said, disarmed by her sudden appeal. "It
+was my fault for turning up unexpectedly. But now, Toni, supposing you
+run away to bed? I really must finish this work, and it's getting late."
+
+She agreed, docilely, and kissing him lightly, ran away to bed as she
+was commanded, falling asleep as soon as she was safely there.
+
+But Owen sat late in the library--sat, indeed, till the short summer
+night began to recede with stealthy, sliding footsteps before the
+victorious onrush of the dawn; and in those quiet, lamp-lit hours he
+asked himself despairingly why he had been in such haste to marry.
+
+One consolation lay in the fact that Toni herself had not the slightest
+idea that her marriage was anything but a success. She did not know that
+her idleness, her incessant chatter about trivial things, her constant
+interruptions, her unauthorized intrusions into the privacy of his
+working hours, worried him almost beyond measure.
+
+Bubbling over with youth and joy, she had no eyes for the look of
+strain, of weariness on another's face; and to her it seemed quite right
+that her husband should write and study while she danced through the
+summer hours as she would.
+
+He liked his work, she supposed; and in Toni's world it was the usual
+thing for the men to work to support their wives. But that the wives had
+equal duties, that it was theirs to share the burdens of the men's
+spiritual and mental labour, she had, as yet, no idea.
+
+"At least," said Owen wearily to himself, as he rose stiffly from his
+chair and moved to the oriel window to watch the marvel of the dawn, "at
+least I have made her happy; and as for me, it's my own mistake, and I
+must bear the consequences!"
+
+With which philosophical reflection he extinguished the lamp and went
+slowly upstairs to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+In after days Toni always looked back to the afternoon of the Vicarage
+Bazaar as the occasion on which her eyes were opened ruthlessly to the
+cruelty of life.
+
+The day began auspiciously enough. It was August now, a hot, languorous
+August, when the river lay veiled in a mist of heat, and the air, even
+in the early morning, was a sea of liquid gold. There were wonderful,
+magical nights, too, nights of mellow moonlight and sweet, mysterious
+perfumes, nights when a breath of clean, fragrance from distant
+bean-fields mingled with the richer, heavier scent of roses and Madonna
+lilies.
+
+To Toni the summer had been one long time of enchantment. From the
+moment when she opened her eyes in the dawn, and ran to the window to
+see the hills shimmering in the heat, and the river sparkling with the
+peculiar silvery sheen of early morning, to the moment when she took her
+last stroll in the garden at night, and saw the stars come out in the
+darkening sky, while the white owls hooted mournfully in the tall trees,
+all, to Toni, was happiness and joy.
+
+There is no doubt that people who are not introspective lead the
+happiest lives. Toni, not being given to wasting her time in reflection
+or self-analysis, remained happily unconscious of the fact that her life
+during that splendid summer was a very idle one. Like a good many other
+girls, she considered that a strenuous game on the tennis-court or a
+stiff pull up the river entitled her to as much subsequent leisure as
+she desired; and she enjoyed the slight fatigue consequent on these
+exertions with a virtuous sense of having really done some work which
+entitled her to a holiday.
+
+She did not see very much of her husband; and sometimes she felt, with a
+slight pang of remorse, that before their marriage she had really taken
+more interest in his work than she found time to do nowadays. Not that
+he ever seemed to expect anything from her in that way. Once or twice,
+in the earlier days of their married life, he had been led into
+discussing various features of the review with her, and she had really
+tried hard to listen intelligently, and understand what he was talking
+about; but somehow he seemed to guess that the subjects did not interest
+her; and for the last few weeks he had confined his conversations with
+her to the little trivial happenings of every day.
+
+He didn't mind, she supposed. He must get plenty of the old _Bridge_ at
+the office; and anyway it was far more of a change for him, when he came
+home, to talk of other things, even though they were in one sense less
+important.
+
+She herself was perfectly happy; and had she been asked, she would
+certainly have said that Owen was in a state of equal bliss. Moreover,
+seeing that he had chosen her out of a world of women to be his wife,
+she never stopped to ask herself whether or no she came up to his
+standard of wifely perfection.
+
+And considering her peculiarly blind and unquestioning attitude of mind
+on the subject of her relation to her husband, the awakening which
+presently came was doubly painful.
+
+The occasion, as has been stated, was that of the Vicarage Bazaar, an
+annual function held in the Vicarage gardens in the middle of August;
+and since Mrs. Madgwick, the Vicar's wife, had from motives of parochial
+diplomacy established some sort of intimacy with the young mistress of
+Greenriver, she had pressed Toni into her service as the great day came
+round.
+
+With Molly and Cynthia Peach, Toni was to assist at the flower-stall,
+which was always, so the Tobies assured her, certain of patronage; and
+by ten o'clock on the morning of the day, Toni was at the Vicarage,
+laden with masses of blossoms sent from Greenriver as a contribution to
+the stall.
+
+From that moment until the hour of lunch, to which she was detained
+almost by force, Toni worked like a veritable busy bee, running errands,
+doing odd jobs, and, in the intervals, arranging the flowers on the
+stall, until hands and feet were both weary.
+
+Having finished the hurried and uncomfortable meal, consisting chiefly
+of tinned tongue and a rather out-of-date cream cheese, Toni was allowed
+to run home to change her dress; and at half-past two precisely she was
+back, robed in the daintiest, filmiest white lawn gown, to take her
+place with the other stallholders, in readiness for the opening
+ceremony, performed, much to the delight of the entire Madgwick family,
+by a real duchess.
+
+The Duchess had little to say and said it very badly; but she was duly
+applauded and presented with a bouquet by a small white-robed child,
+stiff with starch and self-consciousness; after which her Grace
+descended thankfully from the little platform erected for her speech,
+and fulfilled the second and easier half of her duty by making the round
+of the stalls and spending a strictly equal amount at each one.
+
+By now Toni had a good many acquaintances in the neighbourhood, and was
+pleased to see Mrs. Anstey smiling at her as she inquired the price of a
+magnificent bunch of sweet-peas which had come from the gardens of
+Greenriver.
+
+Toni told her the price, and she forthwith bought the flowers, greatly
+to Toni's pleasure, for she loved her sweet-peas and had hoped, rather
+childishly, that someone nice would buy them.
+
+As she was handing over the change, Toni summoned up courage to ask
+after Miss Lynn, and Mrs. Anstey smiled.
+
+"She is very well, thanks, and coming here, I hope, in a week or two.
+She and Mr. Raymond are to be married at Christmas, as I daresay you
+have heard."
+
+"Yes, my husband told me so." Suddenly Toni blushed, remembering the
+occasion of Miss Lynn's visit to her; and at the same moment, as though
+evoked by some mysterious method of thought, the robust and
+gaily-dressed form of Lady Martin suddenly materialized before her eyes.
+
+Her ladyship was engaged in cheapening a bunch of yellow roses, while
+Cynthia Peach was endeavouring, without much success, to point out that
+their fresh beauty and scent were well worth the original price.
+
+"I'll take them if you knock off sixpence," Lady Martin was declaring
+rather aggressively; and Miss Peach glanced helplessly at her sister.
+
+"What shall I do, Toby?" she murmured anxiously. "Of course they're
+cheap already, but still I suppose they won't last----"
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Toby," whispered Mollie vigorously. "If she doesn't buy
+them heaps of people will." Aloud she said firmly--"I'm afraid we can't
+take less, Lady Martin. The Duchess bought two bunches of the same
+roses, and she didn't think them dear."
+
+Lady Martin paused, inherent meanness struggling with a snobbish desire
+to emulate the Duchess; and finally she gave in with a bad grace.
+
+As she took the roses her eyes fell on Toni, at that moment intent on
+her conversation with Mrs. Anstey; and her ladyship's ill-humour was not
+lessened by noticing the friendly glances which passed between them.
+
+She bore down upon them accordingly with outstretched hand.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Anstey, it is ages since we met!" Her piercing tones, likened
+by the Tobies to those of a macaw, strove in vain for suavity. "So good
+of you to come to this affair--such a distance for you, too!"
+
+"Oh, I always try to come when I am at home," said Mrs. Anstey gently.
+"I like to support Mr. Madgwick's parish, though I'm afraid I don't
+spend a great deal of money! Really the flowers and the home-made cakes
+are the only things that tempt me."
+
+"And surely you have plenty of flowers at home!" Lady Martin glanced
+with a disparaging little laugh at the stall before her. "I don't know
+where these came from, but they look sadly wilted already."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't agree with you there," said Mrs. Anstey, with a
+little smile. "I think the flowers are charming, especially those sent
+by Mrs. Rose's kindness from Greenriver."
+
+She indicated Toni with a friendly little gesture, and Lady Martin
+condescended, unwillingly, to acknowledge the girl's greeting. To tell
+the truth, Lady Martin had no desire to better her acquaintance with
+Toni. She had long ago intended the owner of Greenriver for her
+son-in-law; and to find this little nobody, with her provincial ways and
+her foreign-looking eyes, acting as _châtelaine_ of the beautiful old
+house in her daughter's place had an irritating effect.
+
+To make matters worse, several people had known of her matrimonial
+designs; and since the disappointment of one's friends is frequently a
+source of mirth, she had been annoyed by several tactless allusions,
+made presumably in jest, to her daughter's disappointment.
+
+So it was that she disliked Rose's wife with the hearty aversion of a
+spiteful and jealous woman; and the fact that she herself came of the
+people made her specially quick to suspect _bourgeois_ blood in others.
+
+She took a delight, now, in snubbing Toni; and presently made a point of
+asking after her cousin Miss Mibbs.
+
+"She's very well, thank you," replied Toni, wondering a little at this
+unusual condescension. "But her name isn't Mibbs, it's Gibbs."
+
+"Really?" Lady Martin drawled the word out insolently, as though to
+indicate that the name of the young woman in question did not interest
+her. "She is not here to-day, I suppose?"
+
+"No," said Toni, absent-mindedly, "she was not able to get off to-day."
+
+"Get off?" Lady Martin pounced on the strange form of the admission.
+"She is ... er ... full of social engagements?"
+
+Afterwards Toni thought it was the scent of the flowers which had made
+her feel hazy just then. Although she had an intuition that her
+interlocutor meant to be inquisitive, she had not the sense to turn the
+subject with a vague assent; and after a second's hesitation replied
+rather foolishly that her cousin's engagements were not in society.
+
+"Indeed? But it is holiday time--surely Miss Gibbs is not _teaching_
+now?"
+
+Mrs. Anstey, feeling to the full the insolence of this
+cross-examination, attempted to come to the rescue; but Lady Martin
+stood waiting so obviously for an answer that Toni felt constrained to
+reply.
+
+"No, Lady Martin. My cousin is not a governess."
+
+"No?" Lady Martin, who had the lust for cruelty inherent in all mean
+natures, pressed the point ruthlessly. "Then--I hardly see ... in the
+summer one does not work unless one is a private secretary or something
+of that sort; and I am sure your cousin"--with a pointed smile--"did not
+look in the _very least_ like a private secretary!"
+
+Suddenly Toni lost her head and her temper together.
+
+"My cousin is no one's secretary, Lady Martin. She is in a shop--Brown
+and Evans, drapers, of Brixton; and she is not here to-day because
+Thursday is the early-closing day for the shops, and this is only
+Tuesday!"
+
+There was a short silence. Even Lady Martin felt uncomfortable, for
+though she had literally goaded the girl into speech she did not enjoy
+the spectacle of Toni's flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks, nor the
+expression of mingled contempt and compassion on Mrs. Anstey's face--the
+contempt, as she very well knew, being intended for her, the compassion
+for Toni.
+
+The moment she had spoken Toni knew what she had done; that besides
+losing her temper and behaving in an ill-bred way she had given a handle
+to her enemies; and the tears were perilously near her eyes, though
+pride forbade her to let them fall.
+
+It was Cynthia Peach who came to the rescue.
+
+"How awfully jolly for your cousin," she said plaintively. "I've always
+longed to go into a shop! The girls have such a good time--and they meet
+heaps of young men! Not like us poor things who hardly ever see one!"
+
+Her evident sincerity relieved the situation. Her sister might murmur
+"Oh, _Toby_!" under her breath, and Lady Martin might sneer, but Mrs.
+Anstey patted the speaker's arm with a very kindly smile.
+
+"Poor little Cynthia! I shall have to scour the neighbourhood for young
+men and give a party," she said. "I'd no idea you were so forlorn!"
+
+"Well, there aren't many, really," conceded the elder Toby. "And I know
+what Cynthia means! That's why she was so pleased to come and sell
+flowers!"
+
+"And you are all neglecting your duties shamefully, my dears!" Mrs.
+Anstey moved aside to allow a batch of customers to approach the stall.
+"I mustn't stay here chattering. You will come and have tea with me,
+won't you, Mrs. Rose?" She turned to Toni, who was now as white as one
+of her own lilies. "I will look for you at five in the tent--you will be
+able to get off by then!"
+
+She smiled kindly at the girl as she moved away. Lady Martin had already
+gone, feeling, no doubt, that the weight of public opinion was against
+her; and as a rush of business just then overwhelmed the flower-sellers,
+Toni had no time to dwell upon the recent little scene.
+
+But Mrs. Anstey looked for Toni in vain when five o'clock came. As a
+matter of fact Toni had felt, desperately, that she could not face the
+crowded tea-tent, where doubtless she would again meet her enemy, Lady
+Martin; and she wanted no tea; she only wanted to be alone for a few
+moments, away from prying eyes, unkind tongues, that she might regain
+the equilibrium so cruelly upset.
+
+With this end in view she slipped away when the two sisters came back
+from their hurried tea; and followed a little path which she knew would
+bring her out at a quiet corner of the grounds, where a rickety old
+summer-house might afford her the temporary shelter she sought.
+
+There was no one there; and although the entrance to the little hut was
+almost choked up with weeds and tall, rank flowers, she crept inside,
+and then, sinking on to the seat in the dimmest, darkest corner, gave
+herself up to the fit of depression which had been stealing on her ever
+since her own rash avowal to Lady Martin.
+
+Suddenly she sat upright. Even here, it seemed, she was not to be free
+from interruption. She heard voices approaching, as though others were
+seeking her hiding-place; and pushing aside one of the rotting wooden
+shutters she peeped cautiously out.
+
+Fate was against her to-day. In the two persons who were drawing near,
+evidently with the intention of seating themselves upon the bench
+outside the hut, she recognized Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick; and
+instantly Toni felt a quick foreboding of evil.
+
+Something seemed to tell her that it was she whom they were discussing
+so earnestly as they walked; and Toni shrank back into the gloom,
+totally incapable of facing them in her tear-stained and generally
+dishevelled condition.
+
+She breathed a prayer that they would not attempt to enter the
+summer-house--a prayer which was answered, for the two ladies seated
+themselves on the bench outside, which was first wiped scrupulously
+clean by a large and substantial handkerchief wielded by the Vicar's
+wife.
+
+Her escape thus cut off, Toni had no choice but to remain silently
+within. She supposed, forlornly, that she ought to make her presence
+known; but she felt it almost impossible to stir; and the first words
+she heard kept her chained to her seat.
+
+"A sad pity," Mrs. Madgwick was remarking in her unctuous voice. "I
+always felt there was something just a little--well, what shall I call
+it?--second-rate about the girl. Mr. Rose being a gentleman in every
+sense of the word makes the whole thing so much worse."
+
+"It does." Lady Martin's thin lips tightened. "I too knew from the first
+that the young woman was not a lady--why, on the occasion of my
+welcoming call I found her entertaining this very cousin to a repast of
+tea and shrimps--or was it periwinkles? Something vulgar, anyway, and I
+am nearly sure I saw a plate of watercresses as well."
+
+"Dear me," said the vicar's wife acidly. "What class does the girl
+spring from? I always thought it was only servants or shop-girls who ate
+things of that sort--with vinegar--for tea!"
+
+"Well, we have Mrs. Rose's own word for it that her cousin is assistant
+in a shop." Lady Martin laughed disagreeably. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was employed in the same manner before her marriage. It is really
+remarkable what matches these pert shop girls make nowadays. Men seem to
+prefer them to our daughters, though it is hard to understand."
+
+"Hard? Impossible!" The Vicar's wife, thinking of her own plain and
+middle-aged daughters, spoke snappily. "As you say, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was some little shop-assistant----"
+
+"Ah, no! I remember now!" Lady Martin spoke mysteriously, and Mrs.
+Madgwick looked up sharply. "Mrs. Rose was not in a shop. It was not
+there that Mr. Rose met her. As a matter of fact she was his typist."
+
+"His typist! Ah!" Toni, listening breathlessly, could not fathom the
+significance of the lady's tone.
+
+"Of course he would never have married her if he had not been so sore
+about Miss Rees." Lady Martin spoke fluently. "I had the whole story of
+that affair from a friend of my daughter's who was intimately acquainted
+with Miss Rees."
+
+"But--who is--or was--Miss Rees?" The speaker little knew how Toni
+blessed her for putting the question.
+
+"The girl he should have married--the Earl of Paulton's niece." Lady
+Martin paused a moment to brush away an inquisitive gnat. "It was quite
+a romantic affair, at first. Mr. Rose was devoted, positively devoted to
+her, and she is really a charming girl, handsome, accomplished, in every
+way a contrast to the poor little creature he has married."
+
+"But why, if he were so devoted----"
+
+"Didn't he marry her? Well, it seems he had a motor smash, knocked
+himself up and had to go away for a time; and whether, as I have been
+told, she was glad of the excuse to break her promise, or whether there
+was some other reason, I don't know, but anyhow she threw him over and
+married Lord Saxonby without telling her first _fiancé_ a word about
+it."
+
+"And he took it to heart?" Mrs. Madgwick felt exhilarated by this
+authentic peep into the lives of the great ones of the earth. "Of course
+it must be galling to be thrown over for another man--though when it is
+a Lord----"
+
+"Well, a Lord's no worse than another man," said Lady Martin rather
+ambiguously. "But they say there was a terrible scene--Mr. Rose
+reproaching the girl and threatening to kill Lord Saxonby, and making
+all sorts of wild threats. My daughter's friend had a maid who had been
+with Lady Saxonby, and she told her all this."
+
+"Ah, then of course it's true." Mrs. Madgwick, having a mind which
+delighted in gossip, did not quarrel with the source of information.
+"But I don't yet see why Mr. Rose married this girl. Surely there must
+have been plenty of ladies he could have had."
+
+"Ah, but they all knew he'd been jilted," said Lady Martin wisely.
+"Besides they say he had sworn to marry the first woman who would have
+him, to get even with Miss Rees, you know, and I haven't a shadow of
+doubt this girl threw herself at his head."
+
+"Very likely," agreed the Vicar's wife charitably. "Girls of that class
+are so pushing. But as a wife for Mr. Rose and the mistress of
+Greenriver she is eminently unsuitable."
+
+"Dreadfully so," sighed Lady Martin. "I feel so sorry for the poor man
+tied to a common, empty-headed little thing like that. They tell me she
+is an absolute fool--and really in these days of evening classes and
+polytechnics there is no excuse for such lamentable ignorance as she
+displays. I hear that when they go out to dinner she sits as dumb as a
+fish--or else commits such shocking solecisms that her poor husband
+blushes for her."
+
+"Really? I have had very little conversation with her," said the other
+woman judicially. "And beyond noting her deplorable unsoundness on
+religious matters I have had few opportunities of probing her mind."
+
+"Her mind? She hasn't one," snapped Lady Martin. "She is one of those
+mindless, soulless women who are simply parasites, clinging to men for
+what they can get--a home, money, position--and give nothing in return
+because they have nothing to give."
+
+"It is indeed sad for Mr. Rose," said Mrs. Madgwick compassionately. "So
+dreadfully boring for a clever man to be hampered with a silly wife--and
+one with such unpresentable relations, too. What was her cousin like?
+Quite--quite, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, quite," agreed Lady Martin. "A red-faced, blowsy young woman with a
+large bust and a pinched-in waist. Just the sort of girl you'd expect to
+find in a draper's shop in Brixton. But now, I really feel quite rested.
+Suppose we return to the Bazaar? I have one or two little purchases to
+make, and possibly by now the things will be reduced in price."
+
+The Vicar's wife rose with alacrity, and the two ladies moved away,
+discussing the probable financial result of the Bazaar, and Toni was
+left alone with her new knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+At half-past five on that same afternoon Jim Herrick and his dog were
+strolling across the meadows leading from the river to the village of
+Willowhurst.
+
+The sky, which had been brilliantly blue all day, was beginning to be
+overcast, causing the energetic helpers at the Vicarage Bazaar to throw
+anxious glances towards the gathering clouds, and Herrick, who was a
+fair weather-prophet, foresaw a storm before sunset.
+
+As he threw his leg over the stile leading into the last meadow, he
+paused suddenly.
+
+Approaching him was Owen Rose's wife; and something in her mode of
+progress struck him as peculiar. She was coming along at a sort of fast
+walk, breaking now and then into a few running steps, stumbling
+occasionally and even stopping dead for a second before resuming her
+hurrying advance.
+
+Her eyes were downcast; and she was quite close to him before she
+realized his presence. When she did look up he saw that she was crying,
+openly, sobbingly, as a child cries, the tears running in little
+channels over her cheeks and dropping unheeded where they would.
+
+Even when she saw that she was not alone, Toni could not check those
+treacherous tears; and something told Herrick that she was craving for
+sympathy, that here was no sophisticated woman of the world, to whom the
+encounter would spell annoyance, but a forlorn and solitary child crying
+out its heart over some real or fancied tribulation, to whom a kindly
+word, a friendly greeting would bring only comfort.
+
+He jumped off the stile and approached her, hat in hand.
+
+"Mrs. Rose? You're in trouble over something? Will you tell me what's
+wrong--perhaps I can help you somehow?"
+
+To his relief he saw that his impression had been correct. She turned to
+him desperately, like a child seeking consolation.
+
+"Mr. Herrick"--she sobbed out the words--"I'm so miserable--I don't know
+what to do!"
+
+"Come, that's bad!" He spoke kindly. "Well, suppose you rest here a
+moment and dry your eyes?"
+
+She fumbled blindly in the front of her gown and then gave up the search
+with a childish wail.
+
+"I've not got a handkerchief--I've lost it somewhere!"
+
+"Never mind, I have one." He drew out a large silk square as yet
+unfolded, and pressed it into her hand. "There, use that--and then we'll
+have a talk."
+
+She dried her eyes obediently, though fresh tears threatened to make her
+obedience futile; and then, still clinging to his handkerchief, she
+leaned against the stile and tried to regain her self-control.
+
+"Well?" His tone, with its gentle sympathy, was balm to poor Toni's sore
+heart. "Come, little lady, what's the trouble? Let's see if we can't
+find a way out of it together."
+
+She turned her eyes on him as he spoke, and he was almost startled at
+what he read there; for surely there was a hint of almost womanly
+suffering in their usually childish depths; and he knew intuitively that
+this was not the thoughtless, light-hearted girl he had previously known
+as Toni Rose.
+
+"Mr. Herrick"--she spoke in a low voice, which in spite of all her
+efforts shook a little--"just now at the Vicarage Bazaar I heard Lady
+Martin and Mrs. Madgwick talking about me; and they said such terrible
+things that I think my heart will break!"
+
+"Oh, come, Mrs. Rose!" His tone had, as he intended, a bracing effect.
+"Hearts don't break so easily as that! Whatever those two chatterers may
+have said, you must not let it affect you so seriously."
+
+"They said I was common--and ill-bred--and ignorant." The words startled
+her hearer, though she spoke them with a kind of dreary quietness which
+was not without pathos. "They said Owen only married me because some
+girl--an earl's niece--had thrown him over and he wanted to get his own
+back--they said he was ashamed of me, that he blushed for me when we
+went out to dinner, and everyone pitied him for having such a common,
+empty-headed wife."
+
+"My dear Mrs. Rose----" For a moment Herrick's wits deserted him beneath
+this recapitulation; and before he could hit on the right words, Toni
+had begun again.
+
+"They said it was a pity for a clever man to be tied to an ignorant
+wife, that I bored him to death; and Lady Martin said I was a parasite,
+clinging to him for money and food, and that I had spoilt his life and
+ruined his career----"
+
+"Oh, that is nonsense!" Herrick shook off the mental paralysis which had
+held him tongue-tied, and spoke vigorously. "No man's life was ever
+spoilt by the possession of a pretty, loving wife--like you."
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand." She spoke drearily. "I _have_ been a
+fool, I suppose. I was so happy myself that I never thought of Owen. I
+mean I just went on loving him--thinking he loved me. I didn't bother
+about his work and his career--it never struck me I should be doing Owen
+harm by my ignorance. I knew I wasn't clever enough to help him, but I
+thought that didn't matter so long as we were happy...."
+
+"But you _were_ happy?"
+
+"I was." A big tear rolled forlornly down her cheek. "It was so
+lovely here--like a beautiful dream--the summer and the river and the
+roses ... every day was better than the last and I thought it would
+always be like that ... I had never dreamed I could be so happy ... it
+was just like a fairy-tale, I used to think sometimes I was like an
+enchanted princess, living in a wonderful castle--with my prince...." Her
+voice sank to a whisper, and she gazed out over the flower-strewn meadows
+with a wide-eyed glance which saw nothing.
+
+Herrick's big heart, which in spite of his life's tragedy held still an
+infinite compassion for all weak and helpless things, was wrung with
+pity for this poor little creature, whose eyes had been opened so
+cruelly to the fact that life was not all an enchanted fairyland; and
+when he spoke his deep voice was very gentle.
+
+"See here, little lady, you mustn't take all this to heart. These women
+were talking, you must remember, without any intimate knowledge of your
+affairs; and we all know that gossip is eminently uncharitable. Besides,
+loyalty to your husband should make you believe in him and his love."
+
+"I do." She stopped abruptly, then went on again more impetuously. "But
+the worst of it is, I believe it is true, what they said. I _am_
+ignorant and silly. I hate going out to parties; I never feel at ease, I
+make foolish mistakes. Owen has been very kind, he has only laughed, but
+it must have been horrid for him to have such a foolish wife. At home,
+too ... it's quite true I haven't helped him. I've been out all day
+enjoying myself, and not bothering about his work. I did at first, and I
+made such stupid blunders that he used to have to do it all over again."
+
+"Well, that's nothing." He spoke lightly. "After all, you are not a
+literary expert like your husband, and you can't be expected to do his
+work."
+
+"No." She caught her white teeth fiercely in her lip. "But lots of women
+could have helped him. This one they spoke of--they said she was clever,
+accomplished, just the sort of wife for a man like Owen--not a stupid
+little dummy like me. And"--she paused, and every tinge of colour faded
+out of her face--"they said I was common--not a lady. Mr. Herrick, am I
+common? Am I--not a lady?"
+
+With her eyes on his face, eyes full of a desperate hurt, Herrick felt a
+wild, impotent desire to strangle the two mischief-makers who had
+changed this girl's joy into bitterness, had turned a child's enchanted
+castle into a structure of pasteboard; but when he spoke his tone was
+admirably light.
+
+"My dear child, now you are talking absolute nonsense. Common? Well, to
+me commonness consists in common behaviour, mean tempers, a nasty,
+spiteful attitude of mind, a discontent with one's surroundings, a petty
+jealousy of others--oh, I hate a common mind as much as anyone in the
+world--but to use the word in connection with you is merely an abuse of
+language and not to be treated seriously."
+
+She was half perplexed, half comforted.
+
+"But a lady, Mr. Herrick? Am I or am I not--a lady?"
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "that again depends on the use of the word. Mrs.
+Swastika, my excellent charwoman, is referred to by her friends as 'the
+lady who looks after that queer man in the bungalow'; and when my usual
+milkman was taken ill the other day, my modest pint of milk was brought
+by a pig-tailed girl who announced, 'I'm the young lady as takes round
+Mr. Piggott's milk when he's sick!' So that you see the term 'lady' is
+capable of wide interpretation."
+
+"But _am_ I?" Her wistful tone craved for reassurance and Herrick gave
+it promptly.
+
+"If by 'lady' you mean a woman who is fit to mix with any one in the
+land, yes," he said. "Of course you are."
+
+She gave him a wan little smile, and dried away a few tears with the aid
+of his handkerchief.
+
+"I don't know where mine is," she said, half-crying, half-laughing. "I
+must have dropped it somewhere."
+
+"Or the Boo-Boos took it." He smiled at her puzzled expression. "Don't
+you know those dreadful little people--the people who hide one's pencils
+and one's handkerchiefs, put the clock back so that one misses one's
+train--or an appointment--and invariably send an organ-grinder outside
+one's window when one is hard at work and can't bear a noise!"
+
+"But why do you call them Boo-Boos?" She might have been a child asking
+for the explanation of a fairy-tale.
+
+"Well, they aren't Brownies, because _they_ are a good little folk. And
+the Pixies, though their tricks are much the same, pursue their
+avocations out of doors on moor or hill; so that the only name I could
+find for them was just that--Boo-Boos!"
+
+He laughed at her bewildered face.
+
+"Come, Mrs. Rose, don't you ever feel conscious of their teasing
+presence? Don't you lose your hair-pins, or your brooches, or whatever
+corresponds to our collar-studs? And have you never noticed how a pen
+with which you are about to sign an important document, a will or
+something of the kind, has changed mysteriously into a pencil--generally
+without a point--when you pick it up?"
+
+He had succeeded in his intention. His nonsense had won her to a smile;
+and the eyes which a few moments before had looked like those of a
+tortured woman were once again the eyes of a child.
+
+"Do you know, Mrs. Rose"--Herrick felt there was danger in prolonging
+the situation once she had attained a comparative serenity--"I'm afraid
+it's going to rain! Don't you think we had better be moving homewards?"
+
+She rose at once.
+
+"Just as you like." She spoke with the utmost docility. "I suppose we
+had better go. I haven't an umbrella--have you?"
+
+"No--and your dress is thin." He looked at her white gown, which had not
+been improved by her incarceration in the mouldy summer-house, and
+showed traces of the dust and dirt of the bench on which she had
+crouched while the two women talked outside. Altogether Toni presented a
+pathetic little figure; and Herrick felt a sudden desire to know her
+safely at home, hidden from inquisitive eyes.
+
+He called Olga, who had been playing an enticing game of hunting quite
+imaginary rabbits in the hedgerow; and when the great dog bounded up in
+obedience to his summons, he jumped over the stile and held out his hand
+to help Toni. She climbed over rather lifelessly, catching her white
+skirt on a splinter of wood and tearing a rent which filled Herrick with
+dismay.
+
+"You've torn your pretty dress! What a shame--will it be quite spoilt?"
+
+"Oh no, I can mead it," she returned indifferently, "and any way it
+doesn't matter." To Toni nothing mattered just then.
+
+"That wretched splinter was to blame. I'm afraid I didn't notice it," he
+said contritely.
+
+"Oh, it wasn't your fault. Perhaps it was one of your queer creatures,
+the Boo-Boos," said Toni with a wintry attempt at a smile; and Herrick
+was struck with the readiness with which she had adopted his whimsical
+theory.
+
+As they went across the fields beneath the now cloudy sky, he tried to
+keep the conversation at the same light level; but although Toni strove
+to adapt herself to his mood, it was evident that her thoughts were
+still circling round the revelation which had shattered her fairy
+castle; and just as the chimneys of Greenriver came in sight above the
+tall tree-tops, she asked him a question which had been formulating in
+her mind throughout the walk homewards.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, do you think I could improve myself somehow--I mean could
+I read some books, or do something to make myself a more suitable wife
+for Owen? You know"--she caught her breath--"I can't bear for him to be
+ashamed of me, or bored with me--and they said--those women, that he was
+both."
+
+For a second Herrick thought of treating the matter lightly, assuring
+her that what the women had said was of no importance whatever. Then he
+knew there was only one course open to him, and he met sincerity with
+sincerity, candour with candour.
+
+"It would be very easy for you to do a little reading," he said quietly.
+"Of course a literary man like Mr. Rose forgets that everyone has not
+his fine taste in books; and on the other hand, it is very easy to
+acquire a liking for poor stuff. But there are lots of authors who would
+delight you with their books, and if I can give you any help I shall be
+charmed to make you out a list."
+
+"Will you?" Her eyes lighted up for a second. "There are hundreds of
+books in the house--the library is supposed to be rather remarkable, you
+know, and I expect lots of the books you mean are there."
+
+"I've no doubt of it." He remembered hearing of the unique collection
+which Greenriver housed. "Tell me what sort of books you like? Travel,
+history, romance--what?"
+
+The light died out of her eyes.
+
+"I don't know." Her voice sounded flat. "I don't think I like anything
+much--except stories. Novels, I mean," she added hastily.
+
+"Well, there are plenty of very fine novels," he said cheerily. "And no
+one need be ashamed of liking that form of story-telling. I always fail
+to understand the attitude of the person who says 'I _never_ read
+novels!' as though he were claiming a tremendous superiority, whereas
+he's only showing himself a narrow-minded and unimaginative person!"
+
+"But reading novels won't make me clever?" said Toni rather wistfully.
+
+"Well, probably not, if you read nothing else," he owned. "But there is
+plenty more stuff for you to read. What about poetry?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Well, you'll soon get to like it," he said smiling. "You needn't flesh
+your maiden sword in Browning, you know. Anyway, I will send you a list,
+shall I?--of books that I think you'll like. Can you read French?"
+
+Blushing, she confessed her inability to do more than recognize a French
+quotation here and there; and a new thought filled her mind.
+
+"Do you think if I were to study French, Mr. Herrick? I've got all my
+old books, and I could do an exercise every day."
+
+Herrick was half inclined to smile, but she was so desperately in
+earnest that he refrained.
+
+"A capital plan," he said heartily, thinking to himself that the harder
+she worked the less time she would have for fretting.
+
+"And if I got to know more poetry I might be able to help Owen with his
+articles," she said, smiling happily, reassured by his friendly counsel.
+"Of course they were quite right--I _am_ stupid and ignorant, but if I
+work hard I think I ought to be able to make myself useful to Owen,
+oughtn't I, Mr. Herrick?"
+
+"Don't work too hard," he said, half jesting, half in earnest. "You
+don't want to turn yourself into a blue-stocking, do you? Don't
+over-develop your brain at the expense of your heart and soul, as so
+many learned women have done--to their ultimate despair."
+
+"There's no fear of that." Toni spoke in a low voice, and again he
+caught a glimpse of something disconcerting in her clear eyes. "Those
+women said I _had_ no soul. But that's nonsense, because everyone has a
+soul."
+
+"But not everyone realizes it," he said. "Some people go through life
+and never know they have more than a body, which claims attention while
+the soul waits, yearningly, for recognition."
+
+He had spoken half to himself, his thoughts wandering for a moment from
+the girl beside him to another girl whose soul had been, to him at
+least, as a sealed book.
+
+"I have been like that," said Toni surprisingly. "But I have a soul--and
+for Owen's sake I am going to prove it. Only"--she faltered find her
+brave accents died away--"perhaps it is too late, after all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And though, when he left her at her own door, refusing her invitation to
+enter, she had regained much of her usual manner, her last words haunted
+Herrick all through the long, lonely evening.
+
+He knew quite well that there was a good deal of truth in the accusation
+brought against the shrinking Toni. Although he lived a solitary life,
+it was impossible altogether to avoid contact with one's neighbours
+along the river; and he had heard sundry bits of conversation concerning
+Toni which went to prove that Owen Rose's choice of a wife was freely
+criticized in the neighbourhood. People agreed that she was certainly
+surprisingly pretty, but she did not belong to the class which filled
+all the big houses round about. The charitable said she was shy, the
+malicious called her _gauche_, without perhaps knowing exactly what they
+meant; and everyone who had talked to her asserted that she had no
+conversation, and did not appear in the least a suitable wife for a
+clever man like Mr. Rose.
+
+"Poor little girl!" Herrick rose from his seat with a sigh at the end of
+the long, dreary evening. "I'm sorry for her--like the little mermaiden
+of Hans Andersen, she is ready--now--to dance upon knives for the
+possession of a soul! Well, she'll win her soul all right, but God grant
+the winning of it doesn't end in tragedy!"
+
+He stood for a moment gazing into vacancy with a half-tender,
+half-cynical smile on his lips. Then he extinguished the lamp, called
+Olga from her resting-place on the old divan, and went slowly to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Herrick duly sent Toni a list of such books as he thought suitable for
+her purpose; and then began for Toni a succession of long and, if the
+truth be told, tedious days spent, in Owen's absence, in the quiet,
+stately library, while the August sunshine streamed in through the big
+mullioned windows, and turned the books, in their many-hued bindings,
+into pools of rich, dim colour, lighted here and there with the flash of
+gold, the gleam of purple and scarlet.
+
+Toni used to wish, half-rebelliously, that the sun would not shine in so
+gloriously, turning the polished floor into a golden sea, and bathing
+her, as she sat at the table, in a flood of dancing sunbeams.
+
+It was so hard to sit there reading, trying in vain to dig out the heart
+of some book of old stories, sagas and the like, or struggling
+helplessly to understand a poem written in lovely but surely
+incomprehensible metaphors, and full of words which, though she realized
+their beauty, still conveyed little to her intelligence.
+
+Herrick had perhaps slightly over-estimated her powers. He had never
+before come in contact with quite such an undeveloped mind. His own
+married life had been too short for him to grasp fully the
+characteristics of his wife, and although in some respects she had not
+been unlike Toni, she had been differently educated. Her mind had
+perhaps little depth, but she was quick and versatile; and owing to her
+surroundings she had been able, always, to adopt the shibboleth of the
+social set to which she belonged by right of birth.
+
+So it was that Herrick, with all his sympathy, all his intuition, failed
+to plumb the shallows of Toni's mind. He gave her Rossetti when he
+should have given her Ella Wheeler Wilcox; and George Eliot when he
+should have introduced her to Jane Austen and her gentle sister, Miss
+Burney. The "Idylls of the King," clothed in Tennyson's poetic garments,
+would have won her interest--instead he advised her to read Malory, and
+read him she obediently did, until her brain ached with the clash of
+swords, and her eyes were wearied with the glitter of the dragons'
+scales or the silver mail of the knights who fought to the death for the
+damsels they served.
+
+Knowing her love of outdoor life, he sent her to Borrow, but even
+"Lavengro" failed to charm the lonely student, to whom the sun, the
+moon, the stars were all "sweet things" indeed, when no printed page
+intervened between her and their sweetness.
+
+It was weary work, toiling there day after day, while the river flashed
+and gleamed in the sunlight, and Jock ran barking hither and thither
+under the windows, as though imploring her to leave those musty haunts
+and come to chase the elusive yellow sunbeams on the lawn.
+
+At first she had been used to take the big, high-backed chair at the
+head of the table, and spreading out her books, refuse to cast so much
+as a look at the sunny world without; but after four or five mornings so
+spent she gave in suddenly and betook herself to the little table in the
+window, where from her seat she could watch the tall white lilies
+swaying in the breeze, or catch the fragrance of the mauve and scarlet
+sweet-peas which climbed their hedge just out of sight.
+
+It was weary work, and Toni's eyes and head ached when the luncheon-bell
+rang to set her free from her self-imposed task; but she did not give
+in, and after her hasty meal she would return to the library and
+struggle till tea-time with half a dozen French exercises, which by the
+aid of a key she sternly corrected when finished.
+
+When Owen arrived home, shortly before dinner, Toni was worn out with
+the combined effects of her mental exertions and her lack of fresh air;
+but Owen, who was turning over in his mind the material for a novel, was
+not in a mood to notice her unwonted silence, and was relieved when,
+after dinner, she went early to bed and set him free to spend the
+evening in his sanctum, making notes and generally planning out the book
+he felt he could write.
+
+To the novelist there comes, at the inception of a book, a period in
+which the things and people around him recede into the background before
+the people and things he seeks to create; and it is scarcely to be
+wondered at if at these times the writer's vision, which is turned, so
+to speak, inward, fails to realize the significance of the scenes being
+enacted beneath his mortal eyes.
+
+And it was so with Owen. During that strenuous fortnight of Toni's
+laborious study, Owen was so fully occupied with the visions of his
+brain that he had little time to spare for the flesh and blood inmate of
+his home; and though he was always kind to Toni, he did not notice that
+the laughter was absent from her lips, the joyful light of happiness
+quenched in her eyes.
+
+The idea of his book was beginning to absorb him very thoroughly.
+Hitherto he had never had the time to devote to purely imaginative work;
+but now that the _Bridge_ was going ahead and his series of articles for
+outside papers was finished, he felt the call of fiction very strongly.
+
+His story was concerned with the conflict between East and West, with
+the life of an Indian prince who, after his English education, was
+called upon to rule his dead father's kingdom; and Owen's impressions of
+India, gathered during a stay of some months in that magic land, formed
+a brilliant setting for the half-political, half-romantic story he had
+to tell.
+
+Barry, who was, of course, in the secret, was intensely interested in
+this new departure; and had no doubt whatever as to the certainty of
+Owen's success. Indeed Owen himself was surprised at the ease with which
+he did work he felt to be good. By nature a critic, he would have been
+the first to detect signs of carelessness, of over-fluency even in his
+own writing; but the narrative, with its felicitous turns of expression,
+its lucid, clear-cut phrases, slipped naturally from his pen; and he
+felt to the full the truth of Stevenson's couplet:
+
+    "Bright is the ring of words
+    When the right man rings them."
+
+One afternoon Owen invited Barry to motor down and dine with them at
+Greenriver; and Barry accepted the invitation with alacrity, for he had
+not seen Toni for some weeks and was anxious to know how life was
+treating her.
+
+He hurried over his work for the afternoon, and Miss Loder, the
+secretary whose services he and Owen shared in common, was secretly
+surprised, not to say shocked, by his flippant behaviour over a
+monograph supplied by a valued contributor.
+
+"It's a bit stodgy, eh, Miss Loder? You can feel the ecclesiastical hand
+upon the pen-holder, can't you?"
+
+Miss Loder was the daughter of a clergyman, whose large family had all
+been educated with a view to doing some sort of work in the world, and
+as was only natural she resented the implied censure on the Church.
+
+"If purity of English and clarity of thought are stodgy, Mr. Raymond, I
+suppose you are right. But what a treat this is after the article of
+young Bright's! That was hardly in keeping with the tone of the
+_Bridge_, if you like!"
+
+"Young Bright's article--why, Miss Loder, it was a gem! It was whimsical
+in tone, I grant you, perhaps here and there a trifle frivolous, but it
+was splendid in its way. It simply sparkled with wit and a kind of
+delicate satire."
+
+"You thought so? I'm afraid I didn't." Miss Loder, who at Cambridge had
+been known as an excellent debater, closed the subject by her tone; and
+Barry smiled quietly at her self-sufficiency.
+
+Truth to tell, he had never much liked Miss Loder. While admitting her
+absolute competency for the post--for she was in her way a brilliant
+young woman--he found her unsympathetic, narrow-minded, wedded to her
+own standards of thought and behaviour; and he was wont to assert that
+her clear grey eye struck terror to his soul.
+
+Miss Loder had been intended for a scholastic career: but although she
+had passed through her College life with distinction, she found that
+after all teaching was not her vocation.
+
+She was absolutely devoid of patience, and wanting in the tact, the
+kindly firmness, the warm sympathy, which go to equip the perfect
+teacher; and although she might have a subject at her very finger-tips,
+so to speak, she found it almost impossible to hand on her knowledge so
+that her class might share it with her.
+
+Once she realized the fact, Miss Loder very wisely withdrew from the
+field in which she was unable to shine; and since the death of her
+father had rendered it imperative that she find some remunerative work
+without delay, she was glad to accept the post which Owen offered her
+through a mutual friend.
+
+Having once intended to take up journalism, she was conversant with the
+mysteries of typewriting and shorthand, and her excellent classical
+education rendered her particularly fitted for the post of secretary to
+the editor of the _Bridge_ and his coadjutor, Barry Raymond. Her own
+literary taste was admirable, if a trifle academic; and Owen found her a
+really useful person with whom to discuss the various departments of his
+beloved review.
+
+In appearance, Miss Loder was of middle height, with good features, grey
+eyes of an almost disconcerting frankness, and fair hair which she
+parted on her forehead and coiled neatly round her head. She was
+twenty-nine years of age, but looked younger; and she generally wore a
+well-cut grey skirt and severely plain white shirt, which somehow suited
+her rather boyish appearance.
+
+At five o'clock on this particular afternoon Barry bade her good-day,
+and joined Owen in the street outside the office, where the big motor
+stood throbbing impatiently beneath its owner's hand.
+
+"Jump in, Barry. If we have a good run we might take Toni on the river
+for an hour. Poor little girl, I'm afraid I've rather neglected her
+lately."
+
+Barry took his seat, and under Owen's skilful guidance they were soon
+out of the City tumult, speeding smoothly away in the direction of
+Richmond.
+
+It was just beyond Staines that the accident happened.
+
+Through no fault of his own Owen collided with a badly-steered motor
+negotiating a sharp bend; and though no one else was injured it was
+discovered, after all was over, that Owen had sustained a fracture of
+the right arm.
+
+The owner of the other car, who was only too palpably a novice in the
+art of driving, confounded himself in apologies. He was indeed so
+manifestly upset and distressed to find what his carelessness had done,
+that in the midst of his own natural annoyance Owen found time to assure
+him of his complete forgiveness; and the irony of the situation was made
+evident when it leaked out that the offender was a surgeon, resident in
+the district, who practised the art of motoring in his spare moments.
+
+He insisted on Owen returning with him to receive all the care and
+attention his medical skill could supply; and thus it was that when the
+car, driven by Barry, finally drew up in front of the hall door of
+Greenriver, Toni, running down the steps to greet her husband and his
+visitor, was startled to observe Owen, a trifle pale, descend from the
+car with his right arm supported in a black silk sling.
+
+"Owen!" Every vestige of colour died out of Toni's face. "What has
+happened? You've had an accident!"
+
+"Nothing much, dear!" He spoke reassuringly. "Collided with another car
+outside Staines, and I've broken my stupid arm. But that's all."
+
+"Quite enough," struck in Barry, smiling. "No one else was hurt, Mrs.
+Rose--not even the old idiot who was to blame."
+
+"It's nearly dinner-time, I suppose," said Owen, looking up at the hall
+clock. "We started early to take you on the river, Toni, but I'm afraid
+it's too late now."
+
+"And you're disabled," said Barry. "You'll be dependent on our good
+offices for your dinner; won't he, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+And so it proved, for like a good many people Owen felt utterly at a
+loss with only one available hand. To Toni fell the task of cutting up
+his food, and her big eyes grew anxious as she noted his lack of
+appetite.
+
+As a matter of fact Owen felt disinclined for food, for anything but
+solitude and rest. His head was aching, and his arm was beginning to
+pain him so severely that he feared sleep would be out of the question.
+
+After dinner he yielded to the joint entreaties of Toni and Barry and
+went to bed; leaving his wife to entertain his guest until the car
+should come round to take him to the station.
+
+The evening had closed in with rain, and the two sat by one of the
+widely-opened windows in the drawing-room, looking out into the dusky
+garden, and listening to the soft patter of the rain on the foliage
+bordering the lawn. There was no wind, and against the cloudy sky the
+tall trees stood like black giants holding out immovable arms, while
+from the flowers, refreshed by the shower after their hot, thirsty day,
+a grateful fragrance rose to sweeten the damp, cool air.
+
+For some time Barry and his hostess sat in silence. Toni had taken her
+favourite low chair, and her hands lay idly in her lap, the wedding-ring
+which was their sole ornament gleaming in the lamplight. To Barry's eyes
+her youthful prettiness had a slightly dimmed effect. Without losing
+anything of its virginal purity of outline there was a hint of
+weariness, of almost jaded fatigue, which startled Barry. He thought
+always of Toni as some joyous woodland nymph, a pagan it might be, a
+hedonist by nature and training; and while he had regretted, formerly,
+her lack of worldly and womanly experience, it gave him something of a
+pang at heart to find that this little pagan creature, this pretty,
+wild, untutored Undine could apparently lose, for the moment at least,
+her joy in the "sweet things" of life. That in the process she might be
+slowly and painfully realizing her soul he did not stop to think. To him
+the fatigue in her face was pathetic; to Herrick it would have been
+enlightening.
+
+"Mr. Raymond----" Toni spoke at last, and he threw off his absorption to
+listen. "If Owen's arm is broken, how will he do his work?"
+
+"That is just what I've been wondering," said Barry. "Of course the
+ordinary office work, the work of the _Bridge_, will go on all right
+without him for a bit. I mean--well, you see I can look after things
+pretty well, and we have an excellent secretary in Miss Loder."
+
+"But his own work? He is writing a book--a novel, isn't he? He said
+something about it--though he hasn't read any of it to me," added Toni
+rather wistfully.
+
+"I don't suppose he's got very far," said Barry, wondering whether she
+felt slighted by the omission. "Owen is a quick worker, I know, but he
+has only been at it for a week or two."
+
+"Oh, I know," she replied hastily. "But how will he go on with it? He
+can't write with his left hand, can he?"
+
+"Not very well." An idea struck Barry, and without stopping to think he
+gave it utterance. "Look here, Mrs. Rose, you can help Owen no end! You
+must take it down for him. You could easily scribble it off and then
+type it out afterwards, couldn't you?"
+
+Into Toni's eyes flashed a light of pure joy.
+
+"Oh, do you think I could! I'd do anything--anything to help Owen," she
+said eagerly. "It wouldn't be like his articles, full of quotations and
+things that want verifying, would it? I mean even a stupid girl--like
+me--could do it, couldn't she?"
+
+"You're not stupid," he rallied her gaily. "Look how quickly you learned
+to read proof! And even the superior Miss Loder doesn't type as well as
+you!"
+
+"Doesn't she!" Toni's depression had vanished like magic, and her eyes
+were sparkling as she looked at him. "Oh, if I could! But I don't
+believe I dare offer, Mr. Raymond! Do you think if _you_ were to mention
+it to Owen----"
+
+"Oh, it would come much better from you!" Barry, whose interference on
+the subject of Owen's marriage had not been too well received, shrank
+from further officiousness. "If you propose it, I'm sure Owen will jump
+at it; and he won't mind his enforced helplessness half so much if he
+can get on with the book."
+
+For a moment Toni said nothing.
+
+The rain had ceased, and in the darkened sky one or two pale-gold stars
+were gleaming. The air was full of sweet, moist scents; and a big white
+owl flew by the window, looking weird and ghostly in the dusk. A moment
+later they heard him hoot from his eyrie in one of the tall tree-tops,
+and Toni shivered a little.
+
+"I can't get used to their queer cries," she said in a low voice.
+"Sometimes I hear them in the night, and they make me shudder. Owen
+laughs at me, and quotes Shakespeare, about the owl and the baker's
+daughter, but I hate them, all the same."
+
+"I rather like them," said Barry lightly. "Anyway, you mustn't drive
+them away; it's the very worst of luck to turn them out of their
+accustomed dwelling-places!"
+
+"Then, they'll have to stop, I suppose," said Toni practically. "But I
+shall go on hating them all the same!"
+
+Barry laughed and turned the conversation back to her proposed
+collaboration with Owen; and Toni was only too eager to discuss the
+subject, which lasted, indeed, until Barry said good-bye.
+
+His last glimpse of her was as she stood on the steps calling out her
+farewell; and he carried away a clearly-cut impression of the slight,
+blue-robed figure, her black hair a little loosened round her eager,
+vivid face, her eyes full of a new and ardent resolution, which had
+quite banished the look of sadness and fatigue he had noticed earlier in
+the evening.
+
+It was evident his suggestion had fired her heart and mind, and for a
+moment, as he was borne swiftly down the black avenue on to the high
+road, Barry asked himself if he had done well to light that lamp of hope
+and high desire in her soul.
+
+If Owen should refuse her aid, if he should let her see that he had no
+desire for help from her, no exportation of any adequate service, the
+flame which Barry's words had lit would be cruelly extinguished, leaving
+in its place only the blank and utter darkness of disillusionment.
+
+And once removed from her beseeching presence, Barry wondered, rather
+hopelessly, if indeed Toni's help would be of any value. She was ready,
+eager indeed, to be of use; but was she capable of work such as Owen
+would require?
+
+Against his will Barry had a vision of Miss Loder in Toni's place--not
+as wife, but as assistant--and he confessed to himself with a groan that
+the highly-finished product of school and college would probably prove
+herself of far more practical use than the impulsive, emotional, and
+alas! unliterary Toni.
+
+But the harm was done now. He had lighted the torch in Toni's soul, and
+he could only hope that no adverse breath would blow to extinguish its
+flame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Toni, I have a proposal to make. Suppose you stop typing for a little
+while and listen to me. Will you, dear?"
+
+Toni, all the colour slipping out of her face, put down the sheet she
+had just taken up and waited obediently to hear Owen's proposal.
+
+This was the ninth day of their mutual labour; and even Toni's optimism
+could not assert that the experience had been successful.
+
+She had tried so hard, poor Toni. With every nerve strained to the
+utmost, with her mind emptied of anything which did not bear upon the
+subject in hand, she had striven to help Owen, to take down from
+dictation the words, the sentences, in which his thoughts were clothed.
+
+She had learned not to look up expectantly at every pause, since she had
+realized that to the harassed author, struggling for the one right
+phrase, that bright expectancy exercised a deadening effect; and she
+never even raised her head when silence fell--the silence in which Owen
+weighed and sifted his material, selecting this, rejecting that, and
+embodying the result in just the one glowing, clean-cut sentence which
+would effectually tell.
+
+But Toni found herself, all unwillingly, handicapped, by her
+non-comprehension both of the matter and method of Owen's creative work.
+
+A plain, straightforward story Toni could assimilate easily enough.
+Something primitive in her responded, also, to the call of the
+world-wide emotions of love, hatred, revenge; but Owen's book dealt with
+none of these; and the subtle philosophy, the carefully interwoven
+motives of political expediency and half-reluctant patriotism were alike
+uninteresting and unintelligible.
+
+Where she did not understand, it was natural she should transcribe
+incorrectly; and although it was easy for Owen to revise the typewritten
+script after each day's labours, he was perpetually checked in his
+stride, as it were, by the necessity of repeating or explaining some
+incident or allusion by which Toni was frankly puzzled.
+
+Naturally, too, the girl was nervous; and Owen's habit of striding to
+and fro as he dictated made things, as she said desperately to herself,
+far worse. In vain she quickened her pace in a wild attempt to keep up
+with him. Faster and faster went her pen, more and more indistinct grew
+the scribbled words; and in the hour of stress all ideas of spelling and
+punctuation took to themselves wings and fled.
+
+But worse even than her comparative failure with the merely mechanical
+portion of the work was her mental inability to follow the working of
+Owen's mind. Handicapped by the necessity of dictating his book, the
+author often found himself at a standstill for some word which eluded
+him; and although he encouraged Toni to make suggestions, it was very
+seldom that she ventured to do so. The work went badly in consequence.
+Owen used to think sometimes that if Toni's mind had been more attuned
+to his, if they had shared ideas, had held the same standard in fiction,
+he might have gained something from this enforced collaboration; but as
+things were it became an irritation, effectually stopping the flow of
+his ideas; and although he did his best to keep Toni in ignorance of his
+feelings, she was bound to realize that the work was progressing in a
+lame and halting fashion.
+
+Therefore she was not surprised when Owen broke it to her, gently, that
+he was thinking of a change of secretary.
+
+"You see, dear,"--he spoke very kindly, feeling indeed very pitiful
+towards the girl, whose fluctuating colour showed her mental
+disturbance--"this sort of work demands a special training. You are
+doing your best, I know, and I am very grateful to you, but you can see,
+can't you, that I am getting on badly?"
+
+"Yes, Owen." She spoke very slowly, and for a moment Owen wondered
+whether it would be possible to continue the present arrangement. Then
+common sense and creative ardour combined to utter a decided negative,
+and feeling himself to be brutal he hurried on.
+
+"Unfortunately I shan't be able to use my arm for some weeks. That
+stupid old doctor ought to pay my secretary's fees, oughtn't he, since
+he's responsible for my helplessness!"
+
+He laughed; but Toni said nothing, and after waiting a second he
+continued:
+
+"You've been most awfully good and patient, dear, and I'm afraid I've
+been horribly irritable over the job. But I don't think it's any good
+our going on. I'm wearing you out, and losing a lot of time into the
+bargain."
+
+"You are going on with the book?"
+
+"Of course, yes." His matter-of-fact assent caused poor Toni a pang.
+"But I think I shall have to borrow Miss Loder from the office for a few
+weeks. She is used to the job, you know. She told me she had once taken
+down an eighty-thousand-word book, typed it, and seen it through the
+press, because the author was nearly blind. So she would really know all
+about the work."
+
+"Yes." Toni wondered, dully, why the sunshine which poured over her held
+no warmth to-day.
+
+"Well, I'll drop a line to Barry and ask him if he can spare her for a
+bit. There's a rather smart typist in one of the other rooms could take
+her place, and I might not want her for very long. As far as the book
+itself is concerned, I can't work fast enough to get it all done."
+
+"Yes." Sitting there, repeating the word, parrot-wise, Toni looked very
+forlorn; and something in her attitude struck Owen with a perhaps
+exaggerated feeling of remorse.
+
+"Well, that's settled," he said cheerfully, "and after this you needn't
+lose your roses sitting indoors so much. I'll tell you what--let's have
+a day off, shall we?"
+
+She nodded, hoping he would not see the tears in her eyes.
+
+"Right. We'll have the car--Fletcher will have to drive--and go for a
+good long run into the country. We'll have lunch out and get back for
+dinner. You'll like that?"
+
+"Very much." She rose. "I'll go and get ready, shall I?"
+
+"Yes. We'll start at once. By Jove, I shall enjoy a holiday myself!"
+
+Throughout the day Owen surrounded Toni with an atmosphere of kindness
+which he trusted might dispel the soreness he guessed she was
+experiencing; but somehow he failed in his object.
+
+Although the day was superb, a still, golden August day, when the summer
+seemed to pause, arrested in its flight by the fulness of perfection to
+which it had brought the land, neither Owen nor Toni was sorry to return
+to Greenriver. As the car stopped in front of the door Toni cast a
+rather wistful look at the jasmine-covered old house she had learned to
+love; and for a moment she felt as though she saw herself as those other
+women had seen her--the ignorant, frivolous, common little person whom
+Owen had married out of pique.
+
+Never in all her life had Toni felt so humble as on this evening, when
+she entered the house which was her home. What had she in common with
+the beautiful old hall, with the broad staircase leading to the spacious
+gallery, lighted now by the Ten Little Ladies, whose light pierced the
+gloom like so many kindly little stars?
+
+The pictures, the bowls of roses, all the inanimate things she had grown
+to look upon as friends--it seemed to her to-night that they looked
+coldly to her, resenting her presence as an interloper; and in one
+queer, horrible flash of insight Toni seemed to visualize the woman who
+should have been the _châtelaine_ of Greenriver--a tall, dignified,
+beautiful woman, with the bearing of a princess....
+
+"What's the matter, dear?" Owen had seen her shiver. "Are you cold? Yet
+it's a warm night."
+
+"No, thank you, I'm not cold." She spoke gently. "I--I think I'm a
+little tired."
+
+She picked up a brown envelope from the table.
+
+"Look, Owen, here's a telegram for you."
+
+"So there is. Open it for me, will you, dear?"
+
+She did so and handed him the flimsy paper. His eyes brightened as he
+read.
+
+"Good old Barry! He's wasted no time--Miss Loder will come down
+to-morrow by the ten o'clock train. I must send the car."
+
+He went out and spoke to the chauffeur, returning to say: "Will you
+arrange for some lunch to be sent up every day, Toni? She can get off by
+the four train, I daresay, and that will give us a good long time for
+work."
+
+"I will see to it," Toni said quietly.
+
+"Thanks, dear. Let me see, there's half an hour before dinner. I might
+go and put everything in order as far as we've gone, so that we can
+start fair. I mustn't waste her time when she gets here."
+
+"No. Of course not."
+
+Although she tried to speak casually, a note in her voice struck Owen
+rather unpleasantly. He looked at her sharply in the lamplight; and
+something in her child-like attitude, as she stood motionless, her hands
+hanging by her sides, gave him a sudden twinge of something like
+reproach.
+
+He looked round quickly. They were alone, and acting on impulse Owen
+stooped, and putting his left hand under her chin, tilted her face
+upwards until their eyes met.
+
+"Come, Toni." He had seen the tears in those wistful eyes of hers.
+"What's the matter? You are not hurt about the work, are you? If you
+would rather not have the woman, say so, and we will go on as we have
+been doing. It will get easier in time."
+
+"Oh no!" Toni spoke quickly, though her lips quivered. "Indeed I'm not
+hurt. I--I'm sorry I'm such a fool. I'm only a hindrance to you instead
+of a help."
+
+Although he had no conception of the wound dealt to her by two
+thoughtless women, Owen realized that she was in earnest; that she
+understood, and regretted, her failure to give him the help he needed;
+and for perhaps the first time since his marriage Owen pitied his wife
+sincerely. After all, it was he, not she, who was to blame; and being
+still in the dark, Owen thanked God that at least she had no idea he had
+married her without giving her the love she had had a right to expect.
+
+"Hush, Toni dear." He held her to him with his sound arm. "After all, I
+want you for my wife, not my typist. Miss Loder may be able to do the
+work I want done better than you, because she's used to it; but you're
+my wife, Toni, and what does anything else matter?"
+
+He did not know whether his words brought her any comfort. She smiled,
+faintly, and returned the kiss he gave her before he let her go; but
+when she was alone in her quiet room Toni wept till she could weep no
+more.
+
+She hated Miss Loder from the first.
+
+Her self-possessed manner, her cool, grey eyes, above all the suggestion
+of competency which lurked in every line of her trim, well-tailored
+figure, all alike filled Toni with a sharp sense of resentment which she
+felt to be both childish and stupid.
+
+Without perhaps intending it, Miss Loder conveyed a sense of
+superiority. Toni was made to feel that this newcomer knew just why she
+had been sent for--understood that it was in reality to Toni's
+incapacity that she owed her present position; and Toni felt, with a
+miserable intensity, that Miss Loder looked upon her as some brilliant
+sixth-form girl would survey a kindergarten child, with a kindly,
+half-amused, half-contemptuous tolerance.
+
+Never had Toni so desperately longed to be clever as during that first
+week of Miss Loder's secretaryship; and never had she felt herself to be
+so ignorant, so childish, so futile a companion for a man like Owen.
+
+At first Miss Loder had eaten her lunch in solitude. It was Toni's
+suggestion that she should join them in the dining-room, and Owen,
+supposing that Toni felt it a little discourteous to condemn the other
+woman to a lonely meal, agreed cordially to the plan.
+
+Over her luncheon Miss Loder laid aside her rather scholastic, manner,
+and talked pleasantly in a quite refreshingly frivolous way; but try as
+she might Toni never felt at ease in her presence; and gradually she
+dropped out of the conversation until she sat for the greater part of
+the meal in silence.
+
+Owen, absorbed in his book, did not notice her taciturnity, and though
+he responded politely to Miss Loder's chatter, it was evident he was not
+captivated by her undoubted social gifts to the extent of forgetting the
+purpose of her presence.
+
+As for Miss Loder, Toni had guessed her attitude towards Mr. Rose's wife
+correctly enough. To the clever, highly-trained mind of the Girton girl
+Toni's whole personality was so appallingly feeble.
+
+"The brains of a hen, and the soul, probably, of a chorus-girl." So Miss
+Loder, quite unjustly, summed up Toni. "Married the man to get out of a
+life of drudgery, I expect, and is as much of a companion to her husband
+as a pretty little Persian cat would be. Why _will_ these nice men marry
+such nonentities, I wonder? She is bound to be a drag on him all her
+days."
+
+For all her shrewdness Miss Loder never dreamed that her estimation of
+Toni was clearly evident to the person concerned. In her fatally orderly
+mind Toni was classified as a "type"--the type of the pretty, useless,
+childish wife; and Miss Loder never looked for any variation of the type
+when once she had labelled the specimen.
+
+That his now secretary did her work admirably Owen realized with intense
+gratitude. For all her modern self-assertiveness Miss Loder was clever
+enough to realize that in Owen she had met her intellectual master; and
+being at heart a veritable woman she never attempted to challenge the
+supremacy of the masculine mind.
+
+The work progressed quickly; and gradually, as the fascination of his
+work grew upon him, Owen became more and more absorbed in his book. He
+was always planning some incident, rehearsing, mentally, some situation
+or some telling dialogue; and the outer life around him receded into a
+dim and misty distance, in which Toni's pathetic little figure was
+almost lost.
+
+Toni did not give in easily. She made feeble tentative attempts to share
+his author's rapture. She asked him timid little questions, to which he
+gave smilingly vague answers; and once she even suggested that he should
+read to her the chapters he had already finished.
+
+Owen refused, quite gently, but inexorably; and Toni felt a miserable
+certainty that he did not think her capable of understanding or
+appreciating his work.
+
+The day this happened she ordered the car and went for a long and
+solitary excursion into the country. Of late she had not used the car,
+preferring to hang wretchedly about the house and garden, half-resenting
+the absorption of the two workers shut up in the library, not daring to
+interrupt their toil, yet longing, vaguely, for the courage to enter
+boldly and claim her share of the mutual labour.
+
+But to-day she felt that she could stand the house no longer. A great
+desire was upon her for the sunny places of the earth, and in her
+present mood the slow, gliding traffic of the river held for her no
+attraction. She longed for the swift, exhilarating rush through the air
+which, the car would give her; and Fletcher took her orders with
+alacrity.
+
+"A long round--yes, ma'am." He deliberated. "It's not three yet, and I
+suppose you don't care to be 'ome much before dinner-time?"
+
+"No, I want to be out for hours," she said feverishly, and Fletcher was
+only too pleased to oblige her.
+
+Even Toni's depression could not hold beneath the tonic of that glorious
+ride. It was a splendid September day, when the country lay bathed in
+floods of rolling sunshine, and there was just enough bite in the air to
+set the blood racing through one's veins, and bring the sparkle to one's
+eyes.
+
+Toni sat upright in the car, gazing out over the golden fields to the
+misty hills beyond, and everything she saw filled her with the true and
+vivid happiness which the lover of the "sweet things" of the earth knows
+so well.
+
+A field of yellow corn ablaze with scarlet poppies, a group of trees
+among which the copper beech blazed with a glory as of the sunset, a
+glimpse of a wide common all aflame with sweet-scented gorse ... now and
+again a hint of the river flashing and sparkling beneath the shining
+sky--Toni, the ignorant, despised Toni, knew how to appreciate the
+glories of the earth as the brilliant Millicent Loder could never do.
+
+On and on they rushed. Fletcher, who in common with the other servants
+respected Owen and adored Toni, was only too glad to please his young
+mistress by taking her far afield; and he utilized his wide knowledge of
+the countryside in her service, treating Toni indeed to such a panorama
+of the fertile country as she had never yet been privileged to behold.
+
+They were running through a little village on their homeward way when a
+tyre burst with a loud report; and Fletcher pulled up with an expression
+of dismay.
+
+"I'm sorry, ma'am--I shall have to delay you a bit while I put on a new
+tyre." He looked round him rather doubtfully. "I suppose you wouldn't
+care to take a cup of tea while I put it right?"
+
+"Mrs. Rose!" A cyclist had halted by the car, and looking up Toni saw
+Herrick standing beside her. "Had an accident? Nothing serious, I hope."
+
+"Tyre burst, sir," announced the chauffeur, who with the rest of the
+village looked upon the shabby inhabitant of the Hope House as a
+harmless eccentric. "I was just asking my mistress if she would care to
+have some tea while I repair it."
+
+"A capital idea," said Herrick, whose amused eyes saw quite well the
+chauffeur's estimate of him. "Mrs. Rose, may I take you to get some tea?
+One of these cottages will supply it, I daresay--or there is quite a
+decent little inn over yonder."
+
+"Thanks very much." Toni was thirsty, and she liked Herrick. "I'd love
+some tea--if you'll have some too."
+
+"To be sure I will." He propped his bicycle carelessly against a fence
+and opened the door of the car. "Which shall we try? A cottage or the
+inn?"
+
+In the end they decided for the inn; and leaving Fletcher to set to
+work, Herrick escorted Toni down the village street to the door of the
+old-fashioned inn which called itself, rather ambiguously, the "Cock and
+Bottle."
+
+The landlady, who spoke with a Northern burr which made, Herrick glance
+curiously at her, came bustling into the flagged passage to greet them,
+and when she had taken their order for tea she ushered them into the
+parlour with a hospitable smile.
+
+"I'll fetch tea in a minute," said she, "t' kettle's boilin' an' I've a
+cake on the griddle just about fit."
+
+When she had gone Toni turned two perplexed eyes on Herrick.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, what does she mean? Does the cake fit the griddle, or
+what?"
+
+Herrick laughed lustily.
+
+"Oh, you Londoner--you poor little Southern kid! Haven't you ever been
+in Yorkshire--good old Yarkshire, as they call it--the country of tykes
+and gees and men that can't be beat?"
+
+"Oh, is that Yorkshire!" Toni coloured with excitement. "Mr. Herrick, my
+father came from there! All his people did--but they're dead now, and
+I've never been North!"
+
+"Really?" He was to the full as much interested in the coincidence as
+she. "Well, our good landlady is certainly a Yorkshire woman--and I hope
+she'll give us a real Yorkshire tea!"
+
+His hope was fulfilled when the buxom Mrs. Spencer returned, which she
+speedily did. She carried a tray laden not only with cups and saucers,
+but with an assortment of cakes which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+Yorkshire child.
+
+"Them's crud cheesecakes," said she, beaming on the pair, "an' these fat
+rascals is to-day's bake--and the griddle cakes an' all." She laid the
+table deftly. "I'll fetch the tea-pot and t' cream, and then ye can help
+yersens."
+
+When she put down the tea-pot, however, Herrick detained her with a
+question.
+
+"You don't belong to these parts, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+"No, sir." She shook her head blithely. "I'm a Yorkshire woman, praise
+the pigs! Married a South-country man, I did--and often wished as I
+'adn't--when 'e wur alive, that's to say."
+
+"Since his demise you've altered your mind?"
+
+"Well, he left me pretty well provided for," returned the late Spencer's
+widow comfortably, "an' I won't say as 'e wur an out-an-out bad 'usband.
+But somehow I can't abide South-country folk."
+
+"They say we Yorkshire tykes are a rough lot," said Herrick, smiling,
+and she took up the challenge at once.
+
+"Oh, that's all my eye and Betty Martin," she returned in the vernacular
+of her youth, "I grant you there's a lot of soft-sawder about the
+fellers down here, but they ain't in it wi' us up in Yorkshire."
+
+"Where do you come from, Mrs. Spencer? I'm a dalesman myself;
+Wensleydale's my native land."
+
+"I'm from Thirsk, sir. My mother was washerwoman to lots of the gentry
+round, and my people still lives there, in a cottage on the Green."
+
+"Ah, I know Thirsk--fine old church there, one of the finest in the
+North Riding. You've never been there, Mrs. Rose?" He turned to include
+Toni in the conversation, and found her wide-eyed and flushed with
+excitement.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, my people lived near Thirsk--in a farm at Feliskirk in the
+hills. Oh, do you think she knew them?"
+
+Mrs. Spencer, who had hitherto overlooked Toni, turned to her in
+surprise.
+
+"If you'll tell me the name, miss--ma'am. We knew most of t' people in
+t' neighbourhood."
+
+"Gibbs--their name was Gibbs." She spoke breathlessly. "The house was
+called the Green Farm. Oh, do you know anything about them?"
+
+"Gibbs? The Green Farm?" Mrs. Spencer stared incredulously. "Why, I knew
+old Gregory Gibbs well--and a fine old fellow he was too. And Fred and
+Roger--why, I knew 'em both. They used to come down into t' town on
+market days with their dad, and a pair of jolly little lads they were
+an' all--especially Roger."
+
+"Roger was my father," said Toni quietly, and Mrs. Spencer uttered an
+exclamation.
+
+"You don't say! But Roger, he ran away--leastways e went off to furrin
+parts and we 'eard as 'ow 'e'd married an Heyetalian young lady out
+there. And you are really Roger Gibbs' bairn?"
+
+"Yes; he married my mother--an Italian girl--in Naples. I was born
+there. But they're both dead now," said Toni sadly.
+
+"Oh, I'm sorry to 'ear that!" Mrs. Spencer spoke sincerely. "To think as
+I should live to see young Roger's lass 'ere in my 'ouse! You don't
+favour the Gibbs, miss, if I may say so."
+
+"No, Mrs. Rose is more like her mother's people, I expect," said
+Herrick, noticing as he spoke how pale Toni looked now that the flush of
+excitement had died away. "But if she has never been to Yorkshire, at
+least she can taste her native cakes, eh, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+Thus reminded of her duties Mrs. Spencer bustled away to find some
+"preserve," which was only brought out for specially honoured guests;
+and Toni took the seat Herrick placed for her at the table.
+
+"You'll pour out for us? That's right. I'm afraid our good landlady will
+want to stay and chatter! Do you mind?"
+
+"Oh, no--do let her stay and talk about my people!" pleaded Toni, and
+this Mrs. Spencer was very ready to do.
+
+Standing by the table, resting her empty tray on her ample hip, she
+poured forth a stream of disjointed memories to which Toni listened
+eagerly. Mrs. Spencer, it seemed, had had an aunt living in the village
+with the Gibbs; and as a child she had often stayed there; so that she
+had known Toni's father well.
+
+"Of course, t' Gibbs were always a cut above us," she owned frankly. "My
+feyther was a foundry hand till he died, and wasn't too steady neither;
+and when 'e died my mother took in washing. There was a trick young
+Roger once played 'er about a washing-basket ... what was it now?" She
+paused to meditate. "Nay, I can't think on this minute ... but she allus
+said as 'e wur nowt but a bowdekite!" She laughed, jollily, at the
+recollection, and pressed a cheesecake on Toni with a heartiness there
+was no resisting.
+
+Thanks to her chatter time flew; and Herrick was just beginning to think
+of the waiting chauffeur, when there was a sudden spatter of rain
+against the window panes; and looking out he saw that while they had
+been talking a storm had been brewing.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little, Mrs. Rose!" He pointed to the
+rain, now streaming down in a steady torrent. "It won't be more than a
+shower, I daresay."
+
+"Oh, and Fletcher's outside in it." Toni put down her cup. "Mr. Herrick,
+could I tell him to come inside and have some tea, do you think? We've
+been out for hours, you know."
+
+"Certainly. I'll see about it."
+
+He went out and brought in the chauffeur, delivering him over to Mrs.
+Spencer's good offices; and then returned to find Toni sitting rather
+disconsolately by the window, looking out at the rain as it splashed
+into the quickly-forming puddles in the village street.
+
+The sudden storm, the silence which fell after Mrs. Spencer's departure,
+or the early-falling dusk, had brought back all her misery to Toni's
+mind, banishing in a flash all her recent joyful animation; and when,
+after observing her for a moment, Herrick came forward, he saw that a
+blight had fallen over her late gaiety.
+
+She did not hear his step--thought, perhaps, that he had stayed to speak
+to the chauffeur or chat with the landlady; and all at once such a sense
+of bitter desolation swept over Toni that she began to cry softly to
+herself in the dusk.
+
+Instantly Herrick began to back noiselessly towards the door; but Fate,
+or perhaps a malignant Boo-Boo, pushed a footstool in his path, over
+which he stumbled with an involuntary ejaculation.
+
+Startled, Toni turned round and saw him; and cursing his own clumsiness,
+Herrick judged it best to come forward openly.
+
+"Your man is having some tea, under Mrs. Spencer's kindly auspices." He
+smiled. "It seems she 'don't reckon nowt' to our combined appetites, so
+I hope Fletcher will make up for our shortcomings."
+
+He sat down in the low window seat, not far from Toni, and with a smile
+asked permission to smoke.
+
+"Of course--please do." She spoke indifferently.
+
+"Your husband isn't an inveterate smoker--like me?" He lighted a
+cigarette gratefully. "I thought most literary men were slaves to
+tobacco."
+
+"I think Owen smokes a good deal," she said. "And especially now that he
+is working so hard. Miss Loder is quite shocked at his cigarettes."
+
+"Miss Loder?" The question slipped out before he had time to reflect.
+
+"My husband's secretary." She broke off abruptly, as though unwilling to
+say more. Then a great flood of bitterness rolled over her spirit, at
+the memory of her own failure; and mingled with it came a sore envy and
+distrust of the clear-eyed, capable woman who had supplanted her.
+Together, the two proved irresistible; and with an almost child-like
+instinct to confide in the man whom she felt to be trustworthy, Toni
+turned to Herrick and poured forth her sad little story of
+disappointment and bitter disillusionment.
+
+Out it all came, her desire to help her husband, and the dread awakening
+to the fact of her own incompetency. Herrick, listening, realized, as
+perhaps Owen could not have done, what a blow to Toni's hopes the
+failure of the experiment had been; and remembering her earlier
+confidences, when she had appealed to him to reverse the judgment passed
+upon her by two cruel women, he began to wonder whether Toni would ever
+find any happiness in the life which had once looked so glorious to her
+youthful eyes.
+
+He said very little till she had finished, though now and again, a quiet
+question made clear some point involved by her own incoherency; and from
+the bottom of his heart he pitied the girl who was beginning to realize
+that though she might be the wife of the man she loved, she would never
+be his real companion and helpmate until she could attain something
+nearer to the high standard of perfection for which he looked.
+
+"This Miss Loder--you like her?"
+
+"I believe--sometimes--I almost hate her," said Toni drearily. "She is
+everything I am not, you see. She is clever, well-educated, amusing. I
+think I hate women who tell amusing stories," she added vindictively,
+biting her lip with her strong little teeth.
+
+"But she is not personally objectionable to you?" Herrick wished to
+hear, if possible, how she treated her employer's wife.
+
+"No--at least she doesn't mean to be," said Toni, striving to speak
+fairly. "But I know she thinks I am a fool, and pities Owen for having
+married me. I believe she thinks I ought never to speak to Owen, never
+ask him any questions about the book. She was quite--short--with me
+yesterday because I went in to speak to Owen during the afternoon!"
+
+"Oh, but that's absurd!" Herrick felt a quite unreasonable dislike for
+the superior Miss Loder. "After all you are his wife--she is only his
+secretary--and husbands and wives have a claim on each other which no
+sane person would deny."
+
+"Yes." She did not look convinced, and he tried again.
+
+"Don't forget, will you, that a wife holds an absolutely unique
+position. She is the one person in the world to whom the man is
+answerable for his actions, just as she is answerable to him for her
+own; and if she is--hurt--or annoyed by any proceeding on the part of
+her husband, she has a perfect right to express her wishes on the
+subject."
+
+"You mean I have a right to ask Owen to send away Miss Loder?" Toni was
+always direct in her statements. "I suppose I have--if I wanted to--but
+I don't. It isn't Miss Loder who makes me miserable. It's the whole
+hopeless situation."
+
+Her words startled him.
+
+"Not hopeless, Mrs. Rose!"
+
+"Why not?" In her eyes he read again that hint of a tortured woman soul
+which he had glimpsed before. "It isn't very hopeful, is it? My husband
+wants help and sympathy, which I cannot give him; and yet because he
+married me he can't ask anyone else for it except in a business way."
+
+"But--you don't mean:----" Herrick paused, aghast at the horrible idea
+her words had conjured up; and Toni, with the new quickness which
+suffering was teaching her, hastened to reassure him.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean he wants to marry any other woman," she said proudly.
+"I am his wife--unfortunately for him, perhaps, but he will always be
+true to me. Besides, Miss Loder isn't that sort," she added, rather
+vaguely.
+
+"Then what----"
+
+"Oh, you don't understand!" Her sad voice robbed the words of all
+petulance. "Though you are most awfully kind--and clever--you see you
+aren't married, Mr. Herrick, and that makes a difference."
+
+"Who told you I was not married?" His tone was studiously quiet, yet the
+girl looked at him quickly, wonderingly.
+
+"I don't think anyone told me--but I thought you weren't." She
+hesitated, then went on hurriedly. "I used to think that was why you
+were so--so sad. I mean--oh, I know you laugh and talk and are kind, but
+somehow I felt all the time there was a sadness underneath...."
+
+She broke off, roused from thoughts of her own trouble by the fear that
+she had given him pain; and for a moment neither spoke.
+
+Then, with a glance at the window, down whose panes the rain was still
+streaming, Herrick took a sudden resolution.
+
+Perhaps if he told this girl the story of his own marriage, opened
+before her eyes the book on whose pages was inscribed so tragic a
+history, she might take courage anew, realizing that her own pitiful
+little story held no hint, at least, of shame or disgrace, no hint of a
+mutual disillusionment which only death could adjust.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"I'll just speak to your man," he said. "I don't think it would be wise
+to start yet, but I'll see what he says, shall I?"
+
+She let him go, wondering whether her last speech had vexed him; and in
+a moment he returned.
+
+"Fletcher agrees with me that it will be wise to wait a quarter of an
+hour," he said; "the rain is not nearly so heavy, and the sky is growing
+lighter."
+
+"Very well." She spoke listlessly, and his resolve was strengthened.
+Sitting down on the window seat again, he asked her a question.
+
+"You didn't know I was married? Would you care to hear the story of my
+marriage? It isn't a very happy story, but it might serve to show you
+what a different thing your marriage will yet turn out to be."
+
+"I should like to hear what you can tell me," Toni said slowly; and
+after a moment's hesitation Herrick began the story which he had rightly
+called unhappy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+"It is just four years since I met the girl who was to be my wife. I was
+taking a holiday in Ireland at the time; and daring a visit to an old
+friend in Dublin I was introduced to a certain Mr. Payton, an Irish
+squire, who had brought his two daughters up from the country for a few
+weeks' gaiety. Well, we took a fancy to one another. I was always a
+queer sort of chap, hating convention and all the trammels of society,
+and I liked the old man at once. He was a big, jolly old boy, a thorough
+sportsman and Irish to the backbone. Poor as a rat, yet living somehow
+like a Prince; hospitable to a fault, and looking on debts and duns in
+the light of a joke."
+
+He paused for a second, then went on quietly:
+
+"I went back with him and his two girls after their Dublin visit was
+ended. They were all very kind to me, and there was a sort of charm
+about the old castle where they lived, always in difficulties, yet
+keeping open house, and managing, in some mysterious way, to have the
+best of everything. There are people like that, you know--people who,
+without possessing a penny, manage to acquire pounds' worth of
+everything. It's an art, and old Squire Payton had it at his
+finger-tips."
+
+Outside the rain still fell. Inside the room everything was very quiet.
+
+"Well, the end of it was that I fell in love with Eva Payton. She was
+just eighteen--a bewitching age, I used to think, and as pretty as a
+picture. Golden curls that were generally tied up with a blue ribbon,
+big Irish eyes, put in, as they say, with a smutty finger, a little
+mouth all soft curves, the tiniest, whitest teeth--oh, there's no
+denying she was a beauty; and she made my heart beat faster every time
+she looked at me."
+
+He had spoken rather dreamily, and Toni sat still, fascinated by this
+authentic peep into another's life; but with a sudden rather harsh
+laugh, Herrick resumed his story in a different tone.
+
+"Well, we were married. In those days I had a little money--not a great
+deal, but I managed to make a fair income by painting. I never told you
+I painted, did I? Well, I did--portraits chiefly; and made quite a
+decent bit of money."
+
+Toni, who knew nothing of art and artists, never suspected that she was
+in the company of one of the best-known portrait-painters of the day;
+and Herrick was well content to keep her in ignorance.
+
+"So we were married and came back to London. We had a house in
+Kensington--quite an unfashionable locality, but one of the big,
+old-fashioned houses you find there, with a large garden which was worth
+a fortune, to my way of thinking. But I soon found that my wife wasn't
+satisfied to live quietly, out of the world, as it were. She hankered
+after a house in St. John's Wood, among the 'other artists' or in
+Hampstead among the rich people. She didn't want to be stuck down among
+frumps and dowds, she said. West Kensington was all very well for women
+who were churchy, given up to good works, but she wanted to be in a
+lively, social, bridge-playing set; and she moped and pined so in our
+quiet life that I gave in and we moved to a much smarter locality."
+
+Toni, her eyes fixed on his face, said nothing when he paused; and after
+a minute he resumed his narrative.
+
+"Well, from the first it was an unlucky move--for me. The house was too
+big, and required a lot of extra furnishing. The studio wasn't as good
+as my other one had been, and there was only an apology for a garden.
+But Eva had her wish. People called on her, and finding her pretty,
+vivacious, clever in her quick Irish way, they took her up and made a
+fuss of her. She was invited here and there, and of course her personal
+expenditure rose in consequence. Unfortunately my work didn't increase
+in proportion. I had the bad luck to fall ill--the only time in my life
+I've ever had an illness--and for several months I was unable to touch a
+brush. Of course I had a little money put by, and with ordinary prudence
+we should have pulled through all right. But Eva had never learned
+prudence. She had lived all her life in an atmosphere of debt and
+dunning creditors and over in easy-going old Ireland no one cared a
+straw if one were in debt or no. So to my horror when I was convalescent
+I found my foolish little wife had been running up enormous bills.
+Everything was in arrears. The housekeeping money had gone to pay for
+her daily amusements, the servants were unpaid, the tradespeople
+clamouring."
+
+He laughed, rather drearily.
+
+"Well, I sold out a little stock I had and set matters right or so I
+thought. I put the rest of the money in the bank and told Eva she must
+be rather careful. But imagine my horror when one day she came to me,
+whimpering with fright, and confessed she had several personal bills
+unpaid and the creditors were pressing her. At first she did not tell me
+the whole truth. She prevaricated, showed me one or two bills not made
+up to date, and was vague about the different amounts. Finally she owned
+that she was in debt for nearly five hundred pounds."
+
+"Five hundred pounds!" It was Toni's first interruption.
+
+"Yes. Sounds a lot, doesn't it? We'd only been married a year. Still
+there was nothing for it but to realize some more capital, and I did it,
+and then asked for the bills. She brought them unwillingly, after a vain
+attempt to get me to entrust the payment to her; and to my surprise and
+relief, I found that three hundred would cover the lot."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Oh, it didn't--by a long way. By dint of a good deal of persuasion, I
+got it out of my wife that the rest was owing to different friends for
+bridge and racing debts. Of course I had forgotten that my little Irish
+wife was a born horse-lover, and, I'm sorry to say, gambler; and I ought
+not to have been surprised. But I was. And I'm afraid I was a bit
+brutal. You see I couldn't help thinking it was rather hard that the
+money I'd worked for was to be squandered; and I spoke rather sharply to
+the poor child."
+
+Toni, listening, thought he was justified in speaking sharply, but she
+did not venture to say so.
+
+"I scolded her first--she was like a child expecting to be sent to
+bed--and then I got a statement of her debts and paid them. But I told
+her, at the same time, that I should never do it again. I promised to
+help her in little ways if the allowance I made her was insufficient;
+but I pointed out to her that my income wouldn't stand the drain of huge
+payments like these; and she cried pitifully and promised, solemnly,
+that she would never play for money again."
+
+"And she did?" Toni's interest in the story was her excuse.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Of course. It was in her blood. Gambling in one form or another she
+must have. Someone told me afterwards--after the crash--that it was an
+almost uncanny sight to see my wife, looking like a child with her curls
+and her big grey eyes, sitting at the bridge table playing feverishly
+into the small hours of the morning; or talking to bookmakers' clerks
+with an evidently inborn knowledge of the ways of horse-racing. I was a
+fool, of course. Instead of sitting in my studio painting portraits, I
+ought to have gone about with her--and yet, if I had, there'd have been
+no money for either of us."
+
+He sighed heavily.
+
+"Well, the crash came eventually. Twice more I paid her debts and twice
+she swore to give up her folly. Then I was sent for to a big place in
+Wales, to paint some portraits--those of the three daughters of the
+house--and of course I had to go. I had been there a month when I got an
+urgent wire from my solicitors to return at once; and back to town I
+went, to see what mischief my little wife had been getting into."
+
+"And you found----"
+
+"I found the house in an uproar. Waiting for me was my solicitor, and
+with him a Jewish-looking man who was the head of a large jeweller's
+business in the West End. Also--in another room--were a detective and a
+well-known pawnbroker. Now--can you reconstruct the story they told
+me--between them?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, I can't imagine what it was."
+
+"You wouldn't." For a moment a sort of tenderness softened his tone,
+which hardened again as he went on. "It seems my wife had never, from
+the beginning, told me the truth, with regard to the extent of her
+liabilities. Besides those I knew of, she owed two or three hundreds to
+a money-lender, to whom she had gone in a panic on first discovering she
+was in debt. He had lent her the money, at an enormous rate of interest,
+and as she had been unable to pay anything he was now pressing for
+immediate payment. Distracted by his threats, and by the other bills
+which her extravagance had run up, too terrified to appeal to me after
+her solemn promises, Eva conceived a really desperate plan. Taking
+advantage of my absence she went to Jordan and Green, the jewellers, and
+asked if she might have a very fine pearl necklace on approval. They
+demurred a little, politely, at first, and asked her name, whereon she
+gave it, without hesitation, as Lady Eileen Greenlay, an Irish girl with
+whom she had been acquainted in Dublin, and to whom she bore a striking
+resemblance. She gave them Lady Eileen's address in Hamilton Terrace,
+and one of the clerks, who knew the lady by sight, advised the head of
+the firm that this was really she. Of course they knew the family were
+wealthy people, and as Eva was beautifully dressed, with furs--unpaid
+for--worth two hundred pounds, they let her have the necklace, and off
+she went with it."
+
+"But how risky!" Toni breathed the word in horror.
+
+"A desperate woman sticks at very little," Herrick reminded her grimly.
+"Well, the misguided girl took her trophy and went off to Rockborough,
+the big pawnbroker, where she displayed the necklace and asked for a
+loan. Seeing no reason to doubt her genuineness, they advanced her a
+large sum--though not, of course, the full value of the jewels, and she
+took the money and paid the money-lender and one or two more people who
+were pressing her. But it happened by a queer coincidence that a day or
+two later Jordan and Green had a visit from an aunt of the real Lady
+Eileen's, who wished to send her a little diamond pendant for a birthday
+present; and when she gave the address to which it was to be sent as one
+of the best hotels in Mentone, the jewellers became uneasy. They
+instituted inquiries, found the young lady's family were all out of
+town, the Hamilton Terrace house closed; and it became pretty evident
+they had been hoaxed."
+
+He paused; but Toni did not speak.
+
+"The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the big pawnbrokers,
+and of course they knew in an hour or two that they had been done. With
+a queer sort of cleverness, Eva had given herself out, to the second lot
+of people, as an actress to whom the necklace--a present--was worth
+little compared with the value in cash; and they had believed her story.
+But naturally it was soon proved to be false; and at first matters were
+at a deadlock. Well, the police were called in; and by dint of many
+inquiries among taxi-drivers, the girl was finally traced to the
+money-lender's office in Holborn. He, of course, was as close as the
+grave; but one of his clerks was bribed into giving the lady's name; and
+everything was easy after that."
+
+"Oh, poor girl!" Toni's soft heart felt a great compassion for the
+frightened wife.
+
+"At first, of course, she denied everything. Unfortunately, Lord Thirsk,
+the father of the girl she had impersonated, took up a very violent
+attitude and demanded the utmost restitution; and since so many people
+were in the secret it was absolutely impossible to hush it up. I did my
+best; I offered everything I had in the world if they would let the
+matter drop without a prosecution, but it was useless. The thing had to
+go to court, and there was a big excitement over the case."
+
+"And----"
+
+"Oh, the result was a foregone conclusion. In spite of everything, in
+spite of her denials, her terrified lies, her vain attempts to clear
+herself by"--he hesitated--"by implicating me, the case against her was
+as clear as the day. I tried my hardest--I perjured myself to try to
+clear her of the worst guilt--I strove my best to make her out my tool,
+but it wasn't any good. The Counsel on the other side simply turned me
+inside out in two minutes. In spite of all my efforts I couldn't
+convince him I'd had a hand in it--and of course my absence from town
+showed the truth pretty plainly. Well, Eva spoke out, in the end."
+
+Ho set his lips as he thought of the miserable girl's confession,
+following on hours of mental torture at the hands of the prosecuting
+Counsel.
+
+"In the end I think it was a relief to her to speak the truth. After
+seeing all her lies, all the pitiful, sordid little lies, torn to
+pieces, after hearing all the weight of evidence against her, seeing the
+net close in on her--on one helpless, terrified little girl--she gave in
+and begged desperately for mercy. She seemed to think if she told the
+truth--at last--they would pardon her, let her off, and she poured out
+the whole story and cried out for forgiveness. She couldn't believe they
+would send her to prison...."
+
+His brow was wet with the reminiscent agony of those closing scenes.
+
+"Of course they could do nothing but sentence her. Then, when she
+understood that she was to be sent to prison after all, she went nearly
+off her head with fright ... she swore she'd lied, retracted everything
+she'd said ... oh, there was a terrible scene--she shrieked when they
+tried to silence her, clung to the dock so that they shouldn't take her
+away ... my God! It was horrible, horrible to see her, so little and
+fragile, screaming to me to save her from the men who were all against
+her...."
+
+Toni, white to the lips, could see it all. She had forgotten her own
+griefs now in contemplation of this far more terrible sorrow.
+
+"Even the Judge was upset when he had to sentence her. The court was
+full of women--I told you the case had attracted a lot of attention--but
+thank God they were rendered miserable by their presence there in the
+end. When she heard her sentence--eighteen months in the second
+division--she couldn't grasp it at first--and then just as I was
+beginning to feel I must do something or I should go mad, she fainted
+clean away and was carried out insensible."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick,"--Toni, her eyes full of tears, spoke
+impetuously--"how terrible for you--for you both! Did you go to her and
+try to comfort her?"
+
+He was silent for a long moment. Then--
+
+"That was the worst of all." His voice was grim. "When once she realised
+that she was helpless, that she was to be kept in prison, against her
+will, for eighteen long months, all her love for me turned to hate. By a
+queer, perverted instinct she blamed me for everything that had
+happened. She persisted in asserting that I could have saved her if I
+would. It was quite useless for me to say anything. I was allowed to see
+her once more--with my solicitor--and she heaped reproaches on my head
+till my blood ran cold. She called me a scoundrel, a coward, because I
+hadn't succeeded in shifting the blame to my own shoulders. She raged
+against her fate, swore she wouldn't obey the rules, would starve
+herself to death--and taunted me with the fact, that while she was
+suffering, starving, in a prison cell, I should be warm and well-fed at
+home. She screamed out that she hated me, wished me dead--and my last
+glimpse of her was as she disappeared, her face distorted with passion
+till all the soft childish beauty had vanished."
+
+"And she is there now?"
+
+"In prison? Yes."
+
+"But--is the time nearly over?"
+
+"Yes. Four weeks to-day Eva will be set free." He stared out of the
+window with unseeing eyes. "And then will come the question--what are we
+to do?"
+
+"To do?" She did not understand.
+
+"Yes. You know, she will never forgive me. In her childish, unreasonable
+way, she persists in thinking everything that happened was my fault. If
+I had given her more money, she would not have got into debt. If I
+hadn't gone to Wales and left her alone she would never have done the
+thing; and if I had only lied better, the blame would have been
+mine--and the punishment."
+
+"But it was she who was guilty----"
+
+"I know--but if I could have gone to prison in her stead, God knows I'd
+have gone--willingly. Things are so different for men. When I think of
+her, the little, soft, fragile thing I married, shut up alone in a cell,
+wearing prison garments, eating rough prison food, being ordered about
+by harsh, domineering women, why, I almost curse myself that I am free
+to walk about under God's blue sky!"
+
+"Shall you go back to London--when she is free?"
+
+"I don't know--I don't know," he said rather drearily. "I let the house
+at once--gave it up at the next quarter, and our things are stored. I
+wanted to get away from it all, so I came down here and took the
+bungalow, but of course it won't suit Eva."
+
+"Couldn't you--change your name?"
+
+"That's done already," he said. "Just after the trial an uncle
+obligingly died and left me nine thousand pounds on the understanding I
+should take his name; so I did, of course, and turned myself from James
+Vyse into James Herrick."
+
+"Then no one will know?"
+
+"No. But this life, this vagabond river life that both you and I love,
+wouldn't suit Eva very long. No, I'm afraid we shall have to seek some
+'city of bricks and mortar'--but even my wife won't be keen on London,
+and it's the only city one can live in properly."
+
+While he talked, the rain had ceased; and he rose as he spoke the last
+words.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Rose, I've showed you the skeleton in my cupboard--and he's
+a pretty grisly object, isn't he? But I don't want to depress you with a
+recital of my woes. After all, life's sweet, sister--and you and I,
+thanks be to God, have the soul of the gipsy within us, which is made
+quite happy, poor feckless thing, by the sight of the sun or the music
+of the breeze!"
+
+Her eyes kindled with sudden comprehension.
+
+"Yes--and you've shown me what a fool I am to think myself unhappy!" She
+too sprang up, and her body was full of vigour and youth again. "I won't
+give in, Mr. Herrick! You've not given in, and you've heaps more cause
+than I have. After all, I'm young and I love nature and--and my
+husband--and I _have_ a soul--you told me so! And in time Owen will be
+satisfied with me, won't he?"
+
+"Of course he will!" In his heart Herrick thought the man who was
+dissatisfied with this eager, enthusiastic, courageous youth must be
+hard indeed to please.
+
+"I've read nearly all those books," she said proudly, "and I can read
+French ever so much better now. And I won't care for Miss Loder's cold
+stares and her amused little laugh when I do something silly. And if I
+go on trying, I shall soon be a fit companion for Owen, shan't I, Mr.
+Herrick?"
+
+"Dear little child," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder, "don't
+try too hard! Read your books, study languages, take an interest in the
+vital questions of the day--but don't lose your tenderness, your
+sympathy, your freshness of heart. Grow up if you will, but don't grow
+too fast! And in cultivating your soul, don't forget that a woman's
+heart is her sweetest, rarest treasure after all!"
+
+He released her gently.
+
+"There! My sermon's over--and so, apparently, is the rain. And that
+blithe footstep I hear outside surely heralds the approach of Mrs.
+Spencer!"
+
+He was right. After a loud knock the door opened briskly to disclose
+Mrs. Spencer bearing a lighted lamp; and Herrick went forward to relieve
+her of her burden.
+
+"Enter the Lady with the Lamp!" quoth he, smiling. "Well, Mrs. Spencer,
+the rain's over and gone, and it's time we went too, eh, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"I suppose so." She took up the coat she had thrown aside. "Has the
+chauffeur had some tea, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+"Lor yes, ma'am, and enjoyed it too," responded the landlady, beaming.
+"A rare good trencherman he be an' all! I'd sooner meat him for a week
+nor a fortnight, as they say in our parts."
+
+"Meet him?" Even Herrick did not recognise the idiom.
+
+"Yes, sir--board him, give him his meat," explained Mrs. Spencer
+volubly. "But I can't say as much for you and the young lady, sir."
+
+She looked regretfully at the still loaded plates.
+
+"We've had a lovely tea, Mrs. Spencer," said Toni, her heart very warm
+towards this comely woman who had known her father. "I shall come and
+see you again some day. May I?"
+
+Mrs. Spencer immediately invited her to come as often as she liked; and
+then covered both Toni and Herrick with confusion by refusing to take a
+penny for their tea.
+
+"What--me take money from Roger Gibbs' lass?" she said, her manner
+filled with the mingled independence and respect of the best type of
+countrywoman. "Not I, sir. We Yorkshire folks don't grudge a cup o' tea
+and a bit of fatty cake to them as is like ourselves, exiles in a
+strange land. Besides, it's been a rare treat to see the young lady. To
+think that Roger Gibbs' lile lass should come drivin' up in one of they
+great mutter-cars, too!"
+
+"Yes, and it's really time she drove away in it," responded Herrick
+pleasantly. "I think I hear Fletcher bringing it round."
+
+There was a tentative hoot from Fletcher's horn at that moment; and
+after a grateful farewell, and a vain attempt to pay, at least, for
+Fletcher's tea, Herrick took Toni out and installed her in the car.
+
+He refused her invitation to drive home with her, alleging that his
+health required exercise; and though Toni might have been forgiven for
+thinking fifteen miles' ride over a wet and muddy road, under a still
+cloudy sky, rather a strenuous form of exercise, some newly acquired
+intuition told her he really wished to be alone.
+
+She said good-bye, therefore, without attempting to press the matter;
+and a moment later the car glided away, its lamps gleaming in the rural
+blackness of the village street.
+
+As he rode home, his tyres splashing through puddles, and spattering him
+with mud, Herrick's face was very tired and worn, but in his eyes there
+lurked a little faint light of happiness that he had helped another
+weary soul a few steps forward on its pilgrimage over a thorny road.
+
+"Poor little soul!" He smiled as he recognized the form his sympathy
+took. "After all she's right--she has a soul--and even though it brings
+her suffering and tears, it's worth the price. And yet--I wonder if it
+would have been kinder to leave her alone--not to encourage that hope of
+hers to make herself more intellectually worthy of her husband? I didn't
+make much success of waking _my_ Undine's soul to life! All I got was
+her hatred--and from the beginning she lied to me!"
+
+Luckily at that moment his lamp blew out, viciously; and with a muttered
+execration of the creatures he called Boo-Boos, he dismounted and
+relighted the flame, whose vagaries throughout the rest of the long ride
+kept him so fully occupied that he had neither time nor inclination to
+meditate on such abstractions as souls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+By the end of September, Owen's book was finished; and on a beautiful
+autumn morning he and Toni set off in the car on a journey to town,
+where a publisher, who was also a personal friend, was waiting to
+receive the manuscript.
+
+Mr. Anson was a kindly, energetic man of middle age; and he had secretly
+long expected Owen to turn novelist; so that he accepted the bulky
+manuscript with a real curiosity as to its value.
+
+He promised to let the author know his decision at an early date; and
+then invited Owen and his wife to lunch with him at the Carlton, an
+invitation which Owen accepted at once, rather to Toni's dismay.
+
+They were his sole guests; and beneath his kind and courteous manner,
+Toni lost her shyness and charmed her host by her girlish simplicity and
+directness.
+
+It happened that the conversation turned on the bungalows which lined
+the banks of the river as it flowed through Willowhurst; and presently
+Mr. Anson asked a question.
+
+"You've got Vyse down there, haven't you? You know the chap I mean--the
+portrait-painter."
+
+"I don't think so." Owen was puzzled. "At least I have not heard of him
+being there. Have you, Toni?"
+
+"Yes--Mr. Anson means Mr. Herrick," said Toni quietly. "He told me the
+other day he had changed his name."
+
+"Ah yes, I remember now--something about some money, I believe. You know
+him, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Yes. He fished me out of the river one day when I had fallen in," said
+Toni smiling. "And he has been to see us several times--but I didn't
+know he was famous," she finished naïvely.
+
+"Didn't you? Why, he is--or was--one of the foremost men in his own line
+until there was the trouble with his wife."
+
+"Surely you don't mean that jewel affair?" Owen asked meditatively.
+"Didn't Vyse's wife steal a pearl necklace or something of the sort? I
+seem to remember something about it--though I did not connect it with
+this chap."
+
+"His wife--who was one of the prettiest Irish girls I ever saw--got a
+valuable necklace on approval and pawned it for money to pay her debts,
+yes. Poor fellow, it broke him up completely."
+
+"Really?" Owen was interested. "Where is she--the wife--now? Did he
+leave her, or what happened?"
+
+"She is in prison," returned the other man slowly. "I understand her
+time is nearly up, and I am wondering what they will do when she comes
+out again."
+
+"In prison--ah yes, I recollect the affair now, though I was away at the
+time. Got eighteen months, didn't she?"
+
+"Yes. It was the most painful experience I've ever had, to listen to her
+being sentenced." Mr. Anson's florid face grew grave. "It happened that
+her Counsel was a nephew of mine, and I promised to hear him handle the
+case. But, of course, it was hopeless from the start."
+
+"The husband--this chap Herrick--was blameless, I suppose?"
+
+"Quite. He knew nothing about it, though the girl tried her hardest to
+implicate him. He did his best, too, would have sworn anything to clear
+her and take the blame, but her lies were all so dreadfully patent it
+was no use. In the end she told the truth, thinking it would help her;
+but it was too late then."
+
+"She took it badly?"
+
+"Terribly. She cried and shrieked for mercy, fought like a tiger with
+the officials who tried to take her away, and screamed reproaches at her
+husband, till everyone was sick of the scene. Of course, she never
+dreamed they would send her--a lady, and a delicate bit of a girl,
+too--to prison like a common thief, and she completely lost her
+self-control when she realized what was going to happen. It was a relief
+to everyone when she gave one last cry and fainted right away."
+
+"Hard lines on the husband," said Owen, reflectively.
+
+"Deuced hard lines--and he as decent a fellow as ever stepped. Why he
+ever married her, God only knows. She didn't care a bit for him--wasted
+his money and then reviled him because he'd no more. Of course, she came
+of a rotten stock--wasters and gamblers every one--and this was how the
+hereditary taint came out in her."
+
+"She must have served most of her sentence by now?"
+
+"Comes out next week. I wonder what he will do with her. She's not the
+sort of woman to live in a shanty by the riverside, and yet he can't
+very well bring her back to town."
+
+"I wonder?" Owen glanced at his watch. "I say, Anson, I don't want to be
+rude--after our excellent lunch!--but I've an appointment at the office
+at three and it's a quarter to now."
+
+"All right, my boy, I won't detain you." Anson rose at once. "I'm glad
+you keep an eye on the _Bridge_--it's a fine little review and going
+ahead all the time."
+
+Owen's face brightened at this authoritative praise.
+
+"I'm glad you think go. Of course, we are jolly lucky in our staff, and
+we've got the best sort of contributors, too."
+
+"Yes. By the way, how on earth have you managed to get all this stuff
+turned out with a disabled arm?" He patted the thick packet of
+manuscript and glanced at Owen's inconspicuous sling wonderingly.
+"Perhaps Mrs. Rose helped you?" He looked, with a smile, at Toni.
+
+"No." She coloured hotly. "I did not help at all."
+
+"Miss Loder--my secretary at the office--came down to help me," said
+Owen easily. "She is used to the work, you see, and does it
+excellently."
+
+"I see." The kindly eyes had seen Ton's flush. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+is satisfied to inspire your work and let others do the manual labour.
+The power behind the throne, eh, Mrs. Rose? That's what women used to
+be, bless them, before these dreadful Suffragettes arose to destroy
+woman's real influence by violence and wrongheadedness."
+
+"I expect my wife is jolly thankful the book's finished," said Owen
+laughing. "She has had a pretty thin time while I've been writing it.
+But now I suppose there will be a lull of a few weeks?"
+
+"Oh, I won't keep you long," said Mr. Anson genially. "I'll send the
+manuscript to the reader to-night, and let you know as soon as
+possible."
+
+They parted from their host on the pavement out side the Carlson, and
+Owen turned to Toni.
+
+"Now, dear, what will you do? Will you come with me to the office, or
+have you any shopping?"
+
+Toni bit her lip nervously. She had a request to make, and did not know
+how to set about it.
+
+"Well?" Owen watched her, wondering why she looked embarrassed.
+
+"Owen, would you mind if I went to Brixton to see my aunt? I--I'm afraid
+they think I'm a little unkind, and after all they have always been good
+to me."
+
+"Why, Toni"--Owen was genuinely surprised--"you don't mean to say you
+are afraid to ask me that! Of course you can go. I'll come to fetch you
+when I've finished my work, if you like."
+
+"Will you?" She knew how such a visit would gratify her aunt. "Shall I
+take a taxi, then, Owen? You'll want the car."
+
+"Yes, I think that would be best, then you can stay as long as possible.
+What time shall I come, Toni? Half-past five or so?"
+
+"Yes. That will be lovely. Then we'll have a jolly ride home."
+
+He called a taxi accordingly and installed Toni therein; and he stood
+back to watch her gliding away from him in the mellow September
+sunshine, before he hurried to the office where Barry was impatiently
+awaiting his arrival.
+
+Toni found several members of the Gibbs family at home when at length
+she reached her destination.
+
+Being Thursday, Fanny was enjoying her weekly holiday, and was delighted
+to see Toni; more especially because she had a piece of news to confide
+which appealed strongly to Fanny's romantic nature.
+
+When the first greetings were over, and Mrs. Gibbs had retired with the
+hospitable intention of "putting on the kettle," Fanny beckoned
+mysteriously to Toni to mount the narrow stairs leading to the room the
+girls had formerly shared in common.
+
+Toni mounted obediently; and for a second she forgot to wonder what Miss
+Gibbs' extraordinary signals might imply, for a sudden feeling of
+gratitude to Owen for having lifted her out of this dingy atmosphere
+flooded her impressionable nature.
+
+Surely when she too had slept beneath this low ceiling the room had not
+been quite so small, so stuffy. The wall-paper was the one she and Fanny
+had themselves chosen years ago, but it was oddly faded and dirty now,
+and in one corner a great piece had peeled off, hanging in strips and
+disclosing the plaster behind. The common furniture, too--the rickety
+deal dressing-table, the broken chair, the unpainted iron
+bedsteads--thinking of her own airy, spacious, bedroom with its shining
+toilet-table, its linen bedspread, its big windows opening on to a view
+of the river and the fields beyond, Toni wondered how she had ever
+endured life in these sordid, depressing surroundings.
+
+Luckily Fanny was too full of her news to notice Toni's involuntary
+shudder as she looked round the close little bedroom; and barely waiting
+to shut the door she blurted out her tidings.
+
+"Toni, you remember Lennie Dowson--the fellow who was sweet on you?"
+
+Toni nodded casually, her eyes still roaming round her, and Fanny felt
+vaguely disappointed that the subject was so evidently uninteresting.
+
+"Well, he's going to Sutton, three miles from Willowhurst, and I truly
+believe it's because he wants to be near you!"
+
+She had succeeded in arousing Toni's interest at last.
+
+"Leonard Dowson? Do you mean the dentist? But what on earth will he do
+in Sutton?"
+
+"Look at people's teeth, I suppose," returned Miss Gibbs practically.
+"He was in night before last, and he told Ma he was sick of London, and
+this was a change for the better. It is a town, isn't it. And I s'pose
+people by the river have toothache same as us, don't they?"
+
+"It is a town--of a sort," said Toni, "but I shouldn't have thought Mr.
+Dowson would have settled there. He always said London was the one place
+in the world for him."
+
+"That was when you were there," returned Fanny sagely. "I don't b'lieve
+he's ever got over you, Toni. Ma says she never saw such a change in
+anyone, and you know he was always fond of you. That's why he's going to
+Sutton, you may take my word for it."
+
+To Fanny's surprise Toni spoke coldly.
+
+"I really can't imagine how you can be so silly, Fanny. How can it
+affect Mr. Dowson where I am? I'm married now, and anyway he was never
+anything to me."
+
+"Still, he might be faithful to his first love," giggled Fanny.
+
+"Fanny!" Toni faced her angrily. "You are simply odious when you talk
+like that. Leonard Dowson's first love, indeed? If he says that about me
+it is simply impertinence, and I don't care to hear you talk such
+nonsense."
+
+She got up indignantly as she spoke and moved to the door.
+
+"If that is all you have got to say," she said, "I will go and talk to
+Auntie." And she had the door open before Fanny found her tongue.
+
+Then:
+
+"Oh, I say, Toni, don't be horrid and stuck-up." Fanny's wail brought
+Toni to a standstill. "If you _are_ Mr. Rose's wife, and a fine lady,
+and in with a lot of smart people, you needn't go and be nasty to your
+own cousin."
+
+Something in her voice brought Toni quickly back into the room.
+
+"Don't be silly, Fan!" She spoke impetuously. "Of course I am not being
+stuck-up; you know I wouldn't be nasty to you for the world, but I do so
+hate that sort of talk about men being fond of you and all that."
+
+"Well, I didn't know you minded," said Fanny humbly, and Toni's heart
+smote her.
+
+"Oh, Fan, I don't mind--really--and I didn't mean to be cross. Now tell
+me, how do you like my frock? It's the first time I've had it on."
+
+And in the ensuing animated discussion on frocks and frills Fanny lost
+that queer, uncomfortable sense of inferiority which had sprung to birth
+beneath Toni's manner.
+
+Somehow, after that Toni found the time drag. She was gentle and
+friendly with her aunt, affectionate towards Lu, cordial with her uncle
+and the rest; but she found herself longing for Owen's arrival as a
+signal for her release.
+
+The good-natured chatter, the well-meant inquisitiveness which found
+vent in a ceaseless inquiry into the details of her new life, the noisy
+jokes and laughter, the very persistence of the hospitality which filled
+her cup and plate over and over again--they all jarred this afternoon;
+and quite involuntarily Toni sighed for the peace and spaciousness, the
+gracious calm and tranquillity of Greenriver.
+
+When Owen at last arrived it was with an inward glee that Toni heard the
+clock strike six; for now his visit must of necessity be short.
+
+Possibly Owen saw her pallor, for he announced almost at once that
+although he regretted the fact, he must carry off his wife without
+delay; and after a brief interchange of courtesies, the family escorted
+Toni to the car, whose glories most of them now beheld for the first
+time.
+
+As Owen was still unable to drive, he took his seat by Toni in the body
+of the car; and when they were safely away Toni turned to him with a
+sigh of pleasure.
+
+"Owen, I thought you were never coming."
+
+"Was I very long?" Owen was struck by her tone. "What's the matter,
+Toni? Are you tired, dear, or have the cousins been too much for you?"
+
+"Oh, no, not exactly," Toni was always loyal, but to-day her loyalty had
+been severely tried. "But I can't help comparing the house with
+Greenriver, and I was longing all the time to get back to the garden and
+the big rooms."
+
+Owen did not smile at her naïve confession.
+
+"You like your home, Toni? Greenriver pleases you?"
+
+"I think it's the loveliest house in the world," Toni said fervently.
+"And sometimes I can hardly believe it is I who live there. You see, all
+my life I have been used to little houses, and it seems almost
+incredible that I should have the right to go about as I like--and even
+pick the flowers in the garden."
+
+"Poor little Toni." Her gratitude touched Owen. "Sometimes I have
+fancied you found it rather dull. I have been obliged to leave you so
+much alone lately; but now we can have a holiday until the book's fate
+is decided."
+
+"Will you be busy then?"
+
+"Well, there will be the proofs to revise. And, to tell you the truth,
+Toni, I'm dying to get to work on another story."
+
+"Are you? But what about the _Bridge_?"
+
+"Oh, I won't neglect that, of course. But everything is running smoothly
+there and Barry is turning out trumps, too. He has grasped the whole
+thing as I never expected him to do. He's going to get a bigger salary
+almost at once, and then I suppose he will marry Miss Lynn."
+
+He gave a sudden exclamation as the car swerved aside to avoid a
+lumbering cart which took up more than its share of the road.
+
+"What's Fletcher doing, confound him? I say, Toni, this wretched arm of
+mine doesn't seem to me to be getting on very well. The bone's knit all
+right, but I have a fearful lot of pain in it sometimes."
+
+"Oh, have you, Owen?" Toni grew pale in an instant. "What does Dr. Mayne
+say? You saw him a few days ago, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't think he knows very much about it. He's a nice old
+chap, but a bit behind the times. I have a good mind to go and see some
+man in town one day next week. It's such a confounded handicap for a
+writer not to be able to hold a pen."
+
+"What about your proofs?" Her heart sank as she asked the question.
+
+"Oh, Miss Loder can do those--under my supervision," he said carelessly.
+"I'm not bothering about them so much as about my new book; and I've
+been commissioned to write a series of articles for the _Lamp_, which
+really ought to be put in hand at once."
+
+For a moment there was silence. Then:
+
+"Could I do your proofs?" Toni said, in a voice which shook in spite of
+all her efforts.
+
+"Oh, it's awfully sweet of you, dear." Owen tried his hardest to avoid
+hurting her. "But there is no occasion to worry you. I don't like to see
+you bending over a desk when there is no need. Miss Loder has to do
+something, anyway, and she might just as well do my work as anyone's."
+
+"Must she come down to Greenriver?" Now Toni's voice betrayed her, and
+Owen looked up sharply.
+
+"Why not? Do you mean you would rather she did not come?"
+
+"Much rather." For once Toni's inward feelings burst their bounds,
+driving her to open revolt. "I don't like Miss Loder about all day--I
+never feel free--there's an oppression in the air so long as she is in
+the house."
+
+Owen was surprised and annoyed by this speech; and showed his annoyance
+plainly.
+
+"Don't you think you are rather prejudiced, Toni? You have never liked
+the girl, and I can't imagine why. She does her work well, and doesn't
+interfere with you in the least."
+
+"Interfere with me--no, perhaps not," said Toni, her breast heaving
+stormily, her cheeks very red. "She laughs at me, though, which is
+worse--sneers--oh, I know she thinks I'm a little fool, and so I am; but
+I am at least your wife--the mistress of Greenriver, and she might
+remember that and treat me with a little more respect."
+
+"Respect? My dear Toni, you are talking nonsense. How should the girl
+treat you? She is always polite," said Owen, "and you know after all she
+is ten years older than you----"
+
+"Only ten?" Toni's assumption of surprise was excellently done. "I
+thought she was much more--she always seems to me so staid--so--so
+middle-aged."
+
+Owen's brow cleared suddenly and he burst out laughing.
+
+"You silly little thing! Compared with you, Miss Loder _is_ middle-aged,
+but she's a rattling secretary and I don't like to hear her abused.
+Still, if you dislike the idea of her coming, I'll go to town, or do
+without her. After all, I must not get too dependent on the girl--I'm
+afraid I'm growing lazy. But if my arm still bothers me----"
+
+Instantly Toni's anger melted away and a rush of affection and sympathy
+took its place.
+
+"I'm sorry, Owen--I didn't mean to be cross. I was talking nonsense--of
+course you must have Miss Loder, I suppose I am jealous of her--because
+she is so clever, and I'm such a little idiot."
+
+"I don't want a clever wife, thank you," laughed Owen, little dreaming
+how his careless words cut into the quivering soul of the girl beside
+him. "I want a pretty, lively, jolly little girl--half Italian for
+choice--who is a cross between a wood-nymph and--sometimes--a
+tiger-cat--or kitten! And it seems to me I have got just exactly what I
+want."
+
+With an effort Toni smiled, in response to his good-natured jesting; and
+Owen never knew that his well-meant words caused Toni to shed tears
+before she slept that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Mr. Anson's reader reported favourably on Owen's book, and in a very
+short time satisfactory terms were agreed upon between author and
+publisher, and the work of proof-reading and revision began.
+
+Unfortunately at the same time Owen felt his arm to be more than usually
+painful; and a visit to town proved the necessity for further treatment,
+of which perfect rest was a feature: with the result that once again
+Owen was forced to accept the help of a secretary in his work.
+
+Miss Loder, naturally, filled the post; and once more she came to
+Greenriver, and took her place in the stately old library, where she and
+Owen passed strenuous hours daily.
+
+To Toni Miss Loder's presence was growing ever more and more
+distasteful. Although Toni was not an intellectual woman, she had sharp
+wits; and possibly she understood Millicent Loder's personality a good
+deal better than Owen was able to do. And what Toni saw--and Toni's
+intuition was rarely at fault--led her to distrust the other girl with
+all her heart and soul.
+
+Miss Loder belonged to a rather uncommon variant of the type of
+emancipated womanhood. Although intensely modern in many ways she had
+never been able to lose her inborn sense of the superiority of man in
+mental as well as in physical matters.
+
+She had none of the loudly-expressed scorn of the other sex by which
+many women seek to hide their disappointment at the indifference of
+members of that sex towards them.
+
+Although she was by force of circumstance a Suffragist, she did not for
+one moment imagine that with the coming of votes for women the whole
+industrial and social problem of the country would be solved. Unlike
+many women, she was quite content to work under a man, and although she
+was well able to think for herself on all vital questions, she liked to
+hear and assimilate the opinions of the men with whom she came in
+contact.
+
+She preferred men, indeed, to women; and her attitude towards them,
+though never in the least familiar, held a good comradeship, a kind of
+large tolerance which annoyed and irritated those of her girl
+acquaintances who looked upon men as their natural enemies and the
+enemies of all feminine progress.
+
+Shrewd, competent, fully assured of her own ability to face the world
+alone, Miss Loder had never thought seriously of marriage. She delighted
+in her independence, was proud of the fact that she was able to command
+a good salary, and her habit of mind was too genuinely practical to
+allow of any weak leanings towards romance. She did not wish to marry.
+She had none of the fabled longing for domesticity, as exemplified in a
+well-kept house and a well-filled nursery, with which the average man
+endows the normal woman. She looked on children, indeed, mainly as the
+materials on whom this or that system of education might be tested; and
+she was really of too cold, too self-sufficing a nature to feel the need
+of any love other than that of relation or friend.
+
+But since she had worked for Owen Rose, Millicent had begun to change
+her views. At first she had merely been attracted by his brilliance, as
+any clever girl might have been, had found it stimulating to work with
+him, and had been pleased and proud when he selected her to be his
+coadjutor in the task of writing his first book. She had been, in truth,
+so keenly interested in the author that she had overlooked the man; and
+it is a fact that until she came down, at his request, to his house to
+work there, away from the busy office, his personality had been so vague
+to her that she could not even have described his appearance with any
+accuracy.
+
+But the sight of his home, the stately old house set in its spacious
+gardens and surrounded by magnificent trees, had shaken Millicent out of
+her intellectual reverie into a very shrewd and wide-awake realization
+of the man himself.
+
+In his own home he shook off the conventions of the office, became more
+human, more approachable; and no woman, least of all one as mentally
+alert, as open-eyed as Miss Loder, could have passed with him through
+those strenuous hours in which his book was born without gaining a
+pretty complete insight into his character.
+
+And with knowledge came a new and less comprehensible emotion. At first
+Miss Loder had accepted the fact of her employer's marriage as one
+accepts any fixed tradition; and the subject rarely entered her thoughts
+during working hours.
+
+Gradually she began to feel a faint curiosity as to what manner of woman
+Owen Rose's wife might be; and she welcomed her summons to Greenriver on
+the ground that now she would be able to solve the problem for herself.
+When she finally saw Toni, her first emotion was one of surprise that
+this dark-eyed girl should be the mistress of Greenriver; and very
+slowly that surprise died and was succeeded by a feeling of envy which
+grew day by day. At first Miss Loder grudged the unconscious Toni her
+established position as _châtelaine_ of this eminently desirable home;
+and Toni's very simplicity, the youthful _insouciance_ with which she
+filled that position, was an added annoyance. Later, Miss Loder began to
+grudge Toni more than that. As she spent more and more time in Owen's
+company, as she grew more and more intimate with the workings of his
+mind, of his rich and poetic imagination, Miss Loder began to fall under
+the spell of the man himself.
+
+Quite unconsciously she was becoming ever more attracted by his manner,
+his voice, his ways; and once or twice she found herself wondering, with
+a kind of sick envy, in what light he appeared to the woman who was his
+wife.
+
+Through it all, however, Miss Loder's paramount emotion was one of envy
+for the mistress of Greenriver. She used to think, as she came into the
+house each morning, that it would have suited her much better, as a
+background, than it would ever suit the quaint, childish-looking Toni;
+and it grew almost unendurable to her to have to sit at the luncheon
+table as a guest--not even that--and watch Toni's ridiculous assumption
+of dignity as she sat in her high-backed chair opposite her husband.
+
+There was no doubt about it that Greenriver would have suited Miss Loder
+very well as a home; and she grew to dislike Toni more and more as the
+full realization of the girl's good fortune penetrated her mind.
+
+Toni had been quite right in detecting the malice beneath Millicent's
+pretended friendliness. It seemed to Miss Loder that the only way to
+pierce this upstart girl's armour of complacency was to launch shafts of
+cleverly-veiled contempt; and although to Owen these darts were either
+imperceptible or merely accidental, Toni knew very well that they were
+intended to wound.
+
+Owen, wrapped up in his book, and only anxious to further the work as
+rapidly as possible, had no time to spare for these feminine amenities.
+He realized, of course, that Toni did not care for Miss Loder; but he
+thought he understood that her dislike came, rather pathetically, from
+her consciousness of her own shortcomings: and had no idea that Miss
+Loder herself was largely responsible for the lack of harmony between
+them.
+
+On what might be called the literary side of him, he thought Millicent
+Loder an excellent secretary, the one woman with whom he found it
+possible to work; but on what might be called the personal side, his
+interest was _nil_. True, he liked her trim appearance, though he would
+never have dreamed of comparing it with Toni's more unconventional
+attraction. He admired her quiet independence, and recognized her at
+once as belonging to his own world; but he never thought of her in any
+relation save that of secretary and general assistant; and even Toni was
+sufficiently wise to recognize the fact.
+
+All the same Toni mistrusted the other woman; and it was with a feeling
+of intensest apprehension that she received Owen's announcement that
+Barry had arranged for a substitute at the office--thus setting Miss
+Loder free to resume her work at Greenriver.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It chanced on a beautiful October day that Owen found it necessary to go
+to town on business connected with the _Bridge_; and for once he went up
+by train, bidding Toni use the car if she felt so inclined.
+
+She did feel inclined; and after a very early lunch, jumped into the
+waiting motor, and directed Fletcher to drive over to Cherry Orchard, in
+the hope of inducing the doctor's daughters to share her excursion.
+
+Disappointment awaited her, however. Both the Tobies were away from home
+on a short visit, and Toni was obliged to proceed alone.
+
+She had enjoyed a couple of hours' spin in the frosty air, when she
+found herself being carried swiftly past the railway station, and a
+thought struck her which she communicated to Fletcher without delay.
+
+Yes, Fletcher opined, it was just time the London train was due, and
+since it was quite possible Mr. Rose had travelled by it, he obligingly
+brought the car to a standstill outside the station entrance.
+
+Toni jumped lightly out, an alluring little figure in her beautiful
+sable coat and cap, and made her way swiftly on to the platform,
+glancing at the big station clock as she did so.
+
+The train was not due for five minutes; and to pass the interval of
+waiting, Toni strolled over to the bookstall in search of a paper. As
+she stood turning over a few magazines, a familiar voice accosted her,
+and she moved quickly to face the speaker.
+
+"Mrs. Rose--I hope you have not quite forgotten me?"
+
+"Mr. Dowson! Of course I've not forgotten you." She put out a friendly
+little hand, which the young man seized in a fervent grasp. "My cousin
+Fanny told me you were coming down to Sutton."
+
+"Yes. I had to change here. It's an awkward little journey." He was
+gazing at her fixedly, but withal so respectfully that Toni could not
+take offence. "You are, I believe, a resident of this little riverside
+colony of Willowhurst?"
+
+"Well, we live by the river," said Toni cheerfully, amused, as of yore,
+by his somewhat pedantic diction. "But do tell me, Mr. Dowson, how do
+you expect to make a fortune here?"
+
+"I do not expect to do so," he informed her promptly. "I assure you this
+move on my part was not actuated by any mercenary motive, Mrs. Rose."
+
+"Wasn't it?" She felt vaguely uncomfortable. "Well, I hope you will
+succeed. After all, I suppose people do have toothache in the country."
+
+"Fortunately, they do," was Mr. Dowson's reply, and Toni was happily
+able to acquit him of any unkind meaning. "But may I say that I have
+never seen you looking so well, Mrs. Rose? Evidently the river life
+suits you admirably."
+
+Toni did look particularly well at that moment. The keen frosty air had
+brought a tinge of wild-rose to her cheeks, and a sparkle to her eyes;
+and the animation of her expression hid the very slight traces of mental
+distress which at a less favourable moment might have been evident to a
+searching scrutiny.
+
+"I'm very well, thanks," she replied carelessly. "I've been motoring,
+and now I'm waiting for my husband. He has been in town to-day."
+
+Although she did not wish to dismiss the young man summarily, he
+imagined she desired him to go; and since to the true lover his
+mistress' unspoken wish has the force of a command, Mr. Dowson hastened
+to obey what he deemed her bidding.
+
+"I must hurry to the other side to take my train," he said immediately.
+"May I express my pleasure at meeting you, Mrs. Rose--and also to see
+you look so well," he added heartily, if ungrammatically.
+
+She shook hands with him, debating with herself as to the advisability
+of inviting him to Greenriver; but fortunately the arrival of the London
+train cut short their farewells at an opportune moment, and Mr. Dowson
+left her before she had time to decide the point.
+
+Owen was not among the few passengers who got out of the train; and
+after waiting a moment or two to make sure, Toni turned away to find
+herself confronted with Mr. Herrick, who with a worried look on his face
+was interrogating one of the sleepy porters.
+
+"No, sir, there isn't no cabs. There wasn't but three, and the gentlemen
+was very quick about taking 'em."
+
+"Well, I must get one somehow." Herrick, quite overlooking Toni in his
+disturbance, spoke sharply, and Toni wondered vaguely why he was so
+annoyed. "You can ring one up from the livery stables, can't you?"
+
+"What's the matter, Jim? No cab, I suppose. Well, they can just fetch
+one--and quick, too."
+
+The words, spoken behind her in an unmistakably Irish voice made Toni
+start. She understood, all at once, that this was Mrs. Herrick's
+home-coming; and she felt a sudden curiosity to see the woman who had
+lately gone through so bitter an experience.
+
+She half turned away; then a thought struck her, and she turned quickly
+back again and rushed into speech.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, I couldn't help hearing you say you wanted a cab just now.
+Will you let me drive you--and your wife--home in the car? Do--it would
+save you having to wait so long."
+
+Herrick, whose usual philosophic calm appeared to have deserted him,
+hesitated.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Rose, it's awfully good of you--but----"
+
+"Oh, do!" Toni spoke eagerly, and the woman who stood by turned to her
+impulsively.
+
+"Are you offering to take us home in your car?" Her voice was full of
+Irish melody. "It is very kind of you--and for myself, I'm so tired I'd
+accept with pleasure. But"--there was something malignant in the glance
+she gave her husband--"perhaps we'd better wait for a cab."
+
+"Oh, do come, please," Toni begged, her bright eyes pleading to be
+allowed to do this little service. "It's a big car, and I'm all alone in
+it."
+
+"Very well." Mrs. Herrick turned to her husband. "Come along, Jim; the
+luggage can come on later."
+
+And in less than five minutes the matter was arranged. Herrick elected
+to sit beside the chauffeur, so that Toni and her new acquaintance sat
+together in the body of the car. Mrs. Herrick's large and rather
+new-looking dressing-bag on the floor at their feet.
+
+Toni gave the direction to the openly interested Fletcher, and the car
+glided away through the group of loafers hanging round the station
+entrance, and settled down into a steady hum on the road leading to the
+Hope House.
+
+Toni seized a moment while Mrs. Herrick was busy with the fastening of
+her bag to steal a look at her companion; and in that brief glance she
+received two distinct impressions--one that Eva Herrick was a bitterly
+unhappy woman, the other that she had no intention of allowing other
+people to escape from her own aura of bitterness.
+
+In person Mrs. Herrick was short and slight, with a look of finish about
+her probably handed down through generations of her Irish ancestors. Her
+small features were cut as clearly as a cameo, and her short upper lip,
+while giving her an air of pride which was unpleasing, was in itself
+beautiful. Her eyes, the big Irish eyes which had first enslaved
+Herrick, were lovely in shape and colour, but they were encircled by
+disfiguring blue shadows, and the fine skin had a tell-tale pallor which
+spoke of long indoor confinement.
+
+Her hair, by nature crisp and golden, looked dull and lifeless in the
+shadow of her hat; and over the whole dainty face and figure there was
+an indefinable blight, a sort of shadow which dimmed and blurred their
+naturally clean and clear contours.
+
+As she removed her gloves to fumble with the lock of her bag. Toni
+noticed that the small, well-shaped hands were rough and badly kept; and
+Toni's soft heart was wrung by these evidences of a sordid, toilsome
+past.
+
+Suddenly Mrs. Herrick sat upright and gazed at Toni with a look which
+held something of criticism.
+
+"You live down here I suppose?"
+
+"Yes. We live at Greenriver, about a mile from your bungalow."
+
+"Ah. Been here long?"
+
+"Only a few months."
+
+"I see. You haven't known my husband very long, then?"
+
+"No. He pulled me out of the river one day," said Toni, "and we have
+seen him pretty often during the summer."
+
+"Then I suppose you know where I've been?" Her eyes shone maliciously.
+"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know. I'm sure my worthy husband must have
+told you the whole story."
+
+Toni, scarlet with embarrassment, and wishing from the bottom of her
+heart that she had never offered the use of her car, said nothing; and
+with a grating little laugh the other woman continued her speech.
+
+"I expect everyone knows I have been in prison." Luckily she did not
+raise her voice; and Herrick, possibly foreseeing the necessity, had
+taken care to engage the chauffeur in conversation. "Eighteen
+months--almost--spent in _hell_. Oh!" Her small, sharp teeth bit her lip
+venomously. "It drives me mad to think of it. And it could all have been
+avoided if my husband had been a man."
+
+"Oh!" Toni revolted inwardly against her callousness.
+
+"Oh, I suppose he's told you some tale or other." Mrs. Herrick spoke
+fiercely, and all her childish beauty waned beneath her passion; "Well,
+whatever he says, it is I who have paid the bill. Prison! My God, you
+don't know what it is to be shut up in a cell like a beast--to be
+ordered about like a dog, to be starved on coarse food, made to sleep on
+a bed you wouldn't dare to give your servant!"
+
+Toni, very pale, tried to stem the torrent of her words.
+
+"Mrs. Herrick--please--really I don't think you ought to say this to
+me----"
+
+"Ought? Why do you say that?" Eva Herrick looked contemptuously at her
+would-be mentor. "If you had been shut up as I have been, you would talk
+as you liked. Thank God I can talk if I can do nothing else."
+
+Quite suddenly her manner changed. She gave a little laugh which was
+oddly fascinating, and laid her hand on Toni's arm.
+
+"Come, now, Mrs. Rose, don't be getting angry with me." Her brogue lent
+a charm to her speech. "I'll admit I've no earthly right to talk so;
+it's bad form to begin with and a poor return for your kindness. But
+remember, I've gone through an experience that's enough to kill a woman,
+and you can't expect me to forget it all at once. So you must forgive
+me. Will you?"
+
+"Oh, of course I will." Toni spoke quickly. "And I had no right to speak
+as I did. But--you must forget all that is past. Won't you try?"
+
+"Sure, I'll try." Eva's lovely eyes filled with tears. "But I know what
+will happen. Your husband won't let you know me, of course, and if Jim
+and I are left alone, we'll be murdering one another one fine day."
+
+"Oh, please don't talk so. Of course my husband will let me know you,"
+said Toni in distress; and she was glad to find from the slackening of
+the car that their conversation must be cut short.
+
+Jim Herrick, more silent and worn-looking than Toni had ever seen him,
+helped his wife to alight and then shook hands gratefully with Toni.
+
+"So many thanks, Mrs. Rose." His big, bright eyes looked into hers,
+almost as the eyes of a nice dog might have done. "You have saved us a
+long wait, and I'm only sorry we have taken you out of your way."
+
+"Oh, that's nothing," Toni said. "I like being out on these bright days,
+and I'm ever so glad I happened to be at the station."
+
+She shook hands with Mrs. Herrick, who looked a pitifully fragile figure
+as she stood beside the car; and then Toni gave the order for home, and
+Fletcher obeyed that order too promptly to allow of any further
+leave-takings.
+
+Just for one moment Jim Herrick stood looking after the car, and in his
+heart there was a great sickness of apprehension.
+
+With the best intention in the world to be fair to his wife, he could
+not help comparing the fresh, simple-hearted Toni with the world-weary
+and disillusioned Eva; and at the thought of the future his spirits sank
+to zero.
+
+A mocking voice broke on his ear as he watched the car gliding swiftly
+down the road.
+
+"When you've finished staring at that young woman, Jim, perhaps you'll
+open the gate." Eva stood back to allow him to reach the latch. "I must
+say this is a nice place to bring me to. Is it a cottage or what?"
+
+"It's quite a decent little place, dear," he said steadily, as he held
+open the gate for her to pass through. "Of course, I quite understand
+that it is only a temporary arrangement, but you will try to put up with
+it, won't you?"
+
+"I suppose I shall have to," she replied ungraciously; and then she
+uttered an impatient exclamation as the big white dog tore over the lawn
+to meet her master, uttering deep-throated bays of welcome the while.
+"You've still got that beast, then--go down, you brute," she added, as
+Olga approached, with instinctive courtesy, to greet her former
+mistress.
+
+"Don't snap at her, dear," said Herrick kindly. "The poor creature is
+only trying to say how do you do."
+
+"Then she can say it to someone else," said Eva curtly. "I hate big
+dogs--I wish you'd get rid of her."
+
+Herrick made no reply, but opened the door, and they went into the house
+together.
+
+Eva passed into the quaintly attractive sitting-room with a frown on her
+face, which lightened, however, at sight of the tea-table standing
+ready, and pulling off her gloves and coat she flung herself into a low
+chair with a sigh of fatigue.
+
+"Heavens, how thirsty I am," she said. "Give me some tea, Jim--quickly."
+And as he moved forward to obey her, her eyes followed him with a
+curious expression in their grey depths.
+
+"What's for dinner?" she asked, suddenly, and Herrick looked his memory
+to recall the _menu_.
+
+"Soup, roast chicken, plum tart, and a savoury," he said at last,
+smiling with a rather pathetic attempt at cheerfulness. "Mrs. Swastika,
+as I call her, is what is known as a 'good plain cook,' but anything at
+all elaborate throws her off her balance altogether."
+
+"Have you no other servants?" she demanded shortly.
+
+"Not yet. I didn't want them, you know, and I thought you would prefer
+to choose them yourself."
+
+"I? If I can get any," she said darkly, drawing her delicate brows
+together resentfully. "Of course they won't stay when they find out
+things; but we must be decently waited on."
+
+Herrick made no reply; and his silence exasperated the girl, whose
+nerves were all on edge.
+
+"Oh, don't stand there saying nothing." Her voice was shrill. "Of
+course, you think I ought to wait on myself--now. And I suppose because
+I've been in prison you expect me to be thankful to be here--even in a
+hole like this. Well, I'm not. I hate the place. It's common and shabby
+and horrid, and I'm not going to live all anyhow, to please you."
+
+Herrick, dismayed at the vehemence of her manner, could find no words;
+and she went on with increasing passion:
+
+"I'm your wife--if I _am_ a jail-bird!" She flung the taunt at him, and
+her whole little figure was shaken with the intensity of her emotion.
+"If you think I'm going to pretend to be penitent--and grateful to
+you--you are wrong! I _hate_ you, Jim, I loathe and despise you--you
+might have taken the blame on your shoulders--and instead you stood by
+and watched them torture me. _You've_ not been to prison, _you've_ not
+been bullied and despised--you've not spent weeks and months in a
+loathsome little cell where the sun never shone and there was never a
+breath of air--you've not been called by a number, and preached at by
+the chaplain--oh, no, you've been living here in the sunshine--enjoying
+yourself, eating good food--your chicken and your savouries--and for all
+I know passing as a single man, and keeping your disgraced wife in the
+background!"
+
+She struck the table sharply with her hand, and her cup and saucer fell
+to the ground and smashed, the tea trickling in a brown stream over the
+dim blues and greens of the Persian carpet.
+
+She ignored the catastrophe.
+
+"Well, you've got me back now, and I'm going to make _your_ life what
+mine has been for the last year and a half! I've longed for this moment,
+Jim"--she set her teeth--"longed for it during the horrible days and the
+still more horrible nights. It was only my hatred of you that kept me
+alive in the first ghastly weeks. I could have died--I was very ill at
+first, and they thought I'd die--but I knew I wouldn't. I meant to live
+so that I could tell you again to your face that I hate you, hate
+you--_hate_ you! And I'm going to show you what hate is, Jim--I'm going
+to make you wish you were dead--or in prison, as I have been. Oh, my
+God--I wish--I wish I _were_ dead!"
+
+With a sudden collapse of all her powers she dropped, face downwards, on
+the big divan, and burst into a fit of wild and uncontrollable sobbing.
+
+With an effort whose magnitude he himself only half realized, Herrick
+went softly over to the weeping, writhing figure, and laid his hand very
+gently on her shoulder.
+
+"Eva, for pity's sake----"
+
+She flung off his hand as though it had been a venomous serpent which
+had touched her; and again her wild sobbing filled the room.
+
+"Eva, listen to me, dear." Herrick sat down beside her and spoke in a
+quiet tone, which yet pierced through her sobs. "You must not say
+anything like that to me again. There isn't any question of hatred
+between you and me. We are together now, and we must build up a new and
+happy life together which will help us to forget the less happy past.
+Come, dear, look up and tell me you will help me to make a fresh start."
+
+She did not speak, but her sobs lessened as though she were listening.
+
+"Now, Eva, sit up and dry your eyes and we will drop the subject. Come
+upstairs and have a rest before dinner. You are tired out and want a
+good sleep."
+
+She rose without a word, but in her face he read only fatigue, none of
+the softening which he had hoped to see.
+
+"Yes. I'm tired--dead tired." She moved languidly towards the door. "I
+think I shall never be anything else--now."
+
+Her fit of passion had indeed worn her out. For the rest of the evening
+she was quiet and listless; and she went upstairs very early to bed,
+leaving Herrick to sit alone with his dog, smoking his pipe, and facing
+the future with a sinking heart.
+
+He sat there until the hour was really late; and then crept upstairs
+very softly to avoid waking Eva, if indeed she slept.
+
+Just as he reached her door he heard a faint, strangled cry, and rushed
+into her room to find her in the throes of one of the nightmares which
+he found, later, were a dreadful legacy from her prison life. On waking,
+her relief at finding she was not, as usual, alone was so great that for
+the first time she clung to Herrick as she might have done in happier
+days; and as he soothed her and pushed the damp golden curls from her
+brow she spoke naturally, with none of the resentment she had hitherto
+displayed.
+
+Her husband's heart melted towards her in this gentler mood; and long
+after she had fallen asleep again, soothed by his presence, he sat
+watching her uneasy slumber with a feeling of compassion which, had she
+realized it, must surely have done something to bridge the gulf which
+now yawned between them.
+
+In the morning she was her hard, mocking self again; and Herrick's
+patience was sorely tried in the days which followed.
+
+It seemed, indeed, as though she had stated her feelings for him
+correctly, as though she did really hate him with a bitter and
+relentless hatred. The prison life had changed her whole being, turned
+her from a brilliant, reckless, worldly girl, warmhearted and
+extravagant, but generous to a fault, into a cold, malignant, callous
+woman, nursing a grudge until it attained gigantic proportions, and
+fully resolved to exact from her husband and the world a heavy payment
+for the humiliating punishment she had been forced to undergo.
+
+Herrick could never discover that she felt that punishment to be
+deserved. The whole world was to blame, but never she herself. It was
+the fault of her husband, who had kept her short of money; of the
+tradespeople who had pressed her, of the usurers who had got her into
+their clutches--the fault of everyone save Eva Herrick; and the fact
+that they had all, as it were, combined against her, that together they
+had been too much for her, embittered her outlook on life to such a
+degree that she was positively incapable of any reasonable analysis of
+her own guilt.
+
+It was her husband against whom her resentment was chiefly directed.
+With all the perversity of her ill-regulated, half-formed mind, she
+refused to realize the fact that it had been absolutely impossible for
+Herrick to take her crime on to his own shoulders. She clung childishly
+to the notion that if he had wished he could have borne the blame and
+endured the consequences; and since there is no reason to doubt that to
+a girl in her position her life in prison was a horrible experience, her
+bitterness is perhaps hardly to be wondered at, after all.
+
+Her sentence had left on soul and body traces which would never be
+effaced; and sometimes Herrick could hardly believe that this cold,
+cynical, bitter-tongued woman was indeed the gay Irish girl he had
+married.
+
+But in spite of everything she was his wife. And Herrick was not the man
+to shirk an obligation which was so plainly marked as this. Although he
+shrank inwardly from her constant recriminations, he never let her see
+how he was wounded by her biting tongue; and to all her reproaches he
+presented so serene and complacent a front that she sometimes desisted
+from very weariness.
+
+So the autumn days went on; and if Herrick felt sometimes that in spite
+of the beautiful world around him, life was no longer full of "sweet
+things," he never wavered in his resolve to do all in his power to make
+up to Eva, for the misery she had endured behind those heartless prison
+walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+"Toni, do you think it quite wise to go about so much with Mrs.
+Herrick?"
+
+It was Owen who asked the question one cold morning as the two sat at
+breakfast; and Toni looked up with something like defiance in her bright
+eyes.
+
+"Why not, Owen? Oh, I know she has been--well, you know where--but she
+is free again now; and it is very hard if one mistake is to dog her
+footsteps wherever she goes for the rest of her life."
+
+"It was a pretty serious mistake," Owen reminded her quietly, "and to
+tell you the truth I hardly like you to go about so constantly with a
+woman who did what she was proved to have done."
+
+"Oh, don't be such a Pharisee, Owen." Toni spoke sharply and Owen
+glanced at her in dismay. "I suppose someone has been saying something
+to you. But I don't intend to give up Eva Herrick to please a lot of
+spiteful old women like Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick."
+
+"Certainly one or two people have commented on your friendship," said
+Owen thoughtfully, "and I'm bound to say I don't like it myself. To
+begin with Mrs. Herrick treats her husband abominably; and I should not
+have thought you would have been attracted by her shallow, futile way of
+talking."
+
+"You forget I'm shallow and futile myself," said Toni with a faint,
+bitter smile. "The gossips of the neighbourhood have long since decided
+that I was an ignorant little fool who wasn't fit to be the mistress of
+Greenriver; and I suppose it's a case of birds of a feather, isn't it?"
+
+"Toni!" Owen's voice expressed bewilderment. "What on earth do you mean?
+Who ever dared to say you weren't fit to be mistress of Greenriver?"
+
+"Oh, heaps of people," said Toni recklessly. "You know quite well you
+were ashamed of me when we first went out to dinner parties here, and I
+didn't know how to behave--and lately we have been invited nowhere--not
+even to the Golf Club Ball."
+
+Owen bit his lip. In truth the matter of the ball had puzzled him
+considerably. Although not a golfer, he was on friendly terms with many
+of the members of the local Club; and since Toni's friends, Mollie and
+Cynthia Teach, were ardent golfers, it had seemed most probable that
+Owen and his wife would receive an invitation to the annual ball.
+
+The Tobies had indeed gone so far as to assure Toni of her invitation
+when first the ball was mentioned; and though as the day grew near the
+two girls grew uneasy when the topic was broached, Toni never dreamed
+that their avoidance of the subject covered a real and distressing
+awkwardness.
+
+Certainly neither Toni nor Owen imagined that they had been quietly
+excluded from the list of guests; but such was the astounding fact, as
+Mollie and Cynthia were guiltily aware.
+
+It was largely due to Lady Martin's plain-speaking that this came about.
+
+Somehow the real truth about Eva Herrick had leaked out; as such truths
+do invariably leak out; and Toni's ill-advised friendship with Herrick's
+wife was easily turned to her disadvantage by so skilful an adversary as
+Lady Martin.
+
+From the first her ladyship had been unable to bring herself to tolerate
+Toni; and had lost no opportunity of spreading abroad Toni's rash
+admission as to the nature of her cousin's employment--with the
+immediate result that in a good many people's eyes Toni herself was
+looked upon as an unusually fortunate shop-girl raised by a stroke of
+good luck to a position which she was quite unsuited to adorn.
+
+Possibly there was in the case of some of her detractors an element of
+jealousy in their comments on Owen Rose's wife. There were a good many
+houses along the river where daughters were at a discount; and to see an
+unknown and attractive girl like Toni step into the place which many of
+these girls would have dearly liked to fill was doubtless somewhat
+galling.
+
+At any rate Lady Martin found plenty of supporters when she broached her
+avowed intention of excluding Mrs. Rose from the ball of which she was
+patroness, on the ground of her friendship with the woman who had been,
+as they all knew, in prison for a serious offence; and so it happened
+that when the ball took place neither Owen nor Toni contributed by their
+presence to the success of the evening.
+
+It was perfectly true that Toni had struck up a friendship with Jim
+Herrick's wife; and it is only fair to Toni to state that in the first
+instance she had made overtures to Eva Herrick from a purely
+good-hearted desire to return Herrick's kindness to her in the one way
+possible.
+
+She was not, in truth, greatly attracted to Eva at first. She found her
+hard, bitter, at times ungenerous; but Mrs. Herrick was clever enough to
+see that such attributes failed to endear her to Toni; and since to
+Eva's perverted mind her husband's companionship was unendurable, she
+quickly determined to make a friend of this soft-hearted, unworldly
+little girl who was evidently sorry for her in her wordless fashion; and
+was too candid herself to suspect deceit or double-dealing in others.
+
+Eva knew very well that the neighbourhood, which prided itself on its
+exclusiveness, would have little or nothing to do with her; and motor
+rides with Toni in the luxurious grey car, with lunch or tea at some
+riverside hotel, formed an agreeable method of passing the days which
+were otherwise horribly long and empty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I wasn't thinking of the Golf Ball," Owen said, in reply to Toni's last
+speech. "But honestly, Toni, I don't care for Mrs. Herrick. Oh, I'm not
+talking now of the necklace affair. That's over and done with; but it's
+the woman herself I don't approve of."
+
+"Why not?" She spoke abruptly and Owen frowned.
+
+"Well, she's not the sort of girl I like my wife to be intimate with.
+I'm sorry for that poor fellow Herrick. He is a sensible man, and knows
+that if his wife's past is to be forgotten it will be by living quietly
+and decently, and not by pushing into the society of the neighbourhood
+whether she is welcome or no."
+
+"Owen, you're perfectly hateful." Toni was really angry. "She is always
+welcome here, anyway. You know quite well that no one round about really
+likes me. Oh, they call and all that sort of thing; but no one is really
+friendly to me, and all the time they are saying horrid things about me
+behind my back."
+
+"I think you are talking nonsense, dear," said Owen quietly. "No one
+says horrid things. To begin with, what should they say?"
+
+"They say I'm common and ignorant, and so I am," said Toni passionately,
+with a sudden desire to blurt out the conversation she had overheard on
+that miserable day in August. "Mrs. Madgwick says so, and Lady Martin. I
+heard them--and lots of other people say so too. I thought it wasn't
+true at first--and then I saw it was. I asked Mr. Herrick, and he told
+me to read and educate myself and then I could be useful to you--and
+instead of that you went and got that perfectly hateful Miss Loder, and
+everyone knows it was because you were sick of me trying to help you and
+doing it so badly."
+
+Owen's face as he listened to this speech was a study in bewilderment.
+The introduction of Herrick's name puzzled him considerably; and
+although he frowned at Toni's description of Miss Loder, he realized
+that by some means Toni had been made unhappy over her own position as
+his wife.
+
+"See here, Toni, I don't quite understand." He looked at her keenly.
+"Who says you are ignorant--and all the rest? And what on earth has
+Herrick to do with our affairs?"
+
+"I told him--he saw me crying and asked me why. It was at the Vicarage
+Bazaar--I was sitting in a summer-house and Lady Martin and Mrs.
+Madgwick were outside, and they began to talk about me and they said all
+those horrible things----"
+
+"Toni, were you obliged to listen? Couldn't you have got away!"
+
+"No." She lifted her clear eyes to his and he repented his question. "I
+couldn't come out when they had begun; and I didn't know at first that
+they were talking secrets."
+
+Her childish phraseology made Owen smile in the midst of his annoyance.
+
+"So Mr. Herrick advised you to read? Well, Toni, that was good advice."
+
+"Yes--and I took it," she said eagerly. "I read heaps and heaps of dull
+books and worked at French--and poetry--and then when I tried to help
+you, you wouldn't let me. You brought that horrid Loder here instead."
+
+Her reiteration of Miss Loder's name jarred. Owen had been genuinely
+surprised and interested by this revelation, and if Toni had been wise
+enough to stick to her own side of the affair, it is probable she would
+have captured Owen's sympathy, and, incidentally, his heart; but she
+weakened her case by her senseless prejudice against Millicent Loder;
+and with a quick sense of irritation Owen told himself that she was only
+jealous--in a purely unsentimental way--after all.
+
+She had never liked being ousted from her position, as would-be helper;
+but Owen knew--or fancied he did--the exact value of her aid; and after
+all his work was too important for him to run the risk of spoiling it by
+any lack of efficiency in his helpers.
+
+"I wish you'd leave Miss Loder's name out of the question," he said at
+last, and his tone struck coldly on Toni's excited ear. "When the book
+is published I will dispense with her assistance, if you wish it; but
+until then I tell you frankly I intend to avail myself of her most
+valuable help."
+
+He had expected an angry reply; but none came. Instead Toni said in a
+low voice:
+
+"Very well, Owen. I know Miss Loder is useful to you and I am not. But
+if you refuse to let me help you, I don't think you can complain if I
+try to fill my time with other things--and if Mrs. Herrick is pleasant
+and nice to me I cannot very well refuse to know her, can I?"
+
+"To know her? Certainly not--but there is a difference between knowing
+her casually and being with her all day long."
+
+"I am not that," she replied quietly. "I take her motoring sometimes,
+because it is dull going alone, and it is a treat to her. But of course
+if you object--it is your car----"
+
+"Oh, don't be silly, Toni." All Owen's pent-up irritation found vent in
+the words. "I'm not a dragon--or an ogre, am I? Take Mrs. Herrick by all
+means--have her here if you like, only for goodness' sake don't talk as
+though I wished to condemn you to perpetual loneliness."
+
+"Very well. I won't." She rose as she spoke. "You've finished, haven't
+you? Then I'll go and see Mrs. Blades--she is ill again to-day, Kate
+says."
+
+"Is she? Poor old soul." Owen rose too, and passing round the table laid
+his hands on Toni's shoulders. "Toni, we're not quarrelling, are we?
+Have I neglected you lately? I'm sorry if I have--when the book's out we
+will have a trip abroad, go on the Riviera or somewhere nice and warm."
+
+He stooped, and kissed her, but though she lifted her face obediently
+and even returned his caress, Toni's lips were cold and her eyes had
+lost their sparkle.
+
+Owen's inflexibility frightened her. She had half expected that when he
+knew her real and vital dislike for Miss Loder he would promise to send
+her away; but he had done nothing of the kind: and Toni felt again, as
+she had already felt once or twice of late, that Owen had no intention
+of giving in to his wife's fancies, as some men were always ready to do.
+
+She had intended to offer to give up Eva Herrick's friendship if Owen
+would send away Miss Loder. In the quiet hours of the night such a
+bargain had seemed simple enough; but when it came to making the
+suggestion Toni's heart failed her.
+
+"Are you going motoring to-day, Toni?"
+
+"I had thought of it," she said slowly; "but--do you want the car?"
+
+"No, thanks, dear. I'm going up to town by the twelve-thirty--I promised
+to meet Barry for lunch. Shall you be in?"
+
+"No. I thought of lunching out," said Toni rather vaguely.
+
+"Oh. Well, you'll order Miss Loder's lunch then, won't you? She must
+have it alone to-day."
+
+Owen, occupied with a letter he held in his hand, had spoken
+thoughtlessly; but an exclamation from Toni made him pause and regard
+his wife in amazement. Toni's pallor had given way to a deep flush, and
+her usually sweet eyes blazed with rage.
+
+"Oh, I'll order Miss Loder's lunch." She spoke in sharp staccato tones.
+"You needn't be afraid I will neglect her because you're away. I _can_
+keep house, if I'm not a B.A.; and thank Heaven I shan't have to sit at
+the table and listen to her sneering at me all the time."
+
+"Toni!" In Owen's eyes a flame similar to that in her own had sprung to
+life. "What do you mean by this nonsense about Miss Loder? Let me tell
+you once and for all that I won't have it. You never cease libelling
+that unfortunate woman from morning to night. Considering she is here,
+in your house, in a subordinate position, your behaviour is both
+unladylike and ungenerous; and if you continue to talk in this way about
+a girl who has to earn her own living, and has never done you any
+harm--well, we shall quarrel, that's all."
+
+"I don't care if we do." Toni's hot temper--a heritage from her Italian
+mother--was let loose. "I'd sooner quarrel than submit to everything you
+like to do. If you loved me, treated me as you ought to treat your wife,
+you'd send her away. Oh, I'm not jealous in a silly way--I know you
+aren't likely to make love to her----"
+
+"_Toni!_" Owen's voice frightened her into silence. "Don't dare to put
+such a vulgar insinuation into words, if you please. If you are so lost
+to your own dignity and self-respect as your anger seems to imply, at
+least remember that you are my wife, and don't let me hear such a
+thoroughly degrading and unworthy remark from you again."
+
+"I _didn't_!" Toni, crimson-faced, had tears in her eyes. "I said I
+didn't think it. It's not fair of you to pretend I did.... I only
+meant----"
+
+"I'm afraid you don't know what you do mean," said Owen, his anger dying
+down at the sight of her tears. "But in any case we had better drop the
+subject."
+
+He paused for a moment, then something in Toni's forlorn aspect touched
+his heart and he spoke more kindly.
+
+"Come, Toni, don't let's make a scene over this. You're my wife, you
+know--I didn't marry you because I wanted a secretary, I married you
+because I wanted you for my wife----"
+
+"Even though you didn't love me." Toni spoke quietly, even a little
+sadly, and Owen's heart sank as he realized what her words implied.
+
+"I didn't love you?" For the life of him he did not know what to say.
+
+"No. I thought you did--but it doesn't matter," said Toni a little
+drearily. "I'm sorry I made a scene just now, Owen. Please forgive me. I
+won't do it again."
+
+And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went out of the
+room, leaving Owen staring after her, stirred to the depths of his soul
+by something he thought he had read in her usually child-like eyes.
+
+It was no child who had gazed at him as she spoke those last few words.
+It was a woman who had looked through Toni's Southern eyes in that
+moment of stress; and for the first time since his marriage, Owen
+wondered whether his estimate of Toni had been incorrect after all.
+
+He had thought her soulless, a pretty, light-hearted, unselfish little
+comrade, swayed by feminine whims and caprices, but incapable of rising
+to the stature of the perfect woman; and lo, in one moment of
+unconscious revelation she had shown herself to him as a woman indeed,
+one who had realized that he had married her for some other cause than
+love, yet did not stoop to blame him.
+
+But if Toni were indeed a woman, one capable, moreover, of a totally
+unexpected magnanimity, he had indeed been guilty of a serious mistake,
+and the very idea that he had misread Toni's character so hopelessly
+filled Owen with a humility as disturbing as it was complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The immediate effect of the little scene at the breakfast table was
+unfortunately that of an increased intimacy between Toni Rose and
+Herrick's wife.
+
+Although Toni's exit from the battlefield had been quiet and even
+dignified, she found it hard to forgive Owen's plain-speaking on the
+subject of what he supposed to be her silly prejudice against Miss
+Loder. He had called her conduct vulgar and ungenerous, had spoken,
+moreover, in the tone in which a harsh schoolmaster might censure a
+naughty child; and all her love for Owen could not prevent a feeling of
+humiliation which galled her sorely.
+
+The sight of Miss Loder, trim, competent, complacent, acted upon Toni's
+nerves in much the same way as the red rag is said to act on the nervous
+system of a bull. Although she dared not give vent openly to her
+dislike, Toni's behaviour towards her husband's secretary was by no
+means cordial; and Owen felt a slightly bitter resentment against his
+young wife for what he considered her most unreasonable inability to
+understand his position.
+
+Millicent Loder was a god-send to a harassed literary man; and yet Owen
+began to wonder whether after this book were done it would be advisable
+to dispense with her services. That, however, seemed unfair to the girl,
+who liked her work with him, and would consider her dismissal uncalled
+for; and Owen generally finished his mental discussion with a resolution
+to ignore Toni's foolishness and trust to time to teach her toleration.
+
+It must be remembered that neither Toni nor her husband had the
+slightest notion of what lay beneath Miss Loder's calm exterior. Envy of
+Toni as Rose's wife, scorn of her as the mistress of a beautiful and
+stately house, mingled in Millicent's breast with a strong and
+unreasonable longing to attract Toni's husband to herself; and the very
+fact that the marriage of these two was not what she called a success,
+lent additional keenness to all her emotions.
+
+Oddly enough, Mrs. Herrick saw Millicent in something very like her true
+light, with a vision even clearer than that of the more interested Toni;
+and Eva Herrick, who since her imprisonment hated all men and most
+women, was not ill-pleased by the spectacle of Toni's dislike for her
+husband's secretary.
+
+Very adroitly Eva set herself to foster that dislike. Although she had
+only encountered Miss Loder twice--once on the occasion of a call paid
+in return for Toni's ceremonious call upon her, and again during a wait
+at the station for the London train, Mrs. Herrick had quickly realized
+that Miss Loder liked Toni little better than Toni cared for her; and
+Eva was not the sort of woman to let any knowledge of that kind lie
+useless.
+
+Without saying anything definite, she contrived to let Toni know she
+sympathized with her in the matter of Miss Loder's tenancy of the
+library; and although Toni never let slip a word which might have
+savoured of disloyalty to her husband, Mrs. Herrick knew, with a queer,
+uncanny shrewdness peculiar to her, that the girl's marriage was not
+altogether happy.
+
+If it had been, it is improbable that Eva would have made a friend of
+Toni. As she said to herself now and again, she had no use for happy
+people. Her own life was spoilt--that the spoiling was due to herself
+she would have been the last to acknowledge--and she was in no humour to
+watch other people making a success of their lives. What she wanted was
+to see those around her as unhappy, as disillusioned, as discontented as
+herself; and all Toni's kindness, all her gentle, unselfish
+friendliness, went for nothing when the opportunity arose for a further
+darkening of Toni's already overshadowed sky.
+
+On the surface, however, all was serenity. Eva accepted Toni's
+companionship with outward gratitude, and when once Herrick was
+satisfied that Toni knew what she was doing, he put no obstacles in the
+way of their better acquaintance.
+
+Afterwards he told himself that he should have known better than to
+allow his wife to take advantage of Toni's unworldliness; but at the
+moment he was only too glad to find Eva apparently sincere in her liking
+for the simple-hearted Toni; and assuming, naturally, that Owen did not
+disapprove of the growing intimacy, he watched the affair with a
+gratitude made natural by his intense pity for his wife.
+
+One day Mrs. Herrick asked Toni to accompany her to Sutton, where she
+had made an appointment for twelve o'clock. It appeared that she had
+suffered agonies of toothache while in prison, and although the
+authorities had done all they could for her, she was again in urgent
+need of a dentist's services. She had been informed of the arrival of a
+new practitioner in the little town, who came from a London practice;
+and to Toni's mingled surprise and dismay she found herself invited to
+accompany Mrs. Herrick on a visit to Mr. Dowson's surgery.
+
+On the spur of the moment she confessed to a previous acquaintance with
+Mr. Dowson; and Eva thereupon plied her with questions as to his
+proficiency in his work.
+
+"I don't want my teeth breaking or my jaw dislocating," she said. "Do
+you think the man's any good? It's such a bore to have to go up to town
+every time. Has he ever done any work for you?"
+
+Toni, who had never had toothache in her life, was obliged to reply in
+the negative; but assured Eva that Mr. Dowson had an excellent
+reputation in Brixton.
+
+"Well, I wrote and fixed up an appointment with him," said Eva
+carelessly, "so I suppose I'd better go. But if he isn't any good I
+shan't go again."
+
+"I'll run you over in the car," said Toni eagerly, "and we'll go on to
+lunch somewhere. Miss Loder leaves early to-day, so it doesn't matter
+about my not being at home."
+
+Mrs. Herrick accepted the offer promptly, and at five minutes past
+twelve the big car pulled up in front of Mr. Dowson's modest house, much
+to the excitement of the school children, who were at that moment
+released from the school-buildings at the end of the street.
+
+A quiet little maid showed the visitors into the usual depressing
+waiting-room; and reappeared two minutes later to conduct them into the
+torture chamber itself; and since Eva flatly refused to go alone, Toni
+perforce accompanied her into the operator's presence.
+
+Mr. Dowson's pale face lighted up at the sight of Toni with a radiance
+which even the self-engrossed Eva could not fail to note. He recollected
+himself sufficiently to shake hands professionally with his patient, but
+Toni he greeted warmly, as an old friend.
+
+He had never dreamed of such a glorious happening as this visit. The
+dingy room was transfigured by Toni's presence therein; and his long,
+white, carefully-manicured hands were absolutely unsteady as he opened
+his little cabinet and selected one or two tiny but deadly-looking
+instruments from the shining rows within.
+
+Toni, for her part, was occupied in thanking the Providence which had
+seen fit to equip her with a set of perfectly sound white teeth; and she
+felt an intense sympathy with the hapless Eva, whose nerves, undermined
+by her late experience, were already betraying her into signs of
+agitation.
+
+"I won't hurt you, really," said Mr. Dowson, with a beaming smile, which
+he felt to be out of place, but could not restrain. "Please lean back a
+little more--so. Now open--just a _leetle_ wider--thank you, that will
+do."
+
+It was soon evident that the visit could not be prolonged. Although he
+had not the clue to his patient's intense nervousness, Mr. Dowson's
+professional instincts warned him that he must go warily: and while he
+would willingly have detained Mrs. Herrick, if by such means he could
+enjoy the felicity of Toni's companionship a little longer, his
+conscientious spirit forced him to cut the sitting short.
+
+Another appointment was made for the following week; and after that
+there were others, to all of which Toni accompanied her quaking friend.
+After four or five visits, however, Toni was unlucky enough to contract
+a chill during an unusually prolonged motor-ride; and Mrs. Herrick was
+forced to go alone.
+
+It was Leonard Dowson's intense consternation when told of Toni's
+illness which first opened Eva's eyes to the seriousness of his
+devotion. She had seen from the beginning that he admired the girl, that
+he listened attentively to her lightest word; but she had not realized
+that Mr. Dowson was really and irrevocably in love with Toni; and it is
+only fair to the young man to say that he was quite unconscious of his
+self-betrayal.
+
+He had not been able to hide his anxiety on hearing of Toni's
+indisposition. With all the exaggeration of true love he immediately
+feared the worst; and even Eva's callous heart was touched by his
+incapacity to ask for news on the day of her second visit alone.
+
+He had stammered out a broken question, exhibiting a rather absurd
+concern over an ordinary slight chill; and when Eva replied casually
+that she had heard Toni was going on very well, she noticed, with a
+half-contemptuous amusement, that he had to turn aside and wipe away the
+drops which glistened on his high forehead.
+
+It was during that second visit that an idea came to Eva, bringing a
+malicious little smile to her lips in the intervals of Leonard's
+ministrations.
+
+"You've known Toni--Mrs. Rose--a long time, I suppose?" She asked the
+question casually as she put on her hat before the glass. "You were
+friends before her marriage, weren't you?"
+
+"Yes. I had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Rose some years before that."
+
+"Really? You knew her as a child?"
+
+"She was just fifteen when I saw her first," said Leonard, his voice
+husky with the emotion called up by the reminiscence. "It was her
+birthday, I remember, and one of her cousins asked me to go home to tea
+with him. They were great people for birthdays, her relations."
+
+"Were they?" Eva adjusted her veil carefully. "Friendly, sociable sort
+of people, I suppose. Was Mr. Rose there that night?"
+
+"Mr. Rose?" For a moment Leonard, lost in dreams of the past, stared
+uncomprehendingly. Then he pulled himself together vigorously. "No, Mr.
+Rose was not there in those days. He--he came on the scene much later
+than that."
+
+"Did he? Was he also a friend of Mrs. Rose's cousins?"
+
+"Oh, no." Mr. Dowson became emphatic. "Nothing of that sort. Toni--Miss
+Gibbs she was then--met him in the course of business. As a matter of
+fact, she was his secretary. And then he fell in love with her; and the
+next thing was that they were married." His tone was dreary.
+
+"Ah, well, I don't wonder he fell in love." Eva watched him closely
+through the mirror as she spoke. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose had heaps of
+admirers at that time. Why, Mr. Dowson"--she spoke laughingly--"what
+were you about not to seize such a prize before an outsider sailed in
+and captured it?"
+
+Leonard's pallor gave way to an unbecoming brick-red flush, and his
+voice shook as he replied:
+
+"I ... I wasn't lucky, you see. I--I would have given my life for that
+girl, Mrs. Herrick, and she--she wouldn't have me at any price."
+
+His tone of desperate sincerity told Eva all she wanted to know; and in
+a moment she switched the conversation back to safer ground.
+
+"You needn't give your life for her, Mr. Dowson, but I'll tell you what
+you can do. You can lend me your _Punch_ to take her. I promised to
+bring her a copy from Dent's, and he is sold out."
+
+Mr. Dowson was genuinely delighted to follow the suggestion and insisted
+on depleting the table in his waiting-room of various periodicals which
+might relieve the tedium of a day in bed; and Eva took the bundle
+amiably, promising to deliver them in person to Toni on her way home.
+
+She fulfilled her mission punctually; and when Owen, unaware of her
+presence in the house, came to see how his wife was getting on, he found
+her bed literally strewn with the papers which should have soothed the
+fears of the quaking patients in Mr. Dowson's gloomy waiting-room.
+
+"Hallo, Toni." He turned to her smilingly, after greeting Eva. "I hope
+you've got plenty to read. I didn't know you hankered after the
+illustrated papers, or I'd have sent out for some. It's very good of
+Mrs. Herrick to bring you such an assortment."
+
+"Ah, but these were sent by a friend of your wife's," smiled Eva
+sweetly. "I'm not the principal party in the transaction--I'm only the
+middleman."
+
+"Really? Who has been so generous then?" asked Owen, taking up one of
+the papers at random as he spoke.
+
+"Mr. Dowson, the dentist at Sutton," said Eva, turning her large Irish
+eyes on him pleasantly. "You know, of course, he is an old friend of
+Mrs. Rose's, and I must say he is a most gentle and satisfactory person
+in his work."
+
+"A dentist? Dowson?" Owen's eyes roamed from Eva's face to Toni's, and
+something in the manner of both girls puzzled him. "I don't know him, do
+I, Toni? Is he really an old friend of yours? But you've never asked him
+here, have you?"
+
+"He--he's not exactly an old friend," said Toni, annoyed to feel herself
+colouring. "I mean--oh, I've known him a long time in a way--he was a
+friend of the boys--my cousins, but that was all. And anyway he has not
+been here long."
+
+"Oh." Owen was still vaguely perplexed by her manner. "Well, if he's a
+decent chap you must ask him over."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't come." Toni spoke quickly. "He is not your
+sort, Owen. I mean--I don't think he would care to come. Do you, Mrs.
+Herrick?"
+
+Thus appealed to, Eva gave her verdict with a show of hesitation.
+
+"N-no, I hardly think he would." She turned to Owen. "I don't think I
+would ask him, if I were you, Mr. Rose. I expect it would make him feel
+a little--well, awkward."
+
+"But----" Owen did not know what to make of it. "You see, if he is
+sufficiently intimate with my wife to send her all these papers and
+things, it looks rather odd if I take no notice of him, doesn't it? I
+really think we must ask him over when Toni is herself again, eh, Toni?"
+
+"I wouldn't, Mr. Rose." Eva threw a deep earnestness into her melodious
+Irish voice. "Really--it's not my business, of course, but if I were you
+I'd not bother about the matter."
+
+She saw the look of uneasiness in Owen's eyes, and knew she had said
+enough.
+
+"Is it really five o'clock!" She jumped up in pretended dismay. "And I
+promised Jim faithfully I'd be back by half-past four. He gets fidgety
+when I'm out of his sight for long--thinks I'm getting into mischief, I
+suppose."
+
+She laughed rather hardly, and Owen felt an inner repulsion to the woman
+who could thus misconstrue her husband's consideration. He watched her
+bid Toni an effusive farewell and then escorted her downstairs, and
+stood talking to her for a few moments at the hall door.
+
+Somehow he had never liked her so little as on this afternoon; and
+although he admitted that she was a pretty woman in her way, he told
+himself that her face was curiously unattractive.
+
+She looked better now than on her first arrival in the neighbourhood,
+less haggard, a little plumper, but as he compared her dulled and faded
+beauty with Toni's youthful bloom he wondered, not for the first time,
+if her companionship were altogether innocuous.
+
+He was still puzzling over the question when he re-entered Toni's room;
+and his first words showed her what was in his mind.
+
+"Rather bad taste--that allusion to her husband's anxiety. Don't you
+think so, Toni? After all, he might well be uneasy about a woman who has
+once got into such serious mischief as she has done."
+
+"Why? It's not likely to happen again." Toni, poring over _Punch_, spoke
+shortly.
+
+"No, of course not." Owen hesitated, but as Toni evinced no signs of
+wishing to continue the conversation he went out of the room hurriedly,
+leaving his wife alone with the evidences of Mr. Dowson's good-will.
+
+The next time Eva visited Toni she said jocularly:
+
+"Well, I do think you're mean, Toni!" They had recently advanced to this
+stage of intimacy. "Fancy not telling me that Mr. Dowson had once
+proposed to you."
+
+Toni, taken aback, blushed vividly.
+
+"He didn't--at least--not exactly. I mean----"
+
+"Oh, I know what you mean!" Eva laughed. "Of course you couldn't have
+accepted him--he's a nice fellow in his way, but impossible as a
+husband." At times Squire Payton's daughter was quite blatantly
+aristocratic. "But you might have told me, all the same."
+
+"Why? It doesn't matter--now."
+
+"Not to you, dear." Eva jeered lightly. "But the poor fellow is quite
+upset at meeting you again. He told me to-day he would never marry, and
+when I asked him why he said surely I could guess."
+
+"Very impertinent of him," said Toni sharply; and Eva smiled inwardly.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't blame him, Toni. I'm afraid it was my fault. We Irish
+are so sympathetic, you know--people always tell us their secrets. And
+anyhow there is nothing to be ashamed of. If he likes to go adoring you
+privately, you needn't be angry."
+
+She said no more just then, for Toni's manner displayed her displeasure;
+but Eva smiled again when she was alone; and her warped and twisted mind
+seized eagerly on the idea of the very amusing situation which a little
+careful engineering might bring to pass.
+
+Like all true intriguers, Eva kept her thoughts to herself; and Toni had
+not the faintest idea of the plans which her so-called friend turned
+about in her mind as the autumn days glided swiftly by under the golden
+and blue skies of a perfect season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Owen and his wife were sitting at dinner one evening when a note was
+brought to Owen whose contents brought an angry exclamation to his lips
+as he, read.
+
+"By gad, Toni, this is a bit thick! What the devil does the woman mean?"
+
+Toni, suddenly pale, bit her lips, while her eyes filled with
+apprehension.
+
+"I ... who is it from, Owen? What does it say?"
+
+"There--read it yourself," said Owen, throwing the blue-grey sheet
+across the table. "I suppose there is some explanation, though I confess
+I can't understand it--yet."
+
+Still deadly pale, her eyes shining like blue jewels, Toni took up the
+sheet and read the letter which Lady Martin had written with so much
+satisfaction a couple of hours earlier.
+
+     "DEAR MR. ROSE,
+
+     "After the occurrence of this afternoon I am sure you will see the
+     advisability of Mrs. Rose's resignation from the Badminton Club. It
+     is with great regret that I suggest this course; but after the
+     scene which took place this afternoon, in the presence of a dozen
+     members and several visitors, among them Lady Saxonby, a former
+     friend of your own, I speak for the Committee when I request you to
+     advise your wife to resign for the present season at least."
+
+Toni laid the paper quietly down on the table and spoke to Owen with a
+mingling of terror and defiance in her tone.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well?" Owen reached across the table and picked up the letter. "What is
+all this about, Toni? Why should you be requested to resign?"
+
+"I don't know"--Toni began in a lifeless voice; then suddenly--"yes, I
+do know. It's all a plot of Lady Martin's and Mrs. Madgwick's. They hate
+me, I always told you so--and now they want to make you hate me too."
+
+"But what happened this afternoon?"
+
+"Oh, it's a long story." Toni spoke recklessly. "To begin with, I was
+elected to the Club a long time ago--in September; and when Mrs. Herrick
+came home she wanted to be a member too. I tried to get her in, but they
+didn't want her----"
+
+"Of course not." Owen frowned. "You never seem to understand, Toni, that
+all people are not so unworldly as you. It was a mistake for Mrs.
+Herrick to attempt to enter a private club of that sort so soon. She
+should have waited until the scandal had blown over."
+
+"Well, she was very disappointed about it. But every member can take a
+friend in once a month, so I took Eva this afternoon."
+
+She broke off in dismay.
+
+"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke
+sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you
+got there?"
+
+"People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the
+whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs.
+Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have
+been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered."
+
+"What did she do?"
+
+"She had a woman with her--Lady Saxonby, someone called her--and she
+heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me
+if I were your wife."
+
+"She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that Vivian's curiosity had nerved her
+to the step.
+
+"Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me--quite
+politely--but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time----"
+
+Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the
+face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection;
+and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny.
+
+"Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on.
+
+"Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw
+her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and
+she bent down and whispered something to her--something about Eva,
+because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva
+heard it too and turned crimson."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a
+message."
+
+"Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?"
+
+"She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as
+happy as she is."
+
+"Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send
+me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption
+on her part."
+
+"Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first
+who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva
+jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an
+honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through
+that man's wife--and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby
+was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world
+to see."
+
+Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set
+his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.
+
+"Well, then there was a scene. Lady Saxonby turned on Eva quite
+furiously, and said she had no right to talk of anyone being ashamed of
+anything, seeing that everyone knew what she had done. And then all the
+other women crowded round, and Eva lost her temper, and said it was
+quite true and she had been in prison and was a criminal and all that,
+but she'd sooner be that than a dishonourable, mercenary woman who would
+jilt one man because another had more money and a title ... and ... oh,
+there was a most frightful row, and the end was that the secretary
+hurried up and asked me to take Eva away quickly before she said any
+more. She was awfully cross, and said I ought not to have brought Mrs.
+Herrick, and that Lady Saxonby would be sure to talk, and the Club would
+be ruined."
+
+"So you came away?"
+
+"Yes. Eva was horribly upset--you know her nerves are all wrong--and she
+fainted dead away in the hall and they had to send for a doctor and we
+took her home ... and altogether," said Toni, breaking at last into
+tears, "it was a fearful scene, and I wish I'd never gone near the
+Club!"
+
+"I wish to God you hadn't!" Owen sprang up, more upset than he cared to
+confess. He could visualize the whole scene: Vivian, with her beautiful,
+scornful face, taunting Eva, playing the hypocrite with Toni, and
+sending insulting messages to the man she had jilted; and the mere
+thought of the talk, the gossip, the raking up of old stories which
+would inevitably follow, set all his nerves jarring furiously.
+
+Even the sight of Toni's tears did not soften his heart. Rather he felt
+exasperated with her, since it was her folly which had precipitated the
+whole scene.
+
+"Come, don't cry," he said rather curtly. "You've done a very silly
+thing, and goodness knows where it will end; but it's no use crying and
+making yourself ill."
+
+Naturally his tone did not tend to set his wife at ease; and she cried
+the more.
+
+"Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!" Owen felt himself to be a brute, but the
+thought of Vivian's malice was gall to his spirit. "The mischief's done,
+and crying won't undo it. But I hope you've learned a lesson, Toni; I
+always told you it was a mistake to go about with that woman, and you
+wouldn't believe me. Well, now you see what's happened. You've made us
+both ridiculous in the eyes of the world, and we shall be more severely
+ostracized than ever."
+
+Suddenly Toni's tears ceased and she raised her head to stare at him.
+
+"You mean people will be horrid--to you--about it?"
+
+"Well, naturally, they'll think me a fool for encouraging you," said
+Owen rather irritably. "If only you would have been guided by me! But
+it's been the same all through. You chose to go your own way, and the
+end will be that we shall have to leave Greenriver and go to live
+somewhere else."
+
+"Leave Greenriver?" She echoed the words dully.
+
+"Well, what can we do?" He spoke impatiently. "You have never seemed
+very happy here, so far as the people go. And now, after this _fiasco_,
+we may expect the neighbourhood to drop us altogether."
+
+"Drop us?"
+
+"Well, you know what I mean. Oh, I don't care two straws about the
+people themselves. They're a stupid lot anyway, and too conventional to
+know how to got the best out of life. But still--Greenriver's my home,
+and I thought we should learn to settle down here."
+
+"And I've prevented you?"
+
+"Well, you've never hit it off with the people, have you? And after this
+I don't see how we can settle down. I'm not going to have people
+neglecting my wife or being rude to her, but still this Badminton Club
+affair is a pretty big slap in the face for both of us."
+
+Toni, resting her small chin on the cup of her hollowed hands, stared at
+him thoughtfully, and in her eyes, still wet with tears, he caught again
+that elusive hint of a tragic womanhood which had puzzled him on a
+former occasion.
+
+"Eva was right," she said, and her voice was low. "She said I was out of
+place here, and so I am."
+
+"Mrs. Herrick said that?" Owen's anger suddenly swung round. "Then it
+was a damned silly thing to say, and I'm surprised you listened to it."
+
+"But she was right. She said everyone wondered why you married me; and
+now that I have seen Lady Saxonby, I wonder too."
+
+Owen's heart sank.
+
+"Toni, what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I understand now. Lady Saxonby was the woman you were to
+have married. She is very beautiful," said Toni simply. "And she would
+have been the right mistress for Greenriver. I can't understand how it
+was you married me. Eva said--when we were driving home--that it must
+have been pique. She said you wanted to show the other woman you did not
+care ... and when I thought about it, I saw that it was true."
+
+"Toni, it wasn't true." All thought of personal anger was swallowed up
+in Owen's sudden longing to convince the girl that Eva had lied. "I
+married you because"--in spite of himself he faltered--"because I loved
+you. What if Vivian did treat me badly? I was well out of it, since she
+was a woman of that kind."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind--now," said Toni, with a faint smile. "I did at first.
+When Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick said it, last summer, I thought my
+heart would break; but I suppose I got used to the idea, and when I saw
+Lady Saxonby to-day I knew it was just one of the things that no one can
+help."
+
+Owen, not understanding her, only stared.
+
+"You see, I knew all the time it wasn't likely, really, that you would
+care for me," said Toni quietly. "I tried to make myself believe you
+did, but I don't think I ever _really_ believed it. Only I was so fond
+of you--you were so kind--and when we were married you were so good to
+me that I began to hope you might grow fond of me in time."
+
+"Toni--for God's sake----"
+
+"But I soon found out it was a mistake--our marriage--for you. I wasn't
+half clever enough. I was only an ignorant, silly, unformed girl, and
+you were so different. Oh, I tried my hardest to improve. I wanted to
+prove to you that I wasn't quite such a little fool as you thought me. I
+wanted to show you I had a soul--Mr. Herrick said I had, and I tried to
+make myself more companionable to you--oh, I know I didn't succeed very
+well," said Toni humbly, "but, you see, you didn't understand. I only
+bothered you when I tried to help you in your work; and of course you
+didn't want to talk to me about the things that really mattered to you."
+
+"Toni--Toni--don't say such things."
+
+"But you were always kind," said Toni wistfully, "and I sometimes
+wondered if I had been wrong and you did care for me a little. But I
+always knew, deep down in my heart, that it was all a mistake, and
+now"--suddenly the composure which had supported her so far gave
+way--"now I know I ought not to have married you--and--and I'm sorry,
+Owen--I'm most frightfully sorry----"
+
+All at once she pressed her hands to her eyes as though to shut out the
+sight of his face; and then, as he started forward, vague words of
+comfort on his lips, she flung her arms out over the table and laid her
+head down on them in an attitude of utter desolation.
+
+For a moment Owen stood motionless, while the light from the rose-shaded
+candles played over the silky black hair and cast a pool of red colour
+on the smooth white neck rising out of its chiffon draperies. The scene
+was one which would never fade from Owen's memory; and in after days he
+could visualize it to the minutest detail.
+
+The red and yellow of the chrysanthemums in a big silver bowl, the
+purple bloom of the piled-up grapes before Toni, the ruby of the wine in
+the decanters, the reflections cast by the candles in the shining
+surface of the uncovered table, the ruddy glow of the firelight playing
+over Toni's pale-coloured skirts--to the day of his death Owen would be
+able to recall the scene at will: and never would he forget the chill in
+his veins as he realized that the girl he had thought a child was a
+woman after all....
+
+"Toni--Toni dear." He laid his hand on her shoulder. "For heaven's sake,
+Toni, look up and tell me you don't mean all the terrible things you've
+been saying. Of course I love you. Why, haven't I shown you that all
+along? Toni, don't let those silly women and their chatter hurt you. You
+can believe me, can't you? And I tell you I married you because I loved
+you--and Lady Saxonby and all the rest can go to Jericho!"
+
+He half thought he had won her ear; in another moment he felt sure he
+would have had her in his arms, sobbing her heart out--since she must
+cry--in the safe shelter of his breast; but at that moment the young
+butler, deceived by the low voices into thinking the room empty, entered
+briskly to fulfil his duties; and Toni sprang up before Andrews had time
+to advance round the big screen, which fortunately hid her from his
+eyes.
+
+Owen swore softly under his breath at this most untimely interruption;
+but Toni was already half-way to the door, and he judged it best to
+engage Andrews in conversation about the wine and leave Toni to seek the
+sanctuary she desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day the Secretary of the Badminton Club received Mrs. Rose's
+resignation; and there, for the present, the matter ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+When Toni related the episode of Lady Martin's note to Eva Herrick, the
+latter asked a startling question.
+
+"Toni, why don't you leave your husband?"
+
+"Leave my husband?" Toni stared at her, wide-eyed.
+
+"Yes. Oh, anyone can see you're neither of you happy. Mr. Rose knows all
+the time that he ought not to have married you just to get even with
+that horrid Saxonby woman, and anyhow you're not the least bit in the
+world suited to one another."
+
+Toni was very pale.
+
+"You don't think so?"
+
+"I'm sure of it." Eva threw away the cigarette she held and sat upright.
+"You ought to have married a man who would love you whatever you
+did--who wouldn't want you to be booky and clever, but would think you
+perfect in every way. Not a man who feels himself superior to you half
+the time, and finds fault the other half."
+
+"But my husband doesn't find fault." She spoke in a low voice.
+
+"Doesn't he? Well, it sounds like it," said Eva, piling the cushions
+behind her curly golden head. "I heard him scolding you over a book
+you'd mislaid one day, and he nearly jumped down your throat about Miss
+Loder this very morning."
+
+"That was entirely my fault," said Toni quickly; and Eva saw that if she
+were to succeed in her malicious project she must change her plan of
+attack.
+
+Being as quick-witted as she was cruel, she adopted a new method
+instantly.
+
+"Of course. I was only joking. Seriously, I think Mr. Rose is
+wonderfully good. I'm sure it would hurt him awfully to think he had
+been unkind or impatient with you, Toni. After all, he married you to
+please himself, didn't he? And it's not a bit fair to you to visit it on
+your head afterwards."
+
+"To visit--what, Eva?"
+
+"Why, I hardly know what to say." Eva smiled subtly to herself. "Of
+course, it may be only my imagination. I daresay you make Mr. Rose as
+happy as any woman could do. I expect he works too hard and that's why
+he looks so worried."
+
+"Does he look worried?" queried Toni softly. "I suppose I ought to have
+noticed it--but----"
+
+"But you didn't?" Eva leaned across and patted the girl's arm. "Never
+mind, dear, it's probably my fancy. I daresay Mr. Rose is not a very
+lively person at any time--and, after all, one can't always be feeling
+cheerful."
+
+"You mean," said Toni, who, like other primitive people, was apt to be
+disconcertingly outspoken, "you mean that Owen--my husband--isn't happy.
+At least--is that what you mean?"
+
+"Well, I suppose I did mean that," said Eva with pretended reluctance.
+"But it's all nonsense--I had no business to say it, Toni. Do forget it,
+will you?"
+
+"No." Toni spoke very quietly. "I shan't forget it. But I want to know a
+little more. You think Owen is unhappy because he is married to me. Do
+you think he would be happier if I went away and left him? Is that what
+you are too kind, too generous to imply?"
+
+Eva's heart gave a sudden throb. Her first aim in life ever since the
+prison gates clanged behind her at the end of her term of confinement
+had been to do some harm in the world, to make up for the injury which
+she considered had been done to her; and no weak emotions such as pity
+or generosity could be allowed to hold her back.
+
+To her oddly-perverted mind, it seemed that if she could persuade Toni
+to leave her husband, to wreck her home and her future, she would have
+got "her own back" to a considerable degree; and she had a double motive
+in her hatred of Owen, who, as she well knew, distrusted her personally
+and disliked her friendship with his young wife.
+
+Any person connected with a big penal settlement will tell you that
+there is never any certainty as to the moral result of a term of
+imprisonment on any given prisoner.
+
+To some natures, the punishment may be both a deterrent and an excellent
+lesson, while to others the educational value may be great and the
+deterrent effect almost _nil_; but in one class of prisoner--the class
+to which Eva Herrick belonged--imprisonment wakes only the worst and
+basest of all emotions, a desire, perforce stifled during the period of
+punishment, for revenge.
+
+That she had suffered, on the whole, justly, never weighed for one
+instant with Eva herself. That she had been guilty of a crime was less
+than nothing. What did weigh with her was the fact that she had been
+found out, and forced to undergo a humiliating and degrading punishment;
+and from the moment when she came to her senses after the swoon which
+had mercifully cut short the scene in court, Eva Herrick's whole being
+had been in revolt against a world where such things were allowed to be.
+
+Her whole pleasure, indeed, while in prison, had been found in planning
+how, in the future, she could render miserable the life of the husband
+who had not, so she considered, stood by her; and it was a bitter
+disappointment to her to find that try as she might she could not
+torture him to the breaking-point.
+
+He met her most poisoned and bitter shafts with a patience which
+nothing, it seemed, could pierce. When she taunted him, he only smiled;
+and when she reviled him he left her presence; so that the only way in
+which she could win any satisfaction was by detailing to him exaggerated
+accounts of the treatment she had received in prison.
+
+These stories, untrue and impossible as many of them were, made him
+wince, not knowing indeed how cunning was the invention behind them; and
+many times when she was more maddening than usual, Herrick schooled
+himself to patience by reminding himself of the drastic punishments
+which had apparently been meted out to her.
+
+When at length she found that Jim was impervious to her stings, Eva
+looked around her for another victim; and found one in the person of
+Toni Rose.
+
+It did not take Eva long to read, more or less correctly, the position
+between Toni and her husband; and although she was quite shrewd enough
+to realize that the situation would probably adjust itself in time, Eva
+was determined to prevent any such adjustment with every weapon in her
+power.
+
+Unhappily it proved only too easy for a woman such as she was to direct
+the affair pretty much as she willed it; and her suggestion to Toni that
+she should leave her husband had been carefully led up to by scores of
+insinuations, of carelessly-dropped hints, and scraps of repeated
+conversations heard on the subject of the Roses' married life.
+
+She was careful to let none of the elation she felt escape her as she
+replied to Toni's speech after a significant pause.
+
+"Put that way, it sounds dreadful," she said, pretending to shudder. "I
+don't think I really meant that. I only thought that perhaps--your
+husband is a writer, you know, an artist--with the artistic temperament,
+I suppose; and everyone knows that genius is difficult to live with."
+
+"I don't care for myself," said Toni hastily. "I could always be
+happy--with Owen--but if you really think I spoil his life----"
+
+"Oh, don't say that, dear." Eva spoke soothingly. "I daresay I am
+entirely mistaken. Of course, you know best how you get on; and after
+all Mr. Rose is so keen on his work he hasn't much time for outside
+things."
+
+"I wonder what Owen would say--or do--if I left him?" She spoke
+musingly; and Eva's heart beat tumultuously as she noted the result of
+her tentative suggestion.
+
+"Go after you and bring you back, I expect." Such was Eva's reply.
+
+"Then there wouldn't be much use in going," said Toni quickly, and Eva
+read the relief in her eyes.
+
+"No--not if you went like that." Her tone was purposely cryptic.
+
+"But--how else should I go?"
+
+"Why, if you really wanted to go----" Eva broke off with a laugh. "Don't
+be so silly, Toni. You talk as though I had really meant my stupid
+suggestion."
+
+"Didn't you mean it?" Toni's gaze was disconcerting.
+
+"Why, of course not. Come, Toni, let's have tea. I'll send for Jim, too.
+It's getting quite dark."
+
+"Wait a moment," said Toni. "Eva, if I made up my mind to leave
+Owen--for his own sake--how could I prevent him fetching me back?"
+
+"You really mean it?" Eva's tone sent a chill through Toni's veins.
+"Supposing you really saw that it was for Owen's good--that by remaining
+with him you were spoiling his life, ruining his career--making him
+unhappy, in short--you mean in _that_ case how could you prevent him
+searching for you?"
+
+"Yes," Toni said, her eyes on the fire, "that is what I mean."
+
+"There's only one way, Toni." She was careful to speak lightly. "If you
+went away with another man----" for a moment even her nerve failed her,
+but she conquered her weakness and went on calmly, and her grey Irish
+eyes were as cold as ice as she looked at Toni. "Then your husband would
+probably divorce you, and devote himself to his career."
+
+For a second Toni's pallor alarmed her. All the girl's colour died away,
+leaving her curiously white round the mouth, a sign of emotion to which
+Eva was not blind; and Mrs. Herrick wondered, uneasily, if Toni were
+about to faint.
+
+But Toni was in no fainting mood.
+
+"You think that, Eva? You think that if I were gone--out of his life
+altogether--Owen would forget me and find happiness in his work?"
+
+"I think so, yes. Oh, Toni, I know I seem unkind," said Eva, Judas-like.
+"Believe me I wouldn't have told you if you hadn't pressed me. It only
+struck me that perhaps--you will forgive me, dear?--perhaps you didn't
+manage to make your husband very happy--and if you really did want him
+to forget you----"
+
+"No, I don't make him happy," said Toni with a sigh. "It is funny, isn't
+it, when I love him so much? But you're right in one thing. I am
+spoiling his life; and my going away won't help him unless I go for
+good."
+
+"If you merely go, without any apparent reason, your husband will be
+miserable, unsettled, give up everything to find you, to bring you
+back----"
+
+She was startled by a sudden exclamation from Toni.
+
+"But, Eva, if you're so sure he'd want me back----"
+
+"Why should you go?" Eva smiled a little, patiently. "Don't you see,
+dear, if you go like that, Mr. Rose will be so alarmed, so upset, that
+of course he'll want to find you. He would think you'd perhaps run away
+because you were unhappy, and he'd do all he could to get you back on
+your own account. Oh, I know Mr. Rose is very fond of you,
+Toni"--somehow her very inflection made Toni's conception of Owen's love
+shrivel into nothingness--"and he couldn't rest if he thought you were
+unhappy. He would bring you back, and things would be just the same
+again. He would do his work, helped by Miss Loder, I suppose, and you
+would go on as you are now. After all, Toni, you know you have a lot to
+be grateful for."
+
+She looked at the girl to see how far she might safely go, but Toni
+never moved; and Eva was emboldened to proceed.
+
+"You have a lovely home--Greenriver is quite a show place, and after
+all, you and your husband never quarrel, do you? So that on the whole
+you'd be a little fool if you gave up all these very substantial
+benefits. Eh, Toni?"
+
+Eva was clever. She knew exactly the spur to apply to Toni's flagging
+mood, and she smiled to herself when she heard Toni's reply.
+
+"Do you think I would hesitate to give up Greenriver--and all the
+rest--to make my husband happy?"
+
+And looking at her Eva knew she would not. Mistaken, Toni might often
+be--foolish, self-willed, a little intolerant of advice; but she would
+never be selfish. If she could be convinced that her departure would be
+beneficial to the man she loved, she would certainly leave him, though
+it broke her heart to go.
+
+"No, of course not." Eva spoke a trifle vaguely. "But you couldn't go,
+Toni. It would be impossible. Why, your husband would think you were
+mad."
+
+"Would he? Perhaps I am." Toni's smile was a little melancholy.
+"Sometimes I think this is all a dream--that I'm not Owen's wife at
+all--that Greenriver and the gardens and everything else are merely
+imagination. I can't believe it's true. If it is, how is it that
+everything has gone so terribly, horribly wrong?"
+
+She paused, gazing before her with puzzled eyes.
+
+"I thought once that if I married Owen I should be the happiest girl in
+the world. But I'm not. I'm the most miserable. I--sometimes I wish--oh,
+I don't know what I wish!"
+
+"Come, Toni"--Eva rose as though to change the subject--"you mustn't be
+so despondent. Let me ring the bell--it's nearly five, and I'm sure you
+want a cup of tea."
+
+"Not yet, Eva." In Toni's voice was a new note, a note of decision,
+which Eva's ear was quick to detect. "When you say I should go away with
+another man, who had you in your mind?"
+
+A moment Eva waited. Then:
+
+"I meant the man who has the misfortune to adore you, Toni, the man who
+gave up everything, his practice, his prospects, London, everything, for
+your sake. You know the man I mean. You know as well as I do that
+Leonard Dowson adores the very ground you walk on."
+
+"Leonard Dowson!" Toni smiled drearily. "Think of leaving _Owen_ for
+Leonard Dowson!"
+
+"Oh, I know he's not in the same class," said Eva, with ostentatious
+frankness, "and I don't for a moment suppose he would make you happy.
+I'm afraid I wasn't thinking much of you, dear, when I mentioned his
+name. Somehow I forgot that you have as much right to happiness as
+anyone."
+
+"_My_ happiness doesn't matter," said Toni for the second time. "But I
+think you are wrong, Eva. Mr. Dowson never thinks of me--now."
+
+"Doesn't he?" Eva permitted herself to smile. "My dear child, he's just
+crazy about you. He told me all about it one day when you weren't
+there--how he'd loved you for years and years and was heart-broken when
+you refused him. He only came down here to be near you, and if you would
+only smile on him a little he would do anything in the world for you."
+
+"He wouldn't give up his work for me, Eva."
+
+"Ah, you haven't heard of his good luck." Eva had carefully refrained
+from the announcement until the moment was ripe. "He has just come into
+some money--nearly two hundred a year; and he can chuck dentistry
+to-morrow, if he likes."
+
+"Even then, he wouldn't want a scandal----"
+
+"Oh, Toni, I could shake you," said Eva, sitting down with a thump on
+the sofa near her. "Because some people have not got red blood in their
+veins, you think no one has. I tell you Leonard Dowson would throw up
+everything to-morrow--brave any amount of scandal, if only you would go
+with him. He could take you abroad somewhere, America perhaps; and then,
+when your husband had got his divorce, you could marry Leonard and
+settle down as nicely as possible. Then Owen would be free to do as he
+chose with his life, and this unhappy state of things would be
+forgotten."
+
+"Marry him? Marry Leonard Dowson?" Even yet Toni could not assimilate
+the idea.
+
+"Well, why not? He is madly in love with you, Toni. He would give up
+everything in the world for you, and I honestly think that things are
+impossible as they are. But of course you know better than I do, and if
+you feel you must stay with your husband----"
+
+"No--no." Toni's breath came in short gasps, as though she had been
+running. "I can't stay with Owen. I make him miserable, he's ashamed of
+me--I'm no good to him, only a bore--a useless creature who's tied to
+him ... if I were gone he would be really better off--and as you say, he
+could marry again----"
+
+"I don't suppose he would do that," said Eva gently. "You know he _is_
+very fond of you, Toni--I got even Jim to acknowledge that the other
+night"--she watched Toni wince at the "even"--"and it's only that
+you--well, you're not quite his sort, somehow."
+
+Her words seemed to rouse Toni to anger.
+
+"You have said that already," she said sharply. "You needn't repeat it."
+
+"I'm sorry, Toni." Eva's big eyes looked imploringly into hers. "I'm
+afraid I've said far too much to-day. After all, I have no earthly right
+to interfere, and you are quite justified in resenting my interference."
+
+Toni's sudden anger died away.
+
+"Oh, you were quite right," she said, sighing as she spoke.
+
+"I'm glad you said what you did--and I can't help knowing you are right.
+Only"--she shivered, and her face looked white and pinched--"somehow
+until I heard you saying it I hoped I myself was making a mistake."
+
+"But--you'll not do anything rash?" Eva was vaguely uneasy at the result
+of her plot.
+
+"Oh, no, I'll do nothing rash," said Toni, with a queer smile; and Eva's
+uneasiness deepened.
+
+Luckily for her their conversation was cut short at that moment by the
+entrance of Herrick, accompanied by Olga, and followed by the maid
+bearing the tea-tray.
+
+When the lamp had been lighted and the maid had withdrawn, Herrick shot
+a glance at the face of his wife's visitor; and he saw at once that
+something was wrong.
+
+He did not betray his knowledge by the slightest sign; but talked to the
+two girls in his usual kindly, whimsical fashion while Eva dispensed
+tea.
+
+"All the boats are really put away for the winter now," he said
+presently. "I think yours--and ours--have been the last, Mrs. Rose. We
+have had such wonderfully mild weather; but I'm afraid we shan't get any
+more boating this season."
+
+"Shan't we?" Toni sighed faintly. "I'm sorry--I have enjoyed the river
+so much."
+
+"Yes. We've had a glorious summer. But after all the winter will soon
+pass and we'll be getting the boats out again."
+
+"I hope we shan't be here when it's time to get the boats out," said Eva
+crisply. "A winter here would just about finish me off."
+
+"Oh, it's not bad," Herrick rejoined. "Sometimes it is quite pleasant
+all the year round--though we get a fog now and again, of course."
+
+"I don't propose remaining to sample the fogs," said Eva quietly. "Of
+course you will do as you choose, but seeing I've never been properly
+warm for months--we don't have nice fires in prison, you know--I think
+you owe it to me to take me somewhere sunny this winter."
+
+Herrick's face clouded, as it always did at any reference to Eva's
+prison life; and Toni felt desperately uncomfortable.
+
+She put down her cup and rose.
+
+"I must really be going home, Eva. I didn't mean to stay to tea."
+
+"Must you go? I'm sorry. I hoped you'd stay to dinner and enliven us a
+little. Jim and I don't have very jovial evenings, do we, Jim? Sometimes
+I think I might as well be back in my cell."
+
+"Eva--don't." Herrick spoke quietly, and his wife laughed.
+
+"My dear Jim, why be so squeamish? If Mrs. Rose doesn't mind associating
+with jail-birds, I don't see why you should. I'm thinking of writing a
+book on my experiences in prison, Toni. Do you think Mr. Rose would
+collaborate with me--lick my raw stuff into shape, so to speak?"
+
+Before Toni could reply, Herrick interrupted.
+
+"If you are going, Mrs. Rose, I'll take you across the river in the old
+punt, and see you home along the towing-path. It is the shortest way,
+but it's lonely at night."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Herrick. May Olga come, too?"
+
+"Of course. She would be very much hurt if she were left behind."
+
+"How silly you are over that great dog of yours, Jim." Mrs. Herrick
+included even dogs in her universal hatred nowadays. "I declare I wish
+someone would poison the beast."
+
+This threat, uttered not for the first time, made Herrick set his lips
+firmly, and for once his wife regretted her taunt.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to do it," she said with a laugh. "Good-bye, Toni, if
+you must go. I'll come and look you up in a day or two."
+
+When Toni and Herrick were alone, walking along the towing-path in the
+darkness, Herrick turned to Toni with a sigh.
+
+"Mrs. Rose, I can't tell you how sorry I am--nor how grateful I am both
+to you and Mr. Rose for your kindness to my poor little wife."
+
+"Oh, don't say that," begged Toni, her warm heart filled with pity for
+him. "I like your wife immensely--we are friends, you know, and you must
+not forget she has suffered terribly."
+
+"Yes, I suppose she has. And yet"--he spoke vehemently--"has she
+suffered so much as I have done--as I shall go on doing as long as we
+both live? Oh, I've no right to say it--I ought to be man enough to
+suffer in silence--but it's hard to bear her constant allusions to her
+prison life--her taunts--wouldn't you think she would be glad to forget
+all that, to put it behind her? Yet every day she talks of it. She never
+allows me to forget for one instant that she has been in hell--and every
+word she utters is an indictment of me, a reproach for the cowardice
+which let her go to prison."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick--I'm so sorry...."
+
+The stammered words brought a smile to Herrick's face.
+
+"Poor child! I ought not to blame her--rather to pity her.... I _do_
+pity her with all my heart. But she won't let me sympathize with her.
+One word and she flies at me. She is unhappy here, yet she will make no
+plans for going abroad. She talks as though I kept her here, when God
+knows I would go to the ends of the earth if she wished it."
+
+"Yes, I know, but I think if you go on being patient with her," hazarded
+Toni, "she will come to her better self again. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+"I don't know." His tone was rather despairing. "Sometimes I fear both
+our lives are ruined. It's wonderful what an effect a wife has on her
+husband's life--and _vice versâ_, of course. Some people seem to think
+that a man and woman can 'live their own lives' quite apart from each
+other if they like. But they can't. When they are husband and wife they
+are bound to exercise an enormous influence on each other's life; and
+when two people are thoroughly out of sympathy with each other, life,
+for both of them, is bound to be a failure."
+
+"You think so?" Toni's mind had flown to her own unhappiness, but for
+once Herrick did not read what was in her thoughts.
+
+"Yes. Don't you? Now, looking at it dispassionately, how do you expect
+Eva and me ever to re-discover the happiness we have so effectually
+lost? Remember, Eva is convinced that all her sufferings are directly
+due to me. She persists in thinking that if I had chosen I could either
+have prevented her case ever going to court, or could have taken the
+blame myself and gone to prison in her stead. The consequence is, she
+hates me, resents my presence near her, and will bear me an undying
+grudge all the days of her life."
+
+"But you couldn't have taken the blame."
+
+"Of course not, but women are often illogical, and Eva certainly is. No,
+the fact remains that I represent, to Eva, the coward who condemned her
+to a severe and mortifying punishment; and she won't forgive me."
+
+"But in time----"
+
+"Sometimes I am inclined to think it's a hopeless experiment--our life
+together." Herrick spoke sombrely. "I have been wondering seriously of
+late whether it would not be better to make over all my property to my
+wife and rid her of my presence, I believe she would be happier by
+herself."
+
+"You mean--get a divorce?" faltered Toni.
+
+"A divorce?" In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "Oh dear no. I don't
+think I need take quite such drastic measures as that. What I thought
+was to set Eva up somewhere, in some new place, where she could start
+afresh, and then take myself off quietly--to California, or New Zealand,
+or somewhere of the sort, where an able-bodied fellow like me can be
+sure of picking up a living."
+
+"But would Eva let you go?"
+
+"Ah, there's the rub!" He spoke in a lighter tone. "When it came to the
+point she might think that even an unsatisfactory husband was better
+than none. But, speaking seriously, I believe two people so incompatible
+as we two are better apart."
+
+"Do you?" In the dark Toni's eyes were frightened. "Don't you think,
+then, that one ought to stand by one's own actions? I mean if a husband,
+say, honestly thought it would be better for his wife to be free from
+him, would you advise him to go and leave her? Or the other way about.
+Should the wife go, if she was sure that by staying she did the man
+harm?"
+
+Herrick was tired, disheartened by the frequent scenes with his wife,
+depressed by the grim autumn night; therefore for once his sympathies
+wore dormant and his intuition slept.
+
+He had no idea that Toni was speaking personally, that she was calling
+on him to help her to make the most important decision of her life; and
+he was, moreover, in a mood which found the idea of self-sacrifice, of
+renunciation of one's own happiness strangely attractive.
+
+"If he--or she--were practically convinced that departure would be the
+best way out--for both--why then I should say by all means go." In the
+darkness he did not see Toni's sudden deathly pallor. "Of course it
+would always be rather hard to be quite sure on that point; but in a
+case where one could be more or less certain--well, perhaps I'm wrong,
+but I should say the step would be thoroughly justifiable."
+
+For a perceptibly long moment Toni did not speak. Then she changed the
+subject abruptly by asking her companion the time; and after striking
+one or two matches he was able to assure her that it was just six.
+
+"Oh, then Owen will be back." She hastened her steps as she spoke, and
+there was little more conversation between them as they hurried along.
+
+At the gate he bade her farewell, refusing an invitation to enter; and
+Toni went through the garden into the house, there to be met by a
+telegram from Owen announcing that he had been delayed in town and would
+not be home in time for dinner.
+
+Toni was oddly relieved by this fact. She had an important matter to
+think out; and for once Owen's absence was welcome.
+
+She dined alone, a rather forlorn little figure in the big dining-room;
+and after her hurried meal she went into the drawing-room and stood
+looking out over the lawn with unseeing eyes.
+
+The night had turned warm, unseasonably so for November, and Toni
+suddenly felt a great desire to be out in the air among the trees and
+shrubs, which were faintly perceptible in the light of a thin and waning
+moon.
+
+Kate, surprised by an imperative summons, brought a wrap as directed;
+and calling Jock to accompany her, Toni stepped out of the long window
+on to the gravel outside.
+
+For a moment Kate stood watching her young mistress, struck by something
+a little desolate in her appearance; but when Toni had moved slowly away
+down the path, Jock gambolling beside her, Kate withdrew from the window
+and returned to her interrupted supper.
+
+Toni paced slowly up and down for some minutes, while the night air
+played over her bared head. It was less oppressively warm out here than
+in the house, and into Toni's nature-loving heart there stole a sudden
+sense of comfort; as though all the living things around her were
+whispering vague words of love and cheer to her forlorn spirit.
+
+However miserable she might be, Toni was never quite so wretched out of
+doors. It was as though some vital part of her responded to the call of
+her great mother, the earth; as though in her veins ran some fluid akin
+to the sap which coursed through the branches of the trees. Indoors,
+between four walls, she might feel grief as a crushing burden; but once
+outside, with only the vast sky above her head, her sorrow invariably
+lightened; and to-night was no exception.
+
+At the end of half an hour's quiet pacing up and down the gravel walk
+Toni felt herself calmed and strengthened. She told herself there was no
+need at present to dwell further on the matter which filled her
+thoughts. She would banish it from her mind for the time being; and with
+this wise resolution, she turned to retrace her steps up the avenue
+towards the house.
+
+Suddenly Jock barked loudly, following the bark with a low growl; and
+Toni's heart gave a great jump.
+
+She had strolled almost to the big iron gates leading to the road; and
+she wondered for a moment whether a tramp had found his way into the
+grounds on some nefarious errand. She stood still, thinking as she did
+so that she heard a rustle in a bush close at hand, and then Jock
+growled again, a fierce, low rumbling in his throat, which frightened
+Toni almost out of her wits.
+
+With a voice which would shake, she called out to the dog; and then
+there was a sudden silence which was almost more sinister. She had laid
+her hand on the Airedale's collar at the sound of his first bark; but
+feeling really nervous now, she was just about to let him go when there
+was a half-apologetic cough from the bushes behind her, and a voice she
+knew said, rather timidly:
+
+"Mrs. Rose! Please don't be alarmed--it's only me--Leonard Dowson."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Toni was so surprised by the discovery of the unknown marauder's
+identity that she involuntarily released her hold on the dog's collar;
+but Jock's sudden dart across the path, and his snarl of anger as he
+confronted the person whom in his doggy heart he took for an enemy,
+awoke Toni to a sense of the position.
+
+"Jock! Come here! _Jock_, do you hear me?" Her tone showed Jock that,
+much as appearances were against the intruder, his canine instinct had
+been at fault; and he returned, unwillingly, to his mistress, wearing
+the slightly sulky look which an intelligent dog wears when he has made
+an unavoidable mistake.
+
+"Mrs. Rose, I assure you I did not mean to frighten you." Mr. Dowson
+emerged rather hastily from the shadow of the bushes, and advanced, hat
+in hand. "I--I am really most awfully sorry if I have startled you.
+I ... I would have called out sooner, but I trusted you would not
+perceive me."
+
+"Mr. Dowson!" Toni's voice was frankly dismayed. "What are you doing
+here? Were you coming to see me?"
+
+"I--I really don't know." Mr. Dowson moved a step forward and then gave
+an involuntary jump as Jock growled mildly, under his breath as it were.
+
+"But--be quiet, Jock--it's so late--and----"
+
+"Oh, I know it's late." Suddenly Mr. Dowson lost his head. "But I
+couldn't stop away. I--I've been here heaps of times--at
+night--generally I've stopped outside the gates, but once or twice I had
+to come in.... I--I couldn't stop away. It drove me mad to think of you
+here--and I had to come, just to be near you, if I couldn't see
+you--speak to you."
+
+"But----" Toni began, but he cut her short.
+
+"Oh, you can't understand, of course! You've never understood--you've
+never known how much I've loved you--oh, it's no use being angry! I know
+quite well I've no right to speak. You're married, a great lady now, by
+all I hear--but I love you--Toni--oh, my God, how I love you!" The sweat
+stood in great drops on his brow as he hurried on, a certain rough
+eloquence in his words. "After all, I'm a man, I've a right to love
+you--or any woman--and I've loved you now for years--it's not something
+new, just a passing attraction--it's part of me, something in my very
+bones, as near me as breathing or sleeping or thinking--I'm simply eaten
+up with love for you, Toni. You're my life, my everything. I'd die for
+you, I'd go through fire end water for you, I'd do anything in the
+world, bad or good, dishonourable or splendid, if you'd be kind to me,
+smile on me, let me kiss your little feet...."
+
+Toni, swept off her balance by his passion, said nothing, but stood
+opposite to him, panting a little; and after a second he went on with
+his wild confession.
+
+"Oh, I know I'm wrong, I know you're hating me, despising me for telling
+you all this, but it's too much for me. I can't bear it alone any
+longer. It's driving me mad, Toni, mad, do you hear? At night I dream of
+you--sometimes I dream that you've been kind to me, that I've kissed
+you--kissed your little mouth, held you in my arms ... and then I wake
+and know you're another man's wife, and it makes the blood rush to my
+head and I see red, Toni, red...."
+
+Something in his excitement warned the girl that she must soothe him.
+
+"Hush, Leonard." In that moment she reverted to the days of their early
+friendship. "Don't speak so wildly. You--you frighten me."
+
+He passed his hand over his brow, and when he spoke his voice was a
+shade quieter.
+
+"I wouldn't frighten you for the world, Toni, you know that. I love you
+far too well ... oh, Toni, is it quite hopeless! Isn't there a glimmer
+of pity in your heart for me? Won't you ever give me a thought...."
+
+"Leonard, how can I?" She spoke in a low voice, all Eva's horrid
+suggestions rushing over her in a flood. "I'm married; I can't ever be
+anything to you now."
+
+"Oh, I know you're married." He caught his breath in a gasp. "But
+still--oh, Toni, you wouldn't come away with me, would you? I've got
+some money now. I'd be able to give you things, and I'd work for you
+till I died...."
+
+At another moment Toni would have found occasion to wonder at his
+temerity in making the suggestion. She did not know how his imagination,
+fired by Eva's insinuations, played about the figure of Owen Rose's wife
+as the unloved victim of a man's callousness; and although she could see
+that Leonard Dowson was in deadly earnest, she had no conception of the
+sincerity of his belief that she had been wronged, trapped into marriage
+by a man who cared little for her, and neglected her openly.
+
+Such was the manner in which the situation had been presented to Dowson
+by Eva Herrick; and in his genuine acceptance of her story lay Dowson's
+best excuse for his wild plan.
+
+"I ... I couldn't come away with you, Leonard." In spite of her desire
+to set Owen free, Toni's whole soul revolted at the idea of such
+treachery. "I'm married, you know, and I couldn't leave my husband."
+
+"Why not?" in his despair the young man pressed still nearer, and again
+Jock uttered a warning growl. "I know you are married, but still--you're
+not happy--your husband isn't, either, by what I hear. You'd be wronging
+nobody--you've no children to consider"--in some ways Mr. Dowson was as
+primitive as Toni--"if you had, it would be different, but you've only
+yourself to think about. This life doesn't suit you, Toni. It cramps
+you, worries you. Oh, I heard all about that Badminton Club affair, and
+everyone knows you don't hit it off with the bigwigs of the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Who told you that?" For a moment Dowson quailed before her tone; but he
+rallied bravely.
+
+"Oh, what does it matter who told me? It's true, isn't it? Why, you look
+different, Toni. You're not the lively, jolly, animated girl you used to
+be--all smiles and jokes. Toni, you're paler, and thinner--you've grown
+quiet, almost sad. It's because you're not happy--and--and I'd die for
+your happiness any day."
+
+His deadly earnestness could not fail to win response. Here at last was
+a passion unveiled before Toni's wondering eyes; and all at once the
+thing which had seemed impossible came down to the level of the things
+which--sometimes--happen.
+
+Here was a man who only asked to serve her; and if by accepting his
+service she could free her husband from the chain which bound him, all
+unwilling, to her, was it not the act of a coward to refuse?
+
+It may be said, and with truth, that Toni's view of the matter was
+perverted, distorted beyond all bounds of reason and of common sense. To
+leave her husband, to whom in spite of all she clung with every fibre of
+her being, for another man for whom she had not even the smallest atom
+of affection, was surely the most insane, inexcusable action in the
+world; and would after all only result in a negligible good, since the
+insult paid, to the man she betrayed would quite outweigh any relief in
+the freedom thus obtained.
+
+Then, too, she would be wronging Leonard Dowson; since to go away with
+him would lead him to suppose a degree of affection on Toni's part which
+was in reality non-existent; but Toni was not thinking of Dowson in this
+matter.
+
+There is no woman so absolutely ruthless towards the mass of mankind as
+the woman who loves one man completely. In this affair Owen was the only
+man who counted in Toni's mind; and she thought of Leonard Dowson merely
+as a convenient tool with which to effect her husband's release from the
+position he apparently found unendurable. That the reckoning might come
+afterwards, when Leonard should see himself as Toni saw him, she did not
+pause to consider. Indeed, on this occasion her thoughts were so wild
+and chaotic that she could hardly be said to have considered the matter
+at all.
+
+"Well, Toni?" Her long silence made him uneasy, and he paled, fearing he
+had angered her by his persistence.
+
+"Well?" She gazed at him absently for a moment, then woke suddenly to
+life. "Leonard, are you seriously asking me to go away with you? You
+mean you would take me away, and let my husband divorce me--for you?"
+
+"Yes, Toni." He spoke firmly; and, if for a moment all his lifelong
+visions of a respectable London practice, prosperity, the respect of
+those around him, seemed to rise up reproachfully before his eyes, he
+meant his words absolutely.
+
+"Would you really do it? You must be very fond of me," said Toni simply;
+and the young man was emboldened to proceed.
+
+"Of course I would do it, and of course I am fond of you." His voice
+shook a little. "Toni do you really mean that you will think about
+it--will give me the tiniest fraction of hope to keep me alive?"
+
+"Yes. I will think about it." She spoke slowly. "But--I can't tell
+you--now. You must go away and let me think things out."
+
+"Don't think too long," he besought her, fearing that prudence might
+come with reflection. "When will you tell me, Toni? To-morrow? Will you
+write to me? One word--yes--will do; and I'll make arrangements at
+once."
+
+For a moment his earnestness startled her.
+
+"You could do it--like that--at once? Leave your practice and everything
+else at a moment's notice?"
+
+"I'd leave all I have in the world at a second's notice," said Mr.
+Dowson resolutely; and Toni could not but believe in his sincerity.
+
+"Very well." She felt tired suddenly. "I will write--to-morrow. But--but
+you won't be angry if it's _no_?" Toni added childishly.
+
+"I'd never be angry--with you." The young man's commonplace features
+were irradiated by a great light, and for a moment one could forget his
+mean stature and ready-made clothing. "You will never understand--you
+couldn't--what you are to me; but before God," said Leonard Dowson
+solemnly, "I'd devote my life, my soul, all I have to your service, and
+never ask for thanks."
+
+"Well, if you will go now, I will write to you," said Toni, rather
+wearily; and his passion was checked by the fatigue in her voice.
+
+"I'll go now--at once--and you--you will write, Toni? I'll count every
+moment till I get your letter."
+
+"Yes, I will write," she reiterated dully, wishing he would go and leave
+her alone with her thoughts; and without another word he turned and
+vanished into the shadows.
+
+When the sound of his footsteps had died away and all was silence, Toni
+shivered with a feeling of deadly chill.
+
+Leonard Dowson's appearance, following so closely on Eva Herrick's
+suggestions, had given her a queer, eerie sensation of awe, as though
+some inexorable fate were pointing out to her a way of escape from the
+situation she was beginning to find intolerable. She never doubted the
+man's affection for her; and she fully believed that he would indeed die
+in her service. And the very touch of fanaticism in her love for Owen,
+which made her feel that it would be a small thing indeed to die for him
+if by dying she might give him happiness, helped her to realize the
+strength of the pallid, unromantic young dentist's devotion.
+
+True, Toni was too innately sensible a person--perhaps it would be
+fairer to say her love of life and its "sweet things" was too strong--to
+allow her to contemplate death as a solution of the problem of her
+unsuccessful marriage.
+
+She understood, too, with a queer flash of spiritual insight which was
+foreign to her usual simple vision, that her death would bring Owen only
+a great sorrow; and in her darkest moments she never dreamed of courting
+death.
+
+A sudden bark from Jock made her start; and looking round she found Owen
+almost at her elbow. He had dismissed his taxi at the gate, and was
+walking briskly up the dark avenue, when Jock's vociferous welcome broke
+the night silence and brought him to a halt.
+
+"Hallo, old boy, what are you doing here? That you, Andrews?"
+
+Toni moved forward from the shadow, and beneath the dark cloak which had
+deceived him he caught the pale glimmer of her skirt.
+
+"No, Owen. It is I, Toni."
+
+"You? Why, what are you doing here? Oh, I see--you brought Jock for a
+run. Well, it's quite warm to-night--but the air has the feel of rain."
+
+"Yes. I thought I felt a drop just now."
+
+"Did you? Well, we'll get indoors. I'm sorry I am so late, dear, but
+there's been trouble at the office. Oh, nothing much, only Hart, our new
+sub-editor, had chosen to return an article we'd commissioned, because
+he said it was not up to our usual level."
+
+"And wasn't it?" Toni's forlorn heart welcomed his friendly tone.
+
+"Of course it was. It was about the best stuff young Lewis had ever
+turned out--and a fool like Hart, whose taste is distinctly precious,
+hasn't the wit to appreciate good, clean, straightforward English. He
+likes a mass of involved, wordy stuff that only the high-brows can
+understand."
+
+He broke off laughing.
+
+"Well, anyway we sent for it back in double-quick time; but Lewis had
+taken the huff and didn't want us to have it. So Hart had to
+apologize--which _he_ didn't enjoy--and altogether the place was in a
+ferment."
+
+"But it's all right now?"
+
+"Yes, thank Heaven. I say, Toni; I went to see old Vincent about my arm
+to-day, and he says it is fairly normal again. I'll tell you a secret,
+shall I, Toni? As soon as the book is finished I'm going to start a
+play."
+
+"Are you?" Her voice sounded cold, though it was only vague; and her
+unusual lack of interest rather hurt Owen.
+
+"Oh, we'll have our holiday first," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to
+do you out of that. How would you like a few weeks in Switzerland--for
+the winter sports? We could get off in about three weeks, and stay over
+Christmas. Then, when we came home"--in spite of himself his tone took a
+new enthusiasm--"I could get to work again."
+
+"You are going to write a play? But I didn't know you could write
+plays."
+
+Her childishness jarred his nerves, already worn with the minor
+vexations of the day.
+
+"Well, _I_ don't know until I try." He spoke rather curtly. "But I've
+talked it over with Barry, and we think it sounds possible."
+
+"I see. And if it were a success?"
+
+"Why, our fortune would be made." He took her arm in friendly fashion.
+"Then we should have to go and live in town, Toni, take a big house and
+launch out. You'd like that, eh?"
+
+"I should hate it," she said, so fervently that he dropped her arm in
+astonishment and turned to look at her.
+
+"Hate it! Why?"
+
+"I hate big houses--and entertaining--and all the rest. I--I should
+loathe to have to go to receptions and give big parties--I'm never any
+good at talking, you know yourself I look a fool when anyone tries to
+talk to me."
+
+"I know you're a little silly," said Owen teasingly, "but you'll outgrow
+that. Here we are--come along in, Toni, it's really beginning to rain.
+Come in, Jock, and let me shut the door."
+
+Safely inside the hall, Owen turned to Toni.
+
+"Come into the library, will you, dear? I'll send for some sandwiches
+and a whisky and soda, I think. I hurried over dinner and I'm hungry."
+
+Toni gave the order at once, and then followed Owen to the library,
+where a cheerful fire burned, and in the mellow lamplight the room
+looked very stately and charming.
+
+She sat down on the low club-fender in front of the hearth and gazed
+into the leaping fire in silence, while Owen opened the letters which
+had accumulated during the day.
+
+For a few moments there was no sound save the crackling of paper and the
+soft little chatter of the fire. Then Owen crumpled up a letter he held
+and flung it from him with something which sounded like an oath.
+
+Toni, roused from her reverie, turned round to face him.
+
+"What's the matter, Owen?"
+
+"Matter enough, I think." His face wore a frown which boded ill for
+someone. "Toni, what have you been saying to Miss Loder to make her
+write this letter?"
+
+"Saying to Miss Loder?" Every scrap of colour faded from her face, and
+Owen, watching, took her pallor for the ashy hue of guilt.
+
+"Yes. You've said something--I don't know what--but I should like to
+know at once, without prevarication, just what it is."
+
+"I've said nothing to Miss Loder." Her voice was unsteady--she too had
+felt her nerves jarred during this dreadful day.
+
+"Well, you see what she says." He stooped and picked up the letter,
+which he handed to Toni. "Read that, and tell me what you make of it."
+
+With fingers as cold as ice, and a memory in her heart of another letter
+which had brought her misery, Toni took the sheet, and read, in Miss
+Loder's firm, characteristic hand, the letter in which she requested to
+be allowed to resign her post.
+
+"I am not taking this step without serious thought," so the letter ran,
+"and for some time I determined to remain with you as long as you
+honoured me by your acquiescence in the arrangement. But learning, as I
+do, from a quite indisputable source, that my presence in your house is
+distasteful to Mrs. Rose, I have no option but to ask you to release me
+from a position which is not only unpleasant but undignified. If you
+will be kind enough to waive the question of notice, I would prefer to
+terminate the engagement at once."
+
+Here followed her signature, firm and clear as ever; and then came a
+postscript, surely a sign of disturbance on the part of so academic a
+scribe.
+
+"I would prefer to dissever all connection with the _Bridge_ at the same
+time; but am willing to remain at the office until you find a suitable
+person for the post."
+
+Having read the letter Toni let it fall upon her knee, while she gazed
+dreamily into the red heart of the fire, her brain working slowly as she
+tried to understand the significance of Miss Loder's epistle.
+
+Something in her abstraction appeared to irritate Owen; for he came a
+step forward and spoke rather brusquely.
+
+"Well? You've read it? What have you to say about it?"
+
+"To say? Nothing." She lifted her eyes to his, and let them drop again,
+wearily, to the letter on her knee.
+
+"Oh, come, Toni, that's nonsense." Conscious of the irritation in his
+tone Owen paused, then spoke more gently. "Miss Loder is not the sort of
+person to imagine slights--she has been out in the world too long for
+that. But evidently she has clearly seen your antipathetic attitude
+towards her, and feels that in the circumstances she cannot remain."
+
+"I have never slighted Miss Loder." Toni, frightened, sounded defiant.
+
+"Not exactly. But you have shown _me_ very plainly that you resented her
+presence; and I suppose you have not been very careful to hide
+your--well, prejudice--from the girl herself."
+
+"She has no right to say such things," said Toni, a warm flush creeping
+up beneath her ivory pallor. "I have never been rude to her, as you seem
+to think. I have always hated her, I admit--always, from the first time
+I saw her; but----"
+
+"Ah, you acknowledge that." Owen pounced on the admission. "But why,
+Toni? Why should you hate the girl?"
+
+"Why? I don't know," said Toni recklessly. "Simply because I do, I
+suppose--because if I knew her for a hundred years I should never do
+anything but hate her."
+
+"And so, through your senseless jealousy, I'm to lose the best secretary
+I've ever had." Owen's tone was cold. "Really, Toni, I think you've gone
+a little too far this time. Quite apart from the fact that you must have
+behaved in a very childish and unladylike fashion to make the girl so
+uncomfortable, you have also done me an injury. If you didn't care for
+my work for its own sake--and I know neither the _Bridge_ nor my book
+has ever appealed to you--still I think you might have sacrificed your
+personal feelings just a little and considered my position in the
+matter."
+
+From her lowly seat on the fender, Toni looked up at him with a strange
+expression in her eyes. In truth, at that moment Toni's soul was a
+battlefield of conflicting emotions. Anger, defiance, resentment at what
+she considered her husband's injustice, were mingled with a great dread
+of Owen's displeasure; and a wild, miserable despair at the thought of
+his conception of her as indifferent to his aims and ideals. At one and
+the same moment she longed to hurl defiance into his face, and to cast
+herself, weeping, into his arms. But she did neither, only looked up at
+him with that inscrutable expression in her eyes, waiting for him to
+speak.
+
+"Now I suppose I shall have to look out for another secretary." Owen was
+annoyed and showed it. "Thank Heaven, the proofs are about finished, but
+this knocks the play on the head. I suppose I'll find someone else to
+help me, but the whole thing is very absurd and annoying."
+
+Suddenly Toni's self-control, already shaken by the meeting with Dowson,
+deserted her completely.
+
+She rose from her seat like a small whirlwind and confronted Owen with
+scarlet cheeks and blazing eyes.
+
+"Wait a moment, Owen. Don't say any more, please. Remember there is my
+side of the question to be considered." She faced him bravely. "You knew
+from the start that I was not literary or learned--I told you before we
+were married that I wasn't half clever enough for you, and you said it
+didn't matter. Then, when I'd tried to help you and failed, you got Miss
+Loder here in my place. You knew I disliked her, but you didn't know
+what cause I had for my dislike."
+
+Owen, silenced by her vehemence, stared at her speechlessly, and she
+went on hurriedly.
+
+"From the first she despised me. She saw I wasn't well-educated, that I
+wasn't even in her class. Oh, I know she is connected with all sorts of
+people, but she ought not to have let me see so plainly that she looked
+down on me as a nobody. She never lost a chance of humiliating me. Why,
+at lunch over and over again I've sat silent while you and she talked.
+If I ventured to speak, she listened, quite politely, till I had
+finished, and then went on talking as though I'd not spoken. For days
+and days I hardly saw you. You were shut up there with her, and I was
+all alone. I was no one to you, she was everyone. I was your wife, but
+she was your companion. Everyone noticed how I was left alone; they all
+knew you ignored me--I was miserable, but you never saw----"
+
+"You--miserable, Toni?" Owen spoke abruptly.
+
+"How could I be anything else? You treated me always as a child--an
+unreasonable, ignorant child----"
+
+"Well?" Owen interrupted her, but his tone was one meant to conciliate,
+for suddenly he thought he saw a way to end this deplorable scene. "And
+aren't you a child? A pretty, engaging child, I grant you--but
+still----"
+
+"No." It was her turn to interrupt, and white to the lips she faced him.
+"I am not a child any longer--I was until a short time ago, but you have
+changed me into a woman----"
+
+"Come, Toni." Deceived by her quiet tone Owen laid his hand on her arm.
+"Don't grow up too quickly. Let me have my little child-wife a bit
+longer yet----"
+
+She shook his hand off with a violence for which he was not prepared,
+and he spoke angrily, his softer impulses dying away.
+
+"Hang it all, Toni, you needn't repulse me as if I were a snake. You
+_are_ a child, after all, and a jolly bad-tempered one at that!" It was
+the first time he had ever used such a tone, and the girl's anger flared
+up in reply.
+
+"A child--of course--you think so, you always will--you and your
+precious secretary!" As she spoke Toni snatched up a packet of
+neatly-folded proofs from the table behind her. "This is her work, I
+suppose. Oh, how I _hate_ her--and you--and the book! I'd like to
+destroy it all--to burn it up--like that!"
+
+With a passionate gesture she turned round and flung the bundle of
+papers into the very heart of the fire blazing on the hearth behind her.
+
+"There!" She faced him again, her breast heaving, her eyes flashing
+stormily. "I'd burn it all--if I could. You like your book better than
+me--but I've burnt so much of it, anyway."
+
+Owen had started forward as she spoke, but it was useless to attempt to
+save the burning sheets, and he fell back from the hearth with an
+exclamation of anger.
+
+"You are a little fool, Toni." He spoke coldly. "What, good do you
+expect to do by a piece of childish spite like that? Those proof sheets
+were all corrected--now the duplicate set will have to be revised, and
+as they are due in London to-morrow, I shall have to spend several hours
+over them before I can get to bed to-night."
+
+Toni, frightened now at what she had done, stood motionless during his
+speech. As he said the last words her rage melted suddenly into
+contrition.
+
+"Owen--I'm--I'm sorry." She spoke haltingly. "I--I didn't mean to give
+you trouble. Can I--will you let me help you--to make up for what I've
+done?"
+
+He raised his eyebrows and laughed rather bitterly.
+
+"It's very kind of you, Toni, but I think I won't trouble you. Your
+repentance is a little belated, isn't it? And I think I prefer to keep
+my work to myself in future."
+
+The fire of her rage gave one last expiring flicker.
+
+"As usual," she said, "your work is more to you than I. I wonder you
+ever married, Owen. Marriage doesn't seem to mean a great deal to you."
+
+"I sometimes wonder, myself," he said drily. "Certainly I haven't found
+it a very enjoyable state of late. It seems you haven't, either. Perhaps
+we were in too great a hurry after all, Toni."
+
+He did not mean the words, which were wrung from him by his exasperation
+at her childish folly; but the effect on Toni was disastrous.
+
+She could not well turn paler than she was already; but a chill crept
+into her veins, congealing her blood as she stood in front of the fire.
+She shivered slightly; and then with an effort which made her feel
+physically exhausted, she moved slowly towards the door.
+
+"Where are you going, Toni?" Owen questioned her rather coldly.
+
+She turned round; and all the youth was gone from her face.
+
+"I am going to bed," she answered quietly. "Good-night, Owen."
+
+And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went slowly out
+of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Quite calmly and quietly Toni went about her preparations for departure.
+
+The scene in the library had turned the scale in favour of her flight.
+Owen had openly avowed his opinion that their hasty marriage had been a
+mistake; and now that the passion of rage and jealousy which had
+possessed her had died away, Toni could see no other method of relieving
+the situation than by leaving Greenriver at once.
+
+She would go away with Leonard Dowson, thereby leaving the way open for
+Owen to divorce her. Her own future life occupied but the smallest
+fraction of her thoughts. Somehow her power of visualizing the future
+seemed to stop short with her departure from her home; and although she
+had a very clear vision of Owen, relieved from the incubus of her
+presence, and free to devote himself to the work which, she had
+persuaded herself, meant more to him than any purely domestic happiness,
+she never gave even a passing thought to her own existence when once she
+had severed the ties which bound her to the old house by the river.
+
+Very early in the morning of the day following her interview with Dowson
+she had posted a note to him. There was only one short sentence on the
+little sheet of paper--only three words; but she know it would be
+enough.
+
+     "I will come. TONI."
+
+That was all; and yet as she wrote the little sentence, Toni had a
+queer, stifling sensation as though she were indeed signing her own
+death-warrant.
+
+The note would be delivered at lunch-time; and about two o'clock Toni
+began to look for an answer, though she knew it was hardly likely the
+young man would reply so promptly.
+
+At three o'clock she went out into the garden. Her head was throbbing
+painfully, her cheeks burnt with a scarlet flush, and it was surely
+quicksilver and not blood which ran so swiftly through her veins.
+
+The day was unseasonably warm, and a slight fog hung about, making the
+air damp and heavy. Owen had gone to town immediately after lunch; and
+Toni was inexpressibly relieved by his absence.
+
+They had barely spoken to one another to-day. Owen was suffering from
+one of his worst neuralgic headaches, which at all times made him feel
+disinclined for speech; and Toni said little because she had nothing to
+say.
+
+At half-past three a note was delivered to her by a lad wheeling a
+bicycle; and when the messenger had withdrawn, Toni opened the grey
+envelope with fingers that shook. Inside she found a fairly long letter,
+which had evidently been written in haste, for the writing was untidy,
+and here and there a word was almost illegible.
+
+"I can hardly believe you will come, Toni." So ran the letter in which
+Leonard Dowson accepted, the happiness promised to him. "It seems too
+good, too exceedingly, marvellously good to be true. Yet your little
+letter lies before me, and you are too kind, too sincere to deceive me.
+So it is true; and the sun has risen on my grey and lonely life. Then
+listen, Toni. I have made all preparations for my own departure
+to-night. I have paid off my servants, the rent, and left everything in
+order; and I am in possession of a sufficient sum of money in notes and
+gold to enable us to live for some months in peace on the Continent. Now
+comes the question of our meeting. I have ascertained that the night
+boat leaves Dover about eleven; and in order to cross to Calais, on the
+way to Paris, we must take the boat train from Victoria. I think it will
+be safer to motor up to town rather than risk meeting any acquaintances
+in the train; and a car will be waiting at the corner of Elm Lane at six
+o'clock. That will give us sufficient time to catch the train, and will
+be pleasanter than the other mode of travelling. With regard to your
+luggage, do not trouble to bring more than a dressing-case; for it will
+be my pleasure and privilege in future to provide you with all you may
+desire. I have still much to do, so will bid you farewell until the
+precious moment which brings you to my side."
+
+He had evidently hesitated over his signature; there were one or two
+erasures; but at length he had written, his name firmly, without any
+attempt at a formal leave-taking.
+
+For perhaps a minute Toni stared at the two words "Leonard Dowson"; and
+a chill, as of anticipatory dread, swept over her at the sight of that
+firm, clerkly handwriting.
+
+Until this moment she had looked upon Leonard's proposal as the one and
+only means of setting Owen free. Once she had taken this step, had
+burned her boats, her husband would surely accept his freedom with a
+feeling of vast relief; and in spite of everything Toni had only one
+thought--that of Owen's good.
+
+But suddenly she was afraid, with a purely human, selfish fear for
+herself. To what was she condemning herself by this unlawful flight?
+When once Owen had accepted her sacrifice, had set in order the
+machinery of the law which should give him his release, what would
+become of her? Would she be obliged to marry a man for whom she felt
+only a tepid friendship, unwarmed by the smallest coal from the fire of
+love? She had found life sad even when married to the man she loved; but
+what would it be to her as the wife of a man to whom she was almost
+completely indifferent?
+
+Quite unconsciously Toni was exaggerating Owen's attitude towards his
+marriage, was accepting as his last word a few irritable sentences wrung
+from him by fatigue and annoyance at having seen the corrected proofs
+destroyed in a fit of childish temper on the part of his wife.
+
+Far from regretting his marriage, Owen merely regretted Toni's
+unreasonableness in the matter of Miss Loder; and once that young woman
+was removed from the scene, Owen had no doubt that he and his wife would
+shake down again quite comfortably and forget the recent scenes between
+them.
+
+But Toni, who always meant exactly what she said, and unconsciously
+expected the same sincerity of speech from others, had taken Owen
+literally; and although for a moment a flood of human weakness had
+overtaken her as she gazed at Leonard Dowson's firm signature, she never
+really faltered in her purpose.
+
+When she had read the fatal letter once more, she went back into the
+house, and there she burned the document with almost mechanical
+forethought.
+
+Then she went upstairs to her room and carefully packed her
+dressing-bag. She did not take very much. Somehow it seemed unnecessary
+to burden herself with many things; and when she had finished her
+packing and had hidden the bag in her capacious wardrobe, she went
+downstairs and sat by the drawing-room fire to wait until Kate saw fit
+to bring tea.
+
+When, at the usual time, Kate entered, she moved across the room to
+light the lamps; but Toni sent her away with this part of her duty
+undone. To-night Toni wished to sit in the firelight. The fog had
+thickened in the last hour, and now it pressed against the windows like
+a chill, ghostly presence, hiding the garden, the river, the trees in
+thick and clammy folds. Looking across the room from her seat by the
+fire Toni shivered; and it seemed unkind of Fate to ordain that her last
+memories of Greenriver should be shrouded in the cold and creeping mist.
+
+She turned back to the fire with a shiver; and sat gazing into the
+leaping flames, while her tea grew cold and the hands of the clock crept
+inexorably onwards.
+
+At half-past five she must leave the house. True, the meeting-place was
+distant barely a quarter of a mile, but Owen might return early, and she
+had no desire to run the risk of meeting him.
+
+A short cut over the fields would both shorten the way and minimize the
+danger of running into her husband; and Toni looked up, startled, when
+the silver clock on the mantelpiece chimed the hour of five.
+
+Only thirty minutes, and her life at Greenriver would come to an end.
+Never again would she roam through the beautiful old house, never sit in
+this charming, panelled room, with its ghostly yet alluring fragrance as
+of bygone lavender and roses. Never again would she wander in the
+garden, revelling in the beauties of colour and scent and form which
+made so lovely a picture in the glorious setting of turf and river.
+Never again would she stroll beneath the tall trees in the summer dusk,
+while the owls hooted eerily and the nightingale murmured luscious
+love-songs to the dreaming roses. The river would know her no more;
+never again would her feet tread the towing-path where in the early
+morning she had been used to saunter, with her faithful Jock by her
+side----
+
+Ah! At the thought of Jock, Toni uttered a little cry. She had forgotten
+him until this moment--his dear canine image blurred by a mist of
+thoughts and tears; but now she remembered him only too well; and her
+heart was pierced by the thought of his fidelity--to be, alas, so poorly
+rewarded. Owen would be good to him, of course. He would be well fed and
+kindly treated, since everyone in the house had a soft corner for the
+jolly, riotous, affectionate Airedale; but he would miss his own loving
+mistress; and Toni could not bear to think of the wistful expression his
+honest brown eyes would wear when he found that she had apparently
+deserted him.
+
+At that moment, almost as though her thought had called him to her, she
+heard him at the door. He did not scratch the panel, after the manner of
+many of his kind, but stood upright and rattled the handle with his
+nose; and Toni ran to open the door, feeling a positive criminal beneath
+the warmth and confidence of his greeting.
+
+She took him to the fireplace and snuggled down with him on the thick
+fur rug on the hearth. She gave him his saucerful of tea, and fed him
+recklessly with macaroons; but Jock was uneasy beneath her
+ministrations.
+
+There is no friend so quick to grasp a tense situation as a dog.
+Although Toni spoke in almost her usual voice, and fondled him with more
+than her usual affection, Jock knew quite well that there was something
+wrong.
+
+Leaving the last macaroon untouched, he came and stood close by her
+side, looking up into her face with a puzzled, wistful expression, and
+presently he stood up on his hind legs and licked her face solemnly with
+his warm red tongue.
+
+"Oh, Jock, you naughty boy," said Toni, between crying and laughter.
+"You know you're not allowed to kiss me! But--oh, Jock, darling, how I
+shall miss you!"
+
+Two great tears fell on the dog's head; and others followed. In a minute
+Toni was weeping her heart out; and the dog, rendered still more uneasy
+by this behaviour, lifted up his voice in a melancholy whine.
+
+Suddenly Toni dashed away her tears and started to her feet with a
+suddenness which almost upset Jock.
+
+"Jock, it's no use going on like this. We're a couple of idiots--at
+least, I'm one, and you're a darling old stupid. But it's time to go,
+Jock. To _go_. Do you hear? I'm leaving Greenriver, Jock, leaving my
+home, my husband, everything I have in the world. I'm going away, Jock,
+going with a man I hardly know. I shall be called wicked, and I suppose
+I am; but I can't help it. I've got to go--but oh, Jock, how much easier
+it would be to die!"
+
+She took a last look round the beautiful room, which like most rooms
+looked its best in the rosy firelight; and then she went slowly out,
+Jock pressing closely to her side.
+
+Up the broad stairs she went. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies
+burned bravely; and as she walked between them Toni could not see their
+tiny flames for the tears which blurred her sight.
+
+Very slowly she entered her room, Jock pressing beside her all the time.
+It did not take long to don her thick fur coat and soft little hat. She
+remembered a veil, but at first forgot her gloves; and at the last
+moment she had to go back for the dressing-bag and for her purse,
+wherein reposed ten pounds given her by Owen some weeks earlier.
+
+At last she was ready; and bag in hand she opened the door leading into
+the gallery and stood looking round her for one long, last moment.
+
+Jock, puzzled, stood beside her, gazing anxiously into her face; but she
+did not notice him; and when at length she moved slowly away Jock fell
+back a pace and stole behind her down the long gallery.
+
+The old house was very still. From the shut-off regions behind the green
+baize door came, now and then, the murmur of voices; but for the most
+part Greenriver lay hushed in lamp-lit, flower-scented silence.
+
+Never had the big hall looked so attractive as now, in the mellow light
+of the wood fire on the capacious hearth. On the oval oak table a big
+jar of chrysanthemums stood out, white and copper and mauve, against the
+panelled wall; and a sombre corner was lightened by the pink and cream
+blossoms of a tall azalea sent in that morning by an attentive gardener.
+
+Over everything lay the sense of a great peace and tranquillity. The oak
+settee with its big, bright cushions, the tapestries hung on the dark
+walls, the flowers, the books strewn here and there, the big tiger-skin
+hearthrug, the enormous basket-chairs covered, too, with skins of tiger
+and leopard--never had the hall looked so alluring, so safe, so inviting
+to its mistress as on this foggy autumn night when she was about to
+leave its shelter.
+
+With a long shudder Toni descended the last step of the great staircase,
+and drifted slowly across the hall in the direction of the front door.
+Jock, following, pressed a little too closely against her, and turning,
+Toni saw, the faithful little friend whom she was about to leave gazing
+at her with a human appeal in his honest face.
+
+"Take me! Let me go with you where you go! Why go out into the dim cold
+night alone, when you can have beside you one to protect you and give
+you love?"
+
+She could almost fancy he said the words; and two great tears fell
+swiftly as she bent and patted him with her free hand.
+
+"No, Jock darling, I can't take you." She sobbed as she spoke. "I must
+leave you behind--with all the other things I love."
+
+Jock, understanding the finality of her tone, whined uneasily, and
+wagging his tail besought her to reconsider her decision. But Toni could
+bear no more. With a quick, passionate movement she opened the big door
+hurriedly, and, heedless of his whining, passed through blindly into the
+night, pulling the door to after her with the miserable, hopeless
+feelings of a traitor in her heart.
+
+Pausing for an instant she heard Jock sniffing interrogatively beneath
+the door; and knew he was hoping desperately that it would open to give
+him freedom; but with the tears running down her face she went slowly
+down the steps and was swallowed up by the cold, wet fog which lurked,
+ghost-like, round the house.
+
+Leonard Dowson was waiting for her, impatiently, feverishly, by the car;
+but one glance at her warned him that this was no time for lover-like
+protestations.
+
+He helped her in, covering her with the big fur rug he had had the
+forethought to bring; and then, with a delicacy which could only have
+been taught him by love, he left her alone in the interior of the car
+and mounted the seat beside the chauffeur.
+
+Even now he could hardly believe his good-fortune. With all his
+education, his later Socialistic tendencies, his conviction that one man
+was as good, primarily, as another, and that only brains and application
+counted in the race of life, he could never bring himself to look on
+Toni as an ordinary human being, inferior to him by reason of her sex,
+her less scientific brain, her lack of the power, mental and physical,
+which was, to him, the prerogative of manhood.
+
+Other women he might judge contemptuously or admiringly, as the case
+might be. But he could never consider Toni as a woman like those
+others--possibly because to him she was not _a_ woman, but--mystical
+distinction!--_the_ woman. In a vague, unreasoning way he recognized
+Toni's limitations. She was not clever, not even what he called
+well-educated. She would never fill any important position in the world,
+would never shine in any public capacity, would never seek to usurp
+man's prerogatives, and would be content to live quietly in some little
+corner of the world without longing to dash into the battlefield of
+human desires and human conflicts, as other women were doing every day.
+
+But through it all Toni was the one woman he loved, the woman who
+represented to him all that was loveliest and best of her sex; and this
+narrow-chested, narrow-minded and quite unattractive young dentist had
+this much of greatness in his soul, that he could love a woman
+completely.
+
+The car was running smoothly through the streets of a little town when
+there was a loud report, which even Toni, roused from her half-dazed
+stupor, recognized as the bursting of a tyre; and the next instant
+Leonard appeared at the door of the car, concern and apprehension in his
+face.
+
+"I am so sorry--one of the front tyres has burst, and the man will have
+to repair it as well as he can in the fog."
+
+"Where are we?" asked Toni idly, seeing beyond the figure of Dowson a
+few blurred lights as of houses or shops.
+
+"Luckily we are at Stratton," said Leonard more cheerfully. "Right in
+front of some sort of an hotel, too. Won't you come in a moment and get
+warm? It's too foggy and damp for you to wait out here."
+
+Without speaking Toni threw aside the rug and stepped out of the car.
+The raw, chilly air pierced her to the bone, even through the thick fur
+of her coat; and she shivered as she stood there, looking pathetically
+young and slight to the eyes of the man beside her.
+
+"Come into the 'Red Lion,' or whatever they call it." He put a hand,
+rather timidly, on her sleeve, and Toni allowed him to lead her towards
+the entrance of the hotel, whose lamps shone bravely through the fog,
+making blurred splashes of yellow light in the murky grey gloom.
+
+Opening the door, Leonard led her into the cheery entrance hall; and the
+next minute a stout, motherly-looking woman bustled out of a small
+side-office, and asked what might be the visitors' pleasure.
+
+Leonard explained that a slight accident to their car would delay them a
+few moments; and since the night was so inclement, he had persuaded the
+lady to come inside, in search of fire and lights.
+
+The stout landlady grasped the situation immediately, and led the way up
+a short flight of stairs to a sitting-room on the first floor, where a
+bright fire burned, and thick red curtains, closely drawn, successfully
+excluded the clammy fog, and created an atmosphere of well-being and
+good cheer.
+
+"Wouldn't the lady like a cup of tea or coffee, sir?" The woman had
+noted Toni's pallor. "It can be ready in a moment--and a sandwich or two
+as well?"
+
+After consulting his watch and calculating they had time to spare,
+Leonard ordered coffee and sandwiches at once; and the woman withdrew in
+a smiling haste which seemed to betoken the desire to lose no time.
+
+Toni had sunk into a chair by the fire, and was leaning forward holding
+her hands to the blaze. In her face was so patent a misery that for a
+moment Dowson's heart failed him and he stood staring at her with a
+sudden horrible conviction that in luring her from her home and husband
+he was doing a wicked and heartless action. In that illuminating moment
+he could almost have found the strength to give her up, to undo, as far
+as he might, this thing which he had done. And then common sense came to
+his aid. It was not the experiences of this night which had thinned the
+rounded curve of the girl's cheek, had brought the hopeless droop to the
+soft lips, the despair to the once-laughing eyes. It was rather the
+happenings of the months preceding this night, the months of her married
+life; and once again love and desire swept away scruples; and Leonard
+was ready to fight the whole world for possession of the woman he loved.
+
+But somehow he could not stay in the room with that pathetic, appealing
+little figure. He racked his brains for an excuse to leave her for a
+moment or two; and suddenly the idea he sought came to him in a flash.
+
+He had omitted to wire to Paris for rooms in the quiet little hotel he
+had selected for their stay; and although it was not a matter of vital
+necessity to do so, it would perhaps be just as well to make sure of
+them, so that there need be no troublesome delay on arrival. There was a
+post-office a hundred yards away, and he would only be gone for a few
+moments. He did not venture to approach Toni, but speaking from the door
+explained that he had forgotten to engage rooms in Paris, and if she
+would excuse him for a minute or two he would rectify the omission. She
+agreed gently, giving him a tired little smile; and he wasted no time in
+departing on his errand.
+
+When the door had closed behind him, Toni came to herself with a long,
+slow shiver. Somehow until this moment she had not really understood all
+that her flight implied. She had been so intent upon Owen's welfare,
+that save for a few moments in the garden at Greenriver her own had been
+forgotten; and although she had accepted Leonard Dowson's proposal with
+an almost startling readiness, she had done so in the manner of one who,
+drowning, clutches at a straw.
+
+She had known, of course, that there would be a price to pay; but she
+had not realized until this second how great that price would be.
+Somehow the very nature of Leonard's errand had brought the whole
+position home to her with almost overwhelming force; and suddenly Toni
+knew that she could not go on with the adventure she had undertaken so
+rashly.
+
+She could not--_could_ not--go to Paris with this man, who for all his
+devotion was a stranger to her. She could leave Owen, though it seemed
+like tearing her heart out of her breast to go. But she could not go
+away with another man.
+
+Gone all at once was the glamour of her sacrifice. Although she knew
+that by carrying out her scheme to the bitter end she might set Owen
+free, it seemed to her at this moment that such freedom, so basely won,
+could never bring her husband the happiness she craved for him.
+
+For the first time, too, the thought of self would not be banished. She
+saw the whole foolish, irrational, Quixotic scheme in its true light;
+and flesh and blood shrank from a surrender which had no faintest touch
+of love--or even passion--to dignify sordidness.
+
+No. She could leave her husband--and in a sudden blinding flash of
+insight she knew she could not--now--go back to Greenriver; but she
+could not proceed farther on this shameful way.
+
+To go to the hotel in Paris with this other man, to travel with him in
+the enforced intimacy of their dual solitude, to pass, for all she knew,
+as his wife when in reality she was the wife of the one man for whom the
+great mystic trinity of body, soul and spirit passionately craved--oh,
+no. She could not go on--and with the certainty came the need for haste.
+
+Suddenly the only thing which seemed to matter in all the world was that
+she must be gone before Leonard Dowson returned. If once he came back
+and heard her decision, there would be scenes, reproaches, persuasions,
+a hundred emotions let loose; and Toni was guiltily conscious, through
+all her new-born resolution, that she was treating this man who loved
+her unfairly.
+
+He had been gone five minutes--he might return at any second. Tip-toeing
+across to the window, Toni parted the red curtains and lifted a lath of
+the old-fashioned Venetian blind to peer through into the fog.
+
+She could not see much. Outside the hotel she could just distinguish the
+blurred shape of the car, the lamps flaring yellowly in the mist; but
+the shops and houses opposite were blotted out by the curtain of fog;
+and she knew she risked running into the man from whom she longed,
+desperately, to escape.
+
+Where she would go did not matter now. Plans must be made
+afterwards--now she had but one desire, to flee into the fog and be lost
+to sight.
+
+She was actually moving towards the door when a thought struck her.
+Tearing a bit of paper from the fly-leaf of a book on the table, she
+took from the deep pocket of her coat a little pencil, and scribbled a
+message--as short, almost, as that which had announced to Leonard her
+previous decision.
+
+     "I can't go on with you. I am going. TONI."
+
+She had no time for more. Every second was precious; and even now she
+doubted whether she were in time to make her escape.
+
+She opened the door and listened. Nothing was heard but the mutter of
+voices in the bar downstairs; and there was no one in sight. A moment
+she stood, her heart in her throat, driven nearly distracted between
+impatience and terror. Then she turned back into the room, snatched up
+her gloves and purse from the table and ran down the broad stairs and
+across the square hall with frenzied haste.
+
+A sound of footsteps in a passage close at hand made her start
+nervously. Without delaying a second she opened the great door, letting
+in a rush of cold, raw air, and, not venturing to look round, lest even
+now she should be intercepted in her flight, she slipped through the
+aperture and fled into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+At nine o'clock that same evening Jim Herrick, alone in his shabby yet
+delightful little sitting-room, was roused from his contemplation of an
+etching he had picked up in town that day by a deep-throated bark from
+Olga. She had been lying in the hall; and doubtless her sharp ears had
+heard some approaching footstep which to his duller human hearing was
+inaudible.
+
+Eva was upstairs, trying on some finery she had purchased in London; and
+after waiting a moment Herrick went into the hall to investigate.
+
+Someone was knocking now on the door, thereby rousing Olga's wrath; and
+Herrick held her firmly by the collar as he went to answer the summons.
+
+On the doorstep, an indistinct figure in the fog, stood a young man, and
+on seeing Herrick he began at once to unfold his errand.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, beg pardon, sir; master's sent me over to ask if Mrs. Rose
+is here."
+
+"Mrs. Rose? Are you from Greenriver?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I'm Andrews, sir, and we're all a bit anxious about the
+mistress. She wasn't at home for dinner, and no one saw her go out."
+
+"Comes inside a minute." The man obeying, Herrick closed the door and,
+still holding Olga's collar, led the way to the sitting-room.
+
+"Now, tell me, as shortly as possible, why you thought Mrs. Rose might
+be here?"
+
+"It was Kate's idea, sir--the parlourmaid. When Mrs. Ross didn't come
+down to dinner she thought as perhaps she'd come over here. I thought it
+weren't likely on account of the fog, but we couldn't think of anywhere
+else for Mrs. Rose to be."
+
+"Your master is at home?"
+
+"Yes, sir, got in about seven. He was shut up in his room--the
+lib'ry--till nearly dinner-time, and then he waited and waited for the
+mistress to come down--and when she didn't come he got fidgety and sent
+Kate upstairs."
+
+"And Kate found no one?"
+
+"No, sir. Only the dog--Jock--lying curled up in the very middle of the
+bed--a thing he's never been known to do before, sir."
+
+"Mrs. Rose has not been here," said Herrick. "But just wait a moment. I
+will ask my wife if she expected Mrs. Rose."
+
+He went out of the room, and found Eva coming down the short flight of
+stairs from the upper floor.
+
+"What's the matter, Jim? Who is the man in there?"
+
+"It is the man-servant from Greenriver asking if Mrs. Rose has been
+here. You did not expect her, did you, Eva?"
+
+"Oh, no." She spoke calmly. "We were to meet to-morrow morning, but we
+had no appointment for to-night."
+
+"I see. Odd where she can have got to." Herrick frowned thoughtfully.
+"You can't give me any clue to her movements, Eva? You don't remember
+hearing her say anything about to-night?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," said Eva, with apparent sincerity, and
+Herrick turned away without asking any other question.
+
+Re-entering the room he quietly told the waiting Andrews that nothing
+had been seen of Mrs. Rose, nor had she been expected on that particular
+evening; and the young man thanked him dejectedly and moved to the door.
+
+"It's a wretched night," said Herrick. "Won't you have a glass of
+something before you go?"
+
+Andrews thanked him, but declined; and seeing he was anxious to be gone,
+Herrick did not press him, but let him depart without more ado.
+
+He turned again into the sitting-room, meditating on this extraordinary
+disappearance; and a minute later his wife joined him, eager to hear the
+reason of Andrews' quest.
+
+She came into the room wearing a satin kimono she had bought that day,
+her curly golden hair bound with a broad pink ribbon, her small, narrow
+foot thrust into satin slippers of the same hue.
+
+At first sight it might have been a schoolgirl who stood there in the
+doorway. A second glance would have shown, to an acute observer, faint
+lines on brow and cheek, an indefinable hardness and sharpness of
+outline which destroyed the semblance of youth; and in its place gave an
+air of cynical maturity, which, reckoning by actual length of years, was
+as deceptive as the former illusion.
+
+"Well?" She came further into the room and spoke interrogatively.
+
+"Well?" Herrick turned to face her. "Mrs. Rose's disappearance is rather
+remarkable, don't you think?"
+
+"Very." For the life of him Herrick could not fathom her tone. "But
+since Toni is a free agent and not a slave, I expect she's gone out on
+business of her own."
+
+"Queer time for business--nine o'clock on a foggy night," Herrick
+reminded her quietly.
+
+"Well, I daresay she got fed up with the house--and the weather--and
+went off to London for a spree." Eva laughed rather hardly. "A theatre
+would be a blessed relief after the dulness of this place."
+
+"She would not be likely to go alone."
+
+"Oh, I daresay she would pick up some man to go with."
+
+"Don't speak like that, Eva, please. Mrs. Rose is not the sort of girl
+to 'pick up' anybody."
+
+"Oh, isn't she?" Eva laughed again. "Your precious Toni isn't a saint,
+you know. Because her husband is a fool and neglects her, that doesn't
+say Toni is too meek and mild to have friends of her own."
+
+Herrick turned to her angrily.
+
+"Look here, Eva, I won't have you insinuating such things. Mrs. Rose may
+not be a saint--I never met one, by the way--but she is a thoroughly
+straight girl; and any friends she might make would be lucky fellows, I
+can tell you."
+
+Eva smiled rather scornfully.
+
+"Even you are taken in by her big eyes and her quiet ways. Well, you'll
+all of you get a surprise one of these days, when you find that Toni is
+as wide-awake as anybody else, and knows a thing or two you don't
+suspect her of."
+
+"Eva, you are talking nonsense, and you know it." Herrick was seriously
+annoyed. "I imagined--foolishly--that you were a friend of Toni Rose;
+and it never entered my head you would say spiteful things of this sort
+about her."
+
+He broke off.
+
+"Unless----" He hesitated, his eyes full of a vague trouble.
+
+"Well? Unless--what?"
+
+"Oh, but that's absurd." He pulled himself together and spoke
+decisively. "I was going to say, unless you had some reason for speaking
+so; unless you knew something we don't know--and of course you don't."
+
+"Of course not." This time the mockery in her tone was perceptible; and
+Herrick questioned her hastily.
+
+"Eva, what do you mean? Do you know anything which would throw a light
+on Mrs. Rose's disappearance?"
+
+But Eva had turned sulky and would say nothing more. After one or two
+vain attempts to induce her to speak, therefore, Herrick abandoned the
+idea; and Eva withdrew with a malicious little smile on her lips which
+rendered her husband still more uneasy.
+
+He wandered restlessly about his small domain, puzzling his head as to
+what could have happened to Toni. He had not seen her often of late.
+Indeed, he had fancied once or twice that she was avoiding him; and he
+was sorry, for the girl had made an instant claim upon his sympathies,
+and he had often meditated over her chances of turning her marriage into
+a success.
+
+Somehow he had a presentiment of evil. Something seemed to tell him that
+Toni's flight was premeditated, that she had fled from her home
+secretly, with the intention of leaving her husband for ever; and
+although he told himself that the idea was monstrous, grotesque, he
+could not shake it off.
+
+Doubtless there were a dozen explanations. Perhaps she had gone for a
+little stroll, and had lost her way in the fog. She might have dropped
+in at some house in the neighbourhood, and, talking, let the hours slip
+by. Ten chances to one, she was even now safe at home; and it was absurd
+to worry about her. And yet----
+
+And yet there _were_ other possibilities. In the fog it would be easy
+indeed to miss one's road--with tragic results. One false step off the
+towing-path, for instance, and the river, dark and silent, would flow on
+its way, carrying with it a burden hardly more animated, yet a hundred
+times more precious, than the sticks and leaves which floated down with
+the current....
+
+Suddenly Herrick sprang up, unable to bear this haunted solitude any
+longer. He felt as though he must go forth to make inquiries for
+himself, to ascertain whether Toni had returned or no, whether all
+possible measures had been taken for her safety.
+
+Surely the people at Greenriver would not take his visit amiss? Seeing
+that his wife and Mrs. Rose were known to be friends, it was only
+natural that Mrs. Herrick should be anxious; and in any case he could
+bear this inaction no longer.
+
+Going into the hall he selected an overcoat and cap, and then, going to
+the foot of the stairs, called out to his wife.
+
+"Well?" She came to the head of the stairs, and stood looking at him
+over the banisters. She had a lighted candle in her hand; and somehow
+the wavering flame seemed to cast a sinister shadow over her face.
+
+"I am going to Greenriver, Eva, to see if Mrs. Rose has returned."
+
+"Oh." For a moment she hesitated, opened her mouth as though about to
+speak and then yawned instead. "Very well. Don't be long. My head aches
+and I want to get to sleep."
+
+"I will be as quick as possible," he said. "I am sorry your head aches.
+Try to get to sleep before I return."
+
+He turned away, leaving her staring after him; and her grey eyes were
+full of a cruel maliciousness. Eva guessed pretty well how the land lay.
+Although she had not expected Toni to give in to the young dentist's
+entreaties so soon, she never doubted that the girl had gone away with
+him; and she laughed as she remembered how quietly the whole affair had
+been conducted.
+
+Except on the occasion of Dowson's loan of magazines, Eva did not
+believe his name had ever been mentioned between the Roses; and
+certainly it would never enter Owen's head that his wife would go off,
+leave him, and leave all the glories of Greenriver, to share the lot of
+the inferior and unattractive Mr. Dowson.
+
+Eva had not the slightest feeling of compassion for the unhappy young
+wife driven to this step, partly by her own childish folly, but partly,
+also, by the evil counsel of the woman she called her friend. Eva know
+very well, had known all along, that there could be no happiness for
+Toni in such a step; and she fully believed that the girl would come to
+hate and fear the life in front of her. But Eva never for one moment
+experienced a thrill of pity for the misguided Toni. Rather the thought
+of the certain misery which faced her filled Eva's perverted mind with a
+wretched triumph; and her only strong emotion at this juncture was a
+passionate hope that Owen would not learn the truth in time to save his
+wife from the worst consequence of her ill-considered action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile all was confusion at Greenriver. At first Owen had been merely
+a little perplexed, not uneasy, at Toni's absence from the dinner-table;
+but when it became apparent that she was nowhere in the house he grew
+alarmed.
+
+Calling Andrews and Fletcher to him, he bade them get lanterns and
+institute a thorough search in the grounds; and the three of them
+searched thoroughly--as thoroughly, at least, as was possible in the
+clammy fog.
+
+Up and down they went, lanterns swinging, in and out of trees and
+shrubs; and into the various summer-houses and garden sheds; but there
+was no sign of Toni.
+
+Back into the house--where once again Owen summoned the servants to a
+conference--and once again was forced to consider himself baffled.
+
+Kate had seen her mistress last when she carried in the tea. Asked if
+Mrs. Rose had said anything about going out, she answered in the
+negative; and neither cook nor Maggie had sat eyes upon her since lunch.
+
+Andrews had been out that afternoon, and knew nothing; and Mrs. Blades,
+when interrogated, merely sniffed and said Mrs. Rose did not often
+honour the housekeeper's room with her presence.
+
+It was at this juncture that Andrews was despatched to Herrick's
+bungalow; and in his absence Owen rang up on the telephone all the
+people who seemed in the least likely to have seen his wife, but without
+result.
+
+A little later he rang up other places--the station, the police station,
+even the little Cottage Hospital; but no one had heard or seen anything
+of Mrs. Rose; and Owen was forced to wait for Andrews' return.
+
+When the man came, bearing no tidings, Owen understood that the matter
+was serious. Toni had gone, left her home in the dusk, departed no one
+knew whither. The whole thing was so unexpected, so incredible, that it
+was small wonder Owen was completely at sea.
+
+Suddenly a welcome thought flashed into his head. It was possible Toni
+had gone to town on the spur of the moment to visit her relations in
+Brixton; and the next minute Owen was turning over the leaves of the
+telephone directory hurriedly in an endeavour to find the number of the
+house in Winter Gardens. Luckily the house boasted a telephone,
+installed for the convenience of one of the boys who was connected with
+an insurance agency which had its headquarters there; and in a very
+short space of time Owen was asking the worthy Mrs. Gibbs over the wire
+for news of the missing Toni. But disappointment awaited him. Nothing
+had been heard of Toni for three weeks; and she had most certainly not
+visited them that day. Mrs. Gibbs, at the other end of the wire, sounded
+apprehensive, but Owen had no time to consider her feelings, and rang
+off abruptly when he found she had nothing to tell him.
+
+Just as he was turning away from the instrument the door bell rang
+quietly; and with a quick movement Owen crossed the hall and threw the
+door widely open.
+
+It was not Toni who stood there, however; and seeing the blank look on
+Owen's face, Herrick hurried to explain his errand as one merely of
+inquiry.
+
+"Come in," said Owen mechanically, drawing his visitor inside the house.
+"It's awfully decent of you, Herrick. You have heard of my
+wife's--disappearance?"
+
+"Yes. I suppose you have no idea what can have taken her away?"
+
+"Not the slightest. The maids say--now--that her thick motor coat and
+cap are gone, and her purse--with a few pounds in, I don't know how
+much--is missing from her drawer. But where she has gone is a complete
+mystery."
+
+"She gave you no hint of her departure?"
+
+"Not the faintest." Owen became suddenly aware that his visitor's coat
+was damp with the wetting mist; and his hospitable instincts awoke. "I
+say, come into the library and have a drink. You're pretty well soaked."
+
+He led the way to the library, regardless of Herrick's disclaimers; and
+the other man thought it best to follow him, first asking permission to
+bring Olga inside the house--a permission readily granted. Once inside
+the warm, tranquil room, Owen insisted upon Herrick shedding his coat
+and accepting a whisky and soda; but though he pressed Herrick to sit
+down and even took a cigarette himself, it was evident that Owen was all
+on thorns with anxiety and apprehension.
+
+"You haven't heard your wife say she wanted a change? You know women are
+restless beings."
+
+"Not Toni. She was always happy here. I'd promised to take her to
+Switzerland for Christmas, and that pleased her; but she was never keen
+about going away."
+
+"I see. She was happy here. Well"--his gaze wandered dreamily round the
+lamp-lit room, with its mullioned windows and well-filled shelves--"I
+don't wonder at that. Anyone might be happy in such a home as this."
+
+"Yes, she always loved Greenriver." Unconsciously both men used the past
+tense. "Ever since I brought her here as my wife she loved the old
+house."
+
+"She was happy, you say?" Herrick felt a sudden desire to probe beneath
+the surface. "You never--forgive me--you never found her
+depressed--or--or unsettled--in low spirits?"
+
+"No. She was sometimes a little--well, what shall we call it?--not
+bad-tempered, but well, a trifle jumpy; but she seemed to be in good
+spirits as a rule."
+
+"You never--I suppose"--he laughed, trying to make the question sound
+casual--"you never had any disagreements--any little fallings-out? Oh,
+don't think me impertinent--I was only wondering whether perhaps Mrs.
+Rose had taken offence at some little thing--and had gone off for a
+short visit somewhere to--well, to punish you."
+
+He had half expected Owen to resent the implication; but Owen took it
+quietly.
+
+"We never exactly quarrelled," he said. "At least, that isn't quite
+true. We did disagree, more than once, on one particular subject; and
+last night we certainly had a few words. We both lost our tempers--I
+confess I lost mine--and I said one or two things I'd have given the
+world to recall afterwards."
+
+"I see." Herrick spoke gravely. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose knows you did
+not mean anything unkind----"
+
+"I hope so. By God, I hope so." Owen's voice was hoarse. "If I thought
+Toni had taken my words seriously I--why, I said things I didn't mean in
+the very least, and I never for one instant dreamed she would take them
+as spoken in earnest."
+
+"I see." Herrick repeated the words. "You will pardon me for saying that
+Mrs. Rose always struck me as being more sensitive than the majority of
+women."
+
+"Did she?" Owen stared at him, struck suddenly by the significance of
+his manner. "By Jove, Herrick, I never suspected my wife of any undue
+sensitiveness. She always seemed to me too young, too immature and
+undeveloped to take things much to heart. Her youth was one of the
+greatest charms about her to me. It never struck me she was a woman,
+capable of a woman's sufferings----"
+
+He broke off suddenly.
+
+"Stay, though. Once I thought--she looked at me and I thought her
+eyes looked different--not like the eyes of a child. I wondered
+then ... but ... oh, no, she couldn't think I meant the things I said.
+Once or twice I have felt exasperated at what I thought was her
+childishness, her ignorance of the world, and I've said things now and
+again, unkind things, even cruel things sometimes ... but I've been
+secure all the time in the thought that she didn't understand...."
+
+"You wouldn't have hurt her--wilfully?"
+
+"Hurt her?" Owen stared at him. "Good God, man, what do you take me for?
+A man doesn't wilfully hurt his wife--the woman he loves. And to hurt
+Toni would be like hurting a child."
+
+"Mr. Rose"--Herrick took a resolution to speak plainly--"are you sure
+you did not treat your wife rather too much as a child? Are you sure you
+didn't deny her the right of a woman, the right to share your life, your
+work, your aims? Are you quite sure you never made her feel her
+inferiority to you in different ways, never let her see that in some
+matters she was perhaps hardly your equal? Oh, I know you are
+exceptionally clever, brilliant, and she is only a simple girl; but
+still she was not a child; and it may have been rather galling to her to
+be treated as one."
+
+For a moment Owen sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the other man's face
+with a stare whose earnestness was its justification.
+
+Then--
+
+"Look here, Herrick," he said, "I believe you are trying to tell me
+something--something about my wife which I don't know. Well, what is it?
+I think, as her husband, I have a right to ask you to share your
+knowledge with me. What do you say?"
+
+"I think you have every right," Herrick answered quietly, "and I ask
+nothing better than to tell you all I know."
+
+Without further preliminaries he repeated to Owen the conversation he
+had had with Toni on the day of the Vicarage Bazaar; and a sudden light
+broke over Owen as he listened.
+
+"You are alluding to the occasion when Lady Martin and the Vicar's wife
+called her ignorant, frivolous, empty-headed."
+
+"She told you?" Herrick was surprised.
+
+"Yes--long afterwards. But I laughed at her and told her it was
+nonsense--jealousy, or something like that. I never dreamed she had
+taken it to heart."
+
+"She took it so much to heart that she began to wonder how much was
+true, and how she could best rise above the defects with which they
+endowed her. She honoured me by asking my advice; and I was only too
+glad to help her. She called herself ignorant, and I endeavoured to show
+her how, by study and application, she might repair that ignorance. I
+recommended her books, mapped her out a course of reading--oh, it's no
+use going over it all now; only just what seems important to me is this.
+What had specially wounded her was the fact that they had evidently
+denied her the possession of a soul." He smiled rather tenderly. "And it
+was her passionate desire to show that she _had_ a soul which drove her
+to all those desperate expedients of study and the like."
+
+He paused, but Owen did not speak.
+
+"I wonder if the process of making one's soul is a painful one, after
+all? Like most new-born creatures, I expect it's a delicate, sensitive
+thing at first, easily wounded by a word, a glance.... I don't suppose
+it has a very joyful time in the beginning, struggling towards the
+fuller light like a weak, fragile little flower opening its petals one
+by one to the sun. But luckily a soul is a very vital thing. It can
+stand a good deal in the way of unkindness or neglect without
+shrivelling up. And I daresay a few kindly words, a sympathetic thought,
+are like water to a dying plant--or as the Bible has it 'as the shadow
+of a great rock in a thirsty land.'"
+
+As he finished his speech Owen broke in impetuously:
+
+"Don't say any more, Herrick. My God, what a fool I've been! To think
+that all this was taking place beneath my eyes and I was too blind, too
+self-absorbed to see."
+
+"Well, everyone is blind, at times," said Herrick gently. "I'm not
+trying to make you unhappy, Rose--the whole affair is no business of
+mine, and you may well resent my interference."
+
+"No, no," said Owen hastily. "God knows your interference is only too
+justifiable. But----"
+
+"Perhaps I am to blame, after all, for trying to engineer so delicate a
+situation. The fact is, I felt a great pity for Mrs. Rose. She was only
+a girl after all, and girlhood is a lively, careless, light-hearted
+period. But although her soul appeared--then--to be unawakened, I knew
+it was there all the time; and I confess I hoped that when she came into
+full possession of it you would draw nearer to one another, and a better
+understanding would ensue. But----"
+
+He paused.
+
+"Well? Your plan hasn't worked?"
+
+"I don't know. The thing is, not so much _where_ has Mrs. Rose gone, but
+_why_ did she go? Look here, Rose. I'm perfectly certain that her one
+thought all through has been for your welfare; and though on the face of
+it it seems peculiar that she should take this means of proving her love
+for you, I'm quite convinced she is acting on your behalf in this odd
+disappearance of hers."
+
+"But how could I benefit by her disappearance?"
+
+"I don't know. But I am quite sure----"
+
+He broke off suddenly, and the next instant the two men started to their
+feet as the hoot of a motor-horn sounded loudly outside the house.
+
+"God, Herrick--here's Toni." Owen dashed out of the room followed by
+Herrick, and the two reached the front door at the same moment.
+
+Andrews, who had come running from the kitchen regions at the sound of
+the horn, flung open the door, and disclosed the big car with its
+flaring head-lamps, throbbing itself to a standstill at the foot of the
+steps.
+
+A young man jumped out--a man whom neither Rose nor Herrick had ever
+seen before--and, rushing up the steps, looked wildly round him.
+
+"Where is she?" he demanded loudly. "Where is she?"
+
+"To whom do you allude?" asked Owen coldly, his fastidious soul revolted
+by the spectacle which the young man presented. Dowson was hatless,
+dishevelled. In his agony of mind at Toni's departure he had torn his
+collar apart, feeling himself choking, and during the drive to
+Greenriver he had rumpled his hair so wildly that it stood up in mad
+disorder over his head. His face was dusty, the mist had soaked his
+clothes till they clung tightly to his narrow frame, and about his whole
+figure there was an air of unkempt desolation which was unattractive in
+the extreme.
+
+"I allude to Toni--your wife, if you like to call her that." The
+unfortunate young man was distraught between disappointment and anxiety.
+"Where is she? Has she come home after all?"
+
+"My wife?" Owen raised his eyebrows superciliously. "My good man, what
+are you talking about? If you know anything about Mrs. Rose be kind
+enough to tell us at once what it is, but please remember she is not
+Toni--to you."
+
+"Oh, isn't she?" Beneath the weight of conflicting emotions Mr. Dowson
+was losing his head. "Well, she was going to be, that's all. She came
+away with me to-night of her own free will ... and we wore going to
+cross to Paris, and then ... oh, I don't know what then, but anyway she
+was going to stay with me, and when you had divorced her----"
+
+"Divorced her?" Owen uttered the words in so ferocious a tone that the
+young man fell back a pace. "What the devil do you mean by making a
+suggestion of that sort? And why in God's name should I divorce my
+wife--for you?"
+
+The scorn with which he spoke the last two words drove Leonard Dowson to
+frenzy.
+
+"Why? Why not? You never loved her--you never knew how to treat her. You
+made her miserable, you let her see you thought her inferior to you, not
+good enough for you ... you wouldn't dismiss that woman you had to help
+you though you knew To--your wife hated her...."
+
+He was lashing himself to greater and greater fury at the thought of
+Toni's sufferings.
+
+"Even when you'd made her so wretched that she was ready to die, she
+still thought of you. She knew I loved her as she deserved to be loved,
+and she was coming away with me, not because she loved me, but because
+she thought by leaving you she'd set you free--free to divorce her, to
+cast her off, to marry someone else, for all I know--some lady whom
+you'd perhaps be pleased to call your equal."
+
+Beneath his savage indictment even Owen stood dumb. There is always
+something electrifying about absolute sincerity, and no one, listening,
+could possibly doubt that the man was speaking from the very depth of
+his soul.
+
+As he stood panting, glaring at Owen with hatred in his eyes, Herrick
+stepped forward with a question.
+
+"Excuse me, sir"--neither of them knew, as yet, the name of the
+visitor--"may I ask how you became possessed of all this information? I
+am perfectly sure that Mrs. Rose herself has not been your informant,
+but I fail to see----in the first place, may we ask your name?"
+
+"My name is Dowson, Leonard Dowson." He spoke defiantly. "And as to who
+told me, well, it doesn't much matter, that I can see, but it was a
+friend of--of Mrs. Rose." He dared not again call her "Toni."
+
+"A friend?" In one sickening flash of intuition, Herrick knew who had
+been Toni's evil genius. He stopped short, physically incapable of
+questioning further; but Owen had no such scruples.
+
+"Who is this--friend?" He could not help the sneer; and Herrick paled in
+the lamplight, fearing yet powerless to avert the answer.
+
+"I don't suppose it matters telling you." Dowson paused. "It was Mrs.
+Herrick--Mrs. Rose's best friend--who told me; and she swore that every
+word was true."
+
+There was a short, tense silence; and Andrews, who had been hovering
+unnoticed in the background, suddenly dived through the baize door and
+disappeared, as one who feels his presence an intrusion.
+
+"So it was Mrs. Herrick who gave you this precious information." Owen,
+very pale, turned to Herrick. "Herrick, I won't insult your wife by
+asking if this is true. It's a lie, of course. Mrs. Herrick is a friend
+of my wife's. She would never play such a treacherous, underhand
+part----"
+
+"I ... I don't know what to say...."
+
+"No, I should think you don't." Dowson spoke vehemently. "You know it
+was she who put me up to it all along. She said Mrs. Rose had owned to
+being--well, fond of me in her way, though of course she put her husband
+first. But she told me I had a chance, that if I'd offer to take Mrs.
+Rose away she'd come ... oh, she convinced me fast enough. I daresay I
+was a fool, but I couldn't bear to stand by and say nothing when by
+taking her away----"
+
+He stopped suddenly. Owen had made a threatening step forward.
+
+"Look here"--Owen's voice was choked with rage--"stop talking all that
+rot, and tell me what you've done with my wife. First, of all, where is
+she?"
+
+"How can I tell you when I don't know?" retorted the young man almost
+rudely. "She came away with me right enough, and then we had an accident
+to the car--a tyre burst--and we went into a hotel at Stratton to wait
+for it to be repaired. I went to the post-office to send a telegram, and
+when I came back she'd gone."
+
+"Gone--where?"
+
+"Oh, aren't I telling you I don't know?" In his excitement the young
+dentist's refinement fell away from him, showing the rough human man
+beneath. "She slipped out soon's my back was turned--left a scrap of
+paper saying she couldn't go on with me--and that's all I know."
+
+"But she must have left some traces."
+
+"She left her dressing-bag, if that's anything," said Dowson gloomily.
+"It's in the car outside. I thought at least she'd have come back here,
+and I had to come on to make sure. I"--for a second his rough voice
+softened--"I had to be certain she was safe."
+
+"Well, she isn't here." Owen spoke harshly. "You were very ready to take
+her away, with your damned philanderings and what not, but you might at
+least have looked after her. Where is she? Good God, man, you're not
+only a blackguard and a thief--you're a damned fool as well!"
+
+"I may be a fool, but I'm not a blackguard!" Mr. Dowson's eyes blazed in
+his pallid face. "_I_ didn't marry the girl and then neglect her--_I_
+didn't win her love and then throw it aside as of no importance--_I_
+didn't break her heart with my sneers and coldness, as you did. You may
+be her husband and I'm only a man who loves her, but I'll guarantee I'd
+have known how to treat her a million times better than you ever did."
+
+The two men glared at one another furiously; and for a moment Herrick
+feared Owen was about to strike the man who defied him. Owen's face was
+convulsed with rage, his eyes looked almost black, and a vein in his
+temple hammered madly.
+
+Herrick stepped forward hastily.
+
+"I say, excuse me reminding you that this is not the time for
+recriminations. Mrs. Rose has not returned, and the thing to do now is
+to set all possible inquiries on foot. You agree with me, Rose?"
+
+Owen turned to him, the passion dying out of his face, leaving only a
+great weariness and a great dread.
+
+"You are right. We must find Toni. But how?"
+
+"Well, we'd better make inquiries at Stratton first. You are on the
+'phone? Good. Well, we will ring up the railway station, and the hotels.
+Mrs. Rose may have gone to one of them for the night. And we could try
+the garages. Possibly she will hire a car to bring her home."
+
+"Yes. And I'll order out the car and try the roads myself." Owen looked
+suddenly alert. "If she should be attempting to walk home, or anything
+of that sort, I should pick her up."
+
+"Yes. And I should give orders to the servants to have everything ready
+for Mrs. Rose--food, and fires, and things, when she returns. She'll be
+chilled to the bone with this mist."
+
+"Yes. I'll do it at once. I'll go and get on the 'phone, if you'll be so
+good as to ring for the servants. I'll order a fire in her room, and a
+little supper."
+
+He turned away, full of hope now that there was something to be done;
+and Herrick was following him, when Dowson, who had been temporarily
+forgotten, asserted his presence.
+
+"And what am I to do while you're searching for her?" His rage had died
+away, and he looked the picture of dejection. "Can't I do anything?
+I--you know I'd die for Toni--for Mrs. Rose. Can't you suggest something
+for me to be doing?"
+
+Owen turned on him fiercely.
+
+"_You?_ You've done enough harm for one night. Suppose you take yourself
+off--we've seen all we want of you, I assure you."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Don't stand arguing there," said Owen in a voice whose fury made the
+young man wince. "We've had more than enough of you. Be so good as to
+take yourself off before I kick you out of the house."
+
+Leonard Dowson gave one last look at the other man's face as though to
+see whether this threat was meant to be taken literally. What he read
+there apparently decided him; for with a hoarse sigh he turned away in
+the direction of the front door.
+
+Without waiting to see if he were obeyed or not, Owen hastened away to
+the telephone; and it was Herrick who opened the door and watched the
+young man enter the car.
+
+A second later he dismounted again, this time bearing Toni's
+dressing-bag, which in her hurry she had left behind; and carrying it up
+the steps he put it down, almost tenderly, inside the hall.
+
+"Thank you. That will do." Herrick watched him as he hesitated,
+uncertainly. "Don't let me detain you." He held the door widely open.
+"Good-night."
+
+Thus dismissed, the young man had no option. He went out into the
+chilly, misty night, and mounted the car, which moved swiftly away down
+the gloomy drive.
+
+When Herrick had closed the door he paused a moment, wondering if he had
+not better follow the late visitor's example and vanish quietly into the
+night.
+
+But he heard Owen's voice calling him as he stood hesitating, and found
+that, in spite of his wife's treachery, he himself was not debarred from
+giving help.
+
+He attempted, awkwardly, to take his leave; but Owen was in no mood to
+let him go. Whatever Mrs. Herrick's part in the tragedy, it was evident
+that her husband was to be exonerated; and although his heart was sick
+within him at the thought of Eva's wickedness, Herrick was wise enough
+to see that to implicate himself would be to make matters worse than
+they were already.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But although the two men made all possible inquiries, they could hear
+nothing of the missing Toni. No one had seen her, no one heard of her;
+and as the hours wore on it seemed as though the mist had indeed
+swallowed her up so completely that all trace of her was lost.
+
+After nearly an hour's futile telephoning Owen set off in the waiting
+car to scour the countryside; while at his urgent request Herrick stayed
+behind at Greenriver, in case Toni should arrive in her husband's
+absence and find no one to welcome her. Herrick agreed to stay at once,
+though he knew his prolonged absence would annoy and possibly upset his
+wife. She deserved no consideration, he told himself sternly. It was
+largely through her machinations that this thing had come to pass; and a
+few hours' anxiety would be a small enough price to pay for her
+treachery.
+
+It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when Owen returned, tired out,
+despondent, and with no slightest scrap of news. He came into the
+library looking ready to drop with fatigue, and found Herrick sitting
+over the fire apparently lost in thought. Olga and Jock, who had long
+since fraternized, lay side by side on the hearthrug; and all was quiet
+and peaceful. But when Herrick sprang up, hearing Owen's step, it was
+easy to see that for him, too, the night had worn away in keenest
+suspense.
+
+"Well? Any news?"
+
+"No. None." Owen slipped off his thick coat and sank down, wearily, into
+a chair. "No one has seen anything of her. The hotel people didn't hear
+her go, and no one has the faintest notion where she went."
+
+He shivered, holding out his hands to the blaze.
+
+"Herrick, where can she be? My God, I'd give ten years of my life now to
+know she was safe. But to think of her wandering about in the fog--not
+daring--not even wanting--to come home ... thinking always of me as the
+selfish brute who neglected her and laughed aside her wishes...."
+
+He paused a moment, then began again.
+
+"It wouldn't be so bad if she'd been in love with that fool who was here
+to-night. I could have understood her going off with him then. But it
+was me she loved all along--she was thinking of me when she went out
+into the cruel night to join him.... I'm very certain she shrank from
+the step ... well, events prove it, don't they? ... but she was thinking
+only of my good and so she nerved herself to do it...."
+
+"Yes." Herrick spoke quietly. "There's no doubt, I think, that your wife
+loved you as very few men are loved. It seems--forgive me--a cruel jest
+of Fate that you couldn't return her love...."
+
+"But I _did_--and _do_!" Owen's voice rang out with all its old force.
+"Before God, man, I do love Toni ... oh, I didn't at first. I confess I
+married her without caring for her as a man should care for the woman he
+makes his wife. But I've grown fonder of her ever since. Oh, I know it's
+all true, what that fellow said--I've been thoughtless, unkind, I did
+neglect her, did let her see how I despised her help, but you don't know
+what it is to a man to find his work spoilt for the lack of a little
+intelligent sympathy.... Oh, I'm not excusing myself--I had no right to
+put my work before everything else--even before Toni--and I did. But God
+knows I'm punished for it now."
+
+Again he broke off abruptly, only to go on again hastily.
+
+"I own I was mistaken in my reading of Toni's character. I had no idea
+she was capable of this sort of sacrifice."
+
+"You never saw into the depths of her soul. If you had----"
+
+"I should have realized what she was. Oh, I know," said Owen, with
+humility, "I know now that Toni is a woman, and I pray to God with all
+my soul that my knowledge has not come too late."
+
+"You think if you got her back now you might be happy together?"
+
+"Happy? If I could make Toni happy, she would be happy indeed." His tone
+was still tinged with that new humility, and in that dreary hour Herrick
+began to understand him better than he had ever dreamed of doing.
+
+When at last the grey dawn crept through the large windows Herrick rose
+to go.
+
+"I'll get off home for an hour or two. You'd better try to have a sleep,
+Rose. We can't do anything more just yet; and it's no use wasting one's
+strength."
+
+"Very well." Owen rose and stretched himself, yawning. "I won't go to
+bed--I'll sleep on the couch here. You see she might come at any
+moment."
+
+Herrick saw it was of no use attempting to urge him to go to bed; so
+agreed, at once, that such a return was possible, and two minutes later
+he and Olga were outside the house in the chilly silver dawn.
+
+The fog had lifted in the night, and for that Herrick was thankful; but
+the air was biting, and as he walked briskly along, Olga trotting
+alertly beside him, he owned to himself that a cup of hot coffee,
+followed by a sleep, would be welcome indeed.
+
+He let himself softly into the house and proceeded to make some coffee
+with the aid of the gas-ring. He was gulping it down, feeling the liquid
+driving the cold out of his bones, when Olga growled faintly; and
+looking up, he saw his wife standing in the doorway surveying him
+maliciously.
+
+"Well? Has the lost lamb been found and returned to the fold?" Her tone
+was mockery itself.
+
+"No." For an instant he wondered whether he should accuse her of her
+treachery; but suddenly he resolved to wait till he was more normal,
+after a rest.
+
+"Really? Well, I don't think she will return just yet. I expect the next
+time her loving husband meets our dear Toni, the Divorce Court will be
+their meeting-place."
+
+A wave of anger swept over Herrick.
+
+"So that man was right--it was your doing." He put down his cup and
+looked steadily at her. "It was through your--your advice that that
+unfortunate girl left her home and wont off with Dowson."
+
+"It wasn't through my advice," she said. "As a matter of fact I didn't
+know they had fixed it up so quickly. Three days ago it was only a vague
+notion--quite in the air, I assure you. I had no idea it had actually
+come off."
+
+"You knew, then, that it was a possibility, at least?"
+
+"Yes." Suddenly she stopped and stared at him. "But how do you know? She
+didn't leave any message, I suppose?"
+
+"I know because Mrs. Rose's heart failed her when she had taken the
+first step. She gave this man Dowson the slip at Stratton and he
+immediately returned to Greenriver to ask if she had come back."
+
+"And she hadn't?"
+
+"Of course not." He spoke sternly. "Between you, you have made it almost
+impossible for that poor child to return unless her husband fetches her.
+Why you should have sought to ruin their homes I confess I fail to
+understand. Neither Rose nor his wife had done you any harm."
+
+"No." She stared sombrely at him. "That's true, I suppose. But--oh, you
+can't understand, of course."
+
+"Understand what, Eva?" He tried to speak gently, aware through all her
+mockery of something piteous, tragic in her attitude.
+
+"You can't understand how I hate to see happiness." She threw back her
+head and beneath her white wrapper he saw her breast heave stormily. "I
+was happy once, before those men sent me to prison. I used to sing and
+laugh--as Toni did--I used to enjoy every moment of my life ... and then
+I liked to see people all round me being happy too... But I was taken
+away from it all, from the sunshine, the gay, happy people, the shops,
+the theatres, taken away and shut up like a wild animal in a
+cell ... oh ..." She shivered, and all at once his heart melted
+towards her.
+
+"Don't think of that now, dear." He put his hand with real kindness on
+her shoulder. "It's all over and done with, and there are better things
+in store."
+
+"Not for me." Her tone was unutterably forlorn. "My life is spoilt,
+broken--and now"--all at once her expression changed and she spoke
+vindictively--"now all I can do is to break other lives!"
+
+"Hush, Eva." He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't talk so. And
+remember, if Mrs. Rose comes home safely, you must leave her alone for
+the future."
+
+For a moment she said nothing, biting her lip as though in thought. Then
+suddenly she shrugged her shoulders and moved away without a word.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When daylight came Owen and Herrick resumed their search for the missing
+girl, calling to their aid every device which the wit of man could
+suggest.
+
+They left no stone unturned; and though Owen shrank from the necessary
+publicity Scotland Yard was informed, and a huge reward offered for
+information about the vanished Toni.
+
+But the days passed, glided into weeks, which in their turn grew into
+months; and Toni was not found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+On a sunny afternoon in March of the following year, Toni Rose sat alone
+on the slope of an Italian hill-side overlooking the blue Mediterranean,
+which lay stretched beneath her like a sheet of living turquoise.
+
+The air was delightfully warm and still, and scented with the fresh
+breath of myriads of violets which dotted the short, soft turf here and
+there like a multitude of tiny purple stars. Everywhere the almond
+blossom was in its full beauty of rose and cream, and the sight of an
+orchard away on the hill-side, with the faint blue sky above the
+pink-and-white branches, and the bluer sea behind, gave to the beholder
+the effect of a delicate Japanese water-colour painting.
+
+The Bay of Naples fully deserved its world-wide reputation for beauty on
+this bright spring afternoon. Across its waters rose hill upon hill, the
+sombre giant Vesuvius brooding like some dark monster over the ruined
+countryside at its base, the lovelier, more hopeful snow-crowned peaks
+behind rising like a fairy army beneath whose beneficent gaze the ogre
+was--for the time--vanquished and impotent.
+
+The bay was full of craft, as usual. Big liners, tramp steamers, a grey
+battleship or two, looked scornfully down on the little Italian boats,
+some piled high with yellow fruit, others less imposing, little pleasure
+craft manned by youthful boatmen with swarthy brown faces and ears
+ornamented with huge golden rings.
+
+Land and sea alike smiled in the glorious sunshine. It was a day on
+which life seemed a very sweet and desirable opportunity; but in Toni's
+face there was no hint of gladness, none of her former almost pagan
+delight in the beautiful out-of-door world around her.
+
+Although her skin was delicately warmed and coloured by the genial
+Southern sun, the becoming tan could not hide the thinness of the once
+rounded cheeks, nor disguise the hopeless droop of the lips which had
+been used to smile so readily. Toni looked, indeed, the ghost of her
+former self as she sat gazing out over the Mediterranean; and it was
+very evident that whatever had been the result of her flight to those
+she had left behind, her own happiness had suffered a disastrous
+eclipse.
+
+After all, her disappearance had been easily arranged. On that foggy
+night when she had fled from Leonard Dowson, terrified by the spectre of
+a future life which his words had evoked, she had run, without in the
+least realizing her direction, straight to the railway station; and the
+idea of London had at once presented itself to her mind. A train was
+just starting, and Toni hastily took a ticket and jumped into a carriage
+without giving herself time to think.
+
+Arriving at the terminus she had a momentary indecision as to her next
+step. As she stood on the platform she felt herself to be desperately,
+hopelessly alone; and for one wild moment she wondered how Owen would
+receive her if she went back and flung herself on his mercy.
+
+But something in her, perhaps the sturdy, independent blood of her
+Yorkshire ancestors, seemed to forbid such a course. She could not
+return, creep back to the shelter of the home she had abandoned; and
+even Toni's youthful optimism could not promise her a very hearty
+welcome when the truth of her flight should be known.
+
+If only she had gone alone ... if there had been no man in the case to
+complicate matters and compromise the situation--in that first moment of
+despair Toni hated Leonard Dowson, loathed herself for imagining it
+would be possible to go away with him; and at the same time realized
+that whatever happened she would find it almost impossible to explain
+the man's introduction into the affair in any way save that which, were
+the story known, would be taken, perhaps naturally, for granted.
+
+Suddenly the thought of Italy flashed into her brain, and with the
+thought came instant resolution.
+
+She had still twelve pounds in her purse--more than enough to take her
+to Naples; and once there she could surely discover some friend of the
+bygone days to whom she might apply for advice as to her future
+maintenance.
+
+In Italy she could live frugally, as the peasants lived; and all at once
+Toni felt a great nostalgia for the glowing South, with its sunshine and
+hot blue skies, its orange-groves, its languorous noons and warm,
+scented nights.
+
+The Italian blood in her--the blood transmitted to her by her mother,
+spoke in its turn; and suddenly Toni felt that in that land of warmth
+and colour she could find the rest and peace for which her sorely-driven
+soul cried out....
+
+And then the miracle happened.
+
+Later that evening she was standing on the platform of another great
+station, waiting her turn to approach the booking-office where she might
+obtain her ticket to Italy--and home--when a wail in a thin foreign
+voice fell upon her ear, and she turned round to face a dark and
+agitated-looking young woman, neatly dressed, who was bewailing herself
+in the fluent Italian of the lower classes.
+
+"What is it? Can I help you?"
+
+Toni spoke impulsively, sorry for the young woman even in the midst of
+her own numbing grief; and the other turned round in astonishment at
+hearing her own tongue.
+
+"Oh, Signorina!" She evidently took Toni for a compatriot. "Such a
+misfortune has overcome me--I do not know what is to be done. I am here
+with my charges"--two sleepy-looking English children stood yawning
+beside her--"on the way to Naples, and behold, the English Signora--the
+governess, you understand--who was to have come with us to deliver the
+children safely to their parents is at the last moment unable to come."
+
+"But why can't she come?"
+
+"_Non lo so!_" The woman shrugged her shoulders. "She sends me but a
+telegram to the waiting-room--an accident, illness--I know not--but she
+does not come, and I must go alone with the two little ones, who are
+both delicate and will be ill the whole journey through!"
+
+A wild inspiration flashed into Toni's mind.
+
+"You go to Naples?" she said. "I too wish to go, but hardly care to
+undertake the journey alone. May I then come with you and help you with
+the little ones?"
+
+The Italian's quick mind grasped the idea at once; and she foresaw with
+delighted gratitude that the journey might be shorn of half its terrors
+if the plan were carried out.
+
+She poured forth a stream of voluble explanations. She had already taken
+the tickets for the party; and she was certain that her employer, a
+wealthy English lady, would be only too grateful if the Signorina would
+accept the fare in return for her help in the matter. A carriage had
+been reserved for the party, and the whole journey might be taken in
+complete comfort and security, since this so fortunate meeting with a
+compatriot.
+
+To Toni the idea came as a veritable boon. In her turn, she saw all the
+personal benefits of the plan; and, after all, since she could be of
+real, practical assistance, she saw no reason why she should scruple to
+avail herself of the Italian nurse's offer.
+
+Five minutes later the affair was arranged. The foreigner, Luisa by
+name, was at first incredulous on hearing of her new comrade's mixed
+nationality, but she readily accepted such explanations as Toni gave
+her, and was quick to recognize the value of Toni's perfect English at
+the present juncture.
+
+Toni's lack of luggage puzzled her a little, but Toni murmured something
+about a lost dressing-bag which satisfied the other woman; and when the
+long train steamed out of the station at last Toni was comfortably
+ensconced in a reserved first-class compartment, making friends with the
+two little girls with whom she was to travel.
+
+This fact explains the non-success of all inquiries at the railway
+stations, or, later, on the boat. The authorities were on the look-out
+for a young Englishwoman journeying alone; and never associated the
+young Italian lady travelling, apparently, with her two children and a
+nurse, with the solitary girl for whom they searched.
+
+Toni's fur coat was by no means a unique garment. There were plenty to
+be seen at this time of year; and in any case the girl, protected by her
+unassailable bodyguard, was able to pass under the eyes of the very men
+who were anxiously on the look-out for her.
+
+The journey to which Luisa had looked forward with such apprehension
+passed off well enough. Toni was obliged to rouse herself from her own
+dejection to look after the children, who were both delicate and spoilt;
+but luckily they took an instant fancy to the travelling companion so
+strangely provided, and behaved with commendable good-temper throughout.
+
+When at length the train ran into the railway station at Naples, Toni
+suddenly found herself faced with another problem. The nurse had taken
+her on trust, so to speak, and had been too grateful for her help to
+seek to probe into her private affairs; but now that she must face the
+mother of the pretty children, to whom she had become quite attached,
+Toni realized that she would have to give some more plausible
+explanation of her situation than that which had contented the impetuous
+Luisa.
+
+She got out of the carriage at last, her arms full of the children's
+wraps and toys, with knees which shook under her at the thought of the
+ordeal to come; but one quick look into Mrs. Moody's frank and kindly
+face reassured her a little.
+
+She soon found, moreover, that the lady was as ready to take her on
+trust as the maid had been. When she had heard Luisa's voluble
+explanation of the part Toni had played during the long and wearying
+journey, Mrs. Moody turned to Toni with an expression of real gratitude
+on her still pretty face.
+
+"I really don't know how to thank you, Miss ... er ..." She hesitated,
+and Toni quickly supplied her with the first name she could think of,
+the name of her Italian mother's race. "Oh, but surely you are English?"
+
+In her agitation Toni murmured something about an Italian father, not
+meaning to deceive, but too tired out and confused to pay much heed to
+her words; and Mrs. Moody put her hand kindly on the girl's arm.
+
+"Well, English or not, you've been a god-send to Luisa and the chicks;
+so if you have no friends waiting for you at this moment, you must come
+home with me and let my husband thank you properly."
+
+Somehow Toni found herself stepping into the beautifully-appointed
+motor-car which waited outside the station; and ten minutes later she
+was helped out of the motor and taken up a broad and palatial-looking
+staircase to the large and lofty flat inhabited by her new friends.
+
+Friends indeed they proved to be. Without the slightest hesitation they
+accepted Toni's rather faltering story of an engagement in England which
+had proved unsatisfactory; and on learning that her intention in
+returning to Italy had been to look for another post, they looked at one
+another in a meaning silence which was explained later, when Mrs. Moody
+asked her quietly if she would care to undertake the post of
+governess-companion to the two small children with whom she was already
+on terms of friendship.
+
+For a moment Toni hesitated. To stay on here, deceiving her employers,
+representing herself, falsely, as an unmarried woman, would be a poor
+return for their kindness and generosity; but to tell the truth was
+surely impossible. Yet she could not bring herself to shut the door
+which would open to her a new and honourable life in which she might
+find, if not happiness, at least content; and poor Toni was torn between
+conflicting emotions as she stood listening to her new friend's
+proposals.
+
+Mrs. Moody, reading her indecision in her face, bade her think the
+matter over for a week while she remained with them as an honoured
+guest; and Toni did so, coming at last to the conclusion that, much as
+she longed to accept the post, to do so would not be fair to her
+prospective employers.
+
+She refused, therefore, but with so genuine a regret that the refusal
+could not give offence. The Moodys, however, while recognizing the
+girl's claim to independence of judgment, in their turn asserted their
+claim to befriend her, and Toni was only too ready to accept their
+advice and assistance.
+
+Hearing that it was of importance that she should set about making some
+money without delay, Mr. Moody secured for her a post as
+assistant-librarian and secretary in a big library belonging to an
+Italian friend of his own.
+
+It was something of an irony that Toni's work should take her into an
+atmosphere that could not fail to remind her of her husband and his
+literary aspirations; and her heart used to contract pitifully within
+her sometimes when she entered the big, lofty, book-lined room, which
+was not unlike the stately library in the beautiful old house by the
+river where her married life had come to so tragic a close.
+
+She owed the post to her proficiency in Italian and English rather than
+to any scholarly ability. To the end of her life Toni would never be
+bookish. She would always prefer living to reading about life; and it
+was fortunate that her work in this new library consisted largely of
+translating, roughly, from books in Italian and English, or in typing,
+from dictation, in either language.
+
+She grew to like her employment in the quiet, mediæval-looking room. Her
+employer, a gentle, sad-eyed elderly man with an invalid daughter,
+treated her with the utmost kindness; and if it had not been that every
+fibre in her being cried out incessantly for Owen, she might in time
+have been content.
+
+Her first friends, the Moodys, had settled her in rooms with an old
+servant of their own who had married a little Italian bookseller, and
+were unremitting in their kindness to her; but Toni desired only to be
+alone in her leisure hours and refused many of the invitations which
+Mrs. Moody sent her from time to time.
+
+So the days passed, quietly and tranquilly enough; and though to Toni it
+seemed that all the joy, all the happiness had fled from life, that the
+"sweet things" had lost their sweetness, the sunshine its glory, the
+flowers their perfume, she was not ungrateful for the peace which had
+come to her so unexpectedly.
+
+Of her husband, of Greenriver, she never dared to think. She guessed,
+drearily, that Owen would feel bound, in humanity, to institute a search
+for his missing wife; but by a fortunate chance she had been able to
+cover her tracks and disappear effectually; and as the weeks glided by,
+and discovery was apparently as far off as ever, she began to feel, with
+a miserable certainty, that in time her husband would relinquish the
+search, and settle down to forget the frivolous, uneducated girl who had
+not known how to appreciate the honour he had done her in making her his
+wife.
+
+To-day, this glorious spring day when the violet-scented air held a hint
+of summer's warmth in its breath, Toni was making holiday.
+
+Her employer was from home, called to London by the hint of a wonderful
+book sale to be held there the following week; and Toni's time was her
+own for nearly eight days.
+
+She had started early that morning on a pilgrimage to the little village
+where, long ago, she had passed the first happy years of her life; and
+had arrived, before noon, to find, as she had half-expected, that none
+of her old friends remained to give her welcome.
+
+Old Fiammetta was dead, as was, of course, the kindly Padre who had
+befriended Roger Gibbs when the young widower had decided to stay on,
+with his little daughter, in the home which his Antonia had made so
+joyous. A few of the children with whom she had played lived here still,
+but they had grown into sturdy, swarthy young men and women who had long
+since forgotten the dark-eyed child whose Italian had been as fluent as
+their own; and though she wandered disconsolately through the straggling
+little village, she met with no single glance of recognition.
+
+She did not know that some months previously urgent inquiries had been
+made at the tiny post-office as to whether a young lady had arrived in
+the village unexpectedly. It had struck Owen as possible that, in her
+madness, Toni might have returned to her childhood's home; but although,
+had she not met Luisa, Toni would probably have done so, that chance
+meeting at the station had turned her feet into another path, and
+naturally no one here knew anything of her whereabouts.
+
+She had intended spending the whole of her holiday in the village; but
+the absence of any welcome depressed her sensitive spirit, and she
+decided to return to Naples in the evening and spend the days of her
+freedom in exploring more thoroughly the fascinating streets and byways
+of the picturesque and romantic town.
+
+It was late when she arrived home, carrying her little valise; and old
+Janet, who in spite of her long residence in Italy was still
+uncompromisingly British, was surprised to see her lodger returning.
+
+"I thought you were going to stay a few days," she said quite
+reproachfully. "Now a real good change would have been the very best
+thing for you, miss, and I'm right sorry to see you back."
+
+"You're not very kind, Janet!" Toni smiled rather wearily, "I couldn't
+stay ... all my friends were dead and gone ... there were only ghosts
+left to welcome me, and I couldn't bear it!"
+
+The old woman read the disappointment in the girl's tone and was sorry
+for her.
+
+"Well, come along in, miss, and I'll bring you some supper right away.
+There's an omelette, and some lovely risotto I'm making for Pietro, and
+a glass or two of Chianti will soon hearten you up--though for my part I
+think a bottle of good English stout is worth all the thin wines in
+Italy!"
+
+When, later, she bustled in again with some excellent coffee, the old
+woman brought a bundle of papers which had been left by Mrs. Moody
+earlier in the day. There were various English and American magazines,
+and a few weekly papers; and had doubtless been intended to lighten the
+loneliness of Toni's holiday.
+
+She sat sipping her coffee and turning the pages rather listlessly.
+Somehow reading appealed to her less than ever nowadays. She was always
+so fully occupied with her own miserable thoughts, that the imaginative
+writings of other people could claim small share of her interest; but
+she dipped into the magazines as she sat alone, and tried to forget
+herself for an hour in the perusal of their pages.
+
+Among the papers was a copy of the _Daily Telegraph_, sent to Mrs. Moody
+occasionally by a sister in London; and Toni was idly turning the clumsy
+sheets when a name she knew attracted her attention.
+
+She scanned the paragraph hurriedly a little pulse beating in her temple
+as she read.
+
+     "We learn on good authority that the famous portrait-painter Mr.
+     James Herrick, better known as Mr. Herrick Vyse, has accepted a
+     commission to paint the two beautiful daughters of Lord and Lady
+     Tregarthen at their historic home in Cornwall. The young subjects,
+     who are twins, are only nine years of age, but are ranked among the
+     loveliest of England's many beautiful children, and doubtless the
+     artist will do their childish beauty full justice. Mr. Herrick has
+     already left his picturesque bungalow on the Thames for Tregarthen
+     House, where he will be the guest of Lord and Lady Tregarthen
+     during the painting of the portrait."
+
+The paper fell from Toni's hands and the light of a great inspiration
+flashed into her face.
+
+Lately she had longed, with ever-increasing intensity, for some
+authentic news of Owen. She felt she would give all she had in the world
+to hear that he was well, that her flight had not ruined his life; but
+she had no means of finding out anything without running the risk of
+giving away the secret of her own hiding-place.
+
+She had sometimes thought of writing to Eva Herrick, binding her to the
+strictest secrecy, and imploring her, for the sake of their old
+friendship, to give her the information she craved. But there were so
+many drawbacks to the plan. Her letter might easily fall into Herrick's
+hands, and though the contents would be sacred to him, the Italian
+postmark would be enough to betray her whereabouts.
+
+But now, during Herrick's absence, she might surely risk sending Eva a
+letter. She felt pretty certain that Mrs. Herrick would not give away
+her secret. By this time Toni was quite able to appreciate the part Eva
+Herrick had played in her unfortunate escapade; and she realised, very
+plainly, that Eva's unhappy desire to ruin other lives as hers had been
+ruined, had been at the bottom of her eager sympathy and pretended help.
+
+Even now Eva would doubtless seek to prevent any real reconciliation
+between husband and wife; and in any case Toni felt that she must take
+the risk; she must have news, hear how Owen had taken her flight; and
+surely Eva would not refuse to answer her letter.
+
+She wrote it there and then. It was very short, only a few lines
+imploring the recipient to give her all news of Owen, while keeping the
+secret of the writer's hiding place. Of herself Toni merely stated that
+she was at work and content; but the few scribbled lines breathed a
+spirit of misery, of supplication which would surely melt even the
+hardest heart.
+
+Having signed her name, and seen that the address at the top of the
+sheet was correct, Toni hastily procured an envelope, thrust in the
+fateful letter, and immediately slipped out of the house to post it.
+
+Up to this moment she had acted impulsively, without giving herself time
+to think, with possibly a lurking fear at the back of her mind that if
+she stopped to consider she would tear up the letter instead of posting
+it. But when once it had left her hand, when she had heard the thud it
+made in falling into the almost empty box, a great terror seized Toni,
+and she stood trembling in the deserted street, feeling that she would
+give all she had to rescind her impetuous action.
+
+But doubts and misgivings were alike useless now. The letter had passed
+out of her keeping, and she must abide by her own deed, trusting
+fervently that no further misfortune would follow her precipitancy.
+
+Realizing at last that regrets were futile, Toni turned away and went
+home, there to spend a sleepless night torturing herself with all sorts
+of premonitions and visions of ill-luck.
+
+But in her wildest flights of imaginative terror over the receipt of her
+letter, and its consequences, Toni never approached the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Toni's letter was delivered to Mrs. Herrick late one afternoon; and with
+a slight feeling of wonder as to her correspondent's identity, Eva broke
+the seal languidly and took out the thin foreign sheet without the least
+notion that this letter was to her a veritable messenger of Fate.
+
+It did not take her long to read the few scrawled lines in which Toni
+proffered her desperate request; and when she had read them, Eva let the
+sheet flutter to the floor while she pondered on the strange chance
+which led the woman whose life she had helped to ruin to appeal to her
+for aid.
+
+The months which had passed since Toni's flight had not been happy ones
+for Eva Herrick. On hearing of the part she had played in the
+culminating catastrophe, her husband had felt at first that he could
+barely find it in his heart to forgive such deliberate treachery; and
+for a short space of time even the malicious and reckless Eva knew what
+it was to be afraid. She was afraid, not of Herrick's wrath, but of the
+consequences. If, as at times she almost feared, he were to leave her,
+what would her position be? Already disgraced, discredited in the eyes
+of the world, she would find it impossible to face that world all alone,
+without the shelter of her husband's name; and although Toni's plight
+was nothing to her, there were times when she almost wished she had left
+the girl alone and had not encouraged her to take the fatal step of
+leaving her home.
+
+She picked up the flimsy sheet again and re-read the pitiful words. The
+letter could be answered easily enough. If she replied truthfully, she
+would relate a tragic history of a winter of lonely despair lived out in
+the beautiful old house, which to its solitary owner was like a body
+without a soul, a mere empty shell which had once held something
+precious beyond all words.
+
+She could narrate of blank and heavy days, when Owen Rose shut himself
+up in his library and refused to see a single fellow-creature save the
+servants who had known and loved his pretty young wife. Eva could have
+told of the dismissal of the housekeeper, Mrs. Blades, whose long
+service had seemed to her sufficient to warrant an impertinent stricture
+on Mrs. Rose's shameless conduct. She had learned her mistake very
+quickly; and had gone forth lamenting the short-sighted folly which had
+ended her long and tyrannical reign at Greenriver. Further, Eva could
+have related how, when the papers were full of complimentary reviews of
+Owen Rose's novel, the author himself turned away from all praise,
+fulsome and discriminating alike, and took up his pen only to write such
+articles as his position on the staff of the _Bridge_ rendered
+necessary.
+
+But as yet Eva did not know what form her reply would take.
+
+Warped, distorted, malignant as her judgment too often was, there was
+something very vital in that despairing cry from Italy; and in spite of
+herself Eva could not banish its echo from her ears.
+
+She might answer, briefly, that Owen was still at Greenriver, and, so
+far as she knew, in good health and spirits. As she framed the words she
+had a mental vision of Owen as she had last seen him, thin, pale,
+haggard, with the fire of a restless despair burning in his blue eyes.
+Although he went out and about, and greeted his friends much as usual,
+no one could doubt that the whole man was consumed as by a devouring
+flame. He had been tortured with terrible neuralgic headaches all
+through the winter; but though the doctor urged him to try the effect of
+a sojourn abroad, nothing would induce him to leave Greenriver.
+
+His tentative inquiries in Italy having proved futile, he clung to the
+idea that Toni was still in England; and the thought that she might
+return to her home and find him gone was one which recurred to him like
+a nightmare whenever he took even the short journey up to town.
+
+"What shall I say, I wonder?" Eva sat gazing thoughtfully into the fire,
+while the Spring twilight fell over the river which glided so quietly
+past her windows. "If I say she is forgotten it will almost break her
+heart; yet if I tell her that her husband is breaking _his_ heart to
+find her, will she come to England instantly and humble herself till he
+takes her back into his home?"
+
+As she sat there Eva had a sudden vivid sense of the contrast between
+her own spoilt life and that of the girl whose pitiful cry still rang in
+her consciousness and would not be silenced.
+
+Her own life was ruined, she told herself bitterly. But in that
+illuminating moment Eva saw the truth for the first time. She herself
+was to blame for the ruin. She had brought all the shame, all the
+disgrace upon herself, and the bitter experience of her prison life had
+been only the reaping of the harvest which she, by her own act, had
+sown.
+
+But Toni's happiness had been broken and spoilt by other means. It was
+her very love for her husband which had made her so fatally ready to
+believe that only by leaving him could she give him the freedom which he
+was supposed--by his wife--to desire. And Eva knew quite well that
+without her connivance and encouragement Leonard Dowson would never have
+dared to utter his proposal to the young wife of Owen Rose.
+
+Yet if she gave in now and begged Toni to return, assuring her, as she
+knew she might safely do, of her husband's ready forgiveness, would not
+the spectacle of Toni's ensuing happiness bring all the more cruelly
+home to her the wretchedness which must be her own portion from
+henceforth?
+
+Although Jim Herrick treated her with unvarying kindness and
+consideration, Eva had always the miserable conviction that his love for
+her was dead; and although she never showed any feeling in their daily
+intercourse, even her bitter and reckless heart was sometimes sore
+within her.
+
+Long she sat, wondering how best to treat this unexpected appeal from a
+far country; and only when the trim maid who had replaced the more
+haphazard Mrs. Swastika entered with the lighted lamp did Eva rouse
+herself from her reverie.
+
+Then, however, she got pen and paper and sat down at the table to frame
+some sort of reply. It was not an easy task. With Toni's letter lying
+before her, she found it strangely difficult to begin; and was still
+sitting staring at the blank sheet of paper when a sudden deep bark from
+Olga, who was lying, as usual, nose on paws, in the tiny hall, made her
+start to her feet.
+
+"Who's there, I wonder? Olga sounds excited."
+
+She went to the door and opened it, and at the same moment the front
+door was flung widely open and a man stepped into the hall, to be
+greeted instantly by a torrent of wild barking from the now delighted
+Borzoi.
+
+"Steady, old girl! I say, Olga, don't take me for a wolf and tear me to
+pieces!" He laughingly pushed the great dog down and hastened towards
+his wife.
+
+"Hallo, Eva! Have I startled you? I'm sorry."
+
+"I didn't know who it was." She stared at him with dilated eyes. "I was
+sitting in there, and Olga barked so loudly that I thought----"
+
+"Thought I was a burglar!" He kissed her very kindly. "Well, I'm not.
+But I've come back for a bit ... yes, put them down there, will you?"
+
+He turned to the door, his arm through his wife's, and paid the cabman,
+who had placed his portmanteaux in the hall. Then, when the man,
+declining a drink, had gone, Herrick drew his wife back into the little
+sitting-room.
+
+"But--I don't understand. Is the portrait off? Aren't you going to paint
+the children?"
+
+"Yes, of course I am, but not for a bit. Fact is, the poor kiddies have
+started in measles, pretty badly, too, I'm told, so as it was impossible
+to get on with the picture just yet I thought I'd better come home and
+let their parents send for me when the children are out of quarantine."
+
+"I see." Eva was half pleased, half annoyed by his return. "You want
+something to eat, I expect. Shall I go and hurry up dinner?"
+
+"I wish you would, dear." He threw aside his coat as he spoke. "I had
+some lunch on the train, but you know what railway lunches are. I came
+down from Waterloo with Rose. Jove, Eva, that fellow looks a wreck."
+
+"Does he?" Suddenly she remembered that Toni's letter was lying open on
+the table. "I--I suppose he will get over--it--in time."
+
+"I don't think he will. Of course he must really have been devoted to
+her--to his wife--all the time, without knowing it. And I don't wonder.
+She was one of the best, pluckiest, straightest girls I ever met. I
+don't believe she could have done a dishonourable action to save her
+life."
+
+He had spoken quite without any ulterior meaning, carried away by his
+memory of Toni as he had known and admired her; but his words sounded to
+Eva like a direct and deadly insult; and her Irish blood flamed
+instantly into revolt.
+
+"Toni straight!" All softer feelings were forgotten now; again she was
+the unhappy woman at war with all the world, but especially with her own
+sex. "Very straight of her to elope with another man, wasn't it? And as
+for pluck, why, she couldn't even stick to him when she'd done it."
+
+"Hush, Eva!" Herrick's brow wore the frown she hated, and, secretly,
+feared. "You were never fair to that unhappy girl; and both you and I
+know very well that had you acted differently half this misery would
+have been spared."
+
+"I was unfair to her?" Eva's voice was choked with rage.
+
+"Yes." He spoke deliberately, rather sadly. "From the first you treated
+Toni Rose, unfairly. You knew she was very young, and not very wise in
+the ways of the world, and whereas you were an older woman--very little
+older in actual years, I grant you----"
+
+"I suppose you mean older in wickedness." She spoke between her teeth.
+
+"I mean you were old enough to have helped the child instead of
+encouraging her in her foolishness," he said steadily. "But you did not.
+You preferred to inflame her mind by exaggerating her woes, making her
+feel herself misunderstood, unloved, unwanted ... oh, I don't know what
+you said, what passed between you, but this I do know. You saw that
+child shivering on the brink, as it were, of a dreadful precipice, and
+not only did you refrain from pulling her back from the edge, but I'm
+horribly afraid that yours was the hand which sought to push her over."
+
+"You dare to say this to me?" Her voice was like steel, and there was a
+dangerous glint in the Irish eyes which had once been so sweet and gay.
+
+"Yes. Oh, I don't want to be hard on you, to bring it all up again." He
+spoke wearily. "I suppose it was the sight of that poor fellow Rose that
+made me speak like that just now. But you know, you have known all
+along, that I hold you largely responsible for the whole affair, and if
+any harm has come to that poor misguided girl, I'm afraid your
+conscience can never be wholly clear."
+
+"Stop!" With flashing eyes and a stormy flush on her cheeks his wife
+faced him; and even Herrick recoiled a step, aghast at the picture of
+evil, revengeful triumph she presented in that moment. "You are blaming
+me for that affair, are you? Doubtless you and the bereft husband joined
+upon your journey down in calling me all the pretty names which seem to
+fit me--evil genius, bad angel, and all the rest. Well, it may surprise
+you to learn that it is to me that the 'poor misguided child' turns even
+now when she wants news of her loving husband. Oh, you may stare, but I
+know more than all of you. I know just where the misguided Toni is at
+this moment, and what she is doing into the bargain."
+
+She had surprised him indeed. He sprang forward and seized her arm.
+
+"You know that? Then why in God's name haven't you said so before?"
+
+"Because I've only just got to know," she answered defiantly, "and
+because although I _do_ know, I'm not going to hand on my
+knowledge--now."
+
+"What do you mean?" Her vindictive tone made his blood run cold.
+
+"I had meant, when her letter came to-night, to show it to you, to let
+you tell Mr. Rose. Wasn't I a fool?" She laughed scornfully. "Why on
+earth should I give away the precious information? You don't suppose I
+care whether Toni ever sees her husband again? I hope she doesn't, in
+fact. Other women are unhappy--they suffer--let her suffer, too, let her
+know what it is to live in hell, to wish herself dead so that she may at
+least forget her misery."
+
+"Eva!" His voice rang through the room. "You are going too far. Tell me
+this moment--where is Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Wouldn't you like to know?" While she mocked him she was endeavouring
+to edge past him to reach the table on which Toni's letter still lay.
+Unconsciously he frustrated her, blocking the way in an attempt to force
+her to speak plainly.
+
+"I intend to know." His voice was as cold as ice. "Come, Eva, if pity
+for the girl doesn't move you, think of the man. Why condemn him to this
+mental torture, when a word from you can set him free?"
+
+Suddenly she paused before him; and to his dying day he would never
+forget the hatred in her eyes.
+
+"Did you think of that, when a word from you would have set me free? Did
+you utter the word which would have condemned you to prison but would
+have let me go back to the world of sunshine and freedom? Did any of the
+men who sent me to that hell think of my torture, my agony? Why should I
+think of anyone else now? What does it matter to me if Owen Rose and his
+wife die broken-hearted? Do you think I'd raise a finger to help them to
+find one another? No. No, I tell you, a hundred, thousand times--_no_."
+
+Suddenly the man who listened was filled with a great and marvellous
+compassion. Even now, it seemed, his wife could not see the justice of
+her fate; but somehow her childish comparison of her own position with
+that of Owen and Toni Rose seemed pitiful, tragic, rather than evil.
+
+"See here, dear." He spoke very gently. "You are overwrought. You don't
+know what you are saying. I'm sure in your heart you only want to act
+kindly, nobly, by those two unfortunate people. Tell me, where is Mrs.
+Rose, and when--and how--has she communicated with you?"
+
+"She wrote to me--I got her letter to-night." There was a note of
+triumph in her voice which made him uneasy. "And do you know what I'm
+going to do with it? I'm going to burn it--now--before your eyes."
+
+During her speech she had been edging nearer and nearer the table; and
+as she spoke the last words she made a frantic dart at the letter and
+envelope which had lain there through all the conversation. Quick as she
+was, however, she was almost too late.
+
+Suddenly awake to her meaning, Herrick had swung round in time to see
+her seize the letter; and in an instant his hand was on her wrist.
+
+"Eva! What are you going to do?"
+
+"This." With a wild gesture she tore her hand from his; but again he was
+too quick for her.
+
+"Listen to me." He spoke quickly, wild with anxiety lest she should
+carry out her threat. "You are to give me that letter--at once. At once,
+do you hear? I don't want to hurt you, but I will have that letter, and
+you had better give it to me of your own free will."
+
+"You shan't--you shan't." She spoke gaspingly, using all her force to
+got away from him. Handicapped by his very superiority, Herrick did not
+venture to put forth his full strength, but Eva, held back by no
+scruples, fought desperately to release her hands that she might fling
+the letter in the fire.
+
+Quite suddenly she found herself free. Herrick, his very soul sickened
+within him at the physical encounter, had released her abruptly,
+trusting, perhaps, to some instinct of generosity which should lead her
+to surrender in the moment of victory.
+
+But he trusted vainly. The second she was free Eva flung herself on to
+her knees by the brightly-blazing fire; and as Herrick, maddened by her
+action, bent roughly over her to try, even now, to save the precious
+letter, she thrust her hand almost within the bars that the fire might
+destroy the writing the more completely.
+
+But her own haste was her undoing. The loose chiffon sleeve she wore
+brushed against the glowing coals as she pushed the letter frantically
+between the bars; and a bright tongue of flame shot suddenly up her arm
+and ignited the masses of filmy lace which disguised the thinness of her
+once softly-rounded bosom.
+
+There was a sharp cry from Herrick, a shriek of terror from Eva; and
+then, as Herrick sprang aside to snatch up the heavy travelling-coat
+which would most effectually beat out the flames, Eva rushed frenziedly
+to the door, screaming at the top of her voice.
+
+Again and again he tried to fling the coat round her burning form; but
+she had completely lost her head, and several valuable seconds were
+wasted before he caught her finally and wrapped her completely round in
+the thick, heavy folds of his big coat.
+
+Quite suddenly he felt her collapse in his grasp; and when, having
+extinguished the flames, he unwrapped the coat from her slender figure,
+Herrick had a horrible conviction that he held a dead woman in his
+arms....
+
+She was still alive, however, though terribly burned about the arms and
+body. For nearly a week she lay between life and death, a piteous little
+figure swathed in bandages.
+
+By some miraculous chance, although her golden curls were singed and
+blackened, her face had escaped injury, and as he sat by her side in the
+darkened room, Herrick could trace in the pale and suffering features
+the face of the bonny Irish girl who had won his heart so completely in
+those far-off days of an Irish spring.
+
+For seven days she lay there, half-conscious at times, moaning piteously
+for hours together, though for the most part under the merciful
+influence of the morphia which lulled her agony; and in that terrible
+week Herrick took up afresh the burden of his marriage and determined
+that if Eva recovered he would give up his whole life to her service. He
+would endeavour to win her back to a saner, sweeter frame of mind, to
+make up to her by his unswerving patience and devotion for the misery
+she had endured; and he would relinquish, once for all, the hopeless
+mental attitude which had seemed to say that a life spent together must
+be impossible for both of them.
+
+After all, she was pathetically young and frail. She had sinned, but she
+had paid, was paying now. Every feeble moan she uttered wrung his heart
+afresh; and he longed for her to regain consciousness that he might
+whisper words of love and encouragement into those fragile ears.
+
+He had almost forgotten the cause of the catastrophe.
+
+Toni's letter had been burned to ashes, and he had not the slightest
+idea of her whereabouts; but even Toni's welfare seemed of less
+importance during these days of torture; and beyond sending Owen a note
+to inform him that his wife was certainly alive, since she had written
+to her friend, Herrick had done nothing.
+
+It was quite possible that Eva would die without revealing Toni's
+secret; and even though she lived, what guarantee had Herrick that she
+would unclose her lips even then?
+
+Although, through her intense suffering, she had an irresistible claim
+upon his compassion, her husband did not feel certain that even were Eva
+herself again Toni's tragic blunder would be repaired; and although he
+was fully determined to do all in his power to bring Eva's restless
+spirit peace, there was a possibility that she would return to life as
+callous, as heartless, as vindictive as ever.
+
+Yet as he looked at the wan little face on the pillow, he could not
+forbear a hope that this terrible disaster would mark a turning point in
+Eva's life; and then, as a moan fluttered through the girl's parched
+lips, he experienced a horrible fear that for Eva there would be no time
+for repentance and reparation.
+
+It was nearly one o'clock on the seventh night when Herrick, watching
+closely, saw the grey Irish eyes open suddenly.
+
+He bent over the bed, and found that for the first time his wife was
+sufficiently herself to recognize him.
+
+"Jim? Is that you?" Her voice was the merest thread.
+
+"Yes, dear. Do you feel more comfortable now?"
+
+"I feel ... dying," she murmured, still in that thin whisper.
+"Jim ... I'm so sorry. I've been a wicked girl--but you must forgive me,
+because I'm going to die."
+
+"No, no, dear." His heart stirred within him at the startling change in
+her, and he slipped to his knees beside the bed. "You are going to get
+better and be my own dear little wife again. There is no need to talk of
+forgiveness, Eva. That's all over long ago. Now I have only to love
+you."
+
+"I'm glad you've forgiven me." When she had spoken she closed her eyes
+again; and Herrick felt himself turn cold, thinking she were dying
+indeed.
+
+Presently she re-opened those sunken eyes, and her lips moved faintly.
+Bending down he caught her words.
+
+"Jim ... I'm sorry about Toni. She's safe--in Italy--in Naples...."
+
+"You're sure, dear?" He spoke quietly, though his heart gave a throb of
+relief at her words.
+
+"Yes. I can't remember her address." Her brows contracted pitifully.
+"But she works in the library of an Italian called Zanoni--is that
+enough? Can you find her from that?"
+
+"Why, yes, dear." He knew it would only be a matter of time to trace the
+girl now. "And you must not worry about her any more. Close those big
+eyes of yours and go to sleep."
+
+She gave a little sigh, and her tiny bandaged hand lifted itself feebly
+as though seeking his. Instantly he laid his own warm fingers over hers;
+and a moment later Eva was asleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So it happened that Eva did not die, but crept slowly back to life; and
+throughout her painful and often halting convalescence she exhibited a
+patience, a gentleness which won her husband's heart afresh.
+
+It seemed as though the fire had burnt out all the evil thoughts and
+desires which had ravaged her soul. Gone were all thoughts of revenge,
+of callous retribution for the sufferings she had endured. No longer
+bitter and hard and reckless, Eva was once again the engaging girl who
+had won Herrick's love; and although it was probable she would never
+again be quite so light-hearted, so thoughtless as she had been in the
+days before her marriage, Herrick was very strongly attracted to this
+oddly gentle, shy, wistful girl who gave him a new and passionate
+gratitude and love in place of her former half-careless,
+half-contemptuous affection.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Her first question on coming fully to herself had concerned Toni; and
+within a very short space of time Herrick was able to inform her that
+the girl had been found.
+
+"Is she well--happy? Is Mr. Rose going to forgive her?"
+
+"He has done that already," said Herrick with a smile. "By this time he
+is on his way to Italy; and I have no doubt he will bring her home to
+Greenriver as fast as boat and train can do it."
+
+"Must I see her, Jim?" Into her eyes came a look of dread which touched
+him oddly. "I know it was all through my wickedness that she went
+away--but--must I ask her to forgive me?"
+
+"You needn't trouble about that, dear. Mrs. Rose has forgiven you long
+ago. And as soon as ever you are well enough to travel, I'm going to
+take you right away where I can have you to myself and there will be no
+one to bother you all the rest of your life."
+
+"Where are we going?" Her weak voice sounded pitifully glad.
+
+"I'm not sure--but somewhere for away--Canada, or California, or some
+big, wild country where we can ride about all day and imagine ourselves
+back in dear old Ireland again."
+
+She sighed with pleasure; and two minutes later fell asleep with a
+tender little smile upon her lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+On a beautiful evening in June, when the land was sweet with roses, and
+the cuckoos called insistently to one another from copse and wood, Owen
+Rose brought his wife home, for the second time, to Greenriver.
+
+They had spent the intervening weeks in Italy; and to the end of her
+life Toni would look upon those glorious Italian days as her true
+honeymoon.
+
+Now, indeed, she and Owen were really lovers, meeting on an equal ground
+through the very force of their mutual love. Gone for ever were the old
+doubts and misunderstandings, the miserable fooling of inferiority on
+Toni's side, the half-unconscious irritation with which Owen had viewed
+what seemed to be his wife's limitations.
+
+No miracle had been worked. Toni and Owen both knew very well that in
+literary matters Owen would always be superior to Toni; but now that
+they were one in ambition, one in feeling, one in heart and soul, this
+superiority mattered little.
+
+Now that she was no longer frightened, no longer felt herself despised,
+Toni could give her natural intelligence full play; and when once Owen
+took the trouble to study Toni closely, he thanked his gods that he had
+discovered her worth before it was too late.
+
+What he had taken for stupidity was only diffidence. Toni's brain,
+though not so highly specialized as his own, was a very capable, quick
+organ all the same; and in the lonely, dreary months of her absence Owen
+had learned to value at their true worth the precious gifts of laughter
+and sunny, unselfish gaiety which had once lightened the stately old
+house. When Toni disappeared, it seemed as though a living sunbeam had
+deserted the household; and when, on announcing the news of her safety
+and ultimate return, he had seen the faces of the servants break into
+relieved smiles, Owen had felt, with a twinge of shame, that even her
+dependants had valued Toni more than he, her husband, had known how to
+do.
+
+Always, too, the remembrance of the significance of Toni's sacrifice
+would keep Owen humble before her. He knew now, beyond all possibility
+of doubt, that it had nearly broken her heart to leave him; and though
+her tragically childish notion of setting him free by eloping with
+Leonard Dowson often brought a tender, half-quizzical smile to his lips,
+Owen fully appreciated the love and eager longing which had driven Toni
+to that futile step.
+
+If Toni had found her soul, Owen too had gained something which his
+character had hitherto lacked; and in his new humility and comprehension
+there was the germ, also, of a new content for both of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Toni caught her breath in a sob of rapture as the old house came into
+view.
+
+Everyone about the place, servants, gardeners, chauffeur, had worked
+their hardest during the last excited weeks to bring the whole place to
+the highest pitch of perfection; and to Toni's longing eyes the
+beautiful old house, in its setting of tall trees, smooth green lawns,
+and brilliant, many-hued flowers, had never looked so eminently
+attractive, so alluringly home-like before.
+
+There were tears in her eyes as she sprang out of the car and greeted
+the waiting Andrews, who stood beside the open door. In the background
+Kate and Maggie hovered, all smiles and blushes; and it was evident that
+whatever construction a censorious world might have put upon Toni's rash
+departure, these faithful souls, at least, believed no evil.
+
+As a matter of fact very little of the truth ever did leak out. When it
+was known, as Herrick took good care it should be known, that Mr. Rose
+had gone to Italy to join his wife, who was wintering there, and would
+return with her after a few weeks spent together by the shores of the
+Mediterranean, gossip was at once checked and dumbfounded.
+
+If there had been anything wrong, said the neighbourhood, if Mrs. Rose
+had left her husband secretly as had been asserted, surely the fact of
+Mr. Rose's going to Italy to join her would not have been given quite so
+much publicity.
+
+Not only were there paragraphs in all the society papers--here Barry's
+hand was discernible--but there were even portraits of the rising young
+author and his wife, taken together in the garden of their whitewashed
+villa outside Naples; and it was decided, finally, that Mrs. Rose's
+hasty departure had been, after all, a good deal less mysterious than it
+had at first appeared.
+
+There was some consolation, to the more determined gossips of the
+neighbourhood, in spreading a rumour that the young mistress of
+Greenriver was far gone in consumption, and had been ordered to winter
+abroad; but Toni's appearance, on the day of her return, was quite
+sufficient to give the lie to that particular _canard_.
+
+Browned with the sun, her Southern colouring accentuated by the months
+spent in what was, after all, almost her native land, Toni looked the
+picture of glowing, vivid health; and when, late that night, she faced
+her husband with sparkling eyes across the rose-decked table, Owen
+realized, for the first time, that this quaint, half-foreign wife of his
+was giving promise of developing into actual beauty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After dinner they strolled into the garden, Jock, deliriously happy,
+pressing closely to his mistress's side; and as they passed between the
+sleeping flowers Toni suddenly clung to her husband's arm.
+
+"Owen! Listen. The nightingale! Oh, isn't it perfect--that big yellow
+moon--and the roses--and now--_that_."
+
+"Is it better than Italy, Toni? Wouldn't you rather be there--on a night
+like this--in that land of beauty and romance?"
+
+For a moment Toni stood still, gazing round her in silence. She looked
+at the old grey house, from which the mellow lamplight streamed, the Ten
+Little Ladies casting their beams bravely through the big windows of the
+gallery upstairs. She looked at the sleeping roses, the velvet lawns,
+the tall trees; and her eyes were very peaceful. The golden moonlight
+transfigured the scene; from the dreaming river came the creak of oars
+moving gently in their rowlocks; and the nightingale's song was dying
+softly, tenderly, on the quiet air.
+
+Slowly Toni's gaze came back to her husband's face; and in her eyes,
+velvety and black in the moonlight, Owen read her answer before she
+spoke.
+
+"Wherever you are is my land of beauty," she said, in a low voice.
+"But ... oh, I am so glad, so glad you have brought me home--to
+Greenriver."
+
+And as he heard the words, saw, too, the loving little gesture which
+accompanied them as she slipped her hand into his arm, Owen felt that
+for them both Greenriver was home henceforth.
+
+He stooped and kissed her, quietly, on the white brow beneath the ebony
+hair; end as if he had been waiting for the signal, the unseen
+nightingale broke once more into song.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS NOVELS BY KATHLYN RHODES
+
+    THE LURE OF THE DESERT
+    THE DESERT DREAMERS
+    THE WILL OF ALLAH
+    SWEET LIFE
+    AFTERWARDS
+    FLOWER OF GRASS
+    THE MAKING OF A SOUL
+
+Vivid descriptions of the entrancing scenery of the East, incident
+crowding upon incident, romantic situations, exciting intrigues,
+unexpected dénouements hold and absorb the interest from start to
+finish.
+
+    KATHLYN RHODES
+    is the assured success of 1918,
+    as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916
+    and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.
+
+Fired with enthusiasm to win fame as a novelist, Kathlyn Rhodes began
+her career before her school days were ended. "Sweet Life" followed
+shortly afterwards; and the appreciation which this won encouraged the
+authoress to follow quickly with other stories. Choice of subject she
+holds to be of primary importance. With the war depressing us all
+around, she believes that many readers prefer stories that permit them
+for the time to forget it; and this she achieves by her delightful
+flights of fancy through the realms of many lands.
+
+These are the stories to send to your soldier friends to combat the
+horrors of warfare and the tedium of the hospitals; and the stories to
+read yourself to relieve the weary vigils we must keep at home.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Soul, by Kathlyn Rhodes</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Making of a Soul</p>
+<p>Author: Kathlyn Rhodes</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 4, 2007  [eBook #21674]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1><i>The Making of a Soul</i></h1>
+
+<h2><i>By Kathlyn Rhodes</i></h2>
+
+<h3>Author of "<i>The Desert Dreamers</i>," "<i>The Will of Allah</i>," "<i>The Lure of
+the Desert</i>," "<i>Flower of Grass</i>," <i>etc</i>.</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>LONDON: HUTCHINSON &amp; CO.</i><br />
+<i>PATERNOSTER ROW</i></h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#FAMOUS_NOVELS_BY_KATHLYN_RHODES">FAMOUS NOVELS BY KATHLYN RHODES</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE MAKING OF A SOUL</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<p>Barry Raymond drew the latchkey out of the door and entered his small
+flat in Kensington just as the clock in the tiny hall chimed the hour of
+ten.</p>
+
+<p>It was a wet night; and he drew off his Burberry and hung it up with a
+sense of pleasure in being again in his cosy little eyrie at the top of
+the chilly stone steps.</p>
+
+<p>Humming a tune, he crossed the diminutive hall and went into the
+sitting-room, where the cheerful crackle of a small wood fire gave an
+air of comfort to the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>On the table, where his admirable man-servant had placed it, was a tray
+bearing glasses, a siphon and a bottle of whisky; and beside the tray
+were the few letters which had come by the last post; while in a
+conspicuous place lay a telegram in its tawny envelope; and this,
+naturally enough, was the first thing Barry touched.</p>
+
+<p>Taking it up, he tore it open decisively; and as the envelope fell to
+the ground he unfolded the pink paper and read the message scrawled
+thereon.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Just arrived Southampton will be with you about ten o'clock.
+<span class="smcap">Owen</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>The paper fluttered to the floor and Barry consulted his watch hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten o'clock! Why, it's that now. So Owen's home. By Jove, what an
+unlucky day he's chosen!"</p>
+
+<p>He stood still for a moment, rapt, it would seem, in contemplation of an
+unpleasant vision. Then with a shrug of his shoulders he moved to the
+fireplace and turned on more light.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it'll have to be done sooner or later; but"&mdash;for a second a
+rueful smile lit up his despondent young face&mdash;"I wish I hadn't got to
+do it ... and at ten o'clock at night into the bargain!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked round him as though considering some serious matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Food&mdash;and drink. Here's drink, anyhow. What about food?"</p>
+
+<p>Seizing a hand-lamp from the bureau at his elbow, he quitted the room
+and made for the kitchen, which his man had left, as usual, in the
+perfection of neatness on his departure two hours ago.</p>
+
+<p>Hastening to the cupboard which did duty, in the flat, for a pantry,
+Barry flung open the door and surveyed the shelves with anxious eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! There was plenty of food, of a sort, and suddenly Barry remembered,
+with gratitude, the fact that he had intended to dine at home, and had
+been prevented doing so at the eleventh hour owing to an unexpected
+invitation which he had then regarded as an unmitigated bore, but now
+looked upon as a direct interposition of Providence.</p>
+
+<p>A cold roast chicken, an apple tart and cream, cheese and
+biscuits&mdash;surely the traveller could make a meal off these provisions,
+and Barry carried them gaily into the sitting-room and laid the table
+with much good-will and no little celerity.</p>
+
+<p>Knives, forks, glasses&mdash;for he intended to share the meal&mdash;salt, pepper,
+bread&mdash;in a dozen light-hearted journeys he managed to bring everything
+he considered necessary; and he was just standing back to admire his own
+handiwork when the electric bell pealed loudly through the silent flat.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he is, by Jove!" Barry all but dropped the vase of chrysanthemums
+he was carrying to the table, and setting it down hastily he went to the
+door, in a flutter of anticipation, of hospitality, and, if the truth be
+told, of nervousness.</p>
+
+<p>Opening the door:</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Owen?" he asked&mdash;a superfluous question, for he knew his
+visitor well enough. "Come in, old chap&mdash;you must be soaked&mdash;it's a
+frightful night!"</p>
+
+<p>"Soaked&mdash;I should just say I am!" Owen Rose accepted the invitation and
+stepped inside, shaking himself like a dog as he did so. "Lord, Barry,
+what a climate! I declare I'd sooner live in Timbuctoo!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the climate's all right&mdash;only a bit moist," returned Barry
+philosophically. "But come on in&mdash;take off your coat and come to the
+fire. Any luggage?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I've sent it on to my place." He drew himself out of his big coat
+as he spoke. "I thought I'd come up and see you for half an hour first
+of all. Jolly glad you're at home. You got my wire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a few minutes ago. Come and have something to eat." They were in
+the sitting-room by now. "There's not much, but I hadn't time to kill
+the fatted calf."</p>
+
+<p>"Looks like it." Owen's eyes roamed over the cheerful little
+supper-table. "Barry, you're a fraud. Chicken, apple-pie&mdash;what more can
+man desire? But I confess I <i>am</i> hungry, though I didn't come for a
+meal."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sit down and let's begin," said Barry practically. "I dined at my
+aunt's to-night, and as usual I couldn't get much to eat! She asked me
+so many questions about ..." he coloured and hurried on "... about
+everything, that by the time I'd finished answering them dinner was
+over!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Owen accepted the plate Barry handed him. "Well, you're looking
+very fit, Barry. How's things?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, fair." Barry paused in the act of pouring out a whisky-and-soda.
+"That's to say, I'm still with old Joliffe, and got a rise of screw last
+quarter."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you! Well, wait till we get the review going, and see if I don't
+tempt you away from that dictatorial old boss of yours!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll come to you all right," said Barry gaily. "But in the meantime
+I'd better hang on in the House of Rimmon, hadn't I? You see ..." He
+broke off, the colour mounting to his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. You're thinking of Olive. Quite right, too. How is she,
+Barry? Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"A 1." Barry fell to on his supper with renewed zest. "Longing to see
+you, old chap. By the way"&mdash;he slid rather dexterously away from the
+subject&mdash;"you promised her a skin or something, didn't you? Have any
+luck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Luck! Rather! I bagged one tiger who was really magnificent&mdash;he'll make
+a grand hearthrug for you and Olive. He was a splendid brute and I was
+lucky to get him. Of course, I've had luck all the way through. By gad,
+Barry, there's nothing like big-game shooting to make one fit! You know
+what I was like when I set out&mdash;and look at me now!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus invited, Barry looked; and he was bound to admit that his friend
+was right.</p>
+
+<p>Eighteen months previous to this wet night of January, Owen Rose had
+been so severely injured in a motor-accident that his life had been
+despaired of; and although he had eventually recovered, he had been left
+so unlike himself that a return to the normal round was impossible.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one prescription, his doctors agreed, and that was the
+agreeable, if expensive, one of travel. Only by gaining complete change
+of scene, complete change, also, of life and routine, could he hope to
+recapture his old splendid vitality and abundant health; and since
+luckily Owen was by no means a poor man, the prescription was not so
+hard to carry out as might have been the case with another patient.</p>
+
+<p>True, this break in his life interfered with several cherished projects.
+In the first&mdash;and most important&mdash;place, his marriage must be delayed;
+and although Miss Vivian Rees was only twenty, and might be considered
+fully young to be a bride, the delay, to the ardent lover, was
+vexatious, at the least.</p>
+
+<p>Then the review, to which he had alluded in his conversation with Barry,
+had perforce to be shelved; and although there was plenty of time for
+the production of such a literary newcomer, he had felt, at the moment,
+as though called upon to abandon altogether a beloved ideal.</p>
+
+<p>But the fiat had gone forth; and indeed he had agreed entirely with the
+medical verdict which pronounced him unfit to shoulder fresh tasks until
+his old strength should be regained. Therefore, unwillingly, but none
+the less unflinchingly, he had made preparations to leave England for a
+year's leisurely travel in the East, starting, as it were, from Bombay
+and journeying onwards wherever the fancy took him.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that during his travels he fell in with a couple of old
+schoolfellows who were on the verge of a sporting expedition; and Owen,
+who by that time was tired of his loafing method of travel, jumped with
+alacrity at an invitation to join the party.</p>
+
+<p>They had glorious sport; and in the excitement and vigour of the chase
+Owen regained all his old bodily strength and added thereto a quite
+fresh store of health and spirits. When at length he turned his face
+homewards he knew himself to be in such condition as he had never before
+experienced; and as he sat opposite his host to-night, eating and
+drinking gaily in this quiet room, he presented to Barry a picture of
+such perfect health as is rarely met with in the streets of London.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Barry brought his leisurely survey to a close. "You do look
+uncommonly fit, I suppose you've had a gorgeous time."</p>
+
+<p>Thus invited, Owen launched forth into an account of some of his most
+thrilling adventures, and the time flew as he recounted the tale of the
+glorious nights and days he had lived through, or made his hearer laugh
+with his stories of the various attendants and their humours.</p>
+
+<p>The clock had chimed the hour of midnight before the friends left the
+table; and then, sitting by the rosy fire, with pipes alight, each one
+felt that the moment had come in which a deeper subject might well be
+introduced.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Barry, at least, would cheerfully have ignored that subject; for he
+foresaw, with friendship's intuition, that the thing he had to say would
+effectually mar and break the midnight peace; and as the moment drew
+near in which he must strike a fatal blow at his friend's serenity he
+fell into an embarrassed silence very unlike his recent cordiality.</p>
+
+<p>At last it came&mdash;the question he had dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Barry, have you seen much of Vivian lately?" Although the
+subject affected the speaker so vitally, he was so calmly, confidently
+sure of the reply that his tone was quiet and unagitated. Even though
+Barry paused for a quite perceptible fraction of time before he replied,
+the other man was too certain of the answer to notice the pause.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I have seen her&mdash;yes." He spoke without removing his pipe from
+between his teeth, which might account for the curious thickness of his
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"And how is she? All right, I suppose? You see"&mdash;Owen laughed rather
+diffidently&mdash;"my return was to be a surprise to her. I wasn't coming for
+another couple of months, you know, and then all at once I couldn't bear
+it any longer. I simply <i>had</i> to come."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;haven't you corresponded all this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not regularly. You know Vivian hates writing letters as much as I
+do; and I couldn't give her any settled addresses while we were moving
+about, so we agreed that we would not expect much from each other in
+that way!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see. But&mdash;you <i>have</i> heard from her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, now and then. Of course she had my banker's address and could
+cable to me from time to time. I got one cable from her in December&mdash;on
+my birthday, it was&mdash;and she said she was writing, but I never got the
+letter."</p>
+
+<p>"In December. I see." And so he did&mdash;saw a vision of half-unwilling
+treachery, of hesitating loyalty, of dying faith, which turned his heart
+sick within him.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote to her for Christmas, of course, and sent her a card now and
+then." He seemed to be excusing his own quite allowable slackness in the
+matter. "You see, I really had no time for letter-writing, and I knew
+she would understand and forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>"You ... did you tell her you were coming home to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I wired to her a week ago.... I half expected she'd come down to
+meet me." He laughed shamefacedly. "But you know what her people are. I
+expect they'd think it frightfully unnecessary to do that. Of course,
+I'm going there first thing in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"You ... you haven't been there yet, then?" Barry hated himself for his
+fatuity as he put the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Fact is, I was a perfect savage when I landed ... a beard half a
+yard long!" He laughed jovially. "Had to get trimmed up a bit ... but in
+any case she would probably have been out somewhere or other to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I see."</p>
+
+<p>"But first thing in the morning, it's a taxi for mine, as the Americans
+say. And I shall catch her alone, after breakfast, before anyone's
+about."</p>
+
+<p>"Yea." Barry paused, cursing himself for his cowardice, and then plunged
+recklessly into the quicksand before him. "Owen, old man, have you heard
+anything about Miss Rees lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heard anything?" He laid down his pipe and stared at his questioner.
+"Why should I hear anything? What is there to hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Before replying Barry rose, and stood leaning against the mantelpiece;
+and as he looked down on his friend his heart was wrung within him at
+the cruelty of fate.</p>
+
+<p>"You ... you've not seen her name in the papers?" His throat was dry,
+but he went on bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Papers? I've not looked at a newspaper for months. And anyway, what
+should I see about Vivian in any paper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only ... I thought you might have done." Barry was finding his task
+almost incredibly hard, and his brow was pearled with fine drops of
+moisture as he stood before his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"What was there to see, Barry?" Owen's voice was quiet&mdash;dangerously
+quiet. "Is there anything wrong with Vivian? Is she&mdash;has she been ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then ... God! man, what are you trying to tell me?" His forced calm was
+breaking up. "Out with it&mdash;whatever it is. Is Vivian&mdash;is she <i>dead</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;oh, no." He spoke hurriedly, thankful that he could at least answer
+that question in the negative.</p>
+
+<p>"Then ... what is it? Come, Barry"&mdash;Owen spoke through his teeth in a
+hoarse tone quite unlike his usual voice&mdash;"if Vivian is not dead, not
+ill ... what is this wonderful piece of news I might have read in the
+papers&mdash;and did not?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's tense silence, broken only by the crackling of the
+gay little fire on the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>Then Barry said heavily:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Rees was married to Lord Saxonby this morning."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+
+<p>For a moment there was a silence fraught with a thousand possibilities.
+Then Owen sprang from his seat and crossing the intervening space, as it
+were in a bound, seized his friend savagely by the shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Say that again, Barry! Say it if you <i>dare</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>With a fury of which he was unconscious he shook the other man
+violently; and Barry broke away with an expression of annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God, Owen, what do you think you're doing? What do you mean by
+attacking me like this!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to knock your damned head off for telling me a lie!" His tone
+was dangerous. "How dare you say that Vivian is married when you <i>know</i>
+she is engaged to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Owen." Barry stood facing him, panting a little. "It's only
+because you're my pal that I don't retaliate in kind. Any other man who
+calls me a liar has to go through it, and that's a fact. But as it's
+you, and as I know I've done the business badly&mdash;well"&mdash;his voice grew
+suddenly wistful&mdash;"let's sit down and talk it over quietly, shall we?"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his tone made the other man turn cold; and when he replied
+his manner had lost its vehemence.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Barry, I'm sorry I attacked you like that. The fact is,
+I ... I think I can't have understood rightly what you were trying to
+tell me. You said something just now about Miss Rees being married to
+Lord Saxonby. Well, what, exactly, did you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>The very quietness with which he spoke made it still more difficult for
+Barry to answer him.</p>
+
+<p>"I meant just what I said." He fidgeted nervously with a cigarette as he
+spoke. "Miss Rees was married&mdash;quietly&mdash;to Lord Saxonby this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Lord Saxonby? You mean that chap who hung round her before I went
+away?" Owen's voice was studiously self-controlled, but his hand shook
+as he played with a silver pencil-case on the table before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. That's the man."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." For a moment he bent his head over the table, and when he
+looked up Barry understood that he had accepted the truth at last. "So
+she's played me false, has she? Married another fellow without troubling
+to let me know. Well, there's no more to be said, I suppose. I must make
+up my mind to be the laughing-stock of my friends, to be pointed at by
+men and women, jeered at in the clubs, as the fellow who was
+jilted ... thrown over for another fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>He paused; then resumed in a louder tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an ugly word, Barry&mdash;jilted. And by Jove, it's an ugly thing. Odd
+how naturally women take to it, isn't it? They won't steal, as a
+rule&mdash;draw the line at murder, but they think nothing of making damned
+fools of men who are insane enough to believe in them!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed bitterly; and his eyes looked grim.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been quite easy to let me know, wouldn't it?" He flung
+the question at his friend. "A sixpenny wire&mdash;even a cable wouldn't have
+ruined her, would it? And it would have been much less brutal than to
+let me come home expecting to find a blushing bride waiting for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I expect she ... she thought you'd see it in the papers," said Barry
+rather lamely. "Although it was kept pretty quiet here there were
+paragraphs about it, of course, and she may have supposed you would see
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly the thing to leave it to chance," said Owen drily. "After all,
+when one gets out of an invitation to dinner, one generally sends an
+excuse; but ..." he broke off, and his eyes blazed suddenly "... look
+here, Barry, you know, and I know, that this woman has played a low-down
+trick on me. I thought her&mdash;well, no matter what I thought her&mdash;but
+anyway I know her now for what she is. And I'll be infinitely obliged to
+you if you'll be good enough to drop the subject now and for evermore."</p>
+
+<p>"I say, old chap, I'm awfully sorry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Barry's impulsive speech got no further, for the other raised his hand
+to cut it short.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Barry, we'll take it all as said. Henceforth no such person
+as Miss Rees&mdash;I mean Lady Saxonby&mdash;exists for me; and if you'll remember
+that it will make things easier for us both."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Owen." Barry felt emboldened to light a cigarette; and then,
+with a tactlessness born of mental discomfort, he asked a blundering
+question. "What shall you do now, old man? Have another shot at big game
+for a bit, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Another shot&mdash;I say, Barry, why on earth should I go back the moment
+I've got home? Oh, I see!" He smiled cynically. "You mean town won't be
+very pleasant for a bit? Well, I daresay it won't, but thank God no one
+will dare to say much to me!" His jaw squared itself rather
+aggressively. "But I don't intend to quit. On the contrary, my firm
+intention is to remain here, do some good work, and, incidentally,
+marry."</p>
+
+<p>Barry swung round and faced him, openly surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Marry? But&mdash;whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know ... at the moment; but someone. You look astonished,
+Barry! Why shouldn't I marry? Ah, I see! You think because one woman's
+turned me down no one else will care to risk her happiness with me!
+Well, of course my value is considerably depreciated, no doubt; but
+after all, men are in the minority, and I daresay I'll be able to find
+some girl to take pity on me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk like that, Owen!" Barry spoke hastily, and his blue eyes
+looked rather stern. "You don't want a girl to take you out of pity, do
+you? That's not much of a basis for a happy marriage, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Barry." He took the rebuke well. "I was talking like a fool. But
+honestly, I do mean to marry&mdash;as soon as possible. Oh, I daresay I'm
+taking it the wrong way, but it seems to me that there's only one thing
+for a man in my position to do, and that is to show that he's not
+heart-broken because one unscrupulous woman has treated him badly!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well&mdash;but what about the other woman? Are you going to
+marry the first girl you meet, irrespective of love, or what <i>are</i> you
+going to do? I can understand your feeling for Miss Rees has changed its
+nature&mdash;love and hate are akin, I know, but still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Barry, you're wrong." He spoke very gently. "I don't <i>hate</i> Vivian.
+Why should I? She merely exercised her feminine prerogative and changed
+her mind. Besides, one only hates big things. Vivian isn't big. She's
+very small, or she'd not have done this thing. If she'd asked me to
+release her, I'd have done it, and never have uttered a reproach. It's
+the heartlessness, the unnecessary cruelty of this that hurts me so. I
+loved her, Barry, and she knew it. Loved her in the right way, in the
+way a man should love the woman he's going to marry; and my love meant
+so little to her that she chucked it away without even telling me she
+was tired of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But to marry, out of revenge, as it were, is small too."</p>
+
+<p>"Out of revenge? Come, Barry, what are you thinking of?" Owen rose and
+spoke with an eerie joviality. "There'll be no revenge about it! Mayn't
+I marry and settle down like another man? I'll guarantee that the first
+woman who wants me can have me; and if she plays the game she shan't
+regret it, for I'll play it too!"</p>
+
+<p>"But where will you look for her?" Barry could not understand this
+attitude of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Look for her? Oh, I'll look for her all right&mdash;and she'll turn up,
+never fear!" He moved restlessly. "There's always some woman ready to
+enter a man's life when he throws the door ajar&mdash;and here I'm positively
+flinging it open, inviting the little dears to come in!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, I say, Owen"&mdash;Barry looked anxiously at his
+friend&mdash;"you ... you'll be careful, won't you? I mean, you won't let any
+twopenny-halfpenny little chorus-girl, or ... or girl out of a shop come
+in, will you? You see, if you let them all know...."</p>
+
+<p>"Chorus-girls are sometimes worth a good deal more than
+twopence-halfpenny," Owen reminded him quietly, "and I daresay a girl
+out of a shop would make a jolly decent wife. But I wasn't contemplating
+them when I spoke."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," assented Barry hastily. "I only meant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You only meant to give me good advice," said Owen, more kindly than he
+had yet spoken. "All right, old man, I understand. You must forgive me
+if I'm cross-grained to-night. You see I've had a shock&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"There, I'm not going to whine about it. It's over, done with, and a new
+chapter's started." He yawned ostentatiously. "Barry, I shall call upon
+your good offices as best man yet&mdash;unless you hurry up and marry Miss
+Lynn first."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Olive and I are in no hurry!" He laughed a trifle awkwardly. "You
+see, she is so young&mdash;only just eighteen&mdash;and her people won't hear of
+it for a couple of years."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that will soon pass." He turned towards the door. "I must be off
+now, Barry&mdash;it's late, and I'm pretty fagged. See you in the morning, I
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. I say, Owen, sure you won't stay here to-night? I can give
+you a bed, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks awfully, old chap, but I'd rather get home. I've heaps of things
+to see to. Thanks all the same."</p>
+
+<p>Still talking, the friends crossed the hall, and Barry unlatched the
+door of the flat.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so-long, Barry. Awfully glad to have seen you again." He gripped
+the younger man's hand, and Barry understood what the grip implied.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Owen. See you to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Two minutes later Owen had disappeared round a bend in the staircase;
+and Barry went slowly back into his sitting-room, feeling curiously
+tired, as though he had been indulging in some violent physical
+exercise.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old chap! What a beast that girl is!" He had never liked Miss
+Rees, and now felt, naturally, that his dislike was justified. "But I
+hope to goodness he doesn't go and do anything rash. He's got a pretty
+good head on him, though, and I daresay a lot of this talk is mere
+bravado."</p>
+
+<p>He turned off the light and went into his bedroom. On the dressing-table
+stood a silver frame holding a photograph; and Barry took up the frame
+and studied the portrait carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Olive, you'd never play me a trick like that, would you! My God, I hope
+you don't! It would just about kill me to have to lose faith in you!"</p>
+
+<p>The deep eyes looked up at him candidly, the sweet mouth seemed to
+smile; and with a sudden blissful certainty that the original of the
+photograph was as true and straightforward as the picture proclaimed her
+to be, Barry put down the frame again, and began, whistling, to prepare
+for bed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+
+<p>A month later Barry relinquished his post as secretary to the man he
+called "old Joliffe," and announced himself to be from henceforth at
+Owen's disposal.</p>
+
+<p>The review to which the latter had alluded was a long-standing ideal of
+Owen Rose's. From his earliest youth he had been attracted by the
+journalistic side of life, and seeing no means of editing a London daily
+at an early age, he had wisely determined to learn the whole business of
+newspaper journalism from the beginning. At the ago of eighteen he was
+sub-editor on a big provincial daily; but his brilliant and versatile
+intelligence soon wearied of the monotony of the life, and he came to
+London to demand the right of admittance into Fleet Street.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, luckily for himself, he was on terms of friendship with a
+well-known editor; and what his own talent might have found difficulty
+in obtaining was placed unexpectedly within his reach. Before he was
+twenty-five he was well-known in the newspaper world; and since, on his
+twenty-fifth birthday, he came into possession of the comfortable income
+left to him by his father many years before, he was able to turn his
+back definitely on any soul-destroying drudgery and devote his time and
+brains to better work. Beneath his journalistic ability there was a
+sound and delicate literary <i>flair</i>; and it had long been his dream to
+found a magazine which, while neither commonplace nor unduly "precious,"
+should hit a happy mean between the cheap magazines devoted to more or
+less poor fiction, and the somewhat pompous reviews which held up the
+light of learning and research in a rather severe and forbidding
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>He would have a little fiction&mdash;of the highest order. A comparatively
+large portion of the review was to be devoted to poetry, both as
+regarded original verse and the critical appreciation of modern poetry
+as a whole. Articles on art, music, the drama, were all to find a home
+in his pages; and there was to be a judicious sprinkling of science to
+add a little ballast to the lighter freight.</p>
+
+<p>But what he intended to be the striking feature of the review was the
+tone which was to prevail throughout. It was to be warm, eager,
+enthusiastic, optimistic. He intended himself to write a series of
+articles dealing with the future in relation to the past. Each
+subject&mdash;music, literature, humanitarianism, mysticism, and a dozen
+others&mdash;would be treated in turn; and while in no wise belittling the
+magic inventiveness of an age which has given us an Edison, a Marconi,
+and a whole host of brilliant explorers, birdmen, and others equally
+daring and distinguished, he intended to remember always the enormous
+debt which we of this century owe to the glorious past.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly in Owen's very enthusiasm, in the eager, ardent spirit of his
+dreams, there was more of the spirit of the future than of the past&mdash;but
+he intended to hold the balance as evenly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>On one point he was firm. While hoping that his review would be in every
+way a serious contribution to the more valuable literature of the day,
+the literature which was worth something, he intended it to be strictly
+non-political. There would be no room within its covers for writers with
+axes to grind. No acrimonious discussions, thinly-veiled in pedantry,
+should mar the harmony of the pages; no party cries should echo from the
+editorial offices; and although he aimed, in some measure, at
+instructing and uplifting his readers, it was their betterment as human
+beings, rather than as citizens&mdash;so far as the two may be divorced&mdash;with
+which he intended to concern himself.</p>
+
+<p>He was fortunate in his collaborators. At his back he had an old friend
+of his fathers', a gifted, if somewhat inarticulate, man of letters, who
+had longed, in his early life, for the opportunity to do what Owen was
+doing; and was generous enough to feel that, though his own working days
+were over, he might well use a little of his wealth in helping another
+man to realize their mutual dream.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was to be on a strictly business-like footing. Owen, as
+editor, was to receive a moderate salary&mdash;moderate because he felt that
+in the circumstances the backing he received was worth more than any
+emolument. Also he was sufficiently well-off to waive the matter if he
+chose until the review was on firm financial ground. Barry, as his
+personal secretary and general second-in-command, was to receive a
+generous sum; and the rest of the men, all young, ardent, and fired with
+a whole-hearted belief in Owen as their chief, were to be remunerated
+according to their work and ability.</p>
+
+<p>A certain Miss Lucy Jenkins had been selected as typewriter and
+assistant at what seemed to her the princely sum of forty shillings a
+week; and by the beginning of February activity at headquarters, a
+pleasant, though not palatial suite of offices in Victoria Street,
+Westminster, was in full swing.</p>
+
+<p>The first number of the <i>Bridge</i> was to make its appearance at Easter;
+and Owen was meditating one morning over the possible inclusion of a
+little set of verses which had reached him from a hitherto-unknown
+contributor, when Barry appeared in the doorway leading to his inner
+sanctum with a worried look in his frank blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Barry, anything wrong?" Owen put down the paper he held and
+looked at his young colleague with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's no end of a bore!" Barry frowned distastefully. "That stupid
+Jenkins woman has gone and landed herself in Holloway!"</p>
+
+<p>"Holloway?" Owen repeated the word in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I knew she was a Militant Suffragette, but I thought she would
+have more sense than to go mixing herself up in brawls with the police!"</p>
+
+<p>"And she hasn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. On Saturday afternoon"&mdash;this was Monday&mdash;"she went and marched in a
+procession of women out to smash windows or something of the sort, got
+into a row and kicked a bobby in the ribs. The end was she got locked up
+that night."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brought up before the magistrate this morning and sentenced to fourteen
+days without an option for violence," said Barry laconically. "I've just
+had a note from her mother, who's nearly distracted, begging me to keep
+her place open for her, but I don't see how we can do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," said Owen decidedly. "I'll have no militant women on my
+staff, and the sooner they understand that the better. She wasn't any
+great treasure, either. She was too fond of revising the stuff she had
+to type; and her ideas and mine clashed considerably when it came to
+punctuation."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I must advertise for someone to take her place, then," said
+Barry, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Get a younger girl this time, if you can. Miss Jenkins had reached
+the certain&mdash;or uncertain&mdash;age when women take to militant suffragism.
+She didn't like being corrected when she made mistakes, and used to
+argue with me till you'd have thought it was she who ran the office, and
+not I."</p>
+
+<p>"All right. I'll do my best."</p>
+
+<p>"Not too young, though," said Owen, half-maliciously, "or she'll be
+thinking about her best boy all day instead of working. Of course that's
+a bit better than militancy, less upsetting; but women are so
+incomprehensible when they're in what they are pleased to call love that
+it's rather difficult to know what they're driving at."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right!" Owen's flippancy disturbed Barry, and he spoke shortly,
+whereupon Owen smiled meaningly, and Barry went out of the room rather
+hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>Once safe in his own sanctum he lamented the unkind Fate which had given
+Owen's heart as a plaything into the hands of an unscrupulous woman such
+as Miss Rees had proved herself to be. Although Owen rarely mentioned
+the subject, Barry knew well enough that he had not relinquished the
+idea of a speedy marriage. Once or twice Owen had asked him his opinion
+of this or that woman with whom they were both acquainted; but so far he
+had shown no signs of forming any new engagement, though Barry lived in
+a state of apprehension lest his friend should suddenly announce a more
+or less undesirable tie.</p>
+
+<p>For Owen, perhaps naturally, shunned the women of his own set. They all
+knew too much, knew the history of his disastrous engagement too
+well&mdash;were, in many cases, friends of the woman who had jilted him; and
+were therefore no acquaintances for a man in his mood.</p>
+
+<p>But there were other women, with whom, before his departure for the
+East, he had been on terms of casual acquaintance; the daughters of City
+friends, girls who lived in Kensington or Hampstead, girls with brothers
+who had knocked up against the young men in athletic or journalistic
+circles; an actress or two; good-hearted, ordinary young women for the
+most part, commonplace in spite of suburban leanings towards "culture,"
+and in many cases entirely out of sympathy with the aims and ideals of
+both Owen and his friend.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact Owen and Barry were too busy during these strenuous
+days to have time for social delights; but now and then they met one or
+other of these various girls, visited one of the actresses on a "first
+night," dined, reluctantly, in Earl's Court or Belsize Road, and on the
+following morning Owen would ask Barry, half-teasingly, whether Rose or
+Sybil or Gwendoline struck him as the most suitable bride for an already
+jilted bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>Barry never took up the subject, showed plainly by his manner that he
+did not like the jest; but the occasional queries went to show that the
+idea of marriage was still in his friend's thoughts; and Barry was now
+and again seriously uneasy lest some designing woman&mdash;that was the way
+he put it&mdash;should make the vague possibility into an accomplished fact.</p>
+
+<p>And then, just when the idea seemed to be fading, lost in the pressure
+of work, the interest of bringing forth the first realization of a
+lifelong dream, the woman herself&mdash;but she was not designing&mdash;came.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Miss Antonia Gibbs came from the typewriting office with excellent
+testimonials. Though but eighteen years of age, she was vouched for as a
+steady, conscientious worker, well-educated and of exceptional
+intelligence. Quick, accurate, and possessed of a capital memory, she
+would seem to be the ideal typist for an office such as that presided
+over by Owen Rose; and after perusing the certificates and other
+documents forming what one might call her <i>dossier</i>, Owen had really no
+choice but to engage the prodigy.</p>
+
+<p>When she received the letter announcing the fact Miss Gibbs danced with
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Two pounds a week! Think of it!" Thus she besought her cousin Fanny, a
+rather full-blown young woman employed in a "drapery-house" at Brixton.
+"And easy hours&mdash;with an hour off for lunch! Isn't it lovely!"</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have the office 'commish' to pay," her cousin reminded her, "and
+I know all about those short hours! Sound well, but they generally want
+overtime out of you&mdash;without paying for it either!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do they?" Antonia's joy was momentarily checked. Then she recovered her
+spirits. "Anyway, even then it's a good post, and I can easily pay the
+commission out of two pounds!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course." Fanny, whose natural optimism was somewhat impaired by
+her experience in drapers' shops, cheered up also. "It's a grand
+opportunity for you, Toni, and mind you make the most of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather," returned Toni gaily. "I'm to start to-morrow, so this is my
+last free night. Aren't you glad some people are coming in to tea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Fanny, recalled to the immediate present, began her preparations
+for the tea-party. "Josh'll be pleased to hear of your luck, Toni; he's
+real fond of you, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he?" Toni, pulling off her flannel blouse, spoke a trifle absently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. If I weren't fond of you myself I declare I'd be jealous! Don't
+know how it is, all the boys seem to take to you straight away, Toni,
+and you don't care a pin for any of 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that's why," said Toni cheerfully, voicing a truth without in
+the least realizing it. "After all, who is there to care for? Jack
+Brown, or young Graves, or that funny little Walter Britton out of Lea
+and Harper's?" She plunged her glowing face into a basin of cold water
+as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I s'pose they're not quite your sort." Fanny stared thoughtfully at
+her cousin. "I don't know how it is, Toni&mdash;you are my cousin, your
+father was Dad's own brother&mdash;and yet you're as different from us as&mdash;as
+chalk from cheese."</p>
+
+<p>She in her turn had uttered a profound truth. Between Toni and the rest
+of the commonplace lower-middle-class household was a great gulf fixed,
+a gulf which was the more inexplicable because it was clearly visible to
+the parties on either side of the chasm.</p>
+
+<p>Red-faced, brawny Fred Gibbs, the butcher, his equally red-faced, though
+slightly more refined wife, and their several sons and daughters,
+belonging, most of them, to the category of "fine" boys and girls, were
+a good-humoured, kindly people enough; yet between them and the pretty,
+dark-eyed Antonia there was not the slightest vestige of resemblance,
+either in looks, manners, or disposition.</p>
+
+<p>Not that Toni gave herself airs. On the contrary, she was the most
+cheerful and light-hearted little soul in the world. She flung herself
+bodily into all the family's interests and pursuits, helped her uncle
+with his books and her aunt with her housework, was Fanny's sworn
+confidante and ally in all matters of the heart. The younger children
+adored her for her good looks, her vivacity, her high spirits; and even
+the flashes of rage which now and then marred her usually sunny temper
+were fascinating in their very fire.</p>
+
+<p>Yet&mdash;with it all she was not, never would be, one of them. Fanny was
+inclined to put it down to her foreign blood&mdash;for Toni's mother had been
+Italian. The elder Gibbs fancied the girl's superior education was
+responsible&mdash;for Toni had been to a real "Seminary for Young Ladies," in
+contradistinction to the Council School attended by her cousins; while
+as for Toni herself, though she was as fully conscious as the rest that
+she was "different, somehow," she could never say, with any certainty,
+in what the difference lay.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a psychologist would have found Antonia's position an
+interesting one. Briefly, her history was this.</p>
+
+<p>The Gibbs were North-Country people, a good old yeoman family who had
+been in service with an older and more aristocratic people in the county
+of Yorkshire. The family, however, had begun, a few generations back, to
+die out. Instead of the usual lusty sons, only daughters had been born
+to most of the Gibbs, and they in their turn married and died, in the
+nature of things relinquishing their own name, until there were few
+left.</p>
+
+<p>So the race dwindled, until old Matthew Gibbs and his two sons Fred and
+Roger were the last representatives of the old stock; and to the
+father's bitter disappointment neither boy would consent to settle down
+on the farm and carry out the tradition of the family. Fred, always a
+pushing, commercially-minded lad, found farming too slow and
+unprofitable to satisfy him, and he took service in a butcher's shop at
+York, as a first step towards his goal, London, in which city he
+eventually made his home, married a Cockney girl, and settled down for
+the rest of his prosperous life.</p>
+
+<p>The second son, Roger, early showed a desire to travel; and though his
+father would have kept him at home, he realized that after all youth
+will be served, and let the boy go out into the world as soon as he had
+passed his eighteenth birthday.</p>
+
+<p>Being possessed of unlimited confidence, exceptional strength and a
+light-hearted determination to make something of life, Roger was
+successful from the start. As is often her way with those from whom she
+means, later, to exact a heavy toll, Fate smiled upon the good-looking
+young man who faced her so gaily. He got one post after another:
+secretary, mechanic, groom&mdash;for he was equally clever with hands and
+head. In this or that capacity he travelled quite extensively for some
+years, and finally, having a natural bent for languages, came to Rome in
+the position of courier to a rich American family. It happened that the
+daughter of the house had an Italian maid, a beautiful, refined girl
+from Southern Italy; and the young people quickly fell in love. In spite
+of his apparent irresponsibility Roger had saved a little money, and
+within six months he had married his Italian girl and carried her off to
+live in a village on the side of a mountain not far from Naples, where
+for four blissful years they lived in perfect contentment.</p>
+
+<p>Old Matthew Gibbs, having in his later years sustained heavy
+agricultural losses, was dead, and there was nothing to call Roger back
+to England. He much preferred, indeed, to remain in the South, and as
+their wants were simple he and his wife were able to live quite
+comfortably on Roger's own little bit of money and the few <i>lire</i> he
+made through the kindly offices of the village priest, who liked the gay
+young Englishman and put many odd jobs&mdash;translation, the acting as
+interpreter and guide to tourists, and other things of the sort&mdash;in his
+way.</p>
+
+<p>When Toni came to complete the trio, their happiness was complete; and
+for three years after her birth the little house on the hill-side was
+the home of joy and love and all the pleasant domestic virtues and
+graces.</p>
+
+<p>When the child was three years old, the elder Antonia, herself only a
+girl, died, after twenty-four hours' fever; and in one black hour Roger
+paid for all the sunny days with which Fortune had so lavishly endowed
+him.</p>
+
+<p>When at length he summoned up resolution to face the future he
+determined, with a passionate desire to carry out his young wife's
+unspoken entreaty, to devote himself to his child; and with this
+intention he stayed on bravely in the little home from which the
+sunshine had departed.</p>
+
+<p>For nearly six years they lived together in the tiny village near
+Naples; and gradually the pall began to lift from the young man's
+spirit, and the sunshine and the flowers, the blue sky and sea, and the
+snow-capped mountains made their appeal once again to the warm, ardent
+soul which sorrow had darkened.</p>
+
+<p>During these six years father and daughter had lived frugally, almost as
+the peasants lived; yet with a daintiness, an order, which were unknown
+to the peasants. The little Antonia&mdash;Toni, as they called her&mdash;grew
+straight and strong as she played on the mountain slopes, or ate the
+simple meals of grapes and bread and goat's flesh provided for her by
+the old housekeeper, Fiammetta, who ruled both the pretty child and the
+handsome young father with a rule of iron which yet made life a very
+well-ordered and gracious existence.</p>
+
+<p>But when Toni had almost reached her ninth birthday the change came. The
+good old priest died; and with the death of his sole friend Roger Gibbs
+found life in the village impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell, it was a marvel he had borne it so long. Only a numbing
+blow such as he had received could have stunned his faculties into
+acquiescence with this sleepy, uneventful existence; and now, suddenly,
+his soul awoke from its peaceful slumber and demanded life, and yet more
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Italy became all at once unendurable. The nomad spirit was aroused, and
+nothing would satisfy the man but a fresh start in life's pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<p>His little daughter, too, must be educated; and although he loved the
+child with all the concentrated passion of a man who has lost the woman
+of whom the child is his only memento, he yet felt that the time had
+come when he must shake himself free from the trammels of domesticity
+and live once again the life of a man in some free, wild,
+adventure-filled land.</p>
+
+<p>A month after Father Pietro's death Roger and his little daughter
+Antonia were in England. The father's first object was to seek out his
+brother Fred and see if he and his wife would take charge of the child
+for a short time; and this he found both Fred and his comely spouse very
+willing to do. There were other children in the home who were only too
+ready to welcome the pretty little Toni; and after a stay of some weeks
+in the noisy Brixton house Roger Gibbs had bidden his little daughter
+farewell, and had gone forth once more, this time as assistant purser on
+a liner, a post to which one of his former employers had assisted him
+opportunely. It was a chance to see more of the world, and the man
+embraced it gladly enough, though it would certainly prove irksome in
+the end.</p>
+
+<p>After that it was long before Toni saw her father again. At regular
+intervals he sent money for her maintenance; and she grew up with her
+cousins, attending the big Council School in the next street with them,
+and sharing in all the ups and downs of the Gibbs family.</p>
+
+<p>When she was thirteen Roger returned from an expedition to Peru, in the
+course of which he had amassed a respectable sum of money, and father
+and daughter met again, a meeting fraught, on Roger's side, with
+something like disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Four years of London life had transformed the olive-skinned, dreamy-eyed
+child into a pale, long-legged girl who, although she had not lost her
+soft Southern voice, used the colloquialisms of street and playground
+with unpleasing fluency. True, she wore her shabby clothes with an air
+of grace, but contact with other children had developed her into a
+sharp, somewhat pert <i>gamine</i>, who was reputed quick at her lessons, but
+equally, and less meritoriously, quick with her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Within her father's mind disillusionment reigned supreme. Naturally, it
+was not the fault of the child that she had taken on so quickly the
+colour of her environment; nor, fortunately, was it too late to overlay
+those traits with other and more pleasing characteristics. But thinking
+of the soft-eyed, gentle, loving Italian girl he had married, Roger
+resolved that her child should have another chance before it was too
+late; and with that object in mind he scoured the neighbourhood until he
+found what suited him, a quiet, old-fashioned ladies' school, conducted
+by two prim but kindly women who appeared to him likely to have the
+influence he sought.</p>
+
+<p>The Misses Holland were interested in his story, pleased with the idea
+of softening and refining the child, half-Italian, half-Londoner, and
+made things easy for the bronzed and handsome father; with the result
+that from that time Toni's connection with the Council School ceased,
+and she became a boarder, on surprisingly low terms, at the aforesaid
+School for Young Ladies; where she remained until she was close on
+seventeen.</p>
+
+<p>These years were the turning point of Antonia's life. Here, in company
+with twenty other girls, somewhat above her in station, she learnt,
+among other things, the virtues of gentleness, quietness in voice and
+movement, unselfishness, and many kindred things; and those years of
+happy, monotonous toil, broken only by pleasant, friendly treats, or
+gentle, old-fashioned punishments, were full of use and value to the
+growing girl.</p>
+
+<p>On her seventeenth birthday she was to leave school for good; and it had
+been settled that her father was then to return to England and make a
+home for her&mdash;a hope which the girl had hugged to her heart through all
+these quiet years.</p>
+
+<p>But on the very day which should have seen her emancipation something
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>The liner on which Roger was hastening back to England, after a year in
+the East, went down in a mighty gale off Gibraltar; and Roger Gibbs was
+among the drowned.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Of course all hope of that little home was at an end now. No more
+remittances could be looked for, the store of money left for her
+education was all spent; and though it seemed incredible that Roger
+should have made no provision for his daughter's future, such indeed
+proved to be the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Doubtless he had intended to settle down, to obtain some post in
+England; but as things turned out there was nothing left for Antonia.
+Let it be said at once that her relations behaved well. The Misses
+Holland, too, would have taken her to help in the school but for the
+unexpected advent of a needy niece of their own; but from the first
+Antonia set her face against teaching.</p>
+
+<p>She did not like it, would rather go in for business, she said; and the
+upshot of it all was that after some time she managed to obtain a post
+in a large typewriting office in order to learn the work, after which
+she was required to give her services for a period of twelve months for
+a nominal salary in return for the teaching and business training
+bestowed upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a very good bargain; but she closed with it in lieu of a
+better opening; and when, in a few weeks from the date of her aunt's
+tea-party, she would be free to earn her living in her own way, she
+would be able to defray the expense to which that same aunt had been put
+during her time of apprenticeship.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>So rapid is thought that between the beginning and ending of the task of
+changing her outdoor shoes and stockings for slightly better ones,
+Antonia's quick mind had flashed back over those years which had, so she
+owned to herself, made all the difference; but not for worlds would she
+have let her cousin know that she recognized any such difference.</p>
+
+<p>"Different! Not a bit of it!" She looked up and spoke with more warmth
+than usual. "And as for the boys liking me&mdash;well, you're engaged, and
+I'm not!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, there is that to be said!" Fanny regarded with affection the
+cheap gold ring, set with imitation rubies, which adorned her plump
+hand. "But you know, Toni, you could got Mr. Dowson any minute if you
+tried!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dowson!" Toni, occupied in brushing out her black hair, tossed her
+head with a little foreign gesture peculiar to her. "Why, Fan, how could
+I marry Mr. Dowson! He's very nice, and good-hearted, but his chest is
+narrow, and he's going bald!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's not his fault," returned Fanny practically, "and it's not
+with age either, because he's quite young. I expect it's with studying
+so hard."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay&mdash;but still ... of course he's clever," owned Toni rather
+grudgingly, "he must be, to be a dentist, but&mdash;no, Fan, I'm not going to
+marry Mr. Dowson, so there!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right." Fanny was a philosopher. "You know your own business
+best. Will you do me up, dear, and tell me how you like my frock? I
+think myself it's rather striking."</p>
+
+<p>Thus besought, Toni stuck the last pin-casually in her hair and came to
+give her assistance in the matter of "doing up."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Frances Gibbs' dress was composed of a bright rose-pink voile,
+bought cheaply at a sale, ornamented with a sash of ribbon of an equally
+vivid hue of violet; and striking it certainly was, in the sense that
+one felt inclined to collapse at sight of it. Miss Gibbs' figure being
+of the order which dressmakers call "full," the effect was distinctly
+startling; and as Fanny had carefully arranged her abundant hair in as
+many rolls as she could possibly manage, it is to be inferred that she
+presented a more overpowering effect than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Although, possibly owing to her Italian blood, Toni herself had a
+weakness for bright colours, on other people, this daring juxtaposition
+of pink and violet was a trifle bizarre even for her taste; and she
+looked critically at Fanny as the latter paraded under the gas jet in
+order to show off the "creation" to its best advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Fanny's tone was anxious; and Antonia flung scruple to the
+winds.</p>
+
+<p>"It's lovely, Fan, and you look scrumptious in it!" She hastily produced
+from a paper bag a bunch of violets she had intended for her own
+adornment. "Here, let me pin these in for you, they will finish you off
+beautifully."</p>
+
+<p>"But they're yours, Toni!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind me!" Toni laughed recklessly. "I've not got a Josh
+waiting for me downstairs&mdash;and anyway, I don't much care to wear
+flowers, they die so quickly, poor dears."</p>
+
+<p>Her own frock, an oft-washed white muslin, was donned in a second. A
+bright green ribbon round her waist, a pair of greenstone earrings put
+in beneath the clustering black hair, giving her a quaintly picturesque
+look, and Antonia was ready for the evening's jollity.</p>
+
+<p>As the cousins ran downstairs together, an appetising smell of roasting
+chickens came to their nostrils, and Toni sniffed appreciatively.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish Uncle Fred had a birthday every week! Isn't it fun having people
+in and playing games afterwards!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rather, but I wish we'd been going to the theatre!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so do I," conceded Toni, "but anyhow this is better than one of
+our usual dull evenings!"</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later the feast was in full progress. The table in the
+little "front room" literally groaned with good things; indeed, so
+liberally was it provided that half-way through the meal the butcher
+insisted on removing the vase of chrysanthemums which stood proudly in
+the middle on a green paper mat, alleging as he did so that "them
+flowers took up a sight too much room"&mdash;an axiom to which he stuck in
+spite of his daughter's remonstrances.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the family there were three guests. Mr. Joshua Lee who was
+engaged to Fanny, naturally had the place of honour beside her; and from
+that vantage ground he played the part of prospective son-in-law to
+perfection, removing the plates, running about in search of a mislaid
+salt-cellar, and generally acquitting himself, so Fanny thought proudly,
+like a perfect gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>The other two guests were less busy. One of them, Mr. Britton, sat
+beside his hostess and carried on an animated conversation with her as
+to the nature and effect of the various patent medicines they had
+mutually sampled; while the remaining guest, Mr. Dowson, sat next to
+Antonia, and endeavoured, without much success, to attract her attention
+to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Halfway through one of his most intimate speeches Toni interrupted him
+ruthlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Jean, where's Lu?"</p>
+
+<p>"Got smacked and sent to bed for stealing jam," her youngest cousin
+informed her unctuously. "My! She did howl! I guess Ma thumped her
+pretty well!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did whip her rather hard," confessed Mrs. Gibbs half-apologetically.
+"I was real vexed with her when I found her with her fingers in the jar!
+But there, she's been wanting a smacking long enough, and I expect it'll
+do her good," she finished up cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Lu! And she'd been so looking forward to to-night!" Toni's soft
+heart was wrung for the culprit. "Did she have any tea, Auntie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not she. I sent her straight off to bed." Mrs. Gibbs' tone was uneasy
+now. "And she didn't eat no dinner to-day, she was that excited!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, poor Lu! Can't I take her up something, Aunt Jean?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gibbs appeared to consider the question, though everyone at the
+table knew very well that her mother-heart had relented towards her
+darling long ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't mind if you do take her just a bite," she said presently;
+and amid much laughter and sympathetic joking a tray was fitted out with
+various delicacies and entrusted to the willing hands of Antonia.</p>
+
+<p>Up she went, finding Lu's room in darkness, Lu herself lying sullenly
+awake, refusing to be comforted.</p>
+
+<p>Her plump little person had strongly resented the force of her mother's
+stern hand; but her vanity was more severely hurt by the fact that the
+visitors downstairs would know both the cause and the method of her
+punishment. Therefore she turned away and pretended to be asleep; but
+Toni's gentle hand pulling down the clothes, Toni's soft voice murmuring
+of forgiveness and compensation were too much for the child.</p>
+
+<p>She sat up, disclosing the tear-stains on her round cheeks in the light
+of the candle Toni carried, and allowed herself to be comforted with
+alternate bites of chicken and sips of lemonade.</p>
+
+<p>"That's better!" Toni gave her a plate of trifle, and brushed back the
+tangled curls from the hot little forehead. "Now eat that up and then I
+must run away. They're waiting for me, you know, so when you've finished
+you must give me a kiss and go straight to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Toni." Lu lay obediently down, soothed by the girl's kind tone.
+"I'll go to sleep all right if ... if Ma'll come up and say good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course she will!" Toni smiled at the child's involuntary clinging to
+the mother who had punished her. "I'll tell her you're waiting&mdash;and now
+I must fly! Good-night, Ducky, sleep well!"</p>
+
+<p>She kissed the child, her eyes very soft as she bent over the bed; and
+then, picking up the tray, she ran swiftly downstairs again and
+re-entered the room where tea was rapidly drawing to an end.</p>
+
+<p>"How kind-hearted you are, Miss Toni," said Mr. Dowson admiringly as she
+slipped into her seat beside him. "Lots of people would have said the
+kiddy deserved to be whipped and sent to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I daresay she did, but that didn't make it any better&mdash;for her,"
+laughed Toni, with a vivid remembrance of her aunt's corrective powers.
+"I know what Auntie's whippings are like, you see, and they're no joke!"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean to say Mrs. Gibbs ever dared to ... to punish you, Miss
+Antonia?" His pale-blue eyes were aghast at the thought of such
+sacrilege.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, rather!" Toni laughed joyously at his face of horror. "She's
+whipped me heaps, of times.... I expect I deserved it, too, for I can
+assure you I was never a pattern child!"</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I would like to see anyone venture to lay a hand on you," said
+Mr. Dowson earnestly&mdash;too earnestly for Toni's liking. "Miss Antonia, if
+you ... if you would only give me the right ..."</p>
+
+<p>Bang! An hilariously-disposed little Gibbs had exploded a cracker in the
+young man's ear; and Mr. Dowson, blushing to the very edge of his
+extremely high collar, subsided rather wrathfully.</p>
+
+<p>Much to Antonia's relief the party rose from the table a moment later;
+and with a stern determination in her mind not to allow Mr. Dowson
+another opportunity to make the avowal which she knew very well trembled
+on his lips, Toni bustled gaily about, helping to clear the table and
+make things ready for the evening's festivity.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dowson's pale eyes followed her about rather wistfully. To him the
+white-clad, black-crowned little figure represented a dream&mdash;the
+fulfilment, rather, of an ideal which he had never dared to hope would
+materialize in his own hard-working, rather grey and sordid life.</p>
+
+<p>Although, thanks to a kindly patron, Leonard Dowson had been able to
+carry out his desire and qualify as a dentist, he was under no delusion
+as to his social position. He came of humble, illiterate folk, and he
+knew well enough that in a fashionable, high-class practice he would be
+altogether out of place.</p>
+
+<p>He set up his surgery, therefore, in the populous neighbourhood of
+Brixton; and now, after five years' strenuous toil, he was beginning to
+pay his way, beginning also to dream of a wife to bear him company in
+the dingy, narrow house in which he dwelt.</p>
+
+<p>That Antonia Gibbs would ever consent to be his wife he almost feared to
+believe. He wooed her persistently, quietly, bringing her books&mdash;which
+she seldom opened&mdash;an occasional bunch of flowers, or, more rarely
+still, a box of sweets of some variety which his professional soul
+warranted harmless, for Mr. Dowson was conscientiousness itself, and
+nothing would have persuaded him to place his lady-love's little white
+teeth in jeopardy, even though by such means she might be brought into
+contact with him.</p>
+
+<p>For her sake he scraped and saved, denying himself the least luxury, so
+that if she came to him he could at least offer her a decent home; and
+every act of petty self-sacrifice was sweet to him because it was
+endured for her.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Toni never gave him a second thought. To her, in her vivid youth,
+Mr. Dowson, with his thirty-five years, his prematurely bald head, his
+narrow chest, was a being of another race than her own. She knew&mdash;the
+minx&mdash;that the man was deeply and quietly in love with her, but with the
+unconscious cruelty of youth she ignored his suffering, and possibly
+despised him ever so little that he continued to sigh for something
+which he ought to have known was, for him, unattainable.</p>
+
+<p>Yet to-night, her spirits raised by her unexpected good-fortune, Toni
+showed herself more than usually bewitching; and although she managed to
+stave off the declaration which still trembled on the young man's lips,
+she played games with him in the most friendly fashion, and bade him
+good-night at last with so sweet a smile that he almost fell upon his
+knees then and there and kissed the slim little feet in their cheap
+patent shoes!</p>
+
+<p>He did not do it, fortunately. He retained just sufficient common sense
+to know that the proceeding would have annoyed his divinity; and instead
+he merely squeezed her hand and murmured a few inarticulate words which
+meant a good deal more than they contrived to convey.</p>
+
+<p>Then, arriving at home, he went to bed&mdash;and dreamed of Toni.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni's dreams&mdash;the rainbow dreams of happy youth&mdash;were of a very
+different quality.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+
+<p>Precisely at nine o'clock on the following morning Antonia presented
+herself at the office of the new review; and was forthwith conducted to
+the editor's room.</p>
+
+<p>Here Owen and Barry were waiting for her; and at the sight of the trim
+little figure in the doorway the faces of both men brightened.</p>
+
+<p>In truth Toni was pleasant to look upon. She had taken off her hat and
+coat in the little ante-room, and as she stood there in her black frock,
+with its demure little white turn-down collar, she looked very young,
+very shy, and if the truth must be told, very pretty. Whereupon Barry,
+who loved all pretty girls in a harmless, kindly fashion, rejoiced
+exceedingly; while even Owen, to whom things feminine were at present
+anathema, owned to himself that she was certainly more attractive to
+have about the place than her sour-faced predecessor.</p>
+
+<p>It was Barry who put her at her ease, of course. Not being troubled with
+shyness he greeted her in friendly fashion, bade her come in, and
+pointed out to her the chair, behind the typewriter, which she was
+expected to fill.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, she said, in answer to questioning, she was used to a Remington.
+No, she had never been connected with journalism before. Yes, she was
+well up in ordinary office work, and&mdash;in answer to Owen, this&mdash;she knew
+pretty well the rules of composition, grammar, etc.</p>
+
+<p>"That's good." Owen spoke formally, and Toni decided instantly that she
+liked Mr. Raymond the better of the two. "Well, I have here an article I
+want you to type at once, and then&mdash;can you read proof?"</p>
+
+<p>Blushing, she owned her inability to do so. Privately, she was not at
+all sure what he meant, but dread of Miss Hardy's wrath should she be
+returned to the office marked "Incompetent" forced her to add quickly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm sure I could learn if&mdash;if you wouldn't mind showing me how to
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure you could." Barry spoke kindly and she turned to him with a
+feeling of relief. "When you have typed that article for Mr. Rose I'll
+show you how, and then you'll manage all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Teach her now," advised Rose, looking up from the manuscript he was
+scanning. "This stuff wants a bit of revising, and you might as well do
+something for your living, Barry, you lazy wretch."</p>
+
+<p>Barry smilingly disclaimed any right to the title.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm ready to work as hard as anyone," he said gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"But as I'm only considered fit to do the theatrical criticisms and play
+office-boy to you, Owen, naturally I find time to make holiday now and
+then. Well, Miss ... er ..."</p>
+
+<p>"Gibbs." She supplied him with the name as he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Gibbs? You won't mind being known as 'Our Miss Gibbs,' will you?" His
+tone was free of all offence, and Toni smiled in response. "Now, here's
+a chair for me, and if only our chief will hold his peace for half an
+hour, I'll soon put you wise, as the Yankees say."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down beside her, and pulling a couple of galley proof-sheets
+towards him, began to initiate her into the mysteries of "reading." For
+all his laughing manner he was an excellent teacher; and after twenty
+minutes of his clear and lucid exposition the girl felt she was
+beginning to grasp her lesson thoroughly. She proved, too, wonderfully
+quick at detecting mistakes, and Barry, who had petitioned the heads of
+the office they had selected not to send him any Council School product,
+was pleased to find that her spelling was admirable, her grammar
+passable, and her memory retentive.</p>
+
+<p>As to the meaning which the article they were correcting conveyed to
+her, Barry was a little doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>It was a short summary, by a famous Catholic writer, of some of the
+lesser-understood aspects of mysticism; and Barry suspected that a good
+deal of it was Greek to her, though she did her best to answer him
+intelligently when he questioned her, rather artfully, on the correct
+reading of a somewhat involved sentence.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Toni was wondering inwardly what on earth it was
+all about. Her education, though sound so far as it went, had been
+thoroughly old-fashioned; and at this period of her development it is to
+be feared there were whole tracts of mind and brain left vacant&mdash;for
+Toni belonged, by adoption at least, to a class who read only for
+amusement and occupation, and are not in the least anxious to try their
+mental teeth on any abstract theories or philosophies of life. She was
+at present all for the concrete. Things seen and known were of
+importance, things unseen were alike uninteresting and incredible. The
+abstract virtues were all very well, but life was much too vivid and
+important to allow itself to be ousted by dreams and speculations.</p>
+
+<p>Something of this Barry, who had an almost femininely swift intuition,
+guessed as he sat beside Toni on this first morning; but Toni was much
+too intent on her work to wonder what he thought of her; and by the time
+she had done a little typing, taken down a few letters, and read a short
+proof all by herself, it was one o'clock, and she was dismissed in
+search of lunch.</p>
+
+<p>When she returned, nearly an hour later, she found Owen alone, studying
+a dummy copy of the review; and seeing she was interested, Owen handed
+it over for her to see.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Bridge</i>." She quoted the title a little dubiously. "Is that what
+you call it? But&mdash;what does it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Taking it back into his own hands, Owen pointed with a pencil to the
+design on the cover.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the Bridge, you see, and this stream of people passing over it
+symbolize the present generation. This side of the bridge represents the
+past, from which the present comes; this, over the bridge, is the
+future, towards which the pilgrims are hastening. The idea is to bridge
+the gulf between past and future, between the old worlds and the new;
+and with that in mind we try, while never neglecting the storehouse of
+the past, to point to the future, with all its wonderful, and as yet
+unwon, rewards and discoveries."</p>
+
+<p>She murmured a word or two, and he went on with a note of enthusiasm in
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Personally, I look to the future with confidence. Some people say
+the golden age of poetry, of music and letters generally, is past;
+but I don't agree. I think that there will be a fresh Renaissance
+presently, that there will be found fresh hands to pass on the sacred
+torch ... there's a flood of brilliant youth let loose in the world just
+now; and every bit of help the <i>Bridge</i> can give is at the service of
+that marvellous band."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off suddenly, the light of the visionary gleaming in his eyes;
+but seeing, with a slight pang of disappointment, that his outburst was
+unintelligible to his hearer, he threw down the paper and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There, Miss Gibbs, I have finished! Don't start me on the subject
+unless you're ready to be bored. Talk to Barry about it&mdash;he is able to
+look upon the <i>Bridge</i> quite sanely, as a means of providing bread and
+butter; but I'm afraid I'm a bit of a fanatic."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, uncertain of her ground, but desperately anxious to appear
+intelligent, murmured something shyly, and Rose pulled out his watch
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"After two already! Well, Miss Gibbs, I'm off for lunch. You might just
+sort these papers out a bit, will you? We seem to have let things get
+into rather a muddle."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do it at once. There would be plenty of room for everything if
+some of these papers wore tidied up."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I suppose you're right." Owen, who loved order, but was too
+impatient to preserve it, spoke dubiously. "Of course some of those
+papers are done with, but you wouldn't know which to keep, would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps Mr. Raymond would help me?"</p>
+
+<p>Owen's face cleared.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course&mdash;do the idle young beggar good. All right, Miss Gibbs, he
+shall give you a hand this afternoon when he gets back. He's an awfully
+good sort, you know, though I pretend to rag him. He's as clever as you
+please, and with it all as obliging and unspoilt as possible. Well, I'd
+better go. You can get along all right, can you?"</p>
+
+<p>Receiving her reply, he lit a cigarette and went out, assuring himself
+that so far she promised well.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty little thing, and anxious to please us. Shallow, I expect,
+emotional probably, and not brainy enough to appreciate the symbolism of
+the <i>Bridge</i>. Well, we don't want too brilliant a typist, after
+all&mdash;Miss Jenkins and her 'culture' were a bit trying at times!"</p>
+
+<p>And then meeting by chance an old friend who insisted on carrying him
+off to lunch, Owen speedily forgot that such a person as Miss Antonia
+Gibbs existed in the world.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+
+<p>It did not take Miss Fanny Gibbs very long to discover that her cousin's
+new post held for her an interest beyond that which an unusually
+congenial situation might be expected to hold.</p>
+
+<p>In Miss Gibbs' world one's "job" was generally of very secondary
+importance to one's private affairs; and the fact is not to be wondered
+at when one remembers that the life of the average shop or business girl
+can by no manner of means be called either pleasant or exciting.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto Toni had been fully in accord with her cousin's opinion.
+Although the robust, if promiscuous, flirtations in which Fanny, before
+her engagement, had indulged freely had never appealed to the more
+fastidious Toni, she had always been quite ready to join in any fun
+which might be going. She had eaten sweets gaily in the cheap seats of
+theatre or picture-palace, had made one at the many informal and
+harmless little gatherings for which Fanny had a taste; and had
+cheerfully and quite normally grumbled if detained at the office one
+moment longer than she considered fair.</p>
+
+<p>But of late Antonia had altered strangely; and Fanny's shrewd eyes noted
+the change almost from the first.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, Toni was always in a fidget to get to work. Miss Gibbs
+took her annual week's holiday just then, and had plenty of time to note
+her cousin's behaviour; and the way in which Toni swallowed her
+breakfast and clad herself for the start was a revelation to one who
+knew her former dilatory nature.</p>
+
+<p>Toni had always been careful of her appearance&mdash;more so than her cousin
+considered at all necessary; but now she was absolutely ridiculous, so
+thought Fanny, with her new Peter-Pan collars and her fussy attention to
+her pretty hands, set off by tiny lace cuffs to match the collars. Her
+black frock, only a year old, was perfectly good and serviceable yet;
+but the extravagant creature must needs make herself another one in her
+spare time, and never had she been so particular about the cut, nor so
+incessant in her demands on Fanny for a helping hand with the
+"trying-on." She bought herself a new hat, too, a little soft affair in
+which she looked perfectly delicious; and as the days went by it seemed
+to Fanny that her cousin was growing prettier and more attractive every
+week, with a still more bewitching colour in her rounded cheeks, and a
+still more sparkling light in her Southern eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet even her woman's wit could not fathom the mystery of Toni's new joy
+in life. When interrogated concerning her employers, Toni was always
+vague. That there were two of them Fanny knew; but from Toni's extremely
+colourless description, Miss Gibbs gathered that neither was at all what
+the girls called interesting; and Mr. Rose, at least, almost
+middle-aged. (Heaven knows what flight of fancy on the part of
+Toni&mdash;Toni, whose magic romance was the shyest, most delicate fantasy in
+the world&mdash;was responsible for that fallacy!)</p>
+
+<p>That Barry was younger Fanny understood; but so lightly did Toni touch
+upon his kindness that Fanny could not be accused of density in her
+conception of him as a nonentity in whom her little cousin could take no
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>Yet that someone was responsible for Toni's sudden outburst of new
+beauty Miss Gibbs felt assured; and it gradually dawned upon her that
+there were other men about the place to whom Miss Antonia Gibbs might
+well appeal.</p>
+
+<p>When questioned about these others, the subordinates who were workers
+like herself, Antonia at first stared, then coloured impatiently, and
+finally laughed, with a queer note of impishness in her laughter which
+puzzled Fanny more than ever.</p>
+
+<p>That she, who was privileged to breathe the same atmosphere as Owen
+Rose, could be supposed even to realize the existence of any outsider
+was in itself absurd, if not almost insulting; but Toni was quick to see
+that here was the opportunity she sought to conceal her wonderful,
+presumptuous dream.</p>
+
+<p>For she was in love&mdash;she knew it now&mdash;wildly, deliriously, gloriously in
+love with Owen. To her he was the embodiment of all that was most noble,
+most god-like in man. His voice was music, his commands gifts, his rare
+vexation as the frown of Jove. She trembled and turned pale at his
+footstep, and when he spoke to her suddenly her heart throbbed and her
+colour came and went until she felt as though he must observe her
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>In a word, she was in love; and when it is remembered that on one side
+of her Toni was purely of the South&mdash;the glowing, ardent, passionate
+South&mdash;it is not to be wondered at that this new emotion dominated her
+whole being to the exclusion of all else.</p>
+
+<p>Her love, indeed, was pathetic in its young ignorance. Anyone could have
+told her that she was wasting her treasure, that it was the act of a
+fool to pour out her priceless gift at the feet of one who did not want
+it, who would consider it a mere presumption.</p>
+
+<p>Her place in Owen's life was that of a servant, a subordinate; and her
+common sense should have told her that in that light alone would Owen
+inevitably behold her. Vaguely she realized this&mdash;knew well enough that
+he never thought of her save as his more or less useful secretary, but
+after all, she could not be expected to reason out this thing too
+closely. Its very vagueness, indeed, lent it charm. Her love was veiled,
+as it were, in a most delicate, most diaphanous mist, which took from it
+all earthliness, and left it intangible, magical as some gift from
+fairyland. So far, no hint of desire had entered into it. It was all
+unselfish, girlish adoration, an almost childish reverence for one
+immeasurably her superior; and though she made her new dress and
+adjusted her little bits of muslin and lace with scrupulous care, it was
+not so much in the hope that she might find favour in Owen's eyes as in
+the personal longing to make herself more worthy of the love within her.</p>
+
+<p>It never entered her head that Owen would suspect her secret. Indeed,
+the whole affair was so dream-like, of so unsubstantial, so gossamer a
+lightness, that merely to speculate upon her romance would have been to
+shatter it, as one might put a finger through a fairy cobweb.</p>
+
+<p>She loved&mdash;and at present that was enough. To be with Owen daily, to sit
+in the same room, breathe the same air, obey his wishes, help him with
+his work, was all she desired; and being at heart an incurable little
+optimist, she was content to weave her rose-coloured dreams, spin her
+shining web, with no anxiety about the future to shadow and darken her
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Barry, with his quick intuition, was uncannily aware of the girl's
+infatuation; and it was Barry who, through his very knowledge of her
+secret, precipitated the inevitable revelation.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>One day during Toni's absence for lunch the two men were sitting
+together in Owen's room when Owen suddenly threw a large unmounted
+photograph across to his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"What's this, Owen? Oh&mdash;your house at Willowhurst, isn't it? By Jove,
+it's a lovely place&mdash;I wonder you don't live there."</p>
+
+<p>The moment he had spoken he would willingly have recalled his words, but
+Owen gave him no time.</p>
+
+<p>"You forget&mdash;I was going to live there!" His smile was forced. "The
+people who have had it for years cleared out last October, and it was
+all put in apple-pie order then, in anticipation of my wife's arrival."</p>
+
+<p>Barry, red and embarrassed, said nothing, but examined the photograph
+with unnecessary minuteness.</p>
+
+<p>"Seems a pity the place should stand idle," went on Owen musingly. "It's
+a jolly old house, and been in the family for centuries&mdash;built before
+the river became fashionable&mdash;and the grounds are really fine; some
+gorgeous old trees and shrubs in them."</p>
+
+<p>"How far from town?" Barry put the first question that suggested itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not far&mdash;twenty or thirty miles. You can get up easily in a car or
+by a fast train. Greenriver&mdash;that's the house&mdash;is really charmingly
+situated, with big grounds at the back, and the river just beneath the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"You lived there as a youngster?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. When my father died my mother couldn't bear to live there, and we
+let the place. After her death I could have gone back, but somehow I
+didn't want to. It was only when I met Vivian&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off suddenly, and springing to his feet, began to pace up and
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Barry, what fools we men make of ourselves over women! Just
+because Vivian was kind, smiled on me, seemed really interested in my
+affairs, I told her everything&mdash;all sorts of things I haven't even told
+you, old chap! We used to go for strolls together in the summer
+evenings&mdash;once or twice we motored down to Richmond and went for a walk
+in the park ... we used to talk about all sorts of things ... women are
+the very deuce for leading men on to talk. They pretend to be so
+interested, ask such gentle little questions, are so sympathetic, so
+kind ... and when it comes to sport, a girl like Vivian can talk as well
+as any man."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"We didn't talk sentiment&mdash;those days. We were chums&mdash;the best of
+chums ... discussed flying, motoring&mdash;she used to drive a little car
+of her own. Sometimes we played golf&mdash;and, by Jove, she could pretty
+nearly beat me! She was interested in all the things I liked, was a
+rattling good shot with a rifle, and hadn't a nerve in her. Clever, too;
+could talk on all sorts of subjects, and had read books I'd never even
+heard of! She spoke three or four languages ... but&mdash;but it wasn't
+that."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off in his rambling talk to light a cigarette, and then
+continued, in the same musing tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It was something else. She was so handsome, so&mdash;so fine, somehow. I
+used to think, when we were engaged, that she was like Brunhilde, or
+some of the other Wagnerian heroines. Sometimes I couldn't help
+thinking"&mdash;he coloured&mdash;"what splendid children a woman like that would
+have. She ... she satisfied one, somehow. You knew she was sound in
+every way&mdash;the sort of woman one would always be proud of&mdash;and when I
+thought of her as the mistress of Greenriver, I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He threw away his cigarette impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fool I am! What a damned fool you must think me, raving about a
+woman who played me the shabbiest trick a woman could play! God! When I
+think of it&mdash;think how I was deceived, I&mdash;I hate the woman! I hate
+myself for being such a fool, but I hate her more! Well, she's married
+now&mdash;good luck to her!&mdash;and there's only one thing for me to do; I must
+get married too!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" Barry's blue eyes were very kindly as they looked at his
+friend. "Why not go on as you are for a bit longer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" He stretched out his arms with a curious, restless gesture.
+"Because I've got unsettled, I suppose. You see, when you've looked on
+yourself as practically a married man, planned everything, renounced
+your bachelor ways and anticipated a new and more settled existence,
+well, somehow you can't go back to the old state of things. There's the
+house, too. I feel as though I wanted to live in it again&mdash;the servants
+are clamouring for me to go there. I promised, you know, and the river
+is so lovely in the summer...."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not go down and have a car?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go there&mdash;alone?" He spoke bitterly. "No, thanks. That would be folly.
+I meant to go with my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he stopped in his restless pacing and faced Barry with gleaming
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"By gad, Barry! Why shouldn't I take my wife there after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife?" Even the quick-witted Barry was at fault.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. My wife." He laughed at the other man's face. "Oh, I'm not married
+yet, but why shouldn't I be? I swore I'd marry the first woman who'd
+have me, and it's just occurred to me&mdash;Barry, do you thing she <i>would</i>
+have me?"</p>
+
+<p>"She? <i>What</i> she?" demanded Barry in justifiable bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, our excellent little secretary and typist&mdash;our Miss Gibbs&mdash;our
+Antonia, known at home as Toni!"</p>
+
+<p>Barry's boyish face flushed crimson, and for a second he looked so angry
+that Owen stared in genuine amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Barry, what's up? I assure you my intentions are strictly
+honourable! If she'll have me, she shall step into the shoes vacated by
+Miss Vivian Rees, and succeed to the house, the car, the boats, and all
+the rest of the worldly goods which weren't sufficient to tempt my
+beautiful <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Owen." Barry's voice was quiet. "I suppose you're ragging,
+but let me tell you I think the rag's in execrable taste, and I'll be
+obliged if you'll drop the subject."</p>
+
+<p>For a second Owen seemed about to retort in the same tone. Then, quite
+suddenly, his face changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, Barry, why all these frills? You surely didn't think I meant any
+harm&mdash;any disrespect to the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not." He spoke rather coldly. "Only&mdash;well, I don't like to
+hear you joking about marrying Miss Gibbs. She's a decent little thing,
+and far too good to be made a cat's paw in a game of revenge."</p>
+
+<p>Owen looked at his friend quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're right, Barry, and if I were only joking it would be a bit
+low-down. But suppose I mean it? Suppose I ask the girl to marry me,
+quite quietly, not entering into any heroics or telling any condemned
+lies, and she accepts me, what then?"</p>
+
+<p>Barry's heart gave a sudden throb of dismay. There was something behind
+Owen's calm manner which made him feel vaguely uneasy. Could it be that
+Owen too had surprised Toni's pitiful little secret&mdash;that he knew&mdash;had
+known all along that the girl was not so indifferent to him as she
+wished to appear?</p>
+
+<p>For the moment Barry was nonplussed. If it were so, if Owen knew, and,
+knowing, chose to take the risk of the girl's acceptance, had he any
+right to interfere?</p>
+
+<p>That Toni would accept, Barry felt almost convinced; and yet, fond as he
+was of his friend, fond as he was, too, of the girl with whom he had
+worked during these weeks of spring, Barry was clear-sighted enough to
+feel assured that such a marriage would not make for happiness.</p>
+
+<p>It might answer for a time. If Toni wore genuinely attached to Rose, as
+Barry was inclined to believe, it was possible&mdash;nay, probable&mdash;that her
+affection for him would bring out the best in Owen's nature, and he
+would repay that affection with a real and kindly consideration. But
+when the first freshness had worn off, when Owen should have grown used
+to the girl's shy gratitude and devotion, when her prettiness, her
+radiant youth, her na&iuml;ve simplicity should have ceased to charm, what
+then would remain?</p>
+
+<p>For all his sporting instincts Owen was primarily a man of letters,
+versatile, brilliant, even distinguished in his way; and Barry foresaw a
+bitter disillusionment for each of the pair when the real dissimilarity
+of their natures should, as must inevitably happen, become apparent to
+both.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni, who never willingly opened a book, her husband's delight and
+absorption in the masterpieces of literature must be a constant wonder;
+while to Rose, Toni's ignorance, her youthful, unashamed lack of
+interest in the "things which matter" would be a perpetual irritation.</p>
+
+<p>Although not so brilliant as his friend, Barry experienced at times
+flashes of almost uncanny insight; and as he contemplated the
+possibility of this marriage he had a sudden clear conviction that it
+would not, could not, turn out successfully.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Owen"&mdash;he faced the other man resolutely&mdash;"you must know the
+thing is quite impossible. Miss Gibbs is a nice little girl, a pretty
+little thing and as straight as a die. But she is not your equal in any
+sense; neither socially nor intellectually; and though you may not
+believe it, you would regret the marriage in a week."</p>
+
+<p>Owen looked at him, half-affectionately, half-quizzically, for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I, Barry? Toni may not be of very exalted birth, but she is
+a hundred times more ladylike than half the flappers one meets in
+Society nowadays, with their cigarette-cases, their bridge purses and
+their slangy talk. One of those loud young women would be the death of
+me in a week&mdash;and you know Toni's voice is delightfully soft, with quite
+a Southern intonation&mdash;caught in Italy, I expect."</p>
+
+<p>"But what of her education&mdash;or lack of it?" Barry went on relentlessly.
+"You know quite well that the girl is a little ignoramus in reality. She
+has read nothing, been nowhere, learned precious little; and she has no
+more conversation than&mdash;than a Persian cat."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a bad simile," said Owen calmly. "A Persian cat doesn't talk
+much, I admit, but it is a most fascinating piece of mystery when it
+sits still and says nothing. And Miss Gibbs may in reality be just as
+mysterious."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're impossible!" Barry spoke impatiently, and Owen's manner
+changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Barry, confess the truth. You're afraid Toni will jump at me&mdash;to
+put it baldly. You know"&mdash;for a second he hesitated&mdash;"you know, Barry,
+I'm not blind, and I can't help seeing that the girl has ... well, taken
+a fancy to me; and if that is so, seeing that the woman I wanted
+wouldn't have me, why shouldn't I offer myself to the one who ... would
+perhaps take me if I asked her to?"</p>
+
+<p>"You really mean to ask her, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I know you won't approve, old chap, but I'm going to do it all the
+same. The girl may refuse me, you know, and then there'll be no harm
+done."</p>
+
+<p>And nothing could move him from the attitude he had adopted. The utmost
+concession Barry could wring from him was a promise to wait for a week
+at least before carrying out his plan; and during the whole of that week
+Barry did his utmost to dissuade his friend from taking a step which he
+foresaw would end in disaster.</p>
+
+<p>He argued, cajoled, even thundered, in vain. He spoke of disparity of
+tastes, of habits, of views on life in general; and Owen laughingly
+reminded him that dissimilarity in tastes was supposed to be a good
+foundation for wedded happiness.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed out that although Antonia herself was a lady in the best
+sense of the word, neither he nor Owen knew anything of her family; and
+he endeavoured to alarm Rose by his vigorous sketch of her possibly
+undesirable relations.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you the girl's an orphan," said Owen, smiling as Barry finished
+painting an imaginary portrait of a very unattractive mother-in-law.
+"She lives with an uncle and aunt and a family of cousins somewhere
+Brixton way."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose the wedding will take place in Brixton," said Barry,
+with an assumption of polite interest, and Owen coloured in spite of
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;at least, not in a church. I can't face a regular wedding, Barry,
+seeing my bride isn't the one I expected to lead to the altar. I think
+the Registrar will have to tie the knot, and we'll dispense with all the
+fuss of satins and veils and white flowers that I was dreading with all
+my heart!"</p>
+
+<p>Something in his tone&mdash;a hint of dreary disappointment, of a
+wretchedness hitherto well concealed, made Barry feel compunction for
+his own rough handling of what must have been in reality a sore subject;
+and quite suddenly he abandoned his own superior, not to say
+condemnatory, attitude for a more human, more sympathetic frame of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, old chap"&mdash;Owen's eyes lightened with pleasure at the friendly
+tone&mdash;"I've been an awful beast all this time. The fact is, I've thought
+only of the girl's point of view. It didn't seem fair she should be used
+as a sort of tool to make your position easier; but after all, I believe
+on my soul she'd ask nothing better than to marry you; and I know you'd
+treat her decently, so&mdash;so if&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If I like to do it, you'll give me your blessing, eh, Barry?" Owen's
+smile was a little melancholy. "Well, I'll take advantage of your
+permission and put it to the little girl herself. She may refuse me, of
+course&mdash;Miss Rees didn't find me irresistible, did she?" A hint of the
+deadly wound she had dealt him coloured his tone. "But unless I'm a
+conceited fool I believe I have a sporting chance at least&mdash;and I'd like
+to show Lady Saxonby she's not the only woman in the world for me!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Toni herself entered the room; and with an effort both
+men greeted her as usual, and proceeded to the ordinary routine of the
+day's work without giving her any indication that she had interrupted a
+discussion of the highest importance to herself.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Antonia had just returned from lunch on the following day when Owen
+called her to him; and she hastened to obey the summons, still wearing
+her hat and coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Gibbs"&mdash;his tone was admirably casual. "I've been wondering
+whether you would mind helping me this afternoon. I want some books from
+my house down at Willowhurst to verify some quotations in an article I
+am writing for the next number of the <i>Bridge</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I intended first going down in the car for them, but as it seems a pity
+to bring a lot of old books up to town, I thought if you would come down
+too, bringing the little Blick typewriter with you, I could get you to
+copy out the quotations I want, and I needn't take the books away."</p>
+
+<p>Insensibly Toni's eyes brightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Rose. I should be very pleased."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. Well, I'll go out and get some lunch. Will you be ready
+in half an hour?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I've just time to run through these letters."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. <i>Au revoir!</i> I'll be back at half-past two."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, and Antonia joyfully pirouetted round the room before
+settling to work&mdash;somewhat to the surprise of Barry, who entered at that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Miss Gibbs&mdash;practising the turkey-trot, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, blushing hotly, and tried in vain to look unconcerned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Raymond. Only&mdash;Mr. Rose wants me to motor down to Willowhurst
+with him about some books&mdash;and it's such a lovely day!"</p>
+
+<p>"You like motoring?" Barry could not resist a sympathetic smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I just love it!" She clasped her hands in rapture. "Of course, I've
+only been in taxis and char-&agrave;-bancs and things, but I've always wanted
+to go in a real motor-car&mdash;a private one, I mean!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you never been in one?" Her childish confession made Barry feel
+half pitiful, half dismayed.</p>
+
+<p>"No, how should I?" She laughed, showing her pretty teeth
+whole-heartedly. "You know girls in my position don't go about in
+motors! Of course"&mdash;with one of her sudden changes of mood she paled and
+spoke slowly&mdash;"if my father had lived things would have been different."</p>
+
+<p>"You lived in Italy together?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." She sank into a chair, and went on speaking dreamily,
+her chin cradled in her hollowed hands. "We lived in a village not
+far from Naples. Oh, how beautiful Italy is in the spring, when
+the pink almond-blossom makes the hill-sides look like a great
+rose-garden ... and the oranges and lemons flame out among the
+dark-green leaves&mdash;and the roads are hot and white, and the blue
+sea lies at the back of everything, sparkling in the sunshine...."</p>
+
+<p>She paused, but Barry, fascinated by this revelation of a depth, almost
+a poetry, in the nature he had thought shallow and commonplace, said
+nothing; and after a second she continued.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a steep hill behind our little house, and sometimes the sheep
+that browsed there would stray ... so that the boy would sit and pipe to
+them to come back. I used to watch him pipe, and make a garland of
+vine-leaves and put it on his curls, and my father would laugh and call
+him Pan, and say he was really thousands of years old ... and the sheep
+would come up the slope looking so white against the green, and the air
+would be full of the smell of the violets they crushed beneath their
+feet...."</p>
+
+<p>Again she paused, and this time Barry prompted her.</p>
+
+<p>"And when he had found his flock, what did your boy-Pan do then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then he would drive them away over the hill-side, and we would hear his
+pipe growing fainter and fainter in the distance, until it died away
+altogether...."</p>
+
+<p>She sprang up suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Raymond, what nonsense I'm talking! That life's over and done
+with, and I've all these letters to copy!"</p>
+
+<p>"All right&mdash;I won't interrupt!" He took up some papers. "But just tell
+me this. Do you ever want to go back to Italy?"</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated, considering.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I think not," she said at last. "You see, it would all be
+different. My father wouldn't be there, nor the Padre&mdash;and even old
+Fiammetta may be dead by now."</p>
+
+<p>"But the place would be the same&mdash;the sea as blue!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I should like to see the sea!" She spoke softly. "Do you know I've
+only seen the sea once since I came to England&mdash;when we went to Southend
+for the day. And there it was all cold and grey&mdash;and the sands were
+mud ... it wasn't a bit like my sea, and I wished I'd never seen it."</p>
+
+<p>There were actually tears in her eyes, and Barry cursed himself for a
+fool, as he went rather absently into his own room, leaving her to her
+work&mdash;which work was done none the less carefully because of the vague
+longings which the conversation had aroused in the worker's breast.</p>
+
+<p>Punctually at two-thirty Owen returned, and Toni ran down the steps with
+a smiling face from which all traces of tears had long since vanished.</p>
+
+<p>The car was waiting in the dingy street, and Toni's foot was actually on
+the step when she turned and looked at Owen with a kind of desperate
+appeal in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rose, do you drive the car yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I sit in front, you know&mdash;ah, would you like to sit with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"May I?" Her accent was acceptance enough; and two minutes later Toni,
+as happy as a queen, was installed by the driver's side, and the car
+began to glide faster and faster down the street on its way to the open
+country beyond the town.</p>
+
+<p>When they had gone a little distance Owen turned to look at his
+passenger, and for a second his heart stood still at the expression on
+her face. Surely no girl would look so rapturously happy unless some
+magic were at work....</p>
+
+<p>"Are you warm enough? There's a big coat in the car." He spoke abruptly,
+but the girl shook her head gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm quite warm, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>She had tied on her soft little hat with a scarf of some thin material
+which framed her face very satisfactorily, and Owen did not press the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>On and on sped the car, through Putney and Richmond, on past Feltham and
+Staines, eating up the miles so fast that before they knew it they were
+out in the country, flying along the level road between hedges whose
+green had not as yet become dusty with the summer's traffic.</p>
+
+<p>It was a glorious afternoon in early May, and the Thames valley was at
+its best. On either hand were fields sown thick with creamy daisies and
+yellow buttercups. Down in a marshy hollow they caught a glimpse of a
+carpet of golden kingcups, and once they passed a tiny dell in whose
+very heart an azure mist whispered of bluebells; while the blackthorn
+and the may made the air fragrant for miles. The birds were singing
+their hearts out in the mellow sunshine, and now and again the cuckoo's
+call came floating over the meadows from copse or spinney.</p>
+
+<p>Ever and anon as they shot through some village hamlet they caught
+glimpses of orchards in full blossom, the pink and white bloom standing
+out against the pale blue of the sky with the effect of some delicate
+Japanese painting; and in all the little gardens flowers rioted
+joyously.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni, spending her life in dingy Brixton, this afternoon was a
+red-letter day. The soft, clean air which blew in her face was different
+from the stagnant air of the Brixton streets; the scent of flowers was
+grateful after the odours of the City, and the vision, now and then, of
+the flashing river was a delight to eyes tired with much staring at ugly
+houses and shops.</p>
+
+<p>If Toni said little during that magic excursion, it was not shyness
+alone which sealed her lips; and although he cast a look now and then at
+his companion, Owen was too considerate to break into her raptures with
+questioning words.</p>
+
+<p>Only when they were approaching their destination did he begin to point
+out the various features of the landscape.</p>
+
+<p>"That village over there is Willgate, noted for an old Saxon arch in its
+church. My mother used to go over there to evening service, I remember.
+She liked it better than our own church&mdash;the one you can just see
+peeping between the trees. The village&mdash;Willowhurst, I mean&mdash;lies round
+this bend. It's quite a rural-looking place, when you remember that
+after all it is not an hour's journey from Waterloo."</p>
+
+<p>The car glided round the bend as he spoke, and Toni saw the village
+lying in the afternoon sunshine, which winked back from the windows of
+the little houses, built in a queer, old-fashioned manner round a small
+green. There was a pleasant, old-world look about the place which was
+oddly charming; and Toni was quite sorry when the car left the little
+green behind. But in another minute they were on a stretch of white road
+bordered by a high wall, behind which tall trees stood like sentinels;
+and Toni caught her breath as Owen said, in a voice which he tried,
+vainly, to keep steady:</p>
+
+<p>"See, there's Greenriver&mdash;my home&mdash;beyond the trees."</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the high gates in the wall, and when once they had
+entered and were rolling up the broad avenue Toni gazed eagerly in the
+direction he had indicated.</p>
+
+<p>Greenriver was a stately old place enough. It had been built in the days
+of Queen Bess; and was just such a house as that in which Justice
+Shallow might have entertained Falstaff&mdash;a long grey building with a
+porch in the centre and a huge gable at either end&mdash;a house with
+deep-mullioned windows and large stacks of chimney-pots.</p>
+
+<p>The house faced the river, to which it led by a terrace of velvety turf,
+broken here and there by gay flower-beds; while the real gardens lay at
+the other side of the building. Here beauty and dignity had joined
+hands, as it were, to preserve the stately loveliness of the grounds,
+under whose tall elms many a joyous company must have roamed when the
+river was the highway of elegance and fashion, and great barges floated
+down the Thames bearing Royal personages reclining on their couches
+covered with cloth of gold. Here on summer evenings the nightingales
+sang to the roses for which the gardens were famous; and for centuries
+the big white owls had hooted from their nests in the tree-tops, or
+flown, like pale ghosts, across the dusky paths.</p>
+
+<p>The grounds were indeed noted all along the river for the magnificence
+of their green, velvety lawns, the size and beauty of the flowers in
+parterre and bed, the wonderful completeness&mdash;and in some cases the
+antiquity&mdash;of the contents of the famous herbaceous border; and Toni
+never forgot the sensation of awe which overwhelmed her as she realized
+that this glorious place belonged to the man beside her.</p>
+
+<p>She spoke a little shyly as the car came to a standstill at the foot of
+the steps leading to the big door.</p>
+
+<p>"This is your house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, this is Greenriver." He helped her out of the car. "And here is my
+old friend Mrs. Blades coming to meet us."</p>
+
+<p>An elderly, rather prim-looking woman came forward as Owen advanced, and
+in her eyes shone a welcoming light.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in, sir. We were beginning to wonder if you were coming to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;started rather late." Owen gave her hand a friendly shake. "But we
+shan't have to go back just yet. I want to have a chat with you by and
+bye, Mrs. Blades. This young lady, Miss Gibbs, has kindly come down to
+help me with some work."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure the young lady is very welcome," was Mrs. Blades'
+old-fashioned reply. "Shan't I make you a cup o' tea, sir, first of
+all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, a cup of tea would be nice ... but I think, if Miss Gibbs isn't
+tired, we'll get on with our work first, and then we'll enjoy it better.
+Eh, Miss Gibbs?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Gibbs agreed; and five minutes later she was installed, with her
+typewriter, in the library. Owen busied himself, for a few moments, at
+the shelves, searching for the books he wanted; and Toni spent the time
+in gazing round her, wonder, admiration and awe mingling in her gaze.</p>
+
+<p>The room was large and lofty and the big mullioned windows looked out
+upon a beautiful terrace, bordered with wallflowers, jonquils, and
+masses of dancing daffodils. The grass, smooth as velvet, led to a stone
+balustrade, beyond which lay the river, sparkling in the sunshine,
+whilst beyond that again were green fields, broken here and there by
+clumps of majestic trees, the fields in their turn leading to a range of
+distant, misty, blue hills.</p>
+
+<p>The room itself was second only in interest to the view. In all her life
+Toni had never entered such a room&mdash;had never imagined, indeed, that
+private houses boasted such apartments.</p>
+
+<p>The furniture was all of dark-green leather&mdash;the big saddle-bag chairs,
+the low divan and the smaller chairs all being upholstered in the same
+material, while the wall was distempered a lighter shade of green, and
+the carpet was of a darker tone. In one of the deep window embrasures
+was a bureau, of just the right height to allow anyone sitting before it
+to enjoy the prospect without; while the table at which Toni sat was a
+large, heavy affair, evidently intended for serious work.</p>
+
+<p>But the generally sombre tone of the room formed an excellent background
+for the books which lined its walls. Shelf after shelf of them rose from
+the floor, almost to the ceiling; and since many were bound in soft,
+rich colours, they struck a delightful note in the rather dusky whole.</p>
+
+<p>There were books bound in leather, dark-brown calf, soft red or blue
+morocco; richly-tooled volumes, slim books clothed in tan or purple
+su&egrave;de, gay with gold edges and lettering; priceless old volumes, rare
+black-letter editions, poets, classics, all the standard novels.... Toni
+had never seen so many books in her life; and it must be confessed that
+she regarded them with something akin to awe.</p>
+
+<p>Who in the world could wish to read these hundreds of volumes? For all
+their beautiful bindings she had a conviction that the contents would be
+appallingly dull; and her eyes fled gladly to the more congenial scene
+outside the windows where the flowers danced gaily in the sunshine and a
+little skiff floated by on the shimmering river, like some magic boat
+gliding to a haven in fairyland.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Owen approached the table, bearing an armful of thin books,
+bound for the most part in soft fawn su&egrave;de.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Miss Gibbs, these are the verses I want you to copy." He pointed
+out the poems, and gave her one or two instructions, while Toni,
+conscious that she had been dreaming away her time, hastily uncovered
+her typewriter and took up a sheet of paper.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll do these, I'll go and have a chat with old Mrs. Blades," said
+Owen presently. "Then we'll have tea, and if there's time I'll show you
+the gardens. They are really worth seeing."</p>
+
+<p>She thanked him shyly and he went out. In the doorway he paused, looking
+back at her as she sat among the books; and if she had looked up she
+could not have failed to observe something odd in the expression with
+which he was regarding her.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not look up; and after a few seconds' scrutiny he went out
+quietly and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take Toni very long to finish her task. Almost as she took
+the last sheet of paper out of the typewriter the door opened to admit
+Owen and a staid-looking maid with a tea-tray.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Gibbs, finished?" Owen came forward with a smile. "That's
+good! Now you shall have some tea to refresh you after your toil. Let me
+see, Kate, where shall we have it?"</p>
+
+<p>The maid suggested that the table in the far window would be suitable;
+and as the afternoon sunshine still streamed in, making a pleasant
+warmth, Owen agreed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently Mrs. Blades had not been taken unprepared; for there were
+dainty sandwiches, hot cakes, and a big and substantial-looking
+seed-loaf, which was, so Owen informed his guest, his housekeeper's
+special pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Now"&mdash;Kate had withdrawn after placing the massive silver tea-pot on
+the tray&mdash;"will you pour out for me, Miss Gibbs? And I'll hand the
+cakes."</p>
+
+<p>Blushing gloriously, Toni slipped into the seat behind the tray. In
+honour of the fine day she had discarded her black frock for a serge
+skirt and a girlish-looking white blouse, open at the throat; and now
+that she had thrown aside her veil, her black hair, prettily loosened
+beneath her soft little hat, made an ebony frame for her vivid face.</p>
+
+<p>As he watched her gravely attending to the duties of the tea-tray, Owen
+told himself that he might have made a worse choice.</p>
+
+<p>He had long ago surprised her secret&mdash;although Toni had no idea of her
+self-betrayal. At this stage of her development Toni was pure emotion&mdash;a
+mere lamp through which love might shine unchecked, casting its beams
+unashamedly upon the object of its devotion. Later she might learn, as
+many women do, to interpose a veil between her soul and the world. The
+lamp would shine with a tempered beam, its glow moderated to a mere
+even, more tranquil light, and none would recognize the quality of its
+burning.</p>
+
+<p>But at present Toni's love was so whole-hearted, so innocently,
+pathetically intense that it was no wonder Owen had divined both its
+nature and its object long ago.</p>
+
+<p>Well, to a heart rendered sore by a woman's callousness, such a warm,
+eager devotion as this was inexpressibly attractive; and if Owen's eyes
+were blinded by suffering, there was surely a chance that Toni's soft
+fingers laid upon their lids might prolong the merciful myopia.</p>
+
+<p>When tea was over there came a sudden little silence. The dusk was
+falling; and the garden wore a ghostly look; while the river lay
+passively unreflecting beneath the twilit sky.</p>
+
+<p>The atmosphere of the room changed with the passing of the
+sunlight&mdash;grew tense, electric, almost, one would have said, expectant;
+and Owen realized that the moment for which he waited had come.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, having finished her tea, was sitting rather slackly in her chair,
+gazing dreamily out of the window; and Owen hesitated for a minute
+before he spoke. She looked so young, so wistful, so helpless. It was
+almost unfair, selfish, to speak to the child&mdash;and then, suddenly, he
+knew that selfish or no, he must put an end to his own solitary
+sore-heartedness.</p>
+
+<p>"Toni"&mdash;she looked up as he spoke, and his utterance of her name set the
+whole atmosphere throbbing with wild, sweet possibilities&mdash;"I want to
+ask you something."</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak, only her eyes fastened on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think, Toni"&mdash;for a moment he faltered, then plunged bravely
+on&mdash;"you could ever bring yourself to marry me? Oh, I know you're
+surprised&mdash;I ought not to spring it on you like this&mdash;but if you will be
+my wife I will do my best to make you happy."</p>
+
+<p>There was a silence. Suddenly an owl flew, hooting, past the window, and
+in the dusk his white wings looked ghostly, unreal.</p>
+
+<p>Then, quite quietly, Toni spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rose, do you mean it? You want to marry me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear." For an instant he spoke as one speaks to a child, so
+powerful was the illusion of youth in the large-eyed Toni just then.
+"Well, what do you say? Will you have me?"</p>
+
+<p>He was still sitting in the big chair opposite to her, one hand on the
+arm, the other clenched on his knee; and he was unprepared for Toni's
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>With a sudden rush she was out of her chair, and the next moment she was
+kneeling beside him, her face all aglow with love and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean it?" She could only, it seemed, question his meaning.
+"But&mdash;how did you know I loved you, Mr. Rose? I never let you see&mdash;did
+I?"</p>
+
+<p>With that soft, sparkling face upturned to his, those Italian eyes
+gazing at him with an intensity of appeal in their liquid depths, one
+answer alone was possible.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Toni, you never let me see that! But if it's true&mdash;if you do love
+me a little&mdash;well, is it&mdash;yes?"</p>
+
+<p>For answer she suddenly laid her head on his knee and burst into a
+passion of wild sobbing. Poor, emotional, overwrought little Toni! Why
+she wept she had no idea, but it was the same emotion which had made
+her, as a child, weep at the sight of a group of violets growing in the
+grass, at the sound of the shepherd's pipe, the scent of the sea-laden
+breeze. Although her heart was so full of bliss that she could scarcely
+bear it, there was a wild, inexplicable sadness in it too, which tears
+alone could assuage; and though she tried to recapture her self-control,
+it was useless until she had cried away the first bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>But Owen, unused to the complex Southern nature, was thoroughly
+nonplussed by her tears. In vain he besought her to calm herself, begged
+her to listen to him, to refuse him if the thought of his offer made her
+miserable. Toni only cried the harder; and at last, uncertain of his
+ground, but feeling that something must be done, Owen stooped down and
+lifted her bodily on to his knee.</p>
+
+<p>Once in his arms, her tears ceased as if by magic. She lay against his
+heart like a child, and as he felt her little body in his arms a new
+feeling of pity, almost of gratitude, awoke in his heart.</p>
+
+<p>If his love meant so much to her&mdash;then it should be hers&mdash;if indeed love
+could be bestowed at will. In any case he would marry her and devote his
+life to making her happy; and in his curiously exalted state of mind
+Owen quite lost sight of the fact that when one is the lover and the
+other the beloved, between the two there is often a great gulf fixed.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When at last Owen roused the girl, who had sobbed herself into
+quiescence in his arms, the room was nearly dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Toni, it's getting cold and dark in here. What do you say, shall
+we get Mrs. Blades to give us a little dinner and go home by
+moonlight&mdash;or would you rather start at once?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather go now." She spoke in a low voice, like a child that is
+uncertain of its treatment; and Owen guessed she was ashamed of her
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>He set himself to reassure her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, just as you like. Wait a moment, though. I'll light a candle, and
+you shall put your hat straight, and tie on that precious veil of yours
+first."</p>
+
+<p>While she tidied herself, rather self-consciously, before a large oval
+mirror, Owen gathered up the papers she had typewritten; and when he
+turned towards her at last she was able to conjure up a rather wan
+little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Good girl!" He laid his hand kindly on her arm. "Now we'll be off&mdash;but
+first, do you mind if I let old Blades into our secret? She's a faithful
+old soul, though her temper's a bit crabby, and she'll be awfully
+pleased!"</p>
+
+<p>She assented, of course; and opening the door Owen led her across the
+dim hall towards the kitchen regions.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the magic hour of lighting-up was at hand, for when they had
+passed through the green baize door which shut off the servants'
+premises, they found themselves in a brightly-lit passage, at the end of
+which Mrs. Blades' voice could be heard energetically exhorting a maid
+to "be quick and take these lamps."</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, we'll pay her a visit in her room," said Owen, his eyes
+sparkling with fun; and drawing Toni's arm through his he ran with her
+down the passage, and drew up finally in a large square room where Mrs.
+Blades was at work.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of her shyness Toni was lost in wonder at the nature of that
+work. The room itself was lighted with gas, flaring in an iron cage; but
+on the table in front of Mrs. Blades were no less than ten small
+oil-lamps, evidently intended to hang against the wall, and fashioned in
+some wrought metal which gave them a curiously medi&aelig;val look.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Mrs. Blades!" Owen's voice made her turn round quickly. "The Ten
+Little Ladies going as strong as ever, I see!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Owen, they're still on the go." She regarded the lamps
+affectionately. "At first Mr. Leetham used to say a good big lamp would
+be best, at the head of the stairs; but afterwards he got to like the
+Little Ladies, and we've had 'em every night."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have to go on having them," declared Owen. "Look, Toni, they're
+really quite pretty, aren't they? And thanks to Mrs. Blades they give a
+jolly good light."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;the 'Little Ladies'?" Toni looked, as she felt, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was a fancy of my father's. He would never have gas anywhere
+except in the kitchens; and the long gallery upstairs, where all the
+bedrooms are, was always as dark as Erebus." He laughed, catching sight
+of the blank look on Mrs. Blades' face at the word. "So my mother
+invented these lamps, years ago when I was a tiny kid, and every night
+they are fixed at intervals along the walls of the gallery."</p>
+
+<p>"But the name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know who first christened them, but they've always been
+known as the Ten Little Ladies&mdash;and always will be, I suppose. Eh, Mrs.
+Blades?"</p>
+
+<p>"So long as I'm here, sir, I hope they will be," rejoined Mrs. Blades
+somewhat formally; and something in her tone made Owen remember his
+resolve.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round. The door was open into the passage, a rosy-cheeked maid
+waiting, apparently, to carry off the tray with the Little Ladies; but
+on Owen approaching with the intention of closing the door she withdrew
+modestly out of earshot.</p>
+
+<p>Coming back to the table Owen took one of Toni's hands in his and turned
+to the old housekeeper, who glanced with sudden shrewdness at the girl's
+shy face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Blades," said Owen quietly, "Miss Gibbs has promised to marry me;
+and I hope that before many weeks are over we shall come down to live at
+Greenriver. Well, what do you say? Will you welcome us when we come?"</p>
+
+<p>The half-boyish, half-masterful tone in which he spoke seemed too much
+for the old woman, who had watched Owen grow from boy to man, and now,
+after a lapse of years, saw him in his manhood. She looked first at him,
+then at the pale girl by his side, and her features worked oddly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Mrs. Blades!" Owen had had enough of tears for one afternoon.
+"Cheer up! Don't look as if we were going to cut off your head! That's a
+poor welcome to Miss Gibbs!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus reproved, the housekeeper did her best to conjure up a more
+cheerful expression; and managed presently to shake Toni's cold little
+hand with a respectful word or two; after which Owen discovered that it
+was high time to go.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later Toni was snugly packed into the car again; and Owen
+was about to take his seat when he remembered that he had left the
+typewritten sheets in the housekeeper's room.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll run back for them, Toni." He jumped down from the step. "I won't
+be a moment. You don't mind waiting?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not!" She smiled up at him with dewy eyes. "Don't hurry&mdash;it's
+so lovely here in the dusk&mdash;the flowers smell so sweet."</p>
+
+<p>Re-entering the house, Owen ran down the passage with hasty feet. Mrs.
+Blades, who had a tendency to what she called "chronical brownkitis,"
+had not ventured to brave the night air; and Owen found her still
+regarding the Little Ladies, who burned trimly on the tray before her.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Mrs. Blades&mdash;I've only left some papers!" He snatched them
+up as he spoke, and crammed them into the pocket of his leather coat.
+"That's all&mdash;now I'm really off."</p>
+
+<p>He patted her carelessly on the shoulder as he passed her; but to his
+surprise she put out a veined hand to stay his progress.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Owen"&mdash;her voice shook&mdash;"do you really mean that you're going to
+marry the young lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Blades." Unconsciously Owen pulled himself together. "Why
+should I say such a thing if I did not mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because..." the old woman faltered "... Miss Gibbs ain't the sort of
+lady you ought to marry. She ... she's not like the other lady you were
+going to bring here as mistress of Greenriver ... the one as was
+presented at Court with all them lovely feathers in her hair."</p>
+
+<p>An expression such as she had never seen before crossed Owen's face. He
+shook off her hand impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're an old silly, Blades." His voice was grating. "Miss Gibbs is
+a thousand times more suitable to be the mistress of Greenriver.
+The&mdash;the other lady thought very small beer of us all down here&mdash;she
+wasn't our sort, I assure you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither is this one." The old woman stuck to her guns with the
+obstinacy of age. "Mr. Owen, I remember your father bringing home his
+bride&mdash;a girl she was, only eighteen&mdash;but the highest lady in the land
+couldn't have been evened to her. Miss Gibbs is pretty and a good girl,
+I'm sure, but&mdash;but she ain't like your mother, Mr. Owen; and you ought
+to look higher when you marry than her!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a fool, Blades!" Owen spoke angrily now. "If I think Miss
+Gibbs good enough to be my wife that's quite sufficient for everyone.
+After all, I'm not such a great catch," he added bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, Mr. Owen, don't be vexed with me!" Too late the old woman
+regretted her foolish words. "I'm growing old, and maybe I'm in my
+dotage ... ah, he's gone&mdash;I've driven the lad away with my folly!"</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed so. Owen had flung out of the door angrily; and as she
+listened, half-afraid, she heard his steps receding down the passage
+towards the hall. There was impatience in his very tread; for, truth to
+tell, Owen felt a kind of hot anger welling in his heart as he
+remembered the words she had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>At first he was merely annoyed at what he called her
+presumption&mdash;induced, he supposed, by her long connection with the
+family. But suddenly a feeling of vague uneasiness descended upon him,
+and he paused before going out to join Toni in the car.</p>
+
+<p>"She only saw Toni for a moment&mdash;barely heard her speak&mdash;and yet she
+speaks as though I were making an unsuitable marriage." He frowned
+thoughtfully, anger dying before some feeling whose nature he could not,
+yet, recognize. "I wonder&mdash;what could she mean?"</p>
+
+<p>He stood in the quiet hall, fighting down a host of surmises, of
+unwelcome doubts which sprang, it would seem, out of the twilight,
+brought to birth by an old woman's homely words; and in those
+illuminating seconds Owen allowed himself to wonder whether, after all,
+he had committed an action which he would find cause to regret.</p>
+
+<p>But somehow the idea seemed a treachery towards the girl who sat waiting
+so trustfully, so happily for his coming; and with a sudden uplifting of
+his head, Owen went resolutely out to the car.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>But Mrs. Blades, left alone, shod a few of the difficult tears of age as
+she went over the little scene. She felt suddenly old; and for the first
+time in her busy, self-satisfied life she questioned her own wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>Then she too shook off her uncomfortable thoughts, and calling the rosy
+Maggie to her, delivered into her hands the Ten Little Ladies, who still
+waited patiently upon the tray for their nightly release.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>On a beautiful midsummer morning Antonia Rose crept softly down the
+broad old staircase of Greenriver and crossed the hall with so
+fairy-light a tread that never a soul in the house could hear a
+footstep.</p>
+
+<p>It was very early, barely half-past five; but the glorious summer
+morning was calling, calling insistently to Toni to come and share its
+glories; and the call was not one to be disregarded, by Antonia at
+least.</p>
+
+<p>Not a thing stirred. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies grew wan and
+faded before the vitality of the daylight; and when, after some
+difficulty, Toni unlocked the big hall door and let in a flood of
+sunshine, they gave up the unequal contest and expired quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Ah! What a world of beauty burst upon Toni's gaze as she stood,
+thrilling delightfully with a sense of adventure, on the big stone steps
+outside the great door.</p>
+
+<p>A rush of perfume from the tall lilies greeted her first; followed by a
+perfect shower of fragrance from the pink and creamy roses growing
+beside the door. Other scents there were&mdash;a dozen of them&mdash;from the
+flowers massed in glowing ranks in the beds; but the lilies and the
+roses had it all their own way; and Toni laughed with delight as they
+assailed her with their sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>There was music, too, in this pearly dawn. In the trees the birds were
+astir, twittering their songs of morning; and already the velvety brown
+bees were beginning to hum their spinning chorus as they hovered here
+and there among the tall flowers which stood in rows before the windows,
+like marriageable maidens waiting for inspection.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the terrace lay the river, shining with that strange, ethereal
+effect of silver which water has beneath the early morning sky; and away
+beyond the river the thin, delicate mists of the night were rising like
+vaporous ghosts, to dissolve in the fresh, clean atmosphere of dawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful it all is! What a lovely world God made when He
+made&mdash;this!" Toni stood on the steps with arms outstretched, like some
+young priestess of a pagan faith welcoming the sun. "And why do we lie
+asleep in stuffy beds when all the birds and flowers have been awake for
+ages!"</p>
+
+<p>She pulled the big door gently to behind her, and then ran through the
+gardens and across the terrace to the big grey balustrade which kept the
+boundary of the garden from the towing path beyond. Leaning her arms on
+the stone she looked out over the shining river, and in fancy her spirit
+roved here and there&mdash;to the violet-strewn mountain slopes of Italy
+where she had passed her childhood ... to the wonderful, rocky coast of
+Cornwall where her honeymoon had been spent.</p>
+
+<p>At the thought of the Cornish seas she caught her breath. Those
+marvellous green billows, foaming in the sunshine, dashing against the
+cliffs with a sound like thunder; the gentler wavelets creaming over the
+snow-white sands in lines of lotus-blue; the pools, deep and limpid,
+where in the aquamarine water all kind of strange sea-creatures lived;
+the jagged, tooth-like rocks springing from the depths of the ocean,
+ready to destroy the passing ships; the still more wonderful
+lighthouses, rising, some of them, like tall white needles into the
+turquoise sky; the gulls, flashing grey and white in the sunshine; the
+salt scent of the sea mingling with the pungent fragrance of the yellow
+gorse, hot with the sun ... surely the Cornish coast was a very favoured
+spot, and the Scilly Isles, to which passage could be taken in a queer,
+cranky boat, were indeed the Fortunate Isles, cradled by the bluest,
+most magical, most romantic waters in the world!</p>
+
+<p>Thoughts of the ocean were indissolubly bound up with all Toni's
+thoughts of her honeymoon. Acting on a hint from Barry, Owen had taken
+his bride straight away from the Registrar's dingy office to Paddington,
+thence to Cornwall; and he would never forget the sight of Toni's face
+when first she saw the sea, lying purple and green beneath a stormy sky.</p>
+
+<p>During the long journey she had said very little, shyness enveloping her
+as in a mantle; but when the train began to run along the sea shore, so
+that the whole expanse of ocean lay spread before the window, Toni's
+face changed, her eyes sparkled, and she turned to Owen with a
+spontaneous expression of delight.</p>
+
+<p>Now, looking back, it seemed to Toni that never for an instant had the
+voice of the sea been out of her ears during all those wonderful days
+and nights. Its song had helped her to bear herself properly during the
+long hours alone with the man she had married. Again and again, when
+embarrassment threatened to overcome her at this unusually prolonged
+<i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i>, the sea whispered to her to take courage; and each night
+she fell asleep to its murmured lullaby.</p>
+
+<p>During the fortnight which they spent down in the genial West Country,
+Owen gave himself up entirely to the service of his young wife. He
+divined pretty well what she was feeling&mdash;guessed that her marriage,
+after only three weeks' engagement, must have meant a complete upheaval
+of her entire life; and the very fact that he did not love her gave an
+added gentleness to his intercourse with her; for he could not rid
+himself of a sensation that somehow she had been cheated in this
+bargain, had been cajoled into giving the pure gold of love in return
+for the counterfeit of mere liking.</p>
+
+<p>True, he did not repent his marriage. Rather it seemed to him that it
+might turn out successful after all; and since they spent the days
+exploring the coast, which was new to both of them, there was plenty to
+be said, an abundance of interesting subjects to discuss.</p>
+
+<p>Only once&mdash;on the last night of their stay in Cornwall&mdash;was there the
+slightest suspicion of a shadow between them; and Owen blamed himself
+entirely for the occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that Owen was suffering from a very severe headache&mdash;a not
+uncommon complaint since his accident&mdash;and the afternoon post brought
+him the proofs of an article required for the next number of the
+<i>Bridge</i>. An urgent note from Barry accompanied the papers, begging for
+an early revision; and after dinner Owen sat down to run through the
+article in preparation for dispatch in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>But his brain refused to work. His eyes felt as though each eyeball were
+aflame; and his forehead was contracted with the severe pain which had
+racked him all day, so that consecutive thought was almost impossible.
+He tried, again and again, to do the work; but at length, so acute was
+the agony in his eyes, he threw aside the papers with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately Toni looked up from the magazine she was reading.</p>
+
+<p>"May I help you?" She put the question rather timidly, and by way of
+answer he tossed the bundle of proofs into her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks awfully, dear. I simply can't see out of my eyes&mdash;neuralgia, I
+expect. Do your best, won't you? You know how to read proof as well as I
+do, now."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." So she did, for Barry had taught her thoroughly; and she had
+applied herself to his lessons with every fraction of her intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>What he had not taught her, however, was an extensive knowledge of the
+master poets and their works; and Toni's ignorance betrayed her
+hopelessly.</p>
+
+<p>At the old-fashioned school she had attended, few poets were considered
+fit for the girls' reading; Tennyson, of course, was included in the
+pupils' studies, and Shakespeare, carefully edited, was a standby; but
+of the works of Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, Keats, Toni was
+lamentably ignorant.</p>
+
+<p>When, therefore, in the article before her she found a quotation from
+one of Robert Browning's poems, followed almost immediately by a line
+from one of the poet's wife's writings, she concluded, hastily, that the
+printers were at fault, and cheerfully amended the latter initials to
+the one magic R. In the same way she confused Keats and Yeats; and
+finished by ascribing to Christina Rossetti one of Dante Gabriel's most
+impassioned utterances; thus destroying whatever value the article might
+have had, as a critical appreciation of the various writers' work.</p>
+
+<p>Having completed her task Toni raised her eyes to look at her husband,
+and found him lying back in his chair watching her with a very kindly
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>"Finished, little girl? That's good. I'll just initial it and send it
+back." He took the sheets she handed him and raised his eyebrows at the
+numerous corrections. "I say, they must be getting careless at the
+office to let all these slips go through!" He ran his eye over the page,
+more from force of habit than because he expected to find any more
+corrections necessary; and suddenly Toni, watching, saw him frown.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Toni, you've made a mistake." He tried not to speak sharply, for
+after all proof-reading is an art. "This line&mdash;'There may be Heaven,
+there must be Hell'&mdash;that's Robert Browning all right; but the next
+quotation is from the Sonnets to the Portuguese."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it?" Toni did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Browning wrote those, you know." He was busy repairing
+Toni's mistake. "And the next is hers, too. And&mdash;&mdash;" he was skimming
+down the page "&mdash;why, you little goose, it was Dante Rossetti who wrote
+'The Blessed Damosel.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Was it? I thought her name was Christina." Toni's voice faltered; for
+though she did not yet realize the enormity of her offence, she knew
+that Owen was annoyed by her stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Her</i> name? Why, of course <i>her</i> name was Christina; but this happens
+to be his poem, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"His? Whose?" Toni was flustered, or she would never have betrayed
+herself so utterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose?" Owen, his nerves strained almost to breaking point by his
+bodily pain, spoke irritably, and Toni shrank miserably into her chair.
+"Why, Toni, have you never heard of the poet Rossetti? Good Heavens,
+child, don't you ever open a book?"</p>
+
+<p>She said nothing, though the tears welled slowly into her eyes; and Owen
+went on reading, finding still further evidences of his wife's lack of
+acquaintance with the giants of literature as he read.</p>
+
+<p>In an ordinary way he would have let her down gently. After all it is no
+crime to confuse two poets of the same name; and to "correct" a
+quotation by transposing two words into a more ordinary sequence is not
+a very heinous offence; but to Owen, racked with pain, the whole affair
+was an instance of the most flagrant ignorance, and he let fly one or
+two biting sarcasms as he bent over the papers, which reduced Toni to a
+state of trembling, impotent misery.</p>
+
+<p>To do him justice Owen repented as soon as he had spoken, and when he
+saw how he had hurt her, he threw aside the proof-sheets and devoted
+himself to making amends for his harshness.</p>
+
+<p>He succeeded finally in winning back something of her usual serenity;
+but to both the incident was oddly discomposing; to Toni because for the
+first time she saw the critic in the husband, and trembled to think how
+often she must fall short of his high standard; to Owen because the
+affair seemed to open up such vast tracts of ignorance in the woman who
+was his wife, and showed, more clearly than ever before, the dividing
+line between intellect and ordinary shrewdness.</p>
+
+<p>For just one illuminating moment he saw Toni as she was; a pretty,
+winning, half-educated little girl, to whom the world of art and
+literature was a sphere apart, its shibboleths mere meaningless babble
+in her ears, its greatest exponents but so many confusing names,
+divorced from any enlightening personalities.</p>
+
+<p>Where, he asked himself half desperately, was there any common meeting
+ground for two beings so widely diverse as they, husband and wife though
+they were? Surely they were as widely sundered as the poles....</p>
+
+<p>And then the sight of Toni's face, her eyes filled with tears, her
+childish mouth quivering, lighted a sudden flame in his heart which
+consumed, for the time being, all doubts and petty vexations. After all,
+she was only a child&mdash;and she loved him; and so he took her in his arms
+and kissed away the tears with a remorseful tenderness which might well
+pass&mdash;with an uncritical being like Toni&mdash;for love.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni was not thinking of that dreadful episode on this brilliant
+June morning. Rather she was trying to realize that she was the mistress
+of this beautiful place, that Greenriver, with its grounds, its flowers,
+its lofty rooms, was to be her home; and to the girl who had lived in
+Winter Road, Brixton, Greenriver was indeed a revelation.</p>
+
+<p>They had been home a week; and so far Owen had not left her for more
+than a few hours, on the occasion of a business visit to London. The
+weather had been superb; and they had spent several long afternoons on
+the river, thereby missing, to Toni's great content, three or four
+callers who had come to see what manner of woman Owen Rose had married.
+That these calls must be returned Toni knew very well; but it must be
+confessed she shivered at the prospect; more especially as Owen had told
+her, laughingly, that she must not count upon his aid on those purely
+social occasions.</p>
+
+<p>As the thought of the terrible duty-calls flashed through her mind Toni
+slipped down from her perch on the balustrade and made her way down to
+the towing path beneath. She often walked beside the river in these
+quiet morning hours, alone unless her dog Jock, an Airedale terrier of
+unimpeachable ancestry and cheerful disposition, was at hand to
+accompany her.</p>
+
+<p>Jock had been presented to her by Barry as a wedding gift; and Toni, who
+had never before been on an intimate footing with a dog, found his
+companionship both delightful and stimulating. Although he was nearly
+two years old Jock was a puppy at heart. He did his best to comport
+himself as a full-grown dog should do: but had lapses into babyhood,
+when a shoe carelessly left about seemed too tempting; or, after a muddy
+walk, a soft satin cushion gave him an invitation to repose which could
+not possibly be denied.</p>
+
+<p>He was a lovable creature, however, and a perfect gentleman as regards
+cats&mdash;a very desirable trait in an animal belonging to Toni, who loved
+all cats and would certainly have quarrelled with any dog who waged war
+upon the furry tribe.</p>
+
+<p>To her satisfaction Jock came bounding over the terrace to follow her as
+she stepped on to the towing path; and together they strolled by the
+river in the fresh morning air, Toni gazing half-absently towards the
+distant hills, Jock keeping one eye and ear anxiously cocked in
+anticipation of any unwary rat who should show himself upon the
+river-bank.</p>
+
+<p>Although Willowhurst was comparatively far from town there were a good
+many visitors on the river during the summer months. There was a perfect
+reach for punting just here, and many people came down to occupy the
+bungalows built on the opposite bank to that on which Greenriver stood.
+To Owen these little summer dwellings were in the nature of an eyesore.
+Fond as he was of his own beautiful house he would have liked to keep
+the neighbourhood free from this essentially modern phase of river-life;
+but to Toni the gay little bungalows had a charm of their own. They were
+all specially spick and span just now, having been newly painted and
+garnished with flowers for the season; and Toni looked across the river
+with frank interest at the Cot, the Dinky House, the Mascot, and the
+rest of the tiny shanties. She liked the houseboats, too, with their
+gaily-striped awnings, their hanging baskets filled with gaudy pink
+geraniums and bright lobelia. Their primly-curtained little windows
+amused her; and in the evenings she would lure Owen out on to the
+terrace to look down the river to where the Chinese lanterns hung on
+their poles like globes of magic light against the darkening sky.</p>
+
+<p>Toni and Jock had strolled about a quarter of a mile down the path when
+they were brought sharply to a halt by the sound of a deep bark from the
+other side of the water; and looking across they found they were not the
+only waking creatures in this apparently sleeping world.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the little gardens opposite to where they stood were a couple
+of friends like themselves; but in this case the human being was a man
+in his shirt sleeves, and the canine was a singularly beautiful white
+wolfhound, who stood, at the moment, barking defiance at the intruders
+on the opposite bank.</p>
+
+<p>Jock, whose natural pugnacity was always easily aroused, returned the
+compliment with the most evident sincerity; but the Borzoi, having flung
+down the gage of battle and asserted her dignity, retired gracefully
+from the contest, and walking daintily up to her master rose and placed
+her slender paws on his shoulders, an action which said plainly that
+honour was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>The animal was so striking-looking, from her long, graceful head to her
+plumy tail, that Toni could not resist a second look; and the dog's
+master had a good view of the girl whom he guessed to be the young
+mistress of Greenriver, the house which he had often admired as he
+passed by in his boat during the summer days.</p>
+
+<p>As she stood, gazing almost childishly across the intervening water, she
+looked barely more than a schoolgirl; and her short skirt and simple
+white blouse aided the illusion. It was only the sight of the coils of
+black hair which bound her head, and the gleam of the gold wedding-ring
+on her finger, which placed her definitely in the category of womanhood;
+and the man who watched her felt a strange sensation of something like
+pity for the girl launched so early on the sea of matrimony, a sea whose
+perils he, of all men, had cause to dread.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly Toni became aware of the indecorousness of her conduct. It
+was the height of discourtesy to stand staring; and with a blush she
+called Jock and turned hastily away to retrace her steps.</p>
+
+<p>The man and the dog watched her go; and only when she was nearly out of
+sight did they turn back and re-enter the little white bungalow which
+was known locally as the Hope House.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast Owen asked Toni kindly if she felt inclined for a day on
+the river.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought we might take our lunch and go quite a long way," he said.
+"I'm afraid this must be our last holiday jaunt for a little time. I
+shall have to be busy after this."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you?" She looked a trifle wistful; and Owen was sorry for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I daresay I can manage a day off now and then. To-morrow's
+Thursday, isn't it? I must be up in town then, and I'm afraid I shall be
+late home. There's a dinner I rather wanted to attend, but it would mean
+a long evening alone for you."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind." She smiled reassuringly. "I've got Jock to keep me
+company and there are plenty of people in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Andrews is a pretty sturdy young chap, and of course there are
+three or four women. There's the telephone, too, you know, so you really
+needn't be nervous&mdash;especially now, when the river is as full of traffic
+as Bond Street!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not a bit nervous," she said. "I ... I was just wondering&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off, flushing, and Owen felt an unwonted curiosity as to her
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" He spoke kindly, but Toni seemed unable to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"I was thinking ... I mean ..." Suddenly impatient of her own cowardice
+she took her courage in both hands and spoke bravely. "I was wondering
+whether you would allow me to ask Fanny&mdash;my cousin&mdash;down for the
+afternoon. You see, if you are away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course, dear!" Owen spoke the more heartily because he felt a
+slight compunction at the thought of her relations. "Ask your cousin by
+all means. You must remember that this is your house, Toni, and you need
+not ask my leave to invite your friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you." She was looking down as she spoke, but her cheeks were
+scarlet. "I will ask her then ... but ..." suddenly her words came with
+a rush "... I know my people aren't like yours ... I couldn't let them
+meet your friends ... I mean&mdash;I'll ask them when you are not at home,
+and then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be a goose, Toni!" Owen hoped his voice betrayed nothing. "Your
+people are my people now, you know, and I don't want you to get any
+silly ideas into your head at the start."</p>
+
+<p>She stretched out her hand impulsively and laid it on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, you're too good to me. I know so well that we belong to different
+worlds, but ... if you mean that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I mean it." He rose as he spoke and patted her shoulder.
+"Don't be a little silly&mdash;and now run away and write to your cousin at
+once. If she can't come to-morrow, suggest Friday."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she couldn't come then," returned Toni na&iuml;vely. "You see the shop
+closes on Thursday afternoon, and it's Fanny's only free day."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Somehow the little explanation, with its picture of a different
+life from that to which he was accustomed, struck a chill to Owen's
+heart; but he hid his discomfort cleverly and bade Toni write her letter
+without delay.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Miss Gibbs accepted the invitation joyfully; and on Thursday morning
+Owen went off to town, after bidding Toni keep her cousin to dinner if
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>"She can take the nine-fifteen to town," he said. "I have the car, but
+if she can stay, telephone for a taxi from the station to be here at
+nine. You won't be lonely, Toni?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit!" Indeed she was thrilling with pleasure at the idea of
+entertaining her cousin in her new home. "I've lots to see to. What a
+pity Mrs. Blades is ill to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, her usual bronchitis, I suppose. She'll be all right in a day or
+two." Owen was hunting for a paper as he spoke. "Confound it, where is
+that manuscript, Toni? You know the one&mdash;that article on Alfred Noyes."</p>
+
+<p>"It's here." Toni handed him the paper he required.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks awfully. You're a first-rate little secretary, Toni! I guess we
+shall miss you at the office!"</p>
+
+<p>He did not observe the rather wistful look which swept over her face at
+the half-careless praise. At that moment Toni felt she would have asked
+nothing better than to jump into the car and journey up to town with
+Owen to take her old place behind the typewriter in Owen's room. She
+hated to see him leaving her, longed to beg him to stay; but something
+stronger than personal longing held her back. A wife, she told herself,
+must be a help, not a hindrance; and since Owen saw fit to leave her, to
+carry on the work in which she had now no place, her duty, plainly, was
+to remain at home and keep everything in her little world in order for
+his return.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, it was a glorious day, the sun was shining, the flowers dancing
+in the breeze; and Fanny would be with her during the afternoon. It was
+a day created for gladness, for rejoicing, and Toni, made wise by love,
+banished wistfulness from her eyes and returned Owen's kiss with a gay
+word of farewell.</p>
+
+<p>But she stood looking after him as the car whizzed down the avenue; and
+the smile which touched her lips was just a little sad.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>When Owen was safely gone Toni entered the house with a look of
+determination on her face, and retreating to the little white-panelled
+room known as the morning-room she rang the bell to summon Kate to her
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>It was not Kate who answered the ring, however. In her stead came
+Maggie, the rosy-faced housemaid, who had already fallen in love with
+her young mistress, and was ready to carry out any order which Mrs. Rose
+might give.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's you, Maggie?" Toni looked up from the paper on which she was
+scribbling. "Where's Kate?"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed Kate was busy, poulticing Mrs. Blades, who was suffering under
+one of her usual attacks of bronchitis, and she had sent Maggie, with
+apologies, in her stead.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Blades is really ill? Had she better see a doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>No, Maggie was empowered by Kate to say that a doctor's visit was
+unnecessary. Mrs. Blades often had these attacks, and they knew just
+what to do; but she would not be able to attend to her duties for a
+couple of days at the least.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of herself Toni's face brightened. Not that she wished Mrs.
+Blades to suffer, but she knew quite well that the old housekeeper, for
+all her respectful ways, resented the arrival of a mistress of whom, for
+some reason, she did not approve; and Toni felt rather glad that for
+to-day, at any rate, she could be in reality the mistress of the whole
+establishment.</p>
+
+<p>With the other servants she was on the best of terms. Whatever Mrs.
+Blades might think of Toni's social position previous to her marriage
+she was sufficiently loyal to keep her doubts to herself; and Martha the
+cook, Kate the serious parlourmaid, and Andrews the young man-servant,
+one and all combined to make their new mistress feel at ease with her
+staff.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie, to-day, was full of importance at being allowed to replace Kate
+to assist Toni in her preparation for the afternoon's visitor; and she
+listened attentively to all that Toni had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"I want a really nice tea, Maggie!" Toni looked up from her list with a
+serious face. "Miss Gibbs has to catch an early train from town, and
+won't have time for much lunch." Even the unsophisticated Toni knew
+better than to mention the nature of Miss Gibbs' employment. "So I want
+tea at four o'clock and it must be pretty&mdash;well, substantial."</p>
+
+<p>Maggie fully endorsed the suggestion, and waited to see what Mrs. Rose
+considered necessary for the meal.</p>
+
+<p>"Tea and hot cakes, of course. And that lovely plum cake Martha made
+for ..." Toni blushed, but went on bravely "... for our wedding-cake.
+And then&mdash;is it possible to get shrimps, Maggie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, ma'am&mdash;don't you remember cook's shrimp savoury for Sunday
+lunch? And you'd shrimp sauce with the fish last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, so we had. Well, when the man calls from the fish shop,
+order some. You get them by the pint&mdash;or is it the pound?" said Toni,
+vaguely remembering her aunt's orders on the occasion of a tea-party.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie thought it was the pint; and in any case she would give the order
+to the young man herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. And then&mdash;what else, Maggie? I do want a nice tea."</p>
+
+<p>The little handmaiden eagerly racked her brain for some brilliant idea;
+and finally suggested that Cook was very fond of making "shape."</p>
+
+<p>"Shape? Oh, I see," said Toni a trifle dubiously. "You mean a
+blanc-mange or a cream. But I don't think it would do for tea."</p>
+
+<p>Maggie thought, respectfully, that it would do fine. In her last place
+her mistress always had a shape when company was coming to tea.
+But&mdash;suddenly her rosy face grew even more pink&mdash;perhaps she was wrong,
+and anyway Mrs. Rose knew best.</p>
+
+<p>Sorry for the girl's evident embarrassment Toni gave the order forthwith
+for a cream; and then turned to the subject of dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Gibbs will stay to dinner, and we will have it at half-past seven.
+That gives us time to go on the river first; and the cab won't be here
+till nine."</p>
+
+<p>"Cook's sent you a mennyoo, ma'am." Maggie produced a somewhat crumpled
+piece of paper. "She thought perhaps something of this sort would do."</p>
+
+<p>Toni ran her eye over the paper, and her brow cleared.</p>
+
+<p>"Soup, fish, sweetbread and green peas, chicken...." she gave the paper
+back. "Yes, it will do beautifully, and I'm sure Miss Gibbs will like
+Martha's trifle. Well, Maggie, that's all, I think. Have I forgotten
+anything?"</p>
+
+<p>The two girls stared at one another for a moment, their faces quite
+solemn with the effort of concentration. Then Toni relaxed and spoke
+gaily.</p>
+
+<p>"No, that's all, I'm sure ... well, Maggie, what have you thought of
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please, ma'am, the flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'd forgotten! Good girl, Maggie! Well, get me the scissors and a
+basket, and then you might put the vases ready in the little room."</p>
+
+<p>Maggie flew to obey the commands, and Toni, to whom the idea of giving
+orders was still almost ludicrous, strolled to the window to await her
+return.</p>
+
+<p>The room overlooked the river, and on that account was a favourite with
+Toni. It was reached by a short flight of stairs apart from the main
+staircase, and boasted a large casement window, built over the terrace
+below, and giving the river an air of proximity which always delighted
+Toni.</p>
+
+<p>To-day the water sparkled in the sunshine with a very cheerful effect;
+and as Toni looked a cream-white swan drifted by, the sun's light
+turning its feathers into a kind of gilded snow. A punt passed slowly
+with two occupants, one a girl in a white frock, lying lazily on a heap
+of blue-green cushions, her uncovered head protected from the sun by a
+scarlet parasol, the other a bronzed and fair-haired youth, who wielded
+his pole with an athletic grace purely Greek.</p>
+
+<p>Toni's eyes softened as the two glided by. Her own happiness was so
+immense, her love for Owen had been so wonderfully, so completely
+satisfied, that she wished all other girls to be as happy as she was;
+and although the two in the punt were only visible for a few moments she
+thought she could read in their faces the story of their mutual
+attraction.</p>
+
+<p>When Maggie returned Toni took the basket and went out into the garden.
+Gathering flowers was an occupation of which she never tired. Never,
+since her days on the hill-slope above Naples, had she been able to
+indulge her passionate love for flowers; and to the girl who had been
+wont to regard sixpence spent on a branch of golden mimosa, or a handful
+of the big pink carnations which seem indigenous to the London streets,
+as something of an extravagance, the delight of filling bowls and vases
+with unlimited supplies of the loveliest, freshest flowers could not be
+overrated.</p>
+
+<p>To-day she cut more lavishly than usual in Fanny's honour, and when,
+just as the lunch gong sounded, she rested from her labours, the lovely
+old house was a dream of beauty and colour and scent.</p>
+
+<p>Snapdragons, in every shade of yellow and pink and deep, rich rose,
+stood in tall jars, wherever there was a dark corner to be lighted up.
+Big blue bowls held masses of roses of every describable hue, whose
+fragrance scented all the house; and every available inch of space had
+been utilized as a resting-place for one or more vases of the sweetest,
+gayest blooms imaginable.</p>
+
+<p>Even Toni was satisfied at last, and she hurried over her lunch in good
+spirits. Just as she was rising from the table a thought struck her.</p>
+
+<p>"Kate, do you think we might have tea in here? You see&mdash;we ought to have
+a table, I think&mdash;and it wouldn't matter for once, would it?"</p>
+
+<p>Kate, who had experienced sundry qualms at the idea of a feast of
+shrimps in the charming, old-world drawing-room, gave a decided assent.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be much more suitable, ma'am. I could put a pretty lace cloth
+on the table, and then with some flowers it would look quite nice."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Kate." Toni gave vent to a relieved sigh. "You and Maggie
+are really treasures in helping me. Oh&mdash;how is Mrs. Blades!"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Blades was better; but Kate, who had a shrewd notion of the old
+woman's real opinion of her pretty mistress, was not ill-pleased to
+inform Toni that the bronchial attack from which she was suffering made
+it impossible for her to supervise the household affairs for to-day at
+least.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you must look after things for me, Kate," said Toni, smiling in a
+friendly fashion at the girl; and Kate, although she had lived in
+"smart" houses, and knew that shrimps and blanc-mange were not usually
+met with at tea, succumbed still more completely to that friendly little
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't she have her tea-party as she likes it?" she said to
+herself as she went out. "The master's away, and she's not likely to do
+this sort of thing when he's about." Kate, who was thirty-one, and
+experienced in the ways of the world, was quite aware of the element of
+awe in Toni's love for her husband&mdash;an element of which Toni herself was
+as yet wholly unsuspicious. "And I've no doubt this young lady as is
+coming down isn't used to great things. You can see as Mrs. Rose hasn't
+lived with anyone partikler&mdash;but she's a real little lady in her ways,
+for all that," concluded this authority on the ways of gentlefolk.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Punctually at three o'clock Miss Gibbs arrived; and was shown into the
+drawing-room, where Toni awaited her coming.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth Miss Gibbs was a little awed by the unexpected
+grandeur of her surroundings; and not even the consciousness of her new
+linen frock and elaborately-trimmed hat could give her quite her usual
+assurance.</p>
+
+<p>She followed Andrews meekly across the hall, hardly daring to lift her
+eyes; and when the man threw open the drawing-room door and ushered her
+in, Fanny unconsciously moderated her usual hearty footstep and
+endeavoured to make her entry as inconspicuous as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, who had not heard the cab arrive, jumped up hastily from her low
+chair and ran to meet her cousin, while Andrews discreetly withdrew and
+closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Fanny! How glad I am to see you!" Toni hugged Miss Gibbs
+affectionately. "I'd have come to meet you but I was so late with lunch
+that I hadn't time."</p>
+
+<p>"I found a cab waiting for me," said Fanny, returning her embrace. "You
+were a dear to send it, Toni. You're quite a way from the station,
+aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we are," said Toni carelessly. "But how are you, Fan? And
+Auntie&mdash;and Lu and all of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother's first-rate and longing to see you when you can get up to town.
+Everyone's all right," said Fanny comfortably. "Lu's been in mischief
+again, though. She and some of the girls from her school played truant
+t'other day and went to see a County cricket-match. You know cricket's
+the craze this term, and they got their money stolen and couldn't get
+home, and Lu didn't land up till ten o'clock at night!"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean it! What did Auntie say?"</p>
+
+<p>"She didn't say much then, 'cause Lu was cryin' and nearly dead with
+tramping for miles; but next day she got a jolly good whipping and was
+shut up on bread and water all over Sunday."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, poor Lu!" Toni felt very pitiful towards the hapless cricket
+enthusiast. "After all, Fan, you and I once ran away to see the Boat
+Race on our own!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and we got jolly well punished for it, too! I can remember Ma's
+slipper to this day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you ought to be sorry for Lu!"</p>
+
+<p>"Serve her right," said Miss Gibbs with sisterly severity. "Cricket,
+indeed! What do girls want with cricket! Anyhow, she won't do it again
+in a hurry&mdash;Ma saw to that!"</p>
+
+<p>"And how's Josh, Fan?" Toni saw that no sympathy was to be looked for
+from the culprit's sister.</p>
+
+<p>"A 1. I say, Toni, where's Mr. Rose?" Fanny, regaining some of her usual
+assurance, looked round her vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"He has had to go up to town. But I thought you wouldn't mind, Fan. I
+want to show you the house and have a real good talk."</p>
+
+<p>"My! It <i>is</i> a house and no mistake!" Fanny gazed about the beautiful
+room with frank admiration. "I thought the man must be going wrong when
+he turned in here&mdash;and what lovely gardens you've got."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they are jolly, aren't they? Well, shall we go over the house
+before tea or after? It's very nearly four, and I said we'd have tea
+early."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad of that." Fanny beamed approval. "To tell you the truth, Toni,
+I hadn't time for much lunch. We're supposed to shut at one, you know,
+but of course we don't get off at once, and to-day everything went
+wrong! At the last minute I upset a box of ribbons, and the spiteful
+things all went and got unrolled, and then that odious little
+Jackson&mdash;you know, the shopwalker I told you about&mdash;came and slanged me
+like anything."</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame!" Toni had been one of the workers of the world too
+recently to have lost sympathy with the grievances of those who work. "I
+wish you could leave the old shop, Fanny. Why don't you and Josh get
+married?"</p>
+
+<p>"Too soon." Fanny was of a prudent nature. "We <i>must</i> wait till Josh
+gets a rise, and I can't afford to leave the shop. You see, I must have
+a few clothes before I marry ... by the way, Toni, what about your
+clothes? You didn't get much when you married, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but before we came here we went up to town and stayed at the
+Russell for two days and did a whole heap of shopping." Toni stifled a
+sigh at the thought of those long hours spent in shops. "You see I
+didn't really know what to get, so Owen went, with me, and I got a lot
+of things ready-made, and was fitted for others, so I have quite a
+trousseau by now!"</p>
+
+<p>"That skirt's well-cut," said Miss Gibbs, surveying her cousin
+critically. "Blue serge always looks well&mdash;and that white blouse is good
+thick silk."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you like it. Owen likes me in these low collars, and they're
+cool." Toni looked at the clock. "But come upstairs and take off your
+hat and we'll have tea straight away."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing loth, Miss Gibbs agreed; and went into fresh raptures when she
+saw Toni's bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>"My! What lovely furniture!" She went up to the toilet-table and began
+to examine it. "And these silver brushes and things&mdash;are they all
+yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Owen gave them to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Well to be you," commented Miss Gibbs briskly. "What a lovely long
+glass, too! Can't you see yourself properly just!"</p>
+
+<p>She stood in front of the glass so long that Toni grew impatient.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up, Fan! I'm sure tea's ready and I'm dying for some. I hadn't
+much lunch."</p>
+
+<p>Thus incited, Miss Gibbs laid aside the flowery hat she had been
+admiring, disclosing a much curled and waved <i>coiffure</i>, and together
+the cousins ran downstairs, just as Andrews carried in the silver
+tea-pot and the hot cakes.</p>
+
+<p>Kate, true to her word, had made the best of the oval table. She had
+laid upon it the finest, laciest cloth she could find, and had placed in
+the centre a tall jar of lilies, while here and there she had found room
+for small silver bowls of pink roses. The silver tea-tray, with its thin
+china cups and saucers, stood proudly at the head of the table; and so
+far nothing could have been more charming.</p>
+
+<p>But alas! Even Kate could not hide the eminent unsuitability of the
+feast itself to its elegant surroundings. True, the bread and butter was
+of wafer-like thinness, there were hot cakes of the crispest, finest
+variety, and the plum-cake which was Martha's welcome to the bride was
+of the richest, most tempting description.</p>
+
+<p>But side by side with those delicacies was a dish of shrimps, in all
+their native vulgarity; and further down, almost hidden in fact by the
+flowery centrepiece, was a glass dish containing a velvety white cream
+whose real place should have been on the dinner-table.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Toni's heart misgave her as she saw these things in their
+blatancy; and she wished she had stuck to the usual tiny sandwiches
+which Martha sent up when she and Owen were alone. Then she remembered,
+gratefully, that Fanny was hungry, and common sense whispered that to a
+girl who had lunched lightly a sandwich was unsatisfying fare.</p>
+
+<p>As for Fanny, her spirits, momentarily damped by the sight of the silver
+tray, rose with a bound as she surveyed the table.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Toni, what a spread! Shrimps, I declare! Well, I thought you'd
+have been much too smart nowadays to think of them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" Toni's depression vanished, and she laughed gaily. "I always
+did like shrimps&mdash;and why shouldn't I have them if I want them? Come and
+sit down, Fan&mdash;here, by me&mdash;and do make a good tea!"</p>
+
+<p>Fanny needed no second bidding. Taking the seat indicated she leaned
+forward to examine the silver in the most open fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, you've got some tiptop things and no mistake! That cloth is
+simply lovely&mdash;just look at the lace, as fine as fine!"</p>
+
+<p>"It belonged to Owen's mother," said Toni, passing her a cup of tea.
+"There are lots of things like that in the house. Now, Fanny, help
+yourself&mdash;and pass the dish!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus invited, Fanny did help herself; and presently both girls were
+happily eating and talking, Fanny asking innumerable questions and Toni
+satisfying her curiosity without entering into details.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Toni jumped up.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Jock at the door. You must see him, Fan&mdash;he's a darling, and
+I'm sure you'll love him!"</p>
+
+<p>Almost before the door was properly open Jock hurled himself
+reproachfully into the room, and flinging himself on to his mistress,
+inquired in the plainest dog-language why she had been so slow in
+answering his summons. When she had apologized and received his
+forgiveness, she introduced him to Miss Gibbs, who was won immediately
+by his courteous manner towards her and the friendliness in his nice
+brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She cemented the acquaintance by offering him&mdash;timidly&mdash;a piece of cake;
+and instantly Jock threw dignity to the winds and begged, shamelessly,
+for further morsels; which being denied him caused him to bark
+vociferously and show off his few tricks in the hope of adequate reward.</p>
+
+<p>He was engaged in walking on his hind legs round the room, following
+Fanny, who was laughing excitedly and flourishing a piece of cake, while
+Toni clapped her hands and called out words of encouragement at the top
+of her voice, when a loud whirring sound on the gravel outside made both
+girls turn in the direction from which came the noise&mdash;just in time to
+see a big grey car shoot by the window on its way to the front door.</p>
+
+<p>One glance was enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Good gracious, Fan! Visitors! What a bore!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will they come in? Won't your man say you're out?" gasped Fanny,
+hastily dropping the bit of cake she held and pinning up a roll of hair
+which had come down in the game.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;they saw us," said Toni wildly. "I never said I wasn't at home&mdash;and
+anyway they'd hear us laughing!"</p>
+
+<p>In a dead silence the two girls stood, waiting breathlessly to see what
+would happen; and in the sudden hush they heard the clang of the big
+bell, and Andrews' speedy arrival in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>For one wild moment Toni thought of waylaying him with instructions to
+send the visitors away. The next instant she realized that such a course
+was impossible, and waited helplessly for the next act of the drama.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews opened the door, and Toni heard a gentle, cultured voice ask if
+Mrs. Rose were at home.</p>
+
+<p>For a fraction of a second Andrews, who was young enough to be human,
+and had not yet become a machine, hesitated as though he would fain deny
+his mistress to these invaders; but finally habit triumphed over
+humanity and he replied stolidly in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment Toni, standing by the door, heard the rustle of skirts
+and the firm step of a man, which sounds proceeded in the direction of
+the drawing-room; and with an agonized sign to her cousin Toni flew back
+to her seat behind the tea-tray just as the door opened to admit
+Andrews.</p>
+
+<p>The visitors, knowing themselves unknown, had provided the servant with
+cards; and these Andrews silently presented to his mistress, who took
+them with a shaking hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The Honourable Mrs. Anstey, Miss Olive Lynn, Mr. Barry Raymond&mdash;&mdash;" She
+broke off with a sigh of relief. "Why, that's Owen's friend, Fanny. It's
+not half so bad if he's there!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Are they in the drawing-room, Andrews?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" For a second Toni hesitated, then common sense came to her rescue.
+"I will come, Andrews. Fanny, will you come with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do let me stay here," begged Miss Gibbs, who was still endeavouring
+to make herself tidy. "I'm such a sight, playing with the dog&mdash;but you
+go, Toni ... and p'raps they won't stop long."</p>
+
+<p>Toni walked across the hall with lagging footsteps, preceded by the
+sympathetic Andrews, who threw open the door for her with a
+compassionate air, and then retired to break the news of this intrusion
+to the maids who were anxiously waiting his return.</p>
+
+<p>In the drawing-room were three people; and as Toni made her entrance,
+looking like a veritable schoolgirl in her blouse and short skirt, the
+oldest of the trio came forward with an expression of surprise on her
+beautiful, faded face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose?" She shook hands. "I am so glad to find you at home. This is
+my niece, Miss Lynn, who is staying with me&mdash;and Mr. Raymond I think you
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni, feeling shyer than ever, shook hands with the pretty, grey-eyed
+girl who approached at the sound of her name; and then turned, with a
+feeling of genuine relief, to Barry.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Raymond! I'm so pleased to see you&mdash;but I'm afraid Owen isn't at
+home!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know that!" He laughed. "He is doing a little work to-day, for a
+change&mdash;and my call is really on you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, won't you sit down?" Toni drew a low chair forward for Mrs.
+Anstey, who accepted it with a smile, while Olive Lynn sank down on the
+couch, where, after a second's pause, Toni also took her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"I had hoped to see you before now," said Mrs. Anstey, with a smile
+which won Toni's impressionable heart. "But I heard you had only just
+got home, and thought I would give you a chance to settle down."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very good of you to come," said Toni simply. "You live some
+distance away, don't you? I think my husband pointed out your house to
+me when we were motoring one day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, nearly eight miles off&mdash;in the next village, in fact. But as you
+have a motor I hope you'll come over and see me pretty often." She gave
+the invitation with a pleasant note of sincerity. "Just at present my
+niece is taking pity on me, but I am very lonely sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"I will come, certainly," said Toni, feeling curiously at ease with this
+charming, elderly woman who, in spite of her aristocratic bearing, was
+so delightfully kindly. "I haven't returned any calls yet&mdash;but my
+husband tells me I must really start next week."</p>
+
+<p>"Do&mdash;and come to tea with me first of all." Mrs. Anstey spoke quite
+unconsciously, but something in her words aroused Toni to a sense of her
+own deficiencies as hostess.</p>
+
+<p>Tea&mdash;of course! Owen had told her that it was imperative to offer tea to
+afternoon visitors; and these people had motored eight miles over a
+dusty road&mdash;they must be hot and thirsty and longing for tea.</p>
+
+<p>Yet&mdash;suddenly Toni felt it would be impossible to ask her guests to
+participate in the feast which she had spread for Fanny. The delicacies
+which had been prepared for her cousin took on a very uncouth
+appearance, and from the bottom of her heart Toni wished she had kept to
+the usual <i>r&eacute;gime</i> of dainty sandwiches and cakes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she must offer tea&mdash;and quickly, before her visitors had time to
+doubt her hospitable intentions. She was so lost in thought that she let
+Mrs. Anstey's remark go unanswered; and Barry, looking at her, wondered
+what had made her suddenly colour hotly and look embarrassed and
+nervous.</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell, Toni was hot all over. A more experienced hostess than
+she would have rung the bell and requested Andrews to bring tea; and
+doubtless he would have done so without delay, thereby saving the
+situation; but to Toni's mind the fact that tea was ready in the room
+across the hall quite precluded the possibility of having another tea
+brought for the latest visitors; besides which it flashed through her
+mind that these people must have seen the tea-table through the big
+dining-room window.</p>
+
+<p>Olive Lynn, seeing her confusion, but not understanding its cause, tried
+good-naturedly to put her at her ease.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I saw you on the river last night, didn't I? We were in a
+canoe, and you and Mr. Rose were punting."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;yes!" Toni, still wrestling with her problem, answered rather
+vaguely. "We&mdash;we had taken tea with us and were late home."</p>
+
+<p>"That's so jolly, isn't it?" Olive smiled. "We often do that&mdash;take a
+tea-basket and have a picnic."</p>
+
+<p>Tea again! Suddenly Toni grew desperate. Tea must be offered; there was
+no way out of this dilemma save a frank acceptance of the situation; and
+with a sinking heart Toni took the plunge.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... we were just having tea, my cousin and I," she said abruptly.
+"Will you ... will you come and have some? I'm sure you must be thirsty
+after your drive."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Anstey, with a look at her niece, accepted courteously. It was a
+hot day and the roads were dusty, and in a house like Greenriver one
+need not be afraid of putting one's hostess out by accepting a cup of
+tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. A cup of tea would be very refreshing&mdash;I'm sure Olive thinks
+so, don't you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm always ready for tea," replied the girl, laughing, "and
+motoring does make one thirsty, doesn't it, Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come, then?" Toni had risen, and now moved, feeling cold with
+nervousness, towards the door. "We ... we are having tea in the
+dining-room to-day."'</p>
+
+<p>Barry opened the door as she spoke; and together the little party
+crossed the hall to the dining-room. Andrews was hovering about; and as
+he saw his mistress leading her guests he slipped away in search of
+fresh cups and a supply of hot tea.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the dining-room Miss Gibbs, having reduced her appearance to
+something like order, was sitting rather apprehensively in her place;
+and as the door opened to admit the quartette she rose and stood waiting
+nervously for Toni's introductions.</p>
+
+<p>These were soon made. Mrs. Anstey and Olive shook hands with Fanny, each
+of them wondering in her mind at the relationship between her pretty,
+shy hostess and this florid, rather overdressed young woman; but
+convention mercifully intervened to hide their wonder; and Fanny could
+find no fault with their courteous greetings.</p>
+
+<p>With Barry it was quite impossible to feel ill at ease; and he shook
+hands so nicely, making a remark about Jock as he did so, that Fanny
+felt suddenly comfortable again.</p>
+
+<p>The guests, in response to Toni's invitation, seated themselves; Olive
+taking a chair by Fanny's side, while Mrs. Anstey sat next to her
+hostess, and Barry appropriated a stool beside the elder woman.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews entering with fresh supplies, Toni provided her visitors with
+tea, losing her first nervousness as she did so; and for a moment it
+seemed as though the little party would be a success after all.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Anstey had just accepted a hot cake, and Olive was begging prettily
+for another lump of sugar, when Jock, who had been sitting quietly
+beside his mistress, suddenly rose and rushed madly over to the window,
+uttering a succession of shrill barks as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone glanced at the window to see what had disturbed him; and there,
+on the gravel outside, stood two ladies, evidently a little uncertain of
+the Airedale's intentions.</p>
+
+<p>"I think those are some more visitors, Mrs. Rose!" Barry gave her a
+quizzical look. "It never rains but it pours! Shall I ... er ... Jock
+seems a little anxious to send the visitors away!"</p>
+
+<p>Luckily the window was raised a good height from the ground; and Jock
+was obliged to content himself with putting his paws on the window-seat
+and barking still more fiercely at the figures without.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, however, the two ladies appeared to regain the courage they
+had momentarily lost; and vanished from sight in the direction of the
+front door; which was shortly opened by Andrews, who had evidently been
+lurking in the hall listening to Jock's protestations.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that the man, who was really little more than a boy, lost
+his head; or perhaps he was infected by the spirit of nervousness which
+had gripped Toni earlier in the afternoon. At any rate, whatever the
+excuse, he made no pretence of showing the new-comers into the
+drawing-room, but opened the dining-room door and ushered them straight
+into the presence of his mistress; after which he closed the door and
+leaned against the wall, aghast at his own stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>To make matters worse, he had announced the ladies in so indistinct a
+voice that Toni had not the faintest notion who her visitors were; and
+for a second they stared helplessly at one another, while Jock, who had
+conceived a violent dislike for these latest comers, barked loudly and
+unmercifully throughout.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, just as Toni mustered up courage to shake hands, Mrs.
+Anstey came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Lady Martin, I had no idea you were home again. You have come to
+welcome Mrs. Rose, I suppose. My dear"&mdash;to Toni&mdash;"Lady Martin is your
+nearest neighbour&mdash;really near, I mean; only a mile away."</p>
+
+<p>"Less by the fields." Lady Martin spoke magisterially. "And this fine
+weather tempted us to walk, although both the cars were standing idle in
+the garage."</p>
+
+<p>Having thus established her position as the owner of two cars, Lady
+Martin brought forward her daughter and presented her to Toni, who
+received an instant impression of size, teeth and volubility as Miss
+Martin shook hands and expressed her pleasure at finding Mrs. Rose at
+home.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing to do was obviously to provide chairs for the guests, and
+this Toni did, with the help of Barry, who appeared to be on fairly
+friendly terms with the two ladies; and once again Toni turned her
+attention to filling teacups.</p>
+
+<p>Fanny, who had been somewhat overlooked during the last strenuous
+moments, was relieved to hear herself addressed in a friendly tone by
+Miss Lynn, who felt sorry for the girl, so obviously ill-at-ease; and in
+return for the kindly attention Fanny eagerly handed Olive the dish of
+shrimps with an invitation to "try some."</p>
+
+<p>Olive Lynn, who had possibly never met these small creatures in their
+native armour before, hesitated, casting a look at Barry at the same
+moment; but he was engaged in handing Lady Martin some bread and butter;
+and Olive's appeal went unanswered.</p>
+
+<p>Taking Miss Lynn's silence for consent, and being really anxious to help
+Toni by making her guests eat a good tea, Fanny eagerly piled her
+neighbour's plate with shrimps; and at that moment Lady Martin first
+discovered what plebeian dishes the table held.</p>
+
+<p>Ignoring Barry and his bread and butter, she put up her lorgnette and
+deliberately scrutinized the heap of pink shrimps which Fanny, pleased
+with her success, was just pushing across to Miss Martin. For a second
+her ladyship was speechless; then, as her daughter turned a haughty
+stare upon the officious commoner, Lady Martin spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Lucretia, you had better leave those&mdash;er&mdash;shellfish alone. I
+understand there is always a danger of ptomaine poisoning with such
+things."</p>
+
+<p>Toni dropped a lump of sugar with a clatter on the tray and turned
+scarlet. Lady Martin's tone was so deliberately offensive, her manner so
+disagreeable, that Toni felt like a chidden schoolgirl; and again the
+enormity of her social mistake swept over her, rendering her quite
+incapable of making any reply to the attack.</p>
+
+<p>But rescue was at hand. Barry, who from the first had felt a chivalrous
+interest in his friend's wife, had seen the colour sweep into her face,
+and had determined that the Martins, mother and daughter, should not
+exercise their well-known prerogative of snubbing any woman who did not
+boast a title.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that Lady Martin was the wife of a soap manufacturer,
+knighted for services to his party; and both sprang from a very humble
+class; but what they lacked in breeding they made up for in arrogance;
+and Lady Martin had early determined that if she wished to become a
+power in the neighbourhood she must assert herself on every occasion.
+Also, she had intended to patronize the young mistress of Greenriver;
+and to find Mrs. Anstey, the only person in the district of whom she
+stood in awe, here before her had disturbed her mean little soul.</p>
+
+<p>Barry, quick as a woman in some matters, read her mind accurately, and
+immediately ranged himself on the side of his embarrassed hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"Are those shrimps, Mrs. Rose? And you never asked me to have any!"</p>
+
+<p>He flashed a laughing glance at her, and drew the dish towards him,
+resolved that he at least would not shirk his duty.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I'm sorry ... I forgot," said Toni lamely. "But ... please don't
+have any if you'd rather not."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems hardly the hour for these&mdash;delicacies," said Lady Martin,
+waving haughtily aside the dish Barry offered her mischievously. "In
+sauce&mdash;or <i>p&acirc;t&eacute;s</i>&mdash;yes ... but now&mdash;no!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're making quite a mistake," said Barry coolly, helping himself
+as he spoke. "They are delicious with bread and butter. Olive, you've
+got some? That's right. Mrs. Anstey, can't I persuade you to try a few?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Anstey, thoroughly understanding the look of appeal which Barry's
+laughing eyes held, smiled very kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy, I never eat much tea, as you know&mdash;but still&mdash;if you'll
+prepare me one or two ... they really look so tempting...."</p>
+
+<p>To her dying day Lady Martin would never forget that afternoon. There
+sat Mrs. Anstey, whom everyone knew to be related to half the "good"
+families of England, eating shrimps, shelled for her by Barry, with an
+air of enjoyment which was in itself an offence. There, too, was Miss
+Lynn, niece to an earl, doing likewise, being assisted in the mysteries
+of divorcing the creatures from their shells by the blowsy, florid young
+woman beside her, with whom she was soon on excellent terms. And there,
+also, was Barry Raymond, a young man for whom everyone had a good word,
+laughing and joking with his hostess as though they were old friends,
+while that same hostess lost her frightened look beneath his geniality
+and did the honours of the tea-tray very prettily.</p>
+
+<p>Only Lady Martin and her daughter were out of it; and when she found
+that her cold looks and biting speeches made no impression on
+anyone&mdash;for even Fanny was at ease now with these delightful people&mdash;her
+ladyship could bear it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>Rising abruptly, and cutting short a sentence of Toni's as though she
+heard nothing, Lady Martin called her daughter to her side.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Lucretia, if you have finished your tea"&mdash;both ladies had left
+their cups untouched&mdash;"we must tear ourselves away. We promised to look
+in at the Vicarage, and you know we are dining with the Batty-Browns
+to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>Having thus made it clear that she was in much social demand, Lady
+Martin advanced upon her hostess and held out her hand aggressively.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Mrs. Rose. So glad to have seen you. I am always at home on
+Wednesdays in the summer."</p>
+
+<p>Toni shook hands quietly, and Miss Martin followed suit with a limp
+handshake; after which the two ladies took what was intended to be a
+gushing farewell of the other guests, ignoring Fanny as though she were
+not present.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews was in waiting to show the ladies out; and when, a moment later,
+they swept by the window, their high-heeled shoes crunching the gravel
+sternly, Barry heaved a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how it is, but Lady Martin always gives me the creeps.
+Mrs. Rose, is it too late to beg another cup of tea? I assure you I
+really want it, to buck me up."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, who was very pale, filled his cup with rather a trembling hand,
+and Mrs. Anstey saw that the woman's insolence had unnerved her.</p>
+
+<p>Appearing to notice nothing, she began to make conversation, discoursing
+gently on various unimportant topics until Toni grew more like herself;
+and when at length Mrs. Anstey rose to go she had completely won Toni's
+grateful heart.</p>
+
+<p>Toni took leave of her visitors regretfully, and readily promised to
+return the visit as soon as possible; and then she and Fanny accompanied
+them to the door to see them comfortably settled in the big grey car.</p>
+
+<p>Barry was driving, Olive sitting beside him; and the girl turned and
+waved a kindly hand as the car began to glide down the avenue in the
+afternoon sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"My! Isn't she pretty!" Miss Gibbs' admiration was sincere. "And that
+blue bonnet of hers was a dream&mdash;must have cost pounds!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think Mrs. Anstey is beautiful," said Toni, rather dreamily, gazing
+after the car. "I don't wonder Miss Lynn is so devoted to her. She is
+just my ideal of a lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Better than that other stuck-up cat," said Fanny rather viciously. "And
+as for that maypole of a daughter, she's nothing but a gawk."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't let's go in there!" Toni laid a hand on her cousin's arm as
+Fanny turned towards the dining-room. "I don't want to see the tea-table
+any more! Fan, wasn't it <i>horrible</i> when they came first?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they were a bit sticky," said Fanny frankly. "But nobody seemed
+to care! Mr. Raymond was just making game of them all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, don't let's think of them," said Toni, shaking herself as though
+freeing her shoulders from an incubus. "We'll go on the river for an
+hour, Fan, and then you shall see the house."</p>
+
+<p>The programme was carried out successfully, and beneath Fanny's
+affectionate chatter Toni regained the spirits she had lost. She took
+her cousin on the river, returning in time to see the old house before
+the summer darkness fell; and after a very satisfactory little dinner
+Miss Gibbs departed, highly pleased with her entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>Owen was not to be home till nearly midnight, and Toni decided not to
+sit up. Indeed, she was tired, and it was barely ten o'clock when she
+went upstairs to bed. Something was troubling her, too; and as she
+walked slowly down the long gallery, lighted only by the Ten Little
+Ladies, she was asking herself a question which, in spite of its
+humorous form, held a hint of tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I have to tell Owen everything&mdash;how rude she was and what an
+idiot I felt? Must I really tell him about&mdash;about the <i>shrimps</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>She paused, looking about her as though seeking an answer to her
+question, which held indeed a significance which she dimly understood.</p>
+
+<p>But the Ten Little Ladies had no reply to give her; and with a sigh Toni
+passed on and entered her own room in silence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+
+<p>Fairly late that night Barry Raymond jumped off his motorcycle at the
+gate of the bungalow known locally as the Hope House. It was a perfect
+June night, and as he unlatched the gate Barry heard a nightingale
+singing its love-song to the moon, the deliciously pure notes ringing
+across the river with a fascinating, almost unearthly, effect.</p>
+
+<p>The garden of the bungalow was full of sleeping flowers, and their
+fragrance stole gently out like a tender welcome to Barry as he strode
+up the path between their ranks, pale-coloured in the moonlight, though
+full of rich, glowing colour beneath the sun.</p>
+
+<p>Another welcome greeted him in a moment. There was a low, deep-toned
+bark, a white streak of something advancing in a hurtling flash, and
+then, as the great Borzoi discovered the visitor to be a friend, she
+dropped into a welcoming march, waving her plumy tail the while.</p>
+
+<p>"Halloa, Olga, old girl! Where's your boss?"</p>
+
+<p>He was not far off, having been warned of the approach of his friend,
+and in another moment the two men were shaking hands cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, Barry, it's good to see you again!" There was no mistaking the
+pleasure in the tone. "I thought you'd be looking me up&mdash;someone told me
+you were staying down here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;only for three days, worse luck. I'm with the Ansteys&mdash;you know
+Miss Lynn is Mrs. Anstey's niece, and she is there too."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Well, come in and have a peg." He led the way hospitably through
+the green door into the bungalow, and a minute later the two were seated
+cosily in the little living-room, which looked oddly attractive in the
+lamplight.</p>
+
+<p>Olga, the wolfhound, followed them in as a matter of course, and when
+her master had mixed drinks for himself and his visitor, and had taken
+his seat, she lay down beside him, her long nose resting on her paws,
+while she blinked sleepily in the mellow light.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Barry, how goes the world? Cheerily, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"With me? Yes." He took a pull at his glass, "I'm A 1, and so is Olive."</p>
+
+<p>"Work going ahead? I hear the <i>Bridge</i> is making its way."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" He spoke enthusiastically. "The next number will be out in a
+few days, and it's better than ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Of course Rose is an excellent man for the job. If he can't make
+it go, no one can. By the way, he's come to live down here, as I daresay
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Barry spoke slowly, and lighted a cigarette rather thoughtfully.
+"As a matter of fact, Jim, that's partly why I've come to see you at
+this unholy hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Better now than never!" said his host genially. "But I don't think I
+quite understand you."</p>
+
+<p>"No." For a moment Barry said nothing more, and the other man looked at
+him a little oddly.</p>
+
+<p>He himself was worth looking at, in spite of the shabbiness which
+betrayed either a bachelor habit of mind, or a lofty disdain for the
+trappings of life. A man of about forty-one, his face was a curious
+mixture of youth and age, of experience and of idealism. His big, bright
+eyes and curving mouth betokened enthusiasm, fire, a kindly philosophy;
+while the lines upon his forehead and the grey streaks in his abundant
+hair seemed to speak of deeper things. Life had indeed graven with its
+chisel lines and marks ineffaceable. It was the face of one who had
+suffered deeply, who had passed through more than one saddening
+experience. In repose one would have said the man was serious, grave to
+a fault; but when he smiled, it was the face of youth&mdash;ardent, eager,
+irresponsible&mdash;that the beholder saw before him.</p>
+
+<p>It was a queer, baffling, contradictory face altogether. Only one thing
+about it was certain, and that was written so plainly thereon that even
+a child might read.</p>
+
+<p>It was a face one could trust. Whatever might be the nature of the
+tragic experience which had whitened the crisp locks and drawn the heavy
+lines on the broad brow, there was something so gentle, so
+straightforward, so kindly about the whole man that none could doubt his
+sincerity, his trustworthiness. And side by side with the lines drawn by
+sorrow there were other lines betokening laughter, those fine lines at
+the corners of the eyes which are born from mirth, and even though they
+take away from youth's first unlined smoothness, give value and
+perspective to the countenance.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest, he was fairly tall, though he stooped somewhat; and he
+walked always with a quick, impetuous step, until such times as memory,
+or some other quality, came to life, and gave a queer, dragging effect
+to his usually swift tread.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" It was the host who spoke, and Barry recalled his scattered
+thoughts with an effort and remembered the cause on which he was
+enlisted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's about Rose's wife that I want to speak to you." Barry looked
+searchingly at his friend, and reading in the bright eyes nothing of the
+cheap cynicism with which some men might have greeted the announcement,
+he went on quickly. "The fact is, she wants someone to give her a
+helping hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Someone&mdash;apart from her husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You see, she's only a kid and a jolly pretty one. Looks like a
+schoolgirl&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stay a moment." Herrick laid down his pipe. "Is Mrs. Rose a little dark
+girl, with very bright eyes and a lot of black hair?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's she. You've met her, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly. Fact is, I have seen a young woman answering to that
+description wandering on the towing-path early in the morning once or
+twice; and I was a little puzzled to know who she might be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's Mrs. Rose. Now the fact is"&mdash;Barry grew red suddenly as he
+realized that his interference was quite unauthorized&mdash;"I think she
+wants a friend, someone to look after her a bit."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Is she ... er ... what <i>is</i> she?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is very young." Barry spoke deliberately now, having made up his
+mind to proceed. "And although she is a perfect little lady in her
+way"&mdash;thus unconsciously endorsing Kate's verdict&mdash;"she has never been
+used to the sort of life she will have to lead down here. To tell the
+truth&mdash;I know it's safe with you, Jim&mdash;she was our typist in the office
+before her marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. And Rose fell in love with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Y ... yes." Even to Herrick, Barry could not give away the secret of
+Owen's proposal. "Anyway, he married her, and brought her here; and
+to-day I was witness to a curious little scene in her house."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm all attention, Barry."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rose is away for the day, and Mrs. Rose invited a girl-cousin
+down for the afternoon; and to do honour to her, I imagine, she had
+provided a sumptuous tea, including shrimps and one of those wobbly
+white things that you get at lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we&mdash;Mrs. Anstey, Olive and I&mdash;chose to pay a call to-day; and
+when, after a little hesitation, Mrs. Rose asked us to have some tea, we
+were taken into the dining-room, where these festal delicacies were laid
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it would have been all right&mdash;Mrs. Anstey is a dear, and Olive of
+course is a ripper&mdash;and we'd have had a very jolly little party, but
+unfortunately in the middle of it who should arrive but Lady Martin and
+that terrible daughter of hers."</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Martin of soap fame?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same. Well, you know what an utter snob the woman is. In two
+minutes she had Toni&mdash;Mrs. Rose&mdash;reduced to a jelly&mdash;simply by sneering
+at everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Including the&mdash;shrimps?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You know shrimps are&mdash;well&mdash;a bit <i>vulgar</i>, aren't they?"</p>
+
+<p>For a second there was silence. Then Herrick stretched out his hand for
+his pipe and spoke slowly in the intervals of filling the bowl.</p>
+
+<p>"There was once, if my memory serves me rightly, an Apostle of the name
+of Peter who chose to consider some of the creatures made by his own
+Maker in the light of vulgarians; and a sheetful of specimens descended
+on Peter's head to warn him against the folly of finding any of God's
+creations common or unclean. Of course we've no proof that shrimps were
+included&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Jim, don't rag!" Barry threw away his cigarette rather
+impatiently. "I'm in earnest&mdash;oh, I know it sounds beastly snobbish, but
+still, shrimps at tea&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Are unusual, though really, if you try them, first-rate." Herrick had
+filled his pipe, and now took up the match-box. "Seriously, Barry, I
+know what you mean. So long as we have false standards of gentility I
+suppose the sight of a shrimp in conjunction with the tea-pot will cause
+us to shrivel up. But I'll guarantee that neither Mrs. Anstey nor Miss
+Lynn turned a hair at the sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather not! They ate them as if they really liked them&mdash;and if that
+wasn't a snub to the awful Martin woman&mdash;well, she went, anyway, driven
+away by our combined vulgarity, I suppose, and we had quite a decent
+time when she had gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Well? If Lady Martin was driven from the field, and you were left the
+victors, what's the trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is this. Lady Martin, being a spiteful woman, and knowing
+perfectly well that Mrs. Anstey meant to teach her a lesson, will lose
+no opportunity of spreading the story abroad; and in time it is certain
+to come to Rose's ears."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" He spoke thoughtfully. "That is it, is it? And Mr. Rose
+will&mdash;er&mdash;resent the tale?"</p>
+
+<p>"You see it's this way." Barry gave way to the impulse to confide in his
+friend, to whom all his boyish confidences had been given. "Rose is a
+real good sort, and wouldn't for the world let Toni suspect that he
+knows he's married beneath him, as the world calls it."</p>
+
+<p>"The world? Ah!" There was a light scorn in the tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know&mdash;we both know it's all rot, that sort of thing. But still,
+as the world goes, one has to remember it; and somehow, although Rose is
+genuinely fond of his wife, I doubt whether his love would stand
+much&mdash;well, ridicule."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! And I suppose the child did make herself rather ridiculous in her
+attempts to welcome a cousin to whom she is doubtless attached."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't only that." Having once begun, Barry unburdened himself still
+further. "You know, although I admire Mrs. Rose immensely, and she's a
+ripping kid really, I'm not a bit sure that the marriage will be a
+success."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they're unsuited to one another in heaps of ways. Toni is, as I
+say, a dear little girl, but she's only half-educated, and not in the
+least intellectual. Sharp in her way&mdash;the way of a quick-witted
+woman&mdash;shrewd, and no fool. But you know Rose is rather an exceptional
+fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have always understood."</p>
+
+<p>"He's clever, you know&mdash;and deep, too. Not one of those fellows who are
+always showing off, but really brilliant; and it's rather a dangerous
+thing for a shallow woman to marry a man of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"It's often done, Barry," said the other man quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know, but that doesn't make it any safer. Toni is an out-and-out
+good sort, as straight as a die, and a merry, light-hearted little thing
+into the bargain; but she's bound to turn out a disappointment to her
+husband all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why," said Herrick after a moment's pause. "Lots of clever
+men marry feather-headed women and manage to get along all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but Owen's not that sort. He's a fellow who will want his wife to
+be a companion, a real comrade, able to go forward side by side with
+him, understand his aims, sympathize with his ideals and so on; and this
+girl can't do it."</p>
+
+<p>"But why are you so sure she can't, my boy? Probably she is very
+different when alone with her husband. All women, as well as men, have
+two soul-sides, you know&mdash;'one to face the world with'&mdash;the other&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's Browning's view, of course, but then he was an idealist!"
+Barry spoke rather impatiently. "No, Jim, there's not much hope of that.
+I've made a study of the girl&mdash;I don't mind telling you I did my best to
+prevent Rose marrying her&mdash;and I'm perfectly certain that as far as
+anything beyond the merest good-fellowship goes, Rose might just as well
+have married a Persian kitten."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet she is fond of him&mdash;in her way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very, I should say; but even then there's an element of something which
+shouldn't exist between husband and wife. There is a sort of quite
+unconscious patronage on Rose's side which matches a pretty gratitude on
+hers; and I have a horrible fear that if ever he found her wanting&mdash;and
+showed her so&mdash;she would break her heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Then you don't deny her a heart?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord, no! What I do deny her is&mdash;well, I don't quite know. Is it
+brain, or soul, or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"You take an interest in this girl, Barry. Is it possible you are going
+to try to supply this deficiency of brain, or soul, or whatever it is?"</p>
+
+<p>Barry laughed rather defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know you think I'm a fool for my pains! Yes, that's just what I
+do want to do. I want to wake the girl up, to make her use her
+intellect, fit herself to be Owen's companion. I hate to think of their
+marriage turning out a failure&mdash;Owen disappointed in her, feeling
+aggrieved, perhaps, at her inability to go forward with him, while she
+in her turn feels impatient with him for expecting her to be something
+she isn't&mdash;and that he ought never to have expected her to be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Barry." Herrick looked at him squarely. "Isn't there
+something behind all this? Didn't I hear a rumour that some woman had
+jilted Rose&mdash;thrown him over for a richer man, or something of the
+sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well"&mdash;Barry bit his lip&mdash;"since you know so much&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And possibly this marriage was in the nature of a reprisal? Intended to
+show the jilting lady that&mdash;to put it plainly&mdash;there were still good
+fish in the sea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;in a way it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Now I understand. And you, having doubtless been forced into the
+position of an accessory before the fact, are anxious that as little
+harm as possible shall be done to either party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but principally to the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, seeing that she was probably unconscious of the reason
+behind the match. Well, it seems hard that she should have been used as
+a catspaw, doesn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it wasn't as bad as that. Rose really liked the girl&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In spite of her want of&mdash;soul?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And I thought," said Barry eagerly, "that if you and I, and one or
+two more&mdash;Olive, for instance&mdash;could give her a helping hand now and
+then, show her how to make the best of herself and so on, things might
+turn out all right."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Barry!" Herrick looked at him with a half-humorous, half-sad smile.
+"You're very young&mdash;and youth is always&mdash;or should be&mdash;courageous. Do
+you really think that I, or you, or even Miss Lynn, can alter by a
+fraction the destiny marked out for that pretty child across the river
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Destiny&mdash;no, perhaps not," said Barry, taken aback by the big word.
+"But we might help her&mdash;help her to find herself, as the Ibsenites call
+it&mdash;realize her soul, and all the rest of it. The soul's <i>there</i>, all
+right, but somehow it seems to be hidden, undeveloped, or something of
+the sort."</p>
+
+<p>For a second the older man said nothing, though his square white teeth
+clenched themselves on the stem of his pipe. Then, removing the latter,
+he said slowly:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember what Browning says, Barry?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And matter enough to save one's own!'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Well, don't you agree with him&mdash;and me&mdash;that one's own soul takes a vast
+deal of salvation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course&mdash;but still&mdash;I thought you would be ready to help...."</p>
+
+<p>His accent of dejection touched the other man's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, don't look so disappointed. Of course I'll help, as much as I
+can! It ought to be an interesting task, anyway, helping a woman to find
+her soul. And if I can help her in any way, I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! But how?" He wanted to clinch the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose the first thing to do is to make the lady's
+acquaintance. I know Rose, slightly, and a call will no doubt be
+considered neighbourly. And if I can do anything for the child, you may
+depend on me to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"You're a brick, Jim!" In the midst of his relief Barry remembered the
+hour and rose hastily. "Well, I must be off, or the house will be shut
+up. Good-night, old chap. I'm no end obliged to you. I knew you would
+help, if anyone would."</p>
+
+<p>He had turned towards the door when a thought struck him and he turned
+back rather awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Jim"&mdash;he was looking down at the floor as he spoke&mdash;"I hadn't
+forgotten, but I didn't like to say much. How ... how is&mdash;she?"</p>
+
+<p>"My wife, you mean?" Herrick's smile was bitter. "She is pretty well, I
+believe. They say her health has improved lately."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad. And&mdash;forgive me if I'm tactless, Jim, but when do you expect
+her back?"</p>
+
+<p>"When does she come out?" All the youth had died away from his face,
+leaving it desperately tired and sad. "Some time in the autumn, October,
+I believe. The time isn't really up quite so soon, but there's some
+remission for good conduct, I understand, which shortens the sentence."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen her lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. She refused to see me last time, and I shall not trouble her
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Barry fidgeted from one foot to the other, then made a sudden
+grab at his friend's hand. "Well, good-bye, Jim. Ever so many thanks for
+promising to help the kid. You can do lots for her if you will, and I do
+want the marriage to be a success."</p>
+
+<p>"You've come to a queer person to help you, Barry," said the other with
+a twisted smile. "My own marriage has been so wonderfully successful,
+hasn't it? But there, don't let's talk about it now. How are you going
+home? Motor? Ah, all right. Then Olga and I will come and see you safely
+off the premises."</p>
+
+<p>He had regained his former kindly manner, and bade the boy good-night
+with all his accustomed heartiness; but as Barry turned for a last look
+and saw the stooping figure return through the gate, accompanied by the
+graceful Borzoi, a fury of rage gripped his generous young heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn that woman&mdash;oh, <i>damn</i> her!" He said the words wildly to himself
+as he spun down the moonlit road between the fragrant hedges. "She's
+ruined his life, and will go on doing it as long as they live! October,
+he said. Well, there's time to give poor little Toni a helping hand
+before then!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>But in the quiet bungalow behind him Jim Herrick sat alone until the
+short summer night had given way to the glories of the dawn. And in his
+face, as he gazed before him, seeing, perhaps the troubled past, perhaps
+the darkened future, there was now no trace of youth, only a great and
+weary disillusionment.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+
+<p>After all, Jim Herrick's introduction to Mrs. Rose came about in an
+unexpected fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Although he had only seen her two or three times, Herrick felt a decided
+interest in Rose's young wife. From what Barry had told him he concluded
+that there were breakers ahead for the young couple; and since his own
+matrimonial misfortunes had made him very pitiful, he determined to try
+to hold out a helping hand to the girl should the occasion arise.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion arose, indeed, almost before he expected it; but luckily
+Herrick was a man of action and grappled with the opportunity thus
+presented.</p>
+
+<p>One sunny afternoon he was returning from a pull up the river in his
+skiff, when he saw a punt gliding towards him, the pole manipulated,
+rather unskilfully, it must be confessed, by the girl of whom his
+thoughts had been full; and he stayed in his mooring to watch her pass.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni the guiding of a punt was so serious a matter that she had no
+eyes for anything else, and she never even saw the man in the boat. The
+river took rather a curve here, and Toni found it a little difficult to
+negotiate the bend. Becoming somewhat flurried, she directed her punt
+into the middle of the stream, where it hung for a moment as though
+undecided whether or no to swing round in the disconcerting manner
+peculiar to such craft; but Toni, becoming impatient, put fresh vigour
+into her task, and sent the punt triumphantly forward with a masterful
+push.</p>
+
+<p>Her triumph was, however, short-lived. With the treacherous suddenness
+which invariably marks this catastrophe her pole snapped as she drove it
+downwards; the punt glided away immediately, and Toni, clinging
+desperately to the broken pole, went down with it into the river itself.</p>
+
+<p>With an exclamation Herrick sculled his boat strongly to the spot where
+she had gone down, reaching it just as she came to the surface, gasping
+and spluttering, and with an expression of wild terror in her face.</p>
+
+<p>He guessed that she could not swim, and called out to her reassuringly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're all right&mdash;hang on to my boat, and I'll get you out!"</p>
+
+<p>She heard him, even in the midst of her terror, and made a frantic grab
+at the side of the boat, only to miss by inches and go down again with
+an involuntary cry.</p>
+
+<p>Hastily shipping his oars, Herrick bent over the boat, causing it to
+heel to one side rather dangerously; and when next Toni came to the
+surface he gripped her strongly by the shoulder, bidding her keep quite
+still, and then lifted her, by sheer force of muscle, into the boat,
+where she collapsed in a dripping little heap at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right!" He seized the oars and with a dozen vigorous strokes
+propelled the boat back to the landing-place, where he proceeded to tie
+her up, and then turned his attention to his passenger.</p>
+
+<p>"Hard luck, Mrs. Rose," he said cheerily. "But there's no harm done, is
+there? Now you must come into the house and let me find you some dry
+things to put on. Don't delay&mdash;the punt will be rescued somewhere, I've
+no doubt, and you really must get out of those wet garments."</p>
+
+<p>Shivering, dripping, and feeling more than half inclined to cry, Toni
+let him help her out of the boat; and seeing that she was really
+suffering from shock Herrick put his arm round her shoulders in
+fraternal fashion, and led her up the little sloping lawn on to the
+verandah of the bungalow.</p>
+
+<p>Here Toni stopped in some embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I don't think I can come in like this." In spite of the sun her
+teeth were chattering. "I&mdash;I shall spoil your carpets!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they're beyond spoiling," he assured her, with a laugh. "Don't
+worry about them! I think, though, you had better come into the kitchen,
+if you don't mind. There happens to be a fire there, and you can get
+warm."</p>
+
+<p>She followed him obediently through the long window into the shabby
+sitting-room, which for all its shabbiness had an oddly harmonious
+effect; and from there he took her into the small, cosy kitchen, which
+was scrupulously tidy and spotlessly clean.</p>
+
+<p>"Now"&mdash;he looked at her a little dubiously&mdash;"obviously, the thing to do
+is to get off those wet clothes, have a hot bath, and put on something
+dry. Well, if I bring my tub in here and fill it from the boiler, would
+you mind having it in the kitchen? You see, I don't want you to get
+cold."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't think I need do that," said Toni, between laughing and
+crying. "If you lent me a mackintosh or a big coat I could get home
+quite well."</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;as you are?" He smiled at her, but so kindly that she could not
+take offence. "Well, to begin with, your punt is miles away by now, and
+anyway you are much too wet to leave this house. Now"&mdash;he went briskly
+to the door&mdash;"I'm going to fetch my bath and I'll have it filled in a
+jiffy. You'll feel all right after a hot soak."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, leaving Toni, very wet and uncomfortable, in the middle of
+the floor. In a minute he returned, dragging after him a good-sized
+bath, filled to the brim with towels of every description.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'll put it here, in front of the fire." He worked as he spoke.
+"And if I fill these two big cans there'll be enough water. What a
+blessing Mrs. Swastika kept a good fire to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Swastika?" In the midst of her discomfiture Toni thought the name
+odd.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's not her real name." He filled the cans vigorously. "She is
+really Swanson or Swanage or something like that&mdash;but I never know what
+it is, so I call her Swastika. She is rather like the individual in the
+'Hunting of the Snark,' who 'answered to Hi or to any loud cry,' but
+it's handy having a name to call her by sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off in his nonsense and disappeared abruptly, leaving Toni
+wondering whether she was intended to begin her ablutions or no. Luckily
+she decided to wait a moment, and was glad she had done so when her host
+returned, bearing in his arms some garments, which he put down on a
+chair rather apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm really most awfully sorry, Mrs. Rose, but I've no feminine
+fripperies of any sort! But if you can possibly make these things do for
+a bit, I'll send a boy on a bicycle down to your place and tell them to
+put together some clothes for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, will you?" Toni was beginning to find her soaked garments rather
+unpleasantly chilly. "I live at Greenriver&mdash;oh, you know?&mdash;and if you
+tell the housekeeper to send me everything, she'll know what I want."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well." He had been busying himself with a little saucepan over the
+fire as she spoke, and now he handed her a glass containing some mulled
+wine.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll dispatch a lad at once&mdash;in the meantime please drink this&mdash;it's
+quite harmless, I assure you!"</p>
+
+<p>As she took the glass he hurried to the door, and went out, pulling it
+carefully to after him.</p>
+
+<p>"Pull down the blind and lock the door," he commanded her through the
+keyhole. "The back door is locked already, so you are quite safe."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he was gone, and her privacy assured, Toni lost no time in
+doing as he bade her; and it certainly was a relief to slip out of her
+clinging garments and plunge into the hot water waiting for her. She did
+not waste time, remembering his commands; but when it came to a question
+of re-dressing, and she examined the clothes he had brought, Toni gave
+way and burst into a fit of irrepressible laughter.</p>
+
+<p>He had apologized for the lack of feminine garments, but Toni had not
+been prepared for the substitute he had given her. There, beneath the
+heavy dressing-gown, was a pair of silk pyjamas immaculately got up and
+folded; and at the sight of their purple and white glories Toni laughed
+and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>At first she determined that nothing in the world would persuade her to
+don the resplendent pyjamas. Then a glance at her own soaked and now
+steaming clothing gave her courage; and giggling softly to herself she
+got into the silken garments, which by dint of much turning up of hems
+and shortening of sleeves were given some semblance of a fit. Next came
+the dressing-gown, an eminently masculine affair of brown camel's hair,
+with red collar and cuffs, and when she had tied the girdle round her
+waist, and, scorning the evening socks which lay ready, had slipped her
+bare feet into a pair of capacious slippers, Toni was so overcome by her
+own bizarre appearance that once more she burst out laughing gaily.</p>
+
+<p>A knock at the door made her stop short, and she called out in a rather
+quavery voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? Who's there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only I&mdash;Herrick," came the answer. "When you're ready will you come
+into the other room? The sun's blazing in, but I can easily light a fire
+if you feel chilly."</p>
+
+<p>Toni cast a doubtful look at herself in this queer garb, and then
+determined, very sensibly, that it was no good being prudish and silly.
+After all, the dressing-gown wrapped her up completely; and at any rate
+her own clothes would presently arrive to deliver her from this rather
+absurd situation.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm coming in a minute," she called out gaily. "I'm just going to let
+my hair down&mdash;it's rather wet, but it will dry in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>She pulled out her hair-pins recklessly, and the black waves tumbled
+wetly on to her shoulders. A few minutes' vigorous drying before the
+fire met with success, and presently Toni found courage to unlock the
+door and sally forth into the little hall.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Herrick was waiting for her by the sitting-room door, and he bit his
+lip quickly at sight of the funny little figure emerging from the
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke quite gravely, however, and Toni, who had glanced at him rather
+sharply, felt reassured.</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. Now, come and sit down, will you? See, if you take this
+chair, you're in the sun, and it will warm you. You're sure you're not
+cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I'm quite warm," Toni assured him. "It's only my hair that's
+wet, and it won't take long to dry."</p>
+
+<p>While her eyes wandered casually round the room, Herrick took the
+opportunity of observing his guest more closely; and his scrutiny
+pleased him oddly.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of her ludicrous garb Toni looked quaintly attractive. Her
+youth triumphed, as youth always will, over minor drawbacks, and now
+that she was warm and dry the colour was coming back to her lips and her
+complexion recovering its creamy tone. Even her hair curled bewitchingly
+when damp; and Herrick owned that Barry's description of her as a
+"pretty kid" had not been wrong.</p>
+
+<p>As for Toni, she was much interested in this sunny, shabby room. The
+carpet might be old, beyond spoiling, as its owner described it, but it
+was a feast of soft, harmonious colours all the same, and although
+faded, its very dimness of hue was a charm. The curtains which hung at
+the long windows were of a queer, Persian-looking fabric; and on the
+mantelpiece were a dozen little bits of pottery of a greeny-blue tint
+which harmonized excellently with the grey-papered walls.</p>
+
+<p>Books there were in plenty, on shelves and tables, even on two of the
+chairs; and as she looked about her Toni caught sight of the last number
+of the <i>Bridge</i> lying on the low divan as though thrown there by a
+reader disturbed in his reading.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick's eyes had followed the direction of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"You recognize your husband's review? You've seen it, of course, this
+last number?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." She had seen it, though it is to be feared that she had paid it
+scant attention.</p>
+
+<p>"It's better than ever this month." He sat down and took up the paper.
+"There's a little poem&mdash;'Pan-Shapes'&mdash;which simply delighted me. Did it
+take your fancy, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I don't think I have read it," she said, wishing suddenly that
+she had not been forced to make the admission.</p>
+
+<p>"No? Well it has not been out long." He was turning the pages as he
+spoke. "There's something else here&mdash;another special article on
+Mysticism by Father Garland, which is oddly fascinating. Of course such
+a subject, treated by one of the greatest mystics who ever lived, was
+bound to be of the highest interest; but I never expected anything quite
+so arresting, so satisfying, when I began to read."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, evidently waiting for her to speak; but Toni sat tongue-tied,
+miserably conscious that in her mind no answering enthusiasm could be
+born, since she had neither read nor wished to read a single word of the
+article in question.</p>
+
+<p>A hint of her mental discomfort probably reached the man on the sofa by
+some telepathic means, for he suddenly tossed away the review and spoke
+in a lighter tone.</p>
+
+<p>"How long have you been punting, Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a very short time," she said rather apologetically. "My husband has
+given me some lessons since we came down here. He doesn't know I
+sometimes go out alone," she added ingenuously. "I don't go very often,
+because I know I'm not much good. But to-day I saw some people coming to
+call and I ran out of the house and jumped into the punt so that I could
+escape."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;are you like me? Do you avoid your fellow-creatures on
+principle?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked a little puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, I don't avoid people when I know them. But I've had such heaps
+of callers, and it's such a waste of time making conversation over tea
+when one wants to be out in the sunshine."</p>
+
+<p>"In fact you prefer nature to human nature?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I do." She frowned rather thoughtfully. "At least I would
+always rather be out of the house than in it. And it's so lovely by the
+river in the summer. I go for walks before breakfast with my dog, and
+the world is so beautiful in the early morning before the mists have all
+vanished in the sun."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! That reminds me!" Herrick rose. "You haven't seen <i>my</i> dog! I'll go
+and bring her in; she's lying in the shade at the back at present."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, returning in a moment with the stately Olga, who had been,
+as he suggested, sleeping in the shade. He kept his hand on her silver
+collar as she advanced, fearing that Toni's queer mixture of garments
+might upset her canine mind; but Olga apparently took her master's
+friends on trust, and presently strolled over to Toni and laid one long
+paw tentatively upon her knee.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, delighted, stroked the beautiful creature affectionately, and
+Herrick said to himself cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, she's got one thing in her favour anyway! If she can't appreciate
+good literature she understands dogs&mdash;and after all they are worth more
+as humanizers of the race, than any amount of books."</p>
+
+<p>"She's lovely, Mr. Herrick!" Toni lifted delighted eyes. "What do you
+call her? Something nice, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Her name is Olga," he returned. "Not very original for a Russian dog, I
+confess, but she was already christened when she came to me. You like
+her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think she's a darling, and Olga is quite a nice name. A friend of
+mine at school had a dog like her, and we used to take her into
+Kensington Gardens for a run on Saturday afternoons. Her name was Pearl.
+It's a pretty name for a white wolfhound, isn't it? They're like pearls,
+somehow, so smooth and shining."</p>
+
+<p>She was stroking the dog's satiny head as she spoke, and did not notice
+the change in the man's face; but when he remained silent she looked up
+as though to see why he did not respond.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Herrick, what's the matter?" Toni was frightened by his pallor.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;nothing!" He shook off his mental disturbance with a strong
+effort. "I ... I sometimes have a sort of pain&mdash;in my heart&mdash;but it's
+gone, quite gone, now."</p>
+
+<p>Toni was not altogether satisfied with the explanation and asked herself
+remorsefully what she had said to vex him; but she could not think of
+anything which would be likely to give offence to her host, and decided,
+finally, that he had spoken truthfully.</p>
+
+<p>She could not know how intimately the tragedy of Herrick's life was
+bound up with the thought of a string of shining pearls; and her very
+unconsciousness served to show the man she had spoken in all innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"Your husband must be very busy with this review in hand," he said
+presently, remembering Barry's entreaty to him to examine the situation
+for himself. "Does he work at home or has he to spend much time in
+town?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he does both," she said, relieved by his return to his former
+manner. "He is in town to-day, but he has been at home a good deal
+lately."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. It must be rather dull for you when he is shut up writing," he
+went on tentatively. "Writers and men of letters generally like to be
+left to themselves pretty much."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't think my husband does," said Toni blithely. "I often go in
+and sit with him while he works, and if I promise to go to bed early he
+sometimes brings his papers into the drawing-room at night."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick felt a sudden spasm of amusement, mingled with a distinct
+impulse of sympathy for the unfortunate writer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I should have thought it would be too disturbing to work in the
+room with anyone else&mdash;even one's wife," he added with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it be?" Toni opened eyes of amazement. "I sit quite still&mdash;I
+hardly ever speak&mdash;and Jock and I&mdash;my dog&mdash;play little games together
+ever so quietly."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't help him in his work?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." She shook her head. "I'm not clever enough for that. I do typing
+for him sometimes, but even then I'm not really much use."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not an expert, perhaps?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can use the typewriter all right&mdash;I've had heaps of practice. But
+when it comes to revising things, sort of making up an article out of
+rough notes, I'm no good. To begin with I can never understand what the
+things are about, and I always get quotations hopelessly mixed."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "You are not a great
+reader, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;I hate books," she replied frankly. "Somehow it seems a waste of
+time to read when you can be doing nicer things. Besides, my husband
+doesn't like to see me reading what he calls trash, and I simply can't
+get through the things he gives me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after all life's the most interesting book of all&mdash;when one's
+young," he said indulgently. "But I'm afraid you'll wish you'd developed
+a taste for reading when you get like me, middle-aged and dull."</p>
+
+<p>"But you aren't dull&mdash;&mdash;" she was beginning eagerly, when a loud knock
+at the back door of the bungalow interrupted her sentence, and she broke
+off hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"That'll be my messenger back," said Herrick, rising. "With garments for
+you, I suppose. I'll go and see."</p>
+
+<p>He went out, returning presently with a neatly-strapped suit-case which
+he held up with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Your maids have packed you a change of raiment," he said, "and have,
+moreover, sent a car for you to return in. I gather from the boy that
+two of your people squabbled as to which of them should have the
+privilege of bringing your things to you, but in the middle of the
+discussion the chauffeur, thinking, no doubt, that you were still
+wearing your wet garments, got impatient and started off without either
+of them!"</p>
+
+<p>Toni had risen, and now stood hesitating a little with her hand on the
+suit-case.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll like to change at once, I daresay." He spoke in a business-like
+tone. "Will you come into my little guest-chamber? There's a glass
+there, and you'll be able to dress comfortably."</p>
+
+<p>She assented, and he took her into yet another of the rooms in his tiny
+domain, a small, bare little place which had a rather pathetically
+unused look about it.</p>
+
+<p>Here she made a rapid toilet, finding everything she required with the
+exception of a hat, which had evidently been forgotten. A brush and comb
+had been tucked into a corner, however, and she thankfully brushed her
+hair and made it into two thick plaits, which for want of hair-pins she
+was forced to leave hanging over her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>When she sallied forth once more she found Herrick waiting for her with
+a tiny tea-tray.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have a cup of tea before you go." He poured it out as he
+spoke. "And a biscuit&mdash;one of Mrs. Swastika's specialities. She's an
+excellent cook, and proud of her cakes, so do try one&mdash;to please me&mdash;and
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>Toni drank the tea gratefully and found both it and the little cakes
+delicious. The next thing to do was to collect her soaked clothes, and
+in spite of Herrick's protests that Mrs. Swastika would see to their
+safe return she crammed them ruthlessly into the suit-case before going
+out to the waiting motor.</p>
+
+<p>As she shook hands with Herrick, after thanking him very prettily for
+his kindness, Toni ventured a shy invitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come to see us at Greenriver, Mr. Herrick? I'm sure my husband
+will wish to thank you for fishing me out of the river."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks," he said quietly. "I will certainly come. It will give me great
+pleasure to meet Mr. Rose."</p>
+
+<p>He tucked her into the car, shook hands again, and then stood
+bare-headed in the sunshine watching the motor spin round the white and
+dusty road.</p>
+
+<p>At the bend Toni turned and waved her hand to him gaily, and he
+responded with a smile, which faded as the car vanished from sight.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow his meeting with the girl had saddened him oddly. There was
+something rather pathetic about Toni at this moment of her existence,
+though it would have been hard to say exactly wherein the pathos lay. In
+spite of himself Herrick was haunted by the little picture she had drawn
+of her life with Owen Rose. He could fancy the two sitting together at
+night in the lamp-lit drawing-room, the man writing, or trying to write,
+as though alone, the young wife sitting silently by doing nothing, or
+playing quiet little games with her dog to relieve the monotony of an
+evening uncheered by any interesting book or engrossing study.</p>
+
+<p>A worker himself, Herrick knew very well the deadening influence exerted
+by an unoccupied companion during working hours; and the fact that Toni
+did not care for books, and confessed to non-comprehension of her
+husband's work, struck Herrick as unfortunate, to say the least.</p>
+
+<p>To this man, forced by circumstance into a more or less secluded state
+of life, Toni's lack of social experience weighed very lightly. She had
+not, perhaps, the manner or style of the girls one met in Mayfair or
+Belgravia, but she was simple and natural and unaffected; and Herrick
+found himself hoping that Mr. Rose knew how to value the traits of
+simplicity and straightforwardness at their true worth.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was possible that the marriage might be a success in spite of
+the evident disparity of tastes between the two; but remembering Barry's
+gloomy forebodings, Herrick was bound to admit that the prospect of
+happiness seemed rather doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>At present, however, he could do nothing; and with a resolve to call at
+Greenriver at the first available opportunity he went back into his
+little bungalow, which seemed strangely lonely as the twilight fell over
+the river-banks.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+
+<p>As the summer glided by, in a succession of golden, cloudless days, Owen
+began to ask himself, rather drearily, whether his marriage was going to
+turn out a success or an irretrievable failure.</p>
+
+<p>When once the novelty of Toni's companionship had worn off, when he had
+grown used to her pretty, childish ways, accustomed to the sense of
+youth and light-hearted joy which she diffused about the old house, he
+began to find, to his dismay, that these were not all the attributes a
+man looked for in the woman he had made his wife.</p>
+
+<p>He had never expected to find Toni clever in an intellectual sense; but
+neither had he deemed her quite so shallow as she was proving herself to
+be. She seemed absolutely incapable of making any mental effort; the
+world of art and literature was a closed book to her, and, what was
+still more disappointing, she cared nothing for any of the social or
+political questions of the day, and took absolutely no interest in the
+contemporary life of the world about her.</p>
+
+<p>Reading she disliked. Music appealed to her, for Toni was emotional,
+with the quick, facile emotionalism of the South; but she was no
+musician herself, and the grand piano in the drawing-room was silent
+through these sunshiny days. She had rather a talent for housekeeping,
+and in a smaller establishment would doubtless have been a success; but
+at Greenriver there was little for her to do, and she knew quite well
+that the housekeeper resented any interference with her particular
+province. Toni's household duties, therefore, were confined to the
+arrangement of the flowers and the care of her husband's desk&mdash;a labour
+of love which she performed with so much good will that Owen felt it
+would be churlish to find fault with any inconvenience arising
+therefrom.</p>
+
+<p>Owen often wondered how his wife managed to fill the days which must be
+so terribly empty. He himself was working harder than usual, since
+beside the review he was contributing articles, by invitation, to
+several well-known journals; and he often worked till late into the
+night; but Toni had no work, no hobbies, nothing with which to fill the
+long, sunny hours.</p>
+
+<p>She did not complain. Indeed, she seemed happy enough in her idleness;
+and by this time she knew a good many people in the neighbourhood,
+though she had not made many friends.</p>
+
+<p>At the Vicarage she was not looked upon with much favour, owing to an
+unfortunate conversation with the Vicar's wife, when in response to
+various leading questions Toni had shown a lamentable ignorance of the
+great gulf which yawns between Church and Chapel&mdash;a quite conceivable
+ignorance on the part of the London tradesman's niece, who had attended
+Chapel with her aunt and uncle on Sunday evenings as cheerfully as she
+joined in the more attractive service in the Church which the genteel
+Fanny generally patronized on Sunday mornings.</p>
+
+<p>When, further, Toni innocently admitted that, although baptized into the
+Church of England, she had usually attended the Roman Catholic Church
+and Sunday School during her Italian childhood, the wife of the Vicar
+was appalled; and ever afterwards she spoke of Mrs. Rose as unsound in
+her views, a condemnation which in the somewhat old-fashioned
+neighbourhood carried full weight.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Martin also strongly disapproved of the young mistress of
+Greenriver, though probably only she herself and her spinster daughter
+could have adduced any reason for their dislike of Toni and all her
+works.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the shrimps had long since amused Lady Martin's large
+circle of acquaintances; and although no one had ventured to breathe a
+word before either Owen Rose or his wife, it was hardly surprising that
+Toni came to be considered rather amusingly unsophisticated; so that the
+slightest <i>gaucherie</i> into which the unconscious Toni was betrayed
+during those first weeks of her introduction into the society of the
+district was eagerly noted and joyfully magnified in a dozen
+drawing-rooms.</p>
+
+<p>There was the laughable story of the Roses' late arrival at an important
+dinner-party, and Mrs. Rose's ingenuous explanation to her rather
+irascible host that she had torn her frock at the last moment while
+playing with her dog, and had been obliged to change it for another&mdash;and
+this to an elderly man who "liked dogs in their proper place," by which
+statement one may measure the depth of his liking very accurately.</p>
+
+<p>There was the occasion on which Mrs. Rose, being pressed by a
+mischievous fellow-guest, had accepted a cigarette under the impression
+the other ladies were about to do likewise&mdash;an impression quickly
+dispelled by the stony glare of her hostess and the ominous whispers of
+the other women.</p>
+
+<p>The hostess, indeed, had uttered one short, biting comment which had
+reduced Toni, already overwhelmed by the magnitude of her offence,
+almost to tears; but though it is only fair to say that her tempter
+apologized most handsomely, and was her firm friend and defender ever
+afterwards, the description of Mrs. Rose as a half-foreign and
+wholly-Bohemian young woman, of cigarette-smoking tendencies, was duly
+retailed at several dinner-tables during the following weeks.</p>
+
+<p>At first Toni took her social failures very much to heart; but Owen, who
+was no snob, reassured her valiantly; and since Toni was only too
+anxious to be comforted she did her best to dismiss these unpleasant
+experiences from her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, indeed, she found two congenial spirits. The doctor's pretty
+old house, known locally as Cherry Orchard, harboured two lively and
+athletic young women who were only too pleased to be friends with the
+merry and vivacious Toni. They were honest, unintellectual girls,
+enthusiastic over all sports and excelling in most; and they took Toni
+to their sporting hearts and promised to introduce her to the local
+tennis and golf clubs without loss of time.</p>
+
+<p>On her part, Toni felt at ease with them immediately, and when once she
+had learned to distinguish between Molly and Cynthia&mdash;a distinction made
+the more difficult owing to their peculiar habit of addressing each
+other as Toby&mdash;she thoroughly enjoyed their companionship.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of tennis, Toni, who had only played occasionally at a
+third-rate suburban club, was at first no match for them; but the two
+Tobies, who were the essence of good nature, coached her so well and so
+vigorously that before long she was a capital player; and when once Toni
+realized that Owen wished her to be as hospitable as she could possibly
+desire to be, she rejoiced in giving little impromptu tea-parties on the
+lawn, under the shade of one of the noble elms which were a feature of
+Greenriver.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she took the girls motoring; and between tennis, golf, river
+picnics and motor excursions, the days simply flew for Toni; so that at
+last even Owen began to realize that he need not pity her, since she was
+living a life which exactly suited her.</p>
+
+<p>Once he realized this, his pity was directed towards himself.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the sort of married life he had contemplated; and although
+he was too just to blame his wife for her lack of sympathy with his aims
+and ideals, he began to wish that Toni would sometimes lay aside her
+frivolity and exchange her light and ceaseless chatter about trifling
+matters for a slightly more profitable style of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Owen had called upon James Herrick at his bungalow, the Hope House, to
+thank him for rescuing Toni; and the other man had duly returned his
+call; but although Owen gave Herrick a very cordial general invitation
+to Greenriver the two men had not much in common save a mutual love of
+good books.</p>
+
+<p>Owen thought Herrick peculiar, eccentric in his ways. It seemed odd for
+a man to live alone as he lived, doing his own work except for the
+occasional aid of a woman whom he called Mrs. Swastika. If he had had
+any particular work or hobby which necessitated solitude Owen could have
+understood it; but Herrick seemed to spend his days as idly, as
+aimlessly, as Toni herself.</p>
+
+<p>He went on the river a good deal, took long walks with his dog, but
+beyond that he seemed to do nothing but lounge in a chair on the lawn,
+shabbily clad, with a pipe between his lips and a book, generally
+unopened, on his knee. His political views seemed to Owen to be as vague
+as were Toni's; and he had an irritating habit of setting aside any
+recognized standard of perfection as though the world's seal of approval
+meant less than nothing.</p>
+
+<p>He would demolish a given institution in a few lazy words, but he never
+attempted to set up another in its place. He seemed content to put his
+finger on the weak spot in any system without troubling to point out a
+remedy; and to Owen, whose eager mind was ever ready to remedy abuses,
+this attitude of half-pitying, half-amused toleration was vaguely
+irritating.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick seemed to view life, indeed, with a kind of large detachment, as
+though from the height of some soaring pinnacle one might watch, with
+only half-awakened interest, the doings of the dwellers on the plain;
+and Owen, who liked to be in the midst of things, to add his quota to
+the world's doings, found in this attitude of mind a pose, a
+half-insolent pretence at superiority, which was galling.</p>
+
+<p>Without saying a disparaging word Herrick appeared to belittle the
+efforts made by Owen and his fellows to enlighten the world; and since
+everyone knows that the criticism of a non-worker is a hundred times
+more irritating than that of a co-operator, Owen may be excused for
+finding Herrick uncongenial.</p>
+
+<p>And yet by nature Herrick was a kindly, cheery soul enough, who had been
+fired in his youth by an excessive love for humanity&mdash;for all the
+humanities. But shortly after his marriage he had faced a tremendous
+crash; and though, when the first shock was over, he had pulled himself
+together, and gathered up, as best he might, the fragments of his life,
+he had lost for ever that eager, humane, half-Quixotic spirit which had
+made his young manhood pass like a joyous race.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As time went on Owen got into the habit of spending most of his days in
+town, where he found it easier to work than at home. He begged Toni to
+tell him honestly whether she found herself lonely in his absence, but
+Toni assured him truthfully that she was perfectly happy sitting in her
+beautiful old garden or taking lunch and tea on the river, either alone,
+or in the company of her friends, Molly and Cynthia Peach. Punting alone
+was forbidden, but seeing Toni's disappointment, her husband had
+purchased for her a stout little dinghy in which she was perfectly safe,
+and this same craft was a source of delight to its owner.</p>
+
+<p>At first Owen had asked Toni to come up to town with him, to do some
+shopping or go to a <i>matin&eacute;e</i>, but London in summer was no novelty to
+Toni, and she infinitely preferred to stay at Willowhurst and amuse
+herself in her own way.</p>
+
+<p>One night it chanced that Owen arrived home much earlier than usual. The
+weather had broken a day or two previously, and the air was heavy with
+thunder. Consequently Owen's head ached furiously, with one of the
+neuralgic headaches which since his accident he had good cause to dread;
+and the fact that he had an important piece of work to finish without
+loss of time fretted his nerves to racking-point.</p>
+
+<p>London was particularly hot and malodorous to-day; and it was with a
+sigh of relief that Owen steered his car away from the stuffy streets
+towards the green and fragrant valley of the Thames. There was a coppery
+glow in the sky which presaged a storm, and puffs of hot air blew
+gustily into his face; but it would be fresher at Willowhurst, and if
+the storm should break there would be a delightful hour or two
+afterwards, when the earth, cooled by the rain, would send up its
+incense of sweet odours into the summer darkness, and the evening breeze
+would bring refreshment to weary, throbbing brows.</p>
+
+<p>True, the work must be done, if human endurance could do it; and with a
+sigh of relief Owen remembered that Toni would be disengaged and able to
+help him in some way, if only by typing the manuscript when he had
+brought it to a close. There was also a little research work to be done,
+one or two quotations to be verified, a few short extracts to be
+made&mdash;work which came well within the scope of Toni's powers; and he
+knew that she would be only too pleased to give him what help she could.</p>
+
+<p>But he had reckoned without his host. On leaving home in the morning he
+had told his wife he would probably be late in returning, and had
+apologized for leaving her so long alone. So far from feeling aggrieved
+at his absence, however, Toni seized the opportunity of inviting Mollie
+and Cynthia over for tennis; and the girls accepted blithely, bringing
+over with them a young cousin, just through Sandhurst, who was an adept
+at the game.</p>
+
+<p>Toni welcomed the boy happily; and the four young people played tennis
+vigorously, with an interval for tea, until the elder Toby began
+regretfully to talk of going home.</p>
+
+<p>There were already rumblings of thunder, and the sky behind the big
+cedar trees looked strangely lurid; and Toni, who hated a storm, was
+loth to let them go.</p>
+
+<p>An idea striking her, she begged them all to stay and have a late supper
+with her; after which Mr. Cooper and Mollie, being musical, might give
+the others an impromptu concert&mdash;a plan to which, after a little decent
+hesitation, the trio assented gaily.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, pleased that she was not to be left alone to face the storm, took
+them indoors to get tidy, and then danced off to the kitchen to
+interview the cook.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Blades, lighting the Ten Little Ladies earlier than usual on
+account of the gloom, was inclined to look askance at the invasion; but
+Martha and Maggie&mdash;the latter filling the place of Kate, enjoying her
+"evening off"&mdash;fell into the plan with alacrity; and while the former
+brought out the cold chickens and the galantine intended for the
+morrow's lunch, Maggie bustled round the oval table laying extra places
+and making such preparations as commended themselves to her ever-fertile
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the stormy dusk it was necessary to light the candles on the
+supper-table, where bowls of great crimson roses made pools of colour on
+the white cloth; and very attractive the table looked to the four hungry
+people who presently sat down to eat and chatter.</p>
+
+<p>There was plenty of gay laughter over the meal. Jokes were bandied
+hither and thither, shocking puns were made and greeted with shrieks of
+mirth, and if the conversation was eminently frivolous, at least it was
+good-humoured, hearty, wholesome frivolity.</p>
+
+<p>Yet when Owen reached home in his car and entered the hall with rather a
+weary step, the somewhat noisy merriment which greeted him brought a
+frown to his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>He questioned Andrews as to what was going on, and the young butler
+informed him, with a complacency which Owen in his present mood found
+irritating, that Mrs. Rose was entertaining the two Misses Peach and a
+gentleman to supper.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Owen paused in his walk towards the dining-room door. "In that
+case, I think I will just have a whisky and soda in the library&mdash;and a
+few sandwiches."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, sir," the man was beginning, when there was a peal of
+laughter from behind the closed door; and the next moment, Toni came
+flying out of the room, holding aloft a large bunch of grapes, while Mr.
+Cooper pursued her hotly, making grabs at the fruit as he did so.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to stop herself, Toni cannoned violently into her husband, and
+the unfortunate youth from Sandhurst, brought to an unexpected halt,
+found himself face to face with an unknown man whose expression was not
+exactly inviting.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, is it you? How you startled me!" Toni lifted two sparkling eyes
+to her husband's face. "When did you come? You said you wouldn't be home
+till after ten!"</p>
+
+<p>"I've just arrived," he said, striving hard to keep any hint of
+annoyance out of his tone. "You were making such a noise you didn't hear
+the car! Well, Toni, won't you introduce me to your friend?"</p>
+
+<p>On being presented, Mr. Cooper, held out his hand rather awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid we were making an awful din," he said, apologetically. "We
+got ragging over the dessert and Mrs. Rose stole my grapes&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you fibber!" Toni was not going to stand that. "They were mine, and
+you took them off my plate when I wasn't looking!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid they aren't much good to anyone now," said Owen with a
+smile. "They are pretty well squashed, Toni, and I fancy your frock's
+got the worst of the encounter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's only my tennis-frock," said Toni, her first involuntary
+qualms driven away by the friendly sound in Owen's voice. "We'll go back
+and finish now. You'll come, Owen? I'll tell Maggie to bring back the
+food."</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't bother." He spoke quietly. "I'll go and brush off some of the
+London dust while you and your friends finish your supper. I'll have a
+bite later on. Don't worry about me." He turned to the boy. "I'm afraid
+we're in for a storm. I felt a few drops as I came up the drive."</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat reluctantly, Toni left her husband and returned to the
+dining-room, where the Tobies anxiously awaited her coming. They had
+practically finished their meal, and a few moments later rose from the
+table and went into the drawing-room, where Toni presently excused
+herself and went in search of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>She found him in the library, where Andrew had just brought him a
+slender repast; and even the unobservant Toni was struck by the look of
+fatigue which brooded over his face as he sat poring over some
+closely-written sheets.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, I'm sure you ought not to do that now. Do leave it till to-morrow
+and come and listen to some music in the drawing-room instead."</p>
+
+<p>She laid one small hand on the sheets as though to wrest them from his
+grasp; but he lifted her fingers aside with a rather weary gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, I can't leave this." His voice was flat and toneless. "I've
+promised to send it off the first thing to-morrow morning, and there's a
+lot to be done yet."</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm sure you're ill! Have you got neuralgia again?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little&mdash;oh, it's nothing, only the thunder in the air. You might tell
+Andrews to bring me some phenacetin, will you, dear? And now, my child,
+run away to your guests&mdash;they'll think it queer if you leave them alone
+much longer."</p>
+
+<p>Toni turned obediently to the door, but she was not yet easy in her
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, are you sure there is nothing I can do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, thank you, dear. I believe the storm is passing after all."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke the truth, for with a few more mutterings the thunder died away
+in the distance; and though the promised coolness did not come, both
+Owen and Toni were relieved by the lightening atmosphere&mdash;Toni because
+she was an arrant coward where thunderstorms were concerned; Owen
+because he felt that the clash of the elements would render the
+neuralgic pains in his head almost unbearable.</p>
+
+<p>For long after Toni, relieved, had gone back to her visitors he sat
+doing nothing, lacking the energy to attack his task. Now and then he
+heard a few notes on the piano, and once he opened the door to listen to
+the elder Miss Peach's rendering of a song he knew, for Mollie Peach had
+a sweet, limpid soprano voice which no amount of chatter and noisy
+laughter could destroy.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, the young man from Sandhurst started to shout a comic
+song, Owen shut the door hastily and wished the boy at Jericho.</p>
+
+<p>He began to think the visitors would never go. At first he had hoped
+that their departure would set Toni free to help him after all; but when
+the clock in the hall chimed the half hour after ten, and still the
+music and laughter continued, he knew it was useless to expect any aid
+to-night.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven the party broke up. The bicycles were brought round, and the
+four went gaily out of the front door to light lamps and see to
+suspiciously slack tyres.</p>
+
+<p>Owen had charged Toni with polite messages to the two girls; and they,
+being somewhat in awe of a real live writer, were not sorry to avoid a
+meeting with their host; but Toni seemed so loth to part with them that
+she detained them all on the steps, chattering eagerly while the stars
+winked down out of the clearing sky and the owls hooted in melancholy
+fashion from the tops of the tall trees behind the house.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the last farewells were said, the last appointments made; and
+Toni, yawning, turned to Andrews and bade him lock up safely.</p>
+
+<p>She was still yawning when she came into the library a moment later; and
+in the lamplight Owen caught a glimpse of her little red mouth gaping
+behind her hand as she came up to the table.</p>
+
+<p>"How sleepy I am!" Indeed her eyes were bright, like those of a sleepy
+child. "Aren't you coming, Owen? It's ever so late."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you pack your friends off a little earlier then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't want them to go." She yawned childishly once more.
+"Owen"&mdash;suddenly a thought struck her&mdash;"you're not cross, are you? You
+didn't mind me having them here? You know, I thought it was going to be
+a storm&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I didn't mind," he said, disarmed by her sudden appeal. "It
+was my fault for turning up unexpectedly. But now, Toni, supposing you
+run away to bed? I really must finish this work, and it's getting late."</p>
+
+<p>She agreed, docilely, and kissing him lightly, ran away to bed as she
+was commanded, falling asleep as soon as she was safely there.</p>
+
+<p>But Owen sat late in the library&mdash;sat, indeed, till the short summer
+night began to recede with stealthy, sliding footsteps before the
+victorious onrush of the dawn; and in those quiet, lamp-lit hours he
+asked himself despairingly why he had been in such haste to marry.</p>
+
+<p>One consolation lay in the fact that Toni herself had not the slightest
+idea that her marriage was anything but a success. She did not know that
+her idleness, her incessant chatter about trivial things, her constant
+interruptions, her unauthorized intrusions into the privacy of his
+working hours, worried him almost beyond measure.</p>
+
+<p>Bubbling over with youth and joy, she had no eyes for the look of
+strain, of weariness on another's face; and to her it seemed quite right
+that her husband should write and study while she danced through the
+summer hours as she would.</p>
+
+<p>He liked his work, she supposed; and in Toni's world it was the usual
+thing for the men to work to support their wives. But that the wives had
+equal duties, that it was theirs to share the burdens of the men's
+spiritual and mental labour, she had, as yet, no idea.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," said Owen wearily to himself, as he rose stiffly from his
+chair and moved to the oriel window to watch the marvel of the dawn, "at
+least I have made her happy; and as for me, it's my own mistake, and I
+must bear the consequences!"</p>
+
+<p>With which philosophical reflection he extinguished the lamp and went
+slowly upstairs to bed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>In after days Toni always looked back to the afternoon of the Vicarage
+Bazaar as the occasion on which her eyes were opened ruthlessly to the
+cruelty of life.</p>
+
+<p>The day began auspiciously enough. It was August now, a hot, languorous
+August, when the river lay veiled in a mist of heat, and the air, even
+in the early morning, was a sea of liquid gold. There were wonderful,
+magical nights, too, nights of mellow moonlight and sweet, mysterious
+perfumes, nights when a breath of clean, fragrance from distant
+bean-fields mingled with the richer, heavier scent of roses and Madonna
+lilies.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni the summer had been one long time of enchantment. From the
+moment when she opened her eyes in the dawn, and ran to the window to
+see the hills shimmering in the heat, and the river sparkling with the
+peculiar silvery sheen of early morning, to the moment when she took her
+last stroll in the garden at night, and saw the stars come out in the
+darkening sky, while the white owls hooted mournfully in the tall trees,
+all, to Toni, was happiness and joy.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that people who are not introspective lead the
+happiest lives. Toni, not being given to wasting her time in reflection
+or self-analysis, remained happily unconscious of the fact that her life
+during that splendid summer was a very idle one. Like a good many other
+girls, she considered that a strenuous game on the tennis-court or a
+stiff pull up the river entitled her to as much subsequent leisure as
+she desired; and she enjoyed the slight fatigue consequent on these
+exertions with a virtuous sense of having really done some work which
+entitled her to a holiday.</p>
+
+<p>She did not see very much of her husband; and sometimes she felt, with a
+slight pang of remorse, that before their marriage she had really taken
+more interest in his work than she found time to do nowadays. Not that
+he ever seemed to expect anything from her in that way. Once or twice,
+in the earlier days of their married life, he had been led into
+discussing various features of the review with her, and she had really
+tried hard to listen intelligently, and understand what he was talking
+about; but somehow he seemed to guess that the subjects did not interest
+her; and for the last few weeks he had confined his conversations with
+her to the little trivial happenings of every day.</p>
+
+<p>He didn't mind, she supposed. He must get plenty of the old <i>Bridge</i> at
+the office; and anyway it was far more of a change for him, when he came
+home, to talk of other things, even though they were in one sense less
+important.</p>
+
+<p>She herself was perfectly happy; and had she been asked, she would
+certainly have said that Owen was in a state of equal bliss. Moreover,
+seeing that he had chosen her out of a world of women to be his wife,
+she never stopped to ask herself whether or no she came up to his
+standard of wifely perfection.</p>
+
+<p>And considering her peculiarly blind and unquestioning attitude of mind
+on the subject of her relation to her husband, the awakening which
+presently came was doubly painful.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion, as has been stated, was that of the Vicarage Bazaar, an
+annual function held in the Vicarage gardens in the middle of August;
+and since Mrs. Madgwick, the Vicar's wife, had from motives of parochial
+diplomacy established some sort of intimacy with the young mistress of
+Greenriver, she had pressed Toni into her service as the great day came
+round.</p>
+
+<p>With Molly and Cynthia Peach, Toni was to assist at the flower-stall,
+which was always, so the Tobies assured her, certain of patronage; and
+by ten o'clock on the morning of the day, Toni was at the Vicarage,
+laden with masses of blossoms sent from Greenriver as a contribution to
+the stall.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment until the hour of lunch, to which she was detained
+almost by force, Toni worked like a veritable busy bee, running errands,
+doing odd jobs, and, in the intervals, arranging the flowers on the
+stall, until hands and feet were both weary.</p>
+
+<p>Having finished the hurried and uncomfortable meal, consisting chiefly
+of tinned tongue and a rather out-of-date cream cheese, Toni was allowed
+to run home to change her dress; and at half-past two precisely she was
+back, robed in the daintiest, filmiest white lawn gown, to take her
+place with the other stallholders, in readiness for the opening
+ceremony, performed, much to the delight of the entire Madgwick family,
+by a real duchess.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess had little to say and said it very badly; but she was duly
+applauded and presented with a bouquet by a small white-robed child,
+stiff with starch and self-consciousness; after which her Grace
+descended thankfully from the little platform erected for her speech,
+and fulfilled the second and easier half of her duty by making the round
+of the stalls and spending a strictly equal amount at each one.</p>
+
+<p>By now Toni had a good many acquaintances in the neighbourhood, and was
+pleased to see Mrs. Anstey smiling at her as she inquired the price of a
+magnificent bunch of sweet-peas which had come from the gardens of
+Greenriver.</p>
+
+<p>Toni told her the price, and she forthwith bought the flowers, greatly
+to Toni's pleasure, for she loved her sweet-peas and had hoped, rather
+childishly, that someone nice would buy them.</p>
+
+<p>As she was handing over the change, Toni summoned up courage to ask
+after Miss Lynn, and Mrs. Anstey smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"She is very well, thanks, and coming here, I hope, in a week or two.
+She and Mr. Raymond are to be married at Christmas, as I daresay you
+have heard."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my husband told me so." Suddenly Toni blushed, remembering the
+occasion of Miss Lynn's visit to her; and at the same moment, as though
+evoked by some mysterious method of thought, the robust and
+gaily-dressed form of Lady Martin suddenly materialized before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Her ladyship was engaged in cheapening a bunch of yellow roses, while
+Cynthia Peach was endeavouring, without much success, to point out that
+their fresh beauty and scent were well worth the original price.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take them if you knock off sixpence," Lady Martin was declaring
+rather aggressively; and Miss Peach glanced helplessly at her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do, Toby?" she murmured anxiously. "Of course they're
+cheap already, but still I suppose they won't last&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense, Toby," whispered Mollie vigorously. "If she doesn't buy
+them heaps of people will." Aloud she said firmly&mdash;"I'm afraid we can't
+take less, Lady Martin. The Duchess bought two bunches of the same
+roses, and she didn't think them dear."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Martin paused, inherent meanness struggling with a snobbish desire
+to emulate the Duchess; and finally she gave in with a bad grace.</p>
+
+<p>As she took the roses her eyes fell on Toni, at that moment intent on
+her conversation with Mrs. Anstey; and her ladyship's ill-humour was not
+lessened by noticing the friendly glances which passed between them.</p>
+
+<p>She bore down upon them accordingly with outstretched hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mrs. Anstey, it is ages since we met!" Her piercing tones, likened
+by the Tobies to those of a macaw, strove in vain for suavity. "So good
+of you to come to this affair&mdash;such a distance for you, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I always try to come when I am at home," said Mrs. Anstey gently.
+"I like to support Mr. Madgwick's parish, though I'm afraid I don't
+spend a great deal of money! Really the flowers and the home-made cakes
+are the only things that tempt me."</p>
+
+<p>"And surely you have plenty of flowers at home!" Lady Martin glanced
+with a disparaging little laugh at the stall before her. "I don't know
+where these came from, but they look sadly wilted already."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid I can't agree with you there," said Mrs. Anstey, with a
+little smile. "I think the flowers are charming, especially those sent
+by Mrs. Rose's kindness from Greenriver."</p>
+
+<p>She indicated Toni with a friendly little gesture, and Lady Martin
+condescended, unwillingly, to acknowledge the girl's greeting. To tell
+the truth, Lady Martin had no desire to better her acquaintance with
+Toni. She had long ago intended the owner of Greenriver for her
+son-in-law; and to find this little nobody, with her provincial ways and
+her foreign-looking eyes, acting as <i>ch&acirc;telaine</i> of the beautiful old
+house in her daughter's place had an irritating effect.</p>
+
+<p>To make matters worse, several people had known of her matrimonial
+designs; and since the disappointment of one's friends is frequently a
+source of mirth, she had been annoyed by several tactless allusions,
+made presumably in jest, to her daughter's disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that she disliked Rose's wife with the hearty aversion of a
+spiteful and jealous woman; and the fact that she herself came of the
+people made her specially quick to suspect <i>bourgeois</i> blood in others.</p>
+
+<p>She took a delight, now, in snubbing Toni; and presently made a point of
+asking after her cousin Miss Mibbs.</p>
+
+<p>"She's very well, thank you," replied Toni, wondering a little at this
+unusual condescension. "But her name isn't Mibbs, it's Gibbs."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" Lady Martin drawled the word out insolently, as though to
+indicate that the name of the young woman in question did not interest
+her. "She is not here to-day, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Toni, absent-mindedly, "she was not able to get off to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Get off?" Lady Martin pounced on the strange form of the admission.
+"She is ... er ... full of social engagements?"</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards Toni thought it was the scent of the flowers which had made
+her feel hazy just then. Although she had an intuition that her
+interlocutor meant to be inquisitive, she had not the sense to turn the
+subject with a vague assent; and after a second's hesitation replied
+rather foolishly that her cousin's engagements were not in society.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? But it is holiday time&mdash;surely Miss Gibbs is not <i>teaching</i>
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Anstey, feeling to the full the insolence of this
+cross-examination, attempted to come to the rescue; but Lady Martin
+stood waiting so obviously for an answer that Toni felt constrained to
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Lady Martin. My cousin is not a governess."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" Lady Martin, who had the lust for cruelty inherent in all mean
+natures, pressed the point ruthlessly. "Then&mdash;I hardly see ... in the
+summer one does not work unless one is a private secretary or something
+of that sort; and I am sure your cousin"&mdash;with a pointed smile&mdash;"did not
+look in the <i>very least</i> like a private secretary!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Toni lost her head and her temper together.</p>
+
+<p>"My cousin is no one's secretary, Lady Martin. She is in a shop&mdash;Brown
+and Evans, drapers, of Brixton; and she is not here to-day because
+Thursday is the early-closing day for the shops, and this is only
+Tuesday!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a short silence. Even Lady Martin felt uncomfortable, for
+though she had literally goaded the girl into speech she did not enjoy
+the spectacle of Toni's flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks, nor the
+expression of mingled contempt and compassion on Mrs. Anstey's face&mdash;the
+contempt, as she very well knew, being intended for her, the compassion
+for Toni.</p>
+
+<p>The moment she had spoken Toni knew what she had done; that besides
+losing her temper and behaving in an ill-bred way she had given a handle
+to her enemies; and the tears were perilously near her eyes, though
+pride forbade her to let them fall.</p>
+
+<p>It was Cynthia Peach who came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"How awfully jolly for your cousin," she said plaintively. "I've always
+longed to go into a shop! The girls have such a good time&mdash;and they meet
+heaps of young men! Not like us poor things who hardly ever see one!"</p>
+
+<p>Her evident sincerity relieved the situation. Her sister might murmur
+"Oh, <i>Toby</i>!" under her breath, and Lady Martin might sneer, but Mrs.
+Anstey patted the speaker's arm with a very kindly smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little Cynthia! I shall have to scour the neighbourhood for young
+men and give a party," she said. "I'd no idea you were so forlorn!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there aren't many, really," conceded the elder Toby. "And I know
+what Cynthia means! That's why she was so pleased to come and sell
+flowers!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you are all neglecting your duties shamefully, my dears!" Mrs.
+Anstey moved aside to allow a batch of customers to approach the stall.
+"I mustn't stay here chattering. You will come and have tea with me,
+won't you, Mrs. Rose?" She turned to Toni, who was now as white as one
+of her own lilies. "I will look for you at five in the tent&mdash;you will be
+able to get off by then!"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled kindly at the girl as she moved away. Lady Martin had already
+gone, feeling, no doubt, that the weight of public opinion was against
+her; and as a rush of business just then overwhelmed the flower-sellers,
+Toni had no time to dwell upon the recent little scene.</p>
+
+<p>But Mrs. Anstey looked for Toni in vain when five o'clock came. As a
+matter of fact Toni had felt, desperately, that she could not face the
+crowded tea-tent, where doubtless she would again meet her enemy, Lady
+Martin; and she wanted no tea; she only wanted to be alone for a few
+moments, away from prying eyes, unkind tongues, that she might regain
+the equilibrium so cruelly upset.</p>
+
+<p>With this end in view she slipped away when the two sisters came back
+from their hurried tea; and followed a little path which she knew would
+bring her out at a quiet corner of the grounds, where a rickety old
+summer-house might afford her the temporary shelter she sought.</p>
+
+<p>There was no one there; and although the entrance to the little hut was
+almost choked up with weeds and tall, rank flowers, she crept inside,
+and then, sinking on to the seat in the dimmest, darkest corner, gave
+herself up to the fit of depression which had been stealing on her ever
+since her own rash avowal to Lady Martin.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she sat upright. Even here, it seemed, she was not to be free
+from interruption. She heard voices approaching, as though others were
+seeking her hiding-place; and pushing aside one of the rotting wooden
+shutters she peeped cautiously out.</p>
+
+<p>Fate was against her to-day. In the two persons who were drawing near,
+evidently with the intention of seating themselves upon the bench
+outside the hut, she recognized Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick; and
+instantly Toni felt a quick foreboding of evil.</p>
+
+<p>Something seemed to tell her that it was she whom they were discussing
+so earnestly as they walked; and Toni shrank back into the gloom,
+totally incapable of facing them in her tear-stained and generally
+dishevelled condition.</p>
+
+<p>She breathed a prayer that they would not attempt to enter the
+summer-house&mdash;a prayer which was answered, for the two ladies seated
+themselves on the bench outside, which was first wiped scrupulously
+clean by a large and substantial handkerchief wielded by the Vicar's
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>Her escape thus cut off, Toni had no choice but to remain silently
+within. She supposed, forlornly, that she ought to make her presence
+known; but she felt it almost impossible to stir; and the first words
+she heard kept her chained to her seat.</p>
+
+<p>"A sad pity," Mrs. Madgwick was remarking in her unctuous voice. "I
+always felt there was something just a little&mdash;well, what shall I call
+it?&mdash;second-rate about the girl. Mr. Rose being a gentleman in every
+sense of the word makes the whole thing so much worse."</p>
+
+<p>"It does." Lady Martin's thin lips tightened. "I too knew from the first
+that the young woman was not a lady&mdash;why, on the occasion of my
+welcoming call I found her entertaining this very cousin to a repast of
+tea and shrimps&mdash;or was it periwinkles? Something vulgar, anyway, and I
+am nearly sure I saw a plate of watercresses as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," said the vicar's wife acidly. "What class does the girl
+spring from? I always thought it was only servants or shop-girls who ate
+things of that sort&mdash;with vinegar&mdash;for tea!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we have Mrs. Rose's own word for it that her cousin is assistant
+in a shop." Lady Martin laughed disagreeably. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was employed in the same manner before her marriage. It is really
+remarkable what matches these pert shop girls make nowadays. Men seem to
+prefer them to our daughters, though it is hard to understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Hard? Impossible!" The Vicar's wife, thinking of her own plain and
+middle-aged daughters, spoke snappily. "As you say, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was some little shop-assistant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no! I remember now!" Lady Martin spoke mysteriously, and Mrs.
+Madgwick looked up sharply. "Mrs. Rose was not in a shop. It was not
+there that Mr. Rose met her. As a matter of fact she was his typist."</p>
+
+<p>"His typist! Ah!" Toni, listening breathlessly, could not fathom the
+significance of the lady's tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he would never have married her if he had not been so sore
+about Miss Rees." Lady Martin spoke fluently. "I had the whole story of
+that affair from a friend of my daughter's who was intimately acquainted
+with Miss Rees."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;who is&mdash;or was&mdash;Miss Rees?" The speaker little knew how Toni
+blessed her for putting the question.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl he should have married&mdash;the Earl of Paulton's niece." Lady
+Martin paused a moment to brush away an inquisitive gnat. "It was quite
+a romantic affair, at first. Mr. Rose was devoted, positively devoted to
+her, and she is really a charming girl, handsome, accomplished, in every
+way a contrast to the poor little creature he has married."</p>
+
+<p>"But why, if he were so devoted&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't he marry her? Well, it seems he had a motor smash, knocked
+himself up and had to go away for a time; and whether, as I have been
+told, she was glad of the excuse to break her promise, or whether there
+was some other reason, I don't know, but anyhow she threw him over and
+married Lord Saxonby without telling her first <i>fianc&eacute;</i> a word about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"And he took it to heart?" Mrs. Madgwick felt exhilarated by this
+authentic peep into the lives of the great ones of the earth. "Of course
+it must be galling to be thrown over for another man&mdash;though when it is
+a Lord&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, a Lord's no worse than another man," said Lady Martin rather
+ambiguously. "But they say there was a terrible scene&mdash;Mr. Rose
+reproaching the girl and threatening to kill Lord Saxonby, and making
+all sorts of wild threats. My daughter's friend had a maid who had been
+with Lady Saxonby, and she told her all this."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then of course it's true." Mrs. Madgwick, having a mind which
+delighted in gossip, did not quarrel with the source of information.
+"But I don't yet see why Mr. Rose married this girl. Surely there must
+have been plenty of ladies he could have had."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but they all knew he'd been jilted," said Lady Martin wisely.
+"Besides they say he had sworn to marry the first woman who would have
+him, to get even with Miss Rees, you know, and I haven't a shadow of
+doubt this girl threw herself at his head."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely," agreed the Vicar's wife charitably. "Girls of that class
+are so pushing. But as a wife for Mr. Rose and the mistress of
+Greenriver she is eminently unsuitable."</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadfully so," sighed Lady Martin. "I feel so sorry for the poor man
+tied to a common, empty-headed little thing like that. They tell me she
+is an absolute fool&mdash;and really in these days of evening classes and
+polytechnics there is no excuse for such lamentable ignorance as she
+displays. I hear that when they go out to dinner she sits as dumb as a
+fish&mdash;or else commits such shocking solecisms that her poor husband
+blushes for her."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? I have had very little conversation with her," said the other
+woman judicially. "And beyond noting her deplorable unsoundness on
+religious matters I have had few opportunities of probing her mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Her mind? She hasn't one," snapped Lady Martin. "She is one of those
+mindless, soulless women who are simply parasites, clinging to men for
+what they can get&mdash;a home, money, position&mdash;and give nothing in return
+because they have nothing to give."</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed sad for Mr. Rose," said Mrs. Madgwick compassionately. "So
+dreadfully boring for a clever man to be hampered with a silly wife&mdash;and
+one with such unpresentable relations, too. What was her cousin like?
+Quite&mdash;quite, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, quite," agreed Lady Martin. "A red-faced, blowsy young woman with a
+large bust and a pinched-in waist. Just the sort of girl you'd expect to
+find in a draper's shop in Brixton. But now, I really feel quite rested.
+Suppose we return to the Bazaar? I have one or two little purchases to
+make, and possibly by now the things will be reduced in price."</p>
+
+<p>The Vicar's wife rose with alacrity, and the two ladies moved away,
+discussing the probable financial result of the Bazaar, and Toni was
+left alone with her new knowledge.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+
+<p>At half-past five on that same afternoon Jim Herrick and his dog were
+strolling across the meadows leading from the river to the village of
+Willowhurst.</p>
+
+<p>The sky, which had been brilliantly blue all day, was beginning to be
+overcast, causing the energetic helpers at the Vicarage Bazaar to throw
+anxious glances towards the gathering clouds, and Herrick, who was a
+fair weather-prophet, foresaw a storm before sunset.</p>
+
+<p>As he threw his leg over the stile leading into the last meadow, he
+paused suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching him was Owen Rose's wife; and something in her mode of
+progress struck him as peculiar. She was coming along at a sort of fast
+walk, breaking now and then into a few running steps, stumbling
+occasionally and even stopping dead for a second before resuming her
+hurrying advance.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were downcast; and she was quite close to him before she
+realized his presence. When she did look up he saw that she was crying,
+openly, sobbingly, as a child cries, the tears running in little
+channels over her cheeks and dropping unheeded where they would.</p>
+
+<p>Even when she saw that she was not alone, Toni could not check those
+treacherous tears; and something told Herrick that she was craving for
+sympathy, that here was no sophisticated woman of the world, to whom the
+encounter would spell annoyance, but a forlorn and solitary child crying
+out its heart over some real or fancied tribulation, to whom a kindly
+word, a friendly greeting would bring only comfort.</p>
+
+<p>He jumped off the stile and approached her, hat in hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose? You're in trouble over something? Will you tell me what's
+wrong&mdash;perhaps I can help you somehow?"</p>
+
+<p>To his relief he saw that his impression had been correct. She turned to
+him desperately, like a child seeking consolation.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick"&mdash;she sobbed out the words&mdash;"I'm so miserable&mdash;I don't know
+what to do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, that's bad!" He spoke kindly. "Well, suppose you rest here a
+moment and dry your eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>She fumbled blindly in the front of her gown and then gave up the search
+with a childish wail.</p>
+
+<p>"I've not got a handkerchief&mdash;I've lost it somewhere!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, I have one." He drew out a large silk square as yet
+unfolded, and pressed it into her hand. "There, use that&mdash;and then we'll
+have a talk."</p>
+
+<p>She dried her eyes obediently, though fresh tears threatened to make her
+obedience futile; and then, still clinging to his handkerchief, she
+leaned against the stile and tried to regain her self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" His tone, with its gentle sympathy, was balm to poor Toni's sore
+heart. "Come, little lady, what's the trouble? Let's see if we can't
+find a way out of it together."</p>
+
+<p>She turned her eyes on him as he spoke, and he was almost startled at
+what he read there; for surely there was a hint of almost womanly
+suffering in their usually childish depths; and he knew intuitively that
+this was not the thoughtless, light-hearted girl he had previously known
+as Toni Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick"&mdash;she spoke in a low voice, which in spite of all her
+efforts shook a little&mdash;"just now at the Vicarage Bazaar I heard Lady
+Martin and Mrs. Madgwick talking about me; and they said such terrible
+things that I think my heart will break!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come, Mrs. Rose!" His tone had, as he intended, a bracing effect.
+"Hearts don't break so easily as that! Whatever those two chatterers may
+have said, you must not let it affect you so seriously."</p>
+
+<p>"They said I was common&mdash;and ill-bred&mdash;and ignorant." The words startled
+her hearer, though she spoke them with a kind of dreary quietness which
+was not without pathos. "They said Owen only married me because some
+girl&mdash;an earl's niece&mdash;had thrown him over and he wanted to get his own
+back&mdash;they said he was ashamed of me, that he blushed for me when we
+went out to dinner, and everyone pitied him for having such a common,
+empty-headed wife."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Mrs. Rose&mdash;&mdash;" For a moment Herrick's wits deserted him beneath
+this recapitulation; and before he could hit on the right words, Toni
+had begun again.</p>
+
+<p>"They said it was a pity for a clever man to be tied to an ignorant
+wife, that I bored him to death; and Lady Martin said I was a parasite,
+clinging to him for money and food, and that I had spoilt his life and
+ruined his career&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is nonsense!" Herrick shook off the mental paralysis which had
+held him tongue-tied, and spoke vigorously. "No man's life was ever
+spoilt by the possession of a pretty, loving wife&mdash;like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but you don't understand." She spoke drearily. "I <i>have</i> been a
+fool, I suppose. I was so happy myself that I never thought of Owen. I
+mean I just went on loving him&mdash;thinking he loved me. I didn't bother
+about his work and his career&mdash;it never struck me I should be doing Owen
+harm by my ignorance. I knew I wasn't clever enough to help him, but I
+thought that didn't matter so long as we were happy...."</p>
+
+<p>"But you <i>were</i> happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was." A big tear rolled forlornly down her cheek. "It was so
+lovely here&mdash;like a beautiful dream&mdash;the summer and the river and the
+roses ... every day was better than the last and I thought it would
+always be like that ... I had never dreamed I could be so happy ... it
+was just like a fairy-tale, I used to think sometimes I was like an
+enchanted princess, living in a wonderful castle&mdash;with my prince...." Her
+voice sank to a whisper, and she gazed out over the flower-strewn meadows
+with a wide-eyed glance which saw nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick's big heart, which in spite of his life's tragedy held still an
+infinite compassion for all weak and helpless things, was wrung with
+pity for this poor little creature, whose eyes had been opened so
+cruelly to the fact that life was not all an enchanted fairyland; and
+when he spoke his deep voice was very gentle.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, little lady, you mustn't take all this to heart. These women
+were talking, you must remember, without any intimate knowledge of your
+affairs; and we all know that gossip is eminently uncharitable. Besides,
+loyalty to your husband should make you believe in him and his love."</p>
+
+<p>"I do." She stopped abruptly, then went on again more impetuously. "But
+the worst of it is, I believe it is true, what they said. I <i>am</i>
+ignorant and silly. I hate going out to parties; I never feel at ease, I
+make foolish mistakes. Owen has been very kind, he has only laughed, but
+it must have been horrid for him to have such a foolish wife. At home,
+too ... it's quite true I haven't helped him. I've been out all day
+enjoying myself, and not bothering about his work. I did at first, and I
+made such stupid blunders that he used to have to do it all over again."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's nothing." He spoke lightly. "After all, you are not a
+literary expert like your husband, and you can't be expected to do his
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"No." She caught her white teeth fiercely in her lip. "But lots of women
+could have helped him. This one they spoke of&mdash;they said she was clever,
+accomplished, just the sort of wife for a man like Owen&mdash;not a stupid
+little dummy like me. And"&mdash;she paused, and every tinge of colour faded
+out of her face&mdash;"they said I was common&mdash;not a lady. Mr. Herrick, am I
+common? Am I&mdash;not a lady?"</p>
+
+<p>With her eyes on his face, eyes full of a desperate hurt, Herrick felt a
+wild, impotent desire to strangle the two mischief-makers who had
+changed this girl's joy into bitterness, had turned a child's enchanted
+castle into a structure of pasteboard; but when he spoke his tone was
+admirably light.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, now you are talking absolute nonsense. Common? Well, to
+me commonness consists in common behaviour, mean tempers, a nasty,
+spiteful attitude of mind, a discontent with one's surroundings, a petty
+jealousy of others&mdash;oh, I hate a common mind as much as anyone in the
+world&mdash;but to use the word in connection with you is merely an abuse of
+language and not to be treated seriously."</p>
+
+<p>She was half perplexed, half comforted.</p>
+
+<p>"But a lady, Mr. Herrick? Am I or am I not&mdash;a lady?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said slowly, "that again depends on the use of the word. Mrs.
+Swastika, my excellent charwoman, is referred to by her friends as 'the
+lady who looks after that queer man in the bungalow'; and when my usual
+milkman was taken ill the other day, my modest pint of milk was brought
+by a pig-tailed girl who announced, 'I'm the young lady as takes round
+Mr. Piggott's milk when he's sick!' So that you see the term 'lady' is
+capable of wide interpretation."</p>
+
+<p>"But <i>am</i> I?" Her wistful tone craved for reassurance and Herrick gave
+it promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"If by 'lady' you mean a woman who is fit to mix with any one in the
+land, yes," he said. "Of course you are."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a wan little smile, and dried away a few tears with the aid
+of his handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know where mine is," she said, half-crying, half-laughing. "I
+must have dropped it somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Or the Boo-Boos took it." He smiled at her puzzled expression. "Don't
+you know those dreadful little people&mdash;the people who hide one's pencils
+and one's handkerchiefs, put the clock back so that one misses one's
+train&mdash;or an appointment&mdash;and invariably send an organ-grinder outside
+one's window when one is hard at work and can't bear a noise!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why do you call them Boo-Boos?" She might have been a child asking
+for the explanation of a fairy-tale.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they aren't Brownies, because <i>they</i> are a good little folk. And
+the Pixies, though their tricks are much the same, pursue their
+avocations out of doors on moor or hill; so that the only name I could
+find for them was just that&mdash;Boo-Boos!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed at her bewildered face.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Mrs. Rose, don't you ever feel conscious of their teasing
+presence? Don't you lose your hair-pins, or your brooches, or whatever
+corresponds to our collar-studs? And have you never noticed how a pen
+with which you are about to sign an important document, a will or
+something of the kind, has changed mysteriously into a pencil&mdash;generally
+without a point&mdash;when you pick it up?"</p>
+
+<p>He had succeeded in his intention. His nonsense had won her to a smile;
+and the eyes which a few moments before had looked like those of a
+tortured woman were once again the eyes of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Mrs. Rose"&mdash;Herrick felt there was danger in prolonging
+the situation once she had attained a comparative serenity&mdash;"I'm afraid
+it's going to rain! Don't you think we had better be moving homewards?"</p>
+
+<p>She rose at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you like." She spoke with the utmost docility. "I suppose we
+had better go. I haven't an umbrella&mdash;have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;and your dress is thin." He looked at her white gown, which had not
+been improved by her incarceration in the mouldy summer-house, and
+showed traces of the dust and dirt of the bench on which she had
+crouched while the two women talked outside. Altogether Toni presented a
+pathetic little figure; and Herrick felt a sudden desire to know her
+safely at home, hidden from inquisitive eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He called Olga, who had been playing an enticing game of hunting quite
+imaginary rabbits in the hedgerow; and when the great dog bounded up in
+obedience to his summons, he jumped over the stile and held out his hand
+to help Toni. She climbed over rather lifelessly, catching her white
+skirt on a splinter of wood and tearing a rent which filled Herrick with
+dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"You've torn your pretty dress! What a shame&mdash;will it be quite spoilt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, I can mead it," she returned indifferently, "and any way it
+doesn't matter." To Toni nothing mattered just then.</p>
+
+<p>"That wretched splinter was to blame. I'm afraid I didn't notice it," he
+said contritely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it wasn't your fault. Perhaps it was one of your queer creatures,
+the Boo-Boos," said Toni with a wintry attempt at a smile; and Herrick
+was struck with the readiness with which she had adopted his whimsical
+theory.</p>
+
+<p>As they went across the fields beneath the now cloudy sky, he tried to
+keep the conversation at the same light level; but although Toni strove
+to adapt herself to his mood, it was evident that her thoughts were
+still circling round the revelation which had shattered her fairy
+castle; and just as the chimneys of Greenriver came in sight above the
+tall tree-tops, she asked him a question which had been formulating in
+her mind throughout the walk homewards.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick, do you think I could improve myself somehow&mdash;I mean could
+I read some books, or do something to make myself a more suitable wife
+for Owen? You know"&mdash;she caught her breath&mdash;"I can't bear for him to be
+ashamed of me, or bored with me&mdash;and they said&mdash;those women, that he was
+both."</p>
+
+<p>For a second Herrick thought of treating the matter lightly, assuring
+her that what the women had said was of no importance whatever. Then he
+knew there was only one course open to him, and he met sincerity with
+sincerity, candour with candour.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very easy for you to do a little reading," he said quietly.
+"Of course a literary man like Mr. Rose forgets that everyone has not
+his fine taste in books; and on the other hand, it is very easy to
+acquire a liking for poor stuff. But there are lots of authors who would
+delight you with their books, and if I can give you any help I shall be
+charmed to make you out a list."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you?" Her eyes lighted up for a second. "There are hundreds of
+books in the house&mdash;the library is supposed to be rather remarkable, you
+know, and I expect lots of the books you mean are there."</p>
+
+<p>"I've no doubt of it." He remembered hearing of the unique collection
+which Greenriver housed. "Tell me what sort of books you like? Travel,
+history, romance&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>The light died out of her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know." Her voice sounded flat. "I don't think I like anything
+much&mdash;except stories. Novels, I mean," she added hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there are plenty of very fine novels," he said cheerily. "And no
+one need be ashamed of liking that form of story-telling. I always fail
+to understand the attitude of the person who says 'I <i>never</i> read
+novels!' as though he were claiming a tremendous superiority, whereas
+he's only showing himself a narrow-minded and unimaginative person!"</p>
+
+<p>"But reading novels won't make me clever?" said Toni rather wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, probably not, if you read nothing else," he owned. "But there is
+plenty more stuff for you to read. What about poetry?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'll soon get to like it," he said smiling. "You needn't flesh
+your maiden sword in Browning, you know. Anyway, I will send you a list,
+shall I?&mdash;of books that I think you'll like. Can you read French?"</p>
+
+<p>Blushing, she confessed her inability to do more than recognize a French
+quotation here and there; and a new thought filled her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think if I were to study French, Mr. Herrick? I've got all my
+old books, and I could do an exercise every day."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick was half inclined to smile, but she was so desperately in
+earnest that he refrained.</p>
+
+<p>"A capital plan," he said heartily, thinking to himself that the harder
+she worked the less time she would have for fretting.</p>
+
+<p>"And if I got to know more poetry I might be able to help Owen with his
+articles," she said, smiling happily, reassured by his friendly counsel.
+"Of course they were quite right&mdash;I <i>am</i> stupid and ignorant, but if I
+work hard I think I ought to be able to make myself useful to Owen,
+oughtn't I, Mr. Herrick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't work too hard," he said, half jesting, half in earnest. "You
+don't want to turn yourself into a blue-stocking, do you? Don't
+over-develop your brain at the expense of your heart and soul, as so
+many learned women have done&mdash;to their ultimate despair."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no fear of that." Toni spoke in a low voice, and again he
+caught a glimpse of something disconcerting in her clear eyes. "Those
+women said I <i>had</i> no soul. But that's nonsense, because everyone has a
+soul."</p>
+
+<p>"But not everyone realizes it," he said. "Some people go through life
+and never know they have more than a body, which claims attention while
+the soul waits, yearningly, for recognition."</p>
+
+<p>He had spoken half to himself, his thoughts wandering for a moment from
+the girl beside him to another girl whose soul had been, to him at
+least, as a sealed book.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been like that," said Toni surprisingly. "But I have a soul&mdash;and
+for Owen's sake I am going to prove it. Only"&mdash;she faltered find her
+brave accents died away&mdash;"perhaps it is too late, after all."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And though, when he left her at her own door, refusing her invitation to
+enter, she had regained much of her usual manner, her last words haunted
+Herrick all through the long, lonely evening.</p>
+
+<p>He knew quite well that there was a good deal of truth in the accusation
+brought against the shrinking Toni. Although he lived a solitary life,
+it was impossible altogether to avoid contact with one's neighbours
+along the river; and he had heard sundry bits of conversation concerning
+Toni which went to prove that Owen Rose's choice of a wife was freely
+criticized in the neighbourhood. People agreed that she was certainly
+surprisingly pretty, but she did not belong to the class which filled
+all the big houses round about. The charitable said she was shy, the
+malicious called her <i>gauche</i>, without perhaps knowing exactly what they
+meant; and everyone who had talked to her asserted that she had no
+conversation, and did not appear in the least a suitable wife for a
+clever man like Mr. Rose.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little girl!" Herrick rose from his seat with a sigh at the end of
+the long, dreary evening. "I'm sorry for her&mdash;like the little mermaiden
+of Hans Andersen, she is ready&mdash;now&mdash;to dance upon knives for the
+possession of a soul! Well, she'll win her soul all right, but God grant
+the winning of it doesn't end in tragedy!"</p>
+
+<p>He stood for a moment gazing into vacancy with a half-tender,
+half-cynical smile on his lips. Then he extinguished the lamp, called
+Olga from her resting-place on the old divan, and went slowly to bed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Herrick duly sent Toni a list of such books as he thought suitable for
+her purpose; and then began for Toni a succession of long and, if the
+truth be told, tedious days spent, in Owen's absence, in the quiet,
+stately library, while the August sunshine streamed in through the big
+mullioned windows, and turned the books, in their many-hued bindings,
+into pools of rich, dim colour, lighted here and there with the flash of
+gold, the gleam of purple and scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>Toni used to wish, half-rebelliously, that the sun would not shine in so
+gloriously, turning the polished floor into a golden sea, and bathing
+her, as she sat at the table, in a flood of dancing sunbeams.</p>
+
+<p>It was so hard to sit there reading, trying in vain to dig out the heart
+of some book of old stories, sagas and the like, or struggling
+helplessly to understand a poem written in lovely but surely
+incomprehensible metaphors, and full of words which, though she realized
+their beauty, still conveyed little to her intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick had perhaps slightly over-estimated her powers. He had never
+before come in contact with quite such an undeveloped mind. His own
+married life had been too short for him to grasp fully the
+characteristics of his wife, and although in some respects she had not
+been unlike Toni, she had been differently educated. Her mind had
+perhaps little depth, but she was quick and versatile; and owing to her
+surroundings she had been able, always, to adopt the shibboleth of the
+social set to which she belonged by right of birth.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that Herrick, with all his sympathy, all his intuition, failed
+to plumb the shallows of Toni's mind. He gave her Rossetti when he
+should have given her Ella Wheeler Wilcox; and George Eliot when he
+should have introduced her to Jane Austen and her gentle sister, Miss
+Burney. The "Idylls of the King," clothed in Tennyson's poetic garments,
+would have won her interest&mdash;instead he advised her to read Malory, and
+read him she obediently did, until her brain ached with the clash of
+swords, and her eyes were wearied with the glitter of the dragons'
+scales or the silver mail of the knights who fought to the death for the
+damsels they served.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing her love of outdoor life, he sent her to Borrow, but even
+"Lavengro" failed to charm the lonely student, to whom the sun, the
+moon, the stars were all "sweet things" indeed, when no printed page
+intervened between her and their sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>It was weary work, toiling there day after day, while the river flashed
+and gleamed in the sunlight, and Jock ran barking hither and thither
+under the windows, as though imploring her to leave those musty haunts
+and come to chase the elusive yellow sunbeams on the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>At first she had been used to take the big, high-backed chair at the
+head of the table, and spreading out her books, refuse to cast so much
+as a look at the sunny world without; but after four or five mornings so
+spent she gave in suddenly and betook herself to the little table in the
+window, where from her seat she could watch the tall white lilies
+swaying in the breeze, or catch the fragrance of the mauve and scarlet
+sweet-peas which climbed their hedge just out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>It was weary work, and Toni's eyes and head ached when the luncheon-bell
+rang to set her free from her self-imposed task; but she did not give
+in, and after her hasty meal she would return to the library and
+struggle till tea-time with half a dozen French exercises, which by the
+aid of a key she sternly corrected when finished.</p>
+
+<p>When Owen arrived home, shortly before dinner, Toni was worn out with
+the combined effects of her mental exertions and her lack of fresh air;
+but Owen, who was turning over in his mind the material for a novel, was
+not in a mood to notice her unwonted silence, and was relieved when,
+after dinner, she went early to bed and set him free to spend the
+evening in his sanctum, making notes and generally planning out the book
+he felt he could write.</p>
+
+<p>To the novelist there comes, at the inception of a book, a period in
+which the things and people around him recede into the background before
+the people and things he seeks to create; and it is scarcely to be
+wondered at if at these times the writer's vision, which is turned, so
+to speak, inward, fails to realize the significance of the scenes being
+enacted beneath his mortal eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And it was so with Owen. During that strenuous fortnight of Toni's
+laborious study, Owen was so fully occupied with the visions of his
+brain that he had little time to spare for the flesh and blood inmate of
+his home; and though he was always kind to Toni, he did not notice that
+the laughter was absent from her lips, the joyful light of happiness
+quenched in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The idea of his book was beginning to absorb him very thoroughly.
+Hitherto he had never had the time to devote to purely imaginative work;
+but now that the <i>Bridge</i> was going ahead and his series of articles for
+outside papers was finished, he felt the call of fiction very strongly.</p>
+
+<p>His story was concerned with the conflict between East and West, with
+the life of an Indian prince who, after his English education, was
+called upon to rule his dead father's kingdom; and Owen's impressions of
+India, gathered during a stay of some months in that magic land, formed
+a brilliant setting for the half-political, half-romantic story he had
+to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Barry, who was, of course, in the secret, was intensely interested in
+this new departure; and had no doubt whatever as to the certainty of
+Owen's success. Indeed Owen himself was surprised at the ease with which
+he did work he felt to be good. By nature a critic, he would have been
+the first to detect signs of carelessness, of over-fluency even in his
+own writing; but the narrative, with its felicitous turns of expression,
+its lucid, clear-cut phrases, slipped naturally from his pen; and he
+felt to the full the truth of Stevenson's couplet:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Bright is the ring of words<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When the right man rings them."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One afternoon Owen invited Barry to motor down and dine with them at
+Greenriver; and Barry accepted the invitation with alacrity, for he had
+not seen Toni for some weeks and was anxious to know how life was
+treating her.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried over his work for the afternoon, and Miss Loder, the
+secretary whose services he and Owen shared in common, was secretly
+surprised, not to say shocked, by his flippant behaviour over a
+monograph supplied by a valued contributor.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bit stodgy, eh, Miss Loder? You can feel the ecclesiastical hand
+upon the pen-holder, can't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Loder was the daughter of a clergyman, whose large family had all
+been educated with a view to doing some sort of work in the world, and
+as was only natural she resented the implied censure on the Church.</p>
+
+<p>"If purity of English and clarity of thought are stodgy, Mr. Raymond, I
+suppose you are right. But what a treat this is after the article of
+young Bright's! That was hardly in keeping with the tone of the
+<i>Bridge</i>, if you like!"</p>
+
+<p>"Young Bright's article&mdash;why, Miss Loder, it was a gem! It was whimsical
+in tone, I grant you, perhaps here and there a trifle frivolous, but it
+was splendid in its way. It simply sparkled with wit and a kind of
+delicate satire."</p>
+
+<p>"You thought so? I'm afraid I didn't." Miss Loder, who at Cambridge had
+been known as an excellent debater, closed the subject by her tone; and
+Barry smiled quietly at her self-sufficiency.</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell, he had never much liked Miss Loder. While admitting her
+absolute competency for the post&mdash;for she was in her way a brilliant
+young woman&mdash;he found her unsympathetic, narrow-minded, wedded to her
+own standards of thought and behaviour; and he was wont to assert that
+her clear grey eye struck terror to his soul.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Loder had been intended for a scholastic career: but although she
+had passed through her College life with distinction, she found that
+after all teaching was not her vocation.</p>
+
+<p>She was absolutely devoid of patience, and wanting in the tact, the
+kindly firmness, the warm sympathy, which go to equip the perfect
+teacher; and although she might have a subject at her very finger-tips,
+so to speak, she found it almost impossible to hand on her knowledge so
+that her class might share it with her.</p>
+
+<p>Once she realized the fact, Miss Loder very wisely withdrew from the
+field in which she was unable to shine; and since the death of her
+father had rendered it imperative that she find some remunerative work
+without delay, she was glad to accept the post which Owen offered her
+through a mutual friend.</p>
+
+<p>Having once intended to take up journalism, she was conversant with the
+mysteries of typewriting and shorthand, and her excellent classical
+education rendered her particularly fitted for the post of secretary to
+the editor of the <i>Bridge</i> and his coadjutor, Barry Raymond. Her own
+literary taste was admirable, if a trifle academic; and Owen found her a
+really useful person with whom to discuss the various departments of his
+beloved review.</p>
+
+<p>In appearance, Miss Loder was of middle height, with good features, grey
+eyes of an almost disconcerting frankness, and fair hair which she
+parted on her forehead and coiled neatly round her head. She was
+twenty-nine years of age, but looked younger; and she generally wore a
+well-cut grey skirt and severely plain white shirt, which somehow suited
+her rather boyish appearance.</p>
+
+<p>At five o'clock on this particular afternoon Barry bade her good-day,
+and joined Owen in the street outside the office, where the big motor
+stood throbbing impatiently beneath its owner's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Jump in, Barry. If we have a good run we might take Toni on the river
+for an hour. Poor little girl, I'm afraid I've rather neglected her
+lately."</p>
+
+<p>Barry took his seat, and under Owen's skilful guidance they were soon
+out of the City tumult, speeding smoothly away in the direction of
+Richmond.</p>
+
+<p>It was just beyond Staines that the accident happened.</p>
+
+<p>Through no fault of his own Owen collided with a badly-steered motor
+negotiating a sharp bend; and though no one else was injured it was
+discovered, after all was over, that Owen had sustained a fracture of
+the right arm.</p>
+
+<p>The owner of the other car, who was only too palpably a novice in the
+art of driving, confounded himself in apologies. He was indeed so
+manifestly upset and distressed to find what his carelessness had done,
+that in the midst of his own natural annoyance Owen found time to assure
+him of his complete forgiveness; and the irony of the situation was made
+evident when it leaked out that the offender was a surgeon, resident in
+the district, who practised the art of motoring in his spare moments.</p>
+
+<p>He insisted on Owen returning with him to receive all the care and
+attention his medical skill could supply; and thus it was that when the
+car, driven by Barry, finally drew up in front of the hall door of
+Greenriver, Toni, running down the steps to greet her husband and his
+visitor, was startled to observe Owen, a trifle pale, descend from the
+car with his right arm supported in a black silk sling.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen!" Every vestige of colour died out of Toni's face. "What has
+happened? You've had an accident!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much, dear!" He spoke reassuringly. "Collided with another car
+outside Staines, and I've broken my stupid arm. But that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite enough," struck in Barry, smiling. "No one else was hurt, Mrs.
+Rose&mdash;not even the old idiot who was to blame."</p>
+
+<p>"It's nearly dinner-time, I suppose," said Owen, looking up at the hall
+clock. "We started early to take you on the river, Toni, but I'm afraid
+it's too late now."</p>
+
+<p>"And you're disabled," said Barry. "You'll be dependent on our good
+offices for your dinner; won't he, Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>And so it proved, for like a good many people Owen felt utterly at a
+loss with only one available hand. To Toni fell the task of cutting up
+his food, and her big eyes grew anxious as she noted his lack of
+appetite.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact Owen felt disinclined for food, for anything but
+solitude and rest. His head was aching, and his arm was beginning to
+pain him so severely that he feared sleep would be out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner he yielded to the joint entreaties of Toni and Barry and
+went to bed; leaving his wife to entertain his guest until the car
+should come round to take him to the station.</p>
+
+<p>The evening had closed in with rain, and the two sat by one of the
+widely-opened windows in the drawing-room, looking out into the dusky
+garden, and listening to the soft patter of the rain on the foliage
+bordering the lawn. There was no wind, and against the cloudy sky the
+tall trees stood like black giants holding out immovable arms, while
+from the flowers, refreshed by the shower after their hot, thirsty day,
+a grateful fragrance rose to sweeten the damp, cool air.</p>
+
+<p>For some time Barry and his hostess sat in silence. Toni had taken her
+favourite low chair, and her hands lay idly in her lap, the wedding-ring
+which was their sole ornament gleaming in the lamplight. To Barry's eyes
+her youthful prettiness had a slightly dimmed effect. Without losing
+anything of its virginal purity of outline there was a hint of
+weariness, of almost jaded fatigue, which startled Barry. He thought
+always of Toni as some joyous woodland nymph, a pagan it might be, a
+hedonist by nature and training; and while he had regretted, formerly,
+her lack of worldly and womanly experience, it gave him something of a
+pang at heart to find that this little pagan creature, this pretty,
+wild, untutored Undine could apparently lose, for the moment at least,
+her joy in the "sweet things" of life. That in the process she might be
+slowly and painfully realizing her soul he did not stop to think. To him
+the fatigue in her face was pathetic; to Herrick it would have been
+enlightening.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Raymond&mdash;&mdash;" Toni spoke at last, and he threw off his absorption to
+listen. "If Owen's arm is broken, how will he do his work?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what I've been wondering," said Barry. "Of course the
+ordinary office work, the work of the <i>Bridge</i>, will go on all right
+without him for a bit. I mean&mdash;well, you see I can look after things
+pretty well, and we have an excellent secretary in Miss Loder."</p>
+
+<p>"But his own work? He is writing a book&mdash;a novel, isn't he? He said
+something about it&mdash;though he hasn't read any of it to me," added Toni
+rather wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose he's got very far," said Barry, wondering whether she
+felt slighted by the omission. "Owen is a quick worker, I know, but he
+has only been at it for a week or two."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know," she replied hastily. "But how will he go on with it? He
+can't write with his left hand, can he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very well." An idea struck Barry, and without stopping to think he
+gave it utterance. "Look here, Mrs. Rose, you can help Owen no end! You
+must take it down for him. You could easily scribble it off and then
+type it out afterwards, couldn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Into Toni's eyes flashed a light of pure joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you think I could! I'd do anything&mdash;anything to help Owen," she
+said eagerly. "It wouldn't be like his articles, full of quotations and
+things that want verifying, would it? I mean even a stupid girl&mdash;like
+me&mdash;could do it, couldn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're not stupid," he rallied her gaily. "Look how quickly you learned
+to read proof! And even the superior Miss Loder doesn't type as well as
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't she!" Toni's depression had vanished like magic, and her eyes
+were sparkling as she looked at him. "Oh, if I could! But I don't
+believe I dare offer, Mr. Raymond! Do you think if <i>you</i> were to mention
+it to Owen&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it would come much better from you!" Barry, whose interference on
+the subject of Owen's marriage had not been too well received, shrank
+from further officiousness. "If you propose it, I'm sure Owen will jump
+at it; and he won't mind his enforced helplessness half so much if he
+can get on with the book."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Toni said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had ceased, and in the darkened sky one or two pale-gold stars
+were gleaming. The air was full of sweet, moist scents; and a big white
+owl flew by the window, looking weird and ghostly in the dusk. A moment
+later they heard him hoot from his eyrie in one of the tall tree-tops,
+and Toni shivered a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't get used to their queer cries," she said in a low voice.
+"Sometimes I hear them in the night, and they make me shudder. Owen
+laughs at me, and quotes Shakespeare, about the owl and the baker's
+daughter, but I hate them, all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"I rather like them," said Barry lightly. "Anyway, you mustn't drive
+them away; it's the very worst of luck to turn them out of their
+accustomed dwelling-places!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then, they'll have to stop, I suppose," said Toni practically. "But I
+shall go on hating them all the same!"</p>
+
+<p>Barry laughed and turned the conversation back to her proposed
+collaboration with Owen; and Toni was only too eager to discuss the
+subject, which lasted, indeed, until Barry said good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>His last glimpse of her was as she stood on the steps calling out her
+farewell; and he carried away a clearly-cut impression of the slight,
+blue-robed figure, her black hair a little loosened round her eager,
+vivid face, her eyes full of a new and ardent resolution, which had
+quite banished the look of sadness and fatigue he had noticed earlier in
+the evening.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident his suggestion had fired her heart and mind, and for a
+moment, as he was borne swiftly down the black avenue on to the high
+road, Barry asked himself if he had done well to light that lamp of hope
+and high desire in her soul.</p>
+
+<p>If Owen should refuse her aid, if he should let her see that he had no
+desire for help from her, no exportation of any adequate service, the
+flame which Barry's words had lit would be cruelly extinguished, leaving
+in its place only the blank and utter darkness of disillusionment.</p>
+
+<p>And once removed from her beseeching presence, Barry wondered, rather
+hopelessly, if indeed Toni's help would be of any value. She was ready,
+eager indeed, to be of use; but was she capable of work such as Owen
+would require?</p>
+
+<p>Against his will Barry had a vision of Miss Loder in Toni's place&mdash;not
+as wife, but as assistant&mdash;and he confessed to himself with a groan that
+the highly-finished product of school and college would probably prove
+herself of far more practical use than the impulsive, emotional, and
+alas! unliterary Toni.</p>
+
+<p>But the harm was done now. He had lighted the torch in Toni's soul, and
+he could only hope that no adverse breath would blow to extinguish its
+flame.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Toni, I have a proposal to make. Suppose you stop typing for a little
+while and listen to me. Will you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni, all the colour slipping out of her face, put down the sheet she
+had just taken up and waited obediently to hear Owen's proposal.</p>
+
+<p>This was the ninth day of their mutual labour; and even Toni's optimism
+could not assert that the experience had been successful.</p>
+
+<p>She had tried so hard, poor Toni. With every nerve strained to the
+utmost, with her mind emptied of anything which did not bear upon the
+subject in hand, she had striven to help Owen, to take down from
+dictation the words, the sentences, in which his thoughts were clothed.</p>
+
+<p>She had learned not to look up expectantly at every pause, since she had
+realized that to the harassed author, struggling for the one right
+phrase, that bright expectancy exercised a deadening effect; and she
+never even raised her head when silence fell&mdash;the silence in which Owen
+weighed and sifted his material, selecting this, rejecting that, and
+embodying the result in just the one glowing, clean-cut sentence which
+would effectually tell.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni found herself, all unwillingly, handicapped, by her
+non-comprehension both of the matter and method of Owen's creative work.</p>
+
+<p>A plain, straightforward story Toni could assimilate easily enough.
+Something primitive in her responded, also, to the call of the
+world-wide emotions of love, hatred, revenge; but Owen's book dealt with
+none of these; and the subtle philosophy, the carefully interwoven
+motives of political expediency and half-reluctant patriotism were alike
+uninteresting and unintelligible.</p>
+
+<p>Where she did not understand, it was natural she should transcribe
+incorrectly; and although it was easy for Owen to revise the typewritten
+script after each day's labours, he was perpetually checked in his
+stride, as it were, by the necessity of repeating or explaining some
+incident or allusion by which Toni was frankly puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, too, the girl was nervous; and Owen's habit of striding to
+and fro as he dictated made things, as she said desperately to herself,
+far worse. In vain she quickened her pace in a wild attempt to keep up
+with him. Faster and faster went her pen, more and more indistinct grew
+the scribbled words; and in the hour of stress all ideas of spelling and
+punctuation took to themselves wings and fled.</p>
+
+<p>But worse even than her comparative failure with the merely mechanical
+portion of the work was her mental inability to follow the working of
+Owen's mind. Handicapped by the necessity of dictating his book, the
+author often found himself at a standstill for some word which eluded
+him; and although he encouraged Toni to make suggestions, it was very
+seldom that she ventured to do so. The work went badly in consequence.
+Owen used to think sometimes that if Toni's mind had been more attuned
+to his, if they had shared ideas, had held the same standard in fiction,
+he might have gained something from this enforced collaboration; but as
+things were it became an irritation, effectually stopping the flow of
+his ideas; and although he did his best to keep Toni in ignorance of his
+feelings, she was bound to realize that the work was progressing in a
+lame and halting fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore she was not surprised when Owen broke it to her, gently, that
+he was thinking of a change of secretary.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, dear,"&mdash;he spoke very kindly, feeling indeed very pitiful
+towards the girl, whose fluctuating colour showed her mental
+disturbance&mdash;"this sort of work demands a special training. You are
+doing your best, I know, and I am very grateful to you, but you can see,
+can't you, that I am getting on badly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Owen." She spoke very slowly, and for a moment Owen wondered
+whether it would be possible to continue the present arrangement. Then
+common sense and creative ardour combined to utter a decided negative,
+and feeling himself to be brutal he hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>"Unfortunately I shan't be able to use my arm for some weeks. That
+stupid old doctor ought to pay my secretary's fees, oughtn't he, since
+he's responsible for my helplessness!"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed; but Toni said nothing, and after waiting a second he
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"You've been most awfully good and patient, dear, and I'm afraid I've
+been horribly irritable over the job. But I don't think it's any good
+our going on. I'm wearing you out, and losing a lot of time into the
+bargain."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going on with the book?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, yes." His matter-of-fact assent caused poor Toni a pang.
+"But I think I shall have to borrow Miss Loder from the office for a few
+weeks. She is used to the job, you know. She told me she had once taken
+down an eighty-thousand-word book, typed it, and seen it through the
+press, because the author was nearly blind. So she would really know all
+about the work."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Toni wondered, dully, why the sunshine which poured over her held
+no warmth to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll drop a line to Barry and ask him if he can spare her for a
+bit. There's a rather smart typist in one of the other rooms could take
+her place, and I might not want her for very long. As far as the book
+itself is concerned, I can't work fast enough to get it all done."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Sitting there, repeating the word, parrot-wise, Toni looked very
+forlorn; and something in her attitude struck Owen with a perhaps
+exaggerated feeling of remorse.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's settled," he said cheerfully, "and after this you needn't
+lose your roses sitting indoors so much. I'll tell you what&mdash;let's have
+a day off, shall we?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, hoping he would not see the tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Right. We'll have the car&mdash;Fletcher will have to drive&mdash;and go for a
+good long run into the country. We'll have lunch out and get back for
+dinner. You'll like that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much." She rose. "I'll go and get ready, shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We'll start at once. By Jove, I shall enjoy a holiday myself!"</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the day Owen surrounded Toni with an atmosphere of kindness
+which he trusted might dispel the soreness he guessed she was
+experiencing; but somehow he failed in his object.</p>
+
+<p>Although the day was superb, a still, golden August day, when the summer
+seemed to pause, arrested in its flight by the fulness of perfection to
+which it had brought the land, neither Owen nor Toni was sorry to return
+to Greenriver. As the car stopped in front of the door Toni cast a
+rather wistful look at the jasmine-covered old house she had learned to
+love; and for a moment she felt as though she saw herself as those other
+women had seen her&mdash;the ignorant, frivolous, common little person whom
+Owen had married out of pique.</p>
+
+<p>Never in all her life had Toni felt so humble as on this evening, when
+she entered the house which was her home. What had she in common with
+the beautiful old hall, with the broad staircase leading to the spacious
+gallery, lighted now by the Ten Little Ladies, whose light pierced the
+gloom like so many kindly little stars?</p>
+
+<p>The pictures, the bowls of roses, all the inanimate things she had grown
+to look upon as friends&mdash;it seemed to her to-night that they looked
+coldly to her, resenting her presence as an interloper; and in one
+queer, horrible flash of insight Toni seemed to visualize the woman who
+should have been the <i>ch&acirc;telaine</i> of Greenriver&mdash;a tall, dignified,
+beautiful woman, with the bearing of a princess....</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, dear?" Owen had seen her shiver. "Are you cold? Yet
+it's a warm night."</p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you, I'm not cold." She spoke gently. "I&mdash;I think I'm a
+little tired."</p>
+
+<p>She picked up a brown envelope from the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Owen, here's a telegram for you."</p>
+
+<p>"So there is. Open it for me, will you, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>She did so and handed him the flimsy paper. His eyes brightened as he
+read.</p>
+
+<p>"Good old Barry! He's wasted no time&mdash;Miss Loder will come down
+to-morrow by the ten o'clock train. I must send the car."</p>
+
+<p>He went out and spoke to the chauffeur, returning to say: "Will you
+arrange for some lunch to be sent up every day, Toni? She can get off by
+the four train, I daresay, and that will give us a good long time for
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see to it," Toni said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, dear. Let me see, there's half an hour before dinner. I might
+go and put everything in order as far as we've gone, so that we can
+start fair. I mustn't waste her time when she gets here."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Of course not."</p>
+
+<p>Although she tried to speak casually, a note in her voice struck Owen
+rather unpleasantly. He looked at her sharply in the lamplight; and
+something in her child-like attitude, as she stood motionless, her hands
+hanging by her sides, gave him a sudden twinge of something like
+reproach.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round quickly. They were alone, and acting on impulse Owen
+stooped, and putting his left hand under her chin, tilted her face
+upwards until their eyes met.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Toni." He had seen the tears in those wistful eyes of hers.
+"What's the matter? You are not hurt about the work, are you? If you
+would rather not have the woman, say so, and we will go on as we have
+been doing. It will get easier in time."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" Toni spoke quickly, though her lips quivered. "Indeed I'm not
+hurt. I&mdash;I'm sorry I'm such a fool. I'm only a hindrance to you instead
+of a help."</p>
+
+<p>Although he had no conception of the wound dealt to her by two
+thoughtless women, Owen realized that she was in earnest; that she
+understood, and regretted, her failure to give him the help he needed;
+and for perhaps the first time since his marriage Owen pitied his wife
+sincerely. After all, it was he, not she, who was to blame; and being
+still in the dark, Owen thanked God that at least she had no idea he had
+married her without giving her the love she had had a right to expect.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Toni dear." He held her to him with his sound arm. "After all, I
+want you for my wife, not my typist. Miss Loder may be able to do the
+work I want done better than you, because she's used to it; but you're
+my wife, Toni, and what does anything else matter?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not know whether his words brought her any comfort. She smiled,
+faintly, and returned the kiss he gave her before he let her go; but
+when she was alone in her quiet room Toni wept till she could weep no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>She hated Miss Loder from the first.</p>
+
+<p>Her self-possessed manner, her cool, grey eyes, above all the suggestion
+of competency which lurked in every line of her trim, well-tailored
+figure, all alike filled Toni with a sharp sense of resentment which she
+felt to be both childish and stupid.</p>
+
+<p>Without perhaps intending it, Miss Loder conveyed a sense of
+superiority. Toni was made to feel that this newcomer knew just why she
+had been sent for&mdash;understood that it was in reality to Toni's
+incapacity that she owed her present position; and Toni felt, with a
+miserable intensity, that Miss Loder looked upon her as some brilliant
+sixth-form girl would survey a kindergarten child, with a kindly,
+half-amused, half-contemptuous tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>Never had Toni so desperately longed to be clever as during that first
+week of Miss Loder's secretaryship; and never had she felt herself to be
+so ignorant, so childish, so futile a companion for a man like Owen.</p>
+
+<p>At first Miss Loder had eaten her lunch in solitude. It was Toni's
+suggestion that she should join them in the dining-room, and Owen,
+supposing that Toni felt it a little discourteous to condemn the other
+woman to a lonely meal, agreed cordially to the plan.</p>
+
+<p>Over her luncheon Miss Loder laid aside her rather scholastic, manner,
+and talked pleasantly in a quite refreshingly frivolous way; but try as
+she might Toni never felt at ease in her presence; and gradually she
+dropped out of the conversation until she sat for the greater part of
+the meal in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Owen, absorbed in his book, did not notice her taciturnity, and though
+he responded politely to Miss Loder's chatter, it was evident he was not
+captivated by her undoubted social gifts to the extent of forgetting the
+purpose of her presence.</p>
+
+<p>As for Miss Loder, Toni had guessed her attitude towards Mr. Rose's wife
+correctly enough. To the clever, highly-trained mind of the Girton girl
+Toni's whole personality was so appallingly feeble.</p>
+
+<p>"The brains of a hen, and the soul, probably, of a chorus-girl." So Miss
+Loder, quite unjustly, summed up Toni. "Married the man to get out of a
+life of drudgery, I expect, and is as much of a companion to her husband
+as a pretty little Persian cat would be. Why <i>will</i> these nice men marry
+such nonentities, I wonder? She is bound to be a drag on him all her
+days."</p>
+
+<p>For all her shrewdness Miss Loder never dreamed that her estimation of
+Toni was clearly evident to the person concerned. In her fatally orderly
+mind Toni was classified as a "type"&mdash;the type of the pretty, useless,
+childish wife; and Miss Loder never looked for any variation of the type
+when once she had labelled the specimen.</p>
+
+<p>That his now secretary did her work admirably Owen realized with intense
+gratitude. For all her modern self-assertiveness Miss Loder was clever
+enough to realize that in Owen she had met her intellectual master; and
+being at heart a veritable woman she never attempted to challenge the
+supremacy of the masculine mind.</p>
+
+<p>The work progressed quickly; and gradually, as the fascination of his
+work grew upon him, Owen became more and more absorbed in his book. He
+was always planning some incident, rehearsing, mentally, some situation
+or some telling dialogue; and the outer life around him receded into a
+dim and misty distance, in which Toni's pathetic little figure was
+almost lost.</p>
+
+<p>Toni did not give in easily. She made feeble tentative attempts to share
+his author's rapture. She asked him timid little questions, to which he
+gave smilingly vague answers; and once she even suggested that he should
+read to her the chapters he had already finished.</p>
+
+<p>Owen refused, quite gently, but inexorably; and Toni felt a miserable
+certainty that he did not think her capable of understanding or
+appreciating his work.</p>
+
+<p>The day this happened she ordered the car and went for a long and
+solitary excursion into the country. Of late she had not used the car,
+preferring to hang wretchedly about the house and garden, half-resenting
+the absorption of the two workers shut up in the library, not daring to
+interrupt their toil, yet longing, vaguely, for the courage to enter
+boldly and claim her share of the mutual labour.</p>
+
+<p>But to-day she felt that she could stand the house no longer. A great
+desire was upon her for the sunny places of the earth, and in her
+present mood the slow, gliding traffic of the river held for her no
+attraction. She longed for the swift, exhilarating rush through the air
+which, the car would give her; and Fletcher took her orders with
+alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>"A long round&mdash;yes, ma'am." He deliberated. "It's not three yet, and I
+suppose you don't care to be 'ome much before dinner-time?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I want to be out for hours," she said feverishly, and Fletcher was
+only too pleased to oblige her.</p>
+
+<p>Even Toni's depression could not hold beneath the tonic of that glorious
+ride. It was a splendid September day, when the country lay bathed in
+floods of rolling sunshine, and there was just enough bite in the air to
+set the blood racing through one's veins, and bring the sparkle to one's
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Toni sat upright in the car, gazing out over the golden fields to the
+misty hills beyond, and everything she saw filled her with the true and
+vivid happiness which the lover of the "sweet things" of the earth knows
+so well.</p>
+
+<p>A field of yellow corn ablaze with scarlet poppies, a group of trees
+among which the copper beech blazed with a glory as of the sunset, a
+glimpse of a wide common all aflame with sweet-scented gorse ... now and
+again a hint of the river flashing and sparkling beneath the shining
+sky&mdash;Toni, the ignorant, despised Toni, knew how to appreciate the
+glories of the earth as the brilliant Millicent Loder could never do.</p>
+
+<p>On and on they rushed. Fletcher, who in common with the other servants
+respected Owen and adored Toni, was only too glad to please his young
+mistress by taking her far afield; and he utilized his wide knowledge of
+the countryside in her service, treating Toni indeed to such a panorama
+of the fertile country as she had never yet been privileged to behold.</p>
+
+<p>They were running through a little village on their homeward way when a
+tyre burst with a loud report; and Fletcher pulled up with an expression
+of dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, ma'am&mdash;I shall have to delay you a bit while I put on a new
+tyre." He looked round him rather doubtfully. "I suppose you wouldn't
+care to take a cup of tea while I put it right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose!" A cyclist had halted by the car, and looking up Toni saw
+Herrick standing beside her. "Had an accident? Nothing serious, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Tyre burst, sir," announced the chauffeur, who with the rest of the
+village looked upon the shabby inhabitant of the Hope House as a
+harmless eccentric. "I was just asking my mistress if she would care to
+have some tea while I repair it."</p>
+
+<p>"A capital idea," said Herrick, whose amused eyes saw quite well the
+chauffeur's estimate of him. "Mrs. Rose, may I take you to get some tea?
+One of these cottages will supply it, I daresay&mdash;or there is quite a
+decent little inn over yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks very much." Toni was thirsty, and she liked Herrick. "I'd love
+some tea&mdash;if you'll have some too."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I will." He propped his bicycle carelessly against a fence
+and opened the door of the car. "Which shall we try? A cottage or the
+inn?"</p>
+
+<p>In the end they decided for the inn; and leaving Fletcher to set to
+work, Herrick escorted Toni down the village street to the door of the
+old-fashioned inn which called itself, rather ambiguously, the "Cock and
+Bottle."</p>
+
+<p>The landlady, who spoke with a Northern burr which made, Herrick glance
+curiously at her, came bustling into the flagged passage to greet them,
+and when she had taken their order for tea she ushered them into the
+parlour with a hospitable smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fetch tea in a minute," said she, "t' kettle's boilin' an' I've a
+cake on the griddle just about fit."</p>
+
+<p>When she had gone Toni turned two perplexed eyes on Herrick.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick, what does she mean? Does the cake fit the griddle, or
+what?"</p>
+
+<p>Herrick laughed lustily.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you Londoner&mdash;you poor little Southern kid! Haven't you ever been
+in Yorkshire&mdash;good old Yarkshire, as they call it&mdash;the country of tykes
+and gees and men that can't be beat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, is that Yorkshire!" Toni coloured with excitement. "Mr. Herrick, my
+father came from there! All his people did&mdash;but they're dead now, and
+I've never been North!"</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" He was to the full as much interested in the coincidence as
+she. "Well, our good landlady is certainly a Yorkshire woman&mdash;and I hope
+she'll give us a real Yorkshire tea!"</p>
+
+<p>His hope was fulfilled when the buxom Mrs. Spencer returned, which she
+speedily did. She carried a tray laden not only with cups and saucers,
+but with an assortment of cakes which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+Yorkshire child.</p>
+
+<p>"Them's crud cheesecakes," said she, beaming on the pair, "an' these fat
+rascals is to-day's bake&mdash;and the griddle cakes an' all." She laid the
+table deftly. "I'll fetch the tea-pot and t' cream, and then ye can help
+yersens."</p>
+
+<p>When she put down the tea-pot, however, Herrick detained her with a
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't belong to these parts, Mrs. Spencer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir." She shook her head blithely. "I'm a Yorkshire woman, praise
+the pigs! Married a South-country man, I did&mdash;and often wished as I
+'adn't&mdash;when 'e wur alive, that's to say."</p>
+
+<p>"Since his demise you've altered your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he left me pretty well provided for," returned the late Spencer's
+widow comfortably, "an' I won't say as 'e wur an out-an-out bad 'usband.
+But somehow I can't abide South-country folk."</p>
+
+<p>"They say we Yorkshire tykes are a rough lot," said Herrick, smiling,
+and she took up the challenge at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's all my eye and Betty Martin," she returned in the vernacular
+of her youth, "I grant you there's a lot of soft-sawder about the
+fellers down here, but they ain't in it wi' us up in Yorkshire."</p>
+
+<p>"Where do you come from, Mrs. Spencer? I'm a dalesman myself;
+Wensleydale's my native land."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm from Thirsk, sir. My mother was washerwoman to lots of the gentry
+round, and my people still lives there, in a cottage on the Green."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I know Thirsk&mdash;fine old church there, one of the finest in the
+North Riding. You've never been there, Mrs. Rose?" He turned to include
+Toni in the conversation, and found her wide-eyed and flushed with
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick, my people lived near Thirsk&mdash;in a farm at Feliskirk in the
+hills. Oh, do you think she knew them?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Spencer, who had hitherto overlooked Toni, turned to her in
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you'll tell me the name, miss&mdash;ma'am. We knew most of t' people in
+t' neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>"Gibbs&mdash;their name was Gibbs." She spoke breathlessly. "The house was
+called the Green Farm. Oh, do you know anything about them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gibbs? The Green Farm?" Mrs. Spencer stared incredulously. "Why, I knew
+old Gregory Gibbs well&mdash;and a fine old fellow he was too. And Fred and
+Roger&mdash;why, I knew 'em both. They used to come down into t' town on
+market days with their dad, and a pair of jolly little lads they were
+an' all&mdash;especially Roger."</p>
+
+<p>"Roger was my father," said Toni quietly, and Mrs. Spencer uttered an
+exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say! But Roger, he ran away&mdash;leastways e went off to furrin
+parts and we 'eard as 'ow 'e'd married an Heyetalian young lady out
+there. And you are really Roger Gibbs' bairn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; he married my mother&mdash;an Italian girl&mdash;in Naples. I was born
+there. But they're both dead now," said Toni sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sorry to 'ear that!" Mrs. Spencer spoke sincerely. "To think as
+I should live to see young Roger's lass 'ere in my 'ouse! You don't
+favour the Gibbs, miss, if I may say so."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mrs. Rose is more like her mother's people, I expect," said
+Herrick, noticing as he spoke how pale Toni looked now that the flush of
+excitement had died away. "But if she has never been to Yorkshire, at
+least she can taste her native cakes, eh, Mrs. Spencer?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus reminded of her duties Mrs. Spencer bustled away to find some
+"preserve," which was only brought out for specially honoured guests;
+and Toni took the seat Herrick placed for her at the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll pour out for us? That's right. I'm afraid our good landlady will
+want to stay and chatter! Do you mind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no&mdash;do let her stay and talk about my people!" pleaded Toni, and
+this Mrs. Spencer was very ready to do.</p>
+
+<p>Standing by the table, resting her empty tray on her ample hip, she
+poured forth a stream of disjointed memories to which Toni listened
+eagerly. Mrs. Spencer, it seemed, had had an aunt living in the village
+with the Gibbs; and as a child she had often stayed there; so that she
+had known Toni's father well.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, t' Gibbs were always a cut above us," she owned frankly. "My
+feyther was a foundry hand till he died, and wasn't too steady neither;
+and when 'e died my mother took in washing. There was a trick young
+Roger once played 'er about a washing-basket ... what was it now?" She
+paused to meditate. "Nay, I can't think on this minute ... but she allus
+said as 'e wur nowt but a bowdekite!" She laughed, jollily, at the
+recollection, and pressed a cheesecake on Toni with a heartiness there
+was no resisting.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to her chatter time flew; and Herrick was just beginning to think
+of the waiting chauffeur, when there was a sudden spatter of rain
+against the window panes; and looking out he saw that while they had
+been talking a storm had been brewing.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little, Mrs. Rose!" He pointed to the
+rain, now streaming down in a steady torrent. "It won't be more than a
+shower, I daresay."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, and Fletcher's outside in it." Toni put down her cup. "Mr. Herrick,
+could I tell him to come inside and have some tea, do you think? We've
+been out for hours, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. I'll see about it."</p>
+
+<p>He went out and brought in the chauffeur, delivering him over to Mrs.
+Spencer's good offices; and then returned to find Toni sitting rather
+disconsolately by the window, looking out at the rain as it splashed
+into the quickly-forming puddles in the village street.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden storm, the silence which fell after Mrs. Spencer's departure,
+or the early-falling dusk, had brought back all her misery to Toni's
+mind, banishing in a flash all her recent joyful animation; and when,
+after observing her for a moment, Herrick came forward, he saw that a
+blight had fallen over her late gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>She did not hear his step&mdash;thought, perhaps, that he had stayed to speak
+to the chauffeur or chat with the landlady; and all at once such a sense
+of bitter desolation swept over Toni that she began to cry softly to
+herself in the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Herrick began to back noiselessly towards the door; but Fate,
+or perhaps a malignant Boo-Boo, pushed a footstool in his path, over
+which he stumbled with an involuntary ejaculation.</p>
+
+<p>Startled, Toni turned round and saw him; and cursing his own clumsiness,
+Herrick judged it best to come forward openly.</p>
+
+<p>"Your man is having some tea, under Mrs. Spencer's kindly auspices." He
+smiled. "It seems she 'don't reckon nowt' to our combined appetites, so
+I hope Fletcher will make up for our shortcomings."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down in the low window seat, not far from Toni, and with a smile
+asked permission to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course&mdash;please do." She spoke indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"Your husband isn't an inveterate smoker&mdash;like me?" He lighted a
+cigarette gratefully. "I thought most literary men were slaves to
+tobacco."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Owen smokes a good deal," she said. "And especially now that he
+is working so hard. Miss Loder is quite shocked at his cigarettes."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Loder?" The question slipped out before he had time to reflect.</p>
+
+<p>"My husband's secretary." She broke off abruptly, as though unwilling to
+say more. Then a great flood of bitterness rolled over her spirit, at
+the memory of her own failure; and mingled with it came a sore envy and
+distrust of the clear-eyed, capable woman who had supplanted her.
+Together, the two proved irresistible; and with an almost child-like
+instinct to confide in the man whom she felt to be trustworthy, Toni
+turned to Herrick and poured forth her sad little story of
+disappointment and bitter disillusionment.</p>
+
+<p>Out it all came, her desire to help her husband, and the dread awakening
+to the fact of her own incompetency. Herrick, listening, realized, as
+perhaps Owen could not have done, what a blow to Toni's hopes the
+failure of the experiment had been; and remembering her earlier
+confidences, when she had appealed to him to reverse the judgment passed
+upon her by two cruel women, he began to wonder whether Toni would ever
+find any happiness in the life which had once looked so glorious to her
+youthful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He said very little till she had finished, though now and again, a quiet
+question made clear some point involved by her own incoherency; and from
+the bottom of his heart he pitied the girl who was beginning to realize
+that though she might be the wife of the man she loved, she would never
+be his real companion and helpmate until she could attain something
+nearer to the high standard of perfection for which he looked.</p>
+
+<p>"This Miss Loder&mdash;you like her?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe&mdash;sometimes&mdash;I almost hate her," said Toni drearily. "She is
+everything I am not, you see. She is clever, well-educated, amusing. I
+think I hate women who tell amusing stories," she added vindictively,
+biting her lip with her strong little teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"But she is not personally objectionable to you?" Herrick wished to
+hear, if possible, how she treated her employer's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;at least she doesn't mean to be," said Toni, striving to speak
+fairly. "But I know she thinks I am a fool, and pities Owen for having
+married me. I believe she thinks I ought never to speak to Owen, never
+ask him any questions about the book. She was quite&mdash;short&mdash;with me
+yesterday because I went in to speak to Owen during the afternoon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but that's absurd!" Herrick felt a quite unreasonable dislike for
+the superior Miss Loder. "After all you are his wife&mdash;she is only his
+secretary&mdash;and husbands and wives have a claim on each other which no
+sane person would deny."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." She did not look convinced, and he tried again.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget, will you, that a wife holds an absolutely unique
+position. She is the one person in the world to whom the man is
+answerable for his actions, just as she is answerable to him for her
+own; and if she is&mdash;hurt&mdash;or annoyed by any proceeding on the part of
+her husband, she has a perfect right to express her wishes on the
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean I have a right to ask Owen to send away Miss Loder?" Toni was
+always direct in her statements. "I suppose I have&mdash;if I wanted to&mdash;but
+I don't. It isn't Miss Loder who makes me miserable. It's the whole
+hopeless situation."</p>
+
+<p>Her words startled him.</p>
+
+<p>"Not hopeless, Mrs. Rose!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" In her eyes he read again that hint of a tortured woman soul
+which he had glimpsed before. "It isn't very hopeful, is it? My husband
+wants help and sympathy, which I cannot give him; and yet because he
+married me he can't ask anyone else for it except in a business way."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;you don't mean:&mdash;&mdash;" Herrick paused, aghast at the horrible idea
+her words had conjured up; and Toni, with the new quickness which
+suffering was teaching her, hastened to reassure him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mean he wants to marry any other woman," she said proudly.
+"I am his wife&mdash;unfortunately for him, perhaps, but he will always be
+true to me. Besides, Miss Loder isn't that sort," she added, rather
+vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't understand!" Her sad voice robbed the words of all
+petulance. "Though you are most awfully kind&mdash;and clever&mdash;you see you
+aren't married, Mr. Herrick, and that makes a difference."</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you I was not married?" His tone was studiously quiet, yet the
+girl looked at him quickly, wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think anyone told me&mdash;but I thought you weren't." She
+hesitated, then went on hurriedly. "I used to think that was why you
+were so&mdash;so sad. I mean&mdash;oh, I know you laugh and talk and are kind, but
+somehow I felt all the time there was a sadness underneath...."</p>
+
+<p>She broke off, roused from thoughts of her own trouble by the fear that
+she had given him pain; and for a moment neither spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with a glance at the window, down whose panes the rain was still
+streaming, Herrick took a sudden resolution.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps if he told this girl the story of his own marriage, opened
+before her eyes the book on whose pages was inscribed so tragic a
+history, she might take courage anew, realizing that her own pitiful
+little story held no hint, at least, of shame or disgrace, no hint of a
+mutual disillusionment which only death could adjust.</p>
+
+<p>He rose abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll just speak to your man," he said. "I don't think it would be wise
+to start yet, but I'll see what he says, shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>She let him go, wondering whether her last speech had vexed him; and in
+a moment he returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Fletcher agrees with me that it will be wise to wait a quarter of an
+hour," he said; "the rain is not nearly so heavy, and the sky is growing
+lighter."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well." She spoke listlessly, and his resolve was strengthened.
+Sitting down on the window seat again, he asked her a question.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't know I was married? Would you care to hear the story of my
+marriage? It isn't a very happy story, but it might serve to show you
+what a different thing your marriage will yet turn out to be."</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to hear what you can tell me," Toni said slowly; and
+after a moment's hesitation Herrick began the story which he had rightly
+called unhappy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+
+<p>"It is just four years since I met the girl who was to be my wife. I was
+taking a holiday in Ireland at the time; and daring a visit to an old
+friend in Dublin I was introduced to a certain Mr. Payton, an Irish
+squire, who had brought his two daughters up from the country for a few
+weeks' gaiety. Well, we took a fancy to one another. I was always a
+queer sort of chap, hating convention and all the trammels of society,
+and I liked the old man at once. He was a big, jolly old boy, a thorough
+sportsman and Irish to the backbone. Poor as a rat, yet living somehow
+like a Prince; hospitable to a fault, and looking on debts and duns in
+the light of a joke."</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a second, then went on quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I went back with him and his two girls after their Dublin visit was
+ended. They were all very kind to me, and there was a sort of charm
+about the old castle where they lived, always in difficulties, yet
+keeping open house, and managing, in some mysterious way, to have the
+best of everything. There are people like that, you know&mdash;people who,
+without possessing a penny, manage to acquire pounds' worth of
+everything. It's an art, and old Squire Payton had it at his
+finger-tips."</p>
+
+<p>Outside the rain still fell. Inside the room everything was very quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the end of it was that I fell in love with Eva Payton. She was
+just eighteen&mdash;a bewitching age, I used to think, and as pretty as a
+picture. Golden curls that were generally tied up with a blue ribbon,
+big Irish eyes, put in, as they say, with a smutty finger, a little
+mouth all soft curves, the tiniest, whitest teeth&mdash;oh, there's no
+denying she was a beauty; and she made my heart beat faster every time
+she looked at me."</p>
+
+<p>He had spoken rather dreamily, and Toni sat still, fascinated by this
+authentic peep into another's life; but with a sudden rather harsh
+laugh, Herrick resumed his story in a different tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we were married. In those days I had a little money&mdash;not a great
+deal, but I managed to make a fair income by painting. I never told you
+I painted, did I? Well, I did&mdash;portraits chiefly; and made quite a
+decent bit of money."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, who knew nothing of art and artists, never suspected that she was
+in the company of one of the best-known portrait-painters of the day;
+and Herrick was well content to keep her in ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>"So we were married and came back to London. We had a house in
+Kensington&mdash;quite an unfashionable locality, but one of the big,
+old-fashioned houses you find there, with a large garden which was worth
+a fortune, to my way of thinking. But I soon found that my wife wasn't
+satisfied to live quietly, out of the world, as it were. She hankered
+after a house in St. John's Wood, among the 'other artists' or in
+Hampstead among the rich people. She didn't want to be stuck down among
+frumps and dowds, she said. West Kensington was all very well for women
+who were churchy, given up to good works, but she wanted to be in a
+lively, social, bridge-playing set; and she moped and pined so in our
+quiet life that I gave in and we moved to a much smarter locality."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, her eyes fixed on his face, said nothing when he paused; and after
+a minute he resumed his narrative.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, from the first it was an unlucky move&mdash;for me. The house was too
+big, and required a lot of extra furnishing. The studio wasn't as good
+as my other one had been, and there was only an apology for a garden.
+But Eva had her wish. People called on her, and finding her pretty,
+vivacious, clever in her quick Irish way, they took her up and made a
+fuss of her. She was invited here and there, and of course her personal
+expenditure rose in consequence. Unfortunately my work didn't increase
+in proportion. I had the bad luck to fall ill&mdash;the only time in my life
+I've ever had an illness&mdash;and for several months I was unable to touch a
+brush. Of course I had a little money put by, and with ordinary prudence
+we should have pulled through all right. But Eva had never learned
+prudence. She had lived all her life in an atmosphere of debt and
+dunning creditors and over in easy-going old Ireland no one cared a
+straw if one were in debt or no. So to my horror when I was convalescent
+I found my foolish little wife had been running up enormous bills.
+Everything was in arrears. The housekeeping money had gone to pay for
+her daily amusements, the servants were unpaid, the tradespeople
+clamouring."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed, rather drearily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I sold out a little stock I had and set matters right or so I
+thought. I put the rest of the money in the bank and told Eva she must
+be rather careful. But imagine my horror when one day she came to me,
+whimpering with fright, and confessed she had several personal bills
+unpaid and the creditors were pressing her. At first she did not tell me
+the whole truth. She prevaricated, showed me one or two bills not made
+up to date, and was vague about the different amounts. Finally she owned
+that she was in debt for nearly five hundred pounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Five hundred pounds!" It was Toni's first interruption.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Sounds a lot, doesn't it? We'd only been married a year. Still
+there was nothing for it but to realize some more capital, and I did it,
+and then asked for the bills. She brought them unwillingly, after a vain
+attempt to get me to entrust the payment to her; and to my surprise and
+relief, I found that three hundred would cover the lot."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it didn't&mdash;by a long way. By dint of a good deal of persuasion, I
+got it out of my wife that the rest was owing to different friends for
+bridge and racing debts. Of course I had forgotten that my little Irish
+wife was a born horse-lover, and, I'm sorry to say, gambler; and I ought
+not to have been surprised. But I was. And I'm afraid I was a bit
+brutal. You see I couldn't help thinking it was rather hard that the
+money I'd worked for was to be squandered; and I spoke rather sharply to
+the poor child."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, listening, thought he was justified in speaking sharply, but she
+did not venture to say so.</p>
+
+<p>"I scolded her first&mdash;she was like a child expecting to be sent to
+bed&mdash;and then I got a statement of her debts and paid them. But I told
+her, at the same time, that I should never do it again. I promised to
+help her in little ways if the allowance I made her was insufficient;
+but I pointed out to her that my income wouldn't stand the drain of huge
+payments like these; and she cried pitifully and promised, solemnly,
+that she would never play for money again."</p>
+
+<p>"And she did?" Toni's interest in the story was her excuse.</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. It was in her blood. Gambling in one form or another she
+must have. Someone told me afterwards&mdash;after the crash&mdash;that it was an
+almost uncanny sight to see my wife, looking like a child with her curls
+and her big grey eyes, sitting at the bridge table playing feverishly
+into the small hours of the morning; or talking to bookmakers' clerks
+with an evidently inborn knowledge of the ways of horse-racing. I was a
+fool, of course. Instead of sitting in my studio painting portraits, I
+ought to have gone about with her&mdash;and yet, if I had, there'd have been
+no money for either of us."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the crash came eventually. Twice more I paid her debts and twice
+she swore to give up her folly. Then I was sent for to a big place in
+Wales, to paint some portraits&mdash;those of the three daughters of the
+house&mdash;and of course I had to go. I had been there a month when I got an
+urgent wire from my solicitors to return at once; and back to town I
+went, to see what mischief my little wife had been getting into."</p>
+
+<p>"And you found&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I found the house in an uproar. Waiting for me was my solicitor, and
+with him a Jewish-looking man who was the head of a large jeweller's
+business in the West End. Also&mdash;in another room&mdash;were a detective and a
+well-known pawnbroker. Now&mdash;can you reconstruct the story they told
+me&mdash;between them?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't imagine what it was."</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't." For a moment a sort of tenderness softened his tone,
+which hardened again as he went on. "It seems my wife had never, from
+the beginning, told me the truth, with regard to the extent of her
+liabilities. Besides those I knew of, she owed two or three hundreds to
+a money-lender, to whom she had gone in a panic on first discovering she
+was in debt. He had lent her the money, at an enormous rate of interest,
+and as she had been unable to pay anything he was now pressing for
+immediate payment. Distracted by his threats, and by the other bills
+which her extravagance had run up, too terrified to appeal to me after
+her solemn promises, Eva conceived a really desperate plan. Taking
+advantage of my absence she went to Jordan and Green, the jewellers, and
+asked if she might have a very fine pearl necklace on approval. They
+demurred a little, politely, at first, and asked her name, whereon she
+gave it, without hesitation, as Lady Eileen Greenlay, an Irish girl with
+whom she had been acquainted in Dublin, and to whom she bore a striking
+resemblance. She gave them Lady Eileen's address in Hamilton Terrace,
+and one of the clerks, who knew the lady by sight, advised the head of
+the firm that this was really she. Of course they knew the family were
+wealthy people, and as Eva was beautifully dressed, with furs&mdash;unpaid
+for&mdash;worth two hundred pounds, they let her have the necklace, and off
+she went with it."</p>
+
+<p>"But how risky!" Toni breathed the word in horror.</p>
+
+<p>"A desperate woman sticks at very little," Herrick reminded her grimly.
+"Well, the misguided girl took her trophy and went off to Rockborough,
+the big pawnbroker, where she displayed the necklace and asked for a
+loan. Seeing no reason to doubt her genuineness, they advanced her a
+large sum&mdash;though not, of course, the full value of the jewels, and she
+took the money and paid the money-lender and one or two more people who
+were pressing her. But it happened by a queer coincidence that a day or
+two later Jordan and Green had a visit from an aunt of the real Lady
+Eileen's, who wished to send her a little diamond pendant for a birthday
+present; and when she gave the address to which it was to be sent as one
+of the best hotels in Mentone, the jewellers became uneasy. They
+instituted inquiries, found the young lady's family were all out of
+town, the Hamilton Terrace house closed; and it became pretty evident
+they had been hoaxed."</p>
+
+<p>He paused; but Toni did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the big pawnbrokers,
+and of course they knew in an hour or two that they had been done. With
+a queer sort of cleverness, Eva had given herself out, to the second lot
+of people, as an actress to whom the necklace&mdash;a present&mdash;was worth
+little compared with the value in cash; and they had believed her story.
+But naturally it was soon proved to be false; and at first matters were
+at a deadlock. Well, the police were called in; and by dint of many
+inquiries among taxi-drivers, the girl was finally traced to the
+money-lender's office in Holborn. He, of course, was as close as the
+grave; but one of his clerks was bribed into giving the lady's name; and
+everything was easy after that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, poor girl!" Toni's soft heart felt a great compassion for the
+frightened wife.</p>
+
+<p>"At first, of course, she denied everything. Unfortunately, Lord Thirsk,
+the father of the girl she had impersonated, took up a very violent
+attitude and demanded the utmost restitution; and since so many people
+were in the secret it was absolutely impossible to hush it up. I did my
+best; I offered everything I had in the world if they would let the
+matter drop without a prosecution, but it was useless. The thing had to
+go to court, and there was a big excitement over the case."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the result was a foregone conclusion. In spite of everything, in
+spite of her denials, her terrified lies, her vain attempts to clear
+herself by"&mdash;he hesitated&mdash;"by implicating me, the case against her was
+as clear as the day. I tried my hardest&mdash;I perjured myself to try to
+clear her of the worst guilt&mdash;I strove my best to make her out my tool,
+but it wasn't any good. The Counsel on the other side simply turned me
+inside out in two minutes. In spite of all my efforts I couldn't
+convince him I'd had a hand in it&mdash;and of course my absence from town
+showed the truth pretty plainly. Well, Eva spoke out, in the end."</p>
+
+<p>Ho set his lips as he thought of the miserable girl's confession,
+following on hours of mental torture at the hands of the prosecuting
+Counsel.</p>
+
+<p>"In the end I think it was a relief to her to speak the truth. After
+seeing all her lies, all the pitiful, sordid little lies, torn to
+pieces, after hearing all the weight of evidence against her, seeing the
+net close in on her&mdash;on one helpless, terrified little girl&mdash;she gave in
+and begged desperately for mercy. She seemed to think if she told the
+truth&mdash;at last&mdash;they would pardon her, let her off, and she poured out
+the whole story and cried out for forgiveness. She couldn't believe they
+would send her to prison...."</p>
+
+<p>His brow was wet with the reminiscent agony of those closing scenes.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they could do nothing but sentence her. Then, when she
+understood that she was to be sent to prison after all, she went nearly
+off her head with fright ... she swore she'd lied, retracted everything
+she'd said ... oh, there was a terrible scene&mdash;she shrieked when they
+tried to silence her, clung to the dock so that they shouldn't take her
+away ... my God! It was horrible, horrible to see her, so little and
+fragile, screaming to me to save her from the men who were all against
+her...."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, white to the lips, could see it all. She had forgotten her own
+griefs now in contemplation of this far more terrible sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>"Even the Judge was upset when he had to sentence her. The court was
+full of women&mdash;I told you the case had attracted a lot of attention&mdash;but
+thank God they were rendered miserable by their presence there in the
+end. When she heard her sentence&mdash;eighteen months in the second
+division&mdash;she couldn't grasp it at first&mdash;and then just as I was
+beginning to feel I must do something or I should go mad, she fainted
+clean away and was carried out insensible."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Herrick,"&mdash;Toni, her eyes full of tears, spoke
+impetuously&mdash;"how terrible for you&mdash;for you both! Did you go to her and
+try to comfort her?"</p>
+
+<p>He was silent for a long moment. Then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That was the worst of all." His voice was grim. "When once she realised
+that she was helpless, that she was to be kept in prison, against her
+will, for eighteen long months, all her love for me turned to hate. By a
+queer, perverted instinct she blamed me for everything that had
+happened. She persisted in asserting that I could have saved her if I
+would. It was quite useless for me to say anything. I was allowed to see
+her once more&mdash;with my solicitor&mdash;and she heaped reproaches on my head
+till my blood ran cold. She called me a scoundrel, a coward, because I
+hadn't succeeded in shifting the blame to my own shoulders. She raged
+against her fate, swore she wouldn't obey the rules, would starve
+herself to death&mdash;and taunted me with the fact, that while she was
+suffering, starving, in a prison cell, I should be warm and well-fed at
+home. She screamed out that she hated me, wished me dead&mdash;and my last
+glimpse of her was as she disappeared, her face distorted with passion
+till all the soft childish beauty had vanished."</p>
+
+<p>"And she is there now?"</p>
+
+<p>"In prison? Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;is the time nearly over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Four weeks to-day Eva will be set free." He stared out of the
+window with unseeing eyes. "And then will come the question&mdash;what are we
+to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"To do?" She did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You know, she will never forgive me. In her childish, unreasonable
+way, she persists in thinking everything that happened was my fault. If
+I had given her more money, she would not have got into debt. If I
+hadn't gone to Wales and left her alone she would never have done the
+thing; and if I had only lied better, the blame would have been
+mine&mdash;and the punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was she who was guilty&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know&mdash;but if I could have gone to prison in her stead, God knows I'd
+have gone&mdash;willingly. Things are so different for men. When I think of
+her, the little, soft, fragile thing I married, shut up alone in a cell,
+wearing prison garments, eating rough prison food, being ordered about
+by harsh, domineering women, why, I almost curse myself that I am free
+to walk about under God's blue sky!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shall you go back to London&mdash;when she is free?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;I don't know," he said rather drearily. "I let the house
+at once&mdash;gave it up at the next quarter, and our things are stored. I
+wanted to get away from it all, so I came down here and took the
+bungalow, but of course it won't suit Eva."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you&mdash;change your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's done already," he said. "Just after the trial an uncle
+obligingly died and left me nine thousand pounds on the understanding I
+should take his name; so I did, of course, and turned myself from James
+Vyse into James Herrick."</p>
+
+<p>"Then no one will know?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But this life, this vagabond river life that both you and I love,
+wouldn't suit Eva very long. No, I'm afraid we shall have to seek some
+'city of bricks and mortar'&mdash;but even my wife won't be keen on London,
+and it's the only city one can live in properly."</p>
+
+<p>While he talked, the rain had ceased; and he rose as he spoke the last
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mrs. Rose, I've showed you the skeleton in my cupboard&mdash;and he's
+a pretty grisly object, isn't he? But I don't want to depress you with a
+recital of my woes. After all, life's sweet, sister&mdash;and you and I,
+thanks be to God, have the soul of the gipsy within us, which is made
+quite happy, poor feckless thing, by the sight of the sun or the music
+of the breeze!"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes kindled with sudden comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and you've shown me what a fool I am to think myself unhappy!" She
+too sprang up, and her body was full of vigour and youth again. "I won't
+give in, Mr. Herrick! You've not given in, and you've heaps more cause
+than I have. After all, I'm young and I love nature and&mdash;and my
+husband&mdash;and I <i>have</i> a soul&mdash;you told me so! And in time Owen will be
+satisfied with me, won't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will!" In his heart Herrick thought the man who was
+dissatisfied with this eager, enthusiastic, courageous youth must be
+hard indeed to please.</p>
+
+<p>"I've read nearly all those books," she said proudly, "and I can read
+French ever so much better now. And I won't care for Miss Loder's cold
+stares and her amused little laugh when I do something silly. And if I
+go on trying, I shall soon be a fit companion for Owen, shan't I, Mr.
+Herrick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear little child," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder, "don't
+try too hard! Read your books, study languages, take an interest in the
+vital questions of the day&mdash;but don't lose your tenderness, your
+sympathy, your freshness of heart. Grow up if you will, but don't grow
+too fast! And in cultivating your soul, don't forget that a woman's
+heart is her sweetest, rarest treasure after all!"</p>
+
+<p>He released her gently.</p>
+
+<p>"There! My sermon's over&mdash;and so, apparently, is the rain. And that
+blithe footstep I hear outside surely heralds the approach of Mrs.
+Spencer!"</p>
+
+<p>He was right. After a loud knock the door opened briskly to disclose
+Mrs. Spencer bearing a lighted lamp; and Herrick went forward to relieve
+her of her burden.</p>
+
+<p>"Enter the Lady with the Lamp!" quoth he, smiling. "Well, Mrs. Spencer,
+the rain's over and gone, and it's time we went too, eh, Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so." She took up the coat she had thrown aside. "Has the
+chauffeur had some tea, Mrs. Spencer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lor yes, ma'am, and enjoyed it too," responded the landlady, beaming.
+"A rare good trencherman he be an' all! I'd sooner meat him for a week
+nor a fortnight, as they say in our parts."</p>
+
+<p>"Meet him?" Even Herrick did not recognise the idiom.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir&mdash;board him, give him his meat," explained Mrs. Spencer
+volubly. "But I can't say as much for you and the young lady, sir."</p>
+
+<p>She looked regretfully at the still loaded plates.</p>
+
+<p>"We've had a lovely tea, Mrs. Spencer," said Toni, her heart very warm
+towards this comely woman who had known her father. "I shall come and
+see you again some day. May I?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Spencer immediately invited her to come as often as she liked; and
+then covered both Toni and Herrick with confusion by refusing to take a
+penny for their tea.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;me take money from Roger Gibbs' lass?" she said, her manner
+filled with the mingled independence and respect of the best type of
+countrywoman. "Not I, sir. We Yorkshire folks don't grudge a cup o' tea
+and a bit of fatty cake to them as is like ourselves, exiles in a
+strange land. Besides, it's been a rare treat to see the young lady. To
+think that Roger Gibbs' lile lass should come drivin' up in one of they
+great mutter-cars, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and it's really time she drove away in it," responded Herrick
+pleasantly. "I think I hear Fletcher bringing it round."</p>
+
+<p>There was a tentative hoot from Fletcher's horn at that moment; and
+after a grateful farewell, and a vain attempt to pay, at least, for
+Fletcher's tea, Herrick took Toni out and installed her in the car.</p>
+
+<p>He refused her invitation to drive home with her, alleging that his
+health required exercise; and though Toni might have been forgiven for
+thinking fifteen miles' ride over a wet and muddy road, under a still
+cloudy sky, rather a strenuous form of exercise, some newly acquired
+intuition told her he really wished to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>She said good-bye, therefore, without attempting to press the matter;
+and a moment later the car glided away, its lamps gleaming in the rural
+blackness of the village street.</p>
+
+<p>As he rode home, his tyres splashing through puddles, and spattering him
+with mud, Herrick's face was very tired and worn, but in his eyes there
+lurked a little faint light of happiness that he had helped another
+weary soul a few steps forward on its pilgrimage over a thorny road.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little soul!" He smiled as he recognized the form his sympathy
+took. "After all she's right&mdash;she has a soul&mdash;and even though it brings
+her suffering and tears, it's worth the price. And yet&mdash;I wonder if it
+would have been kinder to leave her alone&mdash;not to encourage that hope of
+hers to make herself more intellectually worthy of her husband? I didn't
+make much success of waking <i>my</i> Undine's soul to life! All I got was
+her hatred&mdash;and from the beginning she lied to me!"</p>
+
+<p>Luckily at that moment his lamp blew out, viciously; and with a muttered
+execration of the creatures he called Boo-Boos, he dismounted and
+relighted the flame, whose vagaries throughout the rest of the long ride
+kept him so fully occupied that he had neither time nor inclination to
+meditate on such abstractions as souls.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>By the end of September, Owen's book was finished; and on a beautiful
+autumn morning he and Toni set off in the car on a journey to town,
+where a publisher, who was also a personal friend, was waiting to
+receive the manuscript.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Anson was a kindly, energetic man of middle age; and he had secretly
+long expected Owen to turn novelist; so that he accepted the bulky
+manuscript with a real curiosity as to its value.</p>
+
+<p>He promised to let the author know his decision at an early date; and
+then invited Owen and his wife to lunch with him at the Carlton, an
+invitation which Owen accepted at once, rather to Toni's dismay.</p>
+
+<p>They were his sole guests; and beneath his kind and courteous manner,
+Toni lost her shyness and charmed her host by her girlish simplicity and
+directness.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that the conversation turned on the bungalows which lined
+the banks of the river as it flowed through Willowhurst; and presently
+Mr. Anson asked a question.</p>
+
+<p>"You've got Vyse down there, haven't you? You know the chap I mean&mdash;the
+portrait-painter."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so." Owen was puzzled. "At least I have not heard of him
+being there. Have you, Toni?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;Mr. Anson means Mr. Herrick," said Toni quietly. "He told me the
+other day he had changed his name."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah yes, I remember now&mdash;something about some money, I believe. You know
+him, Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He fished me out of the river one day when I had fallen in," said
+Toni smiling. "And he has been to see us several times&mdash;but I didn't
+know he was famous," she finished na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you? Why, he is&mdash;or was&mdash;one of the foremost men in his own line
+until there was the trouble with his wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you don't mean that jewel affair?" Owen asked meditatively.
+"Didn't Vyse's wife steal a pearl necklace or something of the sort? I
+seem to remember something about it&mdash;though I did not connect it with
+this chap."</p>
+
+<p>"His wife&mdash;who was one of the prettiest Irish girls I ever saw&mdash;got a
+valuable necklace on approval and pawned it for money to pay her debts,
+yes. Poor fellow, it broke him up completely."</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" Owen was interested. "Where is she&mdash;the wife&mdash;now? Did he
+leave her, or what happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is in prison," returned the other man slowly. "I understand her
+time is nearly up, and I am wondering what they will do when she comes
+out again."</p>
+
+<p>"In prison&mdash;ah yes, I recollect the affair now, though I was away at the
+time. Got eighteen months, didn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It was the most painful experience I've ever had, to listen to her
+being sentenced." Mr. Anson's florid face grew grave. "It happened that
+her Counsel was a nephew of mine, and I promised to hear him handle the
+case. But, of course, it was hopeless from the start."</p>
+
+<p>"The husband&mdash;this chap Herrick&mdash;was blameless, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite. He knew nothing about it, though the girl tried her hardest to
+implicate him. He did his best, too, would have sworn anything to clear
+her and take the blame, but her lies were all so dreadfully patent it
+was no use. In the end she told the truth, thinking it would help her;
+but it was too late then."</p>
+
+<p>"She took it badly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Terribly. She cried and shrieked for mercy, fought like a tiger with
+the officials who tried to take her away, and screamed reproaches at her
+husband, till everyone was sick of the scene. Of course, she never
+dreamed they would send her&mdash;a lady, and a delicate bit of a girl,
+too&mdash;to prison like a common thief, and she completely lost her
+self-control when she realized what was going to happen. It was a relief
+to everyone when she gave one last cry and fainted right away."</p>
+
+<p>"Hard lines on the husband," said Owen, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"Deuced hard lines&mdash;and he as decent a fellow as ever stepped. Why he
+ever married her, God only knows. She didn't care a bit for him&mdash;wasted
+his money and then reviled him because he'd no more. Of course, she came
+of a rotten stock&mdash;wasters and gamblers every one&mdash;and this was how the
+hereditary taint came out in her."</p>
+
+<p>"She must have served most of her sentence by now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Comes out next week. I wonder what he will do with her. She's not the
+sort of woman to live in a shanty by the riverside, and yet he can't
+very well bring her back to town."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder?" Owen glanced at his watch. "I say, Anson, I don't want to be
+rude&mdash;after our excellent lunch!&mdash;but I've an appointment at the office
+at three and it's a quarter to now."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, my boy, I won't detain you." Anson rose at once. "I'm glad
+you keep an eye on the <i>Bridge</i>&mdash;it's a fine little review and going
+ahead all the time."</p>
+
+<p>Owen's face brightened at this authoritative praise.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you think go. Of course, we are jolly lucky in our staff, and
+we've got the best sort of contributors, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. By the way, how on earth have you managed to get all this stuff
+turned out with a disabled arm?" He patted the thick packet of
+manuscript and glanced at Owen's inconspicuous sling wonderingly.
+"Perhaps Mrs. Rose helped you?" He looked, with a smile, at Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"No." She coloured hotly. "I did not help at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Loder&mdash;my secretary at the office&mdash;came down to help me," said
+Owen easily. "She is used to the work, you see, and does it
+excellently."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." The kindly eyes had seen Ton's flush. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+is satisfied to inspire your work and let others do the manual labour.
+The power behind the throne, eh, Mrs. Rose? That's what women used to
+be, bless them, before these dreadful Suffragettes arose to destroy
+woman's real influence by violence and wrongheadedness."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect my wife is jolly thankful the book's finished," said Owen
+laughing. "She has had a pretty thin time while I've been writing it.
+But now I suppose there will be a lull of a few weeks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I won't keep you long," said Mr. Anson genially. "I'll send the
+manuscript to the reader to-night, and let you know as soon as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>They parted from their host on the pavement out side the Carlson, and
+Owen turned to Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, dear, what will you do? Will you come with me to the office, or
+have you any shopping?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni bit her lip nervously. She had a request to make, and did not know
+how to set about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Owen watched her, wondering why she looked embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, would you mind if I went to Brixton to see my aunt? I&mdash;I'm afraid
+they think I'm a little unkind, and after all they have always been good
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Toni"&mdash;Owen was genuinely surprised&mdash;"you don't mean to say you
+are afraid to ask me that! Of course you can go. I'll come to fetch you
+when I've finished my work, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you?" She knew how such a visit would gratify her aunt. "Shall I
+take a taxi, then, Owen? You'll want the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think that would be best, then you can stay as long as possible.
+What time shall I come, Toni? Half-past five or so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. That will be lovely. Then we'll have a jolly ride home."</p>
+
+<p>He called a taxi accordingly and installed Toni therein; and he stood
+back to watch her gliding away from him in the mellow September
+sunshine, before he hurried to the office where Barry was impatiently
+awaiting his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Toni found several members of the Gibbs family at home when at length
+she reached her destination.</p>
+
+<p>Being Thursday, Fanny was enjoying her weekly holiday, and was delighted
+to see Toni; more especially because she had a piece of news to confide
+which appealed strongly to Fanny's romantic nature.</p>
+
+<p>When the first greetings were over, and Mrs. Gibbs had retired with the
+hospitable intention of "putting on the kettle," Fanny beckoned
+mysteriously to Toni to mount the narrow stairs leading to the room the
+girls had formerly shared in common.</p>
+
+<p>Toni mounted obediently; and for a second she forgot to wonder what Miss
+Gibbs' extraordinary signals might imply, for a sudden feeling of
+gratitude to Owen for having lifted her out of this dingy atmosphere
+flooded her impressionable nature.</p>
+
+<p>Surely when she too had slept beneath this low ceiling the room had not
+been quite so small, so stuffy. The wall-paper was the one she and Fanny
+had themselves chosen years ago, but it was oddly faded and dirty now,
+and in one corner a great piece had peeled off, hanging in strips and
+disclosing the plaster behind. The common furniture, too&mdash;the rickety
+deal dressing-table, the broken chair, the unpainted iron
+bedsteads&mdash;thinking of her own airy, spacious, bedroom with its shining
+toilet-table, its linen bedspread, its big windows opening on to a view
+of the river and the fields beyond, Toni wondered how she had ever
+endured life in these sordid, depressing surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily Fanny was too full of her news to notice Toni's involuntary
+shudder as she looked round the close little bedroom; and barely waiting
+to shut the door she blurted out her tidings.</p>
+
+<p>"Toni, you remember Lennie Dowson&mdash;the fellow who was sweet on you?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni nodded casually, her eyes still roaming round her, and Fanny felt
+vaguely disappointed that the subject was so evidently uninteresting.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he's going to Sutton, three miles from Willowhurst, and I truly
+believe it's because he wants to be near you!"</p>
+
+<p>She had succeeded in arousing Toni's interest at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Leonard Dowson? Do you mean the dentist? But what on earth will he do
+in Sutton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Look at people's teeth, I suppose," returned Miss Gibbs practically.
+"He was in night before last, and he told Ma he was sick of London, and
+this was a change for the better. It is a town, isn't it. And I s'pose
+people by the river have toothache same as us, don't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a town&mdash;of a sort," said Toni, "but I shouldn't have thought Mr.
+Dowson would have settled there. He always said London was the one place
+in the world for him."</p>
+
+<p>"That was when you were there," returned Fanny sagely. "I don't b'lieve
+he's ever got over you, Toni. Ma says she never saw such a change in
+anyone, and you know he was always fond of you. That's why he's going to
+Sutton, you may take my word for it."</p>
+
+<p>To Fanny's surprise Toni spoke coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"I really can't imagine how you can be so silly, Fanny. How can it
+affect Mr. Dowson where I am? I'm married now, and anyway he was never
+anything to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, he might be faithful to his first love," giggled Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"Fanny!" Toni faced her angrily. "You are simply odious when you talk
+like that. Leonard Dowson's first love, indeed? If he says that about me
+it is simply impertinence, and I don't care to hear you talk such
+nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>She got up indignantly as she spoke and moved to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"If that is all you have got to say," she said, "I will go and talk to
+Auntie." And she had the door open before Fanny found her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I say, Toni, don't be horrid and stuck-up." Fanny's wail brought
+Toni to a standstill. "If you <i>are</i> Mr. Rose's wife, and a fine lady,
+and in with a lot of smart people, you needn't go and be nasty to your
+own cousin."</p>
+
+<p>Something in her voice brought Toni quickly back into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly, Fan!" She spoke impetuously. "Of course I am not being
+stuck-up; you know I wouldn't be nasty to you for the world, but I do so
+hate that sort of talk about men being fond of you and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't know you minded," said Fanny humbly, and Toni's heart
+smote her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Fan, I don't mind&mdash;really&mdash;and I didn't mean to be cross. Now tell
+me, how do you like my frock? It's the first time I've had it on."</p>
+
+<p>And in the ensuing animated discussion on frocks and frills Fanny lost
+that queer, uncomfortable sense of inferiority which had sprung to birth
+beneath Toni's manner.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow, after that Toni found the time drag. She was gentle and
+friendly with her aunt, affectionate towards Lu, cordial with her uncle
+and the rest; but she found herself longing for Owen's arrival as a
+signal for her release.</p>
+
+<p>The good-natured chatter, the well-meant inquisitiveness which found
+vent in a ceaseless inquiry into the details of her new life, the noisy
+jokes and laughter, the very persistence of the hospitality which filled
+her cup and plate over and over again&mdash;they all jarred this afternoon;
+and quite involuntarily Toni sighed for the peace and spaciousness, the
+gracious calm and tranquillity of Greenriver.</p>
+
+<p>When Owen at last arrived it was with an inward glee that Toni heard the
+clock strike six; for now his visit must of necessity be short.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly Owen saw her pallor, for he announced almost at once that
+although he regretted the fact, he must carry off his wife without
+delay; and after a brief interchange of courtesies, the family escorted
+Toni to the car, whose glories most of them now beheld for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>As Owen was still unable to drive, he took his seat by Toni in the body
+of the car; and when they were safely away Toni turned to him with a
+sigh of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, I thought you were never coming."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I very long?" Owen was struck by her tone. "What's the matter,
+Toni? Are you tired, dear, or have the cousins been too much for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, not exactly," Toni was always loyal, but to-day her loyalty had
+been severely tried. "But I can't help comparing the house with
+Greenriver, and I was longing all the time to get back to the garden and
+the big rooms."</p>
+
+<p>Owen did not smile at her na&iuml;ve confession.</p>
+
+<p>"You like your home, Toni? Greenriver pleases you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's the loveliest house in the world," Toni said fervently.
+"And sometimes I can hardly believe it is I who live there. You see, all
+my life I have been used to little houses, and it seems almost
+incredible that I should have the right to go about as I like&mdash;and even
+pick the flowers in the garden."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little Toni." Her gratitude touched Owen. "Sometimes I have
+fancied you found it rather dull. I have been obliged to leave you so
+much alone lately; but now we can have a holiday until the book's fate
+is decided."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be busy then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there will be the proofs to revise. And, to tell you the truth,
+Toni, I'm dying to get to work on another story."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you? But what about the <i>Bridge</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I won't neglect that, of course. But everything is running smoothly
+there and Barry is turning out trumps, too. He has grasped the whole
+thing as I never expected him to do. He's going to get a bigger salary
+almost at once, and then I suppose he will marry Miss Lynn."</p>
+
+<p>He gave a sudden exclamation as the car swerved aside to avoid a
+lumbering cart which took up more than its share of the road.</p>
+
+<p>"What's Fletcher doing, confound him? I say, Toni, this wretched arm of
+mine doesn't seem to me to be getting on very well. The bone's knit all
+right, but I have a fearful lot of pain in it sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have you, Owen?" Toni grew pale in an instant. "What does Dr. Mayne
+say? You saw him a few days ago, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I don't think he knows very much about it. He's a nice old
+chap, but a bit behind the times. I have a good mind to go and see some
+man in town one day next week. It's such a confounded handicap for a
+writer not to be able to hold a pen."</p>
+
+<p>"What about your proofs?" Her heart sank as she asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Loder can do those&mdash;under my supervision," he said carelessly.
+"I'm not bothering about them so much as about my new book; and I've
+been commissioned to write a series of articles for the <i>Lamp</i>, which
+really ought to be put in hand at once."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was silence. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Could I do your proofs?" Toni said, in a voice which shook in spite of
+all her efforts.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's awfully sweet of you, dear." Owen tried his hardest to avoid
+hurting her. "But there is no occasion to worry you. I don't like to see
+you bending over a desk when there is no need. Miss Loder has to do
+something, anyway, and she might just as well do my work as anyone's."</p>
+
+<p>"Must she come down to Greenriver?" Now Toni's voice betrayed her, and
+Owen looked up sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Do you mean you would rather she did not come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Much rather." For once Toni's inward feelings burst their bounds,
+driving her to open revolt. "I don't like Miss Loder about all day&mdash;I
+never feel free&mdash;there's an oppression in the air so long as she is in
+the house."</p>
+
+<p>Owen was surprised and annoyed by this speech; and showed his annoyance
+plainly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think you are rather prejudiced, Toni? You have never liked
+the girl, and I can't imagine why. She does her work well, and doesn't
+interfere with you in the least."</p>
+
+<p>"Interfere with me&mdash;no, perhaps not," said Toni, her breast heaving
+stormily, her cheeks very red. "She laughs at me, though, which is
+worse&mdash;sneers&mdash;oh, I know she thinks I'm a little fool, and so I am; but
+I am at least your wife&mdash;the mistress of Greenriver, and she might
+remember that and treat me with a little more respect."</p>
+
+<p>"Respect? My dear Toni, you are talking nonsense. How should the girl
+treat you? She is always polite," said Owen, "and you know after all she
+is ten years older than you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Only ten?" Toni's assumption of surprise was excellently done. "I
+thought she was much more&mdash;she always seems to me so staid&mdash;so&mdash;so
+middle-aged."</p>
+
+<p>Owen's brow cleared suddenly and he burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"You silly little thing! Compared with you, Miss Loder <i>is</i> middle-aged,
+but she's a rattling secretary and I don't like to hear her abused.
+Still, if you dislike the idea of her coming, I'll go to town, or do
+without her. After all, I must not get too dependent on the girl&mdash;I'm
+afraid I'm growing lazy. But if my arm still bothers me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Toni's anger melted away and a rush of affection and sympathy
+took its place.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Owen&mdash;I didn't mean to be cross. I was talking nonsense&mdash;of
+course you must have Miss Loder, I suppose I am jealous of her&mdash;because
+she is so clever, and I'm such a little idiot."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want a clever wife, thank you," laughed Owen, little dreaming
+how his careless words cut into the quivering soul of the girl beside
+him. "I want a pretty, lively, jolly little girl&mdash;half Italian for
+choice&mdash;who is a cross between a wood-nymph and&mdash;sometimes&mdash;a
+tiger-cat&mdash;or kitten! And it seems to me I have got just exactly what I
+want."</p>
+
+<p>With an effort Toni smiled, in response to his good-natured jesting; and
+Owen never knew that his well-meant words caused Toni to shed tears
+before she slept that night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Anson's reader reported favourably on Owen's book, and in a very
+short time satisfactory terms were agreed upon between author and
+publisher, and the work of proof-reading and revision began.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately at the same time Owen felt his arm to be more than usually
+painful; and a visit to town proved the necessity for further treatment,
+of which perfect rest was a feature: with the result that once again
+Owen was forced to accept the help of a secretary in his work.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Loder, naturally, filled the post; and once more she came to
+Greenriver, and took her place in the stately old library, where she and
+Owen passed strenuous hours daily.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni Miss Loder's presence was growing ever more and more
+distasteful. Although Toni was not an intellectual woman, she had sharp
+wits; and possibly she understood Millicent Loder's personality a good
+deal better than Owen was able to do. And what Toni saw&mdash;and Toni's
+intuition was rarely at fault&mdash;led her to distrust the other girl with
+all her heart and soul.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Loder belonged to a rather uncommon variant of the type of
+emancipated womanhood. Although intensely modern in many ways she had
+never been able to lose her inborn sense of the superiority of man in
+mental as well as in physical matters.</p>
+
+<p>She had none of the loudly-expressed scorn of the other sex by which
+many women seek to hide their disappointment at the indifference of
+members of that sex towards them.</p>
+
+<p>Although she was by force of circumstance a Suffragist, she did not for
+one moment imagine that with the coming of votes for women the whole
+industrial and social problem of the country would be solved. Unlike
+many women, she was quite content to work under a man, and although she
+was well able to think for herself on all vital questions, she liked to
+hear and assimilate the opinions of the men with whom she came in
+contact.</p>
+
+<p>She preferred men, indeed, to women; and her attitude towards them,
+though never in the least familiar, held a good comradeship, a kind of
+large tolerance which annoyed and irritated those of her girl
+acquaintances who looked upon men as their natural enemies and the
+enemies of all feminine progress.</p>
+
+<p>Shrewd, competent, fully assured of her own ability to face the world
+alone, Miss Loder had never thought seriously of marriage. She delighted
+in her independence, was proud of the fact that she was able to command
+a good salary, and her habit of mind was too genuinely practical to
+allow of any weak leanings towards romance. She did not wish to marry.
+She had none of the fabled longing for domesticity, as exemplified in a
+well-kept house and a well-filled nursery, with which the average man
+endows the normal woman. She looked on children, indeed, mainly as the
+materials on whom this or that system of education might be tested; and
+she was really of too cold, too self-sufficing a nature to feel the need
+of any love other than that of relation or friend.</p>
+
+<p>But since she had worked for Owen Rose, Millicent had begun to change
+her views. At first she had merely been attracted by his brilliance, as
+any clever girl might have been, had found it stimulating to work with
+him, and had been pleased and proud when he selected her to be his
+coadjutor in the task of writing his first book. She had been, in truth,
+so keenly interested in the author that she had overlooked the man; and
+it is a fact that until she came down, at his request, to his house to
+work there, away from the busy office, his personality had been so vague
+to her that she could not even have described his appearance with any
+accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>But the sight of his home, the stately old house set in its spacious
+gardens and surrounded by magnificent trees, had shaken Millicent out of
+her intellectual reverie into a very shrewd and wide-awake realization
+of the man himself.</p>
+
+<p>In his own home he shook off the conventions of the office, became more
+human, more approachable; and no woman, least of all one as mentally
+alert, as open-eyed as Miss Loder, could have passed with him through
+those strenuous hours in which his book was born without gaining a
+pretty complete insight into his character.</p>
+
+<p>And with knowledge came a new and less comprehensible emotion. At first
+Miss Loder had accepted the fact of her employer's marriage as one
+accepts any fixed tradition; and the subject rarely entered her thoughts
+during working hours.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually she began to feel a faint curiosity as to what manner of woman
+Owen Rose's wife might be; and she welcomed her summons to Greenriver on
+the ground that now she would be able to solve the problem for herself.
+When she finally saw Toni, her first emotion was one of surprise that
+this dark-eyed girl should be the mistress of Greenriver; and very
+slowly that surprise died and was succeeded by a feeling of envy which
+grew day by day. At first Miss Loder grudged the unconscious Toni her
+established position as <i>ch&acirc;telaine</i> of this eminently desirable home;
+and Toni's very simplicity, the youthful <i>insouciance</i> with which she
+filled that position, was an added annoyance. Later, Miss Loder began to
+grudge Toni more than that. As she spent more and more time in Owen's
+company, as she grew more and more intimate with the workings of his
+mind, of his rich and poetic imagination, Miss Loder began to fall under
+the spell of the man himself.</p>
+
+<p>Quite unconsciously she was becoming ever more attracted by his manner,
+his voice, his ways; and once or twice she found herself wondering, with
+a kind of sick envy, in what light he appeared to the woman who was his
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>Through it all, however, Miss Loder's paramount emotion was one of envy
+for the mistress of Greenriver. She used to think, as she came into the
+house each morning, that it would have suited her much better, as a
+background, than it would ever suit the quaint, childish-looking Toni;
+and it grew almost unendurable to her to have to sit at the luncheon
+table as a guest&mdash;not even that&mdash;and watch Toni's ridiculous assumption
+of dignity as she sat in her high-backed chair opposite her husband.</p>
+
+<p>There was no doubt about it that Greenriver would have suited Miss Loder
+very well as a home; and she grew to dislike Toni more and more as the
+full realization of the girl's good fortune penetrated her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Toni had been quite right in detecting the malice beneath Millicent's
+pretended friendliness. It seemed to Miss Loder that the only way to
+pierce this upstart girl's armour of complacency was to launch shafts of
+cleverly-veiled contempt; and although to Owen these darts were either
+imperceptible or merely accidental, Toni knew very well that they were
+intended to wound.</p>
+
+<p>Owen, wrapped up in his book, and only anxious to further the work as
+rapidly as possible, had no time to spare for these feminine amenities.
+He realized, of course, that Toni did not care for Miss Loder; but he
+thought he understood that her dislike came, rather pathetically, from
+her consciousness of her own shortcomings: and had no idea that Miss
+Loder herself was largely responsible for the lack of harmony between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>On what might be called the literary side of him, he thought Millicent
+Loder an excellent secretary, the one woman with whom he found it
+possible to work; but on what might be called the personal side, his
+interest was <i>nil</i>. True, he liked her trim appearance, though he would
+never have dreamed of comparing it with Toni's more unconventional
+attraction. He admired her quiet independence, and recognized her at
+once as belonging to his own world; but he never thought of her in any
+relation save that of secretary and general assistant; and even Toni was
+sufficiently wise to recognize the fact.</p>
+
+<p>All the same Toni mistrusted the other woman; and it was with a feeling
+of intensest apprehension that she received Owen's announcement that
+Barry had arranged for a substitute at the office&mdash;thus setting Miss
+Loder free to resume her work at Greenriver.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It chanced on a beautiful October day that Owen found it necessary to go
+to town on business connected with the <i>Bridge</i>; and for once he went up
+by train, bidding Toni use the car if she felt so inclined.</p>
+
+<p>She did feel inclined; and after a very early lunch, jumped into the
+waiting motor, and directed Fletcher to drive over to Cherry Orchard, in
+the hope of inducing the doctor's daughters to share her excursion.</p>
+
+<p>Disappointment awaited her, however. Both the Tobies were away from home
+on a short visit, and Toni was obliged to proceed alone.</p>
+
+<p>She had enjoyed a couple of hours' spin in the frosty air, when she
+found herself being carried swiftly past the railway station, and a
+thought struck her which she communicated to Fletcher without delay.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Fletcher opined, it was just time the London train was due, and
+since it was quite possible Mr. Rose had travelled by it, he obligingly
+brought the car to a standstill outside the station entrance.</p>
+
+<p>Toni jumped lightly out, an alluring little figure in her beautiful
+sable coat and cap, and made her way swiftly on to the platform,
+glancing at the big station clock as she did so.</p>
+
+<p>The train was not due for five minutes; and to pass the interval of
+waiting, Toni strolled over to the bookstall in search of a paper. As
+she stood turning over a few magazines, a familiar voice accosted her,
+and she moved quickly to face the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose&mdash;I hope you have not quite forgotten me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dowson! Of course I've not forgotten you." She put out a friendly
+little hand, which the young man seized in a fervent grasp. "My cousin
+Fanny told me you were coming down to Sutton."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I had to change here. It's an awkward little journey." He was
+gazing at her fixedly, but withal so respectfully that Toni could not
+take offence. "You are, I believe, a resident of this little riverside
+colony of Willowhurst?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we live by the river," said Toni cheerfully, amused, as of yore,
+by his somewhat pedantic diction. "But do tell me, Mr. Dowson, how do
+you expect to make a fortune here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not expect to do so," he informed her promptly. "I assure you this
+move on my part was not actuated by any mercenary motive, Mrs. Rose."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it?" She felt vaguely uncomfortable. "Well, I hope you will
+succeed. After all, I suppose people do have toothache in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Fortunately, they do," was Mr. Dowson's reply, and Toni was happily
+able to acquit him of any unkind meaning. "But may I say that I have
+never seen you looking so well, Mrs. Rose? Evidently the river life
+suits you admirably."</p>
+
+<p>Toni did look particularly well at that moment. The keen frosty air had
+brought a tinge of wild-rose to her cheeks, and a sparkle to her eyes;
+and the animation of her expression hid the very slight traces of mental
+distress which at a less favourable moment might have been evident to a
+searching scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very well, thanks," she replied carelessly. "I've been motoring,
+and now I'm waiting for my husband. He has been in town to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Although she did not wish to dismiss the young man summarily, he
+imagined she desired him to go; and since to the true lover his
+mistress' unspoken wish has the force of a command, Mr. Dowson hastened
+to obey what he deemed her bidding.</p>
+
+<p>"I must hurry to the other side to take my train," he said immediately.
+"May I express my pleasure at meeting you, Mrs. Rose&mdash;and also to see
+you look so well," he added heartily, if ungrammatically.</p>
+
+<p>She shook hands with him, debating with herself as to the advisability
+of inviting him to Greenriver; but fortunately the arrival of the London
+train cut short their farewells at an opportune moment, and Mr. Dowson
+left her before she had time to decide the point.</p>
+
+<p>Owen was not among the few passengers who got out of the train; and
+after waiting a moment or two to make sure, Toni turned away to find
+herself confronted with Mr. Herrick, who with a worried look on his face
+was interrogating one of the sleepy porters.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, there isn't no cabs. There wasn't but three, and the gentlemen
+was very quick about taking 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must get one somehow." Herrick, quite overlooking Toni in his
+disturbance, spoke sharply, and Toni wondered vaguely why he was so
+annoyed. "You can ring one up from the livery stables, can't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Jim? No cab, I suppose. Well, they can just fetch
+one&mdash;and quick, too."</p>
+
+<p>The words, spoken behind her in an unmistakably Irish voice made Toni
+start. She understood, all at once, that this was Mrs. Herrick's
+home-coming; and she felt a sudden curiosity to see the woman who had
+lately gone through so bitter an experience.</p>
+
+<p>She half turned away; then a thought struck her, and she turned quickly
+back again and rushed into speech.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick, I couldn't help hearing you say you wanted a cab just now.
+Will you let me drive you&mdash;and your wife&mdash;home in the car? Do&mdash;it would
+save you having to wait so long."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick, whose usual philosophic calm appeared to have deserted him,
+hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mrs. Rose, it's awfully good of you&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do!" Toni spoke eagerly, and the woman who stood by turned to her
+impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you offering to take us home in your car?" Her voice was full of
+Irish melody. "It is very kind of you&mdash;and for myself, I'm so tired I'd
+accept with pleasure. But"&mdash;there was something malignant in the glance
+she gave her husband&mdash;"perhaps we'd better wait for a cab."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do come, please," Toni begged, her bright eyes pleading to be
+allowed to do this little service. "It's a big car, and I'm all alone in
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well." Mrs. Herrick turned to her husband. "Come along, Jim; the
+luggage can come on later."</p>
+
+<p>And in less than five minutes the matter was arranged. Herrick elected
+to sit beside the chauffeur, so that Toni and her new acquaintance sat
+together in the body of the car. Mrs. Herrick's large and rather
+new-looking dressing-bag on the floor at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Toni gave the direction to the openly interested Fletcher, and the car
+glided away through the group of loafers hanging round the station
+entrance, and settled down into a steady hum on the road leading to the
+Hope House.</p>
+
+<p>Toni seized a moment while Mrs. Herrick was busy with the fastening of
+her bag to steal a look at her companion; and in that brief glance she
+received two distinct impressions&mdash;one that Eva Herrick was a bitterly
+unhappy woman, the other that she had no intention of allowing other
+people to escape from her own aura of bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>In person Mrs. Herrick was short and slight, with a look of finish about
+her probably handed down through generations of her Irish ancestors. Her
+small features were cut as clearly as a cameo, and her short upper lip,
+while giving her an air of pride which was unpleasing, was in itself
+beautiful. Her eyes, the big Irish eyes which had first enslaved
+Herrick, were lovely in shape and colour, but they were encircled by
+disfiguring blue shadows, and the fine skin had a tell-tale pallor which
+spoke of long indoor confinement.</p>
+
+<p>Her hair, by nature crisp and golden, looked dull and lifeless in the
+shadow of her hat; and over the whole dainty face and figure there was
+an indefinable blight, a sort of shadow which dimmed and blurred their
+naturally clean and clear contours.</p>
+
+<p>As she removed her gloves to fumble with the lock of her bag. Toni
+noticed that the small, well-shaped hands were rough and badly kept; and
+Toni's soft heart was wrung by these evidences of a sordid, toilsome
+past.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Mrs. Herrick sat upright and gazed at Toni with a look which
+held something of criticism.</p>
+
+<p>"You live down here I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We live at Greenriver, about a mile from your bungalow."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah. Been here long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a few months."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. You haven't known my husband very long, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He pulled me out of the river one day," said Toni, "and we have
+seen him pretty often during the summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I suppose you know where I've been?" Her eyes shone maliciously.
+"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know. I'm sure my worthy husband must have
+told you the whole story."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, scarlet with embarrassment, and wishing from the bottom of her
+heart that she had never offered the use of her car, said nothing; and
+with a grating little laugh the other woman continued her speech.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect everyone knows I have been in prison." Luckily she did not
+raise her voice; and Herrick, possibly foreseeing the necessity, had
+taken care to engage the chauffeur in conversation. "Eighteen
+months&mdash;almost&mdash;spent in <i>hell</i>. Oh!" Her small, sharp teeth bit her lip
+venomously. "It drives me mad to think of it. And it could all have been
+avoided if my husband had been a man."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" Toni revolted inwardly against her callousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I suppose he's told you some tale or other." Mrs. Herrick spoke
+fiercely, and all her childish beauty waned beneath her passion; "Well,
+whatever he says, it is I who have paid the bill. Prison! My God, you
+don't know what it is to be shut up in a cell like a beast&mdash;to be
+ordered about like a dog, to be starved on coarse food, made to sleep on
+a bed you wouldn't dare to give your servant!"</p>
+
+<p>Toni, very pale, tried to stem the torrent of her words.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Herrick&mdash;please&mdash;really I don't think you ought to say this to
+me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ought? Why do you say that?" Eva Herrick looked contemptuously at her
+would-be mentor. "If you had been shut up as I have been, you would talk
+as you liked. Thank God I can talk if I can do nothing else."</p>
+
+<p>Quite suddenly her manner changed. She gave a little laugh which was
+oddly fascinating, and laid her hand on Toni's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, now, Mrs. Rose, don't be getting angry with me." Her brogue lent
+a charm to her speech. "I'll admit I've no earthly right to talk so;
+it's bad form to begin with and a poor return for your kindness. But
+remember, I've gone through an experience that's enough to kill a woman,
+and you can't expect me to forget it all at once. So you must forgive
+me. Will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course I will." Toni spoke quickly. "And I had no right to speak
+as I did. But&mdash;you must forget all that is past. Won't you try?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I'll try." Eva's lovely eyes filled with tears. "But I know what
+will happen. Your husband won't let you know me, of course, and if Jim
+and I are left alone, we'll be murdering one another one fine day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please don't talk so. Of course my husband will let me know you,"
+said Toni in distress; and she was glad to find from the slackening of
+the car that their conversation must be cut short.</p>
+
+<p>Jim Herrick, more silent and worn-looking than Toni had ever seen him,
+helped his wife to alight and then shook hands gratefully with Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"So many thanks, Mrs. Rose." His big, bright eyes looked into hers,
+almost as the eyes of a nice dog might have done. "You have saved us a
+long wait, and I'm only sorry we have taken you out of your way."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's nothing," Toni said. "I like being out on these bright days,
+and I'm ever so glad I happened to be at the station."</p>
+
+<p>She shook hands with Mrs. Herrick, who looked a pitifully fragile figure
+as she stood beside the car; and then Toni gave the order for home, and
+Fletcher obeyed that order too promptly to allow of any further
+leave-takings.</p>
+
+<p>Just for one moment Jim Herrick stood looking after the car, and in his
+heart there was a great sickness of apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>With the best intention in the world to be fair to his wife, he could
+not help comparing the fresh, simple-hearted Toni with the world-weary
+and disillusioned Eva; and at the thought of the future his spirits sank
+to zero.</p>
+
+<p>A mocking voice broke on his ear as he watched the car gliding swiftly
+down the road.</p>
+
+<p>"When you've finished staring at that young woman, Jim, perhaps you'll
+open the gate." Eva stood back to allow him to reach the latch. "I must
+say this is a nice place to bring me to. Is it a cottage or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite a decent little place, dear," he said steadily, as he held
+open the gate for her to pass through. "Of course, I quite understand
+that it is only a temporary arrangement, but you will try to put up with
+it, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I shall have to," she replied ungraciously; and then she
+uttered an impatient exclamation as the big white dog tore over the lawn
+to meet her master, uttering deep-throated bays of welcome the while.
+"You've still got that beast, then&mdash;go down, you brute," she added, as
+Olga approached, with instinctive courtesy, to greet her former
+mistress.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't snap at her, dear," said Herrick kindly. "The poor creature is
+only trying to say how do you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she can say it to someone else," said Eva curtly. "I hate big
+dogs&mdash;I wish you'd get rid of her."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick made no reply, but opened the door, and they went into the house
+together.</p>
+
+<p>Eva passed into the quaintly attractive sitting-room with a frown on her
+face, which lightened, however, at sight of the tea-table standing
+ready, and pulling off her gloves and coat she flung herself into a low
+chair with a sigh of fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens, how thirsty I am," she said. "Give me some tea, Jim&mdash;quickly."
+And as he moved forward to obey her, her eyes followed him with a
+curious expression in their grey depths.</p>
+
+<p>"What's for dinner?" she asked, suddenly, and Herrick looked his memory
+to recall the <i>menu</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Soup, roast chicken, plum tart, and a savoury," he said at last,
+smiling with a rather pathetic attempt at cheerfulness. "Mrs. Swastika,
+as I call her, is what is known as a 'good plain cook,' but anything at
+all elaborate throws her off her balance altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you no other servants?" she demanded shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. I didn't want them, you know, and I thought you would prefer
+to choose them yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I? If I can get any," she said darkly, drawing her delicate brows
+together resentfully. "Of course they won't stay when they find out
+things; but we must be decently waited on."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick made no reply; and his silence exasperated the girl, whose
+nerves were all on edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't stand there saying nothing." Her voice was shrill. "Of
+course, you think I ought to wait on myself&mdash;now. And I suppose because
+I've been in prison you expect me to be thankful to be here&mdash;even in a
+hole like this. Well, I'm not. I hate the place. It's common and shabby
+and horrid, and I'm not going to live all anyhow, to please you."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick, dismayed at the vehemence of her manner, could find no words;
+and she went on with increasing passion:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm your wife&mdash;if I <i>am</i> a jail-bird!" She flung the taunt at him, and
+her whole little figure was shaken with the intensity of her emotion.
+"If you think I'm going to pretend to be penitent&mdash;and grateful to
+you&mdash;you are wrong! I <i>hate</i> you, Jim, I loathe and despise you&mdash;you
+might have taken the blame on your shoulders&mdash;and instead you stood by
+and watched them torture me. <i>You've</i> not been to prison, <i>you've</i> not
+been bullied and despised&mdash;you've not spent weeks and months in a
+loathsome little cell where the sun never shone and there was never a
+breath of air&mdash;you've not been called by a number, and preached at by
+the chaplain&mdash;oh, no, you've been living here in the sunshine&mdash;enjoying
+yourself, eating good food&mdash;your chicken and your savouries&mdash;and for all
+I know passing as a single man, and keeping your disgraced wife in the
+background!"</p>
+
+<p>She struck the table sharply with her hand, and her cup and saucer fell
+to the ground and smashed, the tea trickling in a brown stream over the
+dim blues and greens of the Persian carpet.</p>
+
+<p>She ignored the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've got me back now, and I'm going to make <i>your</i> life what
+mine has been for the last year and a half! I've longed for this moment,
+Jim"&mdash;she set her teeth&mdash;"longed for it during the horrible days and the
+still more horrible nights. It was only my hatred of you that kept me
+alive in the first ghastly weeks. I could have died&mdash;I was very ill at
+first, and they thought I'd die&mdash;but I knew I wouldn't. I meant to live
+so that I could tell you again to your face that I hate you, hate
+you&mdash;<i>hate</i> you! And I'm going to show you what hate is, Jim&mdash;I'm going
+to make you wish you were dead&mdash;or in prison, as I have been. Oh, my
+God&mdash;I wish&mdash;I wish I <i>were</i> dead!"</p>
+
+<p>With a sudden collapse of all her powers she dropped, face downwards, on
+the big divan, and burst into a fit of wild and uncontrollable sobbing.</p>
+
+<p>With an effort whose magnitude he himself only half realized, Herrick
+went softly over to the weeping, writhing figure, and laid his hand very
+gently on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Eva, for pity's sake&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She flung off his hand as though it had been a venomous serpent which
+had touched her; and again her wild sobbing filled the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Eva, listen to me, dear." Herrick sat down beside her and spoke in a
+quiet tone, which yet pierced through her sobs. "You must not say
+anything like that to me again. There isn't any question of hatred
+between you and me. We are together now, and we must build up a new and
+happy life together which will help us to forget the less happy past.
+Come, dear, look up and tell me you will help me to make a fresh start."</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak, but her sobs lessened as though she were listening.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Eva, sit up and dry your eyes and we will drop the subject. Come
+upstairs and have a rest before dinner. You are tired out and want a
+good sleep."</p>
+
+<p>She rose without a word, but in her face he read only fatigue, none of
+the softening which he had hoped to see.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'm tired&mdash;dead tired." She moved languidly towards the door. "I
+think I shall never be anything else&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>Her fit of passion had indeed worn her out. For the rest of the evening
+she was quiet and listless; and she went upstairs very early to bed,
+leaving Herrick to sit alone with his dog, smoking his pipe, and facing
+the future with a sinking heart.</p>
+
+<p>He sat there until the hour was really late; and then crept upstairs
+very softly to avoid waking Eva, if indeed she slept.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he reached her door he heard a faint, strangled cry, and rushed
+into her room to find her in the throes of one of the nightmares which
+he found, later, were a dreadful legacy from her prison life. On waking,
+her relief at finding she was not, as usual, alone was so great that for
+the first time she clung to Herrick as she might have done in happier
+days; and as he soothed her and pushed the damp golden curls from her
+brow she spoke naturally, with none of the resentment she had hitherto
+displayed.</p>
+
+<p>Her husband's heart melted towards her in this gentler mood; and long
+after she had fallen asleep again, soothed by his presence, he sat
+watching her uneasy slumber with a feeling of compassion which, had she
+realized it, must surely have done something to bridge the gulf which
+now yawned between them.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning she was her hard, mocking self again; and Herrick's
+patience was sorely tried in the days which followed.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed, indeed, as though she had stated her feelings for him
+correctly, as though she did really hate him with a bitter and
+relentless hatred. The prison life had changed her whole being, turned
+her from a brilliant, reckless, worldly girl, warmhearted and
+extravagant, but generous to a fault, into a cold, malignant, callous
+woman, nursing a grudge until it attained gigantic proportions, and
+fully resolved to exact from her husband and the world a heavy payment
+for the humiliating punishment she had been forced to undergo.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick could never discover that she felt that punishment to be
+deserved. The whole world was to blame, but never she herself. It was
+the fault of her husband, who had kept her short of money; of the
+tradespeople who had pressed her, of the usurers who had got her into
+their clutches&mdash;the fault of everyone save Eva Herrick; and the fact
+that they had all, as it were, combined against her, that together they
+had been too much for her, embittered her outlook on life to such a
+degree that she was positively incapable of any reasonable analysis of
+her own guilt.</p>
+
+<p>It was her husband against whom her resentment was chiefly directed.
+With all the perversity of her ill-regulated, half-formed mind, she
+refused to realize the fact that it had been absolutely impossible for
+Herrick to take her crime on to his own shoulders. She clung childishly
+to the notion that if he had wished he could have borne the blame and
+endured the consequences; and since there is no reason to doubt that to
+a girl in her position her life in prison was a horrible experience, her
+bitterness is perhaps hardly to be wondered at, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Her sentence had left on soul and body traces which would never be
+effaced; and sometimes Herrick could hardly believe that this cold,
+cynical, bitter-tongued woman was indeed the gay Irish girl he had
+married.</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of everything she was his wife. And Herrick was not the man
+to shirk an obligation which was so plainly marked as this. Although he
+shrank inwardly from her constant recriminations, he never let her see
+how he was wounded by her biting tongue; and to all her reproaches he
+presented so serene and complacent a front that she sometimes desisted
+from very weariness.</p>
+
+<p>So the autumn days went on; and if Herrick felt sometimes that in spite
+of the beautiful world around him, life was no longer full of "sweet
+things," he never wavered in his resolve to do all in his power to make
+up to Eva, for the misery she had endured behind those heartless prison
+walls.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Toni, do you think it quite wise to go about so much with Mrs.
+Herrick?"</p>
+
+<p>It was Owen who asked the question one cold morning as the two sat at
+breakfast; and Toni looked up with something like defiance in her bright
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, Owen? Oh, I know she has been&mdash;well, you know where&mdash;but she
+is free again now; and it is very hard if one mistake is to dog her
+footsteps wherever she goes for the rest of her life."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a pretty serious mistake," Owen reminded her quietly, "and to
+tell you the truth I hardly like you to go about so constantly with a
+woman who did what she was proved to have done."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be such a Pharisee, Owen." Toni spoke sharply and Owen
+glanced at her in dismay. "I suppose someone has been saying something
+to you. But I don't intend to give up Eva Herrick to please a lot of
+spiteful old women like Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly one or two people have commented on your friendship," said
+Owen thoughtfully, "and I'm bound to say I don't like it myself. To
+begin with Mrs. Herrick treats her husband abominably; and I should not
+have thought you would have been attracted by her shallow, futile way of
+talking."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget I'm shallow and futile myself," said Toni with a faint,
+bitter smile. "The gossips of the neighbourhood have long since decided
+that I was an ignorant little fool who wasn't fit to be the mistress of
+Greenriver; and I suppose it's a case of birds of a feather, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Toni!" Owen's voice expressed bewilderment. "What on earth do you mean?
+Who ever dared to say you weren't fit to be mistress of Greenriver?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, heaps of people," said Toni recklessly. "You know quite well you
+were ashamed of me when we first went out to dinner parties here, and I
+didn't know how to behave&mdash;and lately we have been invited nowhere&mdash;not
+even to the Golf Club Ball."</p>
+
+<p>Owen bit his lip. In truth the matter of the ball had puzzled him
+considerably. Although not a golfer, he was on friendly terms with many
+of the members of the local Club; and since Toni's friends, Mollie and
+Cynthia Teach, were ardent golfers, it had seemed most probable that
+Owen and his wife would receive an invitation to the annual ball.</p>
+
+<p>The Tobies had indeed gone so far as to assure Toni of her invitation
+when first the ball was mentioned; and though as the day grew near the
+two girls grew uneasy when the topic was broached, Toni never dreamed
+that their avoidance of the subject covered a real and distressing
+awkwardness.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly neither Toni nor Owen imagined that they had been quietly
+excluded from the list of guests; but such was the astounding fact, as
+Mollie and Cynthia were guiltily aware.</p>
+
+<p>It was largely due to Lady Martin's plain-speaking that this came about.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow the real truth about Eva Herrick had leaked out; as such truths
+do invariably leak out; and Toni's ill-advised friendship with Herrick's
+wife was easily turned to her disadvantage by so skilful an adversary as
+Lady Martin.</p>
+
+<p>From the first her ladyship had been unable to bring herself to tolerate
+Toni; and had lost no opportunity of spreading abroad Toni's rash
+admission as to the nature of her cousin's employment&mdash;with the
+immediate result that in a good many people's eyes Toni herself was
+looked upon as an unusually fortunate shop-girl raised by a stroke of
+good luck to a position which she was quite unsuited to adorn.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly there was in the case of some of her detractors an element of
+jealousy in their comments on Owen Rose's wife. There were a good many
+houses along the river where daughters were at a discount; and to see an
+unknown and attractive girl like Toni step into the place which many of
+these girls would have dearly liked to fill was doubtless somewhat
+galling.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate Lady Martin found plenty of supporters when she broached her
+avowed intention of excluding Mrs. Rose from the ball of which she was
+patroness, on the ground of her friendship with the woman who had been,
+as they all knew, in prison for a serious offence; and so it happened
+that when the ball took place neither Owen nor Toni contributed by their
+presence to the success of the evening.</p>
+
+<p>It was perfectly true that Toni had struck up a friendship with Jim
+Herrick's wife; and it is only fair to Toni to state that in the first
+instance she had made overtures to Eva Herrick from a purely
+good-hearted desire to return Herrick's kindness to her in the one way
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>She was not, in truth, greatly attracted to Eva at first. She found her
+hard, bitter, at times ungenerous; but Mrs. Herrick was clever enough to
+see that such attributes failed to endear her to Toni; and since to
+Eva's perverted mind her husband's companionship was unendurable, she
+quickly determined to make a friend of this soft-hearted, unworldly
+little girl who was evidently sorry for her in her wordless fashion; and
+was too candid herself to suspect deceit or double-dealing in others.</p>
+
+<p>Eva knew very well that the neighbourhood, which prided itself on its
+exclusiveness, would have little or nothing to do with her; and motor
+rides with Toni in the luxurious grey car, with lunch or tea at some
+riverside hotel, formed an agreeable method of passing the days which
+were otherwise horribly long and empty.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"I wasn't thinking of the Golf Ball," Owen said, in reply to Toni's last
+speech. "But honestly, Toni, I don't care for Mrs. Herrick. Oh, I'm not
+talking now of the necklace affair. That's over and done with; but it's
+the woman herself I don't approve of."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" She spoke abruptly and Owen frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she's not the sort of girl I like my wife to be intimate with.
+I'm sorry for that poor fellow Herrick. He is a sensible man, and knows
+that if his wife's past is to be forgotten it will be by living quietly
+and decently, and not by pushing into the society of the neighbourhood
+whether she is welcome or no."</p>
+
+<p>"Owen, you're perfectly hateful." Toni was really angry. "She is always
+welcome here, anyway. You know quite well that no one round about really
+likes me. Oh, they call and all that sort of thing; but no one is really
+friendly to me, and all the time they are saying horrid things about me
+behind my back."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are talking nonsense, dear," said Owen quietly. "No one
+says horrid things. To begin with, what should they say?"</p>
+
+<p>"They say I'm common and ignorant, and so I am," said Toni passionately,
+with a sudden desire to blurt out the conversation she had overheard on
+that miserable day in August. "Mrs. Madgwick says so, and Lady Martin. I
+heard them&mdash;and lots of other people say so too. I thought it wasn't
+true at first&mdash;and then I saw it was. I asked Mr. Herrick, and he told
+me to read and educate myself and then I could be useful to you&mdash;and
+instead of that you went and got that perfectly hateful Miss Loder, and
+everyone knows it was because you were sick of me trying to help you and
+doing it so badly."</p>
+
+<p>Owen's face as he listened to this speech was a study in bewilderment.
+The introduction of Herrick's name puzzled him considerably; and
+although he frowned at Toni's description of Miss Loder, he realized
+that by some means Toni had been made unhappy over her own position as
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Toni, I don't quite understand." He looked at her keenly.
+"Who says you are ignorant&mdash;and all the rest? And what on earth has
+Herrick to do with our affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>"I told him&mdash;he saw me crying and asked me why. It was at the Vicarage
+Bazaar&mdash;I was sitting in a summer-house and Lady Martin and Mrs.
+Madgwick were outside, and they began to talk about me and they said all
+those horrible things&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Toni, were you obliged to listen? Couldn't you have got away!"</p>
+
+<p>"No." She lifted her clear eyes to his and he repented his question. "I
+couldn't come out when they had begun; and I didn't know at first that
+they were talking secrets."</p>
+
+<p>Her childish phraseology made Owen smile in the midst of his annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"So Mr. Herrick advised you to read? Well, Toni, that was good advice."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and I took it," she said eagerly. "I read heaps and heaps of dull
+books and worked at French&mdash;and poetry&mdash;and then when I tried to help
+you, you wouldn't let me. You brought that horrid Loder here instead."</p>
+
+<p>Her reiteration of Miss Loder's name jarred. Owen had been genuinely
+surprised and interested by this revelation, and if Toni had been wise
+enough to stick to her own side of the affair, it is probable she would
+have captured Owen's sympathy, and, incidentally, his heart; but she
+weakened her case by her senseless prejudice against Millicent Loder;
+and with a quick sense of irritation Owen told himself that she was only
+jealous&mdash;in a purely unsentimental way&mdash;after all.</p>
+
+<p>She had never liked being ousted from her position, as would-be helper;
+but Owen knew&mdash;or fancied he did&mdash;the exact value of her aid; and after
+all his work was too important for him to run the risk of spoiling it by
+any lack of efficiency in his helpers.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you'd leave Miss Loder's name out of the question," he said at
+last, and his tone struck coldly on Toni's excited ear. "When the book
+is published I will dispense with her assistance, if you wish it; but
+until then I tell you frankly I intend to avail myself of her most
+valuable help."</p>
+
+<p>He had expected an angry reply; but none came. Instead Toni said in a
+low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Owen. I know Miss Loder is useful to you and I am not. But
+if you refuse to let me help you, I don't think you can complain if I
+try to fill my time with other things&mdash;and if Mrs. Herrick is pleasant
+and nice to me I cannot very well refuse to know her, can I?"</p>
+
+<p>"To know her? Certainly not&mdash;but there is a difference between knowing
+her casually and being with her all day long."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not that," she replied quietly. "I take her motoring sometimes,
+because it is dull going alone, and it is a treat to her. But of course
+if you object&mdash;it is your car&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't be silly, Toni." All Owen's pent-up irritation found vent in
+the words. "I'm not a dragon&mdash;or an ogre, am I? Take Mrs. Herrick by all
+means&mdash;have her here if you like, only for goodness' sake don't talk as
+though I wished to condemn you to perpetual loneliness."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I won't." She rose as she spoke. "You've finished, haven't
+you? Then I'll go and see Mrs. Blades&mdash;she is ill again to-day, Kate
+says."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she? Poor old soul." Owen rose too, and passing round the table laid
+his hands on Toni's shoulders. "Toni, we're not quarrelling, are we?
+Have I neglected you lately? I'm sorry if I have&mdash;when the book's out we
+will have a trip abroad, go on the Riviera or somewhere nice and warm."</p>
+
+<p>He stooped, and kissed her, but though she lifted her face obediently
+and even returned his caress, Toni's lips were cold and her eyes had
+lost their sparkle.</p>
+
+<p>Owen's inflexibility frightened her. She had half expected that when he
+knew her real and vital dislike for Miss Loder he would promise to send
+her away; but he had done nothing of the kind: and Toni felt again, as
+she had already felt once or twice of late, that Owen had no intention
+of giving in to his wife's fancies, as some men were always ready to do.</p>
+
+<p>She had intended to offer to give up Eva Herrick's friendship if Owen
+would send away Miss Loder. In the quiet hours of the night such a
+bargain had seemed simple enough; but when it came to making the
+suggestion Toni's heart failed her.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going motoring to-day, Toni?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had thought of it," she said slowly; "but&mdash;do you want the car?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks, dear. I'm going up to town by the twelve-thirty&mdash;I promised
+to meet Barry for lunch. Shall you be in?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I thought of lunching out," said Toni rather vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh. Well, you'll order Miss Loder's lunch then, won't you? She must
+have it alone to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Owen, occupied with a letter he held in his hand, had spoken
+thoughtlessly; but an exclamation from Toni made him pause and regard
+his wife in amazement. Toni's pallor had given way to a deep flush, and
+her usually sweet eyes blazed with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll order Miss Loder's lunch." She spoke in sharp staccato tones.
+"You needn't be afraid I will neglect her because you're away. I <i>can</i>
+keep house, if I'm not a B.A.; and thank Heaven I shan't have to sit at
+the table and listen to her sneering at me all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Toni!" In Owen's eyes a flame similar to that in her own had sprung to
+life. "What do you mean by this nonsense about Miss Loder? Let me tell
+you once and for all that I won't have it. You never cease libelling
+that unfortunate woman from morning to night. Considering she is here,
+in your house, in a subordinate position, your behaviour is both
+unladylike and ungenerous; and if you continue to talk in this way about
+a girl who has to earn her own living, and has never done you any
+harm&mdash;well, we shall quarrel, that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care if we do." Toni's hot temper&mdash;a heritage from her Italian
+mother&mdash;was let loose. "I'd sooner quarrel than submit to everything you
+like to do. If you loved me, treated me as you ought to treat your wife,
+you'd send her away. Oh, I'm not jealous in a silly way&mdash;I know you
+aren't likely to make love to her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Toni!</i>" Owen's voice frightened her into silence. "Don't dare to put
+such a vulgar insinuation into words, if you please. If you are so lost
+to your own dignity and self-respect as your anger seems to imply, at
+least remember that you are my wife, and don't let me hear such a
+thoroughly degrading and unworthy remark from you again."</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>didn't</i>!" Toni, crimson-faced, had tears in her eyes. "I said I
+didn't think it. It's not fair of you to pretend I did.... I only
+meant&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you don't know what you do mean," said Owen, his anger dying
+down at the sight of her tears. "But in any case we had better drop the
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment, then something in Toni's forlorn aspect touched
+his heart and he spoke more kindly.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Toni, don't let's make a scene over this. You're my wife, you
+know&mdash;I didn't marry you because I wanted a secretary, I married you
+because I wanted you for my wife&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Even though you didn't love me." Toni spoke quietly, even a little
+sadly, and Owen's heart sank as he realized what her words implied.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't love you?" For the life of him he did not know what to say.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I thought you did&mdash;but it doesn't matter," said Toni a little
+drearily. "I'm sorry I made a scene just now, Owen. Please forgive me. I
+won't do it again."</p>
+
+<p>And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went out of the
+room, leaving Owen staring after her, stirred to the depths of his soul
+by something he thought he had read in her usually child-like eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was no child who had gazed at him as she spoke those last few words.
+It was a woman who had looked through Toni's Southern eyes in that
+moment of stress; and for the first time since his marriage, Owen
+wondered whether his estimate of Toni had been incorrect after all.</p>
+
+<p>He had thought her soulless, a pretty, light-hearted, unselfish little
+comrade, swayed by feminine whims and caprices, but incapable of rising
+to the stature of the perfect woman; and lo, in one moment of
+unconscious revelation she had shown herself to him as a woman indeed,
+one who had realized that he had married her for some other cause than
+love, yet did not stoop to blame him.</p>
+
+<p>But if Toni were indeed a woman, one capable, moreover, of a totally
+unexpected magnanimity, he had indeed been guilty of a serious mistake,
+and the very idea that he had misread Toni's character so hopelessly
+filled Owen with a humility as disturbing as it was complete.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+
+<p>The immediate effect of the little scene at the breakfast table was
+unfortunately that of an increased intimacy between Toni Rose and
+Herrick's wife.</p>
+
+<p>Although Toni's exit from the battlefield had been quiet and even
+dignified, she found it hard to forgive Owen's plain-speaking on the
+subject of what he supposed to be her silly prejudice against Miss
+Loder. He had called her conduct vulgar and ungenerous, had spoken,
+moreover, in the tone in which a harsh schoolmaster might censure a
+naughty child; and all her love for Owen could not prevent a feeling of
+humiliation which galled her sorely.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of Miss Loder, trim, competent, complacent, acted upon Toni's
+nerves in much the same way as the red rag is said to act on the nervous
+system of a bull. Although she dared not give vent openly to her
+dislike, Toni's behaviour towards her husband's secretary was by no
+means cordial; and Owen felt a slightly bitter resentment against his
+young wife for what he considered her most unreasonable inability to
+understand his position.</p>
+
+<p>Millicent Loder was a god-send to a harassed literary man; and yet Owen
+began to wonder whether after this book were done it would be advisable
+to dispense with her services. That, however, seemed unfair to the girl,
+who liked her work with him, and would consider her dismissal uncalled
+for; and Owen generally finished his mental discussion with a resolution
+to ignore Toni's foolishness and trust to time to teach her toleration.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that neither Toni nor her husband had the
+slightest notion of what lay beneath Miss Loder's calm exterior. Envy of
+Toni as Rose's wife, scorn of her as the mistress of a beautiful and
+stately house, mingled in Millicent's breast with a strong and
+unreasonable longing to attract Toni's husband to herself; and the very
+fact that the marriage of these two was not what she called a success,
+lent additional keenness to all her emotions.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, Mrs. Herrick saw Millicent in something very like her true
+light, with a vision even clearer than that of the more interested Toni;
+and Eva Herrick, who since her imprisonment hated all men and most
+women, was not ill-pleased by the spectacle of Toni's dislike for her
+husband's secretary.</p>
+
+<p>Very adroitly Eva set herself to foster that dislike. Although she had
+only encountered Miss Loder twice&mdash;once on the occasion of a call paid
+in return for Toni's ceremonious call upon her, and again during a wait
+at the station for the London train, Mrs. Herrick had quickly realized
+that Miss Loder liked Toni little better than Toni cared for her; and
+Eva was not the sort of woman to let any knowledge of that kind lie
+useless.</p>
+
+<p>Without saying anything definite, she contrived to let Toni know she
+sympathized with her in the matter of Miss Loder's tenancy of the
+library; and although Toni never let slip a word which might have
+savoured of disloyalty to her husband, Mrs. Herrick knew, with a queer,
+uncanny shrewdness peculiar to her, that the girl's marriage was not
+altogether happy.</p>
+
+<p>If it had been, it is improbable that Eva would have made a friend of
+Toni. As she said to herself now and again, she had no use for happy
+people. Her own life was spoilt&mdash;that the spoiling was due to herself
+she would have been the last to acknowledge&mdash;and she was in no humour to
+watch other people making a success of their lives. What she wanted was
+to see those around her as unhappy, as disillusioned, as discontented as
+herself; and all Toni's kindness, all her gentle, unselfish
+friendliness, went for nothing when the opportunity arose for a further
+darkening of Toni's already overshadowed sky.</p>
+
+<p>On the surface, however, all was serenity. Eva accepted Toni's
+companionship with outward gratitude, and when once Herrick was
+satisfied that Toni knew what she was doing, he put no obstacles in the
+way of their better acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards he told himself that he should have known better than to
+allow his wife to take advantage of Toni's unworldliness; but at the
+moment he was only too glad to find Eva apparently sincere in her liking
+for the simple-hearted Toni; and assuming, naturally, that Owen did not
+disapprove of the growing intimacy, he watched the affair with a
+gratitude made natural by his intense pity for his wife.</p>
+
+<p>One day Mrs. Herrick asked Toni to accompany her to Sutton, where she
+had made an appointment for twelve o'clock. It appeared that she had
+suffered agonies of toothache while in prison, and although the
+authorities had done all they could for her, she was again in urgent
+need of a dentist's services. She had been informed of the arrival of a
+new practitioner in the little town, who came from a London practice;
+and to Toni's mingled surprise and dismay she found herself invited to
+accompany Mrs. Herrick on a visit to Mr. Dowson's surgery.</p>
+
+<p>On the spur of the moment she confessed to a previous acquaintance with
+Mr. Dowson; and Eva thereupon plied her with questions as to his
+proficiency in his work.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want my teeth breaking or my jaw dislocating," she said. "Do
+you think the man's any good? It's such a bore to have to go up to town
+every time. Has he ever done any work for you?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni, who had never had toothache in her life, was obliged to reply in
+the negative; but assured Eva that Mr. Dowson had an excellent
+reputation in Brixton.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wrote and fixed up an appointment with him," said Eva
+carelessly, "so I suppose I'd better go. But if he isn't any good I
+shan't go again."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll run you over in the car," said Toni eagerly, "and we'll go on to
+lunch somewhere. Miss Loder leaves early to-day, so it doesn't matter
+about my not being at home."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Herrick accepted the offer promptly, and at five minutes past
+twelve the big car pulled up in front of Mr. Dowson's modest house, much
+to the excitement of the school children, who were at that moment
+released from the school-buildings at the end of the street.</p>
+
+<p>A quiet little maid showed the visitors into the usual depressing
+waiting-room; and reappeared two minutes later to conduct them into the
+torture chamber itself; and since Eva flatly refused to go alone, Toni
+perforce accompanied her into the operator's presence.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dowson's pale face lighted up at the sight of Toni with a radiance
+which even the self-engrossed Eva could not fail to note. He recollected
+himself sufficiently to shake hands professionally with his patient, but
+Toni he greeted warmly, as an old friend.</p>
+
+<p>He had never dreamed of such a glorious happening as this visit. The
+dingy room was transfigured by Toni's presence therein; and his long,
+white, carefully-manicured hands were absolutely unsteady as he opened
+his little cabinet and selected one or two tiny but deadly-looking
+instruments from the shining rows within.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, for her part, was occupied in thanking the Providence which had
+seen fit to equip her with a set of perfectly sound white teeth; and she
+felt an intense sympathy with the hapless Eva, whose nerves, undermined
+by her late experience, were already betraying her into signs of
+agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't hurt you, really," said Mr. Dowson, with a beaming smile, which
+he felt to be out of place, but could not restrain. "Please lean back a
+little more&mdash;so. Now open&mdash;just a <i>leetle</i> wider&mdash;thank you, that will
+do."</p>
+
+<p>It was soon evident that the visit could not be prolonged. Although he
+had not the clue to his patient's intense nervousness, Mr. Dowson's
+professional instincts warned him that he must go warily: and while he
+would willingly have detained Mrs. Herrick, if by such means he could
+enjoy the felicity of Toni's companionship a little longer, his
+conscientious spirit forced him to cut the sitting short.</p>
+
+<p>Another appointment was made for the following week; and after that
+there were others, to all of which Toni accompanied her quaking friend.
+After four or five visits, however, Toni was unlucky enough to contract
+a chill during an unusually prolonged motor-ride; and Mrs. Herrick was
+forced to go alone.</p>
+
+<p>It was Leonard Dowson's intense consternation when told of Toni's
+illness which first opened Eva's eyes to the seriousness of his
+devotion. She had seen from the beginning that he admired the girl, that
+he listened attentively to her lightest word; but she had not realized
+that Mr. Dowson was really and irrevocably in love with Toni; and it is
+only fair to the young man to say that he was quite unconscious of his
+self-betrayal.</p>
+
+<p>He had not been able to hide his anxiety on hearing of Toni's
+indisposition. With all the exaggeration of true love he immediately
+feared the worst; and even Eva's callous heart was touched by his
+incapacity to ask for news on the day of her second visit alone.</p>
+
+<p>He had stammered out a broken question, exhibiting a rather absurd
+concern over an ordinary slight chill; and when Eva replied casually
+that she had heard Toni was going on very well, she noticed, with a
+half-contemptuous amusement, that he had to turn aside and wipe away the
+drops which glistened on his high forehead.</p>
+
+<p>It was during that second visit that an idea came to Eva, bringing a
+malicious little smile to her lips in the intervals of Leonard's
+ministrations.</p>
+
+<p>"You've known Toni&mdash;Mrs. Rose&mdash;a long time, I suppose?" She asked the
+question casually as she put on her hat before the glass. "You were
+friends before her marriage, weren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Rose some years before that."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? You knew her as a child?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was just fifteen when I saw her first," said Leonard, his voice
+husky with the emotion called up by the reminiscence. "It was her
+birthday, I remember, and one of her cousins asked me to go home to tea
+with him. They were great people for birthdays, her relations."</p>
+
+<p>"Were they?" Eva adjusted her veil carefully. "Friendly, sociable sort
+of people, I suppose. Was Mr. Rose there that night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rose?" For a moment Leonard, lost in dreams of the past, stared
+uncomprehendingly. Then he pulled himself together vigorously. "No, Mr.
+Rose was not there in those days. He&mdash;he came on the scene much later
+than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he? Was he also a friend of Mrs. Rose's cousins?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no." Mr. Dowson became emphatic. "Nothing of that sort. Toni&mdash;Miss
+Gibbs she was then&mdash;met him in the course of business. As a matter of
+fact, she was his secretary. And then he fell in love with her; and the
+next thing was that they were married." His tone was dreary.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well, I don't wonder he fell in love." Eva watched him closely
+through the mirror as she spoke. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose had heaps of
+admirers at that time. Why, Mr. Dowson"&mdash;she spoke laughingly&mdash;"what
+were you about not to seize such a prize before an outsider sailed in
+and captured it?"</p>
+
+<p>Leonard's pallor gave way to an unbecoming brick-red flush, and his
+voice shook as he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I wasn't lucky, you see. I&mdash;I would have given my life for that
+girl, Mrs. Herrick, and she&mdash;she wouldn't have me at any price."</p>
+
+<p>His tone of desperate sincerity told Eva all she wanted to know; and in
+a moment she switched the conversation back to safer ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't give your life for her, Mr. Dowson, but I'll tell you what
+you can do. You can lend me your <i>Punch</i> to take her. I promised to
+bring her a copy from Dent's, and he is sold out."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dowson was genuinely delighted to follow the suggestion and insisted
+on depleting the table in his waiting-room of various periodicals which
+might relieve the tedium of a day in bed; and Eva took the bundle
+amiably, promising to deliver them in person to Toni on her way home.</p>
+
+<p>She fulfilled her mission punctually; and when Owen, unaware of her
+presence in the house, came to see how his wife was getting on, he found
+her bed literally strewn with the papers which should have soothed the
+fears of the quaking patients in Mr. Dowson's gloomy waiting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Toni." He turned to her smilingly, after greeting Eva. "I hope
+you've got plenty to read. I didn't know you hankered after the
+illustrated papers, or I'd have sent out for some. It's very good of
+Mrs. Herrick to bring you such an assortment."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but these were sent by a friend of your wife's," smiled Eva
+sweetly. "I'm not the principal party in the transaction&mdash;I'm only the
+middleman."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? Who has been so generous then?" asked Owen, taking up one of
+the papers at random as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dowson, the dentist at Sutton," said Eva, turning her large Irish
+eyes on him pleasantly. "You know, of course, he is an old friend of
+Mrs. Rose's, and I must say he is a most gentle and satisfactory person
+in his work."</p>
+
+<p>"A dentist? Dowson?" Owen's eyes roamed from Eva's face to Toni's, and
+something in the manner of both girls puzzled him. "I don't know him, do
+I, Toni? Is he really an old friend of yours? But you've never asked him
+here, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"He&mdash;he's not exactly an old friend," said Toni, annoyed to feel herself
+colouring. "I mean&mdash;oh, I've known him a long time in a way&mdash;he was a
+friend of the boys&mdash;my cousins, but that was all. And anyway he has not
+been here long."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh." Owen was still vaguely perplexed by her manner. "Well, if he's a
+decent chap you must ask him over."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't come." Toni spoke quickly. "He is not your
+sort, Owen. I mean&mdash;I don't think he would care to come. Do you, Mrs.
+Herrick?"</p>
+
+<p>Thus appealed to, Eva gave her verdict with a show of hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"N-no, I hardly think he would." She turned to Owen. "I don't think I
+would ask him, if I were you, Mr. Rose. I expect it would make him feel
+a little&mdash;well, awkward."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" Owen did not know what to make of it. "You see, if he is
+sufficiently intimate with my wife to send her all these papers and
+things, it looks rather odd if I take no notice of him, doesn't it? I
+really think we must ask him over when Toni is herself again, eh, Toni?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't, Mr. Rose." Eva threw a deep earnestness into her melodious
+Irish voice. "Really&mdash;it's not my business, of course, but if I were you
+I'd not bother about the matter."</p>
+
+<p>She saw the look of uneasiness in Owen's eyes, and knew she had said
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it really five o'clock!" She jumped up in pretended dismay. "And I
+promised Jim faithfully I'd be back by half-past four. He gets fidgety
+when I'm out of his sight for long&mdash;thinks I'm getting into mischief, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed rather hardly, and Owen felt an inner repulsion to the woman
+who could thus misconstrue her husband's consideration. He watched her
+bid Toni an effusive farewell and then escorted her downstairs, and
+stood talking to her for a few moments at the hall door.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow he had never liked her so little as on this afternoon; and
+although he admitted that she was a pretty woman in her way, he told
+himself that her face was curiously unattractive.</p>
+
+<p>She looked better now than on her first arrival in the neighbourhood,
+less haggard, a little plumper, but as he compared her dulled and faded
+beauty with Toni's youthful bloom he wondered, not for the first time,
+if her companionship were altogether innocuous.</p>
+
+<p>He was still puzzling over the question when he re-entered Toni's room;
+and his first words showed her what was in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather bad taste&mdash;that allusion to her husband's anxiety. Don't you
+think so, Toni? After all, he might well be uneasy about a woman who has
+once got into such serious mischief as she has done."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? It's not likely to happen again." Toni, poring over <i>Punch</i>, spoke
+shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not." Owen hesitated, but as Toni evinced no signs of
+wishing to continue the conversation he went out of the room hurriedly,
+leaving his wife alone with the evidences of Mr. Dowson's good-will.</p>
+
+<p>The next time Eva visited Toni she said jocularly:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do think you're mean, Toni!" They had recently advanced to this
+stage of intimacy. "Fancy not telling me that Mr. Dowson had once
+proposed to you."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, taken aback, blushed vividly.</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't&mdash;at least&mdash;not exactly. I mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know what you mean!" Eva laughed. "Of course you couldn't have
+accepted him&mdash;he's a nice fellow in his way, but impossible as a
+husband." At times Squire Payton's daughter was quite blatantly
+aristocratic. "But you might have told me, all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? It doesn't matter&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to you, dear." Eva jeered lightly. "But the poor fellow is quite
+upset at meeting you again. He told me to-day he would never marry, and
+when I asked him why he said surely I could guess."</p>
+
+<p>"Very impertinent of him," said Toni sharply; and Eva smiled inwardly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mustn't blame him, Toni. I'm afraid it was my fault. We Irish
+are so sympathetic, you know&mdash;people always tell us their secrets. And
+anyhow there is nothing to be ashamed of. If he likes to go adoring you
+privately, you needn't be angry."</p>
+
+<p>She said no more just then, for Toni's manner displayed her displeasure;
+but Eva smiled again when she was alone; and her warped and twisted mind
+seized eagerly on the idea of the very amusing situation which a little
+careful engineering might bring to pass.</p>
+
+<p>Like all true intriguers, Eva kept her thoughts to herself; and Toni had
+not the faintest idea of the plans which her so-called friend turned
+about in her mind as the autumn days glided swiftly by under the golden
+and blue skies of a perfect season.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Owen and his wife were sitting at dinner one evening when a note was
+brought to Owen whose contents brought an angry exclamation to his lips
+as he, read.</p>
+
+<p>"By gad, Toni, this is a bit thick! What the devil does the woman mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni, suddenly pale, bit her lips, while her eyes filled with
+apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... who is it from, Owen? What does it say?"</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;read it yourself," said Owen, throwing the blue-grey sheet
+across the table. "I suppose there is some explanation, though I confess
+I can't understand it&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>Still deadly pale, her eyes shining like blue jewels, Toni took up the
+sheet and read the letter which Lady Martin had written with so much
+satisfaction a couple of hours earlier.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Rose,</span></p>
+
+<p>"After the occurrence of this afternoon I am sure you will see the
+advisability of Mrs. Rose's resignation from the Badminton Club. It
+is with great regret that I suggest this course; but after the
+scene which took place this afternoon, in the presence of a dozen
+members and several visitors, among them Lady Saxonby, a former
+friend of your own, I speak for the Committee when I request you to
+advise your wife to resign for the present season at least."</p></div>
+
+<p>Toni laid the paper quietly down on the table and spoke to Owen with a
+mingling of terror and defiance in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Owen reached across the table and picked up the letter. "What is
+all this about, Toni? Why should you be requested to resign?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know"&mdash;Toni began in a lifeless voice; then suddenly&mdash;"yes, I
+do know. It's all a plot of Lady Martin's and Mrs. Madgwick's. They hate
+me, I always told you so&mdash;and now they want to make you hate me too."</p>
+
+<p>"But what happened this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's a long story." Toni spoke recklessly. "To begin with, I was
+elected to the Club a long time ago&mdash;in September; and when Mrs. Herrick
+came home she wanted to be a member too. I tried to get her in, but they
+didn't want her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not." Owen frowned. "You never seem to understand, Toni, that
+all people are not so unworldly as you. It was a mistake for Mrs.
+Herrick to attempt to enter a private club of that sort so soon. She
+should have waited until the scandal had blown over."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she was very disappointed about it. But every member can take a
+friend in once a month, so I took Eva this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>She broke off in dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke
+sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you
+got there?"</p>
+
+<p>"People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the
+whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs.
+Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have
+been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered."</p>
+
+<p>"What did she do?"</p>
+
+<p>"She had a woman with her&mdash;Lady Saxonby, someone called her&mdash;and she
+heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me
+if I were your wife."</p>
+
+<p>"She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that Vivian's curiosity had nerved her
+to the step.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me&mdash;quite
+politely&mdash;but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the
+face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection;
+and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw
+her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and
+she bent down and whispered something to her&mdash;something about Eva,
+because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva
+heard it too and turned crimson."</p>
+
+<p>"And then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a
+message."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as
+happy as she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send
+me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption
+on her part."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first
+who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva
+jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an
+honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through
+that man's wife&mdash;and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby
+was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world
+to see."</p>
+
+<p>Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set
+his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then there was a scene. Lady Saxonby turned on Eva quite
+furiously, and said she had no right to talk of anyone being ashamed of
+anything, seeing that everyone knew what she had done. And then all the
+other women crowded round, and Eva lost her temper, and said it was
+quite true and she had been in prison and was a criminal and all that,
+but she'd sooner be that than a dishonourable, mercenary woman who would
+jilt one man because another had more money and a title ... and ... oh,
+there was a most frightful row, and the end was that the secretary
+hurried up and asked me to take Eva away quickly before she said any
+more. She was awfully cross, and said I ought not to have brought Mrs.
+Herrick, and that Lady Saxonby would be sure to talk, and the Club would
+be ruined."</p>
+
+<p>"So you came away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Eva was horribly upset&mdash;you know her nerves are all wrong&mdash;and she
+fainted dead away in the hall and they had to send for a doctor and we
+took her home ... and altogether," said Toni, breaking at last into
+tears, "it was a fearful scene, and I wish I'd never gone near the
+Club!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to God you hadn't!" Owen sprang up, more upset than he cared to
+confess. He could visualize the whole scene: Vivian, with her beautiful,
+scornful face, taunting Eva, playing the hypocrite with Toni, and
+sending insulting messages to the man she had jilted; and the mere
+thought of the talk, the gossip, the raking up of old stories which
+would inevitably follow, set all his nerves jarring furiously.</p>
+
+<p>Even the sight of Toni's tears did not soften his heart. Rather he felt
+exasperated with her, since it was her folly which had precipitated the
+whole scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, don't cry," he said rather curtly. "You've done a very silly
+thing, and goodness knows where it will end; but it's no use crying and
+making yourself ill."</p>
+
+<p>Naturally his tone did not tend to set his wife at ease; and she cried
+the more.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!" Owen felt himself to be a brute, but the
+thought of Vivian's malice was gall to his spirit. "The mischief's done,
+and crying won't undo it. But I hope you've learned a lesson, Toni; I
+always told you it was a mistake to go about with that woman, and you
+wouldn't believe me. Well, now you see what's happened. You've made us
+both ridiculous in the eyes of the world, and we shall be more severely
+ostracized than ever."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Toni's tears ceased and she raised her head to stare at him.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean people will be horrid&mdash;to you&mdash;about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, naturally, they'll think me a fool for encouraging you," said
+Owen rather irritably. "If only you would have been guided by me! But
+it's been the same all through. You chose to go your own way, and the
+end will be that we shall have to leave Greenriver and go to live
+somewhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"Leave Greenriver?" She echoed the words dully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what can we do?" He spoke impatiently. "You have never seemed
+very happy here, so far as the people go. And now, after this <i>fiasco</i>,
+we may expect the neighbourhood to drop us altogether."</p>
+
+<p>"Drop us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know what I mean. Oh, I don't care two straws about the
+people themselves. They're a stupid lot anyway, and too conventional to
+know how to got the best out of life. But still&mdash;Greenriver's my home,
+and I thought we should learn to settle down here."</p>
+
+<p>"And I've prevented you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've never hit it off with the people, have you? And after this
+I don't see how we can settle down. I'm not going to have people
+neglecting my wife or being rude to her, but still this Badminton Club
+affair is a pretty big slap in the face for both of us."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, resting her small chin on the cup of her hollowed hands, stared at
+him thoughtfully, and in her eyes, still wet with tears, he caught again
+that elusive hint of a tragic womanhood which had puzzled him on a
+former occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"Eva was right," she said, and her voice was low. "She said I was out of
+place here, and so I am."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Herrick said that?" Owen's anger suddenly swung round. "Then it
+was a damned silly thing to say, and I'm surprised you listened to it."</p>
+
+<p>"But she was right. She said everyone wondered why you married me; and
+now that I have seen Lady Saxonby, I wonder too."</p>
+
+<p>Owen's heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>"Toni, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I understand now. Lady Saxonby was the woman you were to
+have married. She is very beautiful," said Toni simply. "And she would
+have been the right mistress for Greenriver. I can't understand how it
+was you married me. Eva said&mdash;when we were driving home&mdash;that it must
+have been pique. She said you wanted to show the other woman you did not
+care ... and when I thought about it, I saw that it was true."</p>
+
+<p>"Toni, it wasn't true." All thought of personal anger was swallowed up
+in Owen's sudden longing to convince the girl that Eva had lied. "I
+married you because"&mdash;in spite of himself he faltered&mdash;"because I loved
+you. What if Vivian did treat me badly? I was well out of it, since she
+was a woman of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't mind&mdash;now," said Toni, with a faint smile. "I did at first.
+When Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick said it, last summer, I thought my
+heart would break; but I suppose I got used to the idea, and when I saw
+Lady Saxonby to-day I knew it was just one of the things that no one can
+help."</p>
+
+<p>Owen, not understanding her, only stared.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, I knew all the time it wasn't likely, really, that you would
+care for me," said Toni quietly. "I tried to make myself believe you
+did, but I don't think I ever <i>really</i> believed it. Only I was so fond
+of you&mdash;you were so kind&mdash;and when we were married you were so good to
+me that I began to hope you might grow fond of me in time."</p>
+
+<p>"Toni&mdash;for God's sake&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But I soon found out it was a mistake&mdash;our marriage&mdash;for you. I wasn't
+half clever enough. I was only an ignorant, silly, unformed girl, and
+you were so different. Oh, I tried my hardest to improve. I wanted to
+prove to you that I wasn't quite such a little fool as you thought me. I
+wanted to show you I had a soul&mdash;Mr. Herrick said I had, and I tried to
+make myself more companionable to you&mdash;oh, I know I didn't succeed very
+well," said Toni humbly, "but, you see, you didn't understand. I only
+bothered you when I tried to help you in your work; and of course you
+didn't want to talk to me about the things that really mattered to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Toni&mdash;Toni&mdash;don't say such things."</p>
+
+<p>"But you were always kind," said Toni wistfully, "and I sometimes
+wondered if I had been wrong and you did care for me a little. But I
+always knew, deep down in my heart, that it was all a mistake, and
+now"&mdash;suddenly the composure which had supported her so far gave
+way&mdash;"now I know I ought not to have married you&mdash;and&mdash;and I'm sorry,
+Owen&mdash;I'm most frightfully sorry&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>All at once she pressed her hands to her eyes as though to shut out the
+sight of his face; and then, as he started forward, vague words of
+comfort on his lips, she flung her arms out over the table and laid her
+head down on them in an attitude of utter desolation.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Owen stood motionless, while the light from the rose-shaded
+candles played over the silky black hair and cast a pool of red colour
+on the smooth white neck rising out of its chiffon draperies. The scene
+was one which would never fade from Owen's memory; and in after days he
+could visualize it to the minutest detail.</p>
+
+<p>The red and yellow of the chrysanthemums in a big silver bowl, the
+purple bloom of the piled-up grapes before Toni, the ruby of the wine in
+the decanters, the reflections cast by the candles in the shining
+surface of the uncovered table, the ruddy glow of the firelight playing
+over Toni's pale-coloured skirts&mdash;to the day of his death Owen would be
+able to recall the scene at will: and never would he forget the chill in
+his veins as he realized that the girl he had thought a child was a
+woman after all....</p>
+
+<p>"Toni&mdash;Toni dear." He laid his hand on her shoulder. "For heaven's sake,
+Toni, look up and tell me you don't mean all the terrible things you've
+been saying. Of course I love you. Why, haven't I shown you that all
+along? Toni, don't let those silly women and their chatter hurt you. You
+can believe me, can't you? And I tell you I married you because I loved
+you&mdash;and Lady Saxonby and all the rest can go to Jericho!"</p>
+
+<p>He half thought he had won her ear; in another moment he felt sure he
+would have had her in his arms, sobbing her heart out&mdash;since she must
+cry&mdash;in the safe shelter of his breast; but at that moment the young
+butler, deceived by the low voices into thinking the room empty, entered
+briskly to fulfil his duties; and Toni sprang up before Andrews had time
+to advance round the big screen, which fortunately hid her from his
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Owen swore softly under his breath at this most untimely interruption;
+but Toni was already half-way to the door, and he judged it best to
+engage Andrews in conversation about the wine and leave Toni to seek the
+sanctuary she desired.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The next day the Secretary of the Badminton Club received Mrs. Rose's
+resignation; and there, for the present, the matter ended.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>When Toni related the episode of Lady Martin's note to Eva Herrick, the
+latter asked a startling question.</p>
+
+<p>"Toni, why don't you leave your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave my husband?" Toni stared at her, wide-eyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Oh, anyone can see you're neither of you happy. Mr. Rose knows all
+the time that he ought not to have married you just to get even with
+that horrid Saxonby woman, and anyhow you're not the least bit in the
+world suited to one another."</p>
+
+<p>Toni was very pale.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure of it." Eva threw away the cigarette she held and sat upright.
+"You ought to have married a man who would love you whatever you
+did&mdash;who wouldn't want you to be booky and clever, but would think you
+perfect in every way. Not a man who feels himself superior to you half
+the time, and finds fault the other half."</p>
+
+<p>"But my husband doesn't find fault." She spoke in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't he? Well, it sounds like it," said Eva, piling the cushions
+behind her curly golden head. "I heard him scolding you over a book
+you'd mislaid one day, and he nearly jumped down your throat about Miss
+Loder this very morning."</p>
+
+<p>"That was entirely my fault," said Toni quickly; and Eva saw that if she
+were to succeed in her malicious project she must change her plan of
+attack.</p>
+
+<p>Being as quick-witted as she was cruel, she adopted a new method
+instantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. I was only joking. Seriously, I think Mr. Rose is
+wonderfully good. I'm sure it would hurt him awfully to think he had
+been unkind or impatient with you, Toni. After all, he married you to
+please himself, didn't he? And it's not a bit fair to you to visit it on
+your head afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"To visit&mdash;what, Eva?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I hardly know what to say." Eva smiled subtly to herself. "Of
+course, it may be only my imagination. I daresay you make Mr. Rose as
+happy as any woman could do. I expect he works too hard and that's why
+he looks so worried."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he look worried?" queried Toni softly. "I suppose I ought to have
+noticed it&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But you didn't?" Eva leaned across and patted the girl's arm. "Never
+mind, dear, it's probably my fancy. I daresay Mr. Rose is not a very
+lively person at any time&mdash;and, after all, one can't always be feeling
+cheerful."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," said Toni, who, like other primitive people, was apt to be
+disconcertingly outspoken, "you mean that Owen&mdash;my husband&mdash;isn't happy.
+At least&mdash;is that what you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose I did mean that," said Eva with pretended reluctance.
+"But it's all nonsense&mdash;I had no business to say it, Toni. Do forget it,
+will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No." Toni spoke very quietly. "I shan't forget it. But I want to know a
+little more. You think Owen is unhappy because he is married to me. Do
+you think he would be happier if I went away and left him? Is that what
+you are too kind, too generous to imply?"</p>
+
+<p>Eva's heart gave a sudden throb. Her first aim in life ever since the
+prison gates clanged behind her at the end of her term of confinement
+had been to do some harm in the world, to make up for the injury which
+she considered had been done to her; and no weak emotions such as pity
+or generosity could be allowed to hold her back.</p>
+
+<p>To her oddly-perverted mind, it seemed that if she could persuade Toni
+to leave her husband, to wreck her home and her future, she would have
+got "her own back" to a considerable degree; and she had a double motive
+in her hatred of Owen, who, as she well knew, distrusted her personally
+and disliked her friendship with his young wife.</p>
+
+<p>Any person connected with a big penal settlement will tell you that
+there is never any certainty as to the moral result of a term of
+imprisonment on any given prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>To some natures, the punishment may be both a deterrent and an excellent
+lesson, while to others the educational value may be great and the
+deterrent effect almost <i>nil</i>; but in one class of prisoner&mdash;the class
+to which Eva Herrick belonged&mdash;imprisonment wakes only the worst and
+basest of all emotions, a desire, perforce stifled during the period of
+punishment, for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>That she had suffered, on the whole, justly, never weighed for one
+instant with Eva herself. That she had been guilty of a crime was less
+than nothing. What did weigh with her was the fact that she had been
+found out, and forced to undergo a humiliating and degrading punishment;
+and from the moment when she came to her senses after the swoon which
+had mercifully cut short the scene in court, Eva Herrick's whole being
+had been in revolt against a world where such things were allowed to be.</p>
+
+<p>Her whole pleasure, indeed, while in prison, had been found in planning
+how, in the future, she could render miserable the life of the husband
+who had not, so she considered, stood by her; and it was a bitter
+disappointment to her to find that try as she might she could not
+torture him to the breaking-point.</p>
+
+<p>He met her most poisoned and bitter shafts with a patience which
+nothing, it seemed, could pierce. When she taunted him, he only smiled;
+and when she reviled him he left her presence; so that the only way in
+which she could win any satisfaction was by detailing to him exaggerated
+accounts of the treatment she had received in prison.</p>
+
+<p>These stories, untrue and impossible as many of them were, made him
+wince, not knowing indeed how cunning was the invention behind them; and
+many times when she was more maddening than usual, Herrick schooled
+himself to patience by reminding himself of the drastic punishments
+which had apparently been meted out to her.</p>
+
+<p>When at length she found that Jim was impervious to her stings, Eva
+looked around her for another victim; and found one in the person of
+Toni Rose.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take Eva long to read, more or less correctly, the position
+between Toni and her husband; and although she was quite shrewd enough
+to realize that the situation would probably adjust itself in time, Eva
+was determined to prevent any such adjustment with every weapon in her
+power.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily it proved only too easy for a woman such as she was to direct
+the affair pretty much as she willed it; and her suggestion to Toni that
+she should leave her husband had been carefully led up to by scores of
+insinuations, of carelessly-dropped hints, and scraps of repeated
+conversations heard on the subject of the Roses' married life.</p>
+
+<p>She was careful to let none of the elation she felt escape her as she
+replied to Toni's speech after a significant pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Put that way, it sounds dreadful," she said, pretending to shudder. "I
+don't think I really meant that. I only thought that perhaps&mdash;your
+husband is a writer, you know, an artist&mdash;with the artistic temperament,
+I suppose; and everyone knows that genius is difficult to live with."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care for myself," said Toni hastily. "I could always be
+happy&mdash;with Owen&mdash;but if you really think I spoil his life&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't say that, dear." Eva spoke soothingly. "I daresay I am
+entirely mistaken. Of course, you know best how you get on; and after
+all Mr. Rose is so keen on his work he hasn't much time for outside
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what Owen would say&mdash;or do&mdash;if I left him?" She spoke
+musingly; and Eva's heart beat tumultuously as she noted the result of
+her tentative suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Go after you and bring you back, I expect." Such was Eva's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there wouldn't be much use in going," said Toni quickly, and Eva
+read the relief in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;not if you went like that." Her tone was purposely cryptic.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;how else should I go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if you really wanted to go&mdash;&mdash;" Eva broke off with a laugh. "Don't
+be so silly, Toni. You talk as though I had really meant my stupid
+suggestion."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you mean it?" Toni's gaze was disconcerting.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course not. Come, Toni, let's have tea. I'll send for Jim, too.
+It's getting quite dark."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," said Toni. "Eva, if I made up my mind to leave
+Owen&mdash;for his own sake&mdash;how could I prevent him fetching me back?"</p>
+
+<p>"You really mean it?" Eva's tone sent a chill through Toni's veins.
+"Supposing you really saw that it was for Owen's good&mdash;that by remaining
+with him you were spoiling his life, ruining his career&mdash;making him
+unhappy, in short&mdash;you mean in <i>that</i> case how could you prevent him
+searching for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Toni said, her eyes on the fire, "that is what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one way, Toni." She was careful to speak lightly. "If you
+went away with another man&mdash;&mdash;" for a moment even her nerve failed her,
+but she conquered her weakness and went on calmly, and her grey Irish
+eyes were as cold as ice as she looked at Toni. "Then your husband would
+probably divorce you, and devote himself to his career."</p>
+
+<p>For a second Toni's pallor alarmed her. All the girl's colour died away,
+leaving her curiously white round the mouth, a sign of emotion to which
+Eva was not blind; and Mrs. Herrick wondered, uneasily, if Toni were
+about to faint.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni was in no fainting mood.</p>
+
+<p>"You think that, Eva? You think that if I were gone&mdash;out of his life
+altogether&mdash;Owen would forget me and find happiness in his work?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, yes. Oh, Toni, I know I seem unkind," said Eva, Judas-like.
+"Believe me I wouldn't have told you if you hadn't pressed me. It only
+struck me that perhaps&mdash;you will forgive me, dear?&mdash;perhaps you didn't
+manage to make your husband very happy&mdash;and if you really did want him
+to forget you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't make him happy," said Toni with a sigh. "It is funny, isn't
+it, when I love him so much? But you're right in one thing. I am
+spoiling his life; and my going away won't help him unless I go for
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"If you merely go, without any apparent reason, your husband will be
+miserable, unsettled, give up everything to find you, to bring you
+back&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was startled by a sudden exclamation from Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Eva, if you're so sure he'd want me back&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you go?" Eva smiled a little, patiently. "Don't you see,
+dear, if you go like that, Mr. Rose will be so alarmed, so upset, that
+of course he'll want to find you. He would think you'd perhaps run away
+because you were unhappy, and he'd do all he could to get you back on
+your own account. Oh, I know Mr. Rose is very fond of you,
+Toni"&mdash;somehow her very inflection made Toni's conception of Owen's love
+shrivel into nothingness&mdash;"and he couldn't rest if he thought you were
+unhappy. He would bring you back, and things would be just the same
+again. He would do his work, helped by Miss Loder, I suppose, and you
+would go on as you are now. After all, Toni, you know you have a lot to
+be grateful for."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at the girl to see how far she might safely go, but Toni
+never moved; and Eva was emboldened to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a lovely home&mdash;Greenriver is quite a show place, and after
+all, you and your husband never quarrel, do you? So that on the whole
+you'd be a little fool if you gave up all these very substantial
+benefits. Eh, Toni?"</p>
+
+<p>Eva was clever. She knew exactly the spur to apply to Toni's flagging
+mood, and she smiled to herself when she heard Toni's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I would hesitate to give up Greenriver&mdash;and all the
+rest&mdash;to make my husband happy?"</p>
+
+<p>And looking at her Eva knew she would not. Mistaken, Toni might often
+be&mdash;foolish, self-willed, a little intolerant of advice; but she would
+never be selfish. If she could be convinced that her departure would be
+beneficial to the man she loved, she would certainly leave him, though
+it broke her heart to go.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not." Eva spoke a trifle vaguely. "But you couldn't go,
+Toni. It would be impossible. Why, your husband would think you were
+mad."</p>
+
+<p>"Would he? Perhaps I am." Toni's smile was a little melancholy.
+"Sometimes I think this is all a dream&mdash;that I'm not Owen's wife at
+all&mdash;that Greenriver and the gardens and everything else are merely
+imagination. I can't believe it's true. If it is, how is it that
+everything has gone so terribly, horribly wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>She paused, gazing before her with puzzled eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought once that if I married Owen I should be the happiest girl in
+the world. But I'm not. I'm the most miserable. I&mdash;sometimes I wish&mdash;oh,
+I don't know what I wish!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Toni"&mdash;Eva rose as though to change the subject&mdash;"you mustn't be
+so despondent. Let me ring the bell&mdash;it's nearly five, and I'm sure you
+want a cup of tea."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet, Eva." In Toni's voice was a new note, a note of decision,
+which Eva's ear was quick to detect. "When you say I should go away with
+another man, who had you in your mind?"</p>
+
+<p>A moment Eva waited. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"I meant the man who has the misfortune to adore you, Toni, the man who
+gave up everything, his practice, his prospects, London, everything, for
+your sake. You know the man I mean. You know as well as I do that
+Leonard Dowson adores the very ground you walk on."</p>
+
+<p>"Leonard Dowson!" Toni smiled drearily. "Think of leaving <i>Owen</i> for
+Leonard Dowson!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know he's not in the same class," said Eva, with ostentatious
+frankness, "and I don't for a moment suppose he would make you happy.
+I'm afraid I wasn't thinking much of you, dear, when I mentioned his
+name. Somehow I forgot that you have as much right to happiness as
+anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>My</i> happiness doesn't matter," said Toni for the second time. "But I
+think you are wrong, Eva. Mr. Dowson never thinks of me&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't he?" Eva permitted herself to smile. "My dear child, he's just
+crazy about you. He told me all about it one day when you weren't
+there&mdash;how he'd loved you for years and years and was heart-broken when
+you refused him. He only came down here to be near you, and if you would
+only smile on him a little he would do anything in the world for you."</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't give up his work for me, Eva."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you haven't heard of his good luck." Eva had carefully refrained
+from the announcement until the moment was ripe. "He has just come into
+some money&mdash;nearly two hundred a year; and he can chuck dentistry
+to-morrow, if he likes."</p>
+
+<p>"Even then, he wouldn't want a scandal&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Toni, I could shake you," said Eva, sitting down with a thump on
+the sofa near her. "Because some people have not got red blood in their
+veins, you think no one has. I tell you Leonard Dowson would throw up
+everything to-morrow&mdash;brave any amount of scandal, if only you would go
+with him. He could take you abroad somewhere, America perhaps; and then,
+when your husband had got his divorce, you could marry Leonard and
+settle down as nicely as possible. Then Owen would be free to do as he
+chose with his life, and this unhappy state of things would be
+forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"Marry him? Marry Leonard Dowson?" Even yet Toni could not assimilate
+the idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why not? He is madly in love with you, Toni. He would give up
+everything in the world for you, and I honestly think that things are
+impossible as they are. But of course you know better than I do, and if
+you feel you must stay with your husband&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no." Toni's breath came in short gasps, as though she had been
+running. "I can't stay with Owen. I make him miserable, he's ashamed of
+me&mdash;I'm no good to him, only a bore&mdash;a useless creature who's tied to
+him ... if I were gone he would be really better off&mdash;and as you say, he
+could marry again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose he would do that," said Eva gently. "You know he <i>is</i>
+very fond of you, Toni&mdash;I got even Jim to acknowledge that the other
+night"&mdash;she watched Toni wince at the "even"&mdash;"and it's only that
+you&mdash;well, you're not quite his sort, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>Her words seemed to rouse Toni to anger.</p>
+
+<p>"You have said that already," she said sharply. "You needn't repeat it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, Toni." Eva's big eyes looked imploringly into hers. "I'm
+afraid I've said far too much to-day. After all, I have no earthly right
+to interfere, and you are quite justified in resenting my interference."</p>
+
+<p>Toni's sudden anger died away.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you were quite right," she said, sighing as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you said what you did&mdash;and I can't help knowing you are right.
+Only"&mdash;she shivered, and her face looked white and pinched&mdash;"somehow
+until I heard you saying it I hoped I myself was making a mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;you'll not do anything rash?" Eva was vaguely uneasy at the result
+of her plot.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I'll do nothing rash," said Toni, with a queer smile; and Eva's
+uneasiness deepened.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily for her their conversation was cut short at that moment by the
+entrance of Herrick, accompanied by Olga, and followed by the maid
+bearing the tea-tray.</p>
+
+<p>When the lamp had been lighted and the maid had withdrawn, Herrick shot
+a glance at the face of his wife's visitor; and he saw at once that
+something was wrong.</p>
+
+<p>He did not betray his knowledge by the slightest sign; but talked to the
+two girls in his usual kindly, whimsical fashion while Eva dispensed
+tea.</p>
+
+<p>"All the boats are really put away for the winter now," he said
+presently. "I think yours&mdash;and ours&mdash;have been the last, Mrs. Rose. We
+have had such wonderfully mild weather; but I'm afraid we shan't get any
+more boating this season."</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't we?" Toni sighed faintly. "I'm sorry&mdash;I have enjoyed the river
+so much."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We've had a glorious summer. But after all the winter will soon
+pass and we'll be getting the boats out again."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope we shan't be here when it's time to get the boats out," said Eva
+crisply. "A winter here would just about finish me off."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's not bad," Herrick rejoined. "Sometimes it is quite pleasant
+all the year round&mdash;though we get a fog now and again, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't propose remaining to sample the fogs," said Eva quietly. "Of
+course you will do as you choose, but seeing I've never been properly
+warm for months&mdash;we don't have nice fires in prison, you know&mdash;I think
+you owe it to me to take me somewhere sunny this winter."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick's face clouded, as it always did at any reference to Eva's
+prison life; and Toni felt desperately uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>She put down her cup and rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I must really be going home, Eva. I didn't mean to stay to tea."</p>
+
+<p>"Must you go? I'm sorry. I hoped you'd stay to dinner and enliven us a
+little. Jim and I don't have very jovial evenings, do we, Jim? Sometimes
+I think I might as well be back in my cell."</p>
+
+<p>"Eva&mdash;don't." Herrick spoke quietly, and his wife laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Jim, why be so squeamish? If Mrs. Rose doesn't mind associating
+with jail-birds, I don't see why you should. I'm thinking of writing a
+book on my experiences in prison, Toni. Do you think Mr. Rose would
+collaborate with me&mdash;lick my raw stuff into shape, so to speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Before Toni could reply, Herrick interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are going, Mrs. Rose, I'll take you across the river in the old
+punt, and see you home along the towing-path. It is the shortest way,
+but it's lonely at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Mr. Herrick. May Olga come, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. She would be very much hurt if she were left behind."</p>
+
+<p>"How silly you are over that great dog of yours, Jim." Mrs. Herrick
+included even dogs in her universal hatred nowadays. "I declare I wish
+someone would poison the beast."</p>
+
+<p>This threat, uttered not for the first time, made Herrick set his lips
+firmly, and for once his wife regretted her taunt.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not going to do it," she said with a laugh. "Good-bye, Toni, if
+you must go. I'll come and look you up in a day or two."</p>
+
+<p>When Toni and Herrick were alone, walking along the towing-path in the
+darkness, Herrick turned to Toni with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose, I can't tell you how sorry I am&mdash;nor how grateful I am both
+to you and Mr. Rose for your kindness to my poor little wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't say that," begged Toni, her warm heart filled with pity for
+him. "I like your wife immensely&mdash;we are friends, you know, and you must
+not forget she has suffered terribly."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I suppose she has. And yet"&mdash;he spoke vehemently&mdash;"has she
+suffered so much as I have done&mdash;as I shall go on doing as long as we
+both live? Oh, I've no right to say it&mdash;I ought to be man enough to
+suffer in silence&mdash;but it's hard to bear her constant allusions to her
+prison life&mdash;her taunts&mdash;wouldn't you think she would be glad to forget
+all that, to put it behind her? Yet every day she talks of it. She never
+allows me to forget for one instant that she has been in hell&mdash;and every
+word she utters is an indictment of me, a reproach for the cowardice
+which let her go to prison."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Herrick&mdash;I'm so sorry...."</p>
+
+<p>The stammered words brought a smile to Herrick's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor child! I ought not to blame her&mdash;rather to pity her.... I <i>do</i>
+pity her with all my heart. But she won't let me sympathize with her.
+One word and she flies at me. She is unhappy here, yet she will make no
+plans for going abroad. She talks as though I kept her here, when God
+knows I would go to the ends of the earth if she wished it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know, but I think if you go on being patient with her," hazarded
+Toni, "she will come to her better self again. Don't you agree with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know." His tone was rather despairing. "Sometimes I fear both
+our lives are ruined. It's wonderful what an effect a wife has on her
+husband's life&mdash;and <i>vice vers&acirc;</i>, of course. Some people seem to think
+that a man and woman can 'live their own lives' quite apart from each
+other if they like. But they can't. When they are husband and wife they
+are bound to exercise an enormous influence on each other's life; and
+when two people are thoroughly out of sympathy with each other, life,
+for both of them, is bound to be a failure."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so?" Toni's mind had flown to her own unhappiness, but for
+once Herrick did not read what was in her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Don't you? Now, looking at it dispassionately, how do you expect
+Eva and me ever to re-discover the happiness we have so effectually
+lost? Remember, Eva is convinced that all her sufferings are directly
+due to me. She persists in thinking that if I had chosen I could either
+have prevented her case ever going to court, or could have taken the
+blame myself and gone to prison in her stead. The consequence is, she
+hates me, resents my presence near her, and will bear me an undying
+grudge all the days of her life."</p>
+
+<p>"But you couldn't have taken the blame."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not, but women are often illogical, and Eva certainly is. No,
+the fact remains that I represent, to Eva, the coward who condemned her
+to a severe and mortifying punishment; and she won't forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>"But in time&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes I am inclined to think it's a hopeless experiment&mdash;our life
+together." Herrick spoke sombrely. "I have been wondering seriously of
+late whether it would not be better to make over all my property to my
+wife and rid her of my presence, I believe she would be happier by
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;get a divorce?" faltered Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"A divorce?" In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "Oh dear no. I don't
+think I need take quite such drastic measures as that. What I thought
+was to set Eva up somewhere, in some new place, where she could start
+afresh, and then take myself off quietly&mdash;to California, or New Zealand,
+or somewhere of the sort, where an able-bodied fellow like me can be
+sure of picking up a living."</p>
+
+<p>"But would Eva let you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, there's the rub!" He spoke in a lighter tone. "When it came to the
+point she might think that even an unsatisfactory husband was better
+than none. But, speaking seriously, I believe two people so incompatible
+as we two are better apart."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" In the dark Toni's eyes were frightened. "Don't you think,
+then, that one ought to stand by one's own actions? I mean if a husband,
+say, honestly thought it would be better for his wife to be free from
+him, would you advise him to go and leave her? Or the other way about.
+Should the wife go, if she was sure that by staying she did the man
+harm?"</p>
+
+<p>Herrick was tired, disheartened by the frequent scenes with his wife,
+depressed by the grim autumn night; therefore for once his sympathies
+wore dormant and his intuition slept.</p>
+
+<p>He had no idea that Toni was speaking personally, that she was calling
+on him to help her to make the most important decision of her life; and
+he was, moreover, in a mood which found the idea of self-sacrifice, of
+renunciation of one's own happiness strangely attractive.</p>
+
+<p>"If he&mdash;or she&mdash;were practically convinced that departure would be the
+best way out&mdash;for both&mdash;why then I should say by all means go." In the
+darkness he did not see Toni's sudden deathly pallor. "Of course it
+would always be rather hard to be quite sure on that point; but in a
+case where one could be more or less certain&mdash;well, perhaps I'm wrong,
+but I should say the step would be thoroughly justifiable."</p>
+
+<p>For a perceptibly long moment Toni did not speak. Then she changed the
+subject abruptly by asking her companion the time; and after striking
+one or two matches he was able to assure her that it was just six.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then Owen will be back." She hastened her steps as she spoke, and
+there was little more conversation between them as they hurried along.</p>
+
+<p>At the gate he bade her farewell, refusing an invitation to enter; and
+Toni went through the garden into the house, there to be met by a
+telegram from Owen announcing that he had been delayed in town and would
+not be home in time for dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Toni was oddly relieved by this fact. She had an important matter to
+think out; and for once Owen's absence was welcome.</p>
+
+<p>She dined alone, a rather forlorn little figure in the big dining-room;
+and after her hurried meal she went into the drawing-room and stood
+looking out over the lawn with unseeing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The night had turned warm, unseasonably so for November, and Toni
+suddenly felt a great desire to be out in the air among the trees and
+shrubs, which were faintly perceptible in the light of a thin and waning
+moon.</p>
+
+<p>Kate, surprised by an imperative summons, brought a wrap as directed;
+and calling Jock to accompany her, Toni stepped out of the long window
+on to the gravel outside.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Kate stood watching her young mistress, struck by something
+a little desolate in her appearance; but when Toni had moved slowly away
+down the path, Jock gambolling beside her, Kate withdrew from the window
+and returned to her interrupted supper.</p>
+
+<p>Toni paced slowly up and down for some minutes, while the night air
+played over her bared head. It was less oppressively warm out here than
+in the house, and into Toni's nature-loving heart there stole a sudden
+sense of comfort; as though all the living things around her were
+whispering vague words of love and cheer to her forlorn spirit.</p>
+
+<p>However miserable she might be, Toni was never quite so wretched out of
+doors. It was as though some vital part of her responded to the call of
+her great mother, the earth; as though in her veins ran some fluid akin
+to the sap which coursed through the branches of the trees. Indoors,
+between four walls, she might feel grief as a crushing burden; but once
+outside, with only the vast sky above her head, her sorrow invariably
+lightened; and to-night was no exception.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of half an hour's quiet pacing up and down the gravel walk
+Toni felt herself calmed and strengthened. She told herself there was no
+need at present to dwell further on the matter which filled her
+thoughts. She would banish it from her mind for the time being; and with
+this wise resolution, she turned to retrace her steps up the avenue
+towards the house.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Jock barked loudly, following the bark with a low growl; and
+Toni's heart gave a great jump.</p>
+
+<p>She had strolled almost to the big iron gates leading to the road; and
+she wondered for a moment whether a tramp had found his way into the
+grounds on some nefarious errand. She stood still, thinking as she did
+so that she heard a rustle in a bush close at hand, and then Jock
+growled again, a fierce, low rumbling in his throat, which frightened
+Toni almost out of her wits.</p>
+
+<p>With a voice which would shake, she called out to the dog; and then
+there was a sudden silence which was almost more sinister. She had laid
+her hand on the Airedale's collar at the sound of his first bark; but
+feeling really nervous now, she was just about to let him go when there
+was a half-apologetic cough from the bushes behind her, and a voice she
+knew said, rather timidly:</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose! Please don't be alarmed&mdash;it's only me&mdash;Leonard Dowson."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Toni was so surprised by the discovery of the unknown marauder's
+identity that she involuntarily released her hold on the dog's collar;
+but Jock's sudden dart across the path, and his snarl of anger as he
+confronted the person whom in his doggy heart he took for an enemy,
+awoke Toni to a sense of the position.</p>
+
+<p>"Jock! Come here! <i>Jock</i>, do you hear me?" Her tone showed Jock that,
+much as appearances were against the intruder, his canine instinct had
+been at fault; and he returned, unwillingly, to his mistress, wearing
+the slightly sulky look which an intelligent dog wears when he has made
+an unavoidable mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose, I assure you I did not mean to frighten you." Mr. Dowson
+emerged rather hastily from the shadow of the bushes, and advanced, hat
+in hand. "I&mdash;I am really most awfully sorry if I have startled you.
+I ... I would have called out sooner, but I trusted you would not
+perceive me."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Dowson!" Toni's voice was frankly dismayed. "What are you doing
+here? Were you coming to see me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I really don't know." Mr. Dowson moved a step forward and then gave
+an involuntary jump as Jock growled mildly, under his breath as it were.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;be quiet, Jock&mdash;it's so late&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know it's late." Suddenly Mr. Dowson lost his head. "But I
+couldn't stop away. I&mdash;I've been here heaps of times&mdash;at
+night&mdash;generally I've stopped outside the gates, but once or twice I had
+to come in.... I&mdash;I couldn't stop away. It drove me mad to think of you
+here&mdash;and I had to come, just to be near you, if I couldn't see
+you&mdash;speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;" Toni began, but he cut her short.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can't understand, of course! You've never understood&mdash;you've
+never known how much I've loved you&mdash;oh, it's no use being angry! I know
+quite well I've no right to speak. You're married, a great lady now, by
+all I hear&mdash;but I love you&mdash;Toni&mdash;oh, my God, how I love you!" The sweat
+stood in great drops on his brow as he hurried on, a certain rough
+eloquence in his words. "After all, I'm a man, I've a right to love
+you&mdash;or any woman&mdash;and I've loved you now for years&mdash;it's not something
+new, just a passing attraction&mdash;it's part of me, something in my very
+bones, as near me as breathing or sleeping or thinking&mdash;I'm simply eaten
+up with love for you, Toni. You're my life, my everything. I'd die for
+you, I'd go through fire end water for you, I'd do anything in the
+world, bad or good, dishonourable or splendid, if you'd be kind to me,
+smile on me, let me kiss your little feet...."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, swept off her balance by his passion, said nothing, but stood
+opposite to him, panting a little; and after a second he went on with
+his wild confession.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know I'm wrong, I know you're hating me, despising me for telling
+you all this, but it's too much for me. I can't bear it alone any
+longer. It's driving me mad, Toni, mad, do you hear? At night I dream of
+you&mdash;sometimes I dream that you've been kind to me, that I've kissed
+you&mdash;kissed your little mouth, held you in my arms ... and then I wake
+and know you're another man's wife, and it makes the blood rush to my
+head and I see red, Toni, red...."</p>
+
+<p>Something in his excitement warned the girl that she must soothe him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Leonard." In that moment she reverted to the days of their early
+friendship. "Don't speak so wildly. You&mdash;you frighten me."</p>
+
+<p>He passed his hand over his brow, and when he spoke his voice was a
+shade quieter.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't frighten you for the world, Toni, you know that. I love you
+far too well ... oh, Toni, is it quite hopeless! Isn't there a glimmer
+of pity in your heart for me? Won't you ever give me a thought...."</p>
+
+<p>"Leonard, how can I?" She spoke in a low voice, all Eva's horrid
+suggestions rushing over her in a flood. "I'm married; I can't ever be
+anything to you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know you're married." He caught his breath in a gasp. "But
+still&mdash;oh, Toni, you wouldn't come away with me, would you? I've got
+some money now. I'd be able to give you things, and I'd work for you
+till I died...."</p>
+
+<p>At another moment Toni would have found occasion to wonder at his
+temerity in making the suggestion. She did not know how his imagination,
+fired by Eva's insinuations, played about the figure of Owen Rose's wife
+as the unloved victim of a man's callousness; and although she could see
+that Leonard Dowson was in deadly earnest, she had no conception of the
+sincerity of his belief that she had been wronged, trapped into marriage
+by a man who cared little for her, and neglected her openly.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the manner in which the situation had been presented to Dowson
+by Eva Herrick; and in his genuine acceptance of her story lay Dowson's
+best excuse for his wild plan.</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I couldn't come away with you, Leonard." In spite of her desire
+to set Owen free, Toni's whole soul revolted at the idea of such
+treachery. "I'm married, you know, and I couldn't leave my husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" in his despair the young man pressed still nearer, and again
+Jock uttered a warning growl. "I know you are married, but still&mdash;you're
+not happy&mdash;your husband isn't, either, by what I hear. You'd be wronging
+nobody&mdash;you've no children to consider"&mdash;in some ways Mr. Dowson was as
+primitive as Toni&mdash;"if you had, it would be different, but you've only
+yourself to think about. This life doesn't suit you, Toni. It cramps
+you, worries you. Oh, I heard all about that Badminton Club affair, and
+everyone knows you don't hit it off with the bigwigs of the
+neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you that?" For a moment Dowson quailed before her tone; but he
+rallied bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what does it matter who told me? It's true, isn't it? Why, you look
+different, Toni. You're not the lively, jolly, animated girl you used to
+be&mdash;all smiles and jokes. Toni, you're paler, and thinner&mdash;you've grown
+quiet, almost sad. It's because you're not happy&mdash;and&mdash;and I'd die for
+your happiness any day."</p>
+
+<p>His deadly earnestness could not fail to win response. Here at last was
+a passion unveiled before Toni's wondering eyes; and all at once the
+thing which had seemed impossible came down to the level of the things
+which&mdash;sometimes&mdash;happen.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a man who only asked to serve her; and if by accepting his
+service she could free her husband from the chain which bound him, all
+unwilling, to her, was it not the act of a coward to refuse?</p>
+
+<p>It may be said, and with truth, that Toni's view of the matter was
+perverted, distorted beyond all bounds of reason and of common sense. To
+leave her husband, to whom in spite of all she clung with every fibre of
+her being, for another man for whom she had not even the smallest atom
+of affection, was surely the most insane, inexcusable action in the
+world; and would after all only result in a negligible good, since the
+insult paid, to the man she betrayed would quite outweigh any relief in
+the freedom thus obtained.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, she would be wronging Leonard Dowson; since to go away with
+him would lead him to suppose a degree of affection on Toni's part which
+was in reality non-existent; but Toni was not thinking of Dowson in this
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>There is no woman so absolutely ruthless towards the mass of mankind as
+the woman who loves one man completely. In this affair Owen was the only
+man who counted in Toni's mind; and she thought of Leonard Dowson merely
+as a convenient tool with which to effect her husband's release from the
+position he apparently found unendurable. That the reckoning might come
+afterwards, when Leonard should see himself as Toni saw him, she did not
+pause to consider. Indeed, on this occasion her thoughts were so wild
+and chaotic that she could hardly be said to have considered the matter
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Toni?" Her long silence made him uneasy, and he paled, fearing he
+had angered her by his persistence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" She gazed at him absently for a moment, then woke suddenly to
+life. "Leonard, are you seriously asking me to go away with you? You
+mean you would take me away, and let my husband divorce me&mdash;for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Toni." He spoke firmly; and, if for a moment all his lifelong
+visions of a respectable London practice, prosperity, the respect of
+those around him, seemed to rise up reproachfully before his eyes, he
+meant his words absolutely.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you really do it? You must be very fond of me," said Toni simply;
+and the young man was emboldened to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I would do it, and of course I am fond of you." His voice
+shook a little. "Toni do you really mean that you will think about
+it&mdash;will give me the tiniest fraction of hope to keep me alive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I will think about it." She spoke slowly. "But&mdash;I can't tell
+you&mdash;now. You must go away and let me think things out."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think too long," he besought her, fearing that prudence might
+come with reflection. "When will you tell me, Toni? To-morrow? Will you
+write to me? One word&mdash;yes&mdash;will do; and I'll make arrangements at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment his earnestness startled her.</p>
+
+<p>"You could do it&mdash;like that&mdash;at once? Leave your practice and everything
+else at a moment's notice?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd leave all I have in the world at a second's notice," said Mr.
+Dowson resolutely; and Toni could not but believe in his sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well." She felt tired suddenly. "I will write&mdash;to-morrow. But&mdash;but
+you won't be angry if it's <i>no</i>?" Toni added childishly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd never be angry&mdash;with you." The young man's commonplace features
+were irradiated by a great light, and for a moment one could forget his
+mean stature and ready-made clothing. "You will never understand&mdash;you
+couldn't&mdash;what you are to me; but before God," said Leonard Dowson
+solemnly, "I'd devote my life, my soul, all I have to your service, and
+never ask for thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you will go now, I will write to you," said Toni, rather
+wearily; and his passion was checked by the fatigue in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go now&mdash;at once&mdash;and you&mdash;you will write, Toni? I'll count every
+moment till I get your letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will write," she reiterated dully, wishing he would go and leave
+her alone with her thoughts; and without another word he turned and
+vanished into the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>When the sound of his footsteps had died away and all was silence, Toni
+shivered with a feeling of deadly chill.</p>
+
+<p>Leonard Dowson's appearance, following so closely on Eva Herrick's
+suggestions, had given her a queer, eerie sensation of awe, as though
+some inexorable fate were pointing out to her a way of escape from the
+situation she was beginning to find intolerable. She never doubted the
+man's affection for her; and she fully believed that he would indeed die
+in her service. And the very touch of fanaticism in her love for Owen,
+which made her feel that it would be a small thing indeed to die for him
+if by dying she might give him happiness, helped her to realize the
+strength of the pallid, unromantic young dentist's devotion.</p>
+
+<p>True, Toni was too innately sensible a person&mdash;perhaps it would be
+fairer to say her love of life and its "sweet things" was too strong&mdash;to
+allow her to contemplate death as a solution of the problem of her
+unsuccessful marriage.</p>
+
+<p>She understood, too, with a queer flash of spiritual insight which was
+foreign to her usual simple vision, that her death would bring Owen only
+a great sorrow; and in her darkest moments she never dreamed of courting
+death.</p>
+
+<p>A sudden bark from Jock made her start; and looking round she found Owen
+almost at her elbow. He had dismissed his taxi at the gate, and was
+walking briskly up the dark avenue, when Jock's vociferous welcome broke
+the night silence and brought him to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, old boy, what are you doing here? That you, Andrews?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni moved forward from the shadow, and beneath the dark cloak which had
+deceived him he caught the pale glimmer of her skirt.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Owen. It is I, Toni."</p>
+
+<p>"You? Why, what are you doing here? Oh, I see&mdash;you brought Jock for a
+run. Well, it's quite warm to-night&mdash;but the air has the feel of rain."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I thought I felt a drop just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you? Well, we'll get indoors. I'm sorry I am so late, dear, but
+there's been trouble at the office. Oh, nothing much, only Hart, our new
+sub-editor, had chosen to return an article we'd commissioned, because
+he said it was not up to our usual level."</p>
+
+<p>"And wasn't it?" Toni's forlorn heart welcomed his friendly tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it was. It was about the best stuff young Lewis had ever
+turned out&mdash;and a fool like Hart, whose taste is distinctly precious,
+hasn't the wit to appreciate good, clean, straightforward English. He
+likes a mass of involved, wordy stuff that only the high-brows can
+understand."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, anyway we sent for it back in double-quick time; but Lewis had
+taken the huff and didn't want us to have it. So Hart had to
+apologize&mdash;which <i>he</i> didn't enjoy&mdash;and altogether the place was in a
+ferment."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's all right now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thank Heaven. I say, Toni; I went to see old Vincent about my arm
+to-day, and he says it is fairly normal again. I'll tell you a secret,
+shall I, Toni? As soon as the book is finished I'm going to start a
+play."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you?" Her voice sounded cold, though it was only vague; and her
+unusual lack of interest rather hurt Owen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll have our holiday first," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to
+do you out of that. How would you like a few weeks in Switzerland&mdash;for
+the winter sports? We could get off in about three weeks, and stay over
+Christmas. Then, when we came home"&mdash;in spite of himself his tone took a
+new enthusiasm&mdash;"I could get to work again."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going to write a play? But I didn't know you could write
+plays."</p>
+
+<p>Her childishness jarred his nerves, already worn with the minor
+vexations of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, <i>I</i> don't know until I try." He spoke rather curtly. "But I've
+talked it over with Barry, and we think it sounds possible."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. And if it were a success?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, our fortune would be made." He took her arm in friendly fashion.
+"Then we should have to go and live in town, Toni, take a big house and
+launch out. You'd like that, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should hate it," she said, so fervently that he dropped her arm in
+astonishment and turned to look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Hate it! Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hate big houses&mdash;and entertaining&mdash;and all the rest. I&mdash;I should
+loathe to have to go to receptions and give big parties&mdash;I'm never any
+good at talking, you know yourself I look a fool when anyone tries to
+talk to me."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you're a little silly," said Owen teasingly, "but you'll outgrow
+that. Here we are&mdash;come along in, Toni, it's really beginning to rain.
+Come in, Jock, and let me shut the door."</p>
+
+<p>Safely inside the hall, Owen turned to Toni.</p>
+
+<p>"Come into the library, will you, dear? I'll send for some sandwiches
+and a whisky and soda, I think. I hurried over dinner and I'm hungry."</p>
+
+<p>Toni gave the order at once, and then followed Owen to the library,
+where a cheerful fire burned, and in the mellow lamplight the room
+looked very stately and charming.</p>
+
+<p>She sat down on the low club-fender in front of the hearth and gazed
+into the leaping fire in silence, while Owen opened the letters which
+had accumulated during the day.</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments there was no sound save the crackling of paper and the
+soft little chatter of the fire. Then Owen crumpled up a letter he held
+and flung it from him with something which sounded like an oath.</p>
+
+<p>Toni, roused from her reverie, turned round to face him.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Owen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Matter enough, I think." His face wore a frown which boded ill for
+someone. "Toni, what have you been saying to Miss Loder to make her
+write this letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Saying to Miss Loder?" Every scrap of colour faded from her face, and
+Owen, watching, took her pallor for the ashy hue of guilt.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You've said something&mdash;I don't know what&mdash;but I should like to
+know at once, without prevarication, just what it is."</p>
+
+<p>"I've said nothing to Miss Loder." Her voice was unsteady&mdash;she too had
+felt her nerves jarred during this dreadful day.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see what she says." He stooped and picked up the letter,
+which he handed to Toni. "Read that, and tell me what you make of it."</p>
+
+<p>With fingers as cold as ice, and a memory in her heart of another letter
+which had brought her misery, Toni took the sheet, and read, in Miss
+Loder's firm, characteristic hand, the letter in which she requested to
+be allowed to resign her post.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not taking this step without serious thought," so the letter ran,
+"and for some time I determined to remain with you as long as you
+honoured me by your acquiescence in the arrangement. But learning, as I
+do, from a quite indisputable source, that my presence in your house is
+distasteful to Mrs. Rose, I have no option but to ask you to release me
+from a position which is not only unpleasant but undignified. If you
+will be kind enough to waive the question of notice, I would prefer to
+terminate the engagement at once."</p>
+
+<p>Here followed her signature, firm and clear as ever; and then came a
+postscript, surely a sign of disturbance on the part of so academic a
+scribe.</p>
+
+<p>"I would prefer to dissever all connection with the <i>Bridge</i> at the same
+time; but am willing to remain at the office until you find a suitable
+person for the post."</p>
+
+<p>Having read the letter Toni let it fall upon her knee, while she gazed
+dreamily into the red heart of the fire, her brain working slowly as she
+tried to understand the significance of Miss Loder's epistle.</p>
+
+<p>Something in her abstraction appeared to irritate Owen; for he came a
+step forward and spoke rather brusquely.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? You've read it? What have you to say about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"To say? Nothing." She lifted her eyes to his, and let them drop again,
+wearily, to the letter on her knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come, Toni, that's nonsense." Conscious of the irritation in his
+tone Owen paused, then spoke more gently. "Miss Loder is not the sort of
+person to imagine slights&mdash;she has been out in the world too long for
+that. But evidently she has clearly seen your antipathetic attitude
+towards her, and feels that in the circumstances she cannot remain."</p>
+
+<p>"I have never slighted Miss Loder." Toni, frightened, sounded defiant.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly. But you have shown <i>me</i> very plainly that you resented her
+presence; and I suppose you have not been very careful to hide
+your&mdash;well, prejudice&mdash;from the girl herself."</p>
+
+<p>"She has no right to say such things," said Toni, a warm flush creeping
+up beneath her ivory pallor. "I have never been rude to her, as you seem
+to think. I have always hated her, I admit&mdash;always, from the first time
+I saw her; but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you acknowledge that." Owen pounced on the admission. "But why,
+Toni? Why should you hate the girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? I don't know," said Toni recklessly. "Simply because I do, I
+suppose&mdash;because if I knew her for a hundred years I should never do
+anything but hate her."</p>
+
+<p>"And so, through your senseless jealousy, I'm to lose the best secretary
+I've ever had." Owen's tone was cold. "Really, Toni, I think you've gone
+a little too far this time. Quite apart from the fact that you must have
+behaved in a very childish and unladylike fashion to make the girl so
+uncomfortable, you have also done me an injury. If you didn't care for
+my work for its own sake&mdash;and I know neither the <i>Bridge</i> nor my book
+has ever appealed to you&mdash;still I think you might have sacrificed your
+personal feelings just a little and considered my position in the
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>From her lowly seat on the fender, Toni looked up at him with a strange
+expression in her eyes. In truth, at that moment Toni's soul was a
+battlefield of conflicting emotions. Anger, defiance, resentment at what
+she considered her husband's injustice, were mingled with a great dread
+of Owen's displeasure; and a wild, miserable despair at the thought of
+his conception of her as indifferent to his aims and ideals. At one and
+the same moment she longed to hurl defiance into his face, and to cast
+herself, weeping, into his arms. But she did neither, only looked up at
+him with that inscrutable expression in her eyes, waiting for him to
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I suppose I shall have to look out for another secretary." Owen was
+annoyed and showed it. "Thank Heaven, the proofs are about finished, but
+this knocks the play on the head. I suppose I'll find someone else to
+help me, but the whole thing is very absurd and annoying."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Toni's self-control, already shaken by the meeting with Dowson,
+deserted her completely.</p>
+
+<p>She rose from her seat like a small whirlwind and confronted Owen with
+scarlet cheeks and blazing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment, Owen. Don't say any more, please. Remember there is my
+side of the question to be considered." She faced him bravely. "You knew
+from the start that I was not literary or learned&mdash;I told you before we
+were married that I wasn't half clever enough for you, and you said it
+didn't matter. Then, when I'd tried to help you and failed, you got Miss
+Loder here in my place. You knew I disliked her, but you didn't know
+what cause I had for my dislike."</p>
+
+<p>Owen, silenced by her vehemence, stared at her speechlessly, and she
+went on hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"From the first she despised me. She saw I wasn't well-educated, that I
+wasn't even in her class. Oh, I know she is connected with all sorts of
+people, but she ought not to have let me see so plainly that she looked
+down on me as a nobody. She never lost a chance of humiliating me. Why,
+at lunch over and over again I've sat silent while you and she talked.
+If I ventured to speak, she listened, quite politely, till I had
+finished, and then went on talking as though I'd not spoken. For days
+and days I hardly saw you. You were shut up there with her, and I was
+all alone. I was no one to you, she was everyone. I was your wife, but
+she was your companion. Everyone noticed how I was left alone; they all
+knew you ignored me&mdash;I was miserable, but you never saw&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;miserable, Toni?" Owen spoke abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"How could I be anything else? You treated me always as a child&mdash;an
+unreasonable, ignorant child&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Owen interrupted her, but his tone was one meant to conciliate,
+for suddenly he thought he saw a way to end this deplorable scene. "And
+aren't you a child? A pretty, engaging child, I grant you&mdash;but
+still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No." It was her turn to interrupt, and white to the lips she faced him.
+"I am not a child any longer&mdash;I was until a short time ago, but you have
+changed me into a woman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Toni." Deceived by her quiet tone Owen laid his hand on her arm.
+"Don't grow up too quickly. Let me have my little child-wife a bit
+longer yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She shook his hand off with a violence for which he was not prepared,
+and he spoke angrily, his softer impulses dying away.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all, Toni, you needn't repulse me as if I were a snake. You
+<i>are</i> a child, after all, and a jolly bad-tempered one at that!" It was
+the first time he had ever used such a tone, and the girl's anger flared
+up in reply.</p>
+
+<p>"A child&mdash;of course&mdash;you think so, you always will&mdash;you and your
+precious secretary!" As she spoke Toni snatched up a packet of
+neatly-folded proofs from the table behind her. "This is her work, I
+suppose. Oh, how I <i>hate</i> her&mdash;and you&mdash;and the book! I'd like to
+destroy it all&mdash;to burn it up&mdash;like that!"</p>
+
+<p>With a passionate gesture she turned round and flung the bundle of
+papers into the very heart of the fire blazing on the hearth behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" She faced him again, her breast heaving, her eyes flashing
+stormily. "I'd burn it all&mdash;if I could. You like your book better than
+me&mdash;but I've burnt so much of it, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Owen had started forward as she spoke, but it was useless to attempt to
+save the burning sheets, and he fell back from the hearth with an
+exclamation of anger.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a little fool, Toni." He spoke coldly. "What, good do you
+expect to do by a piece of childish spite like that? Those proof sheets
+were all corrected&mdash;now the duplicate set will have to be revised, and
+as they are due in London to-morrow, I shall have to spend several hours
+over them before I can get to bed to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Toni, frightened now at what she had done, stood motionless during his
+speech. As he said the last words her rage melted suddenly into
+contrition.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen&mdash;I'm&mdash;I'm sorry." She spoke haltingly. "I&mdash;I didn't mean to give
+you trouble. Can I&mdash;will you let me help you&mdash;to make up for what I've
+done?"</p>
+
+<p>He raised his eyebrows and laughed rather bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's very kind of you, Toni, but I think I won't trouble you. Your
+repentance is a little belated, isn't it? And I think I prefer to keep
+my work to myself in future."</p>
+
+<p>The fire of her rage gave one last expiring flicker.</p>
+
+<p>"As usual," she said, "your work is more to you than I. I wonder you
+ever married, Owen. Marriage doesn't seem to mean a great deal to you."</p>
+
+<p>"I sometimes wonder, myself," he said drily. "Certainly I haven't found
+it a very enjoyable state of late. It seems you haven't, either. Perhaps
+we were in too great a hurry after all, Toni."</p>
+
+<p>He did not mean the words, which were wrung from him by his exasperation
+at her childish folly; but the effect on Toni was disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>She could not well turn paler than she was already; but a chill crept
+into her veins, congealing her blood as she stood in front of the fire.
+She shivered slightly; and then with an effort which made her feel
+physically exhausted, she moved slowly towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going, Toni?" Owen questioned her rather coldly.</p>
+
+<p>She turned round; and all the youth was gone from her face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to bed," she answered quietly. "Good-night, Owen."</p>
+
+<p>And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went slowly out
+of the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+
+<p>Quite calmly and quietly Toni went about her preparations for departure.</p>
+
+<p>The scene in the library had turned the scale in favour of her flight.
+Owen had openly avowed his opinion that their hasty marriage had been a
+mistake; and now that the passion of rage and jealousy which had
+possessed her had died away, Toni could see no other method of relieving
+the situation than by leaving Greenriver at once.</p>
+
+<p>She would go away with Leonard Dowson, thereby leaving the way open for
+Owen to divorce her. Her own future life occupied but the smallest
+fraction of her thoughts. Somehow her power of visualizing the future
+seemed to stop short with her departure from her home; and although she
+had a very clear vision of Owen, relieved from the incubus of her
+presence, and free to devote himself to the work which, she had
+persuaded herself, meant more to him than any purely domestic happiness,
+she never gave even a passing thought to her own existence when once she
+had severed the ties which bound her to the old house by the river.</p>
+
+<p>Very early in the morning of the day following her interview with Dowson
+she had posted a note to him. There was only one short sentence on the
+little sheet of paper&mdash;only three words; but she know it would be
+enough.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I will come. <span class="smcap">Toni</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>That was all; and yet as she wrote the little sentence, Toni had a
+queer, stifling sensation as though she were indeed signing her own
+death-warrant.</p>
+
+<p>The note would be delivered at lunch-time; and about two o'clock Toni
+began to look for an answer, though she knew it was hardly likely the
+young man would reply so promptly.</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock she went out into the garden. Her head was throbbing
+painfully, her cheeks burnt with a scarlet flush, and it was surely
+quicksilver and not blood which ran so swiftly through her veins.</p>
+
+<p>The day was unseasonably warm, and a slight fog hung about, making the
+air damp and heavy. Owen had gone to town immediately after lunch; and
+Toni was inexpressibly relieved by his absence.</p>
+
+<p>They had barely spoken to one another to-day. Owen was suffering from
+one of his worst neuralgic headaches, which at all times made him feel
+disinclined for speech; and Toni said little because she had nothing to
+say.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past three a note was delivered to her by a lad wheeling a
+bicycle; and when the messenger had withdrawn, Toni opened the grey
+envelope with fingers that shook. Inside she found a fairly long letter,
+which had evidently been written in haste, for the writing was untidy,
+and here and there a word was almost illegible.</p>
+
+<p>"I can hardly believe you will come, Toni." So ran the letter in which
+Leonard Dowson accepted, the happiness promised to him. "It seems too
+good, too exceedingly, marvellously good to be true. Yet your little
+letter lies before me, and you are too kind, too sincere to deceive me.
+So it is true; and the sun has risen on my grey and lonely life. Then
+listen, Toni. I have made all preparations for my own departure
+to-night. I have paid off my servants, the rent, and left everything in
+order; and I am in possession of a sufficient sum of money in notes and
+gold to enable us to live for some months in peace on the Continent. Now
+comes the question of our meeting. I have ascertained that the night
+boat leaves Dover about eleven; and in order to cross to Calais, on the
+way to Paris, we must take the boat train from Victoria. I think it will
+be safer to motor up to town rather than risk meeting any acquaintances
+in the train; and a car will be waiting at the corner of Elm Lane at six
+o'clock. That will give us sufficient time to catch the train, and will
+be pleasanter than the other mode of travelling. With regard to your
+luggage, do not trouble to bring more than a dressing-case; for it will
+be my pleasure and privilege in future to provide you with all you may
+desire. I have still much to do, so will bid you farewell until the
+precious moment which brings you to my side."</p>
+
+<p>He had evidently hesitated over his signature; there were one or two
+erasures; but at length he had written, his name firmly, without any
+attempt at a formal leave-taking.</p>
+
+<p>For perhaps a minute Toni stared at the two words "Leonard Dowson"; and
+a chill, as of anticipatory dread, swept over her at the sight of that
+firm, clerkly handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>Until this moment she had looked upon Leonard's proposal as the one and
+only means of setting Owen free. Once she had taken this step, had
+burned her boats, her husband would surely accept his freedom with a
+feeling of vast relief; and in spite of everything Toni had only one
+thought&mdash;that of Owen's good.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly she was afraid, with a purely human, selfish fear for
+herself. To what was she condemning herself by this unlawful flight?
+When once Owen had accepted her sacrifice, had set in order the
+machinery of the law which should give him his release, what would
+become of her? Would she be obliged to marry a man for whom she felt
+only a tepid friendship, unwarmed by the smallest coal from the fire of
+love? She had found life sad even when married to the man she loved; but
+what would it be to her as the wife of a man to whom she was almost
+completely indifferent?</p>
+
+<p>Quite unconsciously Toni was exaggerating Owen's attitude towards his
+marriage, was accepting as his last word a few irritable sentences wrung
+from him by fatigue and annoyance at having seen the corrected proofs
+destroyed in a fit of childish temper on the part of his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Far from regretting his marriage, Owen merely regretted Toni's
+unreasonableness in the matter of Miss Loder; and once that young woman
+was removed from the scene, Owen had no doubt that he and his wife would
+shake down again quite comfortably and forget the recent scenes between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni, who always meant exactly what she said, and unconsciously
+expected the same sincerity of speech from others, had taken Owen
+literally; and although for a moment a flood of human weakness had
+overtaken her as she gazed at Leonard Dowson's firm signature, she never
+really faltered in her purpose.</p>
+
+<p>When she had read the fatal letter once more, she went back into the
+house, and there she burned the document with almost mechanical
+forethought.</p>
+
+<p>Then she went upstairs to her room and carefully packed her
+dressing-bag. She did not take very much. Somehow it seemed unnecessary
+to burden herself with many things; and when she had finished her
+packing and had hidden the bag in her capacious wardrobe, she went
+downstairs and sat by the drawing-room fire to wait until Kate saw fit
+to bring tea.</p>
+
+<p>When, at the usual time, Kate entered, she moved across the room to
+light the lamps; but Toni sent her away with this part of her duty
+undone. To-night Toni wished to sit in the firelight. The fog had
+thickened in the last hour, and now it pressed against the windows like
+a chill, ghostly presence, hiding the garden, the river, the trees in
+thick and clammy folds. Looking across the room from her seat by the
+fire Toni shivered; and it seemed unkind of Fate to ordain that her last
+memories of Greenriver should be shrouded in the cold and creeping mist.</p>
+
+<p>She turned back to the fire with a shiver; and sat gazing into the
+leaping flames, while her tea grew cold and the hands of the clock crept
+inexorably onwards.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past five she must leave the house. True, the meeting-place was
+distant barely a quarter of a mile, but Owen might return early, and she
+had no desire to run the risk of meeting him.</p>
+
+<p>A short cut over the fields would both shorten the way and minimize the
+danger of running into her husband; and Toni looked up, startled, when
+the silver clock on the mantelpiece chimed the hour of five.</p>
+
+<p>Only thirty minutes, and her life at Greenriver would come to an end.
+Never again would she roam through the beautiful old house, never sit in
+this charming, panelled room, with its ghostly yet alluring fragrance as
+of bygone lavender and roses. Never again would she wander in the
+garden, revelling in the beauties of colour and scent and form which
+made so lovely a picture in the glorious setting of turf and river.
+Never again would she stroll beneath the tall trees in the summer dusk,
+while the owls hooted eerily and the nightingale murmured luscious
+love-songs to the dreaming roses. The river would know her no more;
+never again would her feet tread the towing-path where in the early
+morning she had been used to saunter, with her faithful Jock by her
+side&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Ah! At the thought of Jock, Toni uttered a little cry. She had forgotten
+him until this moment&mdash;his dear canine image blurred by a mist of
+thoughts and tears; but now she remembered him only too well; and her
+heart was pierced by the thought of his fidelity&mdash;to be, alas, so poorly
+rewarded. Owen would be good to him, of course. He would be well fed and
+kindly treated, since everyone in the house had a soft corner for the
+jolly, riotous, affectionate Airedale; but he would miss his own loving
+mistress; and Toni could not bear to think of the wistful expression his
+honest brown eyes would wear when he found that she had apparently
+deserted him.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, almost as though her thought had called him to her, she
+heard him at the door. He did not scratch the panel, after the manner of
+many of his kind, but stood upright and rattled the handle with his
+nose; and Toni ran to open the door, feeling a positive criminal beneath
+the warmth and confidence of his greeting.</p>
+
+<p>She took him to the fireplace and snuggled down with him on the thick
+fur rug on the hearth. She gave him his saucerful of tea, and fed him
+recklessly with macaroons; but Jock was uneasy beneath her
+ministrations.</p>
+
+<p>There is no friend so quick to grasp a tense situation as a dog.
+Although Toni spoke in almost her usual voice, and fondled him with more
+than her usual affection, Jock knew quite well that there was something
+wrong.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the last macaroon untouched, he came and stood close by her
+side, looking up into her face with a puzzled, wistful expression, and
+presently he stood up on his hind legs and licked her face solemnly with
+his warm red tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Jock, you naughty boy," said Toni, between crying and laughter.
+"You know you're not allowed to kiss me! But&mdash;oh, Jock, darling, how I
+shall miss you!"</p>
+
+<p>Two great tears fell on the dog's head; and others followed. In a minute
+Toni was weeping her heart out; and the dog, rendered still more uneasy
+by this behaviour, lifted up his voice in a melancholy whine.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Toni dashed away her tears and started to her feet with a
+suddenness which almost upset Jock.</p>
+
+<p>"Jock, it's no use going on like this. We're a couple of idiots&mdash;at
+least, I'm one, and you're a darling old stupid. But it's time to go,
+Jock. To <i>go</i>. Do you hear? I'm leaving Greenriver, Jock, leaving my
+home, my husband, everything I have in the world. I'm going away, Jock,
+going with a man I hardly know. I shall be called wicked, and I suppose
+I am; but I can't help it. I've got to go&mdash;but oh, Jock, how much easier
+it would be to die!"</p>
+
+<p>She took a last look round the beautiful room, which like most rooms
+looked its best in the rosy firelight; and then she went slowly out,
+Jock pressing closely to her side.</p>
+
+<p>Up the broad stairs she went. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies
+burned bravely; and as she walked between them Toni could not see their
+tiny flames for the tears which blurred her sight.</p>
+
+<p>Very slowly she entered her room, Jock pressing beside her all the time.
+It did not take long to don her thick fur coat and soft little hat. She
+remembered a veil, but at first forgot her gloves; and at the last
+moment she had to go back for the dressing-bag and for her purse,
+wherein reposed ten pounds given her by Owen some weeks earlier.</p>
+
+<p>At last she was ready; and bag in hand she opened the door leading into
+the gallery and stood looking round her for one long, last moment.</p>
+
+<p>Jock, puzzled, stood beside her, gazing anxiously into her face; but she
+did not notice him; and when at length she moved slowly away Jock fell
+back a pace and stole behind her down the long gallery.</p>
+
+<p>The old house was very still. From the shut-off regions behind the green
+baize door came, now and then, the murmur of voices; but for the most
+part Greenriver lay hushed in lamp-lit, flower-scented silence.</p>
+
+<p>Never had the big hall looked so attractive as now, in the mellow light
+of the wood fire on the capacious hearth. On the oval oak table a big
+jar of chrysanthemums stood out, white and copper and mauve, against the
+panelled wall; and a sombre corner was lightened by the pink and cream
+blossoms of a tall azalea sent in that morning by an attentive gardener.</p>
+
+<p>Over everything lay the sense of a great peace and tranquillity. The oak
+settee with its big, bright cushions, the tapestries hung on the dark
+walls, the flowers, the books strewn here and there, the big tiger-skin
+hearthrug, the enormous basket-chairs covered, too, with skins of tiger
+and leopard&mdash;never had the hall looked so alluring, so safe, so inviting
+to its mistress as on this foggy autumn night when she was about to
+leave its shelter.</p>
+
+<p>With a long shudder Toni descended the last step of the great staircase,
+and drifted slowly across the hall in the direction of the front door.
+Jock, following, pressed a little too closely against her, and turning,
+Toni saw, the faithful little friend whom she was about to leave gazing
+at her with a human appeal in his honest face.</p>
+
+<p>"Take me! Let me go with you where you go! Why go out into the dim cold
+night alone, when you can have beside you one to protect you and give
+you love?"</p>
+
+<p>She could almost fancy he said the words; and two great tears fell
+swiftly as she bent and patted him with her free hand.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Jock darling, I can't take you." She sobbed as she spoke. "I must
+leave you behind&mdash;with all the other things I love."</p>
+
+<p>Jock, understanding the finality of her tone, whined uneasily, and
+wagging his tail besought her to reconsider her decision. But Toni could
+bear no more. With a quick, passionate movement she opened the big door
+hurriedly, and, heedless of his whining, passed through blindly into the
+night, pulling the door to after her with the miserable, hopeless
+feelings of a traitor in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>Pausing for an instant she heard Jock sniffing interrogatively beneath
+the door; and knew he was hoping desperately that it would open to give
+him freedom; but with the tears running down her face she went slowly
+down the steps and was swallowed up by the cold, wet fog which lurked,
+ghost-like, round the house.</p>
+
+<p>Leonard Dowson was waiting for her, impatiently, feverishly, by the car;
+but one glance at her warned him that this was no time for lover-like
+protestations.</p>
+
+<p>He helped her in, covering her with the big fur rug he had had the
+forethought to bring; and then, with a delicacy which could only have
+been taught him by love, he left her alone in the interior of the car
+and mounted the seat beside the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p>Even now he could hardly believe his good-fortune. With all his
+education, his later Socialistic tendencies, his conviction that one man
+was as good, primarily, as another, and that only brains and application
+counted in the race of life, he could never bring himself to look on
+Toni as an ordinary human being, inferior to him by reason of her sex,
+her less scientific brain, her lack of the power, mental and physical,
+which was, to him, the prerogative of manhood.</p>
+
+<p>Other women he might judge contemptuously or admiringly, as the case
+might be. But he could never consider Toni as a woman like those
+others&mdash;possibly because to him she was not <i>a</i> woman, but&mdash;mystical
+distinction!&mdash;<i>the</i> woman. In a vague, unreasoning way he recognized
+Toni's limitations. She was not clever, not even what he called
+well-educated. She would never fill any important position in the world,
+would never shine in any public capacity, would never seek to usurp
+man's prerogatives, and would be content to live quietly in some little
+corner of the world without longing to dash into the battlefield of
+human desires and human conflicts, as other women were doing every day.</p>
+
+<p>But through it all Toni was the one woman he loved, the woman who
+represented to him all that was loveliest and best of her sex; and this
+narrow-chested, narrow-minded and quite unattractive young dentist had
+this much of greatness in his soul, that he could love a woman
+completely.</p>
+
+<p>The car was running smoothly through the streets of a little town when
+there was a loud report, which even Toni, roused from her half-dazed
+stupor, recognized as the bursting of a tyre; and the next instant
+Leonard appeared at the door of the car, concern and apprehension in his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry&mdash;one of the front tyres has burst, and the man will have
+to repair it as well as he can in the fog."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we?" asked Toni idly, seeing beyond the figure of Dowson a
+few blurred lights as of houses or shops.</p>
+
+<p>"Luckily we are at Stratton," said Leonard more cheerfully. "Right in
+front of some sort of an hotel, too. Won't you come in a moment and get
+warm? It's too foggy and damp for you to wait out here."</p>
+
+<p>Without speaking Toni threw aside the rug and stepped out of the car.
+The raw, chilly air pierced her to the bone, even through the thick fur
+of her coat; and she shivered as she stood there, looking pathetically
+young and slight to the eyes of the man beside her.</p>
+
+<p>"Come into the 'Red Lion,' or whatever they call it." He put a hand,
+rather timidly, on her sleeve, and Toni allowed him to lead her towards
+the entrance of the hotel, whose lamps shone bravely through the fog,
+making blurred splashes of yellow light in the murky grey gloom.</p>
+
+<p>Opening the door, Leonard led her into the cheery entrance hall; and the
+next minute a stout, motherly-looking woman bustled out of a small
+side-office, and asked what might be the visitors' pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Leonard explained that a slight accident to their car would delay them a
+few moments; and since the night was so inclement, he had persuaded the
+lady to come inside, in search of fire and lights.</p>
+
+<p>The stout landlady grasped the situation immediately, and led the way up
+a short flight of stairs to a sitting-room on the first floor, where a
+bright fire burned, and thick red curtains, closely drawn, successfully
+excluded the clammy fog, and created an atmosphere of well-being and
+good cheer.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't the lady like a cup of tea or coffee, sir?" The woman had
+noted Toni's pallor. "It can be ready in a moment&mdash;and a sandwich or two
+as well?"</p>
+
+<p>After consulting his watch and calculating they had time to spare,
+Leonard ordered coffee and sandwiches at once; and the woman withdrew in
+a smiling haste which seemed to betoken the desire to lose no time.</p>
+
+<p>Toni had sunk into a chair by the fire, and was leaning forward holding
+her hands to the blaze. In her face was so patent a misery that for a
+moment Dowson's heart failed him and he stood staring at her with a
+sudden horrible conviction that in luring her from her home and husband
+he was doing a wicked and heartless action. In that illuminating moment
+he could almost have found the strength to give her up, to undo, as far
+as he might, this thing which he had done. And then common sense came to
+his aid. It was not the experiences of this night which had thinned the
+rounded curve of the girl's cheek, had brought the hopeless droop to the
+soft lips, the despair to the once-laughing eyes. It was rather the
+happenings of the months preceding this night, the months of her married
+life; and once again love and desire swept away scruples; and Leonard
+was ready to fight the whole world for possession of the woman he loved.</p>
+
+<p>But somehow he could not stay in the room with that pathetic, appealing
+little figure. He racked his brains for an excuse to leave her for a
+moment or two; and suddenly the idea he sought came to him in a flash.</p>
+
+<p>He had omitted to wire to Paris for rooms in the quiet little hotel he
+had selected for their stay; and although it was not a matter of vital
+necessity to do so, it would perhaps be just as well to make sure of
+them, so that there need be no troublesome delay on arrival. There was a
+post-office a hundred yards away, and he would only be gone for a few
+moments. He did not venture to approach Toni, but speaking from the door
+explained that he had forgotten to engage rooms in Paris, and if she
+would excuse him for a minute or two he would rectify the omission. She
+agreed gently, giving him a tired little smile; and he wasted no time in
+departing on his errand.</p>
+
+<p>When the door had closed behind him, Toni came to herself with a long,
+slow shiver. Somehow until this moment she had not really understood all
+that her flight implied. She had been so intent upon Owen's welfare,
+that save for a few moments in the garden at Greenriver her own had been
+forgotten; and although she had accepted Leonard Dowson's proposal with
+an almost startling readiness, she had done so in the manner of one who,
+drowning, clutches at a straw.</p>
+
+<p>She had known, of course, that there would be a price to pay; but she
+had not realized until this second how great that price would be.
+Somehow the very nature of Leonard's errand had brought the whole
+position home to her with almost overwhelming force; and suddenly Toni
+knew that she could not go on with the adventure she had undertaken so
+rashly.</p>
+
+<p>She could not&mdash;<i>could</i> not&mdash;go to Paris with this man, who for all his
+devotion was a stranger to her. She could leave Owen, though it seemed
+like tearing her heart out of her breast to go. But she could not go
+away with another man.</p>
+
+<p>Gone all at once was the glamour of her sacrifice. Although she knew
+that by carrying out her scheme to the bitter end she might set Owen
+free, it seemed to her at this moment that such freedom, so basely won,
+could never bring her husband the happiness she craved for him.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time, too, the thought of self would not be banished. She
+saw the whole foolish, irrational, Quixotic scheme in its true light;
+and flesh and blood shrank from a surrender which had no faintest touch
+of love&mdash;or even passion&mdash;to dignify sordidness.</p>
+
+<p>No. She could leave her husband&mdash;and in a sudden blinding flash of
+insight she knew she could not&mdash;now&mdash;go back to Greenriver; but she
+could not proceed farther on this shameful way.</p>
+
+<p>To go to the hotel in Paris with this other man, to travel with him in
+the enforced intimacy of their dual solitude, to pass, for all she knew,
+as his wife when in reality she was the wife of the one man for whom the
+great mystic trinity of body, soul and spirit passionately craved&mdash;oh,
+no. She could not go on&mdash;and with the certainty came the need for haste.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the only thing which seemed to matter in all the world was that
+she must be gone before Leonard Dowson returned. If once he came back
+and heard her decision, there would be scenes, reproaches, persuasions,
+a hundred emotions let loose; and Toni was guiltily conscious, through
+all her new-born resolution, that she was treating this man who loved
+her unfairly.</p>
+
+<p>He had been gone five minutes&mdash;he might return at any second. Tip-toeing
+across to the window, Toni parted the red curtains and lifted a lath of
+the old-fashioned Venetian blind to peer through into the fog.</p>
+
+<p>She could not see much. Outside the hotel she could just distinguish the
+blurred shape of the car, the lamps flaring yellowly in the mist; but
+the shops and houses opposite were blotted out by the curtain of fog;
+and she knew she risked running into the man from whom she longed,
+desperately, to escape.</p>
+
+<p>Where she would go did not matter now. Plans must be made
+afterwards&mdash;now she had but one desire, to flee into the fog and be lost
+to sight.</p>
+
+<p>She was actually moving towards the door when a thought struck her.
+Tearing a bit of paper from the fly-leaf of a book on the table, she
+took from the deep pocket of her coat a little pencil, and scribbled a
+message&mdash;as short, almost, as that which had announced to Leonard her
+previous decision.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I can't go on with you. I am going. <span class="smcap">Toni</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>She had no time for more. Every second was precious; and even now she
+doubted whether she were in time to make her escape.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door and listened. Nothing was heard but the mutter of
+voices in the bar downstairs; and there was no one in sight. A moment
+she stood, her heart in her throat, driven nearly distracted between
+impatience and terror. Then she turned back into the room, snatched up
+her gloves and purse from the table and ran down the broad stairs and
+across the square hall with frenzied haste.</p>
+
+<p>A sound of footsteps in a passage close at hand made her start
+nervously. Without delaying a second she opened the great door, letting
+in a rush of cold, raw air, and, not venturing to look round, lest even
+now she should be intercepted in her flight, she slipped through the
+aperture and fled into the night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+
+<p>At nine o'clock that same evening Jim Herrick, alone in his shabby yet
+delightful little sitting-room, was roused from his contemplation of an
+etching he had picked up in town that day by a deep-throated bark from
+Olga. She had been lying in the hall; and doubtless her sharp ears had
+heard some approaching footstep which to his duller human hearing was
+inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>Eva was upstairs, trying on some finery she had purchased in London; and
+after waiting a moment Herrick went into the hall to investigate.</p>
+
+<p>Someone was knocking now on the door, thereby rousing Olga's wrath; and
+Herrick held her firmly by the collar as he went to answer the summons.</p>
+
+<p>On the doorstep, an indistinct figure in the fog, stood a young man, and
+on seeing Herrick he began at once to unfold his errand.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Herrick, beg pardon, sir; master's sent me over to ask if Mrs. Rose
+is here."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose? Are you from Greenriver?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I'm Andrews, sir, and we're all a bit anxious about the
+mistress. She wasn't at home for dinner, and no one saw her go out."</p>
+
+<p>"Comes inside a minute." The man obeying, Herrick closed the door and,
+still holding Olga's collar, led the way to the sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, tell me, as shortly as possible, why you thought Mrs. Rose might
+be here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was Kate's idea, sir&mdash;the parlourmaid. When Mrs. Ross didn't come
+down to dinner she thought as perhaps she'd come over here. I thought it
+weren't likely on account of the fog, but we couldn't think of anywhere
+else for Mrs. Rose to be."</p>
+
+<p>"Your master is at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, got in about seven. He was shut up in his room&mdash;the
+lib'ry&mdash;till nearly dinner-time, and then he waited and waited for the
+mistress to come down&mdash;and when she didn't come he got fidgety and sent
+Kate upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"And Kate found no one?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. Only the dog&mdash;Jock&mdash;lying curled up in the very middle of the
+bed&mdash;a thing he's never been known to do before, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Rose has not been here," said Herrick. "But just wait a moment. I
+will ask my wife if she expected Mrs. Rose."</p>
+
+<p>He went out of the room, and found Eva coming down the short flight of
+stairs from the upper floor.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Jim? Who is the man in there?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the man-servant from Greenriver asking if Mrs. Rose has been
+here. You did not expect her, did you, Eva?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no." She spoke calmly. "We were to meet to-morrow morning, but we
+had no appointment for to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. Odd where she can have got to." Herrick frowned thoughtfully.
+"You can't give me any clue to her movements, Eva? You don't remember
+hearing her say anything about to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't the slightest idea," said Eva, with apparent sincerity, and
+Herrick turned away without asking any other question.</p>
+
+<p>Re-entering the room he quietly told the waiting Andrews that nothing
+had been seen of Mrs. Rose, nor had she been expected on that particular
+evening; and the young man thanked him dejectedly and moved to the door.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a wretched night," said Herrick. "Won't you have a glass of
+something before you go?"</p>
+
+<p>Andrews thanked him, but declined; and seeing he was anxious to be gone,
+Herrick did not press him, but let him depart without more ado.</p>
+
+<p>He turned again into the sitting-room, meditating on this extraordinary
+disappearance; and a minute later his wife joined him, eager to hear the
+reason of Andrews' quest.</p>
+
+<p>She came into the room wearing a satin kimono she had bought that day,
+her curly golden hair bound with a broad pink ribbon, her small, narrow
+foot thrust into satin slippers of the same hue.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight it might have been a schoolgirl who stood there in the
+doorway. A second glance would have shown, to an acute observer, faint
+lines on brow and cheek, an indefinable hardness and sharpness of
+outline which destroyed the semblance of youth; and in its place gave an
+air of cynical maturity, which, reckoning by actual length of years, was
+as deceptive as the former illusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" She came further into the room and spoke interrogatively.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" Herrick turned to face her. "Mrs. Rose's disappearance is rather
+remarkable, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very." For the life of him Herrick could not fathom her tone. "But
+since Toni is a free agent and not a slave, I expect she's gone out on
+business of her own."</p>
+
+<p>"Queer time for business&mdash;nine o'clock on a foggy night," Herrick
+reminded her quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I daresay she got fed up with the house&mdash;and the weather&mdash;and
+went off to London for a spree." Eva laughed rather hardly. "A theatre
+would be a blessed relief after the dulness of this place."</p>
+
+<p>"She would not be likely to go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I daresay she would pick up some man to go with."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak like that, Eva, please. Mrs. Rose is not the sort of girl
+to 'pick up' anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't she?" Eva laughed again. "Your precious Toni isn't a saint,
+you know. Because her husband is a fool and neglects her, that doesn't
+say Toni is too meek and mild to have friends of her own."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick turned to her angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Eva, I won't have you insinuating such things. Mrs. Rose may
+not be a saint&mdash;I never met one, by the way&mdash;but she is a thoroughly
+straight girl; and any friends she might make would be lucky fellows, I
+can tell you."</p>
+
+<p>Eva smiled rather scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Even you are taken in by her big eyes and her quiet ways. Well, you'll
+all of you get a surprise one of these days, when you find that Toni is
+as wide-awake as anybody else, and knows a thing or two you don't
+suspect her of."</p>
+
+<p>"Eva, you are talking nonsense, and you know it." Herrick was seriously
+annoyed. "I imagined&mdash;foolishly&mdash;that you were a friend of Toni Rose;
+and it never entered my head you would say spiteful things of this sort
+about her."</p>
+
+<p>He broke off.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless&mdash;&mdash;" He hesitated, his eyes full of a vague trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Unless&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but that's absurd." He pulled himself together and spoke
+decisively. "I was going to say, unless you had some reason for speaking
+so; unless you knew something we don't know&mdash;and of course you don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not." This time the mockery in her tone was perceptible; and
+Herrick questioned her hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Eva, what do you mean? Do you know anything which would throw a light
+on Mrs. Rose's disappearance?"</p>
+
+<p>But Eva had turned sulky and would say nothing more. After one or two
+vain attempts to induce her to speak, therefore, Herrick abandoned the
+idea; and Eva withdrew with a malicious little smile on her lips which
+rendered her husband still more uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>He wandered restlessly about his small domain, puzzling his head as to
+what could have happened to Toni. He had not seen her often of late.
+Indeed, he had fancied once or twice that she was avoiding him; and he
+was sorry, for the girl had made an instant claim upon his sympathies,
+and he had often meditated over her chances of turning her marriage into
+a success.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow he had a presentiment of evil. Something seemed to tell him that
+Toni's flight was premeditated, that she had fled from her home
+secretly, with the intention of leaving her husband for ever; and
+although he told himself that the idea was monstrous, grotesque, he
+could not shake it off.</p>
+
+<p>Doubtless there were a dozen explanations. Perhaps she had gone for a
+little stroll, and had lost her way in the fog. She might have dropped
+in at some house in the neighbourhood, and, talking, let the hours slip
+by. Ten chances to one, she was even now safe at home; and it was absurd
+to worry about her. And yet&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And yet there <i>were</i> other possibilities. In the fog it would be easy
+indeed to miss one's road&mdash;with tragic results. One false step off the
+towing-path, for instance, and the river, dark and silent, would flow on
+its way, carrying with it a burden hardly more animated, yet a hundred
+times more precious, than the sticks and leaves which floated down with
+the current....</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Herrick sprang up, unable to bear this haunted solitude any
+longer. He felt as though he must go forth to make inquiries for
+himself, to ascertain whether Toni had returned or no, whether all
+possible measures had been taken for her safety.</p>
+
+<p>Surely the people at Greenriver would not take his visit amiss? Seeing
+that his wife and Mrs. Rose were known to be friends, it was only
+natural that Mrs. Herrick should be anxious; and in any case he could
+bear this inaction no longer.</p>
+
+<p>Going into the hall he selected an overcoat and cap, and then, going to
+the foot of the stairs, called out to his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" She came to the head of the stairs, and stood looking at him
+over the banisters. She had a lighted candle in her hand; and somehow
+the wavering flame seemed to cast a sinister shadow over her face.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to Greenriver, Eva, to see if Mrs. Rose has returned."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh." For a moment she hesitated, opened her mouth as though about to
+speak and then yawned instead. "Very well. Don't be long. My head aches
+and I want to get to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be as quick as possible," he said. "I am sorry your head aches.
+Try to get to sleep before I return."</p>
+
+<p>He turned away, leaving her staring after him; and her grey eyes were
+full of a cruel maliciousness. Eva guessed pretty well how the land lay.
+Although she had not expected Toni to give in to the young dentist's
+entreaties so soon, she never doubted that the girl had gone away with
+him; and she laughed as she remembered how quietly the whole affair had
+been conducted.</p>
+
+<p>Except on the occasion of Dowson's loan of magazines, Eva did not
+believe his name had ever been mentioned between the Roses; and
+certainly it would never enter Owen's head that his wife would go off,
+leave him, and leave all the glories of Greenriver, to share the lot of
+the inferior and unattractive Mr. Dowson.</p>
+
+<p>Eva had not the slightest feeling of compassion for the unhappy young
+wife driven to this step, partly by her own childish folly, but partly,
+also, by the evil counsel of the woman she called her friend. Eva know
+very well, had known all along, that there could be no happiness for
+Toni in such a step; and she fully believed that the girl would come to
+hate and fear the life in front of her. But Eva never for one moment
+experienced a thrill of pity for the misguided Toni. Rather the thought
+of the certain misery which faced her filled Eva's perverted mind with a
+wretched triumph; and her only strong emotion at this juncture was a
+passionate hope that Owen would not learn the truth in time to save his
+wife from the worst consequence of her ill-considered action.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Meanwhile all was confusion at Greenriver. At first Owen had been merely
+a little perplexed, not uneasy, at Toni's absence from the dinner-table;
+but when it became apparent that she was nowhere in the house he grew
+alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>Calling Andrews and Fletcher to him, he bade them get lanterns and
+institute a thorough search in the grounds; and the three of them
+searched thoroughly&mdash;as thoroughly, at least, as was possible in the
+clammy fog.</p>
+
+<p>Up and down they went, lanterns swinging, in and out of trees and
+shrubs; and into the various summer-houses and garden sheds; but there
+was no sign of Toni.</p>
+
+<p>Back into the house&mdash;where once again Owen summoned the servants to a
+conference&mdash;and once again was forced to consider himself baffled.</p>
+
+<p>Kate had seen her mistress last when she carried in the tea. Asked if
+Mrs. Rose had said anything about going out, she answered in the
+negative; and neither cook nor Maggie had sat eyes upon her since lunch.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews had been out that afternoon, and knew nothing; and Mrs. Blades,
+when interrogated, merely sniffed and said Mrs. Rose did not often
+honour the housekeeper's room with her presence.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this juncture that Andrews was despatched to Herrick's
+bungalow; and in his absence Owen rang up on the telephone all the
+people who seemed in the least likely to have seen his wife, but without
+result.</p>
+
+<p>A little later he rang up other places&mdash;the station, the police station,
+even the little Cottage Hospital; but no one had heard or seen anything
+of Mrs. Rose; and Owen was forced to wait for Andrews' return.</p>
+
+<p>When the man came, bearing no tidings, Owen understood that the matter
+was serious. Toni had gone, left her home in the dusk, departed no one
+knew whither. The whole thing was so unexpected, so incredible, that it
+was small wonder Owen was completely at sea.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a welcome thought flashed into his head. It was possible Toni
+had gone to town on the spur of the moment to visit her relations in
+Brixton; and the next minute Owen was turning over the leaves of the
+telephone directory hurriedly in an endeavour to find the number of the
+house in Winter Gardens. Luckily the house boasted a telephone,
+installed for the convenience of one of the boys who was connected with
+an insurance agency which had its headquarters there; and in a very
+short space of time Owen was asking the worthy Mrs. Gibbs over the wire
+for news of the missing Toni. But disappointment awaited him. Nothing
+had been heard of Toni for three weeks; and she had most certainly not
+visited them that day. Mrs. Gibbs, at the other end of the wire, sounded
+apprehensive, but Owen had no time to consider her feelings, and rang
+off abruptly when he found she had nothing to tell him.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he was turning away from the instrument the door bell rang
+quietly; and with a quick movement Owen crossed the hall and threw the
+door widely open.</p>
+
+<p>It was not Toni who stood there, however; and seeing the blank look on
+Owen's face, Herrick hurried to explain his errand as one merely of
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," said Owen mechanically, drawing his visitor inside the house.
+"It's awfully decent of you, Herrick. You have heard of my
+wife's&mdash;disappearance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I suppose you have no idea what can have taken her away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the slightest. The maids say&mdash;now&mdash;that her thick motor coat and
+cap are gone, and her purse&mdash;with a few pounds in, I don't know how
+much&mdash;is missing from her drawer. But where she has gone is a complete
+mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"She gave you no hint of her departure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the faintest." Owen became suddenly aware that his visitor's coat
+was damp with the wetting mist; and his hospitable instincts awoke. "I
+say, come into the library and have a drink. You're pretty well soaked."</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the library, regardless of Herrick's disclaimers; and
+the other man thought it best to follow him, first asking permission to
+bring Olga inside the house&mdash;a permission readily granted. Once inside
+the warm, tranquil room, Owen insisted upon Herrick shedding his coat
+and accepting a whisky and soda; but though he pressed Herrick to sit
+down and even took a cigarette himself, it was evident that Owen was all
+on thorns with anxiety and apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't heard your wife say she wanted a change? You know women are
+restless beings."</p>
+
+<p>"Not Toni. She was always happy here. I'd promised to take her to
+Switzerland for Christmas, and that pleased her; but she was never keen
+about going away."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. She was happy here. Well"&mdash;his gaze wandered dreamily round the
+lamp-lit room, with its mullioned windows and well-filled shelves&mdash;"I
+don't wonder at that. Anyone might be happy in such a home as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she always loved Greenriver." Unconsciously both men used the past
+tense. "Ever since I brought her here as my wife she loved the old
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"She was happy, you say?" Herrick felt a sudden desire to probe beneath
+the surface. "You never&mdash;forgive me&mdash;you never found her
+depressed&mdash;or&mdash;or unsettled&mdash;in low spirits?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. She was sometimes a little&mdash;well, what shall we call it?&mdash;not
+bad-tempered, but well, a trifle jumpy; but she seemed to be in good
+spirits as a rule."</p>
+
+<p>"You never&mdash;I suppose"&mdash;he laughed, trying to make the question sound
+casual&mdash;"you never had any disagreements&mdash;any little fallings-out? Oh,
+don't think me impertinent&mdash;I was only wondering whether perhaps Mrs.
+Rose had taken offence at some little thing&mdash;and had gone off for a
+short visit somewhere to&mdash;well, to punish you."</p>
+
+<p>He had half expected Owen to resent the implication; but Owen took it
+quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"We never exactly quarrelled," he said. "At least, that isn't quite
+true. We did disagree, more than once, on one particular subject; and
+last night we certainly had a few words. We both lost our tempers&mdash;I
+confess I lost mine&mdash;and I said one or two things I'd have given the
+world to recall afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Herrick spoke gravely. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose knows you did
+not mean anything unkind&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so. By God, I hope so." Owen's voice was hoarse. "If I thought
+Toni had taken my words seriously I&mdash;why, I said things I didn't mean in
+the very least, and I never for one instant dreamed she would take them
+as spoken in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Herrick repeated the words. "You will pardon me for saying that
+Mrs. Rose always struck me as being more sensitive than the majority of
+women."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she?" Owen stared at him, struck suddenly by the significance of
+his manner. "By Jove, Herrick, I never suspected my wife of any undue
+sensitiveness. She always seemed to me too young, too immature and
+undeveloped to take things much to heart. Her youth was one of the
+greatest charms about her to me. It never struck me she was a woman,
+capable of a woman's sufferings&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay, though. Once I thought&mdash;she looked at me and I thought her
+eyes looked different&mdash;not like the eyes of a child. I wondered
+then ... but ... oh, no, she couldn't think I meant the things I said.
+Once or twice I have felt exasperated at what I thought was her
+childishness, her ignorance of the world, and I've said things now and
+again, unkind things, even cruel things sometimes ... but I've been
+secure all the time in the thought that she didn't understand...."</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't have hurt her&mdash;wilfully?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hurt her?" Owen stared at him. "Good God, man, what do you take me for?
+A man doesn't wilfully hurt his wife&mdash;the woman he loves. And to hurt
+Toni would be like hurting a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Rose"&mdash;Herrick took a resolution to speak plainly&mdash;"are you sure
+you did not treat your wife rather too much as a child? Are you sure you
+didn't deny her the right of a woman, the right to share your life, your
+work, your aims? Are you quite sure you never made her feel her
+inferiority to you in different ways, never let her see that in some
+matters she was perhaps hardly your equal? Oh, I know you are
+exceptionally clever, brilliant, and she is only a simple girl; but
+still she was not a child; and it may have been rather galling to her to
+be treated as one."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Owen sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the other man's face
+with a stare whose earnestness was its justification.</p>
+
+<p>Then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Herrick," he said, "I believe you are trying to tell me
+something&mdash;something about my wife which I don't know. Well, what is it?
+I think, as her husband, I have a right to ask you to share your
+knowledge with me. What do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you have every right," Herrick answered quietly, "and I ask
+nothing better than to tell you all I know."</p>
+
+<p>Without further preliminaries he repeated to Owen the conversation he
+had had with Toni on the day of the Vicarage Bazaar; and a sudden light
+broke over Owen as he listened.</p>
+
+<p>"You are alluding to the occasion when Lady Martin and the Vicar's wife
+called her ignorant, frivolous, empty-headed."</p>
+
+<p>"She told you?" Herrick was surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;long afterwards. But I laughed at her and told her it was
+nonsense&mdash;jealousy, or something like that. I never dreamed she had
+taken it to heart."</p>
+
+<p>"She took it so much to heart that she began to wonder how much was
+true, and how she could best rise above the defects with which they
+endowed her. She honoured me by asking my advice; and I was only too
+glad to help her. She called herself ignorant, and I endeavoured to show
+her how, by study and application, she might repair that ignorance. I
+recommended her books, mapped her out a course of reading&mdash;oh, it's no
+use going over it all now; only just what seems important to me is this.
+What had specially wounded her was the fact that they had evidently
+denied her the possession of a soul." He smiled rather tenderly. "And it
+was her passionate desire to show that she <i>had</i> a soul which drove her
+to all those desperate expedients of study and the like."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, but Owen did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if the process of making one's soul is a painful one, after
+all? Like most new-born creatures, I expect it's a delicate, sensitive
+thing at first, easily wounded by a word, a glance.... I don't suppose
+it has a very joyful time in the beginning, struggling towards the
+fuller light like a weak, fragile little flower opening its petals one
+by one to the sun. But luckily a soul is a very vital thing. It can
+stand a good deal in the way of unkindness or neglect without
+shrivelling up. And I daresay a few kindly words, a sympathetic thought,
+are like water to a dying plant&mdash;or as the Bible has it 'as the shadow
+of a great rock in a thirsty land.'"</p>
+
+<p>As he finished his speech Owen broke in impetuously:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say any more, Herrick. My God, what a fool I've been! To think
+that all this was taking place beneath my eyes and I was too blind, too
+self-absorbed to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, everyone is blind, at times," said Herrick gently. "I'm not
+trying to make you unhappy, Rose&mdash;the whole affair is no business of
+mine, and you may well resent my interference."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Owen hastily. "God knows your interference is only too
+justifiable. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am to blame, after all, for trying to engineer so delicate a
+situation. The fact is, I felt a great pity for Mrs. Rose. She was only
+a girl after all, and girlhood is a lively, careless, light-hearted
+period. But although her soul appeared&mdash;then&mdash;to be unawakened, I knew
+it was there all the time; and I confess I hoped that when she came into
+full possession of it you would draw nearer to one another, and a better
+understanding would ensue. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Your plan hasn't worked?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. The thing is, not so much <i>where</i> has Mrs. Rose gone, but
+<i>why</i> did she go? Look here, Rose. I'm perfectly certain that her one
+thought all through has been for your welfare; and though on the face of
+it it seems peculiar that she should take this means of proving her love
+for you, I'm quite convinced she is acting on your behalf in this odd
+disappearance of hers."</p>
+
+<p>"But how could I benefit by her disappearance?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. But I am quite sure&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He broke off suddenly, and the next instant the two men started to their
+feet as the hoot of a motor-horn sounded loudly outside the house.</p>
+
+<p>"God, Herrick&mdash;here's Toni." Owen dashed out of the room followed by
+Herrick, and the two reached the front door at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews, who had come running from the kitchen regions at the sound of
+the horn, flung open the door, and disclosed the big car with its
+flaring head-lamps, throbbing itself to a standstill at the foot of the
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>A young man jumped out&mdash;a man whom neither Rose nor Herrick had ever
+seen before&mdash;and, rushing up the steps, looked wildly round him.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she?" he demanded loudly. "Where is she?"</p>
+
+<p>"To whom do you allude?" asked Owen coldly, his fastidious soul revolted
+by the spectacle which the young man presented. Dowson was hatless,
+dishevelled. In his agony of mind at Toni's departure he had torn his
+collar apart, feeling himself choking, and during the drive to
+Greenriver he had rumpled his hair so wildly that it stood up in mad
+disorder over his head. His face was dusty, the mist had soaked his
+clothes till they clung tightly to his narrow frame, and about his whole
+figure there was an air of unkempt desolation which was unattractive in
+the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>"I allude to Toni&mdash;your wife, if you like to call her that." The
+unfortunate young man was distraught between disappointment and anxiety.
+"Where is she? Has she come home after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"My wife?" Owen raised his eyebrows superciliously. "My good man, what
+are you talking about? If you know anything about Mrs. Rose be kind
+enough to tell us at once what it is, but please remember she is not
+Toni&mdash;to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, isn't she?" Beneath the weight of conflicting emotions Mr. Dowson
+was losing his head. "Well, she was going to be, that's all. She came
+away with me to-night of her own free will ... and we wore going to
+cross to Paris, and then ... oh, I don't know what then, but anyway she
+was going to stay with me, and when you had divorced her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Divorced her?" Owen uttered the words in so ferocious a tone that the
+young man fell back a pace. "What the devil do you mean by making a
+suggestion of that sort? And why in God's name should I divorce my
+wife&mdash;for you?"</p>
+
+<p>The scorn with which he spoke the last two words drove Leonard Dowson to
+frenzy.</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Why not? You never loved her&mdash;you never knew how to treat her. You
+made her miserable, you let her see you thought her inferior to you, not
+good enough for you ... you wouldn't dismiss that woman you had to help
+you though you knew To&mdash;your wife hated her...."</p>
+
+<p>He was lashing himself to greater and greater fury at the thought of
+Toni's sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>"Even when you'd made her so wretched that she was ready to die, she
+still thought of you. She knew I loved her as she deserved to be loved,
+and she was coming away with me, not because she loved me, but because
+she thought by leaving you she'd set you free&mdash;free to divorce her, to
+cast her off, to marry someone else, for all I know&mdash;some lady whom
+you'd perhaps be pleased to call your equal."</p>
+
+<p>Beneath his savage indictment even Owen stood dumb. There is always
+something electrifying about absolute sincerity, and no one, listening,
+could possibly doubt that the man was speaking from the very depth of
+his soul.</p>
+
+<p>As he stood panting, glaring at Owen with hatred in his eyes, Herrick
+stepped forward with a question.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me, sir"&mdash;neither of them knew, as yet, the name of the
+visitor&mdash;"may I ask how you became possessed of all this information? I
+am perfectly sure that Mrs. Rose herself has not been your informant,
+but I fail to see&mdash;&mdash;in the first place, may we ask your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Dowson, Leonard Dowson." He spoke defiantly. "And as to who
+told me, well, it doesn't much matter, that I can see, but it was a
+friend of&mdash;of Mrs. Rose." He dared not again call her "Toni."</p>
+
+<p>"A friend?" In one sickening flash of intuition, Herrick knew who had
+been Toni's evil genius. He stopped short, physically incapable of
+questioning further; but Owen had no such scruples.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this&mdash;friend?" He could not help the sneer; and Herrick paled in
+the lamplight, fearing yet powerless to avert the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose it matters telling you." Dowson paused. "It was Mrs.
+Herrick&mdash;Mrs. Rose's best friend&mdash;who told me; and she swore that every
+word was true."</p>
+
+<p>There was a short, tense silence; and Andrews, who had been hovering
+unnoticed in the background, suddenly dived through the baize door and
+disappeared, as one who feels his presence an intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>"So it was Mrs. Herrick who gave you this precious information." Owen,
+very pale, turned to Herrick. "Herrick, I won't insult your wife by
+asking if this is true. It's a lie, of course. Mrs. Herrick is a friend
+of my wife's. She would never play such a treacherous, underhand
+part&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I ... I don't know what to say...."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I should think you don't." Dowson spoke vehemently. "You know it
+was she who put me up to it all along. She said Mrs. Rose had owned to
+being&mdash;well, fond of me in her way, though of course she put her husband
+first. But she told me I had a chance, that if I'd offer to take Mrs.
+Rose away she'd come ... oh, she convinced me fast enough. I daresay I
+was a fool, but I couldn't bear to stand by and say nothing when by
+taking her away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped suddenly. Owen had made a threatening step forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here"&mdash;Owen's voice was choked with rage&mdash;"stop talking all that
+rot, and tell me what you've done with my wife. First, of all, where is
+she?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I tell you when I don't know?" retorted the young man almost
+rudely. "She came away with me right enough, and then we had an accident
+to the car&mdash;a tyre burst&mdash;and we went into a hotel at Stratton to wait
+for it to be repaired. I went to the post-office to send a telegram, and
+when I came back she'd gone."</p>
+
+<p>"Gone&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, aren't I telling you I don't know?" In his excitement the young
+dentist's refinement fell away from him, showing the rough human man
+beneath. "She slipped out soon's my back was turned&mdash;left a scrap of
+paper saying she couldn't go on with me&mdash;and that's all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"But she must have left some traces."</p>
+
+<p>"She left her dressing-bag, if that's anything," said Dowson gloomily.
+"It's in the car outside. I thought at least she'd have come back here,
+and I had to come on to make sure. I"&mdash;for a second his rough voice
+softened&mdash;"I had to be certain she was safe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she isn't here." Owen spoke harshly. "You were very ready to take
+her away, with your damned philanderings and what not, but you might at
+least have looked after her. Where is she? Good God, man, you're not
+only a blackguard and a thief&mdash;you're a damned fool as well!"</p>
+
+<p>"I may be a fool, but I'm not a blackguard!" Mr. Dowson's eyes blazed in
+his pallid face. "<i>I</i> didn't marry the girl and then neglect her&mdash;<i>I</i>
+didn't win her love and then throw it aside as of no importance&mdash;<i>I</i>
+didn't break her heart with my sneers and coldness, as you did. You may
+be her husband and I'm only a man who loves her, but I'll guarantee I'd
+have known how to treat her a million times better than you ever did."</p>
+
+<p>The two men glared at one another furiously; and for a moment Herrick
+feared Owen was about to strike the man who defied him. Owen's face was
+convulsed with rage, his eyes looked almost black, and a vein in his
+temple hammered madly.</p>
+
+<p>Herrick stepped forward hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, excuse me reminding you that this is not the time for
+recriminations. Mrs. Rose has not returned, and the thing to do now is
+to set all possible inquiries on foot. You agree with me, Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>Owen turned to him, the passion dying out of his face, leaving only a
+great weariness and a great dread.</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. We must find Toni. But how?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'd better make inquiries at Stratton first. You are on the
+'phone? Good. Well, we will ring up the railway station, and the hotels.
+Mrs. Rose may have gone to one of them for the night. And we could try
+the garages. Possibly she will hire a car to bring her home."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And I'll order out the car and try the roads myself." Owen looked
+suddenly alert. "If she should be attempting to walk home, or anything
+of that sort, I should pick her up."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And I should give orders to the servants to have everything ready
+for Mrs. Rose&mdash;food, and fires, and things, when she returns. She'll be
+chilled to the bone with this mist."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I'll do it at once. I'll go and get on the 'phone, if you'll be so
+good as to ring for the servants. I'll order a fire in her room, and a
+little supper."</p>
+
+<p>He turned away, full of hope now that there was something to be done;
+and Herrick was following him, when Dowson, who had been temporarily
+forgotten, asserted his presence.</p>
+
+<p>"And what am I to do while you're searching for her?" His rage had died
+away, and he looked the picture of dejection. "Can't I do anything?
+I&mdash;you know I'd die for Toni&mdash;for Mrs. Rose. Can't you suggest something
+for me to be doing?"</p>
+
+<p>Owen turned on him fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You?</i> You've done enough harm for one night. Suppose you take yourself
+off&mdash;we've seen all we want of you, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't stand arguing there," said Owen in a voice whose fury made the
+young man wince. "We've had more than enough of you. Be so good as to
+take yourself off before I kick you out of the house."</p>
+
+<p>Leonard Dowson gave one last look at the other man's face as though to
+see whether this threat was meant to be taken literally. What he read
+there apparently decided him; for with a hoarse sigh he turned away in
+the direction of the front door.</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting to see if he were obeyed or not, Owen hastened away to
+the telephone; and it was Herrick who opened the door and watched the
+young man enter the car.</p>
+
+<p>A second later he dismounted again, this time bearing Toni's
+dressing-bag, which in her hurry she had left behind; and carrying it up
+the steps he put it down, almost tenderly, inside the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. That will do." Herrick watched him as he hesitated,
+uncertainly. "Don't let me detain you." He held the door widely open.
+"Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Thus dismissed, the young man had no option. He went out into the
+chilly, misty night, and mounted the car, which moved swiftly away down
+the gloomy drive.</p>
+
+<p>When Herrick had closed the door he paused a moment, wondering if he had
+not better follow the late visitor's example and vanish quietly into the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>But he heard Owen's voice calling him as he stood hesitating, and found
+that, in spite of his wife's treachery, he himself was not debarred from
+giving help.</p>
+
+<p>He attempted, awkwardly, to take his leave; but Owen was in no mood to
+let him go. Whatever Mrs. Herrick's part in the tragedy, it was evident
+that her husband was to be exonerated; and although his heart was sick
+within him at the thought of Eva's wickedness, Herrick was wise enough
+to see that to implicate himself would be to make matters worse than
+they were already.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>But although the two men made all possible inquiries, they could hear
+nothing of the missing Toni. No one had seen her, no one heard of her;
+and as the hours wore on it seemed as though the mist had indeed
+swallowed her up so completely that all trace of her was lost.</p>
+
+<p>After nearly an hour's futile telephoning Owen set off in the waiting
+car to scour the countryside; while at his urgent request Herrick stayed
+behind at Greenriver, in case Toni should arrive in her husband's
+absence and find no one to welcome her. Herrick agreed to stay at once,
+though he knew his prolonged absence would annoy and possibly upset his
+wife. She deserved no consideration, he told himself sternly. It was
+largely through her machinations that this thing had come to pass; and a
+few hours' anxiety would be a small enough price to pay for her
+treachery.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when Owen returned, tired out,
+despondent, and with no slightest scrap of news. He came into the
+library looking ready to drop with fatigue, and found Herrick sitting
+over the fire apparently lost in thought. Olga and Jock, who had long
+since fraternized, lay side by side on the hearthrug; and all was quiet
+and peaceful. But when Herrick sprang up, hearing Owen's step, it was
+easy to see that for him, too, the night had worn away in keenest
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. None." Owen slipped off his thick coat and sank down, wearily, into
+a chair. "No one has seen anything of her. The hotel people didn't hear
+her go, and no one has the faintest notion where she went."</p>
+
+<p>He shivered, holding out his hands to the blaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Herrick, where can she be? My God, I'd give ten years of my life now to
+know she was safe. But to think of her wandering about in the fog&mdash;not
+daring&mdash;not even wanting&mdash;to come home ... thinking always of me as the
+selfish brute who neglected her and laughed aside her wishes...."</p>
+
+<p>He paused a moment, then began again.</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be so bad if she'd been in love with that fool who was here
+to-night. I could have understood her going off with him then. But it
+was me she loved all along&mdash;she was thinking of me when she went out
+into the cruel night to join him.... I'm very certain she shrank from
+the step ... well, events prove it, don't they? ... but she was thinking
+only of my good and so she nerved herself to do it...."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Herrick spoke quietly. "There's no doubt, I think, that your wife
+loved you as very few men are loved. It seems&mdash;forgive me&mdash;a cruel jest
+of Fate that you couldn't return her love...."</p>
+
+<p>"But I <i>did</i>&mdash;and <i>do</i>!" Owen's voice rang out with all its old force.
+"Before God, man, I do love Toni ... oh, I didn't at first. I confess I
+married her without caring for her as a man should care for the woman he
+makes his wife. But I've grown fonder of her ever since. Oh, I know it's
+all true, what that fellow said&mdash;I've been thoughtless, unkind, I did
+neglect her, did let her see how I despised her help, but you don't know
+what it is to a man to find his work spoilt for the lack of a little
+intelligent sympathy.... Oh, I'm not excusing myself&mdash;I had no right to
+put my work before everything else&mdash;even before Toni&mdash;and I did. But God
+knows I'm punished for it now."</p>
+
+<p>Again he broke off abruptly, only to go on again hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"I own I was mistaken in my reading of Toni's character. I had no idea
+she was capable of this sort of sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>"You never saw into the depths of her soul. If you had&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I should have realized what she was. Oh, I know," said Owen, with
+humility, "I know now that Toni is a woman, and I pray to God with all
+my soul that my knowledge has not come too late."</p>
+
+<p>"You think if you got her back now you might be happy together?"</p>
+
+<p>"Happy? If I could make Toni happy, she would be happy indeed." His tone
+was still tinged with that new humility, and in that dreary hour Herrick
+began to understand him better than he had ever dreamed of doing.</p>
+
+<p>When at last the grey dawn crept through the large windows Herrick rose
+to go.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get off home for an hour or two. You'd better try to have a sleep,
+Rose. We can't do anything more just yet; and it's no use wasting one's
+strength."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well." Owen rose and stretched himself, yawning. "I won't go to
+bed&mdash;I'll sleep on the couch here. You see she might come at any
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>Herrick saw it was of no use attempting to urge him to go to bed; so
+agreed, at once, that such a return was possible, and two minutes later
+he and Olga were outside the house in the chilly silver dawn.</p>
+
+<p>The fog had lifted in the night, and for that Herrick was thankful; but
+the air was biting, and as he walked briskly along, Olga trotting
+alertly beside him, he owned to himself that a cup of hot coffee,
+followed by a sleep, would be welcome indeed.</p>
+
+<p>He let himself softly into the house and proceeded to make some coffee
+with the aid of the gas-ring. He was gulping it down, feeling the liquid
+driving the cold out of his bones, when Olga growled faintly; and
+looking up, he saw his wife standing in the doorway surveying him
+maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Has the lost lamb been found and returned to the fold?" Her tone
+was mockery itself.</p>
+
+<p>"No." For an instant he wondered whether he should accuse her of her
+treachery; but suddenly he resolved to wait till he was more normal,
+after a rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Really? Well, I don't think she will return just yet. I expect the next
+time her loving husband meets our dear Toni, the Divorce Court will be
+their meeting-place."</p>
+
+<p>A wave of anger swept over Herrick.</p>
+
+<p>"So that man was right&mdash;it was your doing." He put down his cup and
+looked steadily at her. "It was through your&mdash;your advice that that
+unfortunate girl left her home and wont off with Dowson."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't through my advice," she said. "As a matter of fact I didn't
+know they had fixed it up so quickly. Three days ago it was only a vague
+notion&mdash;quite in the air, I assure you. I had no idea it had actually
+come off."</p>
+
+<p>"You knew, then, that it was a possibility, at least?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." Suddenly she stopped and stared at him. "But how do you know? She
+didn't leave any message, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know because Mrs. Rose's heart failed her when she had taken the
+first step. She gave this man Dowson the slip at Stratton and he
+immediately returned to Greenriver to ask if she had come back."</p>
+
+<p>"And she hadn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not." He spoke sternly. "Between you, you have made it almost
+impossible for that poor child to return unless her husband fetches her.
+Why you should have sought to ruin their homes I confess I fail to
+understand. Neither Rose nor his wife had done you any harm."</p>
+
+<p>"No." She stared sombrely at him. "That's true, I suppose. But&mdash;oh, you
+can't understand, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Understand what, Eva?" He tried to speak gently, aware through all her
+mockery of something piteous, tragic in her attitude.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't understand how I hate to see happiness." She threw back her
+head and beneath her white wrapper he saw her breast heave stormily. "I
+was happy once, before those men sent me to prison. I used to sing and
+laugh&mdash;as Toni did&mdash;I used to enjoy every moment of my life ... and then
+I liked to see people all round me being happy too... But I was taken
+away from it all, from the sunshine, the gay, happy people, the shops,
+the theatres, taken away and shut up like a wild animal in a
+cell ... oh ..." She shivered, and all at once his heart melted
+towards her.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't think of that now, dear." He put his hand with real kindness on
+her shoulder. "It's all over and done with, and there are better things
+in store."</p>
+
+<p>"Not for me." Her tone was unutterably forlorn. "My life is spoilt,
+broken&mdash;and now"&mdash;all at once her expression changed and she spoke
+vindictively&mdash;"now all I can do is to break other lives!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Eva." He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't talk so. And
+remember, if Mrs. Rose comes home safely, you must leave her alone for
+the future."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment she said nothing, biting her lip as though in thought. Then
+suddenly she shrugged her shoulders and moved away without a word.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>When daylight came Owen and Herrick resumed their search for the missing
+girl, calling to their aid every device which the wit of man could
+suggest.</p>
+
+<p>They left no stone unturned; and though Owen shrank from the necessary
+publicity Scotland Yard was informed, and a huge reward offered for
+information about the vanished Toni.</p>
+
+<p>But the days passed, glided into weeks, which in their turn grew into
+months; and Toni was not found.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+
+<p>On a sunny afternoon in March of the following year, Toni Rose sat alone
+on the slope of an Italian hill-side overlooking the blue Mediterranean,
+which lay stretched beneath her like a sheet of living turquoise.</p>
+
+<p>The air was delightfully warm and still, and scented with the fresh
+breath of myriads of violets which dotted the short, soft turf here and
+there like a multitude of tiny purple stars. Everywhere the almond
+blossom was in its full beauty of rose and cream, and the sight of an
+orchard away on the hill-side, with the faint blue sky above the
+pink-and-white branches, and the bluer sea behind, gave to the beholder
+the effect of a delicate Japanese water-colour painting.</p>
+
+<p>The Bay of Naples fully deserved its world-wide reputation for beauty on
+this bright spring afternoon. Across its waters rose hill upon hill, the
+sombre giant Vesuvius brooding like some dark monster over the ruined
+countryside at its base, the lovelier, more hopeful snow-crowned peaks
+behind rising like a fairy army beneath whose beneficent gaze the ogre
+was&mdash;for the time&mdash;vanquished and impotent.</p>
+
+<p>The bay was full of craft, as usual. Big liners, tramp steamers, a grey
+battleship or two, looked scornfully down on the little Italian boats,
+some piled high with yellow fruit, others less imposing, little pleasure
+craft manned by youthful boatmen with swarthy brown faces and ears
+ornamented with huge golden rings.</p>
+
+<p>Land and sea alike smiled in the glorious sunshine. It was a day on
+which life seemed a very sweet and desirable opportunity; but in Toni's
+face there was no hint of gladness, none of her former almost pagan
+delight in the beautiful out-of-door world around her.</p>
+
+<p>Although her skin was delicately warmed and coloured by the genial
+Southern sun, the becoming tan could not hide the thinness of the once
+rounded cheeks, nor disguise the hopeless droop of the lips which had
+been used to smile so readily. Toni looked, indeed, the ghost of her
+former self as she sat gazing out over the Mediterranean; and it was
+very evident that whatever had been the result of her flight to those
+she had left behind, her own happiness had suffered a disastrous
+eclipse.</p>
+
+<p>After all, her disappearance had been easily arranged. On that foggy
+night when she had fled from Leonard Dowson, terrified by the spectre of
+a future life which his words had evoked, she had run, without in the
+least realizing her direction, straight to the railway station; and the
+idea of London had at once presented itself to her mind. A train was
+just starting, and Toni hastily took a ticket and jumped into a carriage
+without giving herself time to think.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the terminus she had a momentary indecision as to her next
+step. As she stood on the platform she felt herself to be desperately,
+hopelessly alone; and for one wild moment she wondered how Owen would
+receive her if she went back and flung herself on his mercy.</p>
+
+<p>But something in her, perhaps the sturdy, independent blood of her
+Yorkshire ancestors, seemed to forbid such a course. She could not
+return, creep back to the shelter of the home she had abandoned; and
+even Toni's youthful optimism could not promise her a very hearty
+welcome when the truth of her flight should be known.</p>
+
+<p>If only she had gone alone ... if there had been no man in the case to
+complicate matters and compromise the situation&mdash;in that first moment of
+despair Toni hated Leonard Dowson, loathed herself for imagining it
+would be possible to go away with him; and at the same time realized
+that whatever happened she would find it almost impossible to explain
+the man's introduction into the affair in any way save that which, were
+the story known, would be taken, perhaps naturally, for granted.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the thought of Italy flashed into her brain, and with the
+thought came instant resolution.</p>
+
+<p>She had still twelve pounds in her purse&mdash;more than enough to take her
+to Naples; and once there she could surely discover some friend of the
+bygone days to whom she might apply for advice as to her future
+maintenance.</p>
+
+<p>In Italy she could live frugally, as the peasants lived; and all at once
+Toni felt a great nostalgia for the glowing South, with its sunshine and
+hot blue skies, its orange-groves, its languorous noons and warm,
+scented nights.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian blood in her&mdash;the blood transmitted to her by her mother,
+spoke in its turn; and suddenly Toni felt that in that land of warmth
+and colour she could find the rest and peace for which her sorely-driven
+soul cried out....</p>
+
+<p>And then the miracle happened.</p>
+
+<p>Later that evening she was standing on the platform of another great
+station, waiting her turn to approach the booking-office where she might
+obtain her ticket to Italy&mdash;and home&mdash;when a wail in a thin foreign
+voice fell upon her ear, and she turned round to face a dark and
+agitated-looking young woman, neatly dressed, who was bewailing herself
+in the fluent Italian of the lower classes.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Can I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>Toni spoke impulsively, sorry for the young woman even in the midst of
+her own numbing grief; and the other turned round in astonishment at
+hearing her own tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Signorina!" She evidently took Toni for a compatriot. "Such a
+misfortune has overcome me&mdash;I do not know what is to be done. I am here
+with my charges"&mdash;two sleepy-looking English children stood yawning
+beside her&mdash;"on the way to Naples, and behold, the English Signora&mdash;the
+governess, you understand&mdash;who was to have come with us to deliver the
+children safely to their parents is at the last moment unable to come."</p>
+
+<p>"But why can't she come?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Non lo so!</i>" The woman shrugged her shoulders. "She sends me but a
+telegram to the waiting-room&mdash;an accident, illness&mdash;I know not&mdash;but she
+does not come, and I must go alone with the two little ones, who are
+both delicate and will be ill the whole journey through!"</p>
+
+<p>A wild inspiration flashed into Toni's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"You go to Naples?" she said. "I too wish to go, but hardly care to
+undertake the journey alone. May I then come with you and help you with
+the little ones?"</p>
+
+<p>The Italian's quick mind grasped the idea at once; and she foresaw with
+delighted gratitude that the journey might be shorn of half its terrors
+if the plan were carried out.</p>
+
+<p>She poured forth a stream of voluble explanations. She had already taken
+the tickets for the party; and she was certain that her employer, a
+wealthy English lady, would be only too grateful if the Signorina would
+accept the fare in return for her help in the matter. A carriage had
+been reserved for the party, and the whole journey might be taken in
+complete comfort and security, since this so fortunate meeting with a
+compatriot.</p>
+
+<p>To Toni the idea came as a veritable boon. In her turn, she saw all the
+personal benefits of the plan; and, after all, since she could be of
+real, practical assistance, she saw no reason why she should scruple to
+avail herself of the Italian nurse's offer.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes later the affair was arranged. The foreigner, Luisa by
+name, was at first incredulous on hearing of her new comrade's mixed
+nationality, but she readily accepted such explanations as Toni gave
+her, and was quick to recognize the value of Toni's perfect English at
+the present juncture.</p>
+
+<p>Toni's lack of luggage puzzled her a little, but Toni murmured something
+about a lost dressing-bag which satisfied the other woman; and when the
+long train steamed out of the station at last Toni was comfortably
+ensconced in a reserved first-class compartment, making friends with the
+two little girls with whom she was to travel.</p>
+
+<p>This fact explains the non-success of all inquiries at the railway
+stations, or, later, on the boat. The authorities were on the look-out
+for a young Englishwoman journeying alone; and never associated the
+young Italian lady travelling, apparently, with her two children and a
+nurse, with the solitary girl for whom they searched.</p>
+
+<p>Toni's fur coat was by no means a unique garment. There were plenty to
+be seen at this time of year; and in any case the girl, protected by her
+unassailable bodyguard, was able to pass under the eyes of the very men
+who were anxiously on the look-out for her.</p>
+
+<p>The journey to which Luisa had looked forward with such apprehension
+passed off well enough. Toni was obliged to rouse herself from her own
+dejection to look after the children, who were both delicate and spoilt;
+but luckily they took an instant fancy to the travelling companion so
+strangely provided, and behaved with commendable good-temper throughout.</p>
+
+<p>When at length the train ran into the railway station at Naples, Toni
+suddenly found herself faced with another problem. The nurse had taken
+her on trust, so to speak, and had been too grateful for her help to
+seek to probe into her private affairs; but now that she must face the
+mother of the pretty children, to whom she had become quite attached,
+Toni realized that she would have to give some more plausible
+explanation of her situation than that which had contented the impetuous
+Luisa.</p>
+
+<p>She got out of the carriage at last, her arms full of the children's
+wraps and toys, with knees which shook under her at the thought of the
+ordeal to come; but one quick look into Mrs. Moody's frank and kindly
+face reassured her a little.</p>
+
+<p>She soon found, moreover, that the lady was as ready to take her on
+trust as the maid had been. When she had heard Luisa's voluble
+explanation of the part Toni had played during the long and wearying
+journey, Mrs. Moody turned to Toni with an expression of real gratitude
+on her still pretty face.</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know how to thank you, Miss ... er ..." She hesitated,
+and Toni quickly supplied her with the first name she could think of,
+the name of her Italian mother's race. "Oh, but surely you are English?"</p>
+
+<p>In her agitation Toni murmured something about an Italian father, not
+meaning to deceive, but too tired out and confused to pay much heed to
+her words; and Mrs. Moody put her hand kindly on the girl's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, English or not, you've been a god-send to Luisa and the chicks;
+so if you have no friends waiting for you at this moment, you must come
+home with me and let my husband thank you properly."</p>
+
+<p>Somehow Toni found herself stepping into the beautifully-appointed
+motor-car which waited outside the station; and ten minutes later she
+was helped out of the motor and taken up a broad and palatial-looking
+staircase to the large and lofty flat inhabited by her new friends.</p>
+
+<p>Friends indeed they proved to be. Without the slightest hesitation they
+accepted Toni's rather faltering story of an engagement in England which
+had proved unsatisfactory; and on learning that her intention in
+returning to Italy had been to look for another post, they looked at one
+another in a meaning silence which was explained later, when Mrs. Moody
+asked her quietly if she would care to undertake the post of
+governess-companion to the two small children with whom she was already
+on terms of friendship.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Toni hesitated. To stay on here, deceiving her employers,
+representing herself, falsely, as an unmarried woman, would be a poor
+return for their kindness and generosity; but to tell the truth was
+surely impossible. Yet she could not bring herself to shut the door
+which would open to her a new and honourable life in which she might
+find, if not happiness, at least content; and poor Toni was torn between
+conflicting emotions as she stood listening to her new friend's
+proposals.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Moody, reading her indecision in her face, bade her think the
+matter over for a week while she remained with them as an honoured
+guest; and Toni did so, coming at last to the conclusion that, much as
+she longed to accept the post, to do so would not be fair to her
+prospective employers.</p>
+
+<p>She refused, therefore, but with so genuine a regret that the refusal
+could not give offence. The Moodys, however, while recognizing the
+girl's claim to independence of judgment, in their turn asserted their
+claim to befriend her, and Toni was only too ready to accept their
+advice and assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing that it was of importance that she should set about making some
+money without delay, Mr. Moody secured for her a post as
+assistant-librarian and secretary in a big library belonging to an
+Italian friend of his own.</p>
+
+<p>It was something of an irony that Toni's work should take her into an
+atmosphere that could not fail to remind her of her husband and his
+literary aspirations; and her heart used to contract pitifully within
+her sometimes when she entered the big, lofty, book-lined room, which
+was not unlike the stately library in the beautiful old house by the
+river where her married life had come to so tragic a close.</p>
+
+<p>She owed the post to her proficiency in Italian and English rather than
+to any scholarly ability. To the end of her life Toni would never be
+bookish. She would always prefer living to reading about life; and it
+was fortunate that her work in this new library consisted largely of
+translating, roughly, from books in Italian and English, or in typing,
+from dictation, in either language.</p>
+
+<p>She grew to like her employment in the quiet, medi&aelig;val-looking room. Her
+employer, a gentle, sad-eyed elderly man with an invalid daughter,
+treated her with the utmost kindness; and if it had not been that every
+fibre in her being cried out incessantly for Owen, she might in time
+have been content.</p>
+
+<p>Her first friends, the Moodys, had settled her in rooms with an old
+servant of their own who had married a little Italian bookseller, and
+were unremitting in their kindness to her; but Toni desired only to be
+alone in her leisure hours and refused many of the invitations which
+Mrs. Moody sent her from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>So the days passed, quietly and tranquilly enough; and though to Toni it
+seemed that all the joy, all the happiness had fled from life, that the
+"sweet things" had lost their sweetness, the sunshine its glory, the
+flowers their perfume, she was not ungrateful for the peace which had
+come to her so unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>Of her husband, of Greenriver, she never dared to think. She guessed,
+drearily, that Owen would feel bound, in humanity, to institute a search
+for his missing wife; but by a fortunate chance she had been able to
+cover her tracks and disappear effectually; and as the weeks glided by,
+and discovery was apparently as far off as ever, she began to feel, with
+a miserable certainty, that in time her husband would relinquish the
+search, and settle down to forget the frivolous, uneducated girl who had
+not known how to appreciate the honour he had done her in making her his
+wife.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, this glorious spring day when the violet-scented air held a hint
+of summer's warmth in its breath, Toni was making holiday.</p>
+
+<p>Her employer was from home, called to London by the hint of a wonderful
+book sale to be held there the following week; and Toni's time was her
+own for nearly eight days.</p>
+
+<p>She had started early that morning on a pilgrimage to the little village
+where, long ago, she had passed the first happy years of her life; and
+had arrived, before noon, to find, as she had half-expected, that none
+of her old friends remained to give her welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Old Fiammetta was dead, as was, of course, the kindly Padre who had
+befriended Roger Gibbs when the young widower had decided to stay on,
+with his little daughter, in the home which his Antonia had made so
+joyous. A few of the children with whom she had played lived here still,
+but they had grown into sturdy, swarthy young men and women who had long
+since forgotten the dark-eyed child whose Italian had been as fluent as
+their own; and though she wandered disconsolately through the straggling
+little village, she met with no single glance of recognition.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know that some months previously urgent inquiries had been
+made at the tiny post-office as to whether a young lady had arrived in
+the village unexpectedly. It had struck Owen as possible that, in her
+madness, Toni might have returned to her childhood's home; but although,
+had she not met Luisa, Toni would probably have done so, that chance
+meeting at the station had turned her feet into another path, and
+naturally no one here knew anything of her whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>She had intended spending the whole of her holiday in the village; but
+the absence of any welcome depressed her sensitive spirit, and she
+decided to return to Naples in the evening and spend the days of her
+freedom in exploring more thoroughly the fascinating streets and byways
+of the picturesque and romantic town.</p>
+
+<p>It was late when she arrived home, carrying her little valise; and old
+Janet, who in spite of her long residence in Italy was still
+uncompromisingly British, was surprised to see her lodger returning.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were going to stay a few days," she said quite
+reproachfully. "Now a real good change would have been the very best
+thing for you, miss, and I'm right sorry to see you back."</p>
+
+<p>"You're not very kind, Janet!" Toni smiled rather wearily, "I couldn't
+stay ... all my friends were dead and gone ... there were only ghosts
+left to welcome me, and I couldn't bear it!"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman read the disappointment in the girl's tone and was sorry
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come along in, miss, and I'll bring you some supper right away.
+There's an omelette, and some lovely risotto I'm making for Pietro, and
+a glass or two of Chianti will soon hearten you up&mdash;though for my part I
+think a bottle of good English stout is worth all the thin wines in
+Italy!"</p>
+
+<p>When, later, she bustled in again with some excellent coffee, the old
+woman brought a bundle of papers which had been left by Mrs. Moody
+earlier in the day. There were various English and American magazines,
+and a few weekly papers; and had doubtless been intended to lighten the
+loneliness of Toni's holiday.</p>
+
+<p>She sat sipping her coffee and turning the pages rather listlessly.
+Somehow reading appealed to her less than ever nowadays. She was always
+so fully occupied with her own miserable thoughts, that the imaginative
+writings of other people could claim small share of her interest; but
+she dipped into the magazines as she sat alone, and tried to forget
+herself for an hour in the perusal of their pages.</p>
+
+<p>Among the papers was a copy of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, sent to Mrs. Moody
+occasionally by a sister in London; and Toni was idly turning the clumsy
+sheets when a name she knew attracted her attention.</p>
+
+<p>She scanned the paragraph hurriedly a little pulse beating in her temple
+as she read.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"We learn on good authority that the famous portrait-painter Mr.
+James Herrick, better known as Mr. Herrick Vyse, has accepted a
+commission to paint the two beautiful daughters of Lord and Lady
+Tregarthen at their historic home in Cornwall. The young subjects,
+who are twins, are only nine years of age, but are ranked among the
+loveliest of England's many beautiful children, and doubtless the
+artist will do their childish beauty full justice. Mr. Herrick has
+already left his picturesque bungalow on the Thames for Tregarthen
+House, where he will be the guest of Lord and Lady Tregarthen
+during the painting of the portrait."</p></div>
+
+<p>The paper fell from Toni's hands and the light of a great inspiration
+flashed into her face.</p>
+
+<p>Lately she had longed, with ever-increasing intensity, for some
+authentic news of Owen. She felt she would give all she had in the world
+to hear that he was well, that her flight had not ruined his life; but
+she had no means of finding out anything without running the risk of
+giving away the secret of her own hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>She had sometimes thought of writing to Eva Herrick, binding her to the
+strictest secrecy, and imploring her, for the sake of their old
+friendship, to give her the information she craved. But there were so
+many drawbacks to the plan. Her letter might easily fall into Herrick's
+hands, and though the contents would be sacred to him, the Italian
+postmark would be enough to betray her whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>But now, during Herrick's absence, she might surely risk sending Eva a
+letter. She felt pretty certain that Mrs. Herrick would not give away
+her secret. By this time Toni was quite able to appreciate the part Eva
+Herrick had played in her unfortunate escapade; and she realised, very
+plainly, that Eva's unhappy desire to ruin other lives as hers had been
+ruined, had been at the bottom of her eager sympathy and pretended help.</p>
+
+<p>Even now Eva would doubtless seek to prevent any real reconciliation
+between husband and wife; and in any case Toni felt that she must take
+the risk; she must have news, hear how Owen had taken her flight; and
+surely Eva would not refuse to answer her letter.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote it there and then. It was very short, only a few lines
+imploring the recipient to give her all news of Owen, while keeping the
+secret of the writer's hiding place. Of herself Toni merely stated that
+she was at work and content; but the few scribbled lines breathed a
+spirit of misery, of supplication which would surely melt even the
+hardest heart.</p>
+
+<p>Having signed her name, and seen that the address at the top of the
+sheet was correct, Toni hastily procured an envelope, thrust in the
+fateful letter, and immediately slipped out of the house to post it.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this moment she had acted impulsively, without giving herself time
+to think, with possibly a lurking fear at the back of her mind that if
+she stopped to consider she would tear up the letter instead of posting
+it. But when once it had left her hand, when she had heard the thud it
+made in falling into the almost empty box, a great terror seized Toni,
+and she stood trembling in the deserted street, feeling that she would
+give all she had to rescind her impetuous action.</p>
+
+<p>But doubts and misgivings were alike useless now. The letter had passed
+out of her keeping, and she must abide by her own deed, trusting
+fervently that no further misfortune would follow her precipitancy.</p>
+
+<p>Realizing at last that regrets were futile, Toni turned away and went
+home, there to spend a sleepless night torturing herself with all sorts
+of premonitions and visions of ill-luck.</p>
+
+<p>But in her wildest flights of imaginative terror over the receipt of her
+letter, and its consequences, Toni never approached the truth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+
+<p>Toni's letter was delivered to Mrs. Herrick late one afternoon; and with
+a slight feeling of wonder as to her correspondent's identity, Eva broke
+the seal languidly and took out the thin foreign sheet without the least
+notion that this letter was to her a veritable messenger of Fate.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take her long to read the few scrawled lines in which Toni
+proffered her desperate request; and when she had read them, Eva let the
+sheet flutter to the floor while she pondered on the strange chance
+which led the woman whose life she had helped to ruin to appeal to her
+for aid.</p>
+
+<p>The months which had passed since Toni's flight had not been happy ones
+for Eva Herrick. On hearing of the part she had played in the
+culminating catastrophe, her husband had felt at first that he could
+barely find it in his heart to forgive such deliberate treachery; and
+for a short space of time even the malicious and reckless Eva knew what
+it was to be afraid. She was afraid, not of Herrick's wrath, but of the
+consequences. If, as at times she almost feared, he were to leave her,
+what would her position be? Already disgraced, discredited in the eyes
+of the world, she would find it impossible to face that world all alone,
+without the shelter of her husband's name; and although Toni's plight
+was nothing to her, there were times when she almost wished she had left
+the girl alone and had not encouraged her to take the fatal step of
+leaving her home.</p>
+
+<p>She picked up the flimsy sheet again and re-read the pitiful words. The
+letter could be answered easily enough. If she replied truthfully, she
+would relate a tragic history of a winter of lonely despair lived out in
+the beautiful old house, which to its solitary owner was like a body
+without a soul, a mere empty shell which had once held something
+precious beyond all words.</p>
+
+<p>She could narrate of blank and heavy days, when Owen Rose shut himself
+up in his library and refused to see a single fellow-creature save the
+servants who had known and loved his pretty young wife. Eva could have
+told of the dismissal of the housekeeper, Mrs. Blades, whose long
+service had seemed to her sufficient to warrant an impertinent stricture
+on Mrs. Rose's shameless conduct. She had learned her mistake very
+quickly; and had gone forth lamenting the short-sighted folly which had
+ended her long and tyrannical reign at Greenriver. Further, Eva could
+have related how, when the papers were full of complimentary reviews of
+Owen Rose's novel, the author himself turned away from all praise,
+fulsome and discriminating alike, and took up his pen only to write such
+articles as his position on the staff of the <i>Bridge</i> rendered
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>But as yet Eva did not know what form her reply would take.</p>
+
+<p>Warped, distorted, malignant as her judgment too often was, there was
+something very vital in that despairing cry from Italy; and in spite of
+herself Eva could not banish its echo from her ears.</p>
+
+<p>She might answer, briefly, that Owen was still at Greenriver, and, so
+far as she knew, in good health and spirits. As she framed the words she
+had a mental vision of Owen as she had last seen him, thin, pale,
+haggard, with the fire of a restless despair burning in his blue eyes.
+Although he went out and about, and greeted his friends much as usual,
+no one could doubt that the whole man was consumed as by a devouring
+flame. He had been tortured with terrible neuralgic headaches all
+through the winter; but though the doctor urged him to try the effect of
+a sojourn abroad, nothing would induce him to leave Greenriver.</p>
+
+<p>His tentative inquiries in Italy having proved futile, he clung to the
+idea that Toni was still in England; and the thought that she might
+return to her home and find him gone was one which recurred to him like
+a nightmare whenever he took even the short journey up to town.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I say, I wonder?" Eva sat gazing thoughtfully into the fire,
+while the Spring twilight fell over the river which glided so quietly
+past her windows. "If I say she is forgotten it will almost break her
+heart; yet if I tell her that her husband is breaking <i>his</i> heart to
+find her, will she come to England instantly and humble herself till he
+takes her back into his home?"</p>
+
+<p>As she sat there Eva had a sudden vivid sense of the contrast between
+her own spoilt life and that of the girl whose pitiful cry still rang in
+her consciousness and would not be silenced.</p>
+
+<p>Her own life was ruined, she told herself bitterly. But in that
+illuminating moment Eva saw the truth for the first time. She herself
+was to blame for the ruin. She had brought all the shame, all the
+disgrace upon herself, and the bitter experience of her prison life had
+been only the reaping of the harvest which she, by her own act, had
+sown.</p>
+
+<p>But Toni's happiness had been broken and spoilt by other means. It was
+her very love for her husband which had made her so fatally ready to
+believe that only by leaving him could she give him the freedom which he
+was supposed&mdash;by his wife&mdash;to desire. And Eva knew quite well that
+without her connivance and encouragement Leonard Dowson would never have
+dared to utter his proposal to the young wife of Owen Rose.</p>
+
+<p>Yet if she gave in now and begged Toni to return, assuring her, as she
+knew she might safely do, of her husband's ready forgiveness, would not
+the spectacle of Toni's ensuing happiness bring all the more cruelly
+home to her the wretchedness which must be her own portion from
+henceforth?</p>
+
+<p>Although Jim Herrick treated her with unvarying kindness and
+consideration, Eva had always the miserable conviction that his love for
+her was dead; and although she never showed any feeling in their daily
+intercourse, even her bitter and reckless heart was sometimes sore
+within her.</p>
+
+<p>Long she sat, wondering how best to treat this unexpected appeal from a
+far country; and only when the trim maid who had replaced the more
+haphazard Mrs. Swastika entered with the lighted lamp did Eva rouse
+herself from her reverie.</p>
+
+<p>Then, however, she got pen and paper and sat down at the table to frame
+some sort of reply. It was not an easy task. With Toni's letter lying
+before her, she found it strangely difficult to begin; and was still
+sitting staring at the blank sheet of paper when a sudden deep bark from
+Olga, who was lying, as usual, nose on paws, in the tiny hall, made her
+start to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's there, I wonder? Olga sounds excited."</p>
+
+<p>She went to the door and opened it, and at the same moment the front
+door was flung widely open and a man stepped into the hall, to be
+greeted instantly by a torrent of wild barking from the now delighted
+Borzoi.</p>
+
+<p>"Steady, old girl! I say, Olga, don't take me for a wolf and tear me to
+pieces!" He laughingly pushed the great dog down and hastened towards
+his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Eva! Have I startled you? I'm sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know who it was." She stared at him with dilated eyes. "I was
+sitting in there, and Olga barked so loudly that I thought&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Thought I was a burglar!" He kissed her very kindly. "Well, I'm not.
+But I've come back for a bit ... yes, put them down there, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the door, his arm through his wife's, and paid the cabman,
+who had placed his portmanteaux in the hall. Then, when the man,
+declining a drink, had gone, Herrick drew his wife back into the little
+sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I don't understand. Is the portrait off? Aren't you going to paint
+the children?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course I am, but not for a bit. Fact is, the poor kiddies have
+started in measles, pretty badly, too, I'm told, so as it was impossible
+to get on with the picture just yet I thought I'd better come home and
+let their parents send for me when the children are out of quarantine."</p>
+
+<p>"I see." Eva was half pleased, half annoyed by his return. "You want
+something to eat, I expect. Shall I go and hurry up dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would, dear." He threw aside his coat as he spoke. "I had
+some lunch on the train, but you know what railway lunches are. I came
+down from Waterloo with Rose. Jove, Eva, that fellow looks a wreck."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he?" Suddenly she remembered that Toni's letter was lying open on
+the table. "I&mdash;I suppose he will get over&mdash;it&mdash;in time."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think he will. Of course he must really have been devoted to
+her&mdash;to his wife&mdash;all the time, without knowing it. And I don't wonder.
+She was one of the best, pluckiest, straightest girls I ever met. I
+don't believe she could have done a dishonourable action to save her
+life."</p>
+
+<p>He had spoken quite without any ulterior meaning, carried away by his
+memory of Toni as he had known and admired her; but his words sounded to
+Eva like a direct and deadly insult; and her Irish blood flamed
+instantly into revolt.</p>
+
+<p>"Toni straight!" All softer feelings were forgotten now; again she was
+the unhappy woman at war with all the world, but especially with her own
+sex. "Very straight of her to elope with another man, wasn't it? And as
+for pluck, why, she couldn't even stick to him when she'd done it."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Eva!" Herrick's brow wore the frown she hated, and, secretly,
+feared. "You were never fair to that unhappy girl; and both you and I
+know very well that had you acted differently half this misery would
+have been spared."</p>
+
+<p>"I was unfair to her?" Eva's voice was choked with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." He spoke deliberately, rather sadly. "From the first you treated
+Toni Rose, unfairly. You knew she was very young, and not very wise in
+the ways of the world, and whereas you were an older woman&mdash;very little
+older in actual years, I grant you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you mean older in wickedness." She spoke between her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean you were old enough to have helped the child instead of
+encouraging her in her foolishness," he said steadily. "But you did not.
+You preferred to inflame her mind by exaggerating her woes, making her
+feel herself misunderstood, unloved, unwanted ... oh, I don't know what
+you said, what passed between you, but this I do know. You saw that
+child shivering on the brink, as it were, of a dreadful precipice, and
+not only did you refrain from pulling her back from the edge, but I'm
+horribly afraid that yours was the hand which sought to push her over."</p>
+
+<p>"You dare to say this to me?" Her voice was like steel, and there was a
+dangerous glint in the Irish eyes which had once been so sweet and gay.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Oh, I don't want to be hard on you, to bring it all up again." He
+spoke wearily. "I suppose it was the sight of that poor fellow Rose that
+made me speak like that just now. But you know, you have known all
+along, that I hold you largely responsible for the whole affair, and if
+any harm has come to that poor misguided girl, I'm afraid your
+conscience can never be wholly clear."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" With flashing eyes and a stormy flush on her cheeks his wife
+faced him; and even Herrick recoiled a step, aghast at the picture of
+evil, revengeful triumph she presented in that moment. "You are blaming
+me for that affair, are you? Doubtless you and the bereft husband joined
+upon your journey down in calling me all the pretty names which seem to
+fit me&mdash;evil genius, bad angel, and all the rest. Well, it may surprise
+you to learn that it is to me that the 'poor misguided child' turns even
+now when she wants news of her loving husband. Oh, you may stare, but I
+know more than all of you. I know just where the misguided Toni is at
+this moment, and what she is doing into the bargain."</p>
+
+<p>She had surprised him indeed. He sprang forward and seized her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You know that? Then why in God's name haven't you said so before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I've only just got to know," she answered defiantly, "and
+because although I <i>do</i> know, I'm not going to hand on my
+knowledge&mdash;now."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" Her vindictive tone made his blood run cold.</p>
+
+<p>"I had meant, when her letter came to-night, to show it to you, to let
+you tell Mr. Rose. Wasn't I a fool?" She laughed scornfully. "Why on
+earth should I give away the precious information? You don't suppose I
+care whether Toni ever sees her husband again? I hope she doesn't, in
+fact. Other women are unhappy&mdash;they suffer&mdash;let her suffer, too, let her
+know what it is to live in hell, to wish herself dead so that she may at
+least forget her misery."</p>
+
+<p>"Eva!" His voice rang through the room. "You are going too far. Tell me
+this moment&mdash;where is Mrs. Rose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you like to know?" While she mocked him she was endeavouring
+to edge past him to reach the table on which Toni's letter still lay.
+Unconsciously he frustrated her, blocking the way in an attempt to force
+her to speak plainly.</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to know." His voice was as cold as ice. "Come, Eva, if pity
+for the girl doesn't move you, think of the man. Why condemn him to this
+mental torture, when a word from you can set him free?"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she paused before him; and to his dying day he would never
+forget the hatred in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you think of that, when a word from you would have set me free? Did
+you utter the word which would have condemned you to prison but would
+have let me go back to the world of sunshine and freedom? Did any of the
+men who sent me to that hell think of my torture, my agony? Why should I
+think of anyone else now? What does it matter to me if Owen Rose and his
+wife die broken-hearted? Do you think I'd raise a finger to help them to
+find one another? No. No, I tell you, a hundred, thousand times&mdash;<i>no</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the man who listened was filled with a great and marvellous
+compassion. Even now, it seemed, his wife could not see the justice of
+her fate; but somehow her childish comparison of her own position with
+that of Owen and Toni Rose seemed pitiful, tragic, rather than evil.</p>
+
+<p>"See here, dear." He spoke very gently. "You are overwrought. You don't
+know what you are saying. I'm sure in your heart you only want to act
+kindly, nobly, by those two unfortunate people. Tell me, where is Mrs.
+Rose, and when&mdash;and how&mdash;has she communicated with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She wrote to me&mdash;I got her letter to-night." There was a note of
+triumph in her voice which made him uneasy. "And do you know what I'm
+going to do with it? I'm going to burn it&mdash;now&mdash;before your eyes."</p>
+
+<p>During her speech she had been edging nearer and nearer the table; and
+as she spoke the last words she made a frantic dart at the letter and
+envelope which had lain there through all the conversation. Quick as she
+was, however, she was almost too late.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly awake to her meaning, Herrick had swung round in time to see
+her seize the letter; and in an instant his hand was on her wrist.</p>
+
+<p>"Eva! What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"This." With a wild gesture she tore her hand from his; but again he was
+too quick for her.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me." He spoke quickly, wild with anxiety lest she should
+carry out her threat. "You are to give me that letter&mdash;at once. At once,
+do you hear? I don't want to hurt you, but I will have that letter, and
+you had better give it to me of your own free will."</p>
+
+<p>"You shan't&mdash;you shan't." She spoke gaspingly, using all her force to
+got away from him. Handicapped by his very superiority, Herrick did not
+venture to put forth his full strength, but Eva, held back by no
+scruples, fought desperately to release her hands that she might fling
+the letter in the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Quite suddenly she found herself free. Herrick, his very soul sickened
+within him at the physical encounter, had released her abruptly,
+trusting, perhaps, to some instinct of generosity which should lead her
+to surrender in the moment of victory.</p>
+
+<p>But he trusted vainly. The second she was free Eva flung herself on to
+her knees by the brightly-blazing fire; and as Herrick, maddened by her
+action, bent roughly over her to try, even now, to save the precious
+letter, she thrust her hand almost within the bars that the fire might
+destroy the writing the more completely.</p>
+
+<p>But her own haste was her undoing. The loose chiffon sleeve she wore
+brushed against the glowing coals as she pushed the letter frantically
+between the bars; and a bright tongue of flame shot suddenly up her arm
+and ignited the masses of filmy lace which disguised the thinness of her
+once softly-rounded bosom.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sharp cry from Herrick, a shriek of terror from Eva; and
+then, as Herrick sprang aside to snatch up the heavy travelling-coat
+which would most effectually beat out the flames, Eva rushed frenziedly
+to the door, screaming at the top of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again he tried to fling the coat round her burning form; but
+she had completely lost her head, and several valuable seconds were
+wasted before he caught her finally and wrapped her completely round in
+the thick, heavy folds of his big coat.</p>
+
+<p>Quite suddenly he felt her collapse in his grasp; and when, having
+extinguished the flames, he unwrapped the coat from her slender figure,
+Herrick had a horrible conviction that he held a dead woman in his
+arms....</p>
+
+<p>She was still alive, however, though terribly burned about the arms and
+body. For nearly a week she lay between life and death, a piteous little
+figure swathed in bandages.</p>
+
+<p>By some miraculous chance, although her golden curls were singed and
+blackened, her face had escaped injury, and as he sat by her side in the
+darkened room, Herrick could trace in the pale and suffering features
+the face of the bonny Irish girl who had won his heart so completely in
+those far-off days of an Irish spring.</p>
+
+<p>For seven days she lay there, half-conscious at times, moaning piteously
+for hours together, though for the most part under the merciful
+influence of the morphia which lulled her agony; and in that terrible
+week Herrick took up afresh the burden of his marriage and determined
+that if Eva recovered he would give up his whole life to her service. He
+would endeavour to win her back to a saner, sweeter frame of mind, to
+make up to her by his unswerving patience and devotion for the misery
+she had endured; and he would relinquish, once for all, the hopeless
+mental attitude which had seemed to say that a life spent together must
+be impossible for both of them.</p>
+
+<p>After all, she was pathetically young and frail. She had sinned, but she
+had paid, was paying now. Every feeble moan she uttered wrung his heart
+afresh; and he longed for her to regain consciousness that he might
+whisper words of love and encouragement into those fragile ears.</p>
+
+<p>He had almost forgotten the cause of the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>Toni's letter had been burned to ashes, and he had not the slightest
+idea of her whereabouts; but even Toni's welfare seemed of less
+importance during these days of torture; and beyond sending Owen a note
+to inform him that his wife was certainly alive, since she had written
+to her friend, Herrick had done nothing.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite possible that Eva would die without revealing Toni's
+secret; and even though she lived, what guarantee had Herrick that she
+would unclose her lips even then?</p>
+
+<p>Although, through her intense suffering, she had an irresistible claim
+upon his compassion, her husband did not feel certain that even were Eva
+herself again Toni's tragic blunder would be repaired; and although he
+was fully determined to do all in his power to bring Eva's restless
+spirit peace, there was a possibility that she would return to life as
+callous, as heartless, as vindictive as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Yet as he looked at the wan little face on the pillow, he could not
+forbear a hope that this terrible disaster would mark a turning point in
+Eva's life; and then, as a moan fluttered through the girl's parched
+lips, he experienced a horrible fear that for Eva there would be no time
+for repentance and reparation.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly one o'clock on the seventh night when Herrick, watching
+closely, saw the grey Irish eyes open suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>He bent over the bed, and found that for the first time his wife was
+sufficiently herself to recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim? Is that you?" Her voice was the merest thread.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear. Do you feel more comfortable now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel ... dying," she murmured, still in that thin whisper.
+"Jim ... I'm so sorry. I've been a wicked girl&mdash;but you must forgive me,
+because I'm going to die."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, dear." His heart stirred within him at the startling change in
+her, and he slipped to his knees beside the bed. "You are going to get
+better and be my own dear little wife again. There is no need to talk of
+forgiveness, Eva. That's all over long ago. Now I have only to love
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you've forgiven me." When she had spoken she closed her eyes
+again; and Herrick felt himself turn cold, thinking she were dying
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>Presently she re-opened those sunken eyes, and her lips moved faintly.
+Bending down he caught her words.</p>
+
+<p>"Jim ... I'm sorry about Toni. She's safe&mdash;in Italy&mdash;in Naples...."</p>
+
+<p>"You're sure, dear?" He spoke quietly, though his heart gave a throb of
+relief at her words.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I can't remember her address." Her brows contracted pitifully.
+"But she works in the library of an Italian called Zanoni&mdash;is that
+enough? Can you find her from that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, dear." He knew it would only be a matter of time to trace the
+girl now. "And you must not worry about her any more. Close those big
+eyes of yours and go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little sigh, and her tiny bandaged hand lifted itself feebly
+as though seeking his. Instantly he laid his own warm fingers over hers;
+and a moment later Eva was asleep.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>So it happened that Eva did not die, but crept slowly back to life; and
+throughout her painful and often halting convalescence she exhibited a
+patience, a gentleness which won her husband's heart afresh.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed as though the fire had burnt out all the evil thoughts and
+desires which had ravaged her soul. Gone were all thoughts of revenge,
+of callous retribution for the sufferings she had endured. No longer
+bitter and hard and reckless, Eva was once again the engaging girl who
+had won Herrick's love; and although it was probable she would never
+again be quite so light-hearted, so thoughtless as she had been in the
+days before her marriage, Herrick was very strongly attracted to this
+oddly gentle, shy, wistful girl who gave him a new and passionate
+gratitude and love in place of her former half-careless,
+half-contemptuous affection.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Her first question on coming fully to herself had concerned Toni; and
+within a very short space of time Herrick was able to inform her that
+the girl had been found.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she well&mdash;happy? Is Mr. Rose going to forgive her?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has done that already," said Herrick with a smile. "By this time he
+is on his way to Italy; and I have no doubt he will bring her home to
+Greenriver as fast as boat and train can do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Must I see her, Jim?" Into her eyes came a look of dread which touched
+him oddly. "I know it was all through my wickedness that she went
+away&mdash;but&mdash;must I ask her to forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't trouble about that, dear. Mrs. Rose has forgiven you long
+ago. And as soon as ever you are well enough to travel, I'm going to
+take you right away where I can have you to myself and there will be no
+one to bother you all the rest of your life."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we going?" Her weak voice sounded pitifully glad.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not sure&mdash;but somewhere for away&mdash;Canada, or California, or some
+big, wild country where we can ride about all day and imagine ourselves
+back in dear old Ireland again."</p>
+
+<p>She sighed with pleasure; and two minutes later fell asleep with a
+tender little smile upon her lips.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+
+
+<p>On a beautiful evening in June, when the land was sweet with roses, and
+the cuckoos called insistently to one another from copse and wood, Owen
+Rose brought his wife home, for the second time, to Greenriver.</p>
+
+<p>They had spent the intervening weeks in Italy; and to the end of her
+life Toni would look upon those glorious Italian days as her true
+honeymoon.</p>
+
+<p>Now, indeed, she and Owen were really lovers, meeting on an equal ground
+through the very force of their mutual love. Gone for ever were the old
+doubts and misunderstandings, the miserable fooling of inferiority on
+Toni's side, the half-unconscious irritation with which Owen had viewed
+what seemed to be his wife's limitations.</p>
+
+<p>No miracle had been worked. Toni and Owen both knew very well that in
+literary matters Owen would always be superior to Toni; but now that
+they were one in ambition, one in feeling, one in heart and soul, this
+superiority mattered little.</p>
+
+<p>Now that she was no longer frightened, no longer felt herself despised,
+Toni could give her natural intelligence full play; and when once Owen
+took the trouble to study Toni closely, he thanked his gods that he had
+discovered her worth before it was too late.</p>
+
+<p>What he had taken for stupidity was only diffidence. Toni's brain,
+though not so highly specialized as his own, was a very capable, quick
+organ all the same; and in the lonely, dreary months of her absence Owen
+had learned to value at their true worth the precious gifts of laughter
+and sunny, unselfish gaiety which had once lightened the stately old
+house. When Toni disappeared, it seemed as though a living sunbeam had
+deserted the household; and when, on announcing the news of her safety
+and ultimate return, he had seen the faces of the servants break into
+relieved smiles, Owen had felt, with a twinge of shame, that even her
+dependants had valued Toni more than he, her husband, had known how to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>Always, too, the remembrance of the significance of Toni's sacrifice
+would keep Owen humble before her. He knew now, beyond all possibility
+of doubt, that it had nearly broken her heart to leave him; and though
+her tragically childish notion of setting him free by eloping with
+Leonard Dowson often brought a tender, half-quizzical smile to his lips,
+Owen fully appreciated the love and eager longing which had driven Toni
+to that futile step.</p>
+
+<p>If Toni had found her soul, Owen too had gained something which his
+character had hitherto lacked; and in his new humility and comprehension
+there was the germ, also, of a new content for both of them.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Toni caught her breath in a sob of rapture as the old house came into
+view.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone about the place, servants, gardeners, chauffeur, had worked
+their hardest during the last excited weeks to bring the whole place to
+the highest pitch of perfection; and to Toni's longing eyes the
+beautiful old house, in its setting of tall trees, smooth green lawns,
+and brilliant, many-hued flowers, had never looked so eminently
+attractive, so alluringly home-like before.</p>
+
+<p>There were tears in her eyes as she sprang out of the car and greeted
+the waiting Andrews, who stood beside the open door. In the background
+Kate and Maggie hovered, all smiles and blushes; and it was evident that
+whatever construction a censorious world might have put upon Toni's rash
+departure, these faithful souls, at least, believed no evil.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact very little of the truth ever did leak out. When it
+was known, as Herrick took good care it should be known, that Mr. Rose
+had gone to Italy to join his wife, who was wintering there, and would
+return with her after a few weeks spent together by the shores of the
+Mediterranean, gossip was at once checked and dumbfounded.</p>
+
+<p>If there had been anything wrong, said the neighbourhood, if Mrs. Rose
+had left her husband secretly as had been asserted, surely the fact of
+Mr. Rose's going to Italy to join her would not have been given quite so
+much publicity.</p>
+
+<p>Not only were there paragraphs in all the society papers&mdash;here Barry's
+hand was discernible&mdash;but there were even portraits of the rising young
+author and his wife, taken together in the garden of their whitewashed
+villa outside Naples; and it was decided, finally, that Mrs. Rose's
+hasty departure had been, after all, a good deal less mysterious than it
+had at first appeared.</p>
+
+<p>There was some consolation, to the more determined gossips of the
+neighbourhood, in spreading a rumour that the young mistress of
+Greenriver was far gone in consumption, and had been ordered to winter
+abroad; but Toni's appearance, on the day of her return, was quite
+sufficient to give the lie to that particular <i>canard</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Browned with the sun, her Southern colouring accentuated by the months
+spent in what was, after all, almost her native land, Toni looked the
+picture of glowing, vivid health; and when, late that night, she faced
+her husband with sparkling eyes across the rose-decked table, Owen
+realized, for the first time, that this quaint, half-foreign wife of his
+was giving promise of developing into actual beauty.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>After dinner they strolled into the garden, Jock, deliriously happy,
+pressing closely to his mistress's side; and as they passed between the
+sleeping flowers Toni suddenly clung to her husband's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Owen! Listen. The nightingale! Oh, isn't it perfect&mdash;that big yellow
+moon&mdash;and the roses&mdash;and now&mdash;<i>that</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it better than Italy, Toni? Wouldn't you rather be there&mdash;on a night
+like this&mdash;in that land of beauty and romance?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Toni stood still, gazing round her in silence. She looked
+at the old grey house, from which the mellow lamplight streamed, the Ten
+Little Ladies casting their beams bravely through the big windows of the
+gallery upstairs. She looked at the sleeping roses, the velvet lawns,
+the tall trees; and her eyes were very peaceful. The golden moonlight
+transfigured the scene; from the dreaming river came the creak of oars
+moving gently in their rowlocks; and the nightingale's song was dying
+softly, tenderly, on the quiet air.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly Toni's gaze came back to her husband's face; and in her eyes,
+velvety and black in the moonlight, Owen read her answer before she
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Wherever you are is my land of beauty," she said, in a low voice.
+"But ... oh, I am so glad, so glad you have brought me home&mdash;to
+Greenriver."</p>
+
+<p>And as he heard the words, saw, too, the loving little gesture which
+accompanied them as she slipped her hand into his arm, Owen felt that
+for them both Greenriver was home henceforth.</p>
+
+<p>He stooped and kissed her, quietly, on the white brow beneath the ebony
+hair; end as if he had been waiting for the signal, the unseen
+nightingale broke once more into song.</p>
+
+
+<p>THE END</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="FAMOUS_NOVELS_BY_KATHLYN_RHODES" id="FAMOUS_NOVELS_BY_KATHLYN_RHODES"></a>FAMOUS NOVELS BY KATHLYN RHODES</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THE LURE OF THE DESERT<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE DESERT DREAMERS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE WILL OF ALLAH<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">SWEET LIFE<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">AFTERWARDS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">FLOWER OF GRASS<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE MAKING OF A SOUL<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Vivid descriptions of the entrancing scenery of the East, incident
+crowding upon incident, romantic situations, exciting intrigues,
+unexpected d&eacute;nouements hold and absorb the interest from start to
+finish.</p>
+
+<h4>KATHLYN RHODES<br />
+is the assured success of 1918,<br />
+as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916<br />
+and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.</h4>
+
+<p>Fired with enthusiasm to win fame as a novelist, Kathlyn Rhodes began
+her career before her school days were ended. "Sweet Life" followed
+shortly afterwards; and the appreciation which this won encouraged the
+authoress to follow quickly with other stories. Choice of subject she
+holds to be of primary importance. With the war depressing us all
+around, she believes that many readers prefer stories that permit them
+for the time to forget it; and this she achieves by her delightful
+flights of fancy through the realms of many lands.</p>
+
+<p>These are the stories to send to your soldier friends to combat the
+horrors of warfare and the tedium of the hospitals; and the stories to
+read yourself to relieve the weary vigils we must keep at home.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 21674-h.txt or 21674-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/6/7/21674">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/7/21674</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Making of a Soul, by Kathlyn Rhodes
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Making of a Soul
+
+
+Author: Kathlyn Rhodes
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 4, 2007  [eBook #21674]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+THE MAKING OF A SOUL
+
+by
+
+KATHLYN RHODES
+
+Author of "_The Desert Dreamers_," "_The Will of Allah_," "_The Lure of
+the Desert_," "_Flower of Grass_," _etc_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London: Hutchinson & Co.
+Paternoster Row
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Barry Raymond drew the latchkey out of the door and entered his small
+flat in Kensington just as the clock in the tiny hall chimed the hour of
+ten.
+
+It was a wet night; and he drew off his Burberry and hung it up with a
+sense of pleasure in being again in his cosy little eyrie at the top of
+the chilly stone steps.
+
+Humming a tune, he crossed the diminutive hall and went into the
+sitting-room, where the cheerful crackle of a small wood fire gave an
+air of comfort to the hearth.
+
+On the table, where his admirable man-servant had placed it, was a tray
+bearing glasses, a siphon and a bottle of whisky; and beside the tray
+were the few letters which had come by the last post; while in a
+conspicuous place lay a telegram in its tawny envelope; and this,
+naturally enough, was the first thing Barry touched.
+
+Taking it up, he tore it open decisively; and as the envelope fell to
+the ground he unfolded the pink paper and read the message scrawled
+thereon.
+
+     "Just arrived Southampton will be with you about ten o'clock.
+     OWEN."
+
+The paper fluttered to the floor and Barry consulted his watch hastily.
+
+"Ten o'clock! Why, it's that now. So Owen's home. By Jove, what an
+unlucky day he's chosen!"
+
+He stood still for a moment, rapt, it would seem, in contemplation of an
+unpleasant vision. Then with a shrug of his shoulders he moved to the
+fireplace and turned on more light.
+
+"Well, it'll have to be done sooner or later; but"--for a second a
+rueful smile lit up his despondent young face--"I wish I hadn't got to
+do it ... and at ten o'clock at night into the bargain!"
+
+He looked round him as though considering some serious matter.
+
+"Food--and drink. Here's drink, anyhow. What about food?"
+
+Seizing a hand-lamp from the bureau at his elbow, he quitted the room
+and made for the kitchen, which his man had left, as usual, in the
+perfection of neatness on his departure two hours ago.
+
+Hastening to the cupboard which did duty, in the flat, for a pantry,
+Barry flung open the door and surveyed the shelves with anxious eyes.
+
+Ah! There was plenty of food, of a sort, and suddenly Barry remembered,
+with gratitude, the fact that he had intended to dine at home, and had
+been prevented doing so at the eleventh hour owing to an unexpected
+invitation which he had then regarded as an unmitigated bore, but now
+looked upon as a direct interposition of Providence.
+
+A cold roast chicken, an apple tart and cream, cheese and
+biscuits--surely the traveller could make a meal off these provisions,
+and Barry carried them gaily into the sitting-room and laid the table
+with much good-will and no little celerity.
+
+Knives, forks, glasses--for he intended to share the meal--salt, pepper,
+bread--in a dozen light-hearted journeys he managed to bring everything
+he considered necessary; and he was just standing back to admire his own
+handiwork when the electric bell pealed loudly through the silent flat.
+
+"Here he is, by Jove!" Barry all but dropped the vase of chrysanthemums
+he was carrying to the table, and setting it down hastily he went to the
+door, in a flutter of anticipation, of hospitality, and, if the truth be
+told, of nervousness.
+
+Opening the door:
+
+"Is that you, Owen?" he asked--a superfluous question, for he knew his
+visitor well enough. "Come in, old chap--you must be soaked--it's a
+frightful night!"
+
+"Soaked--I should just say I am!" Owen Rose accepted the invitation and
+stepped inside, shaking himself like a dog as he did so. "Lord, Barry,
+what a climate! I declare I'd sooner live in Timbuctoo!"
+
+"Oh, the climate's all right--only a bit moist," returned Barry
+philosophically. "But come on in--take off your coat and come to the
+fire. Any luggage?"
+
+"No, I've sent it on to my place." He drew himself out of his big coat
+as he spoke. "I thought I'd come up and see you for half an hour first
+of all. Jolly glad you're at home. You got my wire?"
+
+"Yes, a few minutes ago. Come and have something to eat." They were in
+the sitting-room by now. "There's not much, but I hadn't time to kill
+the fatted calf."
+
+"Looks like it." Owen's eyes roamed over the cheerful little
+supper-table. "Barry, you're a fraud. Chicken, apple-pie--what more can
+man desire? But I confess I _am_ hungry, though I didn't come for a
+meal."
+
+"Well, sit down and let's begin," said Barry practically. "I dined at my
+aunt's to-night, and as usual I couldn't get much to eat! She asked me
+so many questions about ..." he coloured and hurried on "... about
+everything, that by the time I'd finished answering them dinner was
+over!"
+
+"I see." Owen accepted the plate Barry handed him. "Well, you're looking
+very fit, Barry. How's things?"
+
+"Oh, fair." Barry paused in the act of pouring out a whisky-and-soda.
+"That's to say, I'm still with old Joliffe, and got a rise of screw last
+quarter."
+
+"Did you! Well, wait till we get the review going, and see if I don't
+tempt you away from that dictatorial old boss of yours!"
+
+"Oh, I'll come to you all right," said Barry gaily. "But in the meantime
+I'd better hang on in the House of Rimmon, hadn't I? You see ..." He
+broke off, the colour mounting to his face.
+
+"Of course. You're thinking of Olive. Quite right, too. How is she,
+Barry? Well?"
+
+"A 1." Barry fell to on his supper with renewed zest. "Longing to see
+you, old chap. By the way"--he slid rather dexterously away from the
+subject--"you promised her a skin or something, didn't you? Have any
+luck?"
+
+"Luck! Rather! I bagged one tiger who was really magnificent--he'll make
+a grand hearthrug for you and Olive. He was a splendid brute and I was
+lucky to get him. Of course, I've had luck all the way through. By gad,
+Barry, there's nothing like big-game shooting to make one fit! You know
+what I was like when I set out--and look at me now!"
+
+Thus invited, Barry looked; and he was bound to admit that his friend
+was right.
+
+Eighteen months previous to this wet night of January, Owen Rose had
+been so severely injured in a motor-accident that his life had been
+despaired of; and although he had eventually recovered, he had been left
+so unlike himself that a return to the normal round was impossible.
+
+There was only one prescription, his doctors agreed, and that was the
+agreeable, if expensive, one of travel. Only by gaining complete change
+of scene, complete change, also, of life and routine, could he hope to
+recapture his old splendid vitality and abundant health; and since
+luckily Owen was by no means a poor man, the prescription was not so
+hard to carry out as might have been the case with another patient.
+
+True, this break in his life interfered with several cherished projects.
+In the first--and most important--place, his marriage must be delayed;
+and although Miss Vivian Rees was only twenty, and might be considered
+fully young to be a bride, the delay, to the ardent lover, was
+vexatious, at the least.
+
+Then the review, to which he had alluded in his conversation with Barry,
+had perforce to be shelved; and although there was plenty of time for
+the production of such a literary newcomer, he had felt, at the moment,
+as though called upon to abandon altogether a beloved ideal.
+
+But the fiat had gone forth; and indeed he had agreed entirely with the
+medical verdict which pronounced him unfit to shoulder fresh tasks until
+his old strength should be regained. Therefore, unwillingly, but none
+the less unflinchingly, he had made preparations to leave England for a
+year's leisurely travel in the East, starting, as it were, from Bombay
+and journeying onwards wherever the fancy took him.
+
+It happened that during his travels he fell in with a couple of old
+schoolfellows who were on the verge of a sporting expedition; and Owen,
+who by that time was tired of his loafing method of travel, jumped with
+alacrity at an invitation to join the party.
+
+They had glorious sport; and in the excitement and vigour of the chase
+Owen regained all his old bodily strength and added thereto a quite
+fresh store of health and spirits. When at length he turned his face
+homewards he knew himself to be in such condition as he had never before
+experienced; and as he sat opposite his host to-night, eating and
+drinking gaily in this quiet room, he presented to Barry a picture of
+such perfect health as is rarely met with in the streets of London.
+
+"Yes." Barry brought his leisurely survey to a close. "You do look
+uncommonly fit, I suppose you've had a gorgeous time."
+
+Thus invited, Owen launched forth into an account of some of his most
+thrilling adventures, and the time flew as he recounted the tale of the
+glorious nights and days he had lived through, or made his hearer laugh
+with his stories of the various attendants and their humours.
+
+The clock had chimed the hour of midnight before the friends left the
+table; and then, sitting by the rosy fire, with pipes alight, each one
+felt that the moment had come in which a deeper subject might well be
+introduced.
+
+Yet Barry, at least, would cheerfully have ignored that subject; for he
+foresaw, with friendship's intuition, that the thing he had to say would
+effectually mar and break the midnight peace; and as the moment drew
+near in which he must strike a fatal blow at his friend's serenity he
+fell into an embarrassed silence very unlike his recent cordiality.
+
+At last it came--the question he had dreaded.
+
+"I say, Barry, have you seen much of Vivian lately?" Although the
+subject affected the speaker so vitally, he was so calmly, confidently
+sure of the reply that his tone was quiet and unagitated. Even though
+Barry paused for a quite perceptible fraction of time before he replied,
+the other man was too certain of the answer to notice the pause.
+
+"I ... I have seen her--yes." He spoke without removing his pipe from
+between his teeth, which might account for the curious thickness of his
+tone.
+
+"And how is she? All right, I suppose? You see"--Owen laughed rather
+diffidently--"my return was to be a surprise to her. I wasn't coming for
+another couple of months, you know, and then all at once I couldn't bear
+it any longer. I simply _had_ to come."
+
+"But--haven't you corresponded all this time?"
+
+"Well, not regularly. You know Vivian hates writing letters as much as I
+do; and I couldn't give her any settled addresses while we were moving
+about, so we agreed that we would not expect much from each other in
+that way!"
+
+"I see. But--you _have_ heard from her?"
+
+"Oh, yes, now and then. Of course she had my banker's address and could
+cable to me from time to time. I got one cable from her in December--on
+my birthday, it was--and she said she was writing, but I never got the
+letter."
+
+"In December. I see." And so he did--saw a vision of half-unwilling
+treachery, of hesitating loyalty, of dying faith, which turned his heart
+sick within him.
+
+"I wrote to her for Christmas, of course, and sent her a card now and
+then." He seemed to be excusing his own quite allowable slackness in the
+matter. "You see, I really had no time for letter-writing, and I knew
+she would understand and forgive me."
+
+"You ... did you tell her you were coming home to-day?"
+
+"Yes. I wired to her a week ago.... I half expected she'd come down to
+meet me." He laughed shamefacedly. "But you know what her people are. I
+expect they'd think it frightfully unnecessary to do that. Of course,
+I'm going there first thing in the morning."
+
+"You ... you haven't been there yet, then?" Barry hated himself for his
+fatuity as he put the question.
+
+"No. Fact is, I was a perfect savage when I landed ... a beard half a
+yard long!" He laughed jovially. "Had to get trimmed up a bit ... but in
+any case she would probably have been out somewhere or other to-night."
+
+"Yes. I see."
+
+"But first thing in the morning, it's a taxi for mine, as the Americans
+say. And I shall catch her alone, after breakfast, before anyone's
+about."
+
+"Yea." Barry paused, cursing himself for his cowardice, and then plunged
+recklessly into the quicksand before him. "Owen, old man, have you heard
+anything about Miss Rees lately?"
+
+"Heard anything?" He laid down his pipe and stared at his questioner.
+"Why should I hear anything? What is there to hear?"
+
+Before replying Barry rose, and stood leaning against the mantelpiece;
+and as he looked down on his friend his heart was wrung within him at
+the cruelty of fate.
+
+"You ... you've not seen her name in the papers?" His throat was dry,
+but he went on bravely.
+
+"Papers? I've not looked at a newspaper for months. And anyway, what
+should I see about Vivian in any paper?"
+
+"Only ... I thought you might have done." Barry was finding his task
+almost incredibly hard, and his brow was pearled with fine drops of
+moisture as he stood before his friend.
+
+"What was there to see, Barry?" Owen's voice was quiet--dangerously
+quiet. "Is there anything wrong with Vivian? Is she--has she been ill?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then ... God! man, what are you trying to tell me?" His forced calm was
+breaking up. "Out with it--whatever it is. Is Vivian--is she _dead_?"
+
+"No--oh, no." He spoke hurriedly, thankful that he could at least answer
+that question in the negative.
+
+"Then ... what is it? Come, Barry"--Owen spoke through his teeth in a
+hoarse tone quite unlike his usual voice--"if Vivian is not dead, not
+ill ... what is this wonderful piece of news I might have read in the
+papers--and did not?"
+
+There was a moment's tense silence, broken only by the crackling of the
+gay little fire on the hearth.
+
+Then Barry said heavily:
+
+"Miss Rees was married to Lord Saxonby this morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+For a moment there was a silence fraught with a thousand possibilities.
+Then Owen sprang from his seat and crossing the intervening space, as it
+were in a bound, seized his friend savagely by the shoulders.
+
+"Say that again, Barry! Say it if you _dare_!"
+
+With a fury of which he was unconscious he shook the other man
+violently; and Barry broke away with an expression of annoyance.
+
+"Good God, Owen, what do you think you're doing? What do you mean by
+attacking me like this!"
+
+"I'm going to knock your damned head off for telling me a lie!" His tone
+was dangerous. "How dare you say that Vivian is married when you _know_
+she is engaged to me?"
+
+"Look here, Owen." Barry stood facing him, panting a little. "It's only
+because you're my pal that I don't retaliate in kind. Any other man who
+calls me a liar has to go through it, and that's a fact. But as it's
+you, and as I know I've done the business badly--well"--his voice grew
+suddenly wistful--"let's sit down and talk it over quietly, shall we?"
+
+Something in his tone made the other man turn cold; and when he replied
+his manner had lost its vehemence.
+
+"See here, Barry, I'm sorry I attacked you like that. The fact is,
+I ... I think I can't have understood rightly what you were trying to
+tell me. You said something just now about Miss Rees being married to
+Lord Saxonby. Well, what, exactly, did you mean?"
+
+The very quietness with which he spoke made it still more difficult for
+Barry to answer him.
+
+"I meant just what I said." He fidgeted nervously with a cigarette as he
+spoke. "Miss Rees was married--quietly--to Lord Saxonby this morning."
+
+"Lord Saxonby? You mean that chap who hung round her before I went
+away?" Owen's voice was studiously self-controlled, but his hand shook
+as he played with a silver pencil-case on the table before him.
+
+"Yes. That's the man."
+
+"I see." For a moment he bent his head over the table, and when he
+looked up Barry understood that he had accepted the truth at last. "So
+she's played me false, has she? Married another fellow without troubling
+to let me know. Well, there's no more to be said, I suppose. I must make
+up my mind to be the laughing-stock of my friends, to be pointed at by
+men and women, jeered at in the clubs, as the fellow who was
+jilted ... thrown over for another fellow!"
+
+He paused; then resumed in a louder tone.
+
+"It's an ugly word, Barry--jilted. And by Jove, it's an ugly thing. Odd
+how naturally women take to it, isn't it? They won't steal, as a
+rule--draw the line at murder, but they think nothing of making damned
+fools of men who are insane enough to believe in them!"
+
+He laughed bitterly; and his eyes looked grim.
+
+"It would have been quite easy to let me know, wouldn't it?" He flung
+the question at his friend. "A sixpenny wire--even a cable wouldn't have
+ruined her, would it? And it would have been much less brutal than to
+let me come home expecting to find a blushing bride waiting for me!"
+
+"I expect she ... she thought you'd see it in the papers," said Barry
+rather lamely. "Although it was kept pretty quiet here there were
+paragraphs about it, of course, and she may have supposed you would see
+them."
+
+"Hardly the thing to leave it to chance," said Owen drily. "After all,
+when one gets out of an invitation to dinner, one generally sends an
+excuse; but ..." he broke off, and his eyes blazed suddenly "... look
+here, Barry, you know, and I know, that this woman has played a low-down
+trick on me. I thought her--well, no matter what I thought her--but
+anyway I know her now for what she is. And I'll be infinitely obliged to
+you if you'll be good enough to drop the subject now and for evermore."
+
+"I say, old chap, I'm awfully sorry----"
+
+Barry's impulsive speech got no further, for the other raised his hand
+to cut it short.
+
+"All right, Barry, we'll take it all as said. Henceforth no such person
+as Miss Rees--I mean Lady Saxonby--exists for me; and if you'll remember
+that it will make things easier for us both."
+
+"Very well, Owen." Barry felt emboldened to light a cigarette; and then,
+with a tactlessness born of mental discomfort, he asked a blundering
+question. "What shall you do now, old man? Have another shot at big game
+for a bit, or what?"
+
+"Another shot--I say, Barry, why on earth should I go back the moment
+I've got home? Oh, I see!" He smiled cynically. "You mean town won't be
+very pleasant for a bit? Well, I daresay it won't, but thank God no one
+will dare to say much to me!" His jaw squared itself rather
+aggressively. "But I don't intend to quit. On the contrary, my firm
+intention is to remain here, do some good work, and, incidentally,
+marry."
+
+Barry swung round and faced him, openly surprised.
+
+"Marry? But--whom?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know ... at the moment; but someone. You look astonished,
+Barry! Why shouldn't I marry? Ah, I see! You think because one woman's
+turned me down no one else will care to risk her happiness with me!
+Well, of course my value is considerably depreciated, no doubt; but
+after all, men are in the minority, and I daresay I'll be able to find
+some girl to take pity on me!"
+
+"Don't talk like that, Owen!" Barry spoke hastily, and his blue eyes
+looked rather stern. "You don't want a girl to take you out of pity, do
+you? That's not much of a basis for a happy marriage, is it?"
+
+"No, Barry." He took the rebuke well. "I was talking like a fool. But
+honestly, I do mean to marry--as soon as possible. Oh, I daresay I'm
+taking it the wrong way, but it seems to me that there's only one thing
+for a man in my position to do, and that is to show that he's not
+heart-broken because one unscrupulous woman has treated him badly!"
+
+"That's all very well--but what about the other woman? Are you going to
+marry the first girl you meet, irrespective of love, or what _are_ you
+going to do? I can understand your feeling for Miss Rees has changed its
+nature--love and hate are akin, I know, but still----"
+
+"No, Barry, you're wrong." He spoke very gently. "I don't _hate_ Vivian.
+Why should I? She merely exercised her feminine prerogative and changed
+her mind. Besides, one only hates big things. Vivian isn't big. She's
+very small, or she'd not have done this thing. If she'd asked me to
+release her, I'd have done it, and never have uttered a reproach. It's
+the heartlessness, the unnecessary cruelty of this that hurts me so. I
+loved her, Barry, and she knew it. Loved her in the right way, in the
+way a man should love the woman he's going to marry; and my love meant
+so little to her that she chucked it away without even telling me she
+was tired of it."
+
+"But to marry, out of revenge, as it were, is small too."
+
+"Out of revenge? Come, Barry, what are you thinking of?" Owen rose and
+spoke with an eerie joviality. "There'll be no revenge about it! Mayn't
+I marry and settle down like another man? I'll guarantee that the first
+woman who wants me can have me; and if she plays the game she shan't
+regret it, for I'll play it too!"
+
+"But where will you look for her?" Barry could not understand this
+attitude of mind.
+
+"Look for her? Oh, I'll look for her all right--and she'll turn up,
+never fear!" He moved restlessly. "There's always some woman ready to
+enter a man's life when he throws the door ajar--and here I'm positively
+flinging it open, inviting the little dears to come in!"
+
+"But, I say, Owen"--Barry looked anxiously at his
+friend--"you ... you'll be careful, won't you? I mean, you won't let any
+twopenny-halfpenny little chorus-girl, or ... or girl out of a shop come
+in, will you? You see, if you let them all know...."
+
+"Chorus-girls are sometimes worth a good deal more than
+twopence-halfpenny," Owen reminded him quietly, "and I daresay a girl
+out of a shop would make a jolly decent wife. But I wasn't contemplating
+them when I spoke."
+
+"Of course not," assented Barry hastily. "I only meant----"
+
+"You only meant to give me good advice," said Owen, more kindly than he
+had yet spoken. "All right, old man, I understand. You must forgive me
+if I'm cross-grained to-night. You see I've had a shock----"
+
+He broke off abruptly.
+
+"There, I'm not going to whine about it. It's over, done with, and a new
+chapter's started." He yawned ostentatiously. "Barry, I shall call upon
+your good offices as best man yet--unless you hurry up and marry Miss
+Lynn first."
+
+"Oh, Olive and I are in no hurry!" He laughed a trifle awkwardly. "You
+see, she is so young--only just eighteen--and her people won't hear of
+it for a couple of years."
+
+"Well, that will soon pass." He turned towards the door. "I must be off
+now, Barry--it's late, and I'm pretty fagged. See you in the morning, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Of course. I say, Owen, sure you won't stay here to-night? I can give
+you a bed, you know."
+
+"Thanks awfully, old chap, but I'd rather get home. I've heaps of things
+to see to. Thanks all the same."
+
+Still talking, the friends crossed the hall, and Barry unlatched the
+door of the flat.
+
+"Well, so-long, Barry. Awfully glad to have seen you again." He gripped
+the younger man's hand, and Barry understood what the grip implied.
+
+"Good-night, Owen. See you to-morrow."
+
+Two minutes later Owen had disappeared round a bend in the staircase;
+and Barry went slowly back into his sitting-room, feeling curiously
+tired, as though he had been indulging in some violent physical
+exercise.
+
+"Poor old chap! What a beast that girl is!" He had never liked Miss
+Rees, and now felt, naturally, that his dislike was justified. "But I
+hope to goodness he doesn't go and do anything rash. He's got a pretty
+good head on him, though, and I daresay a lot of this talk is mere
+bravado."
+
+He turned off the light and went into his bedroom. On the dressing-table
+stood a silver frame holding a photograph; and Barry took up the frame
+and studied the portrait carefully.
+
+"Olive, you'd never play me a trick like that, would you! My God, I hope
+you don't! It would just about kill me to have to lose faith in you!"
+
+The deep eyes looked up at him candidly, the sweet mouth seemed to
+smile; and with a sudden blissful certainty that the original of the
+photograph was as true and straightforward as the picture proclaimed her
+to be, Barry put down the frame again, and began, whistling, to prepare
+for bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A month later Barry relinquished his post as secretary to the man he
+called "old Joliffe," and announced himself to be from henceforth at
+Owen's disposal.
+
+The review to which the latter had alluded was a long-standing ideal of
+Owen Rose's. From his earliest youth he had been attracted by the
+journalistic side of life, and seeing no means of editing a London daily
+at an early age, he had wisely determined to learn the whole business of
+newspaper journalism from the beginning. At the ago of eighteen he was
+sub-editor on a big provincial daily; but his brilliant and versatile
+intelligence soon wearied of the monotony of the life, and he came to
+London to demand the right of admittance into Fleet Street.
+
+At that time, luckily for himself, he was on terms of friendship with a
+well-known editor; and what his own talent might have found difficulty
+in obtaining was placed unexpectedly within his reach. Before he was
+twenty-five he was well-known in the newspaper world; and since, on his
+twenty-fifth birthday, he came into possession of the comfortable income
+left to him by his father many years before, he was able to turn his
+back definitely on any soul-destroying drudgery and devote his time and
+brains to better work. Beneath his journalistic ability there was a
+sound and delicate literary _flair_; and it had long been his dream to
+found a magazine which, while neither commonplace nor unduly "precious,"
+should hit a happy mean between the cheap magazines devoted to more or
+less poor fiction, and the somewhat pompous reviews which held up the
+light of learning and research in a rather severe and forbidding
+fashion.
+
+He would have a little fiction--of the highest order. A comparatively
+large portion of the review was to be devoted to poetry, both as
+regarded original verse and the critical appreciation of modern poetry
+as a whole. Articles on art, music, the drama, were all to find a home
+in his pages; and there was to be a judicious sprinkling of science to
+add a little ballast to the lighter freight.
+
+But what he intended to be the striking feature of the review was the
+tone which was to prevail throughout. It was to be warm, eager,
+enthusiastic, optimistic. He intended himself to write a series of
+articles dealing with the future in relation to the past. Each
+subject--music, literature, humanitarianism, mysticism, and a dozen
+others--would be treated in turn; and while in no wise belittling the
+magic inventiveness of an age which has given us an Edison, a Marconi,
+and a whole host of brilliant explorers, birdmen, and others equally
+daring and distinguished, he intended to remember always the enormous
+debt which we of this century owe to the glorious past.
+
+Possibly in Owen's very enthusiasm, in the eager, ardent spirit of his
+dreams, there was more of the spirit of the future than of the past--but
+he intended to hold the balance as evenly as possible.
+
+On one point he was firm. While hoping that his review would be in every
+way a serious contribution to the more valuable literature of the day,
+the literature which was worth something, he intended it to be strictly
+non-political. There would be no room within its covers for writers with
+axes to grind. No acrimonious discussions, thinly-veiled in pedantry,
+should mar the harmony of the pages; no party cries should echo from the
+editorial offices; and although he aimed, in some measure, at
+instructing and uplifting his readers, it was their betterment as human
+beings, rather than as citizens--so far as the two may be divorced--with
+which he intended to concern himself.
+
+He was fortunate in his collaborators. At his back he had an old friend
+of his fathers', a gifted, if somewhat inarticulate, man of letters, who
+had longed, in his early life, for the opportunity to do what Owen was
+doing; and was generous enough to feel that, though his own working days
+were over, he might well use a little of his wealth in helping another
+man to realize their mutual dream.
+
+Everything was to be on a strictly business-like footing. Owen, as
+editor, was to receive a moderate salary--moderate because he felt that
+in the circumstances the backing he received was worth more than any
+emolument. Also he was sufficiently well-off to waive the matter if he
+chose until the review was on firm financial ground. Barry, as his
+personal secretary and general second-in-command, was to receive a
+generous sum; and the rest of the men, all young, ardent, and fired with
+a whole-hearted belief in Owen as their chief, were to be remunerated
+according to their work and ability.
+
+A certain Miss Lucy Jenkins had been selected as typewriter and
+assistant at what seemed to her the princely sum of forty shillings a
+week; and by the beginning of February activity at headquarters, a
+pleasant, though not palatial suite of offices in Victoria Street,
+Westminster, was in full swing.
+
+The first number of the _Bridge_ was to make its appearance at Easter;
+and Owen was meditating one morning over the possible inclusion of a
+little set of verses which had reached him from a hitherto-unknown
+contributor, when Barry appeared in the doorway leading to his inner
+sanctum with a worried look in his frank blue eyes.
+
+"Hallo, Barry, anything wrong?" Owen put down the paper he held and
+looked at his young colleague with a smile.
+
+"Well, it's no end of a bore!" Barry frowned distastefully. "That stupid
+Jenkins woman has gone and landed herself in Holloway!"
+
+"Holloway?" Owen repeated the word in surprise.
+
+"Yes. I knew she was a Militant Suffragette, but I thought she would
+have more sense than to go mixing herself up in brawls with the police!"
+
+"And she hasn't?"
+
+"No. On Saturday afternoon"--this was Monday--"she went and marched in a
+procession of women out to smash windows or something of the sort, got
+into a row and kicked a bobby in the ribs. The end was she got locked up
+that night."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"Brought up before the magistrate this morning and sentenced to fourteen
+days without an option for violence," said Barry laconically. "I've just
+had a note from her mother, who's nearly distracted, begging me to keep
+her place open for her, but I don't see how we can do that."
+
+"Certainly not," said Owen decidedly. "I'll have no militant women on my
+staff, and the sooner they understand that the better. She wasn't any
+great treasure, either. She was too fond of revising the stuff she had
+to type; and her ideas and mine clashed considerably when it came to
+punctuation."
+
+"I suppose I must advertise for someone to take her place, then," said
+Barry, with a sigh.
+
+"Yes. Get a younger girl this time, if you can. Miss Jenkins had reached
+the certain--or uncertain--age when women take to militant suffragism.
+She didn't like being corrected when she made mistakes, and used to
+argue with me till you'd have thought it was she who ran the office, and
+not I."
+
+"All right. I'll do my best."
+
+"Not too young, though," said Owen, half-maliciously, "or she'll be
+thinking about her best boy all day instead of working. Of course that's
+a bit better than militancy, less upsetting; but women are so
+incomprehensible when they're in what they are pleased to call love that
+it's rather difficult to know what they're driving at."
+
+"Oh, all right!" Owen's flippancy disturbed Barry, and he spoke shortly,
+whereupon Owen smiled meaningly, and Barry went out of the room rather
+hurriedly.
+
+Once safe in his own sanctum he lamented the unkind Fate which had given
+Owen's heart as a plaything into the hands of an unscrupulous woman such
+as Miss Rees had proved herself to be. Although Owen rarely mentioned
+the subject, Barry knew well enough that he had not relinquished the
+idea of a speedy marriage. Once or twice Owen had asked him his opinion
+of this or that woman with whom they were both acquainted; but so far he
+had shown no signs of forming any new engagement, though Barry lived in
+a state of apprehension lest his friend should suddenly announce a more
+or less undesirable tie.
+
+For Owen, perhaps naturally, shunned the women of his own set. They all
+knew too much, knew the history of his disastrous engagement too
+well--were, in many cases, friends of the woman who had jilted him; and
+were therefore no acquaintances for a man in his mood.
+
+But there were other women, with whom, before his departure for the
+East, he had been on terms of casual acquaintance; the daughters of City
+friends, girls who lived in Kensington or Hampstead, girls with brothers
+who had knocked up against the young men in athletic or journalistic
+circles; an actress or two; good-hearted, ordinary young women for the
+most part, commonplace in spite of suburban leanings towards "culture,"
+and in many cases entirely out of sympathy with the aims and ideals of
+both Owen and his friend.
+
+As a matter of fact Owen and Barry were too busy during these strenuous
+days to have time for social delights; but now and then they met one or
+other of these various girls, visited one of the actresses on a "first
+night," dined, reluctantly, in Earl's Court or Belsize Road, and on the
+following morning Owen would ask Barry, half-teasingly, whether Rose or
+Sybil or Gwendoline struck him as the most suitable bride for an already
+jilted bachelor.
+
+Barry never took up the subject, showed plainly by his manner that he
+did not like the jest; but the occasional queries went to show that the
+idea of marriage was still in his friend's thoughts; and Barry was now
+and again seriously uneasy lest some designing woman--that was the way
+he put it--should make the vague possibility into an accomplished fact.
+
+And then, just when the idea seemed to be fading, lost in the pressure
+of work, the interest of bringing forth the first realization of a
+lifelong dream, the woman herself--but she was not designing--came.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Miss Antonia Gibbs came from the typewriting office with excellent
+testimonials. Though but eighteen years of age, she was vouched for as a
+steady, conscientious worker, well-educated and of exceptional
+intelligence. Quick, accurate, and possessed of a capital memory, she
+would seem to be the ideal typist for an office such as that presided
+over by Owen Rose; and after perusing the certificates and other
+documents forming what one might call her _dossier_, Owen had really no
+choice but to engage the prodigy.
+
+When she received the letter announcing the fact Miss Gibbs danced with
+delight.
+
+"Two pounds a week! Think of it!" Thus she besought her cousin Fanny, a
+rather full-blown young woman employed in a "drapery-house" at Brixton.
+"And easy hours--with an hour off for lunch! Isn't it lovely!"
+
+"You'll have the office 'commish' to pay," her cousin reminded her, "and
+I know all about those short hours! Sound well, but they generally want
+overtime out of you--without paying for it either!"
+
+"Do they?" Antonia's joy was momentarily checked. Then she recovered her
+spirits. "Anyway, even then it's a good post, and I can easily pay the
+commission out of two pounds!"
+
+"Yes, of course." Fanny, whose natural optimism was somewhat impaired by
+her experience in drapers' shops, cheered up also. "It's a grand
+opportunity for you, Toni, and mind you make the most of it."
+
+"Rather," returned Toni gaily. "I'm to start to-morrow, so this is my
+last free night. Aren't you glad some people are coming in to tea?"
+
+"Yes." Fanny, recalled to the immediate present, began her preparations
+for the tea-party. "Josh'll be pleased to hear of your luck, Toni; he's
+real fond of you, you know."
+
+"Is he?" Toni, pulling off her flannel blouse, spoke a trifle absently.
+
+"Yes. If I weren't fond of you myself I declare I'd be jealous! Don't
+know how it is, all the boys seem to take to you straight away, Toni,
+and you don't care a pin for any of 'em!"
+
+"Perhaps that's why," said Toni cheerfully, voicing a truth without in
+the least realizing it. "After all, who is there to care for? Jack
+Brown, or young Graves, or that funny little Walter Britton out of Lea
+and Harper's?" She plunged her glowing face into a basin of cold water
+as she spoke.
+
+"No. I s'pose they're not quite your sort." Fanny stared thoughtfully at
+her cousin. "I don't know how it is, Toni--you are my cousin, your
+father was Dad's own brother--and yet you're as different from us as--as
+chalk from cheese."
+
+She in her turn had uttered a profound truth. Between Toni and the rest
+of the commonplace lower-middle-class household was a great gulf fixed,
+a gulf which was the more inexplicable because it was clearly visible to
+the parties on either side of the chasm.
+
+Red-faced, brawny Fred Gibbs, the butcher, his equally red-faced, though
+slightly more refined wife, and their several sons and daughters,
+belonging, most of them, to the category of "fine" boys and girls, were
+a good-humoured, kindly people enough; yet between them and the pretty,
+dark-eyed Antonia there was not the slightest vestige of resemblance,
+either in looks, manners, or disposition.
+
+Not that Toni gave herself airs. On the contrary, she was the most
+cheerful and light-hearted little soul in the world. She flung herself
+bodily into all the family's interests and pursuits, helped her uncle
+with his books and her aunt with her housework, was Fanny's sworn
+confidante and ally in all matters of the heart. The younger children
+adored her for her good looks, her vivacity, her high spirits; and even
+the flashes of rage which now and then marred her usually sunny temper
+were fascinating in their very fire.
+
+Yet--with it all she was not, never would be, one of them. Fanny was
+inclined to put it down to her foreign blood--for Toni's mother had been
+Italian. The elder Gibbs fancied the girl's superior education was
+responsible--for Toni had been to a real "Seminary for Young Ladies," in
+contradistinction to the Council School attended by her cousins; while
+as for Toni herself, though she was as fully conscious as the rest that
+she was "different, somehow," she could never say, with any certainty,
+in what the difference lay.
+
+Perhaps a psychologist would have found Antonia's position an
+interesting one. Briefly, her history was this.
+
+The Gibbs were North-Country people, a good old yeoman family who had
+been in service with an older and more aristocratic people in the county
+of Yorkshire. The family, however, had begun, a few generations back, to
+die out. Instead of the usual lusty sons, only daughters had been born
+to most of the Gibbs, and they in their turn married and died, in the
+nature of things relinquishing their own name, until there were few
+left.
+
+So the race dwindled, until old Matthew Gibbs and his two sons Fred and
+Roger were the last representatives of the old stock; and to the
+father's bitter disappointment neither boy would consent to settle down
+on the farm and carry out the tradition of the family. Fred, always a
+pushing, commercially-minded lad, found farming too slow and
+unprofitable to satisfy him, and he took service in a butcher's shop at
+York, as a first step towards his goal, London, in which city he
+eventually made his home, married a Cockney girl, and settled down for
+the rest of his prosperous life.
+
+The second son, Roger, early showed a desire to travel; and though his
+father would have kept him at home, he realized that after all youth
+will be served, and let the boy go out into the world as soon as he had
+passed his eighteenth birthday.
+
+Being possessed of unlimited confidence, exceptional strength and a
+light-hearted determination to make something of life, Roger was
+successful from the start. As is often her way with those from whom she
+means, later, to exact a heavy toll, Fate smiled upon the good-looking
+young man who faced her so gaily. He got one post after another:
+secretary, mechanic, groom--for he was equally clever with hands and
+head. In this or that capacity he travelled quite extensively for some
+years, and finally, having a natural bent for languages, came to Rome in
+the position of courier to a rich American family. It happened that the
+daughter of the house had an Italian maid, a beautiful, refined girl
+from Southern Italy; and the young people quickly fell in love. In spite
+of his apparent irresponsibility Roger had saved a little money, and
+within six months he had married his Italian girl and carried her off to
+live in a village on the side of a mountain not far from Naples, where
+for four blissful years they lived in perfect contentment.
+
+Old Matthew Gibbs, having in his later years sustained heavy
+agricultural losses, was dead, and there was nothing to call Roger back
+to England. He much preferred, indeed, to remain in the South, and as
+their wants were simple he and his wife were able to live quite
+comfortably on Roger's own little bit of money and the few _lire_ he
+made through the kindly offices of the village priest, who liked the gay
+young Englishman and put many odd jobs--translation, the acting as
+interpreter and guide to tourists, and other things of the sort--in his
+way.
+
+When Toni came to complete the trio, their happiness was complete; and
+for three years after her birth the little house on the hill-side was
+the home of joy and love and all the pleasant domestic virtues and
+graces.
+
+When the child was three years old, the elder Antonia, herself only a
+girl, died, after twenty-four hours' fever; and in one black hour Roger
+paid for all the sunny days with which Fortune had so lavishly endowed
+him.
+
+When at length he summoned up resolution to face the future he
+determined, with a passionate desire to carry out his young wife's
+unspoken entreaty, to devote himself to his child; and with this
+intention he stayed on bravely in the little home from which the
+sunshine had departed.
+
+For nearly six years they lived together in the tiny village near
+Naples; and gradually the pall began to lift from the young man's
+spirit, and the sunshine and the flowers, the blue sky and sea, and the
+snow-capped mountains made their appeal once again to the warm, ardent
+soul which sorrow had darkened.
+
+During these six years father and daughter had lived frugally, almost as
+the peasants lived; yet with a daintiness, an order, which were unknown
+to the peasants. The little Antonia--Toni, as they called her--grew
+straight and strong as she played on the mountain slopes, or ate the
+simple meals of grapes and bread and goat's flesh provided for her by
+the old housekeeper, Fiammetta, who ruled both the pretty child and the
+handsome young father with a rule of iron which yet made life a very
+well-ordered and gracious existence.
+
+But when Toni had almost reached her ninth birthday the change came. The
+good old priest died; and with the death of his sole friend Roger Gibbs
+found life in the village impossible.
+
+Truth to tell, it was a marvel he had borne it so long. Only a numbing
+blow such as he had received could have stunned his faculties into
+acquiescence with this sleepy, uneventful existence; and now, suddenly,
+his soul awoke from its peaceful slumber and demanded life, and yet more
+life.
+
+Italy became all at once unendurable. The nomad spirit was aroused, and
+nothing would satisfy the man but a fresh start in life's pilgrimage.
+
+His little daughter, too, must be educated; and although he loved the
+child with all the concentrated passion of a man who has lost the woman
+of whom the child is his only memento, he yet felt that the time had
+come when he must shake himself free from the trammels of domesticity
+and live once again the life of a man in some free, wild,
+adventure-filled land.
+
+A month after Father Pietro's death Roger and his little daughter
+Antonia were in England. The father's first object was to seek out his
+brother Fred and see if he and his wife would take charge of the child
+for a short time; and this he found both Fred and his comely spouse very
+willing to do. There were other children in the home who were only too
+ready to welcome the pretty little Toni; and after a stay of some weeks
+in the noisy Brixton house Roger Gibbs had bidden his little daughter
+farewell, and had gone forth once more, this time as assistant purser on
+a liner, a post to which one of his former employers had assisted him
+opportunely. It was a chance to see more of the world, and the man
+embraced it gladly enough, though it would certainly prove irksome in
+the end.
+
+After that it was long before Toni saw her father again. At regular
+intervals he sent money for her maintenance; and she grew up with her
+cousins, attending the big Council School in the next street with them,
+and sharing in all the ups and downs of the Gibbs family.
+
+When she was thirteen Roger returned from an expedition to Peru, in the
+course of which he had amassed a respectable sum of money, and father
+and daughter met again, a meeting fraught, on Roger's side, with
+something like disappointment.
+
+Four years of London life had transformed the olive-skinned, dreamy-eyed
+child into a pale, long-legged girl who, although she had not lost her
+soft Southern voice, used the colloquialisms of street and playground
+with unpleasing fluency. True, she wore her shabby clothes with an air
+of grace, but contact with other children had developed her into a
+sharp, somewhat pert _gamine_, who was reputed quick at her lessons, but
+equally, and less meritoriously, quick with her tongue.
+
+Within her father's mind disillusionment reigned supreme. Naturally, it
+was not the fault of the child that she had taken on so quickly the
+colour of her environment; nor, fortunately, was it too late to overlay
+those traits with other and more pleasing characteristics. But thinking
+of the soft-eyed, gentle, loving Italian girl he had married, Roger
+resolved that her child should have another chance before it was too
+late; and with that object in mind he scoured the neighbourhood until he
+found what suited him, a quiet, old-fashioned ladies' school, conducted
+by two prim but kindly women who appeared to him likely to have the
+influence he sought.
+
+The Misses Holland were interested in his story, pleased with the idea
+of softening and refining the child, half-Italian, half-Londoner, and
+made things easy for the bronzed and handsome father; with the result
+that from that time Toni's connection with the Council School ceased,
+and she became a boarder, on surprisingly low terms, at the aforesaid
+School for Young Ladies; where she remained until she was close on
+seventeen.
+
+These years were the turning point of Antonia's life. Here, in company
+with twenty other girls, somewhat above her in station, she learnt,
+among other things, the virtues of gentleness, quietness in voice and
+movement, unselfishness, and many kindred things; and those years of
+happy, monotonous toil, broken only by pleasant, friendly treats, or
+gentle, old-fashioned punishments, were full of use and value to the
+growing girl.
+
+On her seventeenth birthday she was to leave school for good; and it had
+been settled that her father was then to return to England and make a
+home for her--a hope which the girl had hugged to her heart through all
+these quiet years.
+
+But on the very day which should have seen her emancipation something
+happened.
+
+The liner on which Roger was hastening back to England, after a year in
+the East, went down in a mighty gale off Gibraltar; and Roger Gibbs was
+among the drowned.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of course all hope of that little home was at an end now. No more
+remittances could be looked for, the store of money left for her
+education was all spent; and though it seemed incredible that Roger
+should have made no provision for his daughter's future, such indeed
+proved to be the fact.
+
+Doubtless he had intended to settle down, to obtain some post in
+England; but as things turned out there was nothing left for Antonia.
+Let it be said at once that her relations behaved well. The Misses
+Holland, too, would have taken her to help in the school but for the
+unexpected advent of a needy niece of their own; but from the first
+Antonia set her face against teaching.
+
+She did not like it, would rather go in for business, she said; and the
+upshot of it all was that after some time she managed to obtain a post
+in a large typewriting office in order to learn the work, after which
+she was required to give her services for a period of twelve months for
+a nominal salary in return for the teaching and business training
+bestowed upon her.
+
+It was not a very good bargain; but she closed with it in lieu of a
+better opening; and when, in a few weeks from the date of her aunt's
+tea-party, she would be free to earn her living in her own way, she
+would be able to defray the expense to which that same aunt had been put
+during her time of apprenticeship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So rapid is thought that between the beginning and ending of the task of
+changing her outdoor shoes and stockings for slightly better ones,
+Antonia's quick mind had flashed back over those years which had, so she
+owned to herself, made all the difference; but not for worlds would she
+have let her cousin know that she recognized any such difference.
+
+"Different! Not a bit of it!" She looked up and spoke with more warmth
+than usual. "And as for the boys liking me--well, you're engaged, and
+I'm not!"
+
+"Well, yes, there is that to be said!" Fanny regarded with affection the
+cheap gold ring, set with imitation rubies, which adorned her plump
+hand. "But you know, Toni, you could got Mr. Dowson any minute if you
+tried!"
+
+"Mr. Dowson!" Toni, occupied in brushing out her black hair, tossed her
+head with a little foreign gesture peculiar to her. "Why, Fan, how could
+I marry Mr. Dowson! He's very nice, and good-hearted, but his chest is
+narrow, and he's going bald!"
+
+"Well, that's not his fault," returned Fanny practically, "and it's not
+with age either, because he's quite young. I expect it's with studying
+so hard."
+
+"I daresay--but still ... of course he's clever," owned Toni rather
+grudgingly, "he must be, to be a dentist, but--no, Fan, I'm not going to
+marry Mr. Dowson, so there!"
+
+"Oh, all right." Fanny was a philosopher. "You know your own business
+best. Will you do me up, dear, and tell me how you like my frock? I
+think myself it's rather striking."
+
+Thus besought, Toni stuck the last pin-casually in her hair and came to
+give her assistance in the matter of "doing up."
+
+Miss Frances Gibbs' dress was composed of a bright rose-pink voile,
+bought cheaply at a sale, ornamented with a sash of ribbon of an equally
+vivid hue of violet; and striking it certainly was, in the sense that
+one felt inclined to collapse at sight of it. Miss Gibbs' figure being
+of the order which dressmakers call "full," the effect was distinctly
+startling; and as Fanny had carefully arranged her abundant hair in as
+many rolls as she could possibly manage, it is to be inferred that she
+presented a more overpowering effect than ever.
+
+Although, possibly owing to her Italian blood, Toni herself had a
+weakness for bright colours, on other people, this daring juxtaposition
+of pink and violet was a trifle bizarre even for her taste; and she
+looked critically at Fanny as the latter paraded under the gas jet in
+order to show off the "creation" to its best advantage.
+
+"Well?" Fanny's tone was anxious; and Antonia flung scruple to the
+winds.
+
+"It's lovely, Fan, and you look scrumptious in it!" She hastily produced
+from a paper bag a bunch of violets she had intended for her own
+adornment. "Here, let me pin these in for you, they will finish you off
+beautifully."
+
+"But they're yours, Toni!"
+
+"Oh, never mind me!" Toni laughed recklessly. "I've not got a Josh
+waiting for me downstairs--and anyway, I don't much care to wear
+flowers, they die so quickly, poor dears."
+
+Her own frock, an oft-washed white muslin, was donned in a second. A
+bright green ribbon round her waist, a pair of greenstone earrings put
+in beneath the clustering black hair, giving her a quaintly picturesque
+look, and Antonia was ready for the evening's jollity.
+
+As the cousins ran downstairs together, an appetising smell of roasting
+chickens came to their nostrils, and Toni sniffed appreciatively.
+
+"I wish Uncle Fred had a birthday every week! Isn't it fun having people
+in and playing games afterwards!"
+
+"Rather, but I wish we'd been going to the theatre!"
+
+"Well, so do I," conceded Toni, "but anyhow this is better than one of
+our usual dull evenings!"
+
+Half an hour later the feast was in full progress. The table in the
+little "front room" literally groaned with good things; indeed, so
+liberally was it provided that half-way through the meal the butcher
+insisted on removing the vase of chrysanthemums which stood proudly in
+the middle on a green paper mat, alleging as he did so that "them
+flowers took up a sight too much room"--an axiom to which he stuck in
+spite of his daughter's remonstrances.
+
+Besides the family there were three guests. Mr. Joshua Lee who was
+engaged to Fanny, naturally had the place of honour beside her; and from
+that vantage ground he played the part of prospective son-in-law to
+perfection, removing the plates, running about in search of a mislaid
+salt-cellar, and generally acquitting himself, so Fanny thought proudly,
+like a perfect gentleman.
+
+The other two guests were less busy. One of them, Mr. Britton, sat
+beside his hostess and carried on an animated conversation with her as
+to the nature and effect of the various patent medicines they had
+mutually sampled; while the remaining guest, Mr. Dowson, sat next to
+Antonia, and endeavoured, without much success, to attract her attention
+to himself.
+
+Halfway through one of his most intimate speeches Toni interrupted him
+ruthlessly.
+
+"Aunt Jean, where's Lu?"
+
+"Got smacked and sent to bed for stealing jam," her youngest cousin
+informed her unctuously. "My! She did howl! I guess Ma thumped her
+pretty well!"
+
+"I did whip her rather hard," confessed Mrs. Gibbs half-apologetically.
+"I was real vexed with her when I found her with her fingers in the jar!
+But there, she's been wanting a smacking long enough, and I expect it'll
+do her good," she finished up cheerfully.
+
+"Poor Lu! And she'd been so looking forward to to-night!" Toni's soft
+heart was wrung for the culprit. "Did she have any tea, Auntie?"
+
+"Not she. I sent her straight off to bed." Mrs. Gibbs' tone was uneasy
+now. "And she didn't eat no dinner to-day, she was that excited!"
+
+"Oh, poor Lu! Can't I take her up something, Aunt Jean?"
+
+Mrs. Gibbs appeared to consider the question, though everyone at the
+table knew very well that her mother-heart had relented towards her
+darling long ago.
+
+"Well, I don't mind if you do take her just a bite," she said presently;
+and amid much laughter and sympathetic joking a tray was fitted out with
+various delicacies and entrusted to the willing hands of Antonia.
+
+Up she went, finding Lu's room in darkness, Lu herself lying sullenly
+awake, refusing to be comforted.
+
+Her plump little person had strongly resented the force of her mother's
+stern hand; but her vanity was more severely hurt by the fact that the
+visitors downstairs would know both the cause and the method of her
+punishment. Therefore she turned away and pretended to be asleep; but
+Toni's gentle hand pulling down the clothes, Toni's soft voice murmuring
+of forgiveness and compensation were too much for the child.
+
+She sat up, disclosing the tear-stains on her round cheeks in the light
+of the candle Toni carried, and allowed herself to be comforted with
+alternate bites of chicken and sips of lemonade.
+
+"That's better!" Toni gave her a plate of trifle, and brushed back the
+tangled curls from the hot little forehead. "Now eat that up and then I
+must run away. They're waiting for me, you know, so when you've finished
+you must give me a kiss and go straight to sleep."
+
+"Yes, Toni." Lu lay obediently down, soothed by the girl's kind tone.
+"I'll go to sleep all right if ... if Ma'll come up and say good-night!"
+
+"Of course she will!" Toni smiled at the child's involuntary clinging to
+the mother who had punished her. "I'll tell her you're waiting--and now
+I must fly! Good-night, Ducky, sleep well!"
+
+She kissed the child, her eyes very soft as she bent over the bed; and
+then, picking up the tray, she ran swiftly downstairs again and
+re-entered the room where tea was rapidly drawing to an end.
+
+"How kind-hearted you are, Miss Toni," said Mr. Dowson admiringly as she
+slipped into her seat beside him. "Lots of people would have said the
+kiddy deserved to be whipped and sent to bed."
+
+"I daresay she did, but that didn't make it any better--for her,"
+laughed Toni, with a vivid remembrance of her aunt's corrective powers.
+"I know what Auntie's whippings are like, you see, and they're no joke!"
+
+"You don't mean to say Mrs. Gibbs ever dared to ... to punish you, Miss
+Antonia?" His pale-blue eyes were aghast at the thought of such
+sacrilege.
+
+"Oh, rather!" Toni laughed joyously at his face of horror. "She's
+whipped me heaps, of times.... I expect I deserved it, too, for I can
+assure you I was never a pattern child!"
+
+"I ... I would like to see anyone venture to lay a hand on you," said
+Mr. Dowson earnestly--too earnestly for Toni's liking. "Miss Antonia, if
+you ... if you would only give me the right ..."
+
+Bang! An hilariously-disposed little Gibbs had exploded a cracker in the
+young man's ear; and Mr. Dowson, blushing to the very edge of his
+extremely high collar, subsided rather wrathfully.
+
+Much to Antonia's relief the party rose from the table a moment later;
+and with a stern determination in her mind not to allow Mr. Dowson
+another opportunity to make the avowal which she knew very well trembled
+on his lips, Toni bustled gaily about, helping to clear the table and
+make things ready for the evening's festivity.
+
+Mr. Dowson's pale eyes followed her about rather wistfully. To him the
+white-clad, black-crowned little figure represented a dream--the
+fulfilment, rather, of an ideal which he had never dared to hope would
+materialize in his own hard-working, rather grey and sordid life.
+
+Although, thanks to a kindly patron, Leonard Dowson had been able to
+carry out his desire and qualify as a dentist, he was under no delusion
+as to his social position. He came of humble, illiterate folk, and he
+knew well enough that in a fashionable, high-class practice he would be
+altogether out of place.
+
+He set up his surgery, therefore, in the populous neighbourhood of
+Brixton; and now, after five years' strenuous toil, he was beginning to
+pay his way, beginning also to dream of a wife to bear him company in
+the dingy, narrow house in which he dwelt.
+
+That Antonia Gibbs would ever consent to be his wife he almost feared to
+believe. He wooed her persistently, quietly, bringing her books--which
+she seldom opened--an occasional bunch of flowers, or, more rarely
+still, a box of sweets of some variety which his professional soul
+warranted harmless, for Mr. Dowson was conscientiousness itself, and
+nothing would have persuaded him to place his lady-love's little white
+teeth in jeopardy, even though by such means she might be brought into
+contact with him.
+
+For her sake he scraped and saved, denying himself the least luxury, so
+that if she came to him he could at least offer her a decent home; and
+every act of petty self-sacrifice was sweet to him because it was
+endured for her.
+
+Yet Toni never gave him a second thought. To her, in her vivid youth,
+Mr. Dowson, with his thirty-five years, his prematurely bald head, his
+narrow chest, was a being of another race than her own. She knew--the
+minx--that the man was deeply and quietly in love with her, but with the
+unconscious cruelty of youth she ignored his suffering, and possibly
+despised him ever so little that he continued to sigh for something
+which he ought to have known was, for him, unattainable.
+
+Yet to-night, her spirits raised by her unexpected good-fortune, Toni
+showed herself more than usually bewitching; and although she managed to
+stave off the declaration which still trembled on the young man's lips,
+she played games with him in the most friendly fashion, and bade him
+good-night at last with so sweet a smile that he almost fell upon his
+knees then and there and kissed the slim little feet in their cheap
+patent shoes!
+
+He did not do it, fortunately. He retained just sufficient common sense
+to know that the proceeding would have annoyed his divinity; and instead
+he merely squeezed her hand and murmured a few inarticulate words which
+meant a good deal more than they contrived to convey.
+
+Then, arriving at home, he went to bed--and dreamed of Toni.
+
+But Toni's dreams--the rainbow dreams of happy youth--were of a very
+different quality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Precisely at nine o'clock on the following morning Antonia presented
+herself at the office of the new review; and was forthwith conducted to
+the editor's room.
+
+Here Owen and Barry were waiting for her; and at the sight of the trim
+little figure in the doorway the faces of both men brightened.
+
+In truth Toni was pleasant to look upon. She had taken off her hat and
+coat in the little ante-room, and as she stood there in her black frock,
+with its demure little white turn-down collar, she looked very young,
+very shy, and if the truth must be told, very pretty. Whereupon Barry,
+who loved all pretty girls in a harmless, kindly fashion, rejoiced
+exceedingly; while even Owen, to whom things feminine were at present
+anathema, owned to himself that she was certainly more attractive to
+have about the place than her sour-faced predecessor.
+
+It was Barry who put her at her ease, of course. Not being troubled with
+shyness he greeted her in friendly fashion, bade her come in, and
+pointed out to her the chair, behind the typewriter, which she was
+expected to fill.
+
+Yes, she said, in answer to questioning, she was used to a Remington.
+No, she had never been connected with journalism before. Yes, she was
+well up in ordinary office work, and--in answer to Owen, this--she knew
+pretty well the rules of composition, grammar, etc.
+
+"That's good." Owen spoke formally, and Toni decided instantly that she
+liked Mr. Raymond the better of the two. "Well, I have here an article I
+want you to type at once, and then--can you read proof?"
+
+Blushing, she owned her inability to do so. Privately, she was not at
+all sure what he meant, but dread of Miss Hardy's wrath should she be
+returned to the office marked "Incompetent" forced her to add quickly:--
+
+"But I'm sure I could learn if--if you wouldn't mind showing me how to
+do it."
+
+"I'm sure you could." Barry spoke kindly and she turned to him with a
+feeling of relief. "When you have typed that article for Mr. Rose I'll
+show you how, and then you'll manage all right."
+
+"Teach her now," advised Rose, looking up from the manuscript he was
+scanning. "This stuff wants a bit of revising, and you might as well do
+something for your living, Barry, you lazy wretch."
+
+Barry smilingly disclaimed any right to the title.
+
+"I'm ready to work as hard as anyone," he said gaily.
+
+"But as I'm only considered fit to do the theatrical criticisms and play
+office-boy to you, Owen, naturally I find time to make holiday now and
+then. Well, Miss ... er ..."
+
+"Gibbs." She supplied him with the name as he hesitated.
+
+"Gibbs? You won't mind being known as 'Our Miss Gibbs,' will you?" His
+tone was free of all offence, and Toni smiled in response. "Now, here's
+a chair for me, and if only our chief will hold his peace for half an
+hour, I'll soon put you wise, as the Yankees say."
+
+He sat down beside her, and pulling a couple of galley proof-sheets
+towards him, began to initiate her into the mysteries of "reading." For
+all his laughing manner he was an excellent teacher; and after twenty
+minutes of his clear and lucid exposition the girl felt she was
+beginning to grasp her lesson thoroughly. She proved, too, wonderfully
+quick at detecting mistakes, and Barry, who had petitioned the heads of
+the office they had selected not to send him any Council School product,
+was pleased to find that her spelling was admirable, her grammar
+passable, and her memory retentive.
+
+As to the meaning which the article they were correcting conveyed to
+her, Barry was a little doubtful.
+
+It was a short summary, by a famous Catholic writer, of some of the
+lesser-understood aspects of mysticism; and Barry suspected that a good
+deal of it was Greek to her, though she did her best to answer him
+intelligently when he questioned her, rather artfully, on the correct
+reading of a somewhat involved sentence.
+
+As a matter of fact, Toni was wondering inwardly what on earth it was
+all about. Her education, though sound so far as it went, had been
+thoroughly old-fashioned; and at this period of her development it is to
+be feared there were whole tracts of mind and brain left vacant--for
+Toni belonged, by adoption at least, to a class who read only for
+amusement and occupation, and are not in the least anxious to try their
+mental teeth on any abstract theories or philosophies of life. She was
+at present all for the concrete. Things seen and known were of
+importance, things unseen were alike uninteresting and incredible. The
+abstract virtues were all very well, but life was much too vivid and
+important to allow itself to be ousted by dreams and speculations.
+
+Something of this Barry, who had an almost femininely swift intuition,
+guessed as he sat beside Toni on this first morning; but Toni was much
+too intent on her work to wonder what he thought of her; and by the time
+she had done a little typing, taken down a few letters, and read a short
+proof all by herself, it was one o'clock, and she was dismissed in
+search of lunch.
+
+When she returned, nearly an hour later, she found Owen alone, studying
+a dummy copy of the review; and seeing she was interested, Owen handed
+it over for her to see.
+
+"The _Bridge_." She quoted the title a little dubiously. "Is that what
+you call it? But--what does it mean?"
+
+Taking it back into his own hands, Owen pointed with a pencil to the
+design on the cover.
+
+"Here is the Bridge, you see, and this stream of people passing over it
+symbolize the present generation. This side of the bridge represents the
+past, from which the present comes; this, over the bridge, is the
+future, towards which the pilgrims are hastening. The idea is to bridge
+the gulf between past and future, between the old worlds and the new;
+and with that in mind we try, while never neglecting the storehouse of
+the past, to point to the future, with all its wonderful, and as yet
+unwon, rewards and discoveries."
+
+She murmured a word or two, and he went on with a note of enthusiasm in
+his voice.
+
+"Personally, I look to the future with confidence. Some people say
+the golden age of poetry, of music and letters generally, is past;
+but I don't agree. I think that there will be a fresh Renaissance
+presently, that there will be found fresh hands to pass on the sacred
+torch ... there's a flood of brilliant youth let loose in the world just
+now; and every bit of help the _Bridge_ can give is at the service of
+that marvellous band."
+
+He broke off suddenly, the light of the visionary gleaming in his eyes;
+but seeing, with a slight pang of disappointment, that his outburst was
+unintelligible to his hearer, he threw down the paper and laughed.
+
+"There, Miss Gibbs, I have finished! Don't start me on the subject
+unless you're ready to be bored. Talk to Barry about it--he is able to
+look upon the _Bridge_ quite sanely, as a means of providing bread and
+butter; but I'm afraid I'm a bit of a fanatic."
+
+Toni, uncertain of her ground, but desperately anxious to appear
+intelligent, murmured something shyly, and Rose pulled out his watch
+with a smile.
+
+"After two already! Well, Miss Gibbs, I'm off for lunch. You might just
+sort these papers out a bit, will you? We seem to have let things get
+into rather a muddle."
+
+"I'll do it at once. There would be plenty of room for everything if
+some of these papers wore tidied up."
+
+"Yes, I suppose you're right." Owen, who loved order, but was too
+impatient to preserve it, spoke dubiously. "Of course some of those
+papers are done with, but you wouldn't know which to keep, would you?"
+
+"Perhaps Mr. Raymond would help me?"
+
+Owen's face cleared.
+
+"Of course--do the idle young beggar good. All right, Miss Gibbs, he
+shall give you a hand this afternoon when he gets back. He's an awfully
+good sort, you know, though I pretend to rag him. He's as clever as you
+please, and with it all as obliging and unspoilt as possible. Well, I'd
+better go. You can get along all right, can you?"
+
+Receiving her reply, he lit a cigarette and went out, assuring himself
+that so far she promised well.
+
+"Pretty little thing, and anxious to please us. Shallow, I expect,
+emotional probably, and not brainy enough to appreciate the symbolism of
+the _Bridge_. Well, we don't want too brilliant a typist, after
+all--Miss Jenkins and her 'culture' were a bit trying at times!"
+
+And then meeting by chance an old friend who insisted on carrying him
+off to lunch, Owen speedily forgot that such a person as Miss Antonia
+Gibbs existed in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It did not take Miss Fanny Gibbs very long to discover that her cousin's
+new post held for her an interest beyond that which an unusually
+congenial situation might be expected to hold.
+
+In Miss Gibbs' world one's "job" was generally of very secondary
+importance to one's private affairs; and the fact is not to be wondered
+at when one remembers that the life of the average shop or business girl
+can by no manner of means be called either pleasant or exciting.
+
+Hitherto Toni had been fully in accord with her cousin's opinion.
+Although the robust, if promiscuous, flirtations in which Fanny, before
+her engagement, had indulged freely had never appealed to the more
+fastidious Toni, she had always been quite ready to join in any fun
+which might be going. She had eaten sweets gaily in the cheap seats of
+theatre or picture-palace, had made one at the many informal and
+harmless little gatherings for which Fanny had a taste; and had
+cheerfully and quite normally grumbled if detained at the office one
+moment longer than she considered fair.
+
+But of late Antonia had altered strangely; and Fanny's shrewd eyes noted
+the change almost from the first.
+
+To begin with, Toni was always in a fidget to get to work. Miss Gibbs
+took her annual week's holiday just then, and had plenty of time to note
+her cousin's behaviour; and the way in which Toni swallowed her
+breakfast and clad herself for the start was a revelation to one who
+knew her former dilatory nature.
+
+Toni had always been careful of her appearance--more so than her cousin
+considered at all necessary; but now she was absolutely ridiculous, so
+thought Fanny, with her new Peter-Pan collars and her fussy attention to
+her pretty hands, set off by tiny lace cuffs to match the collars. Her
+black frock, only a year old, was perfectly good and serviceable yet;
+but the extravagant creature must needs make herself another one in her
+spare time, and never had she been so particular about the cut, nor so
+incessant in her demands on Fanny for a helping hand with the
+"trying-on." She bought herself a new hat, too, a little soft affair in
+which she looked perfectly delicious; and as the days went by it seemed
+to Fanny that her cousin was growing prettier and more attractive every
+week, with a still more bewitching colour in her rounded cheeks, and a
+still more sparkling light in her Southern eyes.
+
+Yet even her woman's wit could not fathom the mystery of Toni's new joy
+in life. When interrogated concerning her employers, Toni was always
+vague. That there were two of them Fanny knew; but from Toni's extremely
+colourless description, Miss Gibbs gathered that neither was at all what
+the girls called interesting; and Mr. Rose, at least, almost
+middle-aged. (Heaven knows what flight of fancy on the part of
+Toni--Toni, whose magic romance was the shyest, most delicate fantasy in
+the world--was responsible for that fallacy!)
+
+That Barry was younger Fanny understood; but so lightly did Toni touch
+upon his kindness that Fanny could not be accused of density in her
+conception of him as a nonentity in whom her little cousin could take no
+interest.
+
+Yet that someone was responsible for Toni's sudden outburst of new
+beauty Miss Gibbs felt assured; and it gradually dawned upon her that
+there were other men about the place to whom Miss Antonia Gibbs might
+well appeal.
+
+When questioned about these others, the subordinates who were workers
+like herself, Antonia at first stared, then coloured impatiently, and
+finally laughed, with a queer note of impishness in her laughter which
+puzzled Fanny more than ever.
+
+That she, who was privileged to breathe the same atmosphere as Owen
+Rose, could be supposed even to realize the existence of any outsider
+was in itself absurd, if not almost insulting; but Toni was quick to see
+that here was the opportunity she sought to conceal her wonderful,
+presumptuous dream.
+
+For she was in love--she knew it now--wildly, deliriously, gloriously in
+love with Owen. To her he was the embodiment of all that was most noble,
+most god-like in man. His voice was music, his commands gifts, his rare
+vexation as the frown of Jove. She trembled and turned pale at his
+footstep, and when he spoke to her suddenly her heart throbbed and her
+colour came and went until she felt as though he must observe her
+emotion.
+
+In a word, she was in love; and when it is remembered that on one side
+of her Toni was purely of the South--the glowing, ardent, passionate
+South--it is not to be wondered at that this new emotion dominated her
+whole being to the exclusion of all else.
+
+Her love, indeed, was pathetic in its young ignorance. Anyone could have
+told her that she was wasting her treasure, that it was the act of a
+fool to pour out her priceless gift at the feet of one who did not want
+it, who would consider it a mere presumption.
+
+Her place in Owen's life was that of a servant, a subordinate; and her
+common sense should have told her that in that light alone would Owen
+inevitably behold her. Vaguely she realized this--knew well enough that
+he never thought of her save as his more or less useful secretary, but
+after all, she could not be expected to reason out this thing too
+closely. Its very vagueness, indeed, lent it charm. Her love was veiled,
+as it were, in a most delicate, most diaphanous mist, which took from it
+all earthliness, and left it intangible, magical as some gift from
+fairyland. So far, no hint of desire had entered into it. It was all
+unselfish, girlish adoration, an almost childish reverence for one
+immeasurably her superior; and though she made her new dress and
+adjusted her little bits of muslin and lace with scrupulous care, it was
+not so much in the hope that she might find favour in Owen's eyes as in
+the personal longing to make herself more worthy of the love within her.
+
+It never entered her head that Owen would suspect her secret. Indeed,
+the whole affair was so dream-like, of so unsubstantial, so gossamer a
+lightness, that merely to speculate upon her romance would have been to
+shatter it, as one might put a finger through a fairy cobweb.
+
+She loved--and at present that was enough. To be with Owen daily, to sit
+in the same room, breathe the same air, obey his wishes, help him with
+his work, was all she desired; and being at heart an incurable little
+optimist, she was content to weave her rose-coloured dreams, spin her
+shining web, with no anxiety about the future to shadow and darken her
+thoughts.
+
+Yet Barry, with his quick intuition, was uncannily aware of the girl's
+infatuation; and it was Barry who, through his very knowledge of her
+secret, precipitated the inevitable revelation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One day during Toni's absence for lunch the two men were sitting
+together in Owen's room when Owen suddenly threw a large unmounted
+photograph across to his friend.
+
+"What's this, Owen? Oh--your house at Willowhurst, isn't it? By Jove,
+it's a lovely place--I wonder you don't live there."
+
+The moment he had spoken he would willingly have recalled his words, but
+Owen gave him no time.
+
+"You forget--I was going to live there!" His smile was forced. "The
+people who have had it for years cleared out last October, and it was
+all put in apple-pie order then, in anticipation of my wife's arrival."
+
+Barry, red and embarrassed, said nothing, but examined the photograph
+with unnecessary minuteness.
+
+"Seems a pity the place should stand idle," went on Owen musingly. "It's
+a jolly old house, and been in the family for centuries--built before
+the river became fashionable--and the grounds are really fine; some
+gorgeous old trees and shrubs in them."
+
+"How far from town?" Barry put the first question that suggested itself.
+
+"Oh, not far--twenty or thirty miles. You can get up easily in a car or
+by a fast train. Greenriver--that's the house--is really charmingly
+situated, with big grounds at the back, and the river just beneath the
+house."
+
+"You lived there as a youngster?"
+
+"Yes. When my father died my mother couldn't bear to live there, and we
+let the place. After her death I could have gone back, but somehow I
+didn't want to. It was only when I met Vivian----"
+
+He broke off suddenly, and springing to his feet, began to pace up and
+down.
+
+"By Jove, Barry, what fools we men make of ourselves over women! Just
+because Vivian was kind, smiled on me, seemed really interested in my
+affairs, I told her everything--all sorts of things I haven't even told
+you, old chap! We used to go for strolls together in the summer
+evenings--once or twice we motored down to Richmond and went for a walk
+in the park ... we used to talk about all sorts of things ... women are
+the very deuce for leading men on to talk. They pretend to be so
+interested, ask such gentle little questions, are so sympathetic, so
+kind ... and when it comes to sport, a girl like Vivian can talk as well
+as any man."
+
+He sighed impatiently.
+
+"We didn't talk sentiment--those days. We were chums--the best of
+chums ... discussed flying, motoring--she used to drive a little car
+of her own. Sometimes we played golf--and, by Jove, she could pretty
+nearly beat me! She was interested in all the things I liked, was a
+rattling good shot with a rifle, and hadn't a nerve in her. Clever, too;
+could talk on all sorts of subjects, and had read books I'd never even
+heard of! She spoke three or four languages ... but--but it wasn't
+that."
+
+He broke off in his rambling talk to light a cigarette, and then
+continued, in the same musing tone.
+
+"It was something else. She was so handsome, so--so fine, somehow. I
+used to think, when we were engaged, that she was like Brunhilde, or
+some of the other Wagnerian heroines. Sometimes I couldn't help
+thinking"--he coloured--"what splendid children a woman like that would
+have. She ... she satisfied one, somehow. You knew she was sound in
+every way--the sort of woman one would always be proud of--and when I
+thought of her as the mistress of Greenriver, I----"
+
+He threw away his cigarette impatiently.
+
+"What a fool I am! What a damned fool you must think me, raving about a
+woman who played me the shabbiest trick a woman could play! God! When I
+think of it--think how I was deceived, I--I hate the woman! I hate
+myself for being such a fool, but I hate her more! Well, she's married
+now--good luck to her!--and there's only one thing for me to do; I must
+get married too!"
+
+"But why?" Barry's blue eyes were very kindly as they looked at his
+friend. "Why not go on as you are for a bit longer?"
+
+"Why not?" He stretched out his arms with a curious, restless gesture.
+"Because I've got unsettled, I suppose. You see, when you've looked on
+yourself as practically a married man, planned everything, renounced
+your bachelor ways and anticipated a new and more settled existence,
+well, somehow you can't go back to the old state of things. There's the
+house, too. I feel as though I wanted to live in it again--the servants
+are clamouring for me to go there. I promised, you know, and the river
+is so lovely in the summer...."
+
+"Well, why not go down and have a car?"
+
+"Go there--alone?" He spoke bitterly. "No, thanks. That would be folly.
+I meant to go with my wife----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped in his restless pacing and faced Barry with gleaming
+eyes.
+
+"By gad, Barry! Why shouldn't I take my wife there after all?"
+
+"Your wife?" Even the quick-witted Barry was at fault.
+
+"Yes. My wife." He laughed at the other man's face. "Oh, I'm not married
+yet, but why shouldn't I be? I swore I'd marry the first woman who'd
+have me, and it's just occurred to me--Barry, do you thing she _would_
+have me?"
+
+"She? _What_ she?" demanded Barry in justifiable bewilderment.
+
+"Why, our excellent little secretary and typist--our Miss Gibbs--our
+Antonia, known at home as Toni!"
+
+Barry's boyish face flushed crimson, and for a second he looked so angry
+that Owen stared in genuine amazement.
+
+"Well, Barry, what's up? I assure you my intentions are strictly
+honourable! If she'll have me, she shall step into the shoes vacated by
+Miss Vivian Rees, and succeed to the house, the car, the boats, and all
+the rest of the worldly goods which weren't sufficient to tempt my
+beautiful _fiancee_!"
+
+"See here, Owen." Barry's voice was quiet. "I suppose you're ragging,
+but let me tell you I think the rag's in execrable taste, and I'll be
+obliged if you'll drop the subject."
+
+For a second Owen seemed about to retort in the same tone. Then, quite
+suddenly, his face changed.
+
+"Say, Barry, why all these frills? You surely didn't think I meant any
+harm--any disrespect to the girl?"
+
+"Of course not." He spoke rather coldly. "Only--well, I don't like to
+hear you joking about marrying Miss Gibbs. She's a decent little thing,
+and far too good to be made a cat's paw in a game of revenge."
+
+Owen looked at his friend quietly.
+
+"You're right, Barry, and if I were only joking it would be a bit
+low-down. But suppose I mean it? Suppose I ask the girl to marry me,
+quite quietly, not entering into any heroics or telling any condemned
+lies, and she accepts me, what then?"
+
+Barry's heart gave a sudden throb of dismay. There was something behind
+Owen's calm manner which made him feel vaguely uneasy. Could it be that
+Owen too had surprised Toni's pitiful little secret--that he knew--had
+known all along that the girl was not so indifferent to him as she
+wished to appear?
+
+For the moment Barry was nonplussed. If it were so, if Owen knew, and,
+knowing, chose to take the risk of the girl's acceptance, had he any
+right to interfere?
+
+That Toni would accept, Barry felt almost convinced; and yet, fond as he
+was of his friend, fond as he was, too, of the girl with whom he had
+worked during these weeks of spring, Barry was clear-sighted enough to
+feel assured that such a marriage would not make for happiness.
+
+It might answer for a time. If Toni wore genuinely attached to Rose, as
+Barry was inclined to believe, it was possible--nay, probable--that her
+affection for him would bring out the best in Owen's nature, and he
+would repay that affection with a real and kindly consideration. But
+when the first freshness had worn off, when Owen should have grown used
+to the girl's shy gratitude and devotion, when her prettiness, her
+radiant youth, her naive simplicity should have ceased to charm, what
+then would remain?
+
+For all his sporting instincts Owen was primarily a man of letters,
+versatile, brilliant, even distinguished in his way; and Barry foresaw a
+bitter disillusionment for each of the pair when the real dissimilarity
+of their natures should, as must inevitably happen, become apparent to
+both.
+
+To Toni, who never willingly opened a book, her husband's delight and
+absorption in the masterpieces of literature must be a constant wonder;
+while to Rose, Toni's ignorance, her youthful, unashamed lack of
+interest in the "things which matter" would be a perpetual irritation.
+
+Although not so brilliant as his friend, Barry experienced at times
+flashes of almost uncanny insight; and as he contemplated the
+possibility of this marriage he had a sudden clear conviction that it
+would not, could not, turn out successfully.
+
+"See here, Owen"--he faced the other man resolutely--"you must know the
+thing is quite impossible. Miss Gibbs is a nice little girl, a pretty
+little thing and as straight as a die. But she is not your equal in any
+sense; neither socially nor intellectually; and though you may not
+believe it, you would regret the marriage in a week."
+
+Owen looked at him, half-affectionately, half-quizzically, for a moment.
+
+"Why should I, Barry? Toni may not be of very exalted birth, but she is
+a hundred times more ladylike than half the flappers one meets in
+Society nowadays, with their cigarette-cases, their bridge purses and
+their slangy talk. One of those loud young women would be the death of
+me in a week--and you know Toni's voice is delightfully soft, with quite
+a Southern intonation--caught in Italy, I expect."
+
+"But what of her education--or lack of it?" Barry went on relentlessly.
+"You know quite well that the girl is a little ignoramus in reality. She
+has read nothing, been nowhere, learned precious little; and she has no
+more conversation than--than a Persian cat."
+
+"That's a bad simile," said Owen calmly. "A Persian cat doesn't talk
+much, I admit, but it is a most fascinating piece of mystery when it
+sits still and says nothing. And Miss Gibbs may in reality be just as
+mysterious."
+
+"Oh, you're impossible!" Barry spoke impatiently, and Owen's manner
+changed.
+
+"Come, Barry, confess the truth. You're afraid Toni will jump at me--to
+put it baldly. You know"--for a second he hesitated--"you know, Barry,
+I'm not blind, and I can't help seeing that the girl has ... well, taken
+a fancy to me; and if that is so, seeing that the woman I wanted
+wouldn't have me, why shouldn't I offer myself to the one who ... would
+perhaps take me if I asked her to?"
+
+"You really mean to ask her, then?"
+
+"Yes. I know you won't approve, old chap, but I'm going to do it all the
+same. The girl may refuse me, you know, and then there'll be no harm
+done."
+
+And nothing could move him from the attitude he had adopted. The utmost
+concession Barry could wring from him was a promise to wait for a week
+at least before carrying out his plan; and during the whole of that week
+Barry did his utmost to dissuade his friend from taking a step which he
+foresaw would end in disaster.
+
+He argued, cajoled, even thundered, in vain. He spoke of disparity of
+tastes, of habits, of views on life in general; and Owen laughingly
+reminded him that dissimilarity in tastes was supposed to be a good
+foundation for wedded happiness.
+
+He pointed out that although Antonia herself was a lady in the best
+sense of the word, neither he nor Owen knew anything of her family; and
+he endeavoured to alarm Rose by his vigorous sketch of her possibly
+undesirable relations.
+
+"I tell you the girl's an orphan," said Owen, smiling as Barry finished
+painting an imaginary portrait of a very unattractive mother-in-law.
+"She lives with an uncle and aunt and a family of cousins somewhere
+Brixton way."
+
+"Then I suppose the wedding will take place in Brixton," said Barry,
+with an assumption of polite interest, and Owen coloured in spite of
+himself.
+
+"No--at least, not in a church. I can't face a regular wedding, Barry,
+seeing my bride isn't the one I expected to lead to the altar. I think
+the Registrar will have to tie the knot, and we'll dispense with all the
+fuss of satins and veils and white flowers that I was dreading with all
+my heart!"
+
+Something in his tone--a hint of dreary disappointment, of a
+wretchedness hitherto well concealed, made Barry feel compunction for
+his own rough handling of what must have been in reality a sore subject;
+and quite suddenly he abandoned his own superior, not to say
+condemnatory, attitude for a more human, more sympathetic frame of mind.
+
+"I say, old chap"--Owen's eyes lightened with pleasure at the friendly
+tone--"I've been an awful beast all this time. The fact is, I've thought
+only of the girl's point of view. It didn't seem fair she should be used
+as a sort of tool to make your position easier; but after all, I believe
+on my soul she'd ask nothing better than to marry you; and I know you'd
+treat her decently, so--so if----"
+
+"If I like to do it, you'll give me your blessing, eh, Barry?" Owen's
+smile was a little melancholy. "Well, I'll take advantage of your
+permission and put it to the little girl herself. She may refuse me, of
+course--Miss Rees didn't find me irresistible, did she?" A hint of the
+deadly wound she had dealt him coloured his tone. "But unless I'm a
+conceited fool I believe I have a sporting chance at least--and I'd like
+to show Lady Saxonby she's not the only woman in the world for me!"
+
+At that moment Toni herself entered the room; and with an effort both
+men greeted her as usual, and proceeded to the ordinary routine of the
+day's work without giving her any indication that she had interrupted a
+discussion of the highest importance to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Antonia had just returned from lunch on the following day when Owen
+called her to him; and she hastened to obey the summons, still wearing
+her hat and coat.
+
+"Oh, Miss Gibbs"--his tone was admirably casual. "I've been wondering
+whether you would mind helping me this afternoon. I want some books from
+my house down at Willowhurst to verify some quotations in an article I
+am writing for the next number of the _Bridge_."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rose?"
+
+"I intended first going down in the car for them, but as it seems a pity
+to bring a lot of old books up to town, I thought if you would come down
+too, bringing the little Blick typewriter with you, I could get you to
+copy out the quotations I want, and I needn't take the books away."
+
+Insensibly Toni's eyes brightened.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Rose. I should be very pleased."
+
+"That's right. Well, I'll go out and get some lunch. Will you be ready
+in half an hour?"
+
+"Yes--I've just time to run through these letters."
+
+"Very well. _Au revoir!_ I'll be back at half-past two."
+
+He went out, and Antonia joyfully pirouetted round the room before
+settling to work--somewhat to the surprise of Barry, who entered at that
+moment.
+
+"Hallo, Miss Gibbs--practising the turkey-trot, or what?"
+
+She stopped, blushing hotly, and tried in vain to look unconcerned.
+
+"No, Mr. Raymond. Only--Mr. Rose wants me to motor down to Willowhurst
+with him about some books--and it's such a lovely day!"
+
+"You like motoring?" Barry could not resist a sympathetic smile.
+
+"Oh, I just love it!" She clasped her hands in rapture. "Of course, I've
+only been in taxis and char-a-bancs and things, but I've always wanted
+to go in a real motor-car--a private one, I mean!"
+
+"Have you never been in one?" Her childish confession made Barry feel
+half pitiful, half dismayed.
+
+"No, how should I?" She laughed, showing her pretty teeth
+whole-heartedly. "You know girls in my position don't go about in
+motors! Of course"--with one of her sudden changes of mood she paled and
+spoke slowly--"if my father had lived things would have been different."
+
+"You lived in Italy together?"
+
+"Yes." She sank into a chair, and went on speaking dreamily,
+her chin cradled in her hollowed hands. "We lived in a village not
+far from Naples. Oh, how beautiful Italy is in the spring, when
+the pink almond-blossom makes the hill-sides look like a great
+rose-garden ... and the oranges and lemons flame out among the
+dark-green leaves--and the roads are hot and white, and the blue
+sea lies at the back of everything, sparkling in the sunshine...."
+
+She paused, but Barry, fascinated by this revelation of a depth, almost
+a poetry, in the nature he had thought shallow and commonplace, said
+nothing; and after a second she continued.
+
+"There was a steep hill behind our little house, and sometimes the sheep
+that browsed there would stray ... so that the boy would sit and pipe to
+them to come back. I used to watch him pipe, and make a garland of
+vine-leaves and put it on his curls, and my father would laugh and call
+him Pan, and say he was really thousands of years old ... and the sheep
+would come up the slope looking so white against the green, and the air
+would be full of the smell of the violets they crushed beneath their
+feet...."
+
+Again she paused, and this time Barry prompted her.
+
+"And when he had found his flock, what did your boy-Pan do then?"
+
+"Then he would drive them away over the hill-side, and we would hear his
+pipe growing fainter and fainter in the distance, until it died away
+altogether...."
+
+She sprang up suddenly.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Raymond, what nonsense I'm talking! That life's over and done
+with, and I've all these letters to copy!"
+
+"All right--I won't interrupt!" He took up some papers. "But just tell
+me this. Do you ever want to go back to Italy?"
+
+She hesitated, considering.
+
+"No, I think not," she said at last. "You see, it would all be
+different. My father wouldn't be there, nor the Padre--and even old
+Fiammetta may be dead by now."
+
+"But the place would be the same--the sea as blue!"
+
+"Ah, I should like to see the sea!" She spoke softly. "Do you know I've
+only seen the sea once since I came to England--when we went to Southend
+for the day. And there it was all cold and grey--and the sands were
+mud ... it wasn't a bit like my sea, and I wished I'd never seen it."
+
+There were actually tears in her eyes, and Barry cursed himself for a
+fool, as he went rather absently into his own room, leaving her to her
+work--which work was done none the less carefully because of the vague
+longings which the conversation had aroused in the worker's breast.
+
+Punctually at two-thirty Owen returned, and Toni ran down the steps with
+a smiling face from which all traces of tears had long since vanished.
+
+The car was waiting in the dingy street, and Toni's foot was actually on
+the step when she turned and looked at Owen with a kind of desperate
+appeal in her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Rose, do you drive the car yourself?"
+
+"Yes. I sit in front, you know--ah, would you like to sit with me?"
+
+"May I?" Her accent was acceptance enough; and two minutes later Toni,
+as happy as a queen, was installed by the driver's side, and the car
+began to glide faster and faster down the street on its way to the open
+country beyond the town.
+
+When they had gone a little distance Owen turned to look at his
+passenger, and for a second his heart stood still at the expression on
+her face. Surely no girl would look so rapturously happy unless some
+magic were at work....
+
+"Are you warm enough? There's a big coat in the car." He spoke abruptly,
+but the girl shook her head gratefully.
+
+"No, I'm quite warm, thank you."
+
+She had tied on her soft little hat with a scarf of some thin material
+which framed her face very satisfactorily, and Owen did not press the
+question.
+
+On and on sped the car, through Putney and Richmond, on past Feltham and
+Staines, eating up the miles so fast that before they knew it they were
+out in the country, flying along the level road between hedges whose
+green had not as yet become dusty with the summer's traffic.
+
+It was a glorious afternoon in early May, and the Thames valley was at
+its best. On either hand were fields sown thick with creamy daisies and
+yellow buttercups. Down in a marshy hollow they caught a glimpse of a
+carpet of golden kingcups, and once they passed a tiny dell in whose
+very heart an azure mist whispered of bluebells; while the blackthorn
+and the may made the air fragrant for miles. The birds were singing
+their hearts out in the mellow sunshine, and now and again the cuckoo's
+call came floating over the meadows from copse or spinney.
+
+Ever and anon as they shot through some village hamlet they caught
+glimpses of orchards in full blossom, the pink and white bloom standing
+out against the pale blue of the sky with the effect of some delicate
+Japanese painting; and in all the little gardens flowers rioted
+joyously.
+
+To Toni, spending her life in dingy Brixton, this afternoon was a
+red-letter day. The soft, clean air which blew in her face was different
+from the stagnant air of the Brixton streets; the scent of flowers was
+grateful after the odours of the City, and the vision, now and then, of
+the flashing river was a delight to eyes tired with much staring at ugly
+houses and shops.
+
+If Toni said little during that magic excursion, it was not shyness
+alone which sealed her lips; and although he cast a look now and then at
+his companion, Owen was too considerate to break into her raptures with
+questioning words.
+
+Only when they were approaching their destination did he begin to point
+out the various features of the landscape.
+
+"That village over there is Willgate, noted for an old Saxon arch in its
+church. My mother used to go over there to evening service, I remember.
+She liked it better than our own church--the one you can just see
+peeping between the trees. The village--Willowhurst, I mean--lies round
+this bend. It's quite a rural-looking place, when you remember that
+after all it is not an hour's journey from Waterloo."
+
+The car glided round the bend as he spoke, and Toni saw the village
+lying in the afternoon sunshine, which winked back from the windows of
+the little houses, built in a queer, old-fashioned manner round a small
+green. There was a pleasant, old-world look about the place which was
+oddly charming; and Toni was quite sorry when the car left the little
+green behind. But in another minute they were on a stretch of white road
+bordered by a high wall, behind which tall trees stood like sentinels;
+and Toni caught her breath as Owen said, in a voice which he tried,
+vainly, to keep steady:
+
+"See, there's Greenriver--my home--beyond the trees."
+
+They had reached the high gates in the wall, and when once they had
+entered and were rolling up the broad avenue Toni gazed eagerly in the
+direction he had indicated.
+
+Greenriver was a stately old place enough. It had been built in the days
+of Queen Bess; and was just such a house as that in which Justice
+Shallow might have entertained Falstaff--a long grey building with a
+porch in the centre and a huge gable at either end--a house with
+deep-mullioned windows and large stacks of chimney-pots.
+
+The house faced the river, to which it led by a terrace of velvety turf,
+broken here and there by gay flower-beds; while the real gardens lay at
+the other side of the building. Here beauty and dignity had joined
+hands, as it were, to preserve the stately loveliness of the grounds,
+under whose tall elms many a joyous company must have roamed when the
+river was the highway of elegance and fashion, and great barges floated
+down the Thames bearing Royal personages reclining on their couches
+covered with cloth of gold. Here on summer evenings the nightingales
+sang to the roses for which the gardens were famous; and for centuries
+the big white owls had hooted from their nests in the tree-tops, or
+flown, like pale ghosts, across the dusky paths.
+
+The grounds were indeed noted all along the river for the magnificence
+of their green, velvety lawns, the size and beauty of the flowers in
+parterre and bed, the wonderful completeness--and in some cases the
+antiquity--of the contents of the famous herbaceous border; and Toni
+never forgot the sensation of awe which overwhelmed her as she realized
+that this glorious place belonged to the man beside her.
+
+She spoke a little shyly as the car came to a standstill at the foot of
+the steps leading to the big door.
+
+"This is your house?"
+
+"Yes, this is Greenriver." He helped her out of the car. "And here is my
+old friend Mrs. Blades coming to meet us."
+
+An elderly, rather prim-looking woman came forward as Owen advanced, and
+in her eyes shone a welcoming light.
+
+"Come in, sir. We were beginning to wonder if you were coming to-day."
+
+"Yes--started rather late." Owen gave her hand a friendly shake. "But we
+shan't have to go back just yet. I want to have a chat with you by and
+bye, Mrs. Blades. This young lady, Miss Gibbs, has kindly come down to
+help me with some work."
+
+"I'm sure the young lady is very welcome," was Mrs. Blades'
+old-fashioned reply. "Shan't I make you a cup o' tea, sir, first of
+all?"
+
+"Well, a cup of tea would be nice ... but I think, if Miss Gibbs isn't
+tired, we'll get on with our work first, and then we'll enjoy it better.
+Eh, Miss Gibbs?"
+
+Miss Gibbs agreed; and five minutes later she was installed, with her
+typewriter, in the library. Owen busied himself, for a few moments, at
+the shelves, searching for the books he wanted; and Toni spent the time
+in gazing round her, wonder, admiration and awe mingling in her gaze.
+
+The room was large and lofty and the big mullioned windows looked out
+upon a beautiful terrace, bordered with wallflowers, jonquils, and
+masses of dancing daffodils. The grass, smooth as velvet, led to a stone
+balustrade, beyond which lay the river, sparkling in the sunshine,
+whilst beyond that again were green fields, broken here and there by
+clumps of majestic trees, the fields in their turn leading to a range of
+distant, misty, blue hills.
+
+The room itself was second only in interest to the view. In all her life
+Toni had never entered such a room--had never imagined, indeed, that
+private houses boasted such apartments.
+
+The furniture was all of dark-green leather--the big saddle-bag chairs,
+the low divan and the smaller chairs all being upholstered in the same
+material, while the wall was distempered a lighter shade of green, and
+the carpet was of a darker tone. In one of the deep window embrasures
+was a bureau, of just the right height to allow anyone sitting before it
+to enjoy the prospect without; while the table at which Toni sat was a
+large, heavy affair, evidently intended for serious work.
+
+But the generally sombre tone of the room formed an excellent background
+for the books which lined its walls. Shelf after shelf of them rose from
+the floor, almost to the ceiling; and since many were bound in soft,
+rich colours, they struck a delightful note in the rather dusky whole.
+
+There were books bound in leather, dark-brown calf, soft red or blue
+morocco; richly-tooled volumes, slim books clothed in tan or purple
+suede, gay with gold edges and lettering; priceless old volumes, rare
+black-letter editions, poets, classics, all the standard novels.... Toni
+had never seen so many books in her life; and it must be confessed that
+she regarded them with something akin to awe.
+
+Who in the world could wish to read these hundreds of volumes? For all
+their beautiful bindings she had a conviction that the contents would be
+appallingly dull; and her eyes fled gladly to the more congenial scene
+outside the windows where the flowers danced gaily in the sunshine and a
+little skiff floated by on the shimmering river, like some magic boat
+gliding to a haven in fairyland.
+
+Presently Owen approached the table, bearing an armful of thin books,
+bound for the most part in soft fawn suede.
+
+"Look, Miss Gibbs, these are the verses I want you to copy." He pointed
+out the poems, and gave her one or two instructions, while Toni,
+conscious that she had been dreaming away her time, hastily uncovered
+her typewriter and took up a sheet of paper.
+
+"If you'll do these, I'll go and have a chat with old Mrs. Blades," said
+Owen presently. "Then we'll have tea, and if there's time I'll show you
+the gardens. They are really worth seeing."
+
+She thanked him shyly and he went out. In the doorway he paused, looking
+back at her as she sat among the books; and if she had looked up she
+could not have failed to observe something odd in the expression with
+which he was regarding her.
+
+But she did not look up; and after a few seconds' scrutiny he went out
+quietly and closed the door.
+
+It did not take Toni very long to finish her task. Almost as she took
+the last sheet of paper out of the typewriter the door opened to admit
+Owen and a staid-looking maid with a tea-tray.
+
+"Well, Miss Gibbs, finished?" Owen came forward with a smile. "That's
+good! Now you shall have some tea to refresh you after your toil. Let me
+see, Kate, where shall we have it?"
+
+The maid suggested that the table in the far window would be suitable;
+and as the afternoon sunshine still streamed in, making a pleasant
+warmth, Owen agreed heartily.
+
+Evidently Mrs. Blades had not been taken unprepared; for there were
+dainty sandwiches, hot cakes, and a big and substantial-looking
+seed-loaf, which was, so Owen informed his guest, his housekeeper's
+special pride.
+
+"Now"--Kate had withdrawn after placing the massive silver tea-pot on
+the tray--"will you pour out for me, Miss Gibbs? And I'll hand the
+cakes."
+
+Blushing gloriously, Toni slipped into the seat behind the tray. In
+honour of the fine day she had discarded her black frock for a serge
+skirt and a girlish-looking white blouse, open at the throat; and now
+that she had thrown aside her veil, her black hair, prettily loosened
+beneath her soft little hat, made an ebony frame for her vivid face.
+
+As he watched her gravely attending to the duties of the tea-tray, Owen
+told himself that he might have made a worse choice.
+
+He had long ago surprised her secret--although Toni had no idea of her
+self-betrayal. At this stage of her development Toni was pure emotion--a
+mere lamp through which love might shine unchecked, casting its beams
+unashamedly upon the object of its devotion. Later she might learn, as
+many women do, to interpose a veil between her soul and the world. The
+lamp would shine with a tempered beam, its glow moderated to a mere
+even, more tranquil light, and none would recognize the quality of its
+burning.
+
+But at present Toni's love was so whole-hearted, so innocently,
+pathetically intense that it was no wonder Owen had divined both its
+nature and its object long ago.
+
+Well, to a heart rendered sore by a woman's callousness, such a warm,
+eager devotion as this was inexpressibly attractive; and if Owen's eyes
+were blinded by suffering, there was surely a chance that Toni's soft
+fingers laid upon their lids might prolong the merciful myopia.
+
+When tea was over there came a sudden little silence. The dusk was
+falling; and the garden wore a ghostly look; while the river lay
+passively unreflecting beneath the twilit sky.
+
+The atmosphere of the room changed with the passing of the
+sunlight--grew tense, electric, almost, one would have said, expectant;
+and Owen realized that the moment for which he waited had come.
+
+Toni, having finished her tea, was sitting rather slackly in her chair,
+gazing dreamily out of the window; and Owen hesitated for a minute
+before he spoke. She looked so young, so wistful, so helpless. It was
+almost unfair, selfish, to speak to the child--and then, suddenly, he
+knew that selfish or no, he must put an end to his own solitary
+sore-heartedness.
+
+"Toni"--she looked up as he spoke, and his utterance of her name set the
+whole atmosphere throbbing with wild, sweet possibilities--"I want to
+ask you something."
+
+She did not speak, only her eyes fastened on his face.
+
+"Do you think, Toni"--for a moment he faltered, then plunged bravely
+on--"you could ever bring yourself to marry me? Oh, I know you're
+surprised--I ought not to spring it on you like this--but if you will be
+my wife I will do my best to make you happy."
+
+There was a silence. Suddenly an owl flew, hooting, past the window, and
+in the dusk his white wings looked ghostly, unreal.
+
+Then, quite quietly, Toni spoke.
+
+"Mr. Rose, do you mean it? You want to marry me?"
+
+"Yes, dear." For an instant he spoke as one speaks to a child, so
+powerful was the illusion of youth in the large-eyed Toni just then.
+"Well, what do you say? Will you have me?"
+
+He was still sitting in the big chair opposite to her, one hand on the
+arm, the other clenched on his knee; and he was unprepared for Toni's
+answer.
+
+With a sudden rush she was out of her chair, and the next moment she was
+kneeling beside him, her face all aglow with love and wonder.
+
+"You mean it?" She could only, it seemed, question his meaning.
+"But--how did you know I loved you, Mr. Rose? I never let you see--did
+I?"
+
+With that soft, sparkling face upturned to his, those Italian eyes
+gazing at him with an intensity of appeal in their liquid depths, one
+answer alone was possible.
+
+"No, Toni, you never let me see that! But if it's true--if you do love
+me a little--well, is it--yes?"
+
+For answer she suddenly laid her head on his knee and burst into a
+passion of wild sobbing. Poor, emotional, overwrought little Toni! Why
+she wept she had no idea, but it was the same emotion which had made
+her, as a child, weep at the sight of a group of violets growing in the
+grass, at the sound of the shepherd's pipe, the scent of the sea-laden
+breeze. Although her heart was so full of bliss that she could scarcely
+bear it, there was a wild, inexplicable sadness in it too, which tears
+alone could assuage; and though she tried to recapture her self-control,
+it was useless until she had cried away the first bewilderment.
+
+But Owen, unused to the complex Southern nature, was thoroughly
+nonplussed by her tears. In vain he besought her to calm herself, begged
+her to listen to him, to refuse him if the thought of his offer made her
+miserable. Toni only cried the harder; and at last, uncertain of his
+ground, but feeling that something must be done, Owen stooped down and
+lifted her bodily on to his knee.
+
+Once in his arms, her tears ceased as if by magic. She lay against his
+heart like a child, and as he felt her little body in his arms a new
+feeling of pity, almost of gratitude, awoke in his heart.
+
+If his love meant so much to her--then it should be hers--if indeed love
+could be bestowed at will. In any case he would marry her and devote his
+life to making her happy; and in his curiously exalted state of mind
+Owen quite lost sight of the fact that when one is the lover and the
+other the beloved, between the two there is often a great gulf fixed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When at last Owen roused the girl, who had sobbed herself into
+quiescence in his arms, the room was nearly dark.
+
+"Come, Toni, it's getting cold and dark in here. What do you say, shall
+we get Mrs. Blades to give us a little dinner and go home by
+moonlight--or would you rather start at once?"
+
+"I would rather go now." She spoke in a low voice, like a child that is
+uncertain of its treatment; and Owen guessed she was ashamed of her
+tears.
+
+He set himself to reassure her.
+
+"Well, just as you like. Wait a moment, though. I'll light a candle, and
+you shall put your hat straight, and tie on that precious veil of yours
+first."
+
+While she tidied herself, rather self-consciously, before a large oval
+mirror, Owen gathered up the papers she had typewritten; and when he
+turned towards her at last she was able to conjure up a rather wan
+little smile.
+
+"Good girl!" He laid his hand kindly on her arm. "Now we'll be off--but
+first, do you mind if I let old Blades into our secret? She's a faithful
+old soul, though her temper's a bit crabby, and she'll be awfully
+pleased!"
+
+She assented, of course; and opening the door Owen led her across the
+dim hall towards the kitchen regions.
+
+Evidently the magic hour of lighting-up was at hand, for when they had
+passed through the green baize door which shut off the servants'
+premises, they found themselves in a brightly-lit passage, at the end of
+which Mrs. Blades' voice could be heard energetically exhorting a maid
+to "be quick and take these lamps."
+
+"Come along, we'll pay her a visit in her room," said Owen, his eyes
+sparkling with fun; and drawing Toni's arm through his he ran with her
+down the passage, and drew up finally in a large square room where Mrs.
+Blades was at work.
+
+In spite of her shyness Toni was lost in wonder at the nature of that
+work. The room itself was lighted with gas, flaring in an iron cage; but
+on the table in front of Mrs. Blades were no less than ten small
+oil-lamps, evidently intended to hang against the wall, and fashioned in
+some wrought metal which gave them a curiously mediaeval look.
+
+"Hallo, Mrs. Blades!" Owen's voice made her turn round quickly. "The Ten
+Little Ladies going as strong as ever, I see!"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Owen, they're still on the go." She regarded the lamps
+affectionately. "At first Mr. Leetham used to say a good big lamp would
+be best, at the head of the stairs; but afterwards he got to like the
+Little Ladies, and we've had 'em every night."
+
+"We'll have to go on having them," declared Owen. "Look, Toni, they're
+really quite pretty, aren't they? And thanks to Mrs. Blades they give a
+jolly good light."
+
+"But--the 'Little Ladies'?" Toni looked, as she felt, puzzled.
+
+"Yes, it was a fancy of my father's. He would never have gas anywhere
+except in the kitchens; and the long gallery upstairs, where all the
+bedrooms are, was always as dark as Erebus." He laughed, catching sight
+of the blank look on Mrs. Blades' face at the word. "So my mother
+invented these lamps, years ago when I was a tiny kid, and every night
+they are fixed at intervals along the walls of the gallery."
+
+"But the name?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know who first christened them, but they've always been
+known as the Ten Little Ladies--and always will be, I suppose. Eh, Mrs.
+Blades?"
+
+"So long as I'm here, sir, I hope they will be," rejoined Mrs. Blades
+somewhat formally; and something in her tone made Owen remember his
+resolve.
+
+He looked round. The door was open into the passage, a rosy-cheeked maid
+waiting, apparently, to carry off the tray with the Little Ladies; but
+on Owen approaching with the intention of closing the door she withdrew
+modestly out of earshot.
+
+Coming back to the table Owen took one of Toni's hands in his and turned
+to the old housekeeper, who glanced with sudden shrewdness at the girl's
+shy face.
+
+"Mrs. Blades," said Owen quietly, "Miss Gibbs has promised to marry me;
+and I hope that before many weeks are over we shall come down to live at
+Greenriver. Well, what do you say? Will you welcome us when we come?"
+
+The half-boyish, half-masterful tone in which he spoke seemed too much
+for the old woman, who had watched Owen grow from boy to man, and now,
+after a lapse of years, saw him in his manhood. She looked first at him,
+then at the pale girl by his side, and her features worked oddly.
+
+"Come, Mrs. Blades!" Owen had had enough of tears for one afternoon.
+"Cheer up! Don't look as if we were going to cut off your head! That's a
+poor welcome to Miss Gibbs!"
+
+Thus reproved, the housekeeper did her best to conjure up a more
+cheerful expression; and managed presently to shake Toni's cold little
+hand with a respectful word or two; after which Owen discovered that it
+was high time to go.
+
+Five minutes later Toni was snugly packed into the car again; and Owen
+was about to take his seat when he remembered that he had left the
+typewritten sheets in the housekeeper's room.
+
+"I'll run back for them, Toni." He jumped down from the step. "I won't
+be a moment. You don't mind waiting?"
+
+"Of course not!" She smiled up at him with dewy eyes. "Don't hurry--it's
+so lovely here in the dusk--the flowers smell so sweet."
+
+Re-entering the house, Owen ran down the passage with hasty feet. Mrs.
+Blades, who had a tendency to what she called "chronical brownkitis,"
+had not ventured to brave the night air; and Owen found her still
+regarding the Little Ladies, who burned trimly on the tray before her.
+
+"All right, Mrs. Blades--I've only left some papers!" He snatched them
+up as he spoke, and crammed them into the pocket of his leather coat.
+"That's all--now I'm really off."
+
+He patted her carelessly on the shoulder as he passed her; but to his
+surprise she put out a veined hand to stay his progress.
+
+"Mr. Owen"--her voice shook--"do you really mean that you're going to
+marry the young lady?"
+
+"Of course, Blades." Unconsciously Owen pulled himself together. "Why
+should I say such a thing if I did not mean it?"
+
+"Because..." the old woman faltered "... Miss Gibbs ain't the sort of
+lady you ought to marry. She ... she's not like the other lady you were
+going to bring here as mistress of Greenriver ... the one as was
+presented at Court with all them lovely feathers in her hair."
+
+An expression such as she had never seen before crossed Owen's face. He
+shook off her hand impatiently.
+
+"Oh, you're an old silly, Blades." His voice was grating. "Miss Gibbs is
+a thousand times more suitable to be the mistress of Greenriver.
+The--the other lady thought very small beer of us all down here--she
+wasn't our sort, I assure you!"
+
+"Neither is this one." The old woman stuck to her guns with the
+obstinacy of age. "Mr. Owen, I remember your father bringing home his
+bride--a girl she was, only eighteen--but the highest lady in the land
+couldn't have been evened to her. Miss Gibbs is pretty and a good girl,
+I'm sure, but--but she ain't like your mother, Mr. Owen; and you ought
+to look higher when you marry than her!"
+
+"Don't be a fool, Blades!" Owen spoke angrily now. "If I think Miss
+Gibbs good enough to be my wife that's quite sufficient for everyone.
+After all, I'm not such a great catch," he added bitterly.
+
+"Nay, Mr. Owen, don't be vexed with me!" Too late the old woman
+regretted her foolish words. "I'm growing old, and maybe I'm in my
+dotage ... ah, he's gone--I've driven the lad away with my folly!"
+
+It was indeed so. Owen had flung out of the door angrily; and as she
+listened, half-afraid, she heard his steps receding down the passage
+towards the hall. There was impatience in his very tread; for, truth to
+tell, Owen felt a kind of hot anger welling in his heart as he
+remembered the words she had spoken.
+
+At first he was merely annoyed at what he called her
+presumption--induced, he supposed, by her long connection with the
+family. But suddenly a feeling of vague uneasiness descended upon him,
+and he paused before going out to join Toni in the car.
+
+"She only saw Toni for a moment--barely heard her speak--and yet she
+speaks as though I were making an unsuitable marriage." He frowned
+thoughtfully, anger dying before some feeling whose nature he could not,
+yet, recognize. "I wonder--what could she mean?"
+
+He stood in the quiet hall, fighting down a host of surmises, of
+unwelcome doubts which sprang, it would seem, out of the twilight,
+brought to birth by an old woman's homely words; and in those
+illuminating seconds Owen allowed himself to wonder whether, after all,
+he had committed an action which he would find cause to regret.
+
+But somehow the idea seemed a treachery towards the girl who sat waiting
+so trustfully, so happily for his coming; and with a sudden uplifting of
+his head, Owen went resolutely out to the car.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But Mrs. Blades, left alone, shod a few of the difficult tears of age as
+she went over the little scene. She felt suddenly old; and for the first
+time in her busy, self-satisfied life she questioned her own wisdom.
+
+Then she too shook off her uncomfortable thoughts, and calling the rosy
+Maggie to her, delivered into her hands the Ten Little Ladies, who still
+waited patiently upon the tray for their nightly release.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+On a beautiful midsummer morning Antonia Rose crept softly down the
+broad old staircase of Greenriver and crossed the hall with so
+fairy-light a tread that never a soul in the house could hear a
+footstep.
+
+It was very early, barely half-past five; but the glorious summer
+morning was calling, calling insistently to Toni to come and share its
+glories; and the call was not one to be disregarded, by Antonia at
+least.
+
+Not a thing stirred. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies grew wan and
+faded before the vitality of the daylight; and when, after some
+difficulty, Toni unlocked the big hall door and let in a flood of
+sunshine, they gave up the unequal contest and expired quietly.
+
+Ah! What a world of beauty burst upon Toni's gaze as she stood,
+thrilling delightfully with a sense of adventure, on the big stone steps
+outside the great door.
+
+A rush of perfume from the tall lilies greeted her first; followed by a
+perfect shower of fragrance from the pink and creamy roses growing
+beside the door. Other scents there were--a dozen of them--from the
+flowers massed in glowing ranks in the beds; but the lilies and the
+roses had it all their own way; and Toni laughed with delight as they
+assailed her with their sweetness.
+
+There was music, too, in this pearly dawn. In the trees the birds were
+astir, twittering their songs of morning; and already the velvety brown
+bees were beginning to hum their spinning chorus as they hovered here
+and there among the tall flowers which stood in rows before the windows,
+like marriageable maidens waiting for inspection.
+
+Beyond the terrace lay the river, shining with that strange, ethereal
+effect of silver which water has beneath the early morning sky; and away
+beyond the river the thin, delicate mists of the night were rising like
+vaporous ghosts, to dissolve in the fresh, clean atmosphere of dawn.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful it all is! What a lovely world God made when He
+made--this!" Toni stood on the steps with arms outstretched, like some
+young priestess of a pagan faith welcoming the sun. "And why do we lie
+asleep in stuffy beds when all the birds and flowers have been awake for
+ages!"
+
+She pulled the big door gently to behind her, and then ran through the
+gardens and across the terrace to the big grey balustrade which kept the
+boundary of the garden from the towing path beyond. Leaning her arms on
+the stone she looked out over the shining river, and in fancy her spirit
+roved here and there--to the violet-strewn mountain slopes of Italy
+where she had passed her childhood ... to the wonderful, rocky coast of
+Cornwall where her honeymoon had been spent.
+
+At the thought of the Cornish seas she caught her breath. Those
+marvellous green billows, foaming in the sunshine, dashing against the
+cliffs with a sound like thunder; the gentler wavelets creaming over the
+snow-white sands in lines of lotus-blue; the pools, deep and limpid,
+where in the aquamarine water all kind of strange sea-creatures lived;
+the jagged, tooth-like rocks springing from the depths of the ocean,
+ready to destroy the passing ships; the still more wonderful
+lighthouses, rising, some of them, like tall white needles into the
+turquoise sky; the gulls, flashing grey and white in the sunshine; the
+salt scent of the sea mingling with the pungent fragrance of the yellow
+gorse, hot with the sun ... surely the Cornish coast was a very favoured
+spot, and the Scilly Isles, to which passage could be taken in a queer,
+cranky boat, were indeed the Fortunate Isles, cradled by the bluest,
+most magical, most romantic waters in the world!
+
+Thoughts of the ocean were indissolubly bound up with all Toni's
+thoughts of her honeymoon. Acting on a hint from Barry, Owen had taken
+his bride straight away from the Registrar's dingy office to Paddington,
+thence to Cornwall; and he would never forget the sight of Toni's face
+when first she saw the sea, lying purple and green beneath a stormy sky.
+
+During the long journey she had said very little, shyness enveloping her
+as in a mantle; but when the train began to run along the sea shore, so
+that the whole expanse of ocean lay spread before the window, Toni's
+face changed, her eyes sparkled, and she turned to Owen with a
+spontaneous expression of delight.
+
+Now, looking back, it seemed to Toni that never for an instant had the
+voice of the sea been out of her ears during all those wonderful days
+and nights. Its song had helped her to bear herself properly during the
+long hours alone with the man she had married. Again and again, when
+embarrassment threatened to overcome her at this unusually prolonged
+_tete-a-tete_, the sea whispered to her to take courage; and each night
+she fell asleep to its murmured lullaby.
+
+During the fortnight which they spent down in the genial West Country,
+Owen gave himself up entirely to the service of his young wife. He
+divined pretty well what she was feeling--guessed that her marriage,
+after only three weeks' engagement, must have meant a complete upheaval
+of her entire life; and the very fact that he did not love her gave an
+added gentleness to his intercourse with her; for he could not rid
+himself of a sensation that somehow she had been cheated in this
+bargain, had been cajoled into giving the pure gold of love in return
+for the counterfeit of mere liking.
+
+True, he did not repent his marriage. Rather it seemed to him that it
+might turn out successful after all; and since they spent the days
+exploring the coast, which was new to both of them, there was plenty to
+be said, an abundance of interesting subjects to discuss.
+
+Only once--on the last night of their stay in Cornwall--was there the
+slightest suspicion of a shadow between them; and Owen blamed himself
+entirely for the occurrence.
+
+It happened that Owen was suffering from a very severe headache--a not
+uncommon complaint since his accident--and the afternoon post brought
+him the proofs of an article required for the next number of the
+_Bridge_. An urgent note from Barry accompanied the papers, begging for
+an early revision; and after dinner Owen sat down to run through the
+article in preparation for dispatch in the morning.
+
+But his brain refused to work. His eyes felt as though each eyeball were
+aflame; and his forehead was contracted with the severe pain which had
+racked him all day, so that consecutive thought was almost impossible.
+He tried, again and again, to do the work; but at length, so acute was
+the agony in his eyes, he threw aside the papers with a groan.
+
+Immediately Toni looked up from the magazine she was reading.
+
+"May I help you?" She put the question rather timidly, and by way of
+answer he tossed the bundle of proofs into her lap.
+
+"Thanks awfully, dear. I simply can't see out of my eyes--neuralgia, I
+expect. Do your best, won't you? You know how to read proof as well as I
+do, now."
+
+"Yes." So she did, for Barry had taught her thoroughly; and she had
+applied herself to his lessons with every fraction of her intelligence.
+
+What he had not taught her, however, was an extensive knowledge of the
+master poets and their works; and Toni's ignorance betrayed her
+hopelessly.
+
+At the old-fashioned school she had attended, few poets were considered
+fit for the girls' reading; Tennyson, of course, was included in the
+pupils' studies, and Shakespeare, carefully edited, was a standby; but
+of the works of Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, Keats, Toni was
+lamentably ignorant.
+
+When, therefore, in the article before her she found a quotation from
+one of Robert Browning's poems, followed almost immediately by a line
+from one of the poet's wife's writings, she concluded, hastily, that the
+printers were at fault, and cheerfully amended the latter initials to
+the one magic R. In the same way she confused Keats and Yeats; and
+finished by ascribing to Christina Rossetti one of Dante Gabriel's most
+impassioned utterances; thus destroying whatever value the article might
+have had, as a critical appreciation of the various writers' work.
+
+Having completed her task Toni raised her eyes to look at her husband,
+and found him lying back in his chair watching her with a very kindly
+glance.
+
+"Finished, little girl? That's good. I'll just initial it and send it
+back." He took the sheets she handed him and raised his eyebrows at the
+numerous corrections. "I say, they must be getting careless at the
+office to let all these slips go through!" He ran his eye over the page,
+more from force of habit than because he expected to find any more
+corrections necessary; and suddenly Toni, watching, saw him frown.
+
+"I say, Toni, you've made a mistake." He tried not to speak sharply, for
+after all proof-reading is an art. "This line--'There may be Heaven,
+there must be Hell'--that's Robert Browning all right; but the next
+quotation is from the Sonnets to the Portuguese."
+
+"Is it?" Toni did not understand.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Browning wrote those, you know." He was busy repairing
+Toni's mistake. "And the next is hers, too. And----" he was skimming
+down the page "--why, you little goose, it was Dante Rossetti who wrote
+'The Blessed Damosel.'"
+
+"Was it? I thought her name was Christina." Toni's voice faltered; for
+though she did not yet realize the enormity of her offence, she knew
+that Owen was annoyed by her stupidity.
+
+"_Her_ name? Why, of course _her_ name was Christina; but this happens
+to be his poem, you see."
+
+"His? Whose?" Toni was flustered, or she would never have betrayed
+herself so utterly.
+
+"Whose?" Owen, his nerves strained almost to breaking point by his
+bodily pain, spoke irritably, and Toni shrank miserably into her chair.
+"Why, Toni, have you never heard of the poet Rossetti? Good Heavens,
+child, don't you ever open a book?"
+
+She said nothing, though the tears welled slowly into her eyes; and Owen
+went on reading, finding still further evidences of his wife's lack of
+acquaintance with the giants of literature as he read.
+
+In an ordinary way he would have let her down gently. After all it is no
+crime to confuse two poets of the same name; and to "correct" a
+quotation by transposing two words into a more ordinary sequence is not
+a very heinous offence; but to Owen, racked with pain, the whole affair
+was an instance of the most flagrant ignorance, and he let fly one or
+two biting sarcasms as he bent over the papers, which reduced Toni to a
+state of trembling, impotent misery.
+
+To do him justice Owen repented as soon as he had spoken, and when he
+saw how he had hurt her, he threw aside the proof-sheets and devoted
+himself to making amends for his harshness.
+
+He succeeded finally in winning back something of her usual serenity;
+but to both the incident was oddly discomposing; to Toni because for the
+first time she saw the critic in the husband, and trembled to think how
+often she must fall short of his high standard; to Owen because the
+affair seemed to open up such vast tracts of ignorance in the woman who
+was his wife, and showed, more clearly than ever before, the dividing
+line between intellect and ordinary shrewdness.
+
+For just one illuminating moment he saw Toni as she was; a pretty,
+winning, half-educated little girl, to whom the world of art and
+literature was a sphere apart, its shibboleths mere meaningless babble
+in her ears, its greatest exponents but so many confusing names,
+divorced from any enlightening personalities.
+
+Where, he asked himself half desperately, was there any common meeting
+ground for two beings so widely diverse as they, husband and wife though
+they were? Surely they were as widely sundered as the poles....
+
+And then the sight of Toni's face, her eyes filled with tears, her
+childish mouth quivering, lighted a sudden flame in his heart which
+consumed, for the time being, all doubts and petty vexations. After all,
+she was only a child--and she loved him; and so he took her in his arms
+and kissed away the tears with a remorseful tenderness which might well
+pass--with an uncritical being like Toni--for love.
+
+But Toni was not thinking of that dreadful episode on this brilliant
+June morning. Rather she was trying to realize that she was the mistress
+of this beautiful place, that Greenriver, with its grounds, its flowers,
+its lofty rooms, was to be her home; and to the girl who had lived in
+Winter Road, Brixton, Greenriver was indeed a revelation.
+
+They had been home a week; and so far Owen had not left her for more
+than a few hours, on the occasion of a business visit to London. The
+weather had been superb; and they had spent several long afternoons on
+the river, thereby missing, to Toni's great content, three or four
+callers who had come to see what manner of woman Owen Rose had married.
+That these calls must be returned Toni knew very well; but it must be
+confessed she shivered at the prospect; more especially as Owen had told
+her, laughingly, that she must not count upon his aid on those purely
+social occasions.
+
+As the thought of the terrible duty-calls flashed through her mind Toni
+slipped down from her perch on the balustrade and made her way down to
+the towing path beneath. She often walked beside the river in these
+quiet morning hours, alone unless her dog Jock, an Airedale terrier of
+unimpeachable ancestry and cheerful disposition, was at hand to
+accompany her.
+
+Jock had been presented to her by Barry as a wedding gift; and Toni, who
+had never before been on an intimate footing with a dog, found his
+companionship both delightful and stimulating. Although he was nearly
+two years old Jock was a puppy at heart. He did his best to comport
+himself as a full-grown dog should do: but had lapses into babyhood,
+when a shoe carelessly left about seemed too tempting; or, after a muddy
+walk, a soft satin cushion gave him an invitation to repose which could
+not possibly be denied.
+
+He was a lovable creature, however, and a perfect gentleman as regards
+cats--a very desirable trait in an animal belonging to Toni, who loved
+all cats and would certainly have quarrelled with any dog who waged war
+upon the furry tribe.
+
+To her satisfaction Jock came bounding over the terrace to follow her as
+she stepped on to the towing path; and together they strolled by the
+river in the fresh morning air, Toni gazing half-absently towards the
+distant hills, Jock keeping one eye and ear anxiously cocked in
+anticipation of any unwary rat who should show himself upon the
+river-bank.
+
+Although Willowhurst was comparatively far from town there were a good
+many visitors on the river during the summer months. There was a perfect
+reach for punting just here, and many people came down to occupy the
+bungalows built on the opposite bank to that on which Greenriver stood.
+To Owen these little summer dwellings were in the nature of an eyesore.
+Fond as he was of his own beautiful house he would have liked to keep
+the neighbourhood free from this essentially modern phase of river-life;
+but to Toni the gay little bungalows had a charm of their own. They were
+all specially spick and span just now, having been newly painted and
+garnished with flowers for the season; and Toni looked across the river
+with frank interest at the Cot, the Dinky House, the Mascot, and the
+rest of the tiny shanties. She liked the houseboats, too, with their
+gaily-striped awnings, their hanging baskets filled with gaudy pink
+geraniums and bright lobelia. Their primly-curtained little windows
+amused her; and in the evenings she would lure Owen out on to the
+terrace to look down the river to where the Chinese lanterns hung on
+their poles like globes of magic light against the darkening sky.
+
+Toni and Jock had strolled about a quarter of a mile down the path when
+they were brought sharply to a halt by the sound of a deep bark from the
+other side of the water; and looking across they found they were not the
+only waking creatures in this apparently sleeping world.
+
+In one of the little gardens opposite to where they stood were a couple
+of friends like themselves; but in this case the human being was a man
+in his shirt sleeves, and the canine was a singularly beautiful white
+wolfhound, who stood, at the moment, barking defiance at the intruders
+on the opposite bank.
+
+Jock, whose natural pugnacity was always easily aroused, returned the
+compliment with the most evident sincerity; but the Borzoi, having flung
+down the gage of battle and asserted her dignity, retired gracefully
+from the contest, and walking daintily up to her master rose and placed
+her slender paws on his shoulders, an action which said plainly that
+honour was satisfied.
+
+The animal was so striking-looking, from her long, graceful head to her
+plumy tail, that Toni could not resist a second look; and the dog's
+master had a good view of the girl whom he guessed to be the young
+mistress of Greenriver, the house which he had often admired as he
+passed by in his boat during the summer days.
+
+As she stood, gazing almost childishly across the intervening water, she
+looked barely more than a schoolgirl; and her short skirt and simple
+white blouse aided the illusion. It was only the sight of the coils of
+black hair which bound her head, and the gleam of the gold wedding-ring
+on her finger, which placed her definitely in the category of womanhood;
+and the man who watched her felt a strange sensation of something like
+pity for the girl launched so early on the sea of matrimony, a sea whose
+perils he, of all men, had cause to dread.
+
+But suddenly Toni became aware of the indecorousness of her conduct. It
+was the height of discourtesy to stand staring; and with a blush she
+called Jock and turned hastily away to retrace her steps.
+
+The man and the dog watched her go; and only when she was nearly out of
+sight did they turn back and re-enter the little white bungalow which
+was known locally as the Hope House.
+
+At breakfast Owen asked Toni kindly if she felt inclined for a day on
+the river.
+
+"I thought we might take our lunch and go quite a long way," he said.
+"I'm afraid this must be our last holiday jaunt for a little time. I
+shall have to be busy after this."
+
+"Will you?" She looked a trifle wistful; and Owen was sorry for her.
+
+"Well, I daresay I can manage a day off now and then. To-morrow's
+Thursday, isn't it? I must be up in town then, and I'm afraid I shall be
+late home. There's a dinner I rather wanted to attend, but it would mean
+a long evening alone for you."
+
+"I don't mind." She smiled reassuringly. "I've got Jock to keep me
+company and there are plenty of people in the house."
+
+"Well, Andrews is a pretty sturdy young chap, and of course there are
+three or four women. There's the telephone, too, you know, so you really
+needn't be nervous--especially now, when the river is as full of traffic
+as Bond Street!"
+
+"I'm not a bit nervous," she said. "I ... I was just wondering----"
+
+She broke off, flushing, and Owen felt an unwonted curiosity as to her
+meaning.
+
+"Well?" He spoke kindly, but Toni seemed unable to proceed.
+
+"I was thinking ... I mean ..." Suddenly impatient of her own cowardice
+she took her courage in both hands and spoke bravely. "I was wondering
+whether you would allow me to ask Fanny--my cousin--down for the
+afternoon. You see, if you are away----"
+
+"Why, of course, dear!" Owen spoke the more heartily because he felt a
+slight compunction at the thought of her relations. "Ask your cousin by
+all means. You must remember that this is your house, Toni, and you need
+not ask my leave to invite your friends."
+
+"Thank you." She was looking down as she spoke, but her cheeks were
+scarlet. "I will ask her then ... but ..." suddenly her words came with
+a rush "... I know my people aren't like yours ... I couldn't let them
+meet your friends ... I mean--I'll ask them when you are not at home,
+and then----"
+
+"Don't be a goose, Toni!" Owen hoped his voice betrayed nothing. "Your
+people are my people now, you know, and I don't want you to get any
+silly ideas into your head at the start."
+
+She stretched out her hand impulsively and laid it on his arm.
+
+"Owen, you're too good to me. I know so well that we belong to different
+worlds, but ... if you mean that----"
+
+"Of course I mean it." He rose as he spoke and patted her shoulder.
+"Don't be a little silly--and now run away and write to your cousin at
+once. If she can't come to-morrow, suggest Friday."
+
+"Oh, she couldn't come then," returned Toni naively. "You see the shop
+closes on Thursday afternoon, and it's Fanny's only free day."
+
+"I see." Somehow the little explanation, with its picture of a different
+life from that to which he was accustomed, struck a chill to Owen's
+heart; but he hid his discomfort cleverly and bade Toni write her letter
+without delay.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Gibbs accepted the invitation joyfully; and on Thursday morning
+Owen went off to town, after bidding Toni keep her cousin to dinner if
+possible.
+
+"She can take the nine-fifteen to town," he said. "I have the car, but
+if she can stay, telephone for a taxi from the station to be here at
+nine. You won't be lonely, Toni?"
+
+"Not a bit!" Indeed she was thrilling with pleasure at the idea of
+entertaining her cousin in her new home. "I've lots to see to. What a
+pity Mrs. Blades is ill to-day."
+
+"Yes, her usual bronchitis, I suppose. She'll be all right in a day or
+two." Owen was hunting for a paper as he spoke. "Confound it, where is
+that manuscript, Toni? You know the one--that article on Alfred Noyes."
+
+"It's here." Toni handed him the paper he required.
+
+"Thanks awfully. You're a first-rate little secretary, Toni! I guess we
+shall miss you at the office!"
+
+He did not observe the rather wistful look which swept over her face at
+the half-careless praise. At that moment Toni felt she would have asked
+nothing better than to jump into the car and journey up to town with
+Owen to take her old place behind the typewriter in Owen's room. She
+hated to see him leaving her, longed to beg him to stay; but something
+stronger than personal longing held her back. A wife, she told herself,
+must be a help, not a hindrance; and since Owen saw fit to leave her, to
+carry on the work in which she had now no place, her duty, plainly, was
+to remain at home and keep everything in her little world in order for
+his return.
+
+Besides, it was a glorious day, the sun was shining, the flowers dancing
+in the breeze; and Fanny would be with her during the afternoon. It was
+a day created for gladness, for rejoicing, and Toni, made wise by love,
+banished wistfulness from her eyes and returned Owen's kiss with a gay
+word of farewell.
+
+But she stood looking after him as the car whizzed down the avenue; and
+the smile which touched her lips was just a little sad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+When Owen was safely gone Toni entered the house with a look of
+determination on her face, and retreating to the little white-panelled
+room known as the morning-room she rang the bell to summon Kate to her
+presence.
+
+It was not Kate who answered the ring, however. In her stead came
+Maggie, the rosy-faced housemaid, who had already fallen in love with
+her young mistress, and was ready to carry out any order which Mrs. Rose
+might give.
+
+"Oh, it's you, Maggie?" Toni looked up from the paper on which she was
+scribbling. "Where's Kate?"
+
+It seemed Kate was busy, poulticing Mrs. Blades, who was suffering under
+one of her usual attacks of bronchitis, and she had sent Maggie, with
+apologies, in her stead.
+
+"Mrs. Blades is really ill? Had she better see a doctor?"
+
+No, Maggie was empowered by Kate to say that a doctor's visit was
+unnecessary. Mrs. Blades often had these attacks, and they knew just
+what to do; but she would not be able to attend to her duties for a
+couple of days at the least.
+
+In spite of herself Toni's face brightened. Not that she wished Mrs.
+Blades to suffer, but she knew quite well that the old housekeeper, for
+all her respectful ways, resented the arrival of a mistress of whom, for
+some reason, she did not approve; and Toni felt rather glad that for
+to-day, at any rate, she could be in reality the mistress of the whole
+establishment.
+
+With the other servants she was on the best of terms. Whatever Mrs.
+Blades might think of Toni's social position previous to her marriage
+she was sufficiently loyal to keep her doubts to herself; and Martha the
+cook, Kate the serious parlourmaid, and Andrews the young man-servant,
+one and all combined to make their new mistress feel at ease with her
+staff.
+
+Maggie, to-day, was full of importance at being allowed to replace Kate
+to assist Toni in her preparation for the afternoon's visitor; and she
+listened attentively to all that Toni had to say.
+
+"I want a really nice tea, Maggie!" Toni looked up from her list with a
+serious face. "Miss Gibbs has to catch an early train from town, and
+won't have time for much lunch." Even the unsophisticated Toni knew
+better than to mention the nature of Miss Gibbs' employment. "So I want
+tea at four o'clock and it must be pretty--well, substantial."
+
+Maggie fully endorsed the suggestion, and waited to see what Mrs. Rose
+considered necessary for the meal.
+
+"Tea and hot cakes, of course. And that lovely plum cake Martha made
+for ..." Toni blushed, but went on bravely "... for our wedding-cake.
+And then--is it possible to get shrimps, Maggie?"
+
+"Why, yes, ma'am--don't you remember cook's shrimp savoury for Sunday
+lunch? And you'd shrimp sauce with the fish last night."
+
+"Of course, so we had. Well, when the man calls from the fish shop,
+order some. You get them by the pint--or is it the pound?" said Toni,
+vaguely remembering her aunt's orders on the occasion of a tea-party.
+
+Maggie thought it was the pint; and in any case she would give the order
+to the young man herself.
+
+"Very well. And then--what else, Maggie? I do want a nice tea."
+
+The little handmaiden eagerly racked her brain for some brilliant idea;
+and finally suggested that Cook was very fond of making "shape."
+
+"Shape? Oh, I see," said Toni a trifle dubiously. "You mean a
+blanc-mange or a cream. But I don't think it would do for tea."
+
+Maggie thought, respectfully, that it would do fine. In her last place
+her mistress always had a shape when company was coming to tea.
+But--suddenly her rosy face grew even more pink--perhaps she was wrong,
+and anyway Mrs. Rose knew best.
+
+Sorry for the girl's evident embarrassment Toni gave the order forthwith
+for a cream; and then turned to the subject of dinner.
+
+"Miss Gibbs will stay to dinner, and we will have it at half-past seven.
+That gives us time to go on the river first; and the cab won't be here
+till nine."
+
+"Cook's sent you a mennyoo, ma'am." Maggie produced a somewhat crumpled
+piece of paper. "She thought perhaps something of this sort would do."
+
+Toni ran her eye over the paper, and her brow cleared.
+
+"Soup, fish, sweetbread and green peas, chicken...." she gave the paper
+back. "Yes, it will do beautifully, and I'm sure Miss Gibbs will like
+Martha's trifle. Well, Maggie, that's all, I think. Have I forgotten
+anything?"
+
+The two girls stared at one another for a moment, their faces quite
+solemn with the effort of concentration. Then Toni relaxed and spoke
+gaily.
+
+"No, that's all, I'm sure ... well, Maggie, what have you thought of
+now?"
+
+"Please, ma'am, the flowers."
+
+"Yes, I'd forgotten! Good girl, Maggie! Well, get me the scissors and a
+basket, and then you might put the vases ready in the little room."
+
+Maggie flew to obey the commands, and Toni, to whom the idea of giving
+orders was still almost ludicrous, strolled to the window to await her
+return.
+
+The room overlooked the river, and on that account was a favourite with
+Toni. It was reached by a short flight of stairs apart from the main
+staircase, and boasted a large casement window, built over the terrace
+below, and giving the river an air of proximity which always delighted
+Toni.
+
+To-day the water sparkled in the sunshine with a very cheerful effect;
+and as Toni looked a cream-white swan drifted by, the sun's light
+turning its feathers into a kind of gilded snow. A punt passed slowly
+with two occupants, one a girl in a white frock, lying lazily on a heap
+of blue-green cushions, her uncovered head protected from the sun by a
+scarlet parasol, the other a bronzed and fair-haired youth, who wielded
+his pole with an athletic grace purely Greek.
+
+Toni's eyes softened as the two glided by. Her own happiness was so
+immense, her love for Owen had been so wonderfully, so completely
+satisfied, that she wished all other girls to be as happy as she was;
+and although the two in the punt were only visible for a few moments she
+thought she could read in their faces the story of their mutual
+attraction.
+
+When Maggie returned Toni took the basket and went out into the garden.
+Gathering flowers was an occupation of which she never tired. Never,
+since her days on the hill-slope above Naples, had she been able to
+indulge her passionate love for flowers; and to the girl who had been
+wont to regard sixpence spent on a branch of golden mimosa, or a handful
+of the big pink carnations which seem indigenous to the London streets,
+as something of an extravagance, the delight of filling bowls and vases
+with unlimited supplies of the loveliest, freshest flowers could not be
+overrated.
+
+To-day she cut more lavishly than usual in Fanny's honour, and when,
+just as the lunch gong sounded, she rested from her labours, the lovely
+old house was a dream of beauty and colour and scent.
+
+Snapdragons, in every shade of yellow and pink and deep, rich rose,
+stood in tall jars, wherever there was a dark corner to be lighted up.
+Big blue bowls held masses of roses of every describable hue, whose
+fragrance scented all the house; and every available inch of space had
+been utilized as a resting-place for one or more vases of the sweetest,
+gayest blooms imaginable.
+
+Even Toni was satisfied at last, and she hurried over her lunch in good
+spirits. Just as she was rising from the table a thought struck her.
+
+"Kate, do you think we might have tea in here? You see--we ought to have
+a table, I think--and it wouldn't matter for once, would it?"
+
+Kate, who had experienced sundry qualms at the idea of a feast of
+shrimps in the charming, old-world drawing-room, gave a decided assent.
+
+"It would be much more suitable, ma'am. I could put a pretty lace cloth
+on the table, and then with some flowers it would look quite nice."
+
+"Thank you, Kate." Toni gave vent to a relieved sigh. "You and Maggie
+are really treasures in helping me. Oh--how is Mrs. Blades!"
+
+Mrs. Blades was better; but Kate, who had a shrewd notion of the old
+woman's real opinion of her pretty mistress, was not ill-pleased to
+inform Toni that the bronchial attack from which she was suffering made
+it impossible for her to supervise the household affairs for to-day at
+least.
+
+"Well, you must look after things for me, Kate," said Toni, smiling in a
+friendly fashion at the girl; and Kate, although she had lived in
+"smart" houses, and knew that shrimps and blanc-mange were not usually
+met with at tea, succumbed still more completely to that friendly little
+smile.
+
+"Why shouldn't she have her tea-party as she likes it?" she said to
+herself as she went out. "The master's away, and she's not likely to do
+this sort of thing when he's about." Kate, who was thirty-one, and
+experienced in the ways of the world, was quite aware of the element of
+awe in Toni's love for her husband--an element of which Toni herself was
+as yet wholly unsuspicious. "And I've no doubt this young lady as is
+coming down isn't used to great things. You can see as Mrs. Rose hasn't
+lived with anyone partikler--but she's a real little lady in her ways,
+for all that," concluded this authority on the ways of gentlefolk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Punctually at three o'clock Miss Gibbs arrived; and was shown into the
+drawing-room, where Toni awaited her coming.
+
+To tell the truth Miss Gibbs was a little awed by the unexpected
+grandeur of her surroundings; and not even the consciousness of her new
+linen frock and elaborately-trimmed hat could give her quite her usual
+assurance.
+
+She followed Andrews meekly across the hall, hardly daring to lift her
+eyes; and when the man threw open the drawing-room door and ushered her
+in, Fanny unconsciously moderated her usual hearty footstep and
+endeavoured to make her entry as inconspicuous as possible.
+
+Toni, who had not heard the cab arrive, jumped up hastily from her low
+chair and ran to meet her cousin, while Andrews discreetly withdrew and
+closed the door.
+
+"Fanny! How glad I am to see you!" Toni hugged Miss Gibbs
+affectionately. "I'd have come to meet you but I was so late with lunch
+that I hadn't time."
+
+"I found a cab waiting for me," said Fanny, returning her embrace. "You
+were a dear to send it, Toni. You're quite a way from the station,
+aren't you?"
+
+"I suppose we are," said Toni carelessly. "But how are you, Fan? And
+Auntie--and Lu and all of them?"
+
+"Mother's first-rate and longing to see you when you can get up to town.
+Everyone's all right," said Fanny comfortably. "Lu's been in mischief
+again, though. She and some of the girls from her school played truant
+t'other day and went to see a County cricket-match. You know cricket's
+the craze this term, and they got their money stolen and couldn't get
+home, and Lu didn't land up till ten o'clock at night!"
+
+"You don't mean it! What did Auntie say?"
+
+"She didn't say much then, 'cause Lu was cryin' and nearly dead with
+tramping for miles; but next day she got a jolly good whipping and was
+shut up on bread and water all over Sunday."
+
+"Oh, poor Lu!" Toni felt very pitiful towards the hapless cricket
+enthusiast. "After all, Fan, you and I once ran away to see the Boat
+Race on our own!"
+
+"Yes, and we got jolly well punished for it, too! I can remember Ma's
+slipper to this day!"
+
+"Well, you ought to be sorry for Lu!"
+
+"Serve her right," said Miss Gibbs with sisterly severity. "Cricket,
+indeed! What do girls want with cricket! Anyhow, she won't do it again
+in a hurry--Ma saw to that!"
+
+"And how's Josh, Fan?" Toni saw that no sympathy was to be looked for
+from the culprit's sister.
+
+"A 1. I say, Toni, where's Mr. Rose?" Fanny, regaining some of her usual
+assurance, looked round her vaguely.
+
+"He has had to go up to town. But I thought you wouldn't mind, Fan. I
+want to show you the house and have a real good talk."
+
+"My! It _is_ a house and no mistake!" Fanny gazed about the beautiful
+room with frank admiration. "I thought the man must be going wrong when
+he turned in here--and what lovely gardens you've got."
+
+"Yes, they are jolly, aren't they? Well, shall we go over the house
+before tea or after? It's very nearly four, and I said we'd have tea
+early."
+
+"I'm glad of that." Fanny beamed approval. "To tell you the truth, Toni,
+I hadn't time for much lunch. We're supposed to shut at one, you know,
+but of course we don't get off at once, and to-day everything went
+wrong! At the last minute I upset a box of ribbons, and the spiteful
+things all went and got unrolled, and then that odious little
+Jackson--you know, the shopwalker I told you about--came and slanged me
+like anything."
+
+"What a shame!" Toni had been one of the workers of the world too
+recently to have lost sympathy with the grievances of those who work. "I
+wish you could leave the old shop, Fanny. Why don't you and Josh get
+married?"
+
+"Too soon." Fanny was of a prudent nature. "We _must_ wait till Josh
+gets a rise, and I can't afford to leave the shop. You see, I must have
+a few clothes before I marry ... by the way, Toni, what about your
+clothes? You didn't get much when you married, did you?"
+
+"No, but before we came here we went up to town and stayed at the
+Russell for two days and did a whole heap of shopping." Toni stifled a
+sigh at the thought of those long hours spent in shops. "You see I
+didn't really know what to get, so Owen went, with me, and I got a lot
+of things ready-made, and was fitted for others, so I have quite a
+trousseau by now!"
+
+"That skirt's well-cut," said Miss Gibbs, surveying her cousin
+critically. "Blue serge always looks well--and that white blouse is good
+thick silk."
+
+"I'm glad you like it. Owen likes me in these low collars, and they're
+cool." Toni looked at the clock. "But come upstairs and take off your
+hat and we'll have tea straight away."
+
+Nothing loth, Miss Gibbs agreed; and went into fresh raptures when she
+saw Toni's bedroom.
+
+"My! What lovely furniture!" She went up to the toilet-table and began
+to examine it. "And these silver brushes and things--are they all
+yours?"
+
+"Yes. Owen gave them to me."
+
+"Well to be you," commented Miss Gibbs briskly. "What a lovely long
+glass, too! Can't you see yourself properly just!"
+
+She stood in front of the glass so long that Toni grew impatient.
+
+"Hurry up, Fan! I'm sure tea's ready and I'm dying for some. I hadn't
+much lunch."
+
+Thus incited, Miss Gibbs laid aside the flowery hat she had been
+admiring, disclosing a much curled and waved _coiffure_, and together
+the cousins ran downstairs, just as Andrews carried in the silver
+tea-pot and the hot cakes.
+
+Kate, true to her word, had made the best of the oval table. She had
+laid upon it the finest, laciest cloth she could find, and had placed in
+the centre a tall jar of lilies, while here and there she had found room
+for small silver bowls of pink roses. The silver tea-tray, with its thin
+china cups and saucers, stood proudly at the head of the table; and so
+far nothing could have been more charming.
+
+But alas! Even Kate could not hide the eminent unsuitability of the
+feast itself to its elegant surroundings. True, the bread and butter was
+of wafer-like thinness, there were hot cakes of the crispest, finest
+variety, and the plum-cake which was Martha's welcome to the bride was
+of the richest, most tempting description.
+
+But side by side with those delicacies was a dish of shrimps, in all
+their native vulgarity; and further down, almost hidden in fact by the
+flowery centrepiece, was a glass dish containing a velvety white cream
+whose real place should have been on the dinner-table.
+
+For a moment Toni's heart misgave her as she saw these things in their
+blatancy; and she wished she had stuck to the usual tiny sandwiches
+which Martha sent up when she and Owen were alone. Then she remembered,
+gratefully, that Fanny was hungry, and common sense whispered that to a
+girl who had lunched lightly a sandwich was unsatisfying fare.
+
+As for Fanny, her spirits, momentarily damped by the sight of the silver
+tray, rose with a bound as she surveyed the table.
+
+"I say, Toni, what a spread! Shrimps, I declare! Well, I thought you'd
+have been much too smart nowadays to think of them!"
+
+"Nonsense!" Toni's depression vanished, and she laughed gaily. "I always
+did like shrimps--and why shouldn't I have them if I want them? Come and
+sit down, Fan--here, by me--and do make a good tea!"
+
+Fanny needed no second bidding. Taking the seat indicated she leaned
+forward to examine the silver in the most open fashion.
+
+"I say, you've got some tiptop things and no mistake! That cloth is
+simply lovely--just look at the lace, as fine as fine!"
+
+"It belonged to Owen's mother," said Toni, passing her a cup of tea.
+"There are lots of things like that in the house. Now, Fanny, help
+yourself--and pass the dish!"
+
+Thus invited, Fanny did help herself; and presently both girls were
+happily eating and talking, Fanny asking innumerable questions and Toni
+satisfying her curiosity without entering into details.
+
+Suddenly Toni jumped up.
+
+"There's Jock at the door. You must see him, Fan--he's a darling, and
+I'm sure you'll love him!"
+
+Almost before the door was properly open Jock hurled himself
+reproachfully into the room, and flinging himself on to his mistress,
+inquired in the plainest dog-language why she had been so slow in
+answering his summons. When she had apologized and received his
+forgiveness, she introduced him to Miss Gibbs, who was won immediately
+by his courteous manner towards her and the friendliness in his nice
+brown eyes.
+
+She cemented the acquaintance by offering him--timidly--a piece of cake;
+and instantly Jock threw dignity to the winds and begged, shamelessly,
+for further morsels; which being denied him caused him to bark
+vociferously and show off his few tricks in the hope of adequate reward.
+
+He was engaged in walking on his hind legs round the room, following
+Fanny, who was laughing excitedly and flourishing a piece of cake, while
+Toni clapped her hands and called out words of encouragement at the top
+of her voice, when a loud whirring sound on the gravel outside made both
+girls turn in the direction from which came the noise--just in time to
+see a big grey car shoot by the window on its way to the front door.
+
+One glance was enough.
+
+"Good gracious, Fan! Visitors! What a bore!"
+
+"Will they come in? Won't your man say you're out?" gasped Fanny,
+hastily dropping the bit of cake she held and pinning up a roll of hair
+which had come down in the game.
+
+"No--they saw us," said Toni wildly. "I never said I wasn't at home--and
+anyway they'd hear us laughing!"
+
+In a dead silence the two girls stood, waiting breathlessly to see what
+would happen; and in the sudden hush they heard the clang of the big
+bell, and Andrews' speedy arrival in the hall.
+
+For one wild moment Toni thought of waylaying him with instructions to
+send the visitors away. The next instant she realized that such a course
+was impossible, and waited helplessly for the next act of the drama.
+
+Andrews opened the door, and Toni heard a gentle, cultured voice ask if
+Mrs. Rose were at home.
+
+For a fraction of a second Andrews, who was young enough to be human,
+and had not yet become a machine, hesitated as though he would fain deny
+his mistress to these invaders; but finally habit triumphed over
+humanity and he replied stolidly in the affirmative.
+
+The next moment Toni, standing by the door, heard the rustle of skirts
+and the firm step of a man, which sounds proceeded in the direction of
+the drawing-room; and with an agonized sign to her cousin Toni flew back
+to her seat behind the tea-tray just as the door opened to admit
+Andrews.
+
+The visitors, knowing themselves unknown, had provided the servant with
+cards; and these Andrews silently presented to his mistress, who took
+them with a shaking hand.
+
+"The Honourable Mrs. Anstey, Miss Olive Lynn, Mr. Barry Raymond----" She
+broke off with a sigh of relief. "Why, that's Owen's friend, Fanny. It's
+not half so bad if he's there!"
+
+She turned to the man.
+
+"Are they in the drawing-room, Andrews?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Oh!" For a second Toni hesitated, then common sense came to her rescue.
+"I will come, Andrews. Fanny, will you come with me?"
+
+"Oh, do let me stay here," begged Miss Gibbs, who was still endeavouring
+to make herself tidy. "I'm such a sight, playing with the dog--but you
+go, Toni ... and p'raps they won't stop long."
+
+Toni walked across the hall with lagging footsteps, preceded by the
+sympathetic Andrews, who threw open the door for her with a
+compassionate air, and then retired to break the news of this intrusion
+to the maids who were anxiously waiting his return.
+
+In the drawing-room were three people; and as Toni made her entrance,
+looking like a veritable schoolgirl in her blouse and short skirt, the
+oldest of the trio came forward with an expression of surprise on her
+beautiful, faded face.
+
+"Mrs. Rose?" She shook hands. "I am so glad to find you at home. This is
+my niece, Miss Lynn, who is staying with me--and Mr. Raymond I think you
+know?"
+
+Toni, feeling shyer than ever, shook hands with the pretty, grey-eyed
+girl who approached at the sound of her name; and then turned, with a
+feeling of genuine relief, to Barry.
+
+"Mr. Raymond! I'm so pleased to see you--but I'm afraid Owen isn't at
+home!"
+
+"I know that!" He laughed. "He is doing a little work to-day, for a
+change--and my call is really on you!"
+
+"Well, won't you sit down?" Toni drew a low chair forward for Mrs.
+Anstey, who accepted it with a smile, while Olive Lynn sank down on the
+couch, where, after a second's pause, Toni also took her seat.
+
+"I had hoped to see you before now," said Mrs. Anstey, with a smile
+which won Toni's impressionable heart. "But I heard you had only just
+got home, and thought I would give you a chance to settle down."
+
+"It is very good of you to come," said Toni simply. "You live some
+distance away, don't you? I think my husband pointed out your house to
+me when we were motoring one day."
+
+"Yes, nearly eight miles off--in the next village, in fact. But as you
+have a motor I hope you'll come over and see me pretty often." She gave
+the invitation with a pleasant note of sincerity. "Just at present my
+niece is taking pity on me, but I am very lonely sometimes."
+
+"I will come, certainly," said Toni, feeling curiously at ease with this
+charming, elderly woman who, in spite of her aristocratic bearing, was
+so delightfully kindly. "I haven't returned any calls yet--but my
+husband tells me I must really start next week."
+
+"Do--and come to tea with me first of all." Mrs. Anstey spoke quite
+unconsciously, but something in her words aroused Toni to a sense of her
+own deficiencies as hostess.
+
+Tea--of course! Owen had told her that it was imperative to offer tea to
+afternoon visitors; and these people had motored eight miles over a
+dusty road--they must be hot and thirsty and longing for tea.
+
+Yet--suddenly Toni felt it would be impossible to ask her guests to
+participate in the feast which she had spread for Fanny. The delicacies
+which had been prepared for her cousin took on a very uncouth
+appearance, and from the bottom of her heart Toni wished she had kept to
+the usual _regime_ of dainty sandwiches and cakes.
+
+Yet she must offer tea--and quickly, before her visitors had time to
+doubt her hospitable intentions. She was so lost in thought that she let
+Mrs. Anstey's remark go unanswered; and Barry, looking at her, wondered
+what had made her suddenly colour hotly and look embarrassed and
+nervous.
+
+Truth to tell, Toni was hot all over. A more experienced hostess than
+she would have rung the bell and requested Andrews to bring tea; and
+doubtless he would have done so without delay, thereby saving the
+situation; but to Toni's mind the fact that tea was ready in the room
+across the hall quite precluded the possibility of having another tea
+brought for the latest visitors; besides which it flashed through her
+mind that these people must have seen the tea-table through the big
+dining-room window.
+
+Olive Lynn, seeing her confusion, but not understanding its cause, tried
+good-naturedly to put her at her ease.
+
+"I think I saw you on the river last night, didn't I? We were in a
+canoe, and you and Mr. Rose were punting."
+
+"Oh--yes!" Toni, still wrestling with her problem, answered rather
+vaguely. "We--we had taken tea with us and were late home."
+
+"That's so jolly, isn't it?" Olive smiled. "We often do that--take a
+tea-basket and have a picnic."
+
+Tea again! Suddenly Toni grew desperate. Tea must be offered; there was
+no way out of this dilemma save a frank acceptance of the situation; and
+with a sinking heart Toni took the plunge.
+
+"I ... we were just having tea, my cousin and I," she said abruptly.
+"Will you ... will you come and have some? I'm sure you must be thirsty
+after your drive."
+
+Mrs. Anstey, with a look at her niece, accepted courteously. It was a
+hot day and the roads were dusty, and in a house like Greenriver one
+need not be afraid of putting one's hostess out by accepting a cup of
+tea.
+
+"Thank you. A cup of tea would be very refreshing--I'm sure Olive thinks
+so, don't you, dear?"
+
+"Oh, I'm always ready for tea," replied the girl, laughing, "and
+motoring does make one thirsty, doesn't it, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Will you come, then?" Toni had risen, and now moved, feeling cold with
+nervousness, towards the door. "We ... we are having tea in the
+dining-room to-day."'
+
+Barry opened the door as she spoke; and together the little party
+crossed the hall to the dining-room. Andrews was hovering about; and as
+he saw his mistress leading her guests he slipped away in search of
+fresh cups and a supply of hot tea.
+
+Inside the dining-room Miss Gibbs, having reduced her appearance to
+something like order, was sitting rather apprehensively in her place;
+and as the door opened to admit the quartette she rose and stood waiting
+nervously for Toni's introductions.
+
+These were soon made. Mrs. Anstey and Olive shook hands with Fanny, each
+of them wondering in her mind at the relationship between her pretty,
+shy hostess and this florid, rather overdressed young woman; but
+convention mercifully intervened to hide their wonder; and Fanny could
+find no fault with their courteous greetings.
+
+With Barry it was quite impossible to feel ill at ease; and he shook
+hands so nicely, making a remark about Jock as he did so, that Fanny
+felt suddenly comfortable again.
+
+The guests, in response to Toni's invitation, seated themselves; Olive
+taking a chair by Fanny's side, while Mrs. Anstey sat next to her
+hostess, and Barry appropriated a stool beside the elder woman.
+
+Andrews entering with fresh supplies, Toni provided her visitors with
+tea, losing her first nervousness as she did so; and for a moment it
+seemed as though the little party would be a success after all.
+
+Mrs. Anstey had just accepted a hot cake, and Olive was begging prettily
+for another lump of sugar, when Jock, who had been sitting quietly
+beside his mistress, suddenly rose and rushed madly over to the window,
+uttering a succession of shrill barks as he did so.
+
+Everyone glanced at the window to see what had disturbed him; and there,
+on the gravel outside, stood two ladies, evidently a little uncertain of
+the Airedale's intentions.
+
+"I think those are some more visitors, Mrs. Rose!" Barry gave her a
+quizzical look. "It never rains but it pours! Shall I ... er ... Jock
+seems a little anxious to send the visitors away!"
+
+Luckily the window was raised a good height from the ground; and Jock
+was obliged to content himself with putting his paws on the window-seat
+and barking still more fiercely at the figures without.
+
+Presently, however, the two ladies appeared to regain the courage they
+had momentarily lost; and vanished from sight in the direction of the
+front door; which was shortly opened by Andrews, who had evidently been
+lurking in the hall listening to Jock's protestations.
+
+It is possible that the man, who was really little more than a boy, lost
+his head; or perhaps he was infected by the spirit of nervousness which
+had gripped Toni earlier in the afternoon. At any rate, whatever the
+excuse, he made no pretence of showing the new-comers into the
+drawing-room, but opened the dining-room door and ushered them straight
+into the presence of his mistress; after which he closed the door and
+leaned against the wall, aghast at his own stupidity.
+
+To make matters worse, he had announced the ladies in so indistinct a
+voice that Toni had not the faintest notion who her visitors were; and
+for a second they stared helplessly at one another, while Jock, who had
+conceived a violent dislike for these latest comers, barked loudly and
+unmercifully throughout.
+
+At last, however, just as Toni mustered up courage to shake hands, Mrs.
+Anstey came to the rescue.
+
+"Why, Lady Martin, I had no idea you were home again. You have come to
+welcome Mrs. Rose, I suppose. My dear"--to Toni--"Lady Martin is your
+nearest neighbour--really near, I mean; only a mile away."
+
+"Less by the fields." Lady Martin spoke magisterially. "And this fine
+weather tempted us to walk, although both the cars were standing idle in
+the garage."
+
+Having thus established her position as the owner of two cars, Lady
+Martin brought forward her daughter and presented her to Toni, who
+received an instant impression of size, teeth and volubility as Miss
+Martin shook hands and expressed her pleasure at finding Mrs. Rose at
+home.
+
+The next thing to do was obviously to provide chairs for the guests, and
+this Toni did, with the help of Barry, who appeared to be on fairly
+friendly terms with the two ladies; and once again Toni turned her
+attention to filling teacups.
+
+Fanny, who had been somewhat overlooked during the last strenuous
+moments, was relieved to hear herself addressed in a friendly tone by
+Miss Lynn, who felt sorry for the girl, so obviously ill-at-ease; and in
+return for the kindly attention Fanny eagerly handed Olive the dish of
+shrimps with an invitation to "try some."
+
+Olive Lynn, who had possibly never met these small creatures in their
+native armour before, hesitated, casting a look at Barry at the same
+moment; but he was engaged in handing Lady Martin some bread and butter;
+and Olive's appeal went unanswered.
+
+Taking Miss Lynn's silence for consent, and being really anxious to help
+Toni by making her guests eat a good tea, Fanny eagerly piled her
+neighbour's plate with shrimps; and at that moment Lady Martin first
+discovered what plebeian dishes the table held.
+
+Ignoring Barry and his bread and butter, she put up her lorgnette and
+deliberately scrutinized the heap of pink shrimps which Fanny, pleased
+with her success, was just pushing across to Miss Martin. For a second
+her ladyship was speechless; then, as her daughter turned a haughty
+stare upon the officious commoner, Lady Martin spoke.
+
+"I think, Lucretia, you had better leave those--er--shellfish alone. I
+understand there is always a danger of ptomaine poisoning with such
+things."
+
+Toni dropped a lump of sugar with a clatter on the tray and turned
+scarlet. Lady Martin's tone was so deliberately offensive, her manner so
+disagreeable, that Toni felt like a chidden schoolgirl; and again the
+enormity of her social mistake swept over her, rendering her quite
+incapable of making any reply to the attack.
+
+But rescue was at hand. Barry, who from the first had felt a chivalrous
+interest in his friend's wife, had seen the colour sweep into her face,
+and had determined that the Martins, mother and daughter, should not
+exercise their well-known prerogative of snubbing any woman who did not
+boast a title.
+
+It is true that Lady Martin was the wife of a soap manufacturer,
+knighted for services to his party; and both sprang from a very humble
+class; but what they lacked in breeding they made up for in arrogance;
+and Lady Martin had early determined that if she wished to become a
+power in the neighbourhood she must assert herself on every occasion.
+Also, she had intended to patronize the young mistress of Greenriver;
+and to find Mrs. Anstey, the only person in the district of whom she
+stood in awe, here before her had disturbed her mean little soul.
+
+Barry, quick as a woman in some matters, read her mind accurately, and
+immediately ranged himself on the side of his embarrassed hostess.
+
+"Are those shrimps, Mrs. Rose? And you never asked me to have any!"
+
+He flashed a laughing glance at her, and drew the dish towards him,
+resolved that he at least would not shirk his duty.
+
+"I ... I'm sorry ... I forgot," said Toni lamely. "But ... please don't
+have any if you'd rather not."
+
+"It seems hardly the hour for these--delicacies," said Lady Martin,
+waving haughtily aside the dish Barry offered her mischievously. "In
+sauce--or _pates_--yes ... but now--no!"
+
+"Oh, you're making quite a mistake," said Barry coolly, helping himself
+as he spoke. "They are delicious with bread and butter. Olive, you've
+got some? That's right. Mrs. Anstey, can't I persuade you to try a few?"
+
+Mrs. Anstey, thoroughly understanding the look of appeal which Barry's
+laughing eyes held, smiled very kindly.
+
+"My dear boy, I never eat much tea, as you know--but still--if you'll
+prepare me one or two ... they really look so tempting...."
+
+To her dying day Lady Martin would never forget that afternoon. There
+sat Mrs. Anstey, whom everyone knew to be related to half the "good"
+families of England, eating shrimps, shelled for her by Barry, with an
+air of enjoyment which was in itself an offence. There, too, was Miss
+Lynn, niece to an earl, doing likewise, being assisted in the mysteries
+of divorcing the creatures from their shells by the blowsy, florid young
+woman beside her, with whom she was soon on excellent terms. And there,
+also, was Barry Raymond, a young man for whom everyone had a good word,
+laughing and joking with his hostess as though they were old friends,
+while that same hostess lost her frightened look beneath his geniality
+and did the honours of the tea-tray very prettily.
+
+Only Lady Martin and her daughter were out of it; and when she found
+that her cold looks and biting speeches made no impression on
+anyone--for even Fanny was at ease now with these delightful people--her
+ladyship could bear it no longer.
+
+Rising abruptly, and cutting short a sentence of Toni's as though she
+heard nothing, Lady Martin called her daughter to her side.
+
+"I think, Lucretia, if you have finished your tea"--both ladies had left
+their cups untouched--"we must tear ourselves away. We promised to look
+in at the Vicarage, and you know we are dining with the Batty-Browns
+to-night!"
+
+Having thus made it clear that she was in much social demand, Lady
+Martin advanced upon her hostess and held out her hand aggressively.
+
+"Good-bye, Mrs. Rose. So glad to have seen you. I am always at home on
+Wednesdays in the summer."
+
+Toni shook hands quietly, and Miss Martin followed suit with a limp
+handshake; after which the two ladies took what was intended to be a
+gushing farewell of the other guests, ignoring Fanny as though she were
+not present.
+
+Andrews was in waiting to show the ladies out; and when, a moment later,
+they swept by the window, their high-heeled shoes crunching the gravel
+sternly, Barry heaved a sigh of relief.
+
+"I don't know how it is, but Lady Martin always gives me the creeps.
+Mrs. Rose, is it too late to beg another cup of tea? I assure you I
+really want it, to buck me up."
+
+Toni, who was very pale, filled his cup with rather a trembling hand,
+and Mrs. Anstey saw that the woman's insolence had unnerved her.
+
+Appearing to notice nothing, she began to make conversation, discoursing
+gently on various unimportant topics until Toni grew more like herself;
+and when at length Mrs. Anstey rose to go she had completely won Toni's
+grateful heart.
+
+Toni took leave of her visitors regretfully, and readily promised to
+return the visit as soon as possible; and then she and Fanny accompanied
+them to the door to see them comfortably settled in the big grey car.
+
+Barry was driving, Olive sitting beside him; and the girl turned and
+waved a kindly hand as the car began to glide down the avenue in the
+afternoon sunshine.
+
+"My! Isn't she pretty!" Miss Gibbs' admiration was sincere. "And that
+blue bonnet of hers was a dream--must have cost pounds!"
+
+"I think Mrs. Anstey is beautiful," said Toni, rather dreamily, gazing
+after the car. "I don't wonder Miss Lynn is so devoted to her. She is
+just my ideal of a lady."
+
+"Better than that other stuck-up cat," said Fanny rather viciously. "And
+as for that maypole of a daughter, she's nothing but a gawk."
+
+"Oh, don't let's go in there!" Toni laid a hand on her cousin's arm as
+Fanny turned towards the dining-room. "I don't want to see the tea-table
+any more! Fan, wasn't it _horrible_ when they came first?"
+
+"Well, they were a bit sticky," said Fanny frankly. "But nobody seemed
+to care! Mr. Raymond was just making game of them all the time."
+
+"Well, don't let's think of them," said Toni, shaking herself as though
+freeing her shoulders from an incubus. "We'll go on the river for an
+hour, Fan, and then you shall see the house."
+
+The programme was carried out successfully, and beneath Fanny's
+affectionate chatter Toni regained the spirits she had lost. She took
+her cousin on the river, returning in time to see the old house before
+the summer darkness fell; and after a very satisfactory little dinner
+Miss Gibbs departed, highly pleased with her entertainment.
+
+Owen was not to be home till nearly midnight, and Toni decided not to
+sit up. Indeed, she was tired, and it was barely ten o'clock when she
+went upstairs to bed. Something was troubling her, too; and as she
+walked slowly down the long gallery, lighted only by the Ten Little
+Ladies, she was asking herself a question which, in spite of its
+humorous form, held a hint of tragedy.
+
+"Shall I have to tell Owen everything--how rude she was and what an
+idiot I felt? Must I really tell him about--about the _shrimps_?"
+
+She paused, looking about her as though seeking an answer to her
+question, which held indeed a significance which she dimly understood.
+
+But the Ten Little Ladies had no reply to give her; and with a sigh Toni
+passed on and entered her own room in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Fairly late that night Barry Raymond jumped off his motorcycle at the
+gate of the bungalow known locally as the Hope House. It was a perfect
+June night, and as he unlatched the gate Barry heard a nightingale
+singing its love-song to the moon, the deliciously pure notes ringing
+across the river with a fascinating, almost unearthly, effect.
+
+The garden of the bungalow was full of sleeping flowers, and their
+fragrance stole gently out like a tender welcome to Barry as he strode
+up the path between their ranks, pale-coloured in the moonlight, though
+full of rich, glowing colour beneath the sun.
+
+Another welcome greeted him in a moment. There was a low, deep-toned
+bark, a white streak of something advancing in a hurtling flash, and
+then, as the great Borzoi discovered the visitor to be a friend, she
+dropped into a welcoming march, waving her plumy tail the while.
+
+"Halloa, Olga, old girl! Where's your boss?"
+
+He was not far off, having been warned of the approach of his friend,
+and in another moment the two men were shaking hands cordially.
+
+"By Jove, Barry, it's good to see you again!" There was no mistaking the
+pleasure in the tone. "I thought you'd be looking me up--someone told me
+you were staying down here."
+
+"Yes--only for three days, worse luck. I'm with the Ansteys--you know
+Miss Lynn is Mrs. Anstey's niece, and she is there too."
+
+"I see. Well, come in and have a peg." He led the way hospitably through
+the green door into the bungalow, and a minute later the two were seated
+cosily in the little living-room, which looked oddly attractive in the
+lamplight.
+
+Olga, the wolfhound, followed them in as a matter of course, and when
+her master had mixed drinks for himself and his visitor, and had taken
+his seat, she lay down beside him, her long nose resting on her paws,
+while she blinked sleepily in the mellow light.
+
+"Well, Barry, how goes the world? Cheerily, eh?"
+
+"With me? Yes." He took a pull at his glass, "I'm A 1, and so is Olive."
+
+"Work going ahead? I hear the _Bridge_ is making its way."
+
+"Rather!" He spoke enthusiastically. "The next number will be out in a
+few days, and it's better than ever."
+
+"Good! Of course Rose is an excellent man for the job. If he can't make
+it go, no one can. By the way, he's come to live down here, as I daresay
+you know."
+
+"Yes." Barry spoke slowly, and lighted a cigarette rather thoughtfully.
+"As a matter of fact, Jim, that's partly why I've come to see you at
+this unholy hour."
+
+"Better now than never!" said his host genially. "But I don't think I
+quite understand you."
+
+"No." For a moment Barry said nothing more, and the other man looked at
+him a little oddly.
+
+He himself was worth looking at, in spite of the shabbiness which
+betrayed either a bachelor habit of mind, or a lofty disdain for the
+trappings of life. A man of about forty-one, his face was a curious
+mixture of youth and age, of experience and of idealism. His big, bright
+eyes and curving mouth betokened enthusiasm, fire, a kindly philosophy;
+while the lines upon his forehead and the grey streaks in his abundant
+hair seemed to speak of deeper things. Life had indeed graven with its
+chisel lines and marks ineffaceable. It was the face of one who had
+suffered deeply, who had passed through more than one saddening
+experience. In repose one would have said the man was serious, grave to
+a fault; but when he smiled, it was the face of youth--ardent, eager,
+irresponsible--that the beholder saw before him.
+
+It was a queer, baffling, contradictory face altogether. Only one thing
+about it was certain, and that was written so plainly thereon that even
+a child might read.
+
+It was a face one could trust. Whatever might be the nature of the
+tragic experience which had whitened the crisp locks and drawn the heavy
+lines on the broad brow, there was something so gentle, so
+straightforward, so kindly about the whole man that none could doubt his
+sincerity, his trustworthiness. And side by side with the lines drawn by
+sorrow there were other lines betokening laughter, those fine lines at
+the corners of the eyes which are born from mirth, and even though they
+take away from youth's first unlined smoothness, give value and
+perspective to the countenance.
+
+For the rest, he was fairly tall, though he stooped somewhat; and he
+walked always with a quick, impetuous step, until such times as memory,
+or some other quality, came to life, and gave a queer, dragging effect
+to his usually swift tread.
+
+"Well?" It was the host who spoke, and Barry recalled his scattered
+thoughts with an effort and remembered the cause on which he was
+enlisted.
+
+"Well, it's about Rose's wife that I want to speak to you." Barry looked
+searchingly at his friend, and reading in the bright eyes nothing of the
+cheap cynicism with which some men might have greeted the announcement,
+he went on quickly. "The fact is, she wants someone to give her a
+helping hand."
+
+"Someone--apart from her husband?"
+
+"Yes. You see, she's only a kid and a jolly pretty one. Looks like a
+schoolgirl----?"
+
+"Stay a moment." Herrick laid down his pipe. "Is Mrs. Rose a little dark
+girl, with very bright eyes and a lot of black hair?"
+
+"That's she. You've met her, then?"
+
+"Well, not exactly. Fact is, I have seen a young woman answering to that
+description wandering on the towing-path early in the morning once or
+twice; and I was a little puzzled to know who she might be."
+
+"Well, that's Mrs. Rose. Now the fact is"--Barry grew red suddenly as he
+realized that his interference was quite unauthorized--"I think she
+wants a friend, someone to look after her a bit."
+
+"Why? Is she ... er ... what _is_ she?"
+
+"She is very young." Barry spoke deliberately now, having made up his
+mind to proceed. "And although she is a perfect little lady in her
+way"--thus unconsciously endorsing Kate's verdict--"she has never been
+used to the sort of life she will have to lead down here. To tell the
+truth--I know it's safe with you, Jim--she was our typist in the office
+before her marriage."
+
+"I see. And Rose fell in love with her?"
+
+"Y ... yes." Even to Herrick, Barry could not give away the secret of
+Owen's proposal. "Anyway, he married her, and brought her here; and
+to-day I was witness to a curious little scene in her house."
+
+"I'm all attention, Barry."
+
+"Well, Rose is away for the day, and Mrs. Rose invited a girl-cousin
+down for the afternoon; and to do honour to her, I imagine, she had
+provided a sumptuous tea, including shrimps and one of those wobbly
+white things that you get at lunch."
+
+"I see. Well?"
+
+"Well, we--Mrs. Anstey, Olive and I--chose to pay a call to-day; and
+when, after a little hesitation, Mrs. Rose asked us to have some tea, we
+were taken into the dining-room, where these festal delicacies were laid
+out."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Well, it would have been all right--Mrs. Anstey is a dear, and Olive of
+course is a ripper--and we'd have had a very jolly little party, but
+unfortunately in the middle of it who should arrive but Lady Martin and
+that terrible daughter of hers."
+
+"Lady Martin of soap fame?"
+
+"The same. Well, you know what an utter snob the woman is. In two
+minutes she had Toni--Mrs. Rose--reduced to a jelly--simply by sneering
+at everything."
+
+"Including the--shrimps?"
+
+"Yes. You know shrimps are--well--a bit _vulgar_, aren't they?"
+
+For a second there was silence. Then Herrick stretched out his hand for
+his pipe and spoke slowly in the intervals of filling the bowl.
+
+"There was once, if my memory serves me rightly, an Apostle of the name
+of Peter who chose to consider some of the creatures made by his own
+Maker in the light of vulgarians; and a sheetful of specimens descended
+on Peter's head to warn him against the folly of finding any of God's
+creations common or unclean. Of course we've no proof that shrimps were
+included----"
+
+"I say, Jim, don't rag!" Barry threw away his cigarette rather
+impatiently. "I'm in earnest--oh, I know it sounds beastly snobbish, but
+still, shrimps at tea----"
+
+"Are unusual, though really, if you try them, first-rate." Herrick had
+filled his pipe, and now took up the match-box. "Seriously, Barry, I
+know what you mean. So long as we have false standards of gentility I
+suppose the sight of a shrimp in conjunction with the tea-pot will cause
+us to shrivel up. But I'll guarantee that neither Mrs. Anstey nor Miss
+Lynn turned a hair at the sight."
+
+"Rather not! They ate them as if they really liked them--and if that
+wasn't a snub to the awful Martin woman--well, she went, anyway, driven
+away by our combined vulgarity, I suppose, and we had quite a decent
+time when she had gone."
+
+"Well? If Lady Martin was driven from the field, and you were left the
+victors, what's the trouble?"
+
+"The trouble is this. Lady Martin, being a spiteful woman, and knowing
+perfectly well that Mrs. Anstey meant to teach her a lesson, will lose
+no opportunity of spreading the story abroad; and in time it is certain
+to come to Rose's ears."
+
+"Ah!" He spoke thoughtfully. "That is it, is it? And Mr. Rose
+will--er--resent the tale?"
+
+"You see it's this way." Barry gave way to the impulse to confide in his
+friend, to whom all his boyish confidences had been given. "Rose is a
+real good sort, and wouldn't for the world let Toni suspect that he
+knows he's married beneath him, as the world calls it."
+
+"The world? Ah!" There was a light scorn in the tone.
+
+"Oh, I know--we both know it's all rot, that sort of thing. But still,
+as the world goes, one has to remember it; and somehow, although Rose is
+genuinely fond of his wife, I doubt whether his love would stand
+much--well, ridicule."
+
+"Ah! And I suppose the child did make herself rather ridiculous in her
+attempts to welcome a cousin to whom she is doubtless attached."
+
+"It isn't only that." Having once begun, Barry unburdened himself still
+further. "You know, although I admire Mrs. Rose immensely, and she's a
+ripping kid really, I'm not a bit sure that the marriage will be a
+success."
+
+"Why not, Barry?"
+
+"Well, they're unsuited to one another in heaps of ways. Toni is, as I
+say, a dear little girl, but she's only half-educated, and not in the
+least intellectual. Sharp in her way--the way of a quick-witted
+woman--shrewd, and no fool. But you know Rose is rather an exceptional
+fellow."
+
+"So I have always understood."
+
+"He's clever, you know--and deep, too. Not one of those fellows who are
+always showing off, but really brilliant; and it's rather a dangerous
+thing for a shallow woman to marry a man of that sort."
+
+"It's often done, Barry," said the other man quietly.
+
+"Oh, I know, but that doesn't make it any safer. Toni is an out-and-out
+good sort, as straight as a die, and a merry, light-hearted little thing
+into the bargain; but she's bound to turn out a disappointment to her
+husband all the same."
+
+"I don't see why," said Herrick after a moment's pause. "Lots of clever
+men marry feather-headed women and manage to get along all right."
+
+"Yes, but Owen's not that sort. He's a fellow who will want his wife to
+be a companion, a real comrade, able to go forward side by side with
+him, understand his aims, sympathize with his ideals and so on; and this
+girl can't do it."
+
+"But why are you so sure she can't, my boy? Probably she is very
+different when alone with her husband. All women, as well as men, have
+two soul-sides, you know--'one to face the world with'--the other----"
+
+"Oh, that's Browning's view, of course, but then he was an idealist!"
+Barry spoke rather impatiently. "No, Jim, there's not much hope of that.
+I've made a study of the girl--I don't mind telling you I did my best to
+prevent Rose marrying her--and I'm perfectly certain that as far as
+anything beyond the merest good-fellowship goes, Rose might just as well
+have married a Persian kitten."
+
+"Yet she is fond of him--in her way?"
+
+"Very, I should say; but even then there's an element of something which
+shouldn't exist between husband and wife. There is a sort of quite
+unconscious patronage on Rose's side which matches a pretty gratitude on
+hers; and I have a horrible fear that if ever he found her wanting--and
+showed her so--she would break her heart."
+
+"Oh! Then you don't deny her a heart?"
+
+"Good Lord, no! What I do deny her is--well, I don't quite know. Is it
+brain, or soul, or what?"
+
+"You take an interest in this girl, Barry. Is it possible you are going
+to try to supply this deficiency of brain, or soul, or whatever it is?"
+
+Barry laughed rather defiantly.
+
+"Oh, I know you think I'm a fool for my pains! Yes, that's just what I
+do want to do. I want to wake the girl up, to make her use her
+intellect, fit herself to be Owen's companion. I hate to think of their
+marriage turning out a failure--Owen disappointed in her, feeling
+aggrieved, perhaps, at her inability to go forward with him, while she
+in her turn feels impatient with him for expecting her to be something
+she isn't--and that he ought never to have expected her to be!"
+
+"Wait a moment, Barry." Herrick looked at him squarely. "Isn't there
+something behind all this? Didn't I hear a rumour that some woman had
+jilted Rose--thrown him over for a richer man, or something of the
+sort?"
+
+"Well"--Barry bit his lip--"since you know so much--yes."
+
+"And possibly this marriage was in the nature of a reprisal? Intended to
+show the jilting lady that--to put it plainly--there were still good
+fish in the sea?"
+
+"Yes--in a way it was."
+
+"Ah! Now I understand. And you, having doubtless been forced into the
+position of an accessory before the fact, are anxious that as little
+harm as possible shall be done to either party?"
+
+"Yes--but principally to the girl."
+
+"Of course, seeing that she was probably unconscious of the reason
+behind the match. Well, it seems hard that she should have been used as
+a catspaw, doesn't it?"
+
+"Oh, it wasn't as bad as that. Rose really liked the girl----"
+
+"In spite of her want of--soul?"
+
+"Yes. And I thought," said Barry eagerly, "that if you and I, and one or
+two more--Olive, for instance--could give her a helping hand now and
+then, show her how to make the best of herself and so on, things might
+turn out all right."
+
+"Ah, Barry!" Herrick looked at him with a half-humorous, half-sad smile.
+"You're very young--and youth is always--or should be--courageous. Do
+you really think that I, or you, or even Miss Lynn, can alter by a
+fraction the destiny marked out for that pretty child across the river
+there?"
+
+"Destiny--no, perhaps not," said Barry, taken aback by the big word.
+"But we might help her--help her to find herself, as the Ibsenites call
+it--realize her soul, and all the rest of it. The soul's _there_, all
+right, but somehow it seems to be hidden, undeveloped, or something of
+the sort."
+
+For a second the older man said nothing, though his square white teeth
+clenched themselves on the stem of his pipe. Then, removing the latter,
+he said slowly:
+
+"Do you remember what Browning says, Barry?
+
+    'Tis an awkward thing to play with souls
+    And matter enough to save one's own!'
+
+Well, don't you agree with him--and me--that one's own soul takes a vast
+deal of salvation?"
+
+"Yes, of course--but still--I thought you would be ready to help...."
+
+His accent of dejection touched the other man's heart.
+
+"Come, don't look so disappointed. Of course I'll help, as much as I
+can! It ought to be an interesting task, anyway, helping a woman to find
+her soul. And if I can help her in any way, I will."
+
+"Good! But how?" He wanted to clinch the matter.
+
+"Well, I suppose the first thing to do is to make the lady's
+acquaintance. I know Rose, slightly, and a call will no doubt be
+considered neighbourly. And if I can do anything for the child, you may
+depend on me to do it."
+
+"You're a brick, Jim!" In the midst of his relief Barry remembered the
+hour and rose hastily. "Well, I must be off, or the house will be shut
+up. Good-night, old chap. I'm no end obliged to you. I knew you would
+help, if anyone would."
+
+He had turned towards the door when a thought struck him and he turned
+back rather awkwardly.
+
+"I say, Jim"--he was looking down at the floor as he spoke--"I hadn't
+forgotten, but I didn't like to say much. How ... how is--she?"
+
+"My wife, you mean?" Herrick's smile was bitter. "She is pretty well, I
+believe. They say her health has improved lately."
+
+"I'm glad. And--forgive me if I'm tactless, Jim, but when do you expect
+her back?"
+
+"When does she come out?" All the youth had died away from his face,
+leaving it desperately tired and sad. "Some time in the autumn, October,
+I believe. The time isn't really up quite so soon, but there's some
+remission for good conduct, I understand, which shortens the sentence."
+
+"Have you seen her lately?"
+
+"No. She refused to see me last time, and I shall not trouble her
+again."
+
+"I see." Barry fidgeted from one foot to the other, then made a sudden
+grab at his friend's hand. "Well, good-bye, Jim. Ever so many thanks for
+promising to help the kid. You can do lots for her if you will, and I do
+want the marriage to be a success."
+
+"You've come to a queer person to help you, Barry," said the other with
+a twisted smile. "My own marriage has been so wonderfully successful,
+hasn't it? But there, don't let's talk about it now. How are you going
+home? Motor? Ah, all right. Then Olga and I will come and see you safely
+off the premises."
+
+He had regained his former kindly manner, and bade the boy good-night
+with all his accustomed heartiness; but as Barry turned for a last look
+and saw the stooping figure return through the gate, accompanied by the
+graceful Borzoi, a fury of rage gripped his generous young heart.
+
+"Damn that woman--oh, _damn_ her!" He said the words wildly to himself
+as he spun down the moonlit road between the fragrant hedges. "She's
+ruined his life, and will go on doing it as long as they live! October,
+he said. Well, there's time to give poor little Toni a helping hand
+before then!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But in the quiet bungalow behind him Jim Herrick sat alone until the
+short summer night had given way to the glories of the dawn. And in his
+face, as he gazed before him, seeing, perhaps the troubled past, perhaps
+the darkened future, there was now no trace of youth, only a great and
+weary disillusionment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+After all, Jim Herrick's introduction to Mrs. Rose came about in an
+unexpected fashion.
+
+Although he had only seen her two or three times, Herrick felt a decided
+interest in Rose's young wife. From what Barry had told him he concluded
+that there were breakers ahead for the young couple; and since his own
+matrimonial misfortunes had made him very pitiful, he determined to try
+to hold out a helping hand to the girl should the occasion arise.
+
+The occasion arose, indeed, almost before he expected it; but luckily
+Herrick was a man of action and grappled with the opportunity thus
+presented.
+
+One sunny afternoon he was returning from a pull up the river in his
+skiff, when he saw a punt gliding towards him, the pole manipulated,
+rather unskilfully, it must be confessed, by the girl of whom his
+thoughts had been full; and he stayed in his mooring to watch her pass.
+
+To Toni the guiding of a punt was so serious a matter that she had no
+eyes for anything else, and she never even saw the man in the boat. The
+river took rather a curve here, and Toni found it a little difficult to
+negotiate the bend. Becoming somewhat flurried, she directed her punt
+into the middle of the stream, where it hung for a moment as though
+undecided whether or no to swing round in the disconcerting manner
+peculiar to such craft; but Toni, becoming impatient, put fresh vigour
+into her task, and sent the punt triumphantly forward with a masterful
+push.
+
+Her triumph was, however, short-lived. With the treacherous suddenness
+which invariably marks this catastrophe her pole snapped as she drove it
+downwards; the punt glided away immediately, and Toni, clinging
+desperately to the broken pole, went down with it into the river itself.
+
+With an exclamation Herrick sculled his boat strongly to the spot where
+she had gone down, reaching it just as she came to the surface, gasping
+and spluttering, and with an expression of wild terror in her face.
+
+He guessed that she could not swim, and called out to her reassuringly.
+
+"You're all right--hang on to my boat, and I'll get you out!"
+
+She heard him, even in the midst of her terror, and made a frantic grab
+at the side of the boat, only to miss by inches and go down again with
+an involuntary cry.
+
+Hastily shipping his oars, Herrick bent over the boat, causing it to
+heel to one side rather dangerously; and when next Toni came to the
+surface he gripped her strongly by the shoulder, bidding her keep quite
+still, and then lifted her, by sheer force of muscle, into the boat,
+where she collapsed in a dripping little heap at his feet.
+
+"That's all right!" He seized the oars and with a dozen vigorous strokes
+propelled the boat back to the landing-place, where he proceeded to tie
+her up, and then turned his attention to his passenger.
+
+"Hard luck, Mrs. Rose," he said cheerily. "But there's no harm done, is
+there? Now you must come into the house and let me find you some dry
+things to put on. Don't delay--the punt will be rescued somewhere, I've
+no doubt, and you really must get out of those wet garments."
+
+Shivering, dripping, and feeling more than half inclined to cry, Toni
+let him help her out of the boat; and seeing that she was really
+suffering from shock Herrick put his arm round her shoulders in
+fraternal fashion, and led her up the little sloping lawn on to the
+verandah of the bungalow.
+
+Here Toni stopped in some embarrassment.
+
+"I ... I don't think I can come in like this." In spite of the sun her
+teeth were chattering. "I--I shall spoil your carpets!"
+
+"Oh, they're beyond spoiling," he assured her, with a laugh. "Don't
+worry about them! I think, though, you had better come into the kitchen,
+if you don't mind. There happens to be a fire there, and you can get
+warm."
+
+She followed him obediently through the long window into the shabby
+sitting-room, which for all its shabbiness had an oddly harmonious
+effect; and from there he took her into the small, cosy kitchen, which
+was scrupulously tidy and spotlessly clean.
+
+"Now"--he looked at her a little dubiously--"obviously, the thing to do
+is to get off those wet clothes, have a hot bath, and put on something
+dry. Well, if I bring my tub in here and fill it from the boiler, would
+you mind having it in the kitchen? You see, I don't want you to get
+cold."
+
+"Oh, I don't think I need do that," said Toni, between laughing and
+crying. "If you lent me a mackintosh or a big coat I could get home
+quite well."
+
+"What--as you are?" He smiled at her, but so kindly that she could not
+take offence. "Well, to begin with, your punt is miles away by now, and
+anyway you are much too wet to leave this house. Now"--he went briskly
+to the door--"I'm going to fetch my bath and I'll have it filled in a
+jiffy. You'll feel all right after a hot soak."
+
+He went out, leaving Toni, very wet and uncomfortable, in the middle of
+the floor. In a minute he returned, dragging after him a good-sized
+bath, filled to the brim with towels of every description.
+
+"Now, I'll put it here, in front of the fire." He worked as he spoke.
+"And if I fill these two big cans there'll be enough water. What a
+blessing Mrs. Swastika kept a good fire to-day."
+
+"Mrs. Swastika?" In the midst of her discomfiture Toni thought the name
+odd.
+
+"Oh, that's not her real name." He filled the cans vigorously. "She is
+really Swanson or Swanage or something like that--but I never know what
+it is, so I call her Swastika. She is rather like the individual in the
+'Hunting of the Snark,' who 'answered to Hi or to any loud cry,' but
+it's handy having a name to call her by sometimes."
+
+He broke off in his nonsense and disappeared abruptly, leaving Toni
+wondering whether she was intended to begin her ablutions or no. Luckily
+she decided to wait a moment, and was glad she had done so when her host
+returned, bearing in his arms some garments, which he put down on a
+chair rather apologetically.
+
+"I'm really most awfully sorry, Mrs. Rose, but I've no feminine
+fripperies of any sort! But if you can possibly make these things do for
+a bit, I'll send a boy on a bicycle down to your place and tell them to
+put together some clothes for you."
+
+"Oh, will you?" Toni was beginning to find her soaked garments rather
+unpleasantly chilly. "I live at Greenriver--oh, you know?--and if you
+tell the housekeeper to send me everything, she'll know what I want."
+
+"Very well." He had been busying himself with a little saucepan over the
+fire as she spoke, and now he handed her a glass containing some mulled
+wine.
+
+"I'll dispatch a lad at once--in the meantime please drink this--it's
+quite harmless, I assure you!"
+
+As she took the glass he hurried to the door, and went out, pulling it
+carefully to after him.
+
+"Pull down the blind and lock the door," he commanded her through the
+keyhole. "The back door is locked already, so you are quite safe."
+
+As soon as he was gone, and her privacy assured, Toni lost no time in
+doing as he bade her; and it certainly was a relief to slip out of her
+clinging garments and plunge into the hot water waiting for her. She did
+not waste time, remembering his commands; but when it came to a question
+of re-dressing, and she examined the clothes he had brought, Toni gave
+way and burst into a fit of irrepressible laughter.
+
+He had apologized for the lack of feminine garments, but Toni had not
+been prepared for the substitute he had given her. There, beneath the
+heavy dressing-gown, was a pair of silk pyjamas immaculately got up and
+folded; and at the sight of their purple and white glories Toni laughed
+and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+At first she determined that nothing in the world would persuade her to
+don the resplendent pyjamas. Then a glance at her own soaked and now
+steaming clothing gave her courage; and giggling softly to herself she
+got into the silken garments, which by dint of much turning up of hems
+and shortening of sleeves were given some semblance of a fit. Next came
+the dressing-gown, an eminently masculine affair of brown camel's hair,
+with red collar and cuffs, and when she had tied the girdle round her
+waist, and, scorning the evening socks which lay ready, had slipped her
+bare feet into a pair of capacious slippers, Toni was so overcome by her
+own bizarre appearance that once more she burst out laughing gaily.
+
+A knock at the door made her stop short, and she called out in a rather
+quavery voice:
+
+"Yes? Who's there?"
+
+"Only I--Herrick," came the answer. "When you're ready will you come
+into the other room? The sun's blazing in, but I can easily light a fire
+if you feel chilly."
+
+Toni cast a doubtful look at herself in this queer garb, and then
+determined, very sensibly, that it was no good being prudish and silly.
+After all, the dressing-gown wrapped her up completely; and at any rate
+her own clothes would presently arrive to deliver her from this rather
+absurd situation.
+
+"I'm coming in a minute," she called out gaily. "I'm just going to let
+my hair down--it's rather wet, but it will dry in the sun."
+
+She pulled out her hair-pins recklessly, and the black waves tumbled
+wetly on to her shoulders. A few minutes' vigorous drying before the
+fire met with success, and presently Toni found courage to unlock the
+door and sally forth into the little hall.
+
+Mr. Herrick was waiting for her by the sitting-room door, and he bit his
+lip quickly at sight of the funny little figure emerging from the
+kitchen.
+
+He spoke quite gravely, however, and Toni, who had glanced at him rather
+sharply, felt reassured.
+
+"That's right. Now, come and sit down, will you? See, if you take this
+chair, you're in the sun, and it will warm you. You're sure you're not
+cold?"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm quite warm," Toni assured him. "It's only my hair that's
+wet, and it won't take long to dry."
+
+While her eyes wandered casually round the room, Herrick took the
+opportunity of observing his guest more closely; and his scrutiny
+pleased him oddly.
+
+In spite of her ludicrous garb Toni looked quaintly attractive. Her
+youth triumphed, as youth always will, over minor drawbacks, and now
+that she was warm and dry the colour was coming back to her lips and her
+complexion recovering its creamy tone. Even her hair curled bewitchingly
+when damp; and Herrick owned that Barry's description of her as a
+"pretty kid" had not been wrong.
+
+As for Toni, she was much interested in this sunny, shabby room. The
+carpet might be old, beyond spoiling, as its owner described it, but it
+was a feast of soft, harmonious colours all the same, and although
+faded, its very dimness of hue was a charm. The curtains which hung at
+the long windows were of a queer, Persian-looking fabric; and on the
+mantelpiece were a dozen little bits of pottery of a greeny-blue tint
+which harmonized excellently with the grey-papered walls.
+
+Books there were in plenty, on shelves and tables, even on two of the
+chairs; and as she looked about her Toni caught sight of the last number
+of the _Bridge_ lying on the low divan as though thrown there by a
+reader disturbed in his reading.
+
+Herrick's eyes had followed the direction of hers.
+
+"You recognize your husband's review? You've seen it, of course, this
+last number?"
+
+"Yes." She had seen it, though it is to be feared that she had paid it
+scant attention.
+
+"It's better than ever this month." He sat down and took up the paper.
+"There's a little poem--'Pan-Shapes'--which simply delighted me. Did it
+take your fancy, I wonder?"
+
+"I ... I don't think I have read it," she said, wishing suddenly that
+she had not been forced to make the admission.
+
+"No? Well it has not been out long." He was turning the pages as he
+spoke. "There's something else here--another special article on
+Mysticism by Father Garland, which is oddly fascinating. Of course such
+a subject, treated by one of the greatest mystics who ever lived, was
+bound to be of the highest interest; but I never expected anything quite
+so arresting, so satisfying, when I began to read."
+
+He paused, evidently waiting for her to speak; but Toni sat tongue-tied,
+miserably conscious that in her mind no answering enthusiasm could be
+born, since she had neither read nor wished to read a single word of the
+article in question.
+
+A hint of her mental discomfort probably reached the man on the sofa by
+some telepathic means, for he suddenly tossed away the review and spoke
+in a lighter tone.
+
+"How long have you been punting, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Oh, a very short time," she said rather apologetically. "My husband has
+given me some lessons since we came down here. He doesn't know I
+sometimes go out alone," she added ingenuously. "I don't go very often,
+because I know I'm not much good. But to-day I saw some people coming to
+call and I ran out of the house and jumped into the punt so that I could
+escape."
+
+Herrick smiled.
+
+"What--are you like me? Do you avoid your fellow-creatures on
+principle?"
+
+She looked a little puzzled.
+
+"Oh no, I don't avoid people when I know them. But I've had such heaps
+of callers, and it's such a waste of time making conversation over tea
+when one wants to be out in the sunshine."
+
+"In fact you prefer nature to human nature?"
+
+"I suppose I do." She frowned rather thoughtfully. "At least I would
+always rather be out of the house than in it. And it's so lovely by the
+river in the summer. I go for walks before breakfast with my dog, and
+the world is so beautiful in the early morning before the mists have all
+vanished in the sun."
+
+"Ah! That reminds me!" Herrick rose. "You haven't seen _my_ dog! I'll go
+and bring her in; she's lying in the shade at the back at present."
+
+He went out, returning in a moment with the stately Olga, who had been,
+as he suggested, sleeping in the shade. He kept his hand on her silver
+collar as she advanced, fearing that Toni's queer mixture of garments
+might upset her canine mind; but Olga apparently took her master's
+friends on trust, and presently strolled over to Toni and laid one long
+paw tentatively upon her knee.
+
+Toni, delighted, stroked the beautiful creature affectionately, and
+Herrick said to himself cheerfully:
+
+"Come, she's got one thing in her favour anyway! If she can't appreciate
+good literature she understands dogs--and after all they are worth more
+as humanizers of the race, than any amount of books."
+
+"She's lovely, Mr. Herrick!" Toni lifted delighted eyes. "What do you
+call her? Something nice, I hope."
+
+"Her name is Olga," he returned. "Not very original for a Russian dog, I
+confess, but she was already christened when she came to me. You like
+her?"
+
+"I think she's a darling, and Olga is quite a nice name. A friend of
+mine at school had a dog like her, and we used to take her into
+Kensington Gardens for a run on Saturday afternoons. Her name was Pearl.
+It's a pretty name for a white wolfhound, isn't it? They're like pearls,
+somehow, so smooth and shining."
+
+She was stroking the dog's satiny head as she spoke, and did not notice
+the change in the man's face; but when he remained silent she looked up
+as though to see why he did not respond.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick, what's the matter?" Toni was frightened by his pallor.
+
+"Nothing--nothing!" He shook off his mental disturbance with a strong
+effort. "I ... I sometimes have a sort of pain--in my heart--but it's
+gone, quite gone, now."
+
+Toni was not altogether satisfied with the explanation and asked herself
+remorsefully what she had said to vex him; but she could not think of
+anything which would be likely to give offence to her host, and decided,
+finally, that he had spoken truthfully.
+
+She could not know how intimately the tragedy of Herrick's life was
+bound up with the thought of a string of shining pearls; and her very
+unconsciousness served to show the man she had spoken in all innocence.
+
+"Your husband must be very busy with this review in hand," he said
+presently, remembering Barry's entreaty to him to examine the situation
+for himself. "Does he work at home or has he to spend much time in
+town?"
+
+"Oh, he does both," she said, relieved by his return to his former
+manner. "He is in town to-day, but he has been at home a good deal
+lately."
+
+"I see. It must be rather dull for you when he is shut up writing," he
+went on tentatively. "Writers and men of letters generally like to be
+left to themselves pretty much."
+
+"Oh, I don't think my husband does," said Toni blithely. "I often go in
+and sit with him while he works, and if I promise to go to bed early he
+sometimes brings his papers into the drawing-room at night."
+
+Herrick felt a sudden spasm of amusement, mingled with a distinct
+impulse of sympathy for the unfortunate writer.
+
+"Oh! I should have thought it would be too disturbing to work in the
+room with anyone else--even one's wife," he added with a smile.
+
+"Why should it be?" Toni opened eyes of amazement. "I sit quite still--I
+hardly ever speak--and Jock and I--my dog--play little games together
+ever so quietly."
+
+"You don't help him in his work?"
+
+"No." She shook her head. "I'm not clever enough for that. I do typing
+for him sometimes, but even then I'm not really much use."
+
+"You are not an expert, perhaps?"
+
+"Oh, I can use the typewriter all right--I've had heaps of practice. But
+when it comes to revising things, sort of making up an article out of
+rough notes, I'm no good. To begin with I can never understand what the
+things are about, and I always get quotations hopelessly mixed."
+
+"I see." In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "You are not a great
+reader, then?"
+
+"No--I hate books," she replied frankly. "Somehow it seems a waste of
+time to read when you can be doing nicer things. Besides, my husband
+doesn't like to see me reading what he calls trash, and I simply can't
+get through the things he gives me!"
+
+"Well, after all life's the most interesting book of all--when one's
+young," he said indulgently. "But I'm afraid you'll wish you'd developed
+a taste for reading when you get like me, middle-aged and dull."
+
+"But you aren't dull----" she was beginning eagerly, when a loud knock
+at the back door of the bungalow interrupted her sentence, and she broke
+off hastily.
+
+"That'll be my messenger back," said Herrick, rising. "With garments for
+you, I suppose. I'll go and see."
+
+He went out, returning presently with a neatly-strapped suit-case which
+he held up with a smile.
+
+"Your maids have packed you a change of raiment," he said, "and have,
+moreover, sent a car for you to return in. I gather from the boy that
+two of your people squabbled as to which of them should have the
+privilege of bringing your things to you, but in the middle of the
+discussion the chauffeur, thinking, no doubt, that you were still
+wearing your wet garments, got impatient and started off without either
+of them!"
+
+Toni had risen, and now stood hesitating a little with her hand on the
+suit-case.
+
+"You'll like to change at once, I daresay." He spoke in a business-like
+tone. "Will you come into my little guest-chamber? There's a glass
+there, and you'll be able to dress comfortably."
+
+She assented, and he took her into yet another of the rooms in his tiny
+domain, a small, bare little place which had a rather pathetically
+unused look about it.
+
+Here she made a rapid toilet, finding everything she required with the
+exception of a hat, which had evidently been forgotten. A brush and comb
+had been tucked into a corner, however, and she thankfully brushed her
+hair and made it into two thick plaits, which for want of hair-pins she
+was forced to leave hanging over her shoulders.
+
+When she sallied forth once more she found Herrick waiting for her with
+a tiny tea-tray.
+
+"You must have a cup of tea before you go." He poured it out as he
+spoke. "And a biscuit--one of Mrs. Swastika's specialities. She's an
+excellent cook, and proud of her cakes, so do try one--to please me--and
+her!"
+
+Toni drank the tea gratefully and found both it and the little cakes
+delicious. The next thing to do was to collect her soaked clothes, and
+in spite of Herrick's protests that Mrs. Swastika would see to their
+safe return she crammed them ruthlessly into the suit-case before going
+out to the waiting motor.
+
+As she shook hands with Herrick, after thanking him very prettily for
+his kindness, Toni ventured a shy invitation.
+
+"Will you come to see us at Greenriver, Mr. Herrick? I'm sure my husband
+will wish to thank you for fishing me out of the river."
+
+"Thanks," he said quietly. "I will certainly come. It will give me great
+pleasure to meet Mr. Rose."
+
+He tucked her into the car, shook hands again, and then stood
+bare-headed in the sunshine watching the motor spin round the white and
+dusty road.
+
+At the bend Toni turned and waved her hand to him gaily, and he
+responded with a smile, which faded as the car vanished from sight.
+
+Somehow his meeting with the girl had saddened him oddly. There was
+something rather pathetic about Toni at this moment of her existence,
+though it would have been hard to say exactly wherein the pathos lay. In
+spite of himself Herrick was haunted by the little picture she had drawn
+of her life with Owen Rose. He could fancy the two sitting together at
+night in the lamp-lit drawing-room, the man writing, or trying to write,
+as though alone, the young wife sitting silently by doing nothing, or
+playing quiet little games with her dog to relieve the monotony of an
+evening uncheered by any interesting book or engrossing study.
+
+A worker himself, Herrick knew very well the deadening influence exerted
+by an unoccupied companion during working hours; and the fact that Toni
+did not care for books, and confessed to non-comprehension of her
+husband's work, struck Herrick as unfortunate, to say the least.
+
+To this man, forced by circumstance into a more or less secluded state
+of life, Toni's lack of social experience weighed very lightly. She had
+not, perhaps, the manner or style of the girls one met in Mayfair or
+Belgravia, but she was simple and natural and unaffected; and Herrick
+found himself hoping that Mr. Rose knew how to value the traits of
+simplicity and straightforwardness at their true worth.
+
+Then it was possible that the marriage might be a success in spite of
+the evident disparity of tastes between the two; but remembering Barry's
+gloomy forebodings, Herrick was bound to admit that the prospect of
+happiness seemed rather doubtful.
+
+At present, however, he could do nothing; and with a resolve to call at
+Greenriver at the first available opportunity he went back into his
+little bungalow, which seemed strangely lonely as the twilight fell over
+the river-banks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+As the summer glided by, in a succession of golden, cloudless days, Owen
+began to ask himself, rather drearily, whether his marriage was going to
+turn out a success or an irretrievable failure.
+
+When once the novelty of Toni's companionship had worn off, when he had
+grown used to her pretty, childish ways, accustomed to the sense of
+youth and light-hearted joy which she diffused about the old house, he
+began to find, to his dismay, that these were not all the attributes a
+man looked for in the woman he had made his wife.
+
+He had never expected to find Toni clever in an intellectual sense; but
+neither had he deemed her quite so shallow as she was proving herself to
+be. She seemed absolutely incapable of making any mental effort; the
+world of art and literature was a closed book to her, and, what was
+still more disappointing, she cared nothing for any of the social or
+political questions of the day, and took absolutely no interest in the
+contemporary life of the world about her.
+
+Reading she disliked. Music appealed to her, for Toni was emotional,
+with the quick, facile emotionalism of the South; but she was no
+musician herself, and the grand piano in the drawing-room was silent
+through these sunshiny days. She had rather a talent for housekeeping,
+and in a smaller establishment would doubtless have been a success; but
+at Greenriver there was little for her to do, and she knew quite well
+that the housekeeper resented any interference with her particular
+province. Toni's household duties, therefore, were confined to the
+arrangement of the flowers and the care of her husband's desk--a labour
+of love which she performed with so much good will that Owen felt it
+would be churlish to find fault with any inconvenience arising
+therefrom.
+
+Owen often wondered how his wife managed to fill the days which must be
+so terribly empty. He himself was working harder than usual, since
+beside the review he was contributing articles, by invitation, to
+several well-known journals; and he often worked till late into the
+night; but Toni had no work, no hobbies, nothing with which to fill the
+long, sunny hours.
+
+She did not complain. Indeed, she seemed happy enough in her idleness;
+and by this time she knew a good many people in the neighbourhood,
+though she had not made many friends.
+
+At the Vicarage she was not looked upon with much favour, owing to an
+unfortunate conversation with the Vicar's wife, when in response to
+various leading questions Toni had shown a lamentable ignorance of the
+great gulf which yawns between Church and Chapel--a quite conceivable
+ignorance on the part of the London tradesman's niece, who had attended
+Chapel with her aunt and uncle on Sunday evenings as cheerfully as she
+joined in the more attractive service in the Church which the genteel
+Fanny generally patronized on Sunday mornings.
+
+When, further, Toni innocently admitted that, although baptized into the
+Church of England, she had usually attended the Roman Catholic Church
+and Sunday School during her Italian childhood, the wife of the Vicar
+was appalled; and ever afterwards she spoke of Mrs. Rose as unsound in
+her views, a condemnation which in the somewhat old-fashioned
+neighbourhood carried full weight.
+
+Lady Martin also strongly disapproved of the young mistress of
+Greenriver, though probably only she herself and her spinster daughter
+could have adduced any reason for their dislike of Toni and all her
+works.
+
+The story of the shrimps had long since amused Lady Martin's large
+circle of acquaintances; and although no one had ventured to breathe a
+word before either Owen Rose or his wife, it was hardly surprising that
+Toni came to be considered rather amusingly unsophisticated; so that the
+slightest _gaucherie_ into which the unconscious Toni was betrayed
+during those first weeks of her introduction into the society of the
+district was eagerly noted and joyfully magnified in a dozen
+drawing-rooms.
+
+There was the laughable story of the Roses' late arrival at an important
+dinner-party, and Mrs. Rose's ingenuous explanation to her rather
+irascible host that she had torn her frock at the last moment while
+playing with her dog, and had been obliged to change it for another--and
+this to an elderly man who "liked dogs in their proper place," by which
+statement one may measure the depth of his liking very accurately.
+
+There was the occasion on which Mrs. Rose, being pressed by a
+mischievous fellow-guest, had accepted a cigarette under the impression
+the other ladies were about to do likewise--an impression quickly
+dispelled by the stony glare of her hostess and the ominous whispers of
+the other women.
+
+The hostess, indeed, had uttered one short, biting comment which had
+reduced Toni, already overwhelmed by the magnitude of her offence,
+almost to tears; but though it is only fair to say that her tempter
+apologized most handsomely, and was her firm friend and defender ever
+afterwards, the description of Mrs. Rose as a half-foreign and
+wholly-Bohemian young woman, of cigarette-smoking tendencies, was duly
+retailed at several dinner-tables during the following weeks.
+
+At first Toni took her social failures very much to heart; but Owen, who
+was no snob, reassured her valiantly; and since Toni was only too
+anxious to be comforted she did her best to dismiss these unpleasant
+experiences from her mind.
+
+Presently, indeed, she found two congenial spirits. The doctor's pretty
+old house, known locally as Cherry Orchard, harboured two lively and
+athletic young women who were only too pleased to be friends with the
+merry and vivacious Toni. They were honest, unintellectual girls,
+enthusiastic over all sports and excelling in most; and they took Toni
+to their sporting hearts and promised to introduce her to the local
+tennis and golf clubs without loss of time.
+
+On her part, Toni felt at ease with them immediately, and when once she
+had learned to distinguish between Molly and Cynthia--a distinction made
+the more difficult owing to their peculiar habit of addressing each
+other as Toby--she thoroughly enjoyed their companionship.
+
+In the matter of tennis, Toni, who had only played occasionally at a
+third-rate suburban club, was at first no match for them; but the two
+Tobies, who were the essence of good nature, coached her so well and so
+vigorously that before long she was a capital player; and when once Toni
+realized that Owen wished her to be as hospitable as she could possibly
+desire to be, she rejoiced in giving little impromptu tea-parties on the
+lawn, under the shade of one of the noble elms which were a feature of
+Greenriver.
+
+Sometimes she took the girls motoring; and between tennis, golf, river
+picnics and motor excursions, the days simply flew for Toni; so that at
+last even Owen began to realize that he need not pity her, since she was
+living a life which exactly suited her.
+
+Once he realized this, his pity was directed towards himself.
+
+This was not the sort of married life he had contemplated; and although
+he was too just to blame his wife for her lack of sympathy with his aims
+and ideals, he began to wish that Toni would sometimes lay aside her
+frivolity and exchange her light and ceaseless chatter about trifling
+matters for a slightly more profitable style of conversation.
+
+Owen had called upon James Herrick at his bungalow, the Hope House, to
+thank him for rescuing Toni; and the other man had duly returned his
+call; but although Owen gave Herrick a very cordial general invitation
+to Greenriver the two men had not much in common save a mutual love of
+good books.
+
+Owen thought Herrick peculiar, eccentric in his ways. It seemed odd for
+a man to live alone as he lived, doing his own work except for the
+occasional aid of a woman whom he called Mrs. Swastika. If he had had
+any particular work or hobby which necessitated solitude Owen could have
+understood it; but Herrick seemed to spend his days as idly, as
+aimlessly, as Toni herself.
+
+He went on the river a good deal, took long walks with his dog, but
+beyond that he seemed to do nothing but lounge in a chair on the lawn,
+shabbily clad, with a pipe between his lips and a book, generally
+unopened, on his knee. His political views seemed to Owen to be as vague
+as were Toni's; and he had an irritating habit of setting aside any
+recognized standard of perfection as though the world's seal of approval
+meant less than nothing.
+
+He would demolish a given institution in a few lazy words, but he never
+attempted to set up another in its place. He seemed content to put his
+finger on the weak spot in any system without troubling to point out a
+remedy; and to Owen, whose eager mind was ever ready to remedy abuses,
+this attitude of half-pitying, half-amused toleration was vaguely
+irritating.
+
+Herrick seemed to view life, indeed, with a kind of large detachment, as
+though from the height of some soaring pinnacle one might watch, with
+only half-awakened interest, the doings of the dwellers on the plain;
+and Owen, who liked to be in the midst of things, to add his quota to
+the world's doings, found in this attitude of mind a pose, a
+half-insolent pretence at superiority, which was galling.
+
+Without saying a disparaging word Herrick appeared to belittle the
+efforts made by Owen and his fellows to enlighten the world; and since
+everyone knows that the criticism of a non-worker is a hundred times
+more irritating than that of a co-operator, Owen may be excused for
+finding Herrick uncongenial.
+
+And yet by nature Herrick was a kindly, cheery soul enough, who had been
+fired in his youth by an excessive love for humanity--for all the
+humanities. But shortly after his marriage he had faced a tremendous
+crash; and though, when the first shock was over, he had pulled himself
+together, and gathered up, as best he might, the fragments of his life,
+he had lost for ever that eager, humane, half-Quixotic spirit which had
+made his young manhood pass like a joyous race.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As time went on Owen got into the habit of spending most of his days in
+town, where he found it easier to work than at home. He begged Toni to
+tell him honestly whether she found herself lonely in his absence, but
+Toni assured him truthfully that she was perfectly happy sitting in her
+beautiful old garden or taking lunch and tea on the river, either alone,
+or in the company of her friends, Molly and Cynthia Peach. Punting alone
+was forbidden, but seeing Toni's disappointment, her husband had
+purchased for her a stout little dinghy in which she was perfectly safe,
+and this same craft was a source of delight to its owner.
+
+At first Owen had asked Toni to come up to town with him, to do some
+shopping or go to a _matinee_, but London in summer was no novelty to
+Toni, and she infinitely preferred to stay at Willowhurst and amuse
+herself in her own way.
+
+One night it chanced that Owen arrived home much earlier than usual. The
+weather had broken a day or two previously, and the air was heavy with
+thunder. Consequently Owen's head ached furiously, with one of the
+neuralgic headaches which since his accident he had good cause to dread;
+and the fact that he had an important piece of work to finish without
+loss of time fretted his nerves to racking-point.
+
+London was particularly hot and malodorous to-day; and it was with a
+sigh of relief that Owen steered his car away from the stuffy streets
+towards the green and fragrant valley of the Thames. There was a coppery
+glow in the sky which presaged a storm, and puffs of hot air blew
+gustily into his face; but it would be fresher at Willowhurst, and if
+the storm should break there would be a delightful hour or two
+afterwards, when the earth, cooled by the rain, would send up its
+incense of sweet odours into the summer darkness, and the evening breeze
+would bring refreshment to weary, throbbing brows.
+
+True, the work must be done, if human endurance could do it; and with a
+sigh of relief Owen remembered that Toni would be disengaged and able to
+help him in some way, if only by typing the manuscript when he had
+brought it to a close. There was also a little research work to be done,
+one or two quotations to be verified, a few short extracts to be
+made--work which came well within the scope of Toni's powers; and he
+knew that she would be only too pleased to give him what help she could.
+
+But he had reckoned without his host. On leaving home in the morning he
+had told his wife he would probably be late in returning, and had
+apologized for leaving her so long alone. So far from feeling aggrieved
+at his absence, however, Toni seized the opportunity of inviting Mollie
+and Cynthia over for tennis; and the girls accepted blithely, bringing
+over with them a young cousin, just through Sandhurst, who was an adept
+at the game.
+
+Toni welcomed the boy happily; and the four young people played tennis
+vigorously, with an interval for tea, until the elder Toby began
+regretfully to talk of going home.
+
+There were already rumblings of thunder, and the sky behind the big
+cedar trees looked strangely lurid; and Toni, who hated a storm, was
+loth to let them go.
+
+An idea striking her, she begged them all to stay and have a late supper
+with her; after which Mr. Cooper and Mollie, being musical, might give
+the others an impromptu concert--a plan to which, after a little decent
+hesitation, the trio assented gaily.
+
+Toni, pleased that she was not to be left alone to face the storm, took
+them indoors to get tidy, and then danced off to the kitchen to
+interview the cook.
+
+Mrs. Blades, lighting the Ten Little Ladies earlier than usual on
+account of the gloom, was inclined to look askance at the invasion; but
+Martha and Maggie--the latter filling the place of Kate, enjoying her
+"evening off"--fell into the plan with alacrity; and while the former
+brought out the cold chickens and the galantine intended for the
+morrow's lunch, Maggie bustled round the oval table laying extra places
+and making such preparations as commended themselves to her ever-fertile
+mind.
+
+Owing to the stormy dusk it was necessary to light the candles on the
+supper-table, where bowls of great crimson roses made pools of colour on
+the white cloth; and very attractive the table looked to the four hungry
+people who presently sat down to eat and chatter.
+
+There was plenty of gay laughter over the meal. Jokes were bandied
+hither and thither, shocking puns were made and greeted with shrieks of
+mirth, and if the conversation was eminently frivolous, at least it was
+good-humoured, hearty, wholesome frivolity.
+
+Yet when Owen reached home in his car and entered the hall with rather a
+weary step, the somewhat noisy merriment which greeted him brought a
+frown to his forehead.
+
+He questioned Andrews as to what was going on, and the young butler
+informed him, with a complacency which Owen in his present mood found
+irritating, that Mrs. Rose was entertaining the two Misses Peach and a
+gentleman to supper.
+
+"Oh!" Owen paused in his walk towards the dining-room door. "In that
+case, I think I will just have a whisky and soda in the library--and a
+few sandwiches."
+
+"Very good, sir," the man was beginning, when there was a peal of
+laughter from behind the closed door; and the next moment, Toni came
+flying out of the room, holding aloft a large bunch of grapes, while Mr.
+Cooper pursued her hotly, making grabs at the fruit as he did so.
+
+Unable to stop herself, Toni cannoned violently into her husband, and
+the unfortunate youth from Sandhurst, brought to an unexpected halt,
+found himself face to face with an unknown man whose expression was not
+exactly inviting.
+
+"Owen, is it you? How you startled me!" Toni lifted two sparkling eyes
+to her husband's face. "When did you come? You said you wouldn't be home
+till after ten!"
+
+"I've just arrived," he said, striving hard to keep any hint of
+annoyance out of his tone. "You were making such a noise you didn't hear
+the car! Well, Toni, won't you introduce me to your friend?"
+
+On being presented, Mr. Cooper, held out his hand rather awkwardly.
+
+"I'm afraid we were making an awful din," he said, apologetically. "We
+got ragging over the dessert and Mrs. Rose stole my grapes----?"
+
+"Oh, you fibber!" Toni was not going to stand that. "They were mine, and
+you took them off my plate when I wasn't looking!"
+
+"I'm afraid they aren't much good to anyone now," said Owen with a
+smile. "They are pretty well squashed, Toni, and I fancy your frock's
+got the worst of the encounter!"
+
+"Well, it's only my tennis-frock," said Toni, her first involuntary
+qualms driven away by the friendly sound in Owen's voice. "We'll go back
+and finish now. You'll come, Owen? I'll tell Maggie to bring back the
+food."
+
+"No, don't bother." He spoke quietly. "I'll go and brush off some of the
+London dust while you and your friends finish your supper. I'll have a
+bite later on. Don't worry about me." He turned to the boy. "I'm afraid
+we're in for a storm. I felt a few drops as I came up the drive."
+
+Somewhat reluctantly, Toni left her husband and returned to the
+dining-room, where the Tobies anxiously awaited her coming. They had
+practically finished their meal, and a few moments later rose from the
+table and went into the drawing-room, where Toni presently excused
+herself and went in search of her husband.
+
+She found him in the library, where Andrew had just brought him a
+slender repast; and even the unobservant Toni was struck by the look of
+fatigue which brooded over his face as he sat poring over some
+closely-written sheets.
+
+"Owen, I'm sure you ought not to do that now. Do leave it till to-morrow
+and come and listen to some music in the drawing-room instead."
+
+She laid one small hand on the sheets as though to wrest them from his
+grasp; but he lifted her fingers aside with a rather weary gesture.
+
+"No, dear, I can't leave this." His voice was flat and toneless. "I've
+promised to send it off the first thing to-morrow morning, and there's a
+lot to be done yet."
+
+"But I'm sure you're ill! Have you got neuralgia again?"
+
+"A little--oh, it's nothing, only the thunder in the air. You might tell
+Andrews to bring me some phenacetin, will you, dear? And now, my child,
+run away to your guests--they'll think it queer if you leave them alone
+much longer."
+
+Toni turned obediently to the door, but she was not yet easy in her
+mind.
+
+"Owen, are you sure there is nothing I can do?"
+
+"Nothing, thank you, dear. I believe the storm is passing after all."
+
+He spoke the truth, for with a few more mutterings the thunder died away
+in the distance; and though the promised coolness did not come, both
+Owen and Toni were relieved by the lightening atmosphere--Toni because
+she was an arrant coward where thunderstorms were concerned; Owen
+because he felt that the clash of the elements would render the
+neuralgic pains in his head almost unbearable.
+
+For long after Toni, relieved, had gone back to her visitors he sat
+doing nothing, lacking the energy to attack his task. Now and then he
+heard a few notes on the piano, and once he opened the door to listen to
+the elder Miss Peach's rendering of a song he knew, for Mollie Peach had
+a sweet, limpid soprano voice which no amount of chatter and noisy
+laughter could destroy.
+
+When, however, the young man from Sandhurst started to shout a comic
+song, Owen shut the door hastily and wished the boy at Jericho.
+
+He began to think the visitors would never go. At first he had hoped
+that their departure would set Toni free to help him after all; but when
+the clock in the hall chimed the half hour after ten, and still the
+music and laughter continued, he knew it was useless to expect any aid
+to-night.
+
+At eleven the party broke up. The bicycles were brought round, and the
+four went gaily out of the front door to light lamps and see to
+suspiciously slack tyres.
+
+Owen had charged Toni with polite messages to the two girls; and they,
+being somewhat in awe of a real live writer, were not sorry to avoid a
+meeting with their host; but Toni seemed so loth to part with them that
+she detained them all on the steps, chattering eagerly while the stars
+winked down out of the clearing sky and the owls hooted in melancholy
+fashion from the tops of the tall trees behind the house.
+
+Finally the last farewells were said, the last appointments made; and
+Toni, yawning, turned to Andrews and bade him lock up safely.
+
+She was still yawning when she came into the library a moment later; and
+in the lamplight Owen caught a glimpse of her little red mouth gaping
+behind her hand as she came up to the table.
+
+"How sleepy I am!" Indeed her eyes were bright, like those of a sleepy
+child. "Aren't you coming, Owen? It's ever so late."
+
+"Why didn't you pack your friends off a little earlier then?"
+
+"Oh, I didn't want them to go." She yawned childishly once more.
+"Owen"--suddenly a thought struck her--"you're not cross, are you? You
+didn't mind me having them here? You know, I thought it was going to be
+a storm----"
+
+"Of course I didn't mind," he said, disarmed by her sudden appeal. "It
+was my fault for turning up unexpectedly. But now, Toni, supposing you
+run away to bed? I really must finish this work, and it's getting late."
+
+She agreed, docilely, and kissing him lightly, ran away to bed as she
+was commanded, falling asleep as soon as she was safely there.
+
+But Owen sat late in the library--sat, indeed, till the short summer
+night began to recede with stealthy, sliding footsteps before the
+victorious onrush of the dawn; and in those quiet, lamp-lit hours he
+asked himself despairingly why he had been in such haste to marry.
+
+One consolation lay in the fact that Toni herself had not the slightest
+idea that her marriage was anything but a success. She did not know that
+her idleness, her incessant chatter about trivial things, her constant
+interruptions, her unauthorized intrusions into the privacy of his
+working hours, worried him almost beyond measure.
+
+Bubbling over with youth and joy, she had no eyes for the look of
+strain, of weariness on another's face; and to her it seemed quite right
+that her husband should write and study while she danced through the
+summer hours as she would.
+
+He liked his work, she supposed; and in Toni's world it was the usual
+thing for the men to work to support their wives. But that the wives had
+equal duties, that it was theirs to share the burdens of the men's
+spiritual and mental labour, she had, as yet, no idea.
+
+"At least," said Owen wearily to himself, as he rose stiffly from his
+chair and moved to the oriel window to watch the marvel of the dawn, "at
+least I have made her happy; and as for me, it's my own mistake, and I
+must bear the consequences!"
+
+With which philosophical reflection he extinguished the lamp and went
+slowly upstairs to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+In after days Toni always looked back to the afternoon of the Vicarage
+Bazaar as the occasion on which her eyes were opened ruthlessly to the
+cruelty of life.
+
+The day began auspiciously enough. It was August now, a hot, languorous
+August, when the river lay veiled in a mist of heat, and the air, even
+in the early morning, was a sea of liquid gold. There were wonderful,
+magical nights, too, nights of mellow moonlight and sweet, mysterious
+perfumes, nights when a breath of clean, fragrance from distant
+bean-fields mingled with the richer, heavier scent of roses and Madonna
+lilies.
+
+To Toni the summer had been one long time of enchantment. From the
+moment when she opened her eyes in the dawn, and ran to the window to
+see the hills shimmering in the heat, and the river sparkling with the
+peculiar silvery sheen of early morning, to the moment when she took her
+last stroll in the garden at night, and saw the stars come out in the
+darkening sky, while the white owls hooted mournfully in the tall trees,
+all, to Toni, was happiness and joy.
+
+There is no doubt that people who are not introspective lead the
+happiest lives. Toni, not being given to wasting her time in reflection
+or self-analysis, remained happily unconscious of the fact that her life
+during that splendid summer was a very idle one. Like a good many other
+girls, she considered that a strenuous game on the tennis-court or a
+stiff pull up the river entitled her to as much subsequent leisure as
+she desired; and she enjoyed the slight fatigue consequent on these
+exertions with a virtuous sense of having really done some work which
+entitled her to a holiday.
+
+She did not see very much of her husband; and sometimes she felt, with a
+slight pang of remorse, that before their marriage she had really taken
+more interest in his work than she found time to do nowadays. Not that
+he ever seemed to expect anything from her in that way. Once or twice,
+in the earlier days of their married life, he had been led into
+discussing various features of the review with her, and she had really
+tried hard to listen intelligently, and understand what he was talking
+about; but somehow he seemed to guess that the subjects did not interest
+her; and for the last few weeks he had confined his conversations with
+her to the little trivial happenings of every day.
+
+He didn't mind, she supposed. He must get plenty of the old _Bridge_ at
+the office; and anyway it was far more of a change for him, when he came
+home, to talk of other things, even though they were in one sense less
+important.
+
+She herself was perfectly happy; and had she been asked, she would
+certainly have said that Owen was in a state of equal bliss. Moreover,
+seeing that he had chosen her out of a world of women to be his wife,
+she never stopped to ask herself whether or no she came up to his
+standard of wifely perfection.
+
+And considering her peculiarly blind and unquestioning attitude of mind
+on the subject of her relation to her husband, the awakening which
+presently came was doubly painful.
+
+The occasion, as has been stated, was that of the Vicarage Bazaar, an
+annual function held in the Vicarage gardens in the middle of August;
+and since Mrs. Madgwick, the Vicar's wife, had from motives of parochial
+diplomacy established some sort of intimacy with the young mistress of
+Greenriver, she had pressed Toni into her service as the great day came
+round.
+
+With Molly and Cynthia Peach, Toni was to assist at the flower-stall,
+which was always, so the Tobies assured her, certain of patronage; and
+by ten o'clock on the morning of the day, Toni was at the Vicarage,
+laden with masses of blossoms sent from Greenriver as a contribution to
+the stall.
+
+From that moment until the hour of lunch, to which she was detained
+almost by force, Toni worked like a veritable busy bee, running errands,
+doing odd jobs, and, in the intervals, arranging the flowers on the
+stall, until hands and feet were both weary.
+
+Having finished the hurried and uncomfortable meal, consisting chiefly
+of tinned tongue and a rather out-of-date cream cheese, Toni was allowed
+to run home to change her dress; and at half-past two precisely she was
+back, robed in the daintiest, filmiest white lawn gown, to take her
+place with the other stallholders, in readiness for the opening
+ceremony, performed, much to the delight of the entire Madgwick family,
+by a real duchess.
+
+The Duchess had little to say and said it very badly; but she was duly
+applauded and presented with a bouquet by a small white-robed child,
+stiff with starch and self-consciousness; after which her Grace
+descended thankfully from the little platform erected for her speech,
+and fulfilled the second and easier half of her duty by making the round
+of the stalls and spending a strictly equal amount at each one.
+
+By now Toni had a good many acquaintances in the neighbourhood, and was
+pleased to see Mrs. Anstey smiling at her as she inquired the price of a
+magnificent bunch of sweet-peas which had come from the gardens of
+Greenriver.
+
+Toni told her the price, and she forthwith bought the flowers, greatly
+to Toni's pleasure, for she loved her sweet-peas and had hoped, rather
+childishly, that someone nice would buy them.
+
+As she was handing over the change, Toni summoned up courage to ask
+after Miss Lynn, and Mrs. Anstey smiled.
+
+"She is very well, thanks, and coming here, I hope, in a week or two.
+She and Mr. Raymond are to be married at Christmas, as I daresay you
+have heard."
+
+"Yes, my husband told me so." Suddenly Toni blushed, remembering the
+occasion of Miss Lynn's visit to her; and at the same moment, as though
+evoked by some mysterious method of thought, the robust and
+gaily-dressed form of Lady Martin suddenly materialized before her eyes.
+
+Her ladyship was engaged in cheapening a bunch of yellow roses, while
+Cynthia Peach was endeavouring, without much success, to point out that
+their fresh beauty and scent were well worth the original price.
+
+"I'll take them if you knock off sixpence," Lady Martin was declaring
+rather aggressively; and Miss Peach glanced helplessly at her sister.
+
+"What shall I do, Toby?" she murmured anxiously. "Of course they're
+cheap already, but still I suppose they won't last----"
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Toby," whispered Mollie vigorously. "If she doesn't buy
+them heaps of people will." Aloud she said firmly--"I'm afraid we can't
+take less, Lady Martin. The Duchess bought two bunches of the same
+roses, and she didn't think them dear."
+
+Lady Martin paused, inherent meanness struggling with a snobbish desire
+to emulate the Duchess; and finally she gave in with a bad grace.
+
+As she took the roses her eyes fell on Toni, at that moment intent on
+her conversation with Mrs. Anstey; and her ladyship's ill-humour was not
+lessened by noticing the friendly glances which passed between them.
+
+She bore down upon them accordingly with outstretched hand.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Anstey, it is ages since we met!" Her piercing tones, likened
+by the Tobies to those of a macaw, strove in vain for suavity. "So good
+of you to come to this affair--such a distance for you, too!"
+
+"Oh, I always try to come when I am at home," said Mrs. Anstey gently.
+"I like to support Mr. Madgwick's parish, though I'm afraid I don't
+spend a great deal of money! Really the flowers and the home-made cakes
+are the only things that tempt me."
+
+"And surely you have plenty of flowers at home!" Lady Martin glanced
+with a disparaging little laugh at the stall before her. "I don't know
+where these came from, but they look sadly wilted already."
+
+"I'm afraid I can't agree with you there," said Mrs. Anstey, with a
+little smile. "I think the flowers are charming, especially those sent
+by Mrs. Rose's kindness from Greenriver."
+
+She indicated Toni with a friendly little gesture, and Lady Martin
+condescended, unwillingly, to acknowledge the girl's greeting. To tell
+the truth, Lady Martin had no desire to better her acquaintance with
+Toni. She had long ago intended the owner of Greenriver for her
+son-in-law; and to find this little nobody, with her provincial ways and
+her foreign-looking eyes, acting as _chatelaine_ of the beautiful old
+house in her daughter's place had an irritating effect.
+
+To make matters worse, several people had known of her matrimonial
+designs; and since the disappointment of one's friends is frequently a
+source of mirth, she had been annoyed by several tactless allusions,
+made presumably in jest, to her daughter's disappointment.
+
+So it was that she disliked Rose's wife with the hearty aversion of a
+spiteful and jealous woman; and the fact that she herself came of the
+people made her specially quick to suspect _bourgeois_ blood in others.
+
+She took a delight, now, in snubbing Toni; and presently made a point of
+asking after her cousin Miss Mibbs.
+
+"She's very well, thank you," replied Toni, wondering a little at this
+unusual condescension. "But her name isn't Mibbs, it's Gibbs."
+
+"Really?" Lady Martin drawled the word out insolently, as though to
+indicate that the name of the young woman in question did not interest
+her. "She is not here to-day, I suppose?"
+
+"No," said Toni, absent-mindedly, "she was not able to get off to-day."
+
+"Get off?" Lady Martin pounced on the strange form of the admission.
+"She is ... er ... full of social engagements?"
+
+Afterwards Toni thought it was the scent of the flowers which had made
+her feel hazy just then. Although she had an intuition that her
+interlocutor meant to be inquisitive, she had not the sense to turn the
+subject with a vague assent; and after a second's hesitation replied
+rather foolishly that her cousin's engagements were not in society.
+
+"Indeed? But it is holiday time--surely Miss Gibbs is not _teaching_
+now?"
+
+Mrs. Anstey, feeling to the full the insolence of this
+cross-examination, attempted to come to the rescue; but Lady Martin
+stood waiting so obviously for an answer that Toni felt constrained to
+reply.
+
+"No, Lady Martin. My cousin is not a governess."
+
+"No?" Lady Martin, who had the lust for cruelty inherent in all mean
+natures, pressed the point ruthlessly. "Then--I hardly see ... in the
+summer one does not work unless one is a private secretary or something
+of that sort; and I am sure your cousin"--with a pointed smile--"did not
+look in the _very least_ like a private secretary!"
+
+Suddenly Toni lost her head and her temper together.
+
+"My cousin is no one's secretary, Lady Martin. She is in a shop--Brown
+and Evans, drapers, of Brixton; and she is not here to-day because
+Thursday is the early-closing day for the shops, and this is only
+Tuesday!"
+
+There was a short silence. Even Lady Martin felt uncomfortable, for
+though she had literally goaded the girl into speech she did not enjoy
+the spectacle of Toni's flashing eyes and scarlet cheeks, nor the
+expression of mingled contempt and compassion on Mrs. Anstey's face--the
+contempt, as she very well knew, being intended for her, the compassion
+for Toni.
+
+The moment she had spoken Toni knew what she had done; that besides
+losing her temper and behaving in an ill-bred way she had given a handle
+to her enemies; and the tears were perilously near her eyes, though
+pride forbade her to let them fall.
+
+It was Cynthia Peach who came to the rescue.
+
+"How awfully jolly for your cousin," she said plaintively. "I've always
+longed to go into a shop! The girls have such a good time--and they meet
+heaps of young men! Not like us poor things who hardly ever see one!"
+
+Her evident sincerity relieved the situation. Her sister might murmur
+"Oh, _Toby_!" under her breath, and Lady Martin might sneer, but Mrs.
+Anstey patted the speaker's arm with a very kindly smile.
+
+"Poor little Cynthia! I shall have to scour the neighbourhood for young
+men and give a party," she said. "I'd no idea you were so forlorn!"
+
+"Well, there aren't many, really," conceded the elder Toby. "And I know
+what Cynthia means! That's why she was so pleased to come and sell
+flowers!"
+
+"And you are all neglecting your duties shamefully, my dears!" Mrs.
+Anstey moved aside to allow a batch of customers to approach the stall.
+"I mustn't stay here chattering. You will come and have tea with me,
+won't you, Mrs. Rose?" She turned to Toni, who was now as white as one
+of her own lilies. "I will look for you at five in the tent--you will be
+able to get off by then!"
+
+She smiled kindly at the girl as she moved away. Lady Martin had already
+gone, feeling, no doubt, that the weight of public opinion was against
+her; and as a rush of business just then overwhelmed the flower-sellers,
+Toni had no time to dwell upon the recent little scene.
+
+But Mrs. Anstey looked for Toni in vain when five o'clock came. As a
+matter of fact Toni had felt, desperately, that she could not face the
+crowded tea-tent, where doubtless she would again meet her enemy, Lady
+Martin; and she wanted no tea; she only wanted to be alone for a few
+moments, away from prying eyes, unkind tongues, that she might regain
+the equilibrium so cruelly upset.
+
+With this end in view she slipped away when the two sisters came back
+from their hurried tea; and followed a little path which she knew would
+bring her out at a quiet corner of the grounds, where a rickety old
+summer-house might afford her the temporary shelter she sought.
+
+There was no one there; and although the entrance to the little hut was
+almost choked up with weeds and tall, rank flowers, she crept inside,
+and then, sinking on to the seat in the dimmest, darkest corner, gave
+herself up to the fit of depression which had been stealing on her ever
+since her own rash avowal to Lady Martin.
+
+Suddenly she sat upright. Even here, it seemed, she was not to be free
+from interruption. She heard voices approaching, as though others were
+seeking her hiding-place; and pushing aside one of the rotting wooden
+shutters she peeped cautiously out.
+
+Fate was against her to-day. In the two persons who were drawing near,
+evidently with the intention of seating themselves upon the bench
+outside the hut, she recognized Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick; and
+instantly Toni felt a quick foreboding of evil.
+
+Something seemed to tell her that it was she whom they were discussing
+so earnestly as they walked; and Toni shrank back into the gloom,
+totally incapable of facing them in her tear-stained and generally
+dishevelled condition.
+
+She breathed a prayer that they would not attempt to enter the
+summer-house--a prayer which was answered, for the two ladies seated
+themselves on the bench outside, which was first wiped scrupulously
+clean by a large and substantial handkerchief wielded by the Vicar's
+wife.
+
+Her escape thus cut off, Toni had no choice but to remain silently
+within. She supposed, forlornly, that she ought to make her presence
+known; but she felt it almost impossible to stir; and the first words
+she heard kept her chained to her seat.
+
+"A sad pity," Mrs. Madgwick was remarking in her unctuous voice. "I
+always felt there was something just a little--well, what shall I call
+it?--second-rate about the girl. Mr. Rose being a gentleman in every
+sense of the word makes the whole thing so much worse."
+
+"It does." Lady Martin's thin lips tightened. "I too knew from the first
+that the young woman was not a lady--why, on the occasion of my
+welcoming call I found her entertaining this very cousin to a repast of
+tea and shrimps--or was it periwinkles? Something vulgar, anyway, and I
+am nearly sure I saw a plate of watercresses as well."
+
+"Dear me," said the vicar's wife acidly. "What class does the girl
+spring from? I always thought it was only servants or shop-girls who ate
+things of that sort--with vinegar--for tea!"
+
+"Well, we have Mrs. Rose's own word for it that her cousin is assistant
+in a shop." Lady Martin laughed disagreeably. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was employed in the same manner before her marriage. It is really
+remarkable what matches these pert shop girls make nowadays. Men seem to
+prefer them to our daughters, though it is hard to understand."
+
+"Hard? Impossible!" The Vicar's wife, thinking of her own plain and
+middle-aged daughters, spoke snappily. "As you say, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+was some little shop-assistant----"
+
+"Ah, no! I remember now!" Lady Martin spoke mysteriously, and Mrs.
+Madgwick looked up sharply. "Mrs. Rose was not in a shop. It was not
+there that Mr. Rose met her. As a matter of fact she was his typist."
+
+"His typist! Ah!" Toni, listening breathlessly, could not fathom the
+significance of the lady's tone.
+
+"Of course he would never have married her if he had not been so sore
+about Miss Rees." Lady Martin spoke fluently. "I had the whole story of
+that affair from a friend of my daughter's who was intimately acquainted
+with Miss Rees."
+
+"But--who is--or was--Miss Rees?" The speaker little knew how Toni
+blessed her for putting the question.
+
+"The girl he should have married--the Earl of Paulton's niece." Lady
+Martin paused a moment to brush away an inquisitive gnat. "It was quite
+a romantic affair, at first. Mr. Rose was devoted, positively devoted to
+her, and she is really a charming girl, handsome, accomplished, in every
+way a contrast to the poor little creature he has married."
+
+"But why, if he were so devoted----"
+
+"Didn't he marry her? Well, it seems he had a motor smash, knocked
+himself up and had to go away for a time; and whether, as I have been
+told, she was glad of the excuse to break her promise, or whether there
+was some other reason, I don't know, but anyhow she threw him over and
+married Lord Saxonby without telling her first _fiance_ a word about
+it."
+
+"And he took it to heart?" Mrs. Madgwick felt exhilarated by this
+authentic peep into the lives of the great ones of the earth. "Of course
+it must be galling to be thrown over for another man--though when it is
+a Lord----"
+
+"Well, a Lord's no worse than another man," said Lady Martin rather
+ambiguously. "But they say there was a terrible scene--Mr. Rose
+reproaching the girl and threatening to kill Lord Saxonby, and making
+all sorts of wild threats. My daughter's friend had a maid who had been
+with Lady Saxonby, and she told her all this."
+
+"Ah, then of course it's true." Mrs. Madgwick, having a mind which
+delighted in gossip, did not quarrel with the source of information.
+"But I don't yet see why Mr. Rose married this girl. Surely there must
+have been plenty of ladies he could have had."
+
+"Ah, but they all knew he'd been jilted," said Lady Martin wisely.
+"Besides they say he had sworn to marry the first woman who would have
+him, to get even with Miss Rees, you know, and I haven't a shadow of
+doubt this girl threw herself at his head."
+
+"Very likely," agreed the Vicar's wife charitably. "Girls of that class
+are so pushing. But as a wife for Mr. Rose and the mistress of
+Greenriver she is eminently unsuitable."
+
+"Dreadfully so," sighed Lady Martin. "I feel so sorry for the poor man
+tied to a common, empty-headed little thing like that. They tell me she
+is an absolute fool--and really in these days of evening classes and
+polytechnics there is no excuse for such lamentable ignorance as she
+displays. I hear that when they go out to dinner she sits as dumb as a
+fish--or else commits such shocking solecisms that her poor husband
+blushes for her."
+
+"Really? I have had very little conversation with her," said the other
+woman judicially. "And beyond noting her deplorable unsoundness on
+religious matters I have had few opportunities of probing her mind."
+
+"Her mind? She hasn't one," snapped Lady Martin. "She is one of those
+mindless, soulless women who are simply parasites, clinging to men for
+what they can get--a home, money, position--and give nothing in return
+because they have nothing to give."
+
+"It is indeed sad for Mr. Rose," said Mrs. Madgwick compassionately. "So
+dreadfully boring for a clever man to be hampered with a silly wife--and
+one with such unpresentable relations, too. What was her cousin like?
+Quite--quite, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, quite," agreed Lady Martin. "A red-faced, blowsy young woman with a
+large bust and a pinched-in waist. Just the sort of girl you'd expect to
+find in a draper's shop in Brixton. But now, I really feel quite rested.
+Suppose we return to the Bazaar? I have one or two little purchases to
+make, and possibly by now the things will be reduced in price."
+
+The Vicar's wife rose with alacrity, and the two ladies moved away,
+discussing the probable financial result of the Bazaar, and Toni was
+left alone with her new knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+At half-past five on that same afternoon Jim Herrick and his dog were
+strolling across the meadows leading from the river to the village of
+Willowhurst.
+
+The sky, which had been brilliantly blue all day, was beginning to be
+overcast, causing the energetic helpers at the Vicarage Bazaar to throw
+anxious glances towards the gathering clouds, and Herrick, who was a
+fair weather-prophet, foresaw a storm before sunset.
+
+As he threw his leg over the stile leading into the last meadow, he
+paused suddenly.
+
+Approaching him was Owen Rose's wife; and something in her mode of
+progress struck him as peculiar. She was coming along at a sort of fast
+walk, breaking now and then into a few running steps, stumbling
+occasionally and even stopping dead for a second before resuming her
+hurrying advance.
+
+Her eyes were downcast; and she was quite close to him before she
+realized his presence. When she did look up he saw that she was crying,
+openly, sobbingly, as a child cries, the tears running in little
+channels over her cheeks and dropping unheeded where they would.
+
+Even when she saw that she was not alone, Toni could not check those
+treacherous tears; and something told Herrick that she was craving for
+sympathy, that here was no sophisticated woman of the world, to whom the
+encounter would spell annoyance, but a forlorn and solitary child crying
+out its heart over some real or fancied tribulation, to whom a kindly
+word, a friendly greeting would bring only comfort.
+
+He jumped off the stile and approached her, hat in hand.
+
+"Mrs. Rose? You're in trouble over something? Will you tell me what's
+wrong--perhaps I can help you somehow?"
+
+To his relief he saw that his impression had been correct. She turned to
+him desperately, like a child seeking consolation.
+
+"Mr. Herrick"--she sobbed out the words--"I'm so miserable--I don't know
+what to do!"
+
+"Come, that's bad!" He spoke kindly. "Well, suppose you rest here a
+moment and dry your eyes?"
+
+She fumbled blindly in the front of her gown and then gave up the search
+with a childish wail.
+
+"I've not got a handkerchief--I've lost it somewhere!"
+
+"Never mind, I have one." He drew out a large silk square as yet
+unfolded, and pressed it into her hand. "There, use that--and then we'll
+have a talk."
+
+She dried her eyes obediently, though fresh tears threatened to make her
+obedience futile; and then, still clinging to his handkerchief, she
+leaned against the stile and tried to regain her self-control.
+
+"Well?" His tone, with its gentle sympathy, was balm to poor Toni's sore
+heart. "Come, little lady, what's the trouble? Let's see if we can't
+find a way out of it together."
+
+She turned her eyes on him as he spoke, and he was almost startled at
+what he read there; for surely there was a hint of almost womanly
+suffering in their usually childish depths; and he knew intuitively that
+this was not the thoughtless, light-hearted girl he had previously known
+as Toni Rose.
+
+"Mr. Herrick"--she spoke in a low voice, which in spite of all her
+efforts shook a little--"just now at the Vicarage Bazaar I heard Lady
+Martin and Mrs. Madgwick talking about me; and they said such terrible
+things that I think my heart will break!"
+
+"Oh, come, Mrs. Rose!" His tone had, as he intended, a bracing effect.
+"Hearts don't break so easily as that! Whatever those two chatterers may
+have said, you must not let it affect you so seriously."
+
+"They said I was common--and ill-bred--and ignorant." The words startled
+her hearer, though she spoke them with a kind of dreary quietness which
+was not without pathos. "They said Owen only married me because some
+girl--an earl's niece--had thrown him over and he wanted to get his own
+back--they said he was ashamed of me, that he blushed for me when we
+went out to dinner, and everyone pitied him for having such a common,
+empty-headed wife."
+
+"My dear Mrs. Rose----" For a moment Herrick's wits deserted him beneath
+this recapitulation; and before he could hit on the right words, Toni
+had begun again.
+
+"They said it was a pity for a clever man to be tied to an ignorant
+wife, that I bored him to death; and Lady Martin said I was a parasite,
+clinging to him for money and food, and that I had spoilt his life and
+ruined his career----"
+
+"Oh, that is nonsense!" Herrick shook off the mental paralysis which had
+held him tongue-tied, and spoke vigorously. "No man's life was ever
+spoilt by the possession of a pretty, loving wife--like you."
+
+"Ah, but you don't understand." She spoke drearily. "I _have_ been a
+fool, I suppose. I was so happy myself that I never thought of Owen. I
+mean I just went on loving him--thinking he loved me. I didn't bother
+about his work and his career--it never struck me I should be doing Owen
+harm by my ignorance. I knew I wasn't clever enough to help him, but I
+thought that didn't matter so long as we were happy...."
+
+"But you _were_ happy?"
+
+"I was." A big tear rolled forlornly down her cheek. "It was so
+lovely here--like a beautiful dream--the summer and the river and the
+roses ... every day was better than the last and I thought it would
+always be like that ... I had never dreamed I could be so happy ... it
+was just like a fairy-tale, I used to think sometimes I was like an
+enchanted princess, living in a wonderful castle--with my prince...." Her
+voice sank to a whisper, and she gazed out over the flower-strewn meadows
+with a wide-eyed glance which saw nothing.
+
+Herrick's big heart, which in spite of his life's tragedy held still an
+infinite compassion for all weak and helpless things, was wrung with
+pity for this poor little creature, whose eyes had been opened so
+cruelly to the fact that life was not all an enchanted fairyland; and
+when he spoke his deep voice was very gentle.
+
+"See here, little lady, you mustn't take all this to heart. These women
+were talking, you must remember, without any intimate knowledge of your
+affairs; and we all know that gossip is eminently uncharitable. Besides,
+loyalty to your husband should make you believe in him and his love."
+
+"I do." She stopped abruptly, then went on again more impetuously. "But
+the worst of it is, I believe it is true, what they said. I _am_
+ignorant and silly. I hate going out to parties; I never feel at ease, I
+make foolish mistakes. Owen has been very kind, he has only laughed, but
+it must have been horrid for him to have such a foolish wife. At home,
+too ... it's quite true I haven't helped him. I've been out all day
+enjoying myself, and not bothering about his work. I did at first, and I
+made such stupid blunders that he used to have to do it all over again."
+
+"Well, that's nothing." He spoke lightly. "After all, you are not a
+literary expert like your husband, and you can't be expected to do his
+work."
+
+"No." She caught her white teeth fiercely in her lip. "But lots of women
+could have helped him. This one they spoke of--they said she was clever,
+accomplished, just the sort of wife for a man like Owen--not a stupid
+little dummy like me. And"--she paused, and every tinge of colour faded
+out of her face--"they said I was common--not a lady. Mr. Herrick, am I
+common? Am I--not a lady?"
+
+With her eyes on his face, eyes full of a desperate hurt, Herrick felt a
+wild, impotent desire to strangle the two mischief-makers who had
+changed this girl's joy into bitterness, had turned a child's enchanted
+castle into a structure of pasteboard; but when he spoke his tone was
+admirably light.
+
+"My dear child, now you are talking absolute nonsense. Common? Well, to
+me commonness consists in common behaviour, mean tempers, a nasty,
+spiteful attitude of mind, a discontent with one's surroundings, a petty
+jealousy of others--oh, I hate a common mind as much as anyone in the
+world--but to use the word in connection with you is merely an abuse of
+language and not to be treated seriously."
+
+She was half perplexed, half comforted.
+
+"But a lady, Mr. Herrick? Am I or am I not--a lady?"
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "that again depends on the use of the word. Mrs.
+Swastika, my excellent charwoman, is referred to by her friends as 'the
+lady who looks after that queer man in the bungalow'; and when my usual
+milkman was taken ill the other day, my modest pint of milk was brought
+by a pig-tailed girl who announced, 'I'm the young lady as takes round
+Mr. Piggott's milk when he's sick!' So that you see the term 'lady' is
+capable of wide interpretation."
+
+"But _am_ I?" Her wistful tone craved for reassurance and Herrick gave
+it promptly.
+
+"If by 'lady' you mean a woman who is fit to mix with any one in the
+land, yes," he said. "Of course you are."
+
+She gave him a wan little smile, and dried away a few tears with the aid
+of his handkerchief.
+
+"I don't know where mine is," she said, half-crying, half-laughing. "I
+must have dropped it somewhere."
+
+"Or the Boo-Boos took it." He smiled at her puzzled expression. "Don't
+you know those dreadful little people--the people who hide one's pencils
+and one's handkerchiefs, put the clock back so that one misses one's
+train--or an appointment--and invariably send an organ-grinder outside
+one's window when one is hard at work and can't bear a noise!"
+
+"But why do you call them Boo-Boos?" She might have been a child asking
+for the explanation of a fairy-tale.
+
+"Well, they aren't Brownies, because _they_ are a good little folk. And
+the Pixies, though their tricks are much the same, pursue their
+avocations out of doors on moor or hill; so that the only name I could
+find for them was just that--Boo-Boos!"
+
+He laughed at her bewildered face.
+
+"Come, Mrs. Rose, don't you ever feel conscious of their teasing
+presence? Don't you lose your hair-pins, or your brooches, or whatever
+corresponds to our collar-studs? And have you never noticed how a pen
+with which you are about to sign an important document, a will or
+something of the kind, has changed mysteriously into a pencil--generally
+without a point--when you pick it up?"
+
+He had succeeded in his intention. His nonsense had won her to a smile;
+and the eyes which a few moments before had looked like those of a
+tortured woman were once again the eyes of a child.
+
+"Do you know, Mrs. Rose"--Herrick felt there was danger in prolonging
+the situation once she had attained a comparative serenity--"I'm afraid
+it's going to rain! Don't you think we had better be moving homewards?"
+
+She rose at once.
+
+"Just as you like." She spoke with the utmost docility. "I suppose we
+had better go. I haven't an umbrella--have you?"
+
+"No--and your dress is thin." He looked at her white gown, which had not
+been improved by her incarceration in the mouldy summer-house, and
+showed traces of the dust and dirt of the bench on which she had
+crouched while the two women talked outside. Altogether Toni presented a
+pathetic little figure; and Herrick felt a sudden desire to know her
+safely at home, hidden from inquisitive eyes.
+
+He called Olga, who had been playing an enticing game of hunting quite
+imaginary rabbits in the hedgerow; and when the great dog bounded up in
+obedience to his summons, he jumped over the stile and held out his hand
+to help Toni. She climbed over rather lifelessly, catching her white
+skirt on a splinter of wood and tearing a rent which filled Herrick with
+dismay.
+
+"You've torn your pretty dress! What a shame--will it be quite spoilt?"
+
+"Oh no, I can mead it," she returned indifferently, "and any way it
+doesn't matter." To Toni nothing mattered just then.
+
+"That wretched splinter was to blame. I'm afraid I didn't notice it," he
+said contritely.
+
+"Oh, it wasn't your fault. Perhaps it was one of your queer creatures,
+the Boo-Boos," said Toni with a wintry attempt at a smile; and Herrick
+was struck with the readiness with which she had adopted his whimsical
+theory.
+
+As they went across the fields beneath the now cloudy sky, he tried to
+keep the conversation at the same light level; but although Toni strove
+to adapt herself to his mood, it was evident that her thoughts were
+still circling round the revelation which had shattered her fairy
+castle; and just as the chimneys of Greenriver came in sight above the
+tall tree-tops, she asked him a question which had been formulating in
+her mind throughout the walk homewards.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, do you think I could improve myself somehow--I mean could
+I read some books, or do something to make myself a more suitable wife
+for Owen? You know"--she caught her breath--"I can't bear for him to be
+ashamed of me, or bored with me--and they said--those women, that he was
+both."
+
+For a second Herrick thought of treating the matter lightly, assuring
+her that what the women had said was of no importance whatever. Then he
+knew there was only one course open to him, and he met sincerity with
+sincerity, candour with candour.
+
+"It would be very easy for you to do a little reading," he said quietly.
+"Of course a literary man like Mr. Rose forgets that everyone has not
+his fine taste in books; and on the other hand, it is very easy to
+acquire a liking for poor stuff. But there are lots of authors who would
+delight you with their books, and if I can give you any help I shall be
+charmed to make you out a list."
+
+"Will you?" Her eyes lighted up for a second. "There are hundreds of
+books in the house--the library is supposed to be rather remarkable, you
+know, and I expect lots of the books you mean are there."
+
+"I've no doubt of it." He remembered hearing of the unique collection
+which Greenriver housed. "Tell me what sort of books you like? Travel,
+history, romance--what?"
+
+The light died out of her eyes.
+
+"I don't know." Her voice sounded flat. "I don't think I like anything
+much--except stories. Novels, I mean," she added hastily.
+
+"Well, there are plenty of very fine novels," he said cheerily. "And no
+one need be ashamed of liking that form of story-telling. I always fail
+to understand the attitude of the person who says 'I _never_ read
+novels!' as though he were claiming a tremendous superiority, whereas
+he's only showing himself a narrow-minded and unimaginative person!"
+
+"But reading novels won't make me clever?" said Toni rather wistfully.
+
+"Well, probably not, if you read nothing else," he owned. "But there is
+plenty more stuff for you to read. What about poetry?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Well, you'll soon get to like it," he said smiling. "You needn't flesh
+your maiden sword in Browning, you know. Anyway, I will send you a list,
+shall I?--of books that I think you'll like. Can you read French?"
+
+Blushing, she confessed her inability to do more than recognize a French
+quotation here and there; and a new thought filled her mind.
+
+"Do you think if I were to study French, Mr. Herrick? I've got all my
+old books, and I could do an exercise every day."
+
+Herrick was half inclined to smile, but she was so desperately in
+earnest that he refrained.
+
+"A capital plan," he said heartily, thinking to himself that the harder
+she worked the less time she would have for fretting.
+
+"And if I got to know more poetry I might be able to help Owen with his
+articles," she said, smiling happily, reassured by his friendly counsel.
+"Of course they were quite right--I _am_ stupid and ignorant, but if I
+work hard I think I ought to be able to make myself useful to Owen,
+oughtn't I, Mr. Herrick?"
+
+"Don't work too hard," he said, half jesting, half in earnest. "You
+don't want to turn yourself into a blue-stocking, do you? Don't
+over-develop your brain at the expense of your heart and soul, as so
+many learned women have done--to their ultimate despair."
+
+"There's no fear of that." Toni spoke in a low voice, and again he
+caught a glimpse of something disconcerting in her clear eyes. "Those
+women said I _had_ no soul. But that's nonsense, because everyone has a
+soul."
+
+"But not everyone realizes it," he said. "Some people go through life
+and never know they have more than a body, which claims attention while
+the soul waits, yearningly, for recognition."
+
+He had spoken half to himself, his thoughts wandering for a moment from
+the girl beside him to another girl whose soul had been, to him at
+least, as a sealed book.
+
+"I have been like that," said Toni surprisingly. "But I have a soul--and
+for Owen's sake I am going to prove it. Only"--she faltered find her
+brave accents died away--"perhaps it is too late, after all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And though, when he left her at her own door, refusing her invitation to
+enter, she had regained much of her usual manner, her last words haunted
+Herrick all through the long, lonely evening.
+
+He knew quite well that there was a good deal of truth in the accusation
+brought against the shrinking Toni. Although he lived a solitary life,
+it was impossible altogether to avoid contact with one's neighbours
+along the river; and he had heard sundry bits of conversation concerning
+Toni which went to prove that Owen Rose's choice of a wife was freely
+criticized in the neighbourhood. People agreed that she was certainly
+surprisingly pretty, but she did not belong to the class which filled
+all the big houses round about. The charitable said she was shy, the
+malicious called her _gauche_, without perhaps knowing exactly what they
+meant; and everyone who had talked to her asserted that she had no
+conversation, and did not appear in the least a suitable wife for a
+clever man like Mr. Rose.
+
+"Poor little girl!" Herrick rose from his seat with a sigh at the end of
+the long, dreary evening. "I'm sorry for her--like the little mermaiden
+of Hans Andersen, she is ready--now--to dance upon knives for the
+possession of a soul! Well, she'll win her soul all right, but God grant
+the winning of it doesn't end in tragedy!"
+
+He stood for a moment gazing into vacancy with a half-tender,
+half-cynical smile on his lips. Then he extinguished the lamp, called
+Olga from her resting-place on the old divan, and went slowly to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Herrick duly sent Toni a list of such books as he thought suitable for
+her purpose; and then began for Toni a succession of long and, if the
+truth be told, tedious days spent, in Owen's absence, in the quiet,
+stately library, while the August sunshine streamed in through the big
+mullioned windows, and turned the books, in their many-hued bindings,
+into pools of rich, dim colour, lighted here and there with the flash of
+gold, the gleam of purple and scarlet.
+
+Toni used to wish, half-rebelliously, that the sun would not shine in so
+gloriously, turning the polished floor into a golden sea, and bathing
+her, as she sat at the table, in a flood of dancing sunbeams.
+
+It was so hard to sit there reading, trying in vain to dig out the heart
+of some book of old stories, sagas and the like, or struggling
+helplessly to understand a poem written in lovely but surely
+incomprehensible metaphors, and full of words which, though she realized
+their beauty, still conveyed little to her intelligence.
+
+Herrick had perhaps slightly over-estimated her powers. He had never
+before come in contact with quite such an undeveloped mind. His own
+married life had been too short for him to grasp fully the
+characteristics of his wife, and although in some respects she had not
+been unlike Toni, she had been differently educated. Her mind had
+perhaps little depth, but she was quick and versatile; and owing to her
+surroundings she had been able, always, to adopt the shibboleth of the
+social set to which she belonged by right of birth.
+
+So it was that Herrick, with all his sympathy, all his intuition, failed
+to plumb the shallows of Toni's mind. He gave her Rossetti when he
+should have given her Ella Wheeler Wilcox; and George Eliot when he
+should have introduced her to Jane Austen and her gentle sister, Miss
+Burney. The "Idylls of the King," clothed in Tennyson's poetic garments,
+would have won her interest--instead he advised her to read Malory, and
+read him she obediently did, until her brain ached with the clash of
+swords, and her eyes were wearied with the glitter of the dragons'
+scales or the silver mail of the knights who fought to the death for the
+damsels they served.
+
+Knowing her love of outdoor life, he sent her to Borrow, but even
+"Lavengro" failed to charm the lonely student, to whom the sun, the
+moon, the stars were all "sweet things" indeed, when no printed page
+intervened between her and their sweetness.
+
+It was weary work, toiling there day after day, while the river flashed
+and gleamed in the sunlight, and Jock ran barking hither and thither
+under the windows, as though imploring her to leave those musty haunts
+and come to chase the elusive yellow sunbeams on the lawn.
+
+At first she had been used to take the big, high-backed chair at the
+head of the table, and spreading out her books, refuse to cast so much
+as a look at the sunny world without; but after four or five mornings so
+spent she gave in suddenly and betook herself to the little table in the
+window, where from her seat she could watch the tall white lilies
+swaying in the breeze, or catch the fragrance of the mauve and scarlet
+sweet-peas which climbed their hedge just out of sight.
+
+It was weary work, and Toni's eyes and head ached when the luncheon-bell
+rang to set her free from her self-imposed task; but she did not give
+in, and after her hasty meal she would return to the library and
+struggle till tea-time with half a dozen French exercises, which by the
+aid of a key she sternly corrected when finished.
+
+When Owen arrived home, shortly before dinner, Toni was worn out with
+the combined effects of her mental exertions and her lack of fresh air;
+but Owen, who was turning over in his mind the material for a novel, was
+not in a mood to notice her unwonted silence, and was relieved when,
+after dinner, she went early to bed and set him free to spend the
+evening in his sanctum, making notes and generally planning out the book
+he felt he could write.
+
+To the novelist there comes, at the inception of a book, a period in
+which the things and people around him recede into the background before
+the people and things he seeks to create; and it is scarcely to be
+wondered at if at these times the writer's vision, which is turned, so
+to speak, inward, fails to realize the significance of the scenes being
+enacted beneath his mortal eyes.
+
+And it was so with Owen. During that strenuous fortnight of Toni's
+laborious study, Owen was so fully occupied with the visions of his
+brain that he had little time to spare for the flesh and blood inmate of
+his home; and though he was always kind to Toni, he did not notice that
+the laughter was absent from her lips, the joyful light of happiness
+quenched in her eyes.
+
+The idea of his book was beginning to absorb him very thoroughly.
+Hitherto he had never had the time to devote to purely imaginative work;
+but now that the _Bridge_ was going ahead and his series of articles for
+outside papers was finished, he felt the call of fiction very strongly.
+
+His story was concerned with the conflict between East and West, with
+the life of an Indian prince who, after his English education, was
+called upon to rule his dead father's kingdom; and Owen's impressions of
+India, gathered during a stay of some months in that magic land, formed
+a brilliant setting for the half-political, half-romantic story he had
+to tell.
+
+Barry, who was, of course, in the secret, was intensely interested in
+this new departure; and had no doubt whatever as to the certainty of
+Owen's success. Indeed Owen himself was surprised at the ease with which
+he did work he felt to be good. By nature a critic, he would have been
+the first to detect signs of carelessness, of over-fluency even in his
+own writing; but the narrative, with its felicitous turns of expression,
+its lucid, clear-cut phrases, slipped naturally from his pen; and he
+felt to the full the truth of Stevenson's couplet:
+
+    "Bright is the ring of words
+    When the right man rings them."
+
+One afternoon Owen invited Barry to motor down and dine with them at
+Greenriver; and Barry accepted the invitation with alacrity, for he had
+not seen Toni for some weeks and was anxious to know how life was
+treating her.
+
+He hurried over his work for the afternoon, and Miss Loder, the
+secretary whose services he and Owen shared in common, was secretly
+surprised, not to say shocked, by his flippant behaviour over a
+monograph supplied by a valued contributor.
+
+"It's a bit stodgy, eh, Miss Loder? You can feel the ecclesiastical hand
+upon the pen-holder, can't you?"
+
+Miss Loder was the daughter of a clergyman, whose large family had all
+been educated with a view to doing some sort of work in the world, and
+as was only natural she resented the implied censure on the Church.
+
+"If purity of English and clarity of thought are stodgy, Mr. Raymond, I
+suppose you are right. But what a treat this is after the article of
+young Bright's! That was hardly in keeping with the tone of the
+_Bridge_, if you like!"
+
+"Young Bright's article--why, Miss Loder, it was a gem! It was whimsical
+in tone, I grant you, perhaps here and there a trifle frivolous, but it
+was splendid in its way. It simply sparkled with wit and a kind of
+delicate satire."
+
+"You thought so? I'm afraid I didn't." Miss Loder, who at Cambridge had
+been known as an excellent debater, closed the subject by her tone; and
+Barry smiled quietly at her self-sufficiency.
+
+Truth to tell, he had never much liked Miss Loder. While admitting her
+absolute competency for the post--for she was in her way a brilliant
+young woman--he found her unsympathetic, narrow-minded, wedded to her
+own standards of thought and behaviour; and he was wont to assert that
+her clear grey eye struck terror to his soul.
+
+Miss Loder had been intended for a scholastic career: but although she
+had passed through her College life with distinction, she found that
+after all teaching was not her vocation.
+
+She was absolutely devoid of patience, and wanting in the tact, the
+kindly firmness, the warm sympathy, which go to equip the perfect
+teacher; and although she might have a subject at her very finger-tips,
+so to speak, she found it almost impossible to hand on her knowledge so
+that her class might share it with her.
+
+Once she realized the fact, Miss Loder very wisely withdrew from the
+field in which she was unable to shine; and since the death of her
+father had rendered it imperative that she find some remunerative work
+without delay, she was glad to accept the post which Owen offered her
+through a mutual friend.
+
+Having once intended to take up journalism, she was conversant with the
+mysteries of typewriting and shorthand, and her excellent classical
+education rendered her particularly fitted for the post of secretary to
+the editor of the _Bridge_ and his coadjutor, Barry Raymond. Her own
+literary taste was admirable, if a trifle academic; and Owen found her a
+really useful person with whom to discuss the various departments of his
+beloved review.
+
+In appearance, Miss Loder was of middle height, with good features, grey
+eyes of an almost disconcerting frankness, and fair hair which she
+parted on her forehead and coiled neatly round her head. She was
+twenty-nine years of age, but looked younger; and she generally wore a
+well-cut grey skirt and severely plain white shirt, which somehow suited
+her rather boyish appearance.
+
+At five o'clock on this particular afternoon Barry bade her good-day,
+and joined Owen in the street outside the office, where the big motor
+stood throbbing impatiently beneath its owner's hand.
+
+"Jump in, Barry. If we have a good run we might take Toni on the river
+for an hour. Poor little girl, I'm afraid I've rather neglected her
+lately."
+
+Barry took his seat, and under Owen's skilful guidance they were soon
+out of the City tumult, speeding smoothly away in the direction of
+Richmond.
+
+It was just beyond Staines that the accident happened.
+
+Through no fault of his own Owen collided with a badly-steered motor
+negotiating a sharp bend; and though no one else was injured it was
+discovered, after all was over, that Owen had sustained a fracture of
+the right arm.
+
+The owner of the other car, who was only too palpably a novice in the
+art of driving, confounded himself in apologies. He was indeed so
+manifestly upset and distressed to find what his carelessness had done,
+that in the midst of his own natural annoyance Owen found time to assure
+him of his complete forgiveness; and the irony of the situation was made
+evident when it leaked out that the offender was a surgeon, resident in
+the district, who practised the art of motoring in his spare moments.
+
+He insisted on Owen returning with him to receive all the care and
+attention his medical skill could supply; and thus it was that when the
+car, driven by Barry, finally drew up in front of the hall door of
+Greenriver, Toni, running down the steps to greet her husband and his
+visitor, was startled to observe Owen, a trifle pale, descend from the
+car with his right arm supported in a black silk sling.
+
+"Owen!" Every vestige of colour died out of Toni's face. "What has
+happened? You've had an accident!"
+
+"Nothing much, dear!" He spoke reassuringly. "Collided with another car
+outside Staines, and I've broken my stupid arm. But that's all."
+
+"Quite enough," struck in Barry, smiling. "No one else was hurt, Mrs.
+Rose--not even the old idiot who was to blame."
+
+"It's nearly dinner-time, I suppose," said Owen, looking up at the hall
+clock. "We started early to take you on the river, Toni, but I'm afraid
+it's too late now."
+
+"And you're disabled," said Barry. "You'll be dependent on our good
+offices for your dinner; won't he, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+And so it proved, for like a good many people Owen felt utterly at a
+loss with only one available hand. To Toni fell the task of cutting up
+his food, and her big eyes grew anxious as she noted his lack of
+appetite.
+
+As a matter of fact Owen felt disinclined for food, for anything but
+solitude and rest. His head was aching, and his arm was beginning to
+pain him so severely that he feared sleep would be out of the question.
+
+After dinner he yielded to the joint entreaties of Toni and Barry and
+went to bed; leaving his wife to entertain his guest until the car
+should come round to take him to the station.
+
+The evening had closed in with rain, and the two sat by one of the
+widely-opened windows in the drawing-room, looking out into the dusky
+garden, and listening to the soft patter of the rain on the foliage
+bordering the lawn. There was no wind, and against the cloudy sky the
+tall trees stood like black giants holding out immovable arms, while
+from the flowers, refreshed by the shower after their hot, thirsty day,
+a grateful fragrance rose to sweeten the damp, cool air.
+
+For some time Barry and his hostess sat in silence. Toni had taken her
+favourite low chair, and her hands lay idly in her lap, the wedding-ring
+which was their sole ornament gleaming in the lamplight. To Barry's eyes
+her youthful prettiness had a slightly dimmed effect. Without losing
+anything of its virginal purity of outline there was a hint of
+weariness, of almost jaded fatigue, which startled Barry. He thought
+always of Toni as some joyous woodland nymph, a pagan it might be, a
+hedonist by nature and training; and while he had regretted, formerly,
+her lack of worldly and womanly experience, it gave him something of a
+pang at heart to find that this little pagan creature, this pretty,
+wild, untutored Undine could apparently lose, for the moment at least,
+her joy in the "sweet things" of life. That in the process she might be
+slowly and painfully realizing her soul he did not stop to think. To him
+the fatigue in her face was pathetic; to Herrick it would have been
+enlightening.
+
+"Mr. Raymond----" Toni spoke at last, and he threw off his absorption to
+listen. "If Owen's arm is broken, how will he do his work?"
+
+"That is just what I've been wondering," said Barry. "Of course the
+ordinary office work, the work of the _Bridge_, will go on all right
+without him for a bit. I mean--well, you see I can look after things
+pretty well, and we have an excellent secretary in Miss Loder."
+
+"But his own work? He is writing a book--a novel, isn't he? He said
+something about it--though he hasn't read any of it to me," added Toni
+rather wistfully.
+
+"I don't suppose he's got very far," said Barry, wondering whether she
+felt slighted by the omission. "Owen is a quick worker, I know, but he
+has only been at it for a week or two."
+
+"Oh, I know," she replied hastily. "But how will he go on with it? He
+can't write with his left hand, can he?"
+
+"Not very well." An idea struck Barry, and without stopping to think he
+gave it utterance. "Look here, Mrs. Rose, you can help Owen no end! You
+must take it down for him. You could easily scribble it off and then
+type it out afterwards, couldn't you?"
+
+Into Toni's eyes flashed a light of pure joy.
+
+"Oh, do you think I could! I'd do anything--anything to help Owen," she
+said eagerly. "It wouldn't be like his articles, full of quotations and
+things that want verifying, would it? I mean even a stupid girl--like
+me--could do it, couldn't she?"
+
+"You're not stupid," he rallied her gaily. "Look how quickly you learned
+to read proof! And even the superior Miss Loder doesn't type as well as
+you!"
+
+"Doesn't she!" Toni's depression had vanished like magic, and her eyes
+were sparkling as she looked at him. "Oh, if I could! But I don't
+believe I dare offer, Mr. Raymond! Do you think if _you_ were to mention
+it to Owen----"
+
+"Oh, it would come much better from you!" Barry, whose interference on
+the subject of Owen's marriage had not been too well received, shrank
+from further officiousness. "If you propose it, I'm sure Owen will jump
+at it; and he won't mind his enforced helplessness half so much if he
+can get on with the book."
+
+For a moment Toni said nothing.
+
+The rain had ceased, and in the darkened sky one or two pale-gold stars
+were gleaming. The air was full of sweet, moist scents; and a big white
+owl flew by the window, looking weird and ghostly in the dusk. A moment
+later they heard him hoot from his eyrie in one of the tall tree-tops,
+and Toni shivered a little.
+
+"I can't get used to their queer cries," she said in a low voice.
+"Sometimes I hear them in the night, and they make me shudder. Owen
+laughs at me, and quotes Shakespeare, about the owl and the baker's
+daughter, but I hate them, all the same."
+
+"I rather like them," said Barry lightly. "Anyway, you mustn't drive
+them away; it's the very worst of luck to turn them out of their
+accustomed dwelling-places!"
+
+"Then, they'll have to stop, I suppose," said Toni practically. "But I
+shall go on hating them all the same!"
+
+Barry laughed and turned the conversation back to her proposed
+collaboration with Owen; and Toni was only too eager to discuss the
+subject, which lasted, indeed, until Barry said good-bye.
+
+His last glimpse of her was as she stood on the steps calling out her
+farewell; and he carried away a clearly-cut impression of the slight,
+blue-robed figure, her black hair a little loosened round her eager,
+vivid face, her eyes full of a new and ardent resolution, which had
+quite banished the look of sadness and fatigue he had noticed earlier in
+the evening.
+
+It was evident his suggestion had fired her heart and mind, and for a
+moment, as he was borne swiftly down the black avenue on to the high
+road, Barry asked himself if he had done well to light that lamp of hope
+and high desire in her soul.
+
+If Owen should refuse her aid, if he should let her see that he had no
+desire for help from her, no exportation of any adequate service, the
+flame which Barry's words had lit would be cruelly extinguished, leaving
+in its place only the blank and utter darkness of disillusionment.
+
+And once removed from her beseeching presence, Barry wondered, rather
+hopelessly, if indeed Toni's help would be of any value. She was ready,
+eager indeed, to be of use; but was she capable of work such as Owen
+would require?
+
+Against his will Barry had a vision of Miss Loder in Toni's place--not
+as wife, but as assistant--and he confessed to himself with a groan that
+the highly-finished product of school and college would probably prove
+herself of far more practical use than the impulsive, emotional, and
+alas! unliterary Toni.
+
+But the harm was done now. He had lighted the torch in Toni's soul, and
+he could only hope that no adverse breath would blow to extinguish its
+flame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Toni, I have a proposal to make. Suppose you stop typing for a little
+while and listen to me. Will you, dear?"
+
+Toni, all the colour slipping out of her face, put down the sheet she
+had just taken up and waited obediently to hear Owen's proposal.
+
+This was the ninth day of their mutual labour; and even Toni's optimism
+could not assert that the experience had been successful.
+
+She had tried so hard, poor Toni. With every nerve strained to the
+utmost, with her mind emptied of anything which did not bear upon the
+subject in hand, she had striven to help Owen, to take down from
+dictation the words, the sentences, in which his thoughts were clothed.
+
+She had learned not to look up expectantly at every pause, since she had
+realized that to the harassed author, struggling for the one right
+phrase, that bright expectancy exercised a deadening effect; and she
+never even raised her head when silence fell--the silence in which Owen
+weighed and sifted his material, selecting this, rejecting that, and
+embodying the result in just the one glowing, clean-cut sentence which
+would effectually tell.
+
+But Toni found herself, all unwillingly, handicapped, by her
+non-comprehension both of the matter and method of Owen's creative work.
+
+A plain, straightforward story Toni could assimilate easily enough.
+Something primitive in her responded, also, to the call of the
+world-wide emotions of love, hatred, revenge; but Owen's book dealt with
+none of these; and the subtle philosophy, the carefully interwoven
+motives of political expediency and half-reluctant patriotism were alike
+uninteresting and unintelligible.
+
+Where she did not understand, it was natural she should transcribe
+incorrectly; and although it was easy for Owen to revise the typewritten
+script after each day's labours, he was perpetually checked in his
+stride, as it were, by the necessity of repeating or explaining some
+incident or allusion by which Toni was frankly puzzled.
+
+Naturally, too, the girl was nervous; and Owen's habit of striding to
+and fro as he dictated made things, as she said desperately to herself,
+far worse. In vain she quickened her pace in a wild attempt to keep up
+with him. Faster and faster went her pen, more and more indistinct grew
+the scribbled words; and in the hour of stress all ideas of spelling and
+punctuation took to themselves wings and fled.
+
+But worse even than her comparative failure with the merely mechanical
+portion of the work was her mental inability to follow the working of
+Owen's mind. Handicapped by the necessity of dictating his book, the
+author often found himself at a standstill for some word which eluded
+him; and although he encouraged Toni to make suggestions, it was very
+seldom that she ventured to do so. The work went badly in consequence.
+Owen used to think sometimes that if Toni's mind had been more attuned
+to his, if they had shared ideas, had held the same standard in fiction,
+he might have gained something from this enforced collaboration; but as
+things were it became an irritation, effectually stopping the flow of
+his ideas; and although he did his best to keep Toni in ignorance of his
+feelings, she was bound to realize that the work was progressing in a
+lame and halting fashion.
+
+Therefore she was not surprised when Owen broke it to her, gently, that
+he was thinking of a change of secretary.
+
+"You see, dear,"--he spoke very kindly, feeling indeed very pitiful
+towards the girl, whose fluctuating colour showed her mental
+disturbance--"this sort of work demands a special training. You are
+doing your best, I know, and I am very grateful to you, but you can see,
+can't you, that I am getting on badly?"
+
+"Yes, Owen." She spoke very slowly, and for a moment Owen wondered
+whether it would be possible to continue the present arrangement. Then
+common sense and creative ardour combined to utter a decided negative,
+and feeling himself to be brutal he hurried on.
+
+"Unfortunately I shan't be able to use my arm for some weeks. That
+stupid old doctor ought to pay my secretary's fees, oughtn't he, since
+he's responsible for my helplessness!"
+
+He laughed; but Toni said nothing, and after waiting a second he
+continued:
+
+"You've been most awfully good and patient, dear, and I'm afraid I've
+been horribly irritable over the job. But I don't think it's any good
+our going on. I'm wearing you out, and losing a lot of time into the
+bargain."
+
+"You are going on with the book?"
+
+"Of course, yes." His matter-of-fact assent caused poor Toni a pang.
+"But I think I shall have to borrow Miss Loder from the office for a few
+weeks. She is used to the job, you know. She told me she had once taken
+down an eighty-thousand-word book, typed it, and seen it through the
+press, because the author was nearly blind. So she would really know all
+about the work."
+
+"Yes." Toni wondered, dully, why the sunshine which poured over her held
+no warmth to-day.
+
+"Well, I'll drop a line to Barry and ask him if he can spare her for a
+bit. There's a rather smart typist in one of the other rooms could take
+her place, and I might not want her for very long. As far as the book
+itself is concerned, I can't work fast enough to get it all done."
+
+"Yes." Sitting there, repeating the word, parrot-wise, Toni looked very
+forlorn; and something in her attitude struck Owen with a perhaps
+exaggerated feeling of remorse.
+
+"Well, that's settled," he said cheerfully, "and after this you needn't
+lose your roses sitting indoors so much. I'll tell you what--let's have
+a day off, shall we?"
+
+She nodded, hoping he would not see the tears in her eyes.
+
+"Right. We'll have the car--Fletcher will have to drive--and go for a
+good long run into the country. We'll have lunch out and get back for
+dinner. You'll like that?"
+
+"Very much." She rose. "I'll go and get ready, shall I?"
+
+"Yes. We'll start at once. By Jove, I shall enjoy a holiday myself!"
+
+Throughout the day Owen surrounded Toni with an atmosphere of kindness
+which he trusted might dispel the soreness he guessed she was
+experiencing; but somehow he failed in his object.
+
+Although the day was superb, a still, golden August day, when the summer
+seemed to pause, arrested in its flight by the fulness of perfection to
+which it had brought the land, neither Owen nor Toni was sorry to return
+to Greenriver. As the car stopped in front of the door Toni cast a
+rather wistful look at the jasmine-covered old house she had learned to
+love; and for a moment she felt as though she saw herself as those other
+women had seen her--the ignorant, frivolous, common little person whom
+Owen had married out of pique.
+
+Never in all her life had Toni felt so humble as on this evening, when
+she entered the house which was her home. What had she in common with
+the beautiful old hall, with the broad staircase leading to the spacious
+gallery, lighted now by the Ten Little Ladies, whose light pierced the
+gloom like so many kindly little stars?
+
+The pictures, the bowls of roses, all the inanimate things she had grown
+to look upon as friends--it seemed to her to-night that they looked
+coldly to her, resenting her presence as an interloper; and in one
+queer, horrible flash of insight Toni seemed to visualize the woman who
+should have been the _chatelaine_ of Greenriver--a tall, dignified,
+beautiful woman, with the bearing of a princess....
+
+"What's the matter, dear?" Owen had seen her shiver. "Are you cold? Yet
+it's a warm night."
+
+"No, thank you, I'm not cold." She spoke gently. "I--I think I'm a
+little tired."
+
+She picked up a brown envelope from the table.
+
+"Look, Owen, here's a telegram for you."
+
+"So there is. Open it for me, will you, dear?"
+
+She did so and handed him the flimsy paper. His eyes brightened as he
+read.
+
+"Good old Barry! He's wasted no time--Miss Loder will come down
+to-morrow by the ten o'clock train. I must send the car."
+
+He went out and spoke to the chauffeur, returning to say: "Will you
+arrange for some lunch to be sent up every day, Toni? She can get off by
+the four train, I daresay, and that will give us a good long time for
+work."
+
+"I will see to it," Toni said quietly.
+
+"Thanks, dear. Let me see, there's half an hour before dinner. I might
+go and put everything in order as far as we've gone, so that we can
+start fair. I mustn't waste her time when she gets here."
+
+"No. Of course not."
+
+Although she tried to speak casually, a note in her voice struck Owen
+rather unpleasantly. He looked at her sharply in the lamplight; and
+something in her child-like attitude, as she stood motionless, her hands
+hanging by her sides, gave him a sudden twinge of something like
+reproach.
+
+He looked round quickly. They were alone, and acting on impulse Owen
+stooped, and putting his left hand under her chin, tilted her face
+upwards until their eyes met.
+
+"Come, Toni." He had seen the tears in those wistful eyes of hers.
+"What's the matter? You are not hurt about the work, are you? If you
+would rather not have the woman, say so, and we will go on as we have
+been doing. It will get easier in time."
+
+"Oh no!" Toni spoke quickly, though her lips quivered. "Indeed I'm not
+hurt. I--I'm sorry I'm such a fool. I'm only a hindrance to you instead
+of a help."
+
+Although he had no conception of the wound dealt to her by two
+thoughtless women, Owen realized that she was in earnest; that she
+understood, and regretted, her failure to give him the help he needed;
+and for perhaps the first time since his marriage Owen pitied his wife
+sincerely. After all, it was he, not she, who was to blame; and being
+still in the dark, Owen thanked God that at least she had no idea he had
+married her without giving her the love she had had a right to expect.
+
+"Hush, Toni dear." He held her to him with his sound arm. "After all, I
+want you for my wife, not my typist. Miss Loder may be able to do the
+work I want done better than you, because she's used to it; but you're
+my wife, Toni, and what does anything else matter?"
+
+He did not know whether his words brought her any comfort. She smiled,
+faintly, and returned the kiss he gave her before he let her go; but
+when she was alone in her quiet room Toni wept till she could weep no
+more.
+
+She hated Miss Loder from the first.
+
+Her self-possessed manner, her cool, grey eyes, above all the suggestion
+of competency which lurked in every line of her trim, well-tailored
+figure, all alike filled Toni with a sharp sense of resentment which she
+felt to be both childish and stupid.
+
+Without perhaps intending it, Miss Loder conveyed a sense of
+superiority. Toni was made to feel that this newcomer knew just why she
+had been sent for--understood that it was in reality to Toni's
+incapacity that she owed her present position; and Toni felt, with a
+miserable intensity, that Miss Loder looked upon her as some brilliant
+sixth-form girl would survey a kindergarten child, with a kindly,
+half-amused, half-contemptuous tolerance.
+
+Never had Toni so desperately longed to be clever as during that first
+week of Miss Loder's secretaryship; and never had she felt herself to be
+so ignorant, so childish, so futile a companion for a man like Owen.
+
+At first Miss Loder had eaten her lunch in solitude. It was Toni's
+suggestion that she should join them in the dining-room, and Owen,
+supposing that Toni felt it a little discourteous to condemn the other
+woman to a lonely meal, agreed cordially to the plan.
+
+Over her luncheon Miss Loder laid aside her rather scholastic, manner,
+and talked pleasantly in a quite refreshingly frivolous way; but try as
+she might Toni never felt at ease in her presence; and gradually she
+dropped out of the conversation until she sat for the greater part of
+the meal in silence.
+
+Owen, absorbed in his book, did not notice her taciturnity, and though
+he responded politely to Miss Loder's chatter, it was evident he was not
+captivated by her undoubted social gifts to the extent of forgetting the
+purpose of her presence.
+
+As for Miss Loder, Toni had guessed her attitude towards Mr. Rose's wife
+correctly enough. To the clever, highly-trained mind of the Girton girl
+Toni's whole personality was so appallingly feeble.
+
+"The brains of a hen, and the soul, probably, of a chorus-girl." So Miss
+Loder, quite unjustly, summed up Toni. "Married the man to get out of a
+life of drudgery, I expect, and is as much of a companion to her husband
+as a pretty little Persian cat would be. Why _will_ these nice men marry
+such nonentities, I wonder? She is bound to be a drag on him all her
+days."
+
+For all her shrewdness Miss Loder never dreamed that her estimation of
+Toni was clearly evident to the person concerned. In her fatally orderly
+mind Toni was classified as a "type"--the type of the pretty, useless,
+childish wife; and Miss Loder never looked for any variation of the type
+when once she had labelled the specimen.
+
+That his now secretary did her work admirably Owen realized with intense
+gratitude. For all her modern self-assertiveness Miss Loder was clever
+enough to realize that in Owen she had met her intellectual master; and
+being at heart a veritable woman she never attempted to challenge the
+supremacy of the masculine mind.
+
+The work progressed quickly; and gradually, as the fascination of his
+work grew upon him, Owen became more and more absorbed in his book. He
+was always planning some incident, rehearsing, mentally, some situation
+or some telling dialogue; and the outer life around him receded into a
+dim and misty distance, in which Toni's pathetic little figure was
+almost lost.
+
+Toni did not give in easily. She made feeble tentative attempts to share
+his author's rapture. She asked him timid little questions, to which he
+gave smilingly vague answers; and once she even suggested that he should
+read to her the chapters he had already finished.
+
+Owen refused, quite gently, but inexorably; and Toni felt a miserable
+certainty that he did not think her capable of understanding or
+appreciating his work.
+
+The day this happened she ordered the car and went for a long and
+solitary excursion into the country. Of late she had not used the car,
+preferring to hang wretchedly about the house and garden, half-resenting
+the absorption of the two workers shut up in the library, not daring to
+interrupt their toil, yet longing, vaguely, for the courage to enter
+boldly and claim her share of the mutual labour.
+
+But to-day she felt that she could stand the house no longer. A great
+desire was upon her for the sunny places of the earth, and in her
+present mood the slow, gliding traffic of the river held for her no
+attraction. She longed for the swift, exhilarating rush through the air
+which, the car would give her; and Fletcher took her orders with
+alacrity.
+
+"A long round--yes, ma'am." He deliberated. "It's not three yet, and I
+suppose you don't care to be 'ome much before dinner-time?"
+
+"No, I want to be out for hours," she said feverishly, and Fletcher was
+only too pleased to oblige her.
+
+Even Toni's depression could not hold beneath the tonic of that glorious
+ride. It was a splendid September day, when the country lay bathed in
+floods of rolling sunshine, and there was just enough bite in the air to
+set the blood racing through one's veins, and bring the sparkle to one's
+eyes.
+
+Toni sat upright in the car, gazing out over the golden fields to the
+misty hills beyond, and everything she saw filled her with the true and
+vivid happiness which the lover of the "sweet things" of the earth knows
+so well.
+
+A field of yellow corn ablaze with scarlet poppies, a group of trees
+among which the copper beech blazed with a glory as of the sunset, a
+glimpse of a wide common all aflame with sweet-scented gorse ... now and
+again a hint of the river flashing and sparkling beneath the shining
+sky--Toni, the ignorant, despised Toni, knew how to appreciate the
+glories of the earth as the brilliant Millicent Loder could never do.
+
+On and on they rushed. Fletcher, who in common with the other servants
+respected Owen and adored Toni, was only too glad to please his young
+mistress by taking her far afield; and he utilized his wide knowledge of
+the countryside in her service, treating Toni indeed to such a panorama
+of the fertile country as she had never yet been privileged to behold.
+
+They were running through a little village on their homeward way when a
+tyre burst with a loud report; and Fletcher pulled up with an expression
+of dismay.
+
+"I'm sorry, ma'am--I shall have to delay you a bit while I put on a new
+tyre." He looked round him rather doubtfully. "I suppose you wouldn't
+care to take a cup of tea while I put it right?"
+
+"Mrs. Rose!" A cyclist had halted by the car, and looking up Toni saw
+Herrick standing beside her. "Had an accident? Nothing serious, I hope."
+
+"Tyre burst, sir," announced the chauffeur, who with the rest of the
+village looked upon the shabby inhabitant of the Hope House as a
+harmless eccentric. "I was just asking my mistress if she would care to
+have some tea while I repair it."
+
+"A capital idea," said Herrick, whose amused eyes saw quite well the
+chauffeur's estimate of him. "Mrs. Rose, may I take you to get some tea?
+One of these cottages will supply it, I daresay--or there is quite a
+decent little inn over yonder."
+
+"Thanks very much." Toni was thirsty, and she liked Herrick. "I'd love
+some tea--if you'll have some too."
+
+"To be sure I will." He propped his bicycle carelessly against a fence
+and opened the door of the car. "Which shall we try? A cottage or the
+inn?"
+
+In the end they decided for the inn; and leaving Fletcher to set to
+work, Herrick escorted Toni down the village street to the door of the
+old-fashioned inn which called itself, rather ambiguously, the "Cock and
+Bottle."
+
+The landlady, who spoke with a Northern burr which made, Herrick glance
+curiously at her, came bustling into the flagged passage to greet them,
+and when she had taken their order for tea she ushered them into the
+parlour with a hospitable smile.
+
+"I'll fetch tea in a minute," said she, "t' kettle's boilin' an' I've a
+cake on the griddle just about fit."
+
+When she had gone Toni turned two perplexed eyes on Herrick.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, what does she mean? Does the cake fit the griddle, or
+what?"
+
+Herrick laughed lustily.
+
+"Oh, you Londoner--you poor little Southern kid! Haven't you ever been
+in Yorkshire--good old Yarkshire, as they call it--the country of tykes
+and gees and men that can't be beat?"
+
+"Oh, is that Yorkshire!" Toni coloured with excitement. "Mr. Herrick, my
+father came from there! All his people did--but they're dead now, and
+I've never been North!"
+
+"Really?" He was to the full as much interested in the coincidence as
+she. "Well, our good landlady is certainly a Yorkshire woman--and I hope
+she'll give us a real Yorkshire tea!"
+
+His hope was fulfilled when the buxom Mrs. Spencer returned, which she
+speedily did. She carried a tray laden not only with cups and saucers,
+but with an assortment of cakes which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+Yorkshire child.
+
+"Them's crud cheesecakes," said she, beaming on the pair, "an' these fat
+rascals is to-day's bake--and the griddle cakes an' all." She laid the
+table deftly. "I'll fetch the tea-pot and t' cream, and then ye can help
+yersens."
+
+When she put down the tea-pot, however, Herrick detained her with a
+question.
+
+"You don't belong to these parts, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+"No, sir." She shook her head blithely. "I'm a Yorkshire woman, praise
+the pigs! Married a South-country man, I did--and often wished as I
+'adn't--when 'e wur alive, that's to say."
+
+"Since his demise you've altered your mind?"
+
+"Well, he left me pretty well provided for," returned the late Spencer's
+widow comfortably, "an' I won't say as 'e wur an out-an-out bad 'usband.
+But somehow I can't abide South-country folk."
+
+"They say we Yorkshire tykes are a rough lot," said Herrick, smiling,
+and she took up the challenge at once.
+
+"Oh, that's all my eye and Betty Martin," she returned in the vernacular
+of her youth, "I grant you there's a lot of soft-sawder about the
+fellers down here, but they ain't in it wi' us up in Yorkshire."
+
+"Where do you come from, Mrs. Spencer? I'm a dalesman myself;
+Wensleydale's my native land."
+
+"I'm from Thirsk, sir. My mother was washerwoman to lots of the gentry
+round, and my people still lives there, in a cottage on the Green."
+
+"Ah, I know Thirsk--fine old church there, one of the finest in the
+North Riding. You've never been there, Mrs. Rose?" He turned to include
+Toni in the conversation, and found her wide-eyed and flushed with
+excitement.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, my people lived near Thirsk--in a farm at Feliskirk in the
+hills. Oh, do you think she knew them?"
+
+Mrs. Spencer, who had hitherto overlooked Toni, turned to her in
+surprise.
+
+"If you'll tell me the name, miss--ma'am. We knew most of t' people in
+t' neighbourhood."
+
+"Gibbs--their name was Gibbs." She spoke breathlessly. "The house was
+called the Green Farm. Oh, do you know anything about them?"
+
+"Gibbs? The Green Farm?" Mrs. Spencer stared incredulously. "Why, I knew
+old Gregory Gibbs well--and a fine old fellow he was too. And Fred and
+Roger--why, I knew 'em both. They used to come down into t' town on
+market days with their dad, and a pair of jolly little lads they were
+an' all--especially Roger."
+
+"Roger was my father," said Toni quietly, and Mrs. Spencer uttered an
+exclamation.
+
+"You don't say! But Roger, he ran away--leastways e went off to furrin
+parts and we 'eard as 'ow 'e'd married an Heyetalian young lady out
+there. And you are really Roger Gibbs' bairn?"
+
+"Yes; he married my mother--an Italian girl--in Naples. I was born
+there. But they're both dead now," said Toni sadly.
+
+"Oh, I'm sorry to 'ear that!" Mrs. Spencer spoke sincerely. "To think as
+I should live to see young Roger's lass 'ere in my 'ouse! You don't
+favour the Gibbs, miss, if I may say so."
+
+"No, Mrs. Rose is more like her mother's people, I expect," said
+Herrick, noticing as he spoke how pale Toni looked now that the flush of
+excitement had died away. "But if she has never been to Yorkshire, at
+least she can taste her native cakes, eh, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+Thus reminded of her duties Mrs. Spencer bustled away to find some
+"preserve," which was only brought out for specially honoured guests;
+and Toni took the seat Herrick placed for her at the table.
+
+"You'll pour out for us? That's right. I'm afraid our good landlady will
+want to stay and chatter! Do you mind?"
+
+"Oh, no--do let her stay and talk about my people!" pleaded Toni, and
+this Mrs. Spencer was very ready to do.
+
+Standing by the table, resting her empty tray on her ample hip, she
+poured forth a stream of disjointed memories to which Toni listened
+eagerly. Mrs. Spencer, it seemed, had had an aunt living in the village
+with the Gibbs; and as a child she had often stayed there; so that she
+had known Toni's father well.
+
+"Of course, t' Gibbs were always a cut above us," she owned frankly. "My
+feyther was a foundry hand till he died, and wasn't too steady neither;
+and when 'e died my mother took in washing. There was a trick young
+Roger once played 'er about a washing-basket ... what was it now?" She
+paused to meditate. "Nay, I can't think on this minute ... but she allus
+said as 'e wur nowt but a bowdekite!" She laughed, jollily, at the
+recollection, and pressed a cheesecake on Toni with a heartiness there
+was no resisting.
+
+Thanks to her chatter time flew; and Herrick was just beginning to think
+of the waiting chauffeur, when there was a sudden spatter of rain
+against the window panes; and looking out he saw that while they had
+been talking a storm had been brewing.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little, Mrs. Rose!" He pointed to the
+rain, now streaming down in a steady torrent. "It won't be more than a
+shower, I daresay."
+
+"Oh, and Fletcher's outside in it." Toni put down her cup. "Mr. Herrick,
+could I tell him to come inside and have some tea, do you think? We've
+been out for hours, you know."
+
+"Certainly. I'll see about it."
+
+He went out and brought in the chauffeur, delivering him over to Mrs.
+Spencer's good offices; and then returned to find Toni sitting rather
+disconsolately by the window, looking out at the rain as it splashed
+into the quickly-forming puddles in the village street.
+
+The sudden storm, the silence which fell after Mrs. Spencer's departure,
+or the early-falling dusk, had brought back all her misery to Toni's
+mind, banishing in a flash all her recent joyful animation; and when,
+after observing her for a moment, Herrick came forward, he saw that a
+blight had fallen over her late gaiety.
+
+She did not hear his step--thought, perhaps, that he had stayed to speak
+to the chauffeur or chat with the landlady; and all at once such a sense
+of bitter desolation swept over Toni that she began to cry softly to
+herself in the dusk.
+
+Instantly Herrick began to back noiselessly towards the door; but Fate,
+or perhaps a malignant Boo-Boo, pushed a footstool in his path, over
+which he stumbled with an involuntary ejaculation.
+
+Startled, Toni turned round and saw him; and cursing his own clumsiness,
+Herrick judged it best to come forward openly.
+
+"Your man is having some tea, under Mrs. Spencer's kindly auspices." He
+smiled. "It seems she 'don't reckon nowt' to our combined appetites, so
+I hope Fletcher will make up for our shortcomings."
+
+He sat down in the low window seat, not far from Toni, and with a smile
+asked permission to smoke.
+
+"Of course--please do." She spoke indifferently.
+
+"Your husband isn't an inveterate smoker--like me?" He lighted a
+cigarette gratefully. "I thought most literary men were slaves to
+tobacco."
+
+"I think Owen smokes a good deal," she said. "And especially now that he
+is working so hard. Miss Loder is quite shocked at his cigarettes."
+
+"Miss Loder?" The question slipped out before he had time to reflect.
+
+"My husband's secretary." She broke off abruptly, as though unwilling to
+say more. Then a great flood of bitterness rolled over her spirit, at
+the memory of her own failure; and mingled with it came a sore envy and
+distrust of the clear-eyed, capable woman who had supplanted her.
+Together, the two proved irresistible; and with an almost child-like
+instinct to confide in the man whom she felt to be trustworthy, Toni
+turned to Herrick and poured forth her sad little story of
+disappointment and bitter disillusionment.
+
+Out it all came, her desire to help her husband, and the dread awakening
+to the fact of her own incompetency. Herrick, listening, realized, as
+perhaps Owen could not have done, what a blow to Toni's hopes the
+failure of the experiment had been; and remembering her earlier
+confidences, when she had appealed to him to reverse the judgment passed
+upon her by two cruel women, he began to wonder whether Toni would ever
+find any happiness in the life which had once looked so glorious to her
+youthful eyes.
+
+He said very little till she had finished, though now and again, a quiet
+question made clear some point involved by her own incoherency; and from
+the bottom of his heart he pitied the girl who was beginning to realize
+that though she might be the wife of the man she loved, she would never
+be his real companion and helpmate until she could attain something
+nearer to the high standard of perfection for which he looked.
+
+"This Miss Loder--you like her?"
+
+"I believe--sometimes--I almost hate her," said Toni drearily. "She is
+everything I am not, you see. She is clever, well-educated, amusing. I
+think I hate women who tell amusing stories," she added vindictively,
+biting her lip with her strong little teeth.
+
+"But she is not personally objectionable to you?" Herrick wished to
+hear, if possible, how she treated her employer's wife.
+
+"No--at least she doesn't mean to be," said Toni, striving to speak
+fairly. "But I know she thinks I am a fool, and pities Owen for having
+married me. I believe she thinks I ought never to speak to Owen, never
+ask him any questions about the book. She was quite--short--with me
+yesterday because I went in to speak to Owen during the afternoon!"
+
+"Oh, but that's absurd!" Herrick felt a quite unreasonable dislike for
+the superior Miss Loder. "After all you are his wife--she is only his
+secretary--and husbands and wives have a claim on each other which no
+sane person would deny."
+
+"Yes." She did not look convinced, and he tried again.
+
+"Don't forget, will you, that a wife holds an absolutely unique
+position. She is the one person in the world to whom the man is
+answerable for his actions, just as she is answerable to him for her
+own; and if she is--hurt--or annoyed by any proceeding on the part of
+her husband, she has a perfect right to express her wishes on the
+subject."
+
+"You mean I have a right to ask Owen to send away Miss Loder?" Toni was
+always direct in her statements. "I suppose I have--if I wanted to--but
+I don't. It isn't Miss Loder who makes me miserable. It's the whole
+hopeless situation."
+
+Her words startled him.
+
+"Not hopeless, Mrs. Rose!"
+
+"Why not?" In her eyes he read again that hint of a tortured woman soul
+which he had glimpsed before. "It isn't very hopeful, is it? My husband
+wants help and sympathy, which I cannot give him; and yet because he
+married me he can't ask anyone else for it except in a business way."
+
+"But--you don't mean:----" Herrick paused, aghast at the horrible idea
+her words had conjured up; and Toni, with the new quickness which
+suffering was teaching her, hastened to reassure him.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean he wants to marry any other woman," she said proudly.
+"I am his wife--unfortunately for him, perhaps, but he will always be
+true to me. Besides, Miss Loder isn't that sort," she added, rather
+vaguely.
+
+"Then what----"
+
+"Oh, you don't understand!" Her sad voice robbed the words of all
+petulance. "Though you are most awfully kind--and clever--you see you
+aren't married, Mr. Herrick, and that makes a difference."
+
+"Who told you I was not married?" His tone was studiously quiet, yet the
+girl looked at him quickly, wonderingly.
+
+"I don't think anyone told me--but I thought you weren't." She
+hesitated, then went on hurriedly. "I used to think that was why you
+were so--so sad. I mean--oh, I know you laugh and talk and are kind, but
+somehow I felt all the time there was a sadness underneath...."
+
+She broke off, roused from thoughts of her own trouble by the fear that
+she had given him pain; and for a moment neither spoke.
+
+Then, with a glance at the window, down whose panes the rain was still
+streaming, Herrick took a sudden resolution.
+
+Perhaps if he told this girl the story of his own marriage, opened
+before her eyes the book on whose pages was inscribed so tragic a
+history, she might take courage anew, realizing that her own pitiful
+little story held no hint, at least, of shame or disgrace, no hint of a
+mutual disillusionment which only death could adjust.
+
+He rose abruptly.
+
+"I'll just speak to your man," he said. "I don't think it would be wise
+to start yet, but I'll see what he says, shall I?"
+
+She let him go, wondering whether her last speech had vexed him; and in
+a moment he returned.
+
+"Fletcher agrees with me that it will be wise to wait a quarter of an
+hour," he said; "the rain is not nearly so heavy, and the sky is growing
+lighter."
+
+"Very well." She spoke listlessly, and his resolve was strengthened.
+Sitting down on the window seat again, he asked her a question.
+
+"You didn't know I was married? Would you care to hear the story of my
+marriage? It isn't a very happy story, but it might serve to show you
+what a different thing your marriage will yet turn out to be."
+
+"I should like to hear what you can tell me," Toni said slowly; and
+after a moment's hesitation Herrick began the story which he had rightly
+called unhappy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+"It is just four years since I met the girl who was to be my wife. I was
+taking a holiday in Ireland at the time; and daring a visit to an old
+friend in Dublin I was introduced to a certain Mr. Payton, an Irish
+squire, who had brought his two daughters up from the country for a few
+weeks' gaiety. Well, we took a fancy to one another. I was always a
+queer sort of chap, hating convention and all the trammels of society,
+and I liked the old man at once. He was a big, jolly old boy, a thorough
+sportsman and Irish to the backbone. Poor as a rat, yet living somehow
+like a Prince; hospitable to a fault, and looking on debts and duns in
+the light of a joke."
+
+He paused for a second, then went on quietly:
+
+"I went back with him and his two girls after their Dublin visit was
+ended. They were all very kind to me, and there was a sort of charm
+about the old castle where they lived, always in difficulties, yet
+keeping open house, and managing, in some mysterious way, to have the
+best of everything. There are people like that, you know--people who,
+without possessing a penny, manage to acquire pounds' worth of
+everything. It's an art, and old Squire Payton had it at his
+finger-tips."
+
+Outside the rain still fell. Inside the room everything was very quiet.
+
+"Well, the end of it was that I fell in love with Eva Payton. She was
+just eighteen--a bewitching age, I used to think, and as pretty as a
+picture. Golden curls that were generally tied up with a blue ribbon,
+big Irish eyes, put in, as they say, with a smutty finger, a little
+mouth all soft curves, the tiniest, whitest teeth--oh, there's no
+denying she was a beauty; and she made my heart beat faster every time
+she looked at me."
+
+He had spoken rather dreamily, and Toni sat still, fascinated by this
+authentic peep into another's life; but with a sudden rather harsh
+laugh, Herrick resumed his story in a different tone.
+
+"Well, we were married. In those days I had a little money--not a great
+deal, but I managed to make a fair income by painting. I never told you
+I painted, did I? Well, I did--portraits chiefly; and made quite a
+decent bit of money."
+
+Toni, who knew nothing of art and artists, never suspected that she was
+in the company of one of the best-known portrait-painters of the day;
+and Herrick was well content to keep her in ignorance.
+
+"So we were married and came back to London. We had a house in
+Kensington--quite an unfashionable locality, but one of the big,
+old-fashioned houses you find there, with a large garden which was worth
+a fortune, to my way of thinking. But I soon found that my wife wasn't
+satisfied to live quietly, out of the world, as it were. She hankered
+after a house in St. John's Wood, among the 'other artists' or in
+Hampstead among the rich people. She didn't want to be stuck down among
+frumps and dowds, she said. West Kensington was all very well for women
+who were churchy, given up to good works, but she wanted to be in a
+lively, social, bridge-playing set; and she moped and pined so in our
+quiet life that I gave in and we moved to a much smarter locality."
+
+Toni, her eyes fixed on his face, said nothing when he paused; and after
+a minute he resumed his narrative.
+
+"Well, from the first it was an unlucky move--for me. The house was too
+big, and required a lot of extra furnishing. The studio wasn't as good
+as my other one had been, and there was only an apology for a garden.
+But Eva had her wish. People called on her, and finding her pretty,
+vivacious, clever in her quick Irish way, they took her up and made a
+fuss of her. She was invited here and there, and of course her personal
+expenditure rose in consequence. Unfortunately my work didn't increase
+in proportion. I had the bad luck to fall ill--the only time in my life
+I've ever had an illness--and for several months I was unable to touch a
+brush. Of course I had a little money put by, and with ordinary prudence
+we should have pulled through all right. But Eva had never learned
+prudence. She had lived all her life in an atmosphere of debt and
+dunning creditors and over in easy-going old Ireland no one cared a
+straw if one were in debt or no. So to my horror when I was convalescent
+I found my foolish little wife had been running up enormous bills.
+Everything was in arrears. The housekeeping money had gone to pay for
+her daily amusements, the servants were unpaid, the tradespeople
+clamouring."
+
+He laughed, rather drearily.
+
+"Well, I sold out a little stock I had and set matters right or so I
+thought. I put the rest of the money in the bank and told Eva she must
+be rather careful. But imagine my horror when one day she came to me,
+whimpering with fright, and confessed she had several personal bills
+unpaid and the creditors were pressing her. At first she did not tell me
+the whole truth. She prevaricated, showed me one or two bills not made
+up to date, and was vague about the different amounts. Finally she owned
+that she was in debt for nearly five hundred pounds."
+
+"Five hundred pounds!" It was Toni's first interruption.
+
+"Yes. Sounds a lot, doesn't it? We'd only been married a year. Still
+there was nothing for it but to realize some more capital, and I did it,
+and then asked for the bills. She brought them unwillingly, after a vain
+attempt to get me to entrust the payment to her; and to my surprise and
+relief, I found that three hundred would cover the lot."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Oh, it didn't--by a long way. By dint of a good deal of persuasion, I
+got it out of my wife that the rest was owing to different friends for
+bridge and racing debts. Of course I had forgotten that my little Irish
+wife was a born horse-lover, and, I'm sorry to say, gambler; and I ought
+not to have been surprised. But I was. And I'm afraid I was a bit
+brutal. You see I couldn't help thinking it was rather hard that the
+money I'd worked for was to be squandered; and I spoke rather sharply to
+the poor child."
+
+Toni, listening, thought he was justified in speaking sharply, but she
+did not venture to say so.
+
+"I scolded her first--she was like a child expecting to be sent to
+bed--and then I got a statement of her debts and paid them. But I told
+her, at the same time, that I should never do it again. I promised to
+help her in little ways if the allowance I made her was insufficient;
+but I pointed out to her that my income wouldn't stand the drain of huge
+payments like these; and she cried pitifully and promised, solemnly,
+that she would never play for money again."
+
+"And she did?" Toni's interest in the story was her excuse.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Of course. It was in her blood. Gambling in one form or another she
+must have. Someone told me afterwards--after the crash--that it was an
+almost uncanny sight to see my wife, looking like a child with her curls
+and her big grey eyes, sitting at the bridge table playing feverishly
+into the small hours of the morning; or talking to bookmakers' clerks
+with an evidently inborn knowledge of the ways of horse-racing. I was a
+fool, of course. Instead of sitting in my studio painting portraits, I
+ought to have gone about with her--and yet, if I had, there'd have been
+no money for either of us."
+
+He sighed heavily.
+
+"Well, the crash came eventually. Twice more I paid her debts and twice
+she swore to give up her folly. Then I was sent for to a big place in
+Wales, to paint some portraits--those of the three daughters of the
+house--and of course I had to go. I had been there a month when I got an
+urgent wire from my solicitors to return at once; and back to town I
+went, to see what mischief my little wife had been getting into."
+
+"And you found----"
+
+"I found the house in an uproar. Waiting for me was my solicitor, and
+with him a Jewish-looking man who was the head of a large jeweller's
+business in the West End. Also--in another room--were a detective and a
+well-known pawnbroker. Now--can you reconstruct the story they told
+me--between them?"
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"No, I can't imagine what it was."
+
+"You wouldn't." For a moment a sort of tenderness softened his tone,
+which hardened again as he went on. "It seems my wife had never, from
+the beginning, told me the truth, with regard to the extent of her
+liabilities. Besides those I knew of, she owed two or three hundreds to
+a money-lender, to whom she had gone in a panic on first discovering she
+was in debt. He had lent her the money, at an enormous rate of interest,
+and as she had been unable to pay anything he was now pressing for
+immediate payment. Distracted by his threats, and by the other bills
+which her extravagance had run up, too terrified to appeal to me after
+her solemn promises, Eva conceived a really desperate plan. Taking
+advantage of my absence she went to Jordan and Green, the jewellers, and
+asked if she might have a very fine pearl necklace on approval. They
+demurred a little, politely, at first, and asked her name, whereon she
+gave it, without hesitation, as Lady Eileen Greenlay, an Irish girl with
+whom she had been acquainted in Dublin, and to whom she bore a striking
+resemblance. She gave them Lady Eileen's address in Hamilton Terrace,
+and one of the clerks, who knew the lady by sight, advised the head of
+the firm that this was really she. Of course they knew the family were
+wealthy people, and as Eva was beautifully dressed, with furs--unpaid
+for--worth two hundred pounds, they let her have the necklace, and off
+she went with it."
+
+"But how risky!" Toni breathed the word in horror.
+
+"A desperate woman sticks at very little," Herrick reminded her grimly.
+"Well, the misguided girl took her trophy and went off to Rockborough,
+the big pawnbroker, where she displayed the necklace and asked for a
+loan. Seeing no reason to doubt her genuineness, they advanced her a
+large sum--though not, of course, the full value of the jewels, and she
+took the money and paid the money-lender and one or two more people who
+were pressing her. But it happened by a queer coincidence that a day or
+two later Jordan and Green had a visit from an aunt of the real Lady
+Eileen's, who wished to send her a little diamond pendant for a birthday
+present; and when she gave the address to which it was to be sent as one
+of the best hotels in Mentone, the jewellers became uneasy. They
+instituted inquiries, found the young lady's family were all out of
+town, the Hamilton Terrace house closed; and it became pretty evident
+they had been hoaxed."
+
+He paused; but Toni did not speak.
+
+"The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the big pawnbrokers,
+and of course they knew in an hour or two that they had been done. With
+a queer sort of cleverness, Eva had given herself out, to the second lot
+of people, as an actress to whom the necklace--a present--was worth
+little compared with the value in cash; and they had believed her story.
+But naturally it was soon proved to be false; and at first matters were
+at a deadlock. Well, the police were called in; and by dint of many
+inquiries among taxi-drivers, the girl was finally traced to the
+money-lender's office in Holborn. He, of course, was as close as the
+grave; but one of his clerks was bribed into giving the lady's name; and
+everything was easy after that."
+
+"Oh, poor girl!" Toni's soft heart felt a great compassion for the
+frightened wife.
+
+"At first, of course, she denied everything. Unfortunately, Lord Thirsk,
+the father of the girl she had impersonated, took up a very violent
+attitude and demanded the utmost restitution; and since so many people
+were in the secret it was absolutely impossible to hush it up. I did my
+best; I offered everything I had in the world if they would let the
+matter drop without a prosecution, but it was useless. The thing had to
+go to court, and there was a big excitement over the case."
+
+"And----"
+
+"Oh, the result was a foregone conclusion. In spite of everything, in
+spite of her denials, her terrified lies, her vain attempts to clear
+herself by"--he hesitated--"by implicating me, the case against her was
+as clear as the day. I tried my hardest--I perjured myself to try to
+clear her of the worst guilt--I strove my best to make her out my tool,
+but it wasn't any good. The Counsel on the other side simply turned me
+inside out in two minutes. In spite of all my efforts I couldn't
+convince him I'd had a hand in it--and of course my absence from town
+showed the truth pretty plainly. Well, Eva spoke out, in the end."
+
+Ho set his lips as he thought of the miserable girl's confession,
+following on hours of mental torture at the hands of the prosecuting
+Counsel.
+
+"In the end I think it was a relief to her to speak the truth. After
+seeing all her lies, all the pitiful, sordid little lies, torn to
+pieces, after hearing all the weight of evidence against her, seeing the
+net close in on her--on one helpless, terrified little girl--she gave in
+and begged desperately for mercy. She seemed to think if she told the
+truth--at last--they would pardon her, let her off, and she poured out
+the whole story and cried out for forgiveness. She couldn't believe they
+would send her to prison...."
+
+His brow was wet with the reminiscent agony of those closing scenes.
+
+"Of course they could do nothing but sentence her. Then, when she
+understood that she was to be sent to prison after all, she went nearly
+off her head with fright ... she swore she'd lied, retracted everything
+she'd said ... oh, there was a terrible scene--she shrieked when they
+tried to silence her, clung to the dock so that they shouldn't take her
+away ... my God! It was horrible, horrible to see her, so little and
+fragile, screaming to me to save her from the men who were all against
+her...."
+
+Toni, white to the lips, could see it all. She had forgotten her own
+griefs now in contemplation of this far more terrible sorrow.
+
+"Even the Judge was upset when he had to sentence her. The court was
+full of women--I told you the case had attracted a lot of attention--but
+thank God they were rendered miserable by their presence there in the
+end. When she heard her sentence--eighteen months in the second
+division--she couldn't grasp it at first--and then just as I was
+beginning to feel I must do something or I should go mad, she fainted
+clean away and was carried out insensible."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick,"--Toni, her eyes full of tears, spoke
+impetuously--"how terrible for you--for you both! Did you go to her and
+try to comfort her?"
+
+He was silent for a long moment. Then--
+
+"That was the worst of all." His voice was grim. "When once she realised
+that she was helpless, that she was to be kept in prison, against her
+will, for eighteen long months, all her love for me turned to hate. By a
+queer, perverted instinct she blamed me for everything that had
+happened. She persisted in asserting that I could have saved her if I
+would. It was quite useless for me to say anything. I was allowed to see
+her once more--with my solicitor--and she heaped reproaches on my head
+till my blood ran cold. She called me a scoundrel, a coward, because I
+hadn't succeeded in shifting the blame to my own shoulders. She raged
+against her fate, swore she wouldn't obey the rules, would starve
+herself to death--and taunted me with the fact, that while she was
+suffering, starving, in a prison cell, I should be warm and well-fed at
+home. She screamed out that she hated me, wished me dead--and my last
+glimpse of her was as she disappeared, her face distorted with passion
+till all the soft childish beauty had vanished."
+
+"And she is there now?"
+
+"In prison? Yes."
+
+"But--is the time nearly over?"
+
+"Yes. Four weeks to-day Eva will be set free." He stared out of the
+window with unseeing eyes. "And then will come the question--what are we
+to do?"
+
+"To do?" She did not understand.
+
+"Yes. You know, she will never forgive me. In her childish, unreasonable
+way, she persists in thinking everything that happened was my fault. If
+I had given her more money, she would not have got into debt. If I
+hadn't gone to Wales and left her alone she would never have done the
+thing; and if I had only lied better, the blame would have been
+mine--and the punishment."
+
+"But it was she who was guilty----"
+
+"I know--but if I could have gone to prison in her stead, God knows I'd
+have gone--willingly. Things are so different for men. When I think of
+her, the little, soft, fragile thing I married, shut up alone in a cell,
+wearing prison garments, eating rough prison food, being ordered about
+by harsh, domineering women, why, I almost curse myself that I am free
+to walk about under God's blue sky!"
+
+"Shall you go back to London--when she is free?"
+
+"I don't know--I don't know," he said rather drearily. "I let the house
+at once--gave it up at the next quarter, and our things are stored. I
+wanted to get away from it all, so I came down here and took the
+bungalow, but of course it won't suit Eva."
+
+"Couldn't you--change your name?"
+
+"That's done already," he said. "Just after the trial an uncle
+obligingly died and left me nine thousand pounds on the understanding I
+should take his name; so I did, of course, and turned myself from James
+Vyse into James Herrick."
+
+"Then no one will know?"
+
+"No. But this life, this vagabond river life that both you and I love,
+wouldn't suit Eva very long. No, I'm afraid we shall have to seek some
+'city of bricks and mortar'--but even my wife won't be keen on London,
+and it's the only city one can live in properly."
+
+While he talked, the rain had ceased; and he rose as he spoke the last
+words.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Rose, I've showed you the skeleton in my cupboard--and he's
+a pretty grisly object, isn't he? But I don't want to depress you with a
+recital of my woes. After all, life's sweet, sister--and you and I,
+thanks be to God, have the soul of the gipsy within us, which is made
+quite happy, poor feckless thing, by the sight of the sun or the music
+of the breeze!"
+
+Her eyes kindled with sudden comprehension.
+
+"Yes--and you've shown me what a fool I am to think myself unhappy!" She
+too sprang up, and her body was full of vigour and youth again. "I won't
+give in, Mr. Herrick! You've not given in, and you've heaps more cause
+than I have. After all, I'm young and I love nature and--and my
+husband--and I _have_ a soul--you told me so! And in time Owen will be
+satisfied with me, won't he?"
+
+"Of course he will!" In his heart Herrick thought the man who was
+dissatisfied with this eager, enthusiastic, courageous youth must be
+hard indeed to please.
+
+"I've read nearly all those books," she said proudly, "and I can read
+French ever so much better now. And I won't care for Miss Loder's cold
+stares and her amused little laugh when I do something silly. And if I
+go on trying, I shall soon be a fit companion for Owen, shan't I, Mr.
+Herrick?"
+
+"Dear little child," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder, "don't
+try too hard! Read your books, study languages, take an interest in the
+vital questions of the day--but don't lose your tenderness, your
+sympathy, your freshness of heart. Grow up if you will, but don't grow
+too fast! And in cultivating your soul, don't forget that a woman's
+heart is her sweetest, rarest treasure after all!"
+
+He released her gently.
+
+"There! My sermon's over--and so, apparently, is the rain. And that
+blithe footstep I hear outside surely heralds the approach of Mrs.
+Spencer!"
+
+He was right. After a loud knock the door opened briskly to disclose
+Mrs. Spencer bearing a lighted lamp; and Herrick went forward to relieve
+her of her burden.
+
+"Enter the Lady with the Lamp!" quoth he, smiling. "Well, Mrs. Spencer,
+the rain's over and gone, and it's time we went too, eh, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"I suppose so." She took up the coat she had thrown aside. "Has the
+chauffeur had some tea, Mrs. Spencer?"
+
+"Lor yes, ma'am, and enjoyed it too," responded the landlady, beaming.
+"A rare good trencherman he be an' all! I'd sooner meat him for a week
+nor a fortnight, as they say in our parts."
+
+"Meet him?" Even Herrick did not recognise the idiom.
+
+"Yes, sir--board him, give him his meat," explained Mrs. Spencer
+volubly. "But I can't say as much for you and the young lady, sir."
+
+She looked regretfully at the still loaded plates.
+
+"We've had a lovely tea, Mrs. Spencer," said Toni, her heart very warm
+towards this comely woman who had known her father. "I shall come and
+see you again some day. May I?"
+
+Mrs. Spencer immediately invited her to come as often as she liked; and
+then covered both Toni and Herrick with confusion by refusing to take a
+penny for their tea.
+
+"What--me take money from Roger Gibbs' lass?" she said, her manner
+filled with the mingled independence and respect of the best type of
+countrywoman. "Not I, sir. We Yorkshire folks don't grudge a cup o' tea
+and a bit of fatty cake to them as is like ourselves, exiles in a
+strange land. Besides, it's been a rare treat to see the young lady. To
+think that Roger Gibbs' lile lass should come drivin' up in one of they
+great mutter-cars, too!"
+
+"Yes, and it's really time she drove away in it," responded Herrick
+pleasantly. "I think I hear Fletcher bringing it round."
+
+There was a tentative hoot from Fletcher's horn at that moment; and
+after a grateful farewell, and a vain attempt to pay, at least, for
+Fletcher's tea, Herrick took Toni out and installed her in the car.
+
+He refused her invitation to drive home with her, alleging that his
+health required exercise; and though Toni might have been forgiven for
+thinking fifteen miles' ride over a wet and muddy road, under a still
+cloudy sky, rather a strenuous form of exercise, some newly acquired
+intuition told her he really wished to be alone.
+
+She said good-bye, therefore, without attempting to press the matter;
+and a moment later the car glided away, its lamps gleaming in the rural
+blackness of the village street.
+
+As he rode home, his tyres splashing through puddles, and spattering him
+with mud, Herrick's face was very tired and worn, but in his eyes there
+lurked a little faint light of happiness that he had helped another
+weary soul a few steps forward on its pilgrimage over a thorny road.
+
+"Poor little soul!" He smiled as he recognized the form his sympathy
+took. "After all she's right--she has a soul--and even though it brings
+her suffering and tears, it's worth the price. And yet--I wonder if it
+would have been kinder to leave her alone--not to encourage that hope of
+hers to make herself more intellectually worthy of her husband? I didn't
+make much success of waking _my_ Undine's soul to life! All I got was
+her hatred--and from the beginning she lied to me!"
+
+Luckily at that moment his lamp blew out, viciously; and with a muttered
+execration of the creatures he called Boo-Boos, he dismounted and
+relighted the flame, whose vagaries throughout the rest of the long ride
+kept him so fully occupied that he had neither time nor inclination to
+meditate on such abstractions as souls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+By the end of September, Owen's book was finished; and on a beautiful
+autumn morning he and Toni set off in the car on a journey to town,
+where a publisher, who was also a personal friend, was waiting to
+receive the manuscript.
+
+Mr. Anson was a kindly, energetic man of middle age; and he had secretly
+long expected Owen to turn novelist; so that he accepted the bulky
+manuscript with a real curiosity as to its value.
+
+He promised to let the author know his decision at an early date; and
+then invited Owen and his wife to lunch with him at the Carlton, an
+invitation which Owen accepted at once, rather to Toni's dismay.
+
+They were his sole guests; and beneath his kind and courteous manner,
+Toni lost her shyness and charmed her host by her girlish simplicity and
+directness.
+
+It happened that the conversation turned on the bungalows which lined
+the banks of the river as it flowed through Willowhurst; and presently
+Mr. Anson asked a question.
+
+"You've got Vyse down there, haven't you? You know the chap I mean--the
+portrait-painter."
+
+"I don't think so." Owen was puzzled. "At least I have not heard of him
+being there. Have you, Toni?"
+
+"Yes--Mr. Anson means Mr. Herrick," said Toni quietly. "He told me the
+other day he had changed his name."
+
+"Ah yes, I remember now--something about some money, I believe. You know
+him, Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Yes. He fished me out of the river one day when I had fallen in," said
+Toni smiling. "And he has been to see us several times--but I didn't
+know he was famous," she finished naively.
+
+"Didn't you? Why, he is--or was--one of the foremost men in his own line
+until there was the trouble with his wife."
+
+"Surely you don't mean that jewel affair?" Owen asked meditatively.
+"Didn't Vyse's wife steal a pearl necklace or something of the sort? I
+seem to remember something about it--though I did not connect it with
+this chap."
+
+"His wife--who was one of the prettiest Irish girls I ever saw--got a
+valuable necklace on approval and pawned it for money to pay her debts,
+yes. Poor fellow, it broke him up completely."
+
+"Really?" Owen was interested. "Where is she--the wife--now? Did he
+leave her, or what happened?"
+
+"She is in prison," returned the other man slowly. "I understand her
+time is nearly up, and I am wondering what they will do when she comes
+out again."
+
+"In prison--ah yes, I recollect the affair now, though I was away at the
+time. Got eighteen months, didn't she?"
+
+"Yes. It was the most painful experience I've ever had, to listen to her
+being sentenced." Mr. Anson's florid face grew grave. "It happened that
+her Counsel was a nephew of mine, and I promised to hear him handle the
+case. But, of course, it was hopeless from the start."
+
+"The husband--this chap Herrick--was blameless, I suppose?"
+
+"Quite. He knew nothing about it, though the girl tried her hardest to
+implicate him. He did his best, too, would have sworn anything to clear
+her and take the blame, but her lies were all so dreadfully patent it
+was no use. In the end she told the truth, thinking it would help her;
+but it was too late then."
+
+"She took it badly?"
+
+"Terribly. She cried and shrieked for mercy, fought like a tiger with
+the officials who tried to take her away, and screamed reproaches at her
+husband, till everyone was sick of the scene. Of course, she never
+dreamed they would send her--a lady, and a delicate bit of a girl,
+too--to prison like a common thief, and she completely lost her
+self-control when she realized what was going to happen. It was a relief
+to everyone when she gave one last cry and fainted right away."
+
+"Hard lines on the husband," said Owen, reflectively.
+
+"Deuced hard lines--and he as decent a fellow as ever stepped. Why he
+ever married her, God only knows. She didn't care a bit for him--wasted
+his money and then reviled him because he'd no more. Of course, she came
+of a rotten stock--wasters and gamblers every one--and this was how the
+hereditary taint came out in her."
+
+"She must have served most of her sentence by now?"
+
+"Comes out next week. I wonder what he will do with her. She's not the
+sort of woman to live in a shanty by the riverside, and yet he can't
+very well bring her back to town."
+
+"I wonder?" Owen glanced at his watch. "I say, Anson, I don't want to be
+rude--after our excellent lunch!--but I've an appointment at the office
+at three and it's a quarter to now."
+
+"All right, my boy, I won't detain you." Anson rose at once. "I'm glad
+you keep an eye on the _Bridge_--it's a fine little review and going
+ahead all the time."
+
+Owen's face brightened at this authoritative praise.
+
+"I'm glad you think go. Of course, we are jolly lucky in our staff, and
+we've got the best sort of contributors, too."
+
+"Yes. By the way, how on earth have you managed to get all this stuff
+turned out with a disabled arm?" He patted the thick packet of
+manuscript and glanced at Owen's inconspicuous sling wonderingly.
+"Perhaps Mrs. Rose helped you?" He looked, with a smile, at Toni.
+
+"No." She coloured hotly. "I did not help at all."
+
+"Miss Loder--my secretary at the office--came down to help me," said
+Owen easily. "She is used to the work, you see, and does it
+excellently."
+
+"I see." The kindly eyes had seen Ton's flush. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose
+is satisfied to inspire your work and let others do the manual labour.
+The power behind the throne, eh, Mrs. Rose? That's what women used to
+be, bless them, before these dreadful Suffragettes arose to destroy
+woman's real influence by violence and wrongheadedness."
+
+"I expect my wife is jolly thankful the book's finished," said Owen
+laughing. "She has had a pretty thin time while I've been writing it.
+But now I suppose there will be a lull of a few weeks?"
+
+"Oh, I won't keep you long," said Mr. Anson genially. "I'll send the
+manuscript to the reader to-night, and let you know as soon as
+possible."
+
+They parted from their host on the pavement out side the Carlson, and
+Owen turned to Toni.
+
+"Now, dear, what will you do? Will you come with me to the office, or
+have you any shopping?"
+
+Toni bit her lip nervously. She had a request to make, and did not know
+how to set about it.
+
+"Well?" Owen watched her, wondering why she looked embarrassed.
+
+"Owen, would you mind if I went to Brixton to see my aunt? I--I'm afraid
+they think I'm a little unkind, and after all they have always been good
+to me."
+
+"Why, Toni"--Owen was genuinely surprised--"you don't mean to say you
+are afraid to ask me that! Of course you can go. I'll come to fetch you
+when I've finished my work, if you like."
+
+"Will you?" She knew how such a visit would gratify her aunt. "Shall I
+take a taxi, then, Owen? You'll want the car."
+
+"Yes, I think that would be best, then you can stay as long as possible.
+What time shall I come, Toni? Half-past five or so?"
+
+"Yes. That will be lovely. Then we'll have a jolly ride home."
+
+He called a taxi accordingly and installed Toni therein; and he stood
+back to watch her gliding away from him in the mellow September
+sunshine, before he hurried to the office where Barry was impatiently
+awaiting his arrival.
+
+Toni found several members of the Gibbs family at home when at length
+she reached her destination.
+
+Being Thursday, Fanny was enjoying her weekly holiday, and was delighted
+to see Toni; more especially because she had a piece of news to confide
+which appealed strongly to Fanny's romantic nature.
+
+When the first greetings were over, and Mrs. Gibbs had retired with the
+hospitable intention of "putting on the kettle," Fanny beckoned
+mysteriously to Toni to mount the narrow stairs leading to the room the
+girls had formerly shared in common.
+
+Toni mounted obediently; and for a second she forgot to wonder what Miss
+Gibbs' extraordinary signals might imply, for a sudden feeling of
+gratitude to Owen for having lifted her out of this dingy atmosphere
+flooded her impressionable nature.
+
+Surely when she too had slept beneath this low ceiling the room had not
+been quite so small, so stuffy. The wall-paper was the one she and Fanny
+had themselves chosen years ago, but it was oddly faded and dirty now,
+and in one corner a great piece had peeled off, hanging in strips and
+disclosing the plaster behind. The common furniture, too--the rickety
+deal dressing-table, the broken chair, the unpainted iron
+bedsteads--thinking of her own airy, spacious, bedroom with its shining
+toilet-table, its linen bedspread, its big windows opening on to a view
+of the river and the fields beyond, Toni wondered how she had ever
+endured life in these sordid, depressing surroundings.
+
+Luckily Fanny was too full of her news to notice Toni's involuntary
+shudder as she looked round the close little bedroom; and barely waiting
+to shut the door she blurted out her tidings.
+
+"Toni, you remember Lennie Dowson--the fellow who was sweet on you?"
+
+Toni nodded casually, her eyes still roaming round her, and Fanny felt
+vaguely disappointed that the subject was so evidently uninteresting.
+
+"Well, he's going to Sutton, three miles from Willowhurst, and I truly
+believe it's because he wants to be near you!"
+
+She had succeeded in arousing Toni's interest at last.
+
+"Leonard Dowson? Do you mean the dentist? But what on earth will he do
+in Sutton?"
+
+"Look at people's teeth, I suppose," returned Miss Gibbs practically.
+"He was in night before last, and he told Ma he was sick of London, and
+this was a change for the better. It is a town, isn't it. And I s'pose
+people by the river have toothache same as us, don't they?"
+
+"It is a town--of a sort," said Toni, "but I shouldn't have thought Mr.
+Dowson would have settled there. He always said London was the one place
+in the world for him."
+
+"That was when you were there," returned Fanny sagely. "I don't b'lieve
+he's ever got over you, Toni. Ma says she never saw such a change in
+anyone, and you know he was always fond of you. That's why he's going to
+Sutton, you may take my word for it."
+
+To Fanny's surprise Toni spoke coldly.
+
+"I really can't imagine how you can be so silly, Fanny. How can it
+affect Mr. Dowson where I am? I'm married now, and anyway he was never
+anything to me."
+
+"Still, he might be faithful to his first love," giggled Fanny.
+
+"Fanny!" Toni faced her angrily. "You are simply odious when you talk
+like that. Leonard Dowson's first love, indeed? If he says that about me
+it is simply impertinence, and I don't care to hear you talk such
+nonsense."
+
+She got up indignantly as she spoke and moved to the door.
+
+"If that is all you have got to say," she said, "I will go and talk to
+Auntie." And she had the door open before Fanny found her tongue.
+
+Then:
+
+"Oh, I say, Toni, don't be horrid and stuck-up." Fanny's wail brought
+Toni to a standstill. "If you _are_ Mr. Rose's wife, and a fine lady,
+and in with a lot of smart people, you needn't go and be nasty to your
+own cousin."
+
+Something in her voice brought Toni quickly back into the room.
+
+"Don't be silly, Fan!" She spoke impetuously. "Of course I am not being
+stuck-up; you know I wouldn't be nasty to you for the world, but I do so
+hate that sort of talk about men being fond of you and all that."
+
+"Well, I didn't know you minded," said Fanny humbly, and Toni's heart
+smote her.
+
+"Oh, Fan, I don't mind--really--and I didn't mean to be cross. Now tell
+me, how do you like my frock? It's the first time I've had it on."
+
+And in the ensuing animated discussion on frocks and frills Fanny lost
+that queer, uncomfortable sense of inferiority which had sprung to birth
+beneath Toni's manner.
+
+Somehow, after that Toni found the time drag. She was gentle and
+friendly with her aunt, affectionate towards Lu, cordial with her uncle
+and the rest; but she found herself longing for Owen's arrival as a
+signal for her release.
+
+The good-natured chatter, the well-meant inquisitiveness which found
+vent in a ceaseless inquiry into the details of her new life, the noisy
+jokes and laughter, the very persistence of the hospitality which filled
+her cup and plate over and over again--they all jarred this afternoon;
+and quite involuntarily Toni sighed for the peace and spaciousness, the
+gracious calm and tranquillity of Greenriver.
+
+When Owen at last arrived it was with an inward glee that Toni heard the
+clock strike six; for now his visit must of necessity be short.
+
+Possibly Owen saw her pallor, for he announced almost at once that
+although he regretted the fact, he must carry off his wife without
+delay; and after a brief interchange of courtesies, the family escorted
+Toni to the car, whose glories most of them now beheld for the first
+time.
+
+As Owen was still unable to drive, he took his seat by Toni in the body
+of the car; and when they were safely away Toni turned to him with a
+sigh of pleasure.
+
+"Owen, I thought you were never coming."
+
+"Was I very long?" Owen was struck by her tone. "What's the matter,
+Toni? Are you tired, dear, or have the cousins been too much for you?"
+
+"Oh, no, not exactly," Toni was always loyal, but to-day her loyalty had
+been severely tried. "But I can't help comparing the house with
+Greenriver, and I was longing all the time to get back to the garden and
+the big rooms."
+
+Owen did not smile at her naive confession.
+
+"You like your home, Toni? Greenriver pleases you?"
+
+"I think it's the loveliest house in the world," Toni said fervently.
+"And sometimes I can hardly believe it is I who live there. You see, all
+my life I have been used to little houses, and it seems almost
+incredible that I should have the right to go about as I like--and even
+pick the flowers in the garden."
+
+"Poor little Toni." Her gratitude touched Owen. "Sometimes I have
+fancied you found it rather dull. I have been obliged to leave you so
+much alone lately; but now we can have a holiday until the book's fate
+is decided."
+
+"Will you be busy then?"
+
+"Well, there will be the proofs to revise. And, to tell you the truth,
+Toni, I'm dying to get to work on another story."
+
+"Are you? But what about the _Bridge_?"
+
+"Oh, I won't neglect that, of course. But everything is running smoothly
+there and Barry is turning out trumps, too. He has grasped the whole
+thing as I never expected him to do. He's going to get a bigger salary
+almost at once, and then I suppose he will marry Miss Lynn."
+
+He gave a sudden exclamation as the car swerved aside to avoid a
+lumbering cart which took up more than its share of the road.
+
+"What's Fletcher doing, confound him? I say, Toni, this wretched arm of
+mine doesn't seem to me to be getting on very well. The bone's knit all
+right, but I have a fearful lot of pain in it sometimes."
+
+"Oh, have you, Owen?" Toni grew pale in an instant. "What does Dr. Mayne
+say? You saw him a few days ago, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't think he knows very much about it. He's a nice old
+chap, but a bit behind the times. I have a good mind to go and see some
+man in town one day next week. It's such a confounded handicap for a
+writer not to be able to hold a pen."
+
+"What about your proofs?" Her heart sank as she asked the question.
+
+"Oh, Miss Loder can do those--under my supervision," he said carelessly.
+"I'm not bothering about them so much as about my new book; and I've
+been commissioned to write a series of articles for the _Lamp_, which
+really ought to be put in hand at once."
+
+For a moment there was silence. Then:
+
+"Could I do your proofs?" Toni said, in a voice which shook in spite of
+all her efforts.
+
+"Oh, it's awfully sweet of you, dear." Owen tried his hardest to avoid
+hurting her. "But there is no occasion to worry you. I don't like to see
+you bending over a desk when there is no need. Miss Loder has to do
+something, anyway, and she might just as well do my work as anyone's."
+
+"Must she come down to Greenriver?" Now Toni's voice betrayed her, and
+Owen looked up sharply.
+
+"Why not? Do you mean you would rather she did not come?"
+
+"Much rather." For once Toni's inward feelings burst their bounds,
+driving her to open revolt. "I don't like Miss Loder about all day--I
+never feel free--there's an oppression in the air so long as she is in
+the house."
+
+Owen was surprised and annoyed by this speech; and showed his annoyance
+plainly.
+
+"Don't you think you are rather prejudiced, Toni? You have never liked
+the girl, and I can't imagine why. She does her work well, and doesn't
+interfere with you in the least."
+
+"Interfere with me--no, perhaps not," said Toni, her breast heaving
+stormily, her cheeks very red. "She laughs at me, though, which is
+worse--sneers--oh, I know she thinks I'm a little fool, and so I am; but
+I am at least your wife--the mistress of Greenriver, and she might
+remember that and treat me with a little more respect."
+
+"Respect? My dear Toni, you are talking nonsense. How should the girl
+treat you? She is always polite," said Owen, "and you know after all she
+is ten years older than you----"
+
+"Only ten?" Toni's assumption of surprise was excellently done. "I
+thought she was much more--she always seems to me so staid--so--so
+middle-aged."
+
+Owen's brow cleared suddenly and he burst out laughing.
+
+"You silly little thing! Compared with you, Miss Loder _is_ middle-aged,
+but she's a rattling secretary and I don't like to hear her abused.
+Still, if you dislike the idea of her coming, I'll go to town, or do
+without her. After all, I must not get too dependent on the girl--I'm
+afraid I'm growing lazy. But if my arm still bothers me----"
+
+Instantly Toni's anger melted away and a rush of affection and sympathy
+took its place.
+
+"I'm sorry, Owen--I didn't mean to be cross. I was talking nonsense--of
+course you must have Miss Loder, I suppose I am jealous of her--because
+she is so clever, and I'm such a little idiot."
+
+"I don't want a clever wife, thank you," laughed Owen, little dreaming
+how his careless words cut into the quivering soul of the girl beside
+him. "I want a pretty, lively, jolly little girl--half Italian for
+choice--who is a cross between a wood-nymph and--sometimes--a
+tiger-cat--or kitten! And it seems to me I have got just exactly what I
+want."
+
+With an effort Toni smiled, in response to his good-natured jesting; and
+Owen never knew that his well-meant words caused Toni to shed tears
+before she slept that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Mr. Anson's reader reported favourably on Owen's book, and in a very
+short time satisfactory terms were agreed upon between author and
+publisher, and the work of proof-reading and revision began.
+
+Unfortunately at the same time Owen felt his arm to be more than usually
+painful; and a visit to town proved the necessity for further treatment,
+of which perfect rest was a feature: with the result that once again
+Owen was forced to accept the help of a secretary in his work.
+
+Miss Loder, naturally, filled the post; and once more she came to
+Greenriver, and took her place in the stately old library, where she and
+Owen passed strenuous hours daily.
+
+To Toni Miss Loder's presence was growing ever more and more
+distasteful. Although Toni was not an intellectual woman, she had sharp
+wits; and possibly she understood Millicent Loder's personality a good
+deal better than Owen was able to do. And what Toni saw--and Toni's
+intuition was rarely at fault--led her to distrust the other girl with
+all her heart and soul.
+
+Miss Loder belonged to a rather uncommon variant of the type of
+emancipated womanhood. Although intensely modern in many ways she had
+never been able to lose her inborn sense of the superiority of man in
+mental as well as in physical matters.
+
+She had none of the loudly-expressed scorn of the other sex by which
+many women seek to hide their disappointment at the indifference of
+members of that sex towards them.
+
+Although she was by force of circumstance a Suffragist, she did not for
+one moment imagine that with the coming of votes for women the whole
+industrial and social problem of the country would be solved. Unlike
+many women, she was quite content to work under a man, and although she
+was well able to think for herself on all vital questions, she liked to
+hear and assimilate the opinions of the men with whom she came in
+contact.
+
+She preferred men, indeed, to women; and her attitude towards them,
+though never in the least familiar, held a good comradeship, a kind of
+large tolerance which annoyed and irritated those of her girl
+acquaintances who looked upon men as their natural enemies and the
+enemies of all feminine progress.
+
+Shrewd, competent, fully assured of her own ability to face the world
+alone, Miss Loder had never thought seriously of marriage. She delighted
+in her independence, was proud of the fact that she was able to command
+a good salary, and her habit of mind was too genuinely practical to
+allow of any weak leanings towards romance. She did not wish to marry.
+She had none of the fabled longing for domesticity, as exemplified in a
+well-kept house and a well-filled nursery, with which the average man
+endows the normal woman. She looked on children, indeed, mainly as the
+materials on whom this or that system of education might be tested; and
+she was really of too cold, too self-sufficing a nature to feel the need
+of any love other than that of relation or friend.
+
+But since she had worked for Owen Rose, Millicent had begun to change
+her views. At first she had merely been attracted by his brilliance, as
+any clever girl might have been, had found it stimulating to work with
+him, and had been pleased and proud when he selected her to be his
+coadjutor in the task of writing his first book. She had been, in truth,
+so keenly interested in the author that she had overlooked the man; and
+it is a fact that until she came down, at his request, to his house to
+work there, away from the busy office, his personality had been so vague
+to her that she could not even have described his appearance with any
+accuracy.
+
+But the sight of his home, the stately old house set in its spacious
+gardens and surrounded by magnificent trees, had shaken Millicent out of
+her intellectual reverie into a very shrewd and wide-awake realization
+of the man himself.
+
+In his own home he shook off the conventions of the office, became more
+human, more approachable; and no woman, least of all one as mentally
+alert, as open-eyed as Miss Loder, could have passed with him through
+those strenuous hours in which his book was born without gaining a
+pretty complete insight into his character.
+
+And with knowledge came a new and less comprehensible emotion. At first
+Miss Loder had accepted the fact of her employer's marriage as one
+accepts any fixed tradition; and the subject rarely entered her thoughts
+during working hours.
+
+Gradually she began to feel a faint curiosity as to what manner of woman
+Owen Rose's wife might be; and she welcomed her summons to Greenriver on
+the ground that now she would be able to solve the problem for herself.
+When she finally saw Toni, her first emotion was one of surprise that
+this dark-eyed girl should be the mistress of Greenriver; and very
+slowly that surprise died and was succeeded by a feeling of envy which
+grew day by day. At first Miss Loder grudged the unconscious Toni her
+established position as _chatelaine_ of this eminently desirable home;
+and Toni's very simplicity, the youthful _insouciance_ with which she
+filled that position, was an added annoyance. Later, Miss Loder began to
+grudge Toni more than that. As she spent more and more time in Owen's
+company, as she grew more and more intimate with the workings of his
+mind, of his rich and poetic imagination, Miss Loder began to fall under
+the spell of the man himself.
+
+Quite unconsciously she was becoming ever more attracted by his manner,
+his voice, his ways; and once or twice she found herself wondering, with
+a kind of sick envy, in what light he appeared to the woman who was his
+wife.
+
+Through it all, however, Miss Loder's paramount emotion was one of envy
+for the mistress of Greenriver. She used to think, as she came into the
+house each morning, that it would have suited her much better, as a
+background, than it would ever suit the quaint, childish-looking Toni;
+and it grew almost unendurable to her to have to sit at the luncheon
+table as a guest--not even that--and watch Toni's ridiculous assumption
+of dignity as she sat in her high-backed chair opposite her husband.
+
+There was no doubt about it that Greenriver would have suited Miss Loder
+very well as a home; and she grew to dislike Toni more and more as the
+full realization of the girl's good fortune penetrated her mind.
+
+Toni had been quite right in detecting the malice beneath Millicent's
+pretended friendliness. It seemed to Miss Loder that the only way to
+pierce this upstart girl's armour of complacency was to launch shafts of
+cleverly-veiled contempt; and although to Owen these darts were either
+imperceptible or merely accidental, Toni knew very well that they were
+intended to wound.
+
+Owen, wrapped up in his book, and only anxious to further the work as
+rapidly as possible, had no time to spare for these feminine amenities.
+He realized, of course, that Toni did not care for Miss Loder; but he
+thought he understood that her dislike came, rather pathetically, from
+her consciousness of her own shortcomings: and had no idea that Miss
+Loder herself was largely responsible for the lack of harmony between
+them.
+
+On what might be called the literary side of him, he thought Millicent
+Loder an excellent secretary, the one woman with whom he found it
+possible to work; but on what might be called the personal side, his
+interest was _nil_. True, he liked her trim appearance, though he would
+never have dreamed of comparing it with Toni's more unconventional
+attraction. He admired her quiet independence, and recognized her at
+once as belonging to his own world; but he never thought of her in any
+relation save that of secretary and general assistant; and even Toni was
+sufficiently wise to recognize the fact.
+
+All the same Toni mistrusted the other woman; and it was with a feeling
+of intensest apprehension that she received Owen's announcement that
+Barry had arranged for a substitute at the office--thus setting Miss
+Loder free to resume her work at Greenriver.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It chanced on a beautiful October day that Owen found it necessary to go
+to town on business connected with the _Bridge_; and for once he went up
+by train, bidding Toni use the car if she felt so inclined.
+
+She did feel inclined; and after a very early lunch, jumped into the
+waiting motor, and directed Fletcher to drive over to Cherry Orchard, in
+the hope of inducing the doctor's daughters to share her excursion.
+
+Disappointment awaited her, however. Both the Tobies were away from home
+on a short visit, and Toni was obliged to proceed alone.
+
+She had enjoyed a couple of hours' spin in the frosty air, when she
+found herself being carried swiftly past the railway station, and a
+thought struck her which she communicated to Fletcher without delay.
+
+Yes, Fletcher opined, it was just time the London train was due, and
+since it was quite possible Mr. Rose had travelled by it, he obligingly
+brought the car to a standstill outside the station entrance.
+
+Toni jumped lightly out, an alluring little figure in her beautiful
+sable coat and cap, and made her way swiftly on to the platform,
+glancing at the big station clock as she did so.
+
+The train was not due for five minutes; and to pass the interval of
+waiting, Toni strolled over to the bookstall in search of a paper. As
+she stood turning over a few magazines, a familiar voice accosted her,
+and she moved quickly to face the speaker.
+
+"Mrs. Rose--I hope you have not quite forgotten me?"
+
+"Mr. Dowson! Of course I've not forgotten you." She put out a friendly
+little hand, which the young man seized in a fervent grasp. "My cousin
+Fanny told me you were coming down to Sutton."
+
+"Yes. I had to change here. It's an awkward little journey." He was
+gazing at her fixedly, but withal so respectfully that Toni could not
+take offence. "You are, I believe, a resident of this little riverside
+colony of Willowhurst?"
+
+"Well, we live by the river," said Toni cheerfully, amused, as of yore,
+by his somewhat pedantic diction. "But do tell me, Mr. Dowson, how do
+you expect to make a fortune here?"
+
+"I do not expect to do so," he informed her promptly. "I assure you this
+move on my part was not actuated by any mercenary motive, Mrs. Rose."
+
+"Wasn't it?" She felt vaguely uncomfortable. "Well, I hope you will
+succeed. After all, I suppose people do have toothache in the country."
+
+"Fortunately, they do," was Mr. Dowson's reply, and Toni was happily
+able to acquit him of any unkind meaning. "But may I say that I have
+never seen you looking so well, Mrs. Rose? Evidently the river life
+suits you admirably."
+
+Toni did look particularly well at that moment. The keen frosty air had
+brought a tinge of wild-rose to her cheeks, and a sparkle to her eyes;
+and the animation of her expression hid the very slight traces of mental
+distress which at a less favourable moment might have been evident to a
+searching scrutiny.
+
+"I'm very well, thanks," she replied carelessly. "I've been motoring,
+and now I'm waiting for my husband. He has been in town to-day."
+
+Although she did not wish to dismiss the young man summarily, he
+imagined she desired him to go; and since to the true lover his
+mistress' unspoken wish has the force of a command, Mr. Dowson hastened
+to obey what he deemed her bidding.
+
+"I must hurry to the other side to take my train," he said immediately.
+"May I express my pleasure at meeting you, Mrs. Rose--and also to see
+you look so well," he added heartily, if ungrammatically.
+
+She shook hands with him, debating with herself as to the advisability
+of inviting him to Greenriver; but fortunately the arrival of the London
+train cut short their farewells at an opportune moment, and Mr. Dowson
+left her before she had time to decide the point.
+
+Owen was not among the few passengers who got out of the train; and
+after waiting a moment or two to make sure, Toni turned away to find
+herself confronted with Mr. Herrick, who with a worried look on his face
+was interrogating one of the sleepy porters.
+
+"No, sir, there isn't no cabs. There wasn't but three, and the gentlemen
+was very quick about taking 'em."
+
+"Well, I must get one somehow." Herrick, quite overlooking Toni in his
+disturbance, spoke sharply, and Toni wondered vaguely why he was so
+annoyed. "You can ring one up from the livery stables, can't you?"
+
+"What's the matter, Jim? No cab, I suppose. Well, they can just fetch
+one--and quick, too."
+
+The words, spoken behind her in an unmistakably Irish voice made Toni
+start. She understood, all at once, that this was Mrs. Herrick's
+home-coming; and she felt a sudden curiosity to see the woman who had
+lately gone through so bitter an experience.
+
+She half turned away; then a thought struck her, and she turned quickly
+back again and rushed into speech.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, I couldn't help hearing you say you wanted a cab just now.
+Will you let me drive you--and your wife--home in the car? Do--it would
+save you having to wait so long."
+
+Herrick, whose usual philosophic calm appeared to have deserted him,
+hesitated.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Rose, it's awfully good of you--but----"
+
+"Oh, do!" Toni spoke eagerly, and the woman who stood by turned to her
+impulsively.
+
+"Are you offering to take us home in your car?" Her voice was full of
+Irish melody. "It is very kind of you--and for myself, I'm so tired I'd
+accept with pleasure. But"--there was something malignant in the glance
+she gave her husband--"perhaps we'd better wait for a cab."
+
+"Oh, do come, please," Toni begged, her bright eyes pleading to be
+allowed to do this little service. "It's a big car, and I'm all alone in
+it."
+
+"Very well." Mrs. Herrick turned to her husband. "Come along, Jim; the
+luggage can come on later."
+
+And in less than five minutes the matter was arranged. Herrick elected
+to sit beside the chauffeur, so that Toni and her new acquaintance sat
+together in the body of the car. Mrs. Herrick's large and rather
+new-looking dressing-bag on the floor at their feet.
+
+Toni gave the direction to the openly interested Fletcher, and the car
+glided away through the group of loafers hanging round the station
+entrance, and settled down into a steady hum on the road leading to the
+Hope House.
+
+Toni seized a moment while Mrs. Herrick was busy with the fastening of
+her bag to steal a look at her companion; and in that brief glance she
+received two distinct impressions--one that Eva Herrick was a bitterly
+unhappy woman, the other that she had no intention of allowing other
+people to escape from her own aura of bitterness.
+
+In person Mrs. Herrick was short and slight, with a look of finish about
+her probably handed down through generations of her Irish ancestors. Her
+small features were cut as clearly as a cameo, and her short upper lip,
+while giving her an air of pride which was unpleasing, was in itself
+beautiful. Her eyes, the big Irish eyes which had first enslaved
+Herrick, were lovely in shape and colour, but they were encircled by
+disfiguring blue shadows, and the fine skin had a tell-tale pallor which
+spoke of long indoor confinement.
+
+Her hair, by nature crisp and golden, looked dull and lifeless in the
+shadow of her hat; and over the whole dainty face and figure there was
+an indefinable blight, a sort of shadow which dimmed and blurred their
+naturally clean and clear contours.
+
+As she removed her gloves to fumble with the lock of her bag. Toni
+noticed that the small, well-shaped hands were rough and badly kept; and
+Toni's soft heart was wrung by these evidences of a sordid, toilsome
+past.
+
+Suddenly Mrs. Herrick sat upright and gazed at Toni with a look which
+held something of criticism.
+
+"You live down here I suppose?"
+
+"Yes. We live at Greenriver, about a mile from your bungalow."
+
+"Ah. Been here long?"
+
+"Only a few months."
+
+"I see. You haven't known my husband very long, then?"
+
+"No. He pulled me out of the river one day," said Toni, "and we have
+seen him pretty often during the summer."
+
+"Then I suppose you know where I've been?" Her eyes shone maliciously.
+"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know. I'm sure my worthy husband must have
+told you the whole story."
+
+Toni, scarlet with embarrassment, and wishing from the bottom of her
+heart that she had never offered the use of her car, said nothing; and
+with a grating little laugh the other woman continued her speech.
+
+"I expect everyone knows I have been in prison." Luckily she did not
+raise her voice; and Herrick, possibly foreseeing the necessity, had
+taken care to engage the chauffeur in conversation. "Eighteen
+months--almost--spent in _hell_. Oh!" Her small, sharp teeth bit her lip
+venomously. "It drives me mad to think of it. And it could all have been
+avoided if my husband had been a man."
+
+"Oh!" Toni revolted inwardly against her callousness.
+
+"Oh, I suppose he's told you some tale or other." Mrs. Herrick spoke
+fiercely, and all her childish beauty waned beneath her passion; "Well,
+whatever he says, it is I who have paid the bill. Prison! My God, you
+don't know what it is to be shut up in a cell like a beast--to be
+ordered about like a dog, to be starved on coarse food, made to sleep on
+a bed you wouldn't dare to give your servant!"
+
+Toni, very pale, tried to stem the torrent of her words.
+
+"Mrs. Herrick--please--really I don't think you ought to say this to
+me----"
+
+"Ought? Why do you say that?" Eva Herrick looked contemptuously at her
+would-be mentor. "If you had been shut up as I have been, you would talk
+as you liked. Thank God I can talk if I can do nothing else."
+
+Quite suddenly her manner changed. She gave a little laugh which was
+oddly fascinating, and laid her hand on Toni's arm.
+
+"Come, now, Mrs. Rose, don't be getting angry with me." Her brogue lent
+a charm to her speech. "I'll admit I've no earthly right to talk so;
+it's bad form to begin with and a poor return for your kindness. But
+remember, I've gone through an experience that's enough to kill a woman,
+and you can't expect me to forget it all at once. So you must forgive
+me. Will you?"
+
+"Oh, of course I will." Toni spoke quickly. "And I had no right to speak
+as I did. But--you must forget all that is past. Won't you try?"
+
+"Sure, I'll try." Eva's lovely eyes filled with tears. "But I know what
+will happen. Your husband won't let you know me, of course, and if Jim
+and I are left alone, we'll be murdering one another one fine day."
+
+"Oh, please don't talk so. Of course my husband will let me know you,"
+said Toni in distress; and she was glad to find from the slackening of
+the car that their conversation must be cut short.
+
+Jim Herrick, more silent and worn-looking than Toni had ever seen him,
+helped his wife to alight and then shook hands gratefully with Toni.
+
+"So many thanks, Mrs. Rose." His big, bright eyes looked into hers,
+almost as the eyes of a nice dog might have done. "You have saved us a
+long wait, and I'm only sorry we have taken you out of your way."
+
+"Oh, that's nothing," Toni said. "I like being out on these bright days,
+and I'm ever so glad I happened to be at the station."
+
+She shook hands with Mrs. Herrick, who looked a pitifully fragile figure
+as she stood beside the car; and then Toni gave the order for home, and
+Fletcher obeyed that order too promptly to allow of any further
+leave-takings.
+
+Just for one moment Jim Herrick stood looking after the car, and in his
+heart there was a great sickness of apprehension.
+
+With the best intention in the world to be fair to his wife, he could
+not help comparing the fresh, simple-hearted Toni with the world-weary
+and disillusioned Eva; and at the thought of the future his spirits sank
+to zero.
+
+A mocking voice broke on his ear as he watched the car gliding swiftly
+down the road.
+
+"When you've finished staring at that young woman, Jim, perhaps you'll
+open the gate." Eva stood back to allow him to reach the latch. "I must
+say this is a nice place to bring me to. Is it a cottage or what?"
+
+"It's quite a decent little place, dear," he said steadily, as he held
+open the gate for her to pass through. "Of course, I quite understand
+that it is only a temporary arrangement, but you will try to put up with
+it, won't you?"
+
+"I suppose I shall have to," she replied ungraciously; and then she
+uttered an impatient exclamation as the big white dog tore over the lawn
+to meet her master, uttering deep-throated bays of welcome the while.
+"You've still got that beast, then--go down, you brute," she added, as
+Olga approached, with instinctive courtesy, to greet her former
+mistress.
+
+"Don't snap at her, dear," said Herrick kindly. "The poor creature is
+only trying to say how do you do."
+
+"Then she can say it to someone else," said Eva curtly. "I hate big
+dogs--I wish you'd get rid of her."
+
+Herrick made no reply, but opened the door, and they went into the house
+together.
+
+Eva passed into the quaintly attractive sitting-room with a frown on her
+face, which lightened, however, at sight of the tea-table standing
+ready, and pulling off her gloves and coat she flung herself into a low
+chair with a sigh of fatigue.
+
+"Heavens, how thirsty I am," she said. "Give me some tea, Jim--quickly."
+And as he moved forward to obey her, her eyes followed him with a
+curious expression in their grey depths.
+
+"What's for dinner?" she asked, suddenly, and Herrick looked his memory
+to recall the _menu_.
+
+"Soup, roast chicken, plum tart, and a savoury," he said at last,
+smiling with a rather pathetic attempt at cheerfulness. "Mrs. Swastika,
+as I call her, is what is known as a 'good plain cook,' but anything at
+all elaborate throws her off her balance altogether."
+
+"Have you no other servants?" she demanded shortly.
+
+"Not yet. I didn't want them, you know, and I thought you would prefer
+to choose them yourself."
+
+"I? If I can get any," she said darkly, drawing her delicate brows
+together resentfully. "Of course they won't stay when they find out
+things; but we must be decently waited on."
+
+Herrick made no reply; and his silence exasperated the girl, whose
+nerves were all on edge.
+
+"Oh, don't stand there saying nothing." Her voice was shrill. "Of
+course, you think I ought to wait on myself--now. And I suppose because
+I've been in prison you expect me to be thankful to be here--even in a
+hole like this. Well, I'm not. I hate the place. It's common and shabby
+and horrid, and I'm not going to live all anyhow, to please you."
+
+Herrick, dismayed at the vehemence of her manner, could find no words;
+and she went on with increasing passion:
+
+"I'm your wife--if I _am_ a jail-bird!" She flung the taunt at him, and
+her whole little figure was shaken with the intensity of her emotion.
+"If you think I'm going to pretend to be penitent--and grateful to
+you--you are wrong! I _hate_ you, Jim, I loathe and despise you--you
+might have taken the blame on your shoulders--and instead you stood by
+and watched them torture me. _You've_ not been to prison, _you've_ not
+been bullied and despised--you've not spent weeks and months in a
+loathsome little cell where the sun never shone and there was never a
+breath of air--you've not been called by a number, and preached at by
+the chaplain--oh, no, you've been living here in the sunshine--enjoying
+yourself, eating good food--your chicken and your savouries--and for all
+I know passing as a single man, and keeping your disgraced wife in the
+background!"
+
+She struck the table sharply with her hand, and her cup and saucer fell
+to the ground and smashed, the tea trickling in a brown stream over the
+dim blues and greens of the Persian carpet.
+
+She ignored the catastrophe.
+
+"Well, you've got me back now, and I'm going to make _your_ life what
+mine has been for the last year and a half! I've longed for this moment,
+Jim"--she set her teeth--"longed for it during the horrible days and the
+still more horrible nights. It was only my hatred of you that kept me
+alive in the first ghastly weeks. I could have died--I was very ill at
+first, and they thought I'd die--but I knew I wouldn't. I meant to live
+so that I could tell you again to your face that I hate you, hate
+you--_hate_ you! And I'm going to show you what hate is, Jim--I'm going
+to make you wish you were dead--or in prison, as I have been. Oh, my
+God--I wish--I wish I _were_ dead!"
+
+With a sudden collapse of all her powers she dropped, face downwards, on
+the big divan, and burst into a fit of wild and uncontrollable sobbing.
+
+With an effort whose magnitude he himself only half realized, Herrick
+went softly over to the weeping, writhing figure, and laid his hand very
+gently on her shoulder.
+
+"Eva, for pity's sake----"
+
+She flung off his hand as though it had been a venomous serpent which
+had touched her; and again her wild sobbing filled the room.
+
+"Eva, listen to me, dear." Herrick sat down beside her and spoke in a
+quiet tone, which yet pierced through her sobs. "You must not say
+anything like that to me again. There isn't any question of hatred
+between you and me. We are together now, and we must build up a new and
+happy life together which will help us to forget the less happy past.
+Come, dear, look up and tell me you will help me to make a fresh start."
+
+She did not speak, but her sobs lessened as though she were listening.
+
+"Now, Eva, sit up and dry your eyes and we will drop the subject. Come
+upstairs and have a rest before dinner. You are tired out and want a
+good sleep."
+
+She rose without a word, but in her face he read only fatigue, none of
+the softening which he had hoped to see.
+
+"Yes. I'm tired--dead tired." She moved languidly towards the door. "I
+think I shall never be anything else--now."
+
+Her fit of passion had indeed worn her out. For the rest of the evening
+she was quiet and listless; and she went upstairs very early to bed,
+leaving Herrick to sit alone with his dog, smoking his pipe, and facing
+the future with a sinking heart.
+
+He sat there until the hour was really late; and then crept upstairs
+very softly to avoid waking Eva, if indeed she slept.
+
+Just as he reached her door he heard a faint, strangled cry, and rushed
+into her room to find her in the throes of one of the nightmares which
+he found, later, were a dreadful legacy from her prison life. On waking,
+her relief at finding she was not, as usual, alone was so great that for
+the first time she clung to Herrick as she might have done in happier
+days; and as he soothed her and pushed the damp golden curls from her
+brow she spoke naturally, with none of the resentment she had hitherto
+displayed.
+
+Her husband's heart melted towards her in this gentler mood; and long
+after she had fallen asleep again, soothed by his presence, he sat
+watching her uneasy slumber with a feeling of compassion which, had she
+realized it, must surely have done something to bridge the gulf which
+now yawned between them.
+
+In the morning she was her hard, mocking self again; and Herrick's
+patience was sorely tried in the days which followed.
+
+It seemed, indeed, as though she had stated her feelings for him
+correctly, as though she did really hate him with a bitter and
+relentless hatred. The prison life had changed her whole being, turned
+her from a brilliant, reckless, worldly girl, warmhearted and
+extravagant, but generous to a fault, into a cold, malignant, callous
+woman, nursing a grudge until it attained gigantic proportions, and
+fully resolved to exact from her husband and the world a heavy payment
+for the humiliating punishment she had been forced to undergo.
+
+Herrick could never discover that she felt that punishment to be
+deserved. The whole world was to blame, but never she herself. It was
+the fault of her husband, who had kept her short of money; of the
+tradespeople who had pressed her, of the usurers who had got her into
+their clutches--the fault of everyone save Eva Herrick; and the fact
+that they had all, as it were, combined against her, that together they
+had been too much for her, embittered her outlook on life to such a
+degree that she was positively incapable of any reasonable analysis of
+her own guilt.
+
+It was her husband against whom her resentment was chiefly directed.
+With all the perversity of her ill-regulated, half-formed mind, she
+refused to realize the fact that it had been absolutely impossible for
+Herrick to take her crime on to his own shoulders. She clung childishly
+to the notion that if he had wished he could have borne the blame and
+endured the consequences; and since there is no reason to doubt that to
+a girl in her position her life in prison was a horrible experience, her
+bitterness is perhaps hardly to be wondered at, after all.
+
+Her sentence had left on soul and body traces which would never be
+effaced; and sometimes Herrick could hardly believe that this cold,
+cynical, bitter-tongued woman was indeed the gay Irish girl he had
+married.
+
+But in spite of everything she was his wife. And Herrick was not the man
+to shirk an obligation which was so plainly marked as this. Although he
+shrank inwardly from her constant recriminations, he never let her see
+how he was wounded by her biting tongue; and to all her reproaches he
+presented so serene and complacent a front that she sometimes desisted
+from very weariness.
+
+So the autumn days went on; and if Herrick felt sometimes that in spite
+of the beautiful world around him, life was no longer full of "sweet
+things," he never wavered in his resolve to do all in his power to make
+up to Eva, for the misery she had endured behind those heartless prison
+walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+"Toni, do you think it quite wise to go about so much with Mrs.
+Herrick?"
+
+It was Owen who asked the question one cold morning as the two sat at
+breakfast; and Toni looked up with something like defiance in her bright
+eyes.
+
+"Why not, Owen? Oh, I know she has been--well, you know where--but she
+is free again now; and it is very hard if one mistake is to dog her
+footsteps wherever she goes for the rest of her life."
+
+"It was a pretty serious mistake," Owen reminded her quietly, "and to
+tell you the truth I hardly like you to go about so constantly with a
+woman who did what she was proved to have done."
+
+"Oh, don't be such a Pharisee, Owen." Toni spoke sharply and Owen
+glanced at her in dismay. "I suppose someone has been saying something
+to you. But I don't intend to give up Eva Herrick to please a lot of
+spiteful old women like Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick."
+
+"Certainly one or two people have commented on your friendship," said
+Owen thoughtfully, "and I'm bound to say I don't like it myself. To
+begin with Mrs. Herrick treats her husband abominably; and I should not
+have thought you would have been attracted by her shallow, futile way of
+talking."
+
+"You forget I'm shallow and futile myself," said Toni with a faint,
+bitter smile. "The gossips of the neighbourhood have long since decided
+that I was an ignorant little fool who wasn't fit to be the mistress of
+Greenriver; and I suppose it's a case of birds of a feather, isn't it?"
+
+"Toni!" Owen's voice expressed bewilderment. "What on earth do you mean?
+Who ever dared to say you weren't fit to be mistress of Greenriver?"
+
+"Oh, heaps of people," said Toni recklessly. "You know quite well you
+were ashamed of me when we first went out to dinner parties here, and I
+didn't know how to behave--and lately we have been invited nowhere--not
+even to the Golf Club Ball."
+
+Owen bit his lip. In truth the matter of the ball had puzzled him
+considerably. Although not a golfer, he was on friendly terms with many
+of the members of the local Club; and since Toni's friends, Mollie and
+Cynthia Teach, were ardent golfers, it had seemed most probable that
+Owen and his wife would receive an invitation to the annual ball.
+
+The Tobies had indeed gone so far as to assure Toni of her invitation
+when first the ball was mentioned; and though as the day grew near the
+two girls grew uneasy when the topic was broached, Toni never dreamed
+that their avoidance of the subject covered a real and distressing
+awkwardness.
+
+Certainly neither Toni nor Owen imagined that they had been quietly
+excluded from the list of guests; but such was the astounding fact, as
+Mollie and Cynthia were guiltily aware.
+
+It was largely due to Lady Martin's plain-speaking that this came about.
+
+Somehow the real truth about Eva Herrick had leaked out; as such truths
+do invariably leak out; and Toni's ill-advised friendship with Herrick's
+wife was easily turned to her disadvantage by so skilful an adversary as
+Lady Martin.
+
+From the first her ladyship had been unable to bring herself to tolerate
+Toni; and had lost no opportunity of spreading abroad Toni's rash
+admission as to the nature of her cousin's employment--with the
+immediate result that in a good many people's eyes Toni herself was
+looked upon as an unusually fortunate shop-girl raised by a stroke of
+good luck to a position which she was quite unsuited to adorn.
+
+Possibly there was in the case of some of her detractors an element of
+jealousy in their comments on Owen Rose's wife. There were a good many
+houses along the river where daughters were at a discount; and to see an
+unknown and attractive girl like Toni step into the place which many of
+these girls would have dearly liked to fill was doubtless somewhat
+galling.
+
+At any rate Lady Martin found plenty of supporters when she broached her
+avowed intention of excluding Mrs. Rose from the ball of which she was
+patroness, on the ground of her friendship with the woman who had been,
+as they all knew, in prison for a serious offence; and so it happened
+that when the ball took place neither Owen nor Toni contributed by their
+presence to the success of the evening.
+
+It was perfectly true that Toni had struck up a friendship with Jim
+Herrick's wife; and it is only fair to Toni to state that in the first
+instance she had made overtures to Eva Herrick from a purely
+good-hearted desire to return Herrick's kindness to her in the one way
+possible.
+
+She was not, in truth, greatly attracted to Eva at first. She found her
+hard, bitter, at times ungenerous; but Mrs. Herrick was clever enough to
+see that such attributes failed to endear her to Toni; and since to
+Eva's perverted mind her husband's companionship was unendurable, she
+quickly determined to make a friend of this soft-hearted, unworldly
+little girl who was evidently sorry for her in her wordless fashion; and
+was too candid herself to suspect deceit or double-dealing in others.
+
+Eva knew very well that the neighbourhood, which prided itself on its
+exclusiveness, would have little or nothing to do with her; and motor
+rides with Toni in the luxurious grey car, with lunch or tea at some
+riverside hotel, formed an agreeable method of passing the days which
+were otherwise horribly long and empty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I wasn't thinking of the Golf Ball," Owen said, in reply to Toni's last
+speech. "But honestly, Toni, I don't care for Mrs. Herrick. Oh, I'm not
+talking now of the necklace affair. That's over and done with; but it's
+the woman herself I don't approve of."
+
+"Why not?" She spoke abruptly and Owen frowned.
+
+"Well, she's not the sort of girl I like my wife to be intimate with.
+I'm sorry for that poor fellow Herrick. He is a sensible man, and knows
+that if his wife's past is to be forgotten it will be by living quietly
+and decently, and not by pushing into the society of the neighbourhood
+whether she is welcome or no."
+
+"Owen, you're perfectly hateful." Toni was really angry. "She is always
+welcome here, anyway. You know quite well that no one round about really
+likes me. Oh, they call and all that sort of thing; but no one is really
+friendly to me, and all the time they are saying horrid things about me
+behind my back."
+
+"I think you are talking nonsense, dear," said Owen quietly. "No one
+says horrid things. To begin with, what should they say?"
+
+"They say I'm common and ignorant, and so I am," said Toni passionately,
+with a sudden desire to blurt out the conversation she had overheard on
+that miserable day in August. "Mrs. Madgwick says so, and Lady Martin. I
+heard them--and lots of other people say so too. I thought it wasn't
+true at first--and then I saw it was. I asked Mr. Herrick, and he told
+me to read and educate myself and then I could be useful to you--and
+instead of that you went and got that perfectly hateful Miss Loder, and
+everyone knows it was because you were sick of me trying to help you and
+doing it so badly."
+
+Owen's face as he listened to this speech was a study in bewilderment.
+The introduction of Herrick's name puzzled him considerably; and
+although he frowned at Toni's description of Miss Loder, he realized
+that by some means Toni had been made unhappy over her own position as
+his wife.
+
+"See here, Toni, I don't quite understand." He looked at her keenly.
+"Who says you are ignorant--and all the rest? And what on earth has
+Herrick to do with our affairs?"
+
+"I told him--he saw me crying and asked me why. It was at the Vicarage
+Bazaar--I was sitting in a summer-house and Lady Martin and Mrs.
+Madgwick were outside, and they began to talk about me and they said all
+those horrible things----"
+
+"Toni, were you obliged to listen? Couldn't you have got away!"
+
+"No." She lifted her clear eyes to his and he repented his question. "I
+couldn't come out when they had begun; and I didn't know at first that
+they were talking secrets."
+
+Her childish phraseology made Owen smile in the midst of his annoyance.
+
+"So Mr. Herrick advised you to read? Well, Toni, that was good advice."
+
+"Yes--and I took it," she said eagerly. "I read heaps and heaps of dull
+books and worked at French--and poetry--and then when I tried to help
+you, you wouldn't let me. You brought that horrid Loder here instead."
+
+Her reiteration of Miss Loder's name jarred. Owen had been genuinely
+surprised and interested by this revelation, and if Toni had been wise
+enough to stick to her own side of the affair, it is probable she would
+have captured Owen's sympathy, and, incidentally, his heart; but she
+weakened her case by her senseless prejudice against Millicent Loder;
+and with a quick sense of irritation Owen told himself that she was only
+jealous--in a purely unsentimental way--after all.
+
+She had never liked being ousted from her position, as would-be helper;
+but Owen knew--or fancied he did--the exact value of her aid; and after
+all his work was too important for him to run the risk of spoiling it by
+any lack of efficiency in his helpers.
+
+"I wish you'd leave Miss Loder's name out of the question," he said at
+last, and his tone struck coldly on Toni's excited ear. "When the book
+is published I will dispense with her assistance, if you wish it; but
+until then I tell you frankly I intend to avail myself of her most
+valuable help."
+
+He had expected an angry reply; but none came. Instead Toni said in a
+low voice:
+
+"Very well, Owen. I know Miss Loder is useful to you and I am not. But
+if you refuse to let me help you, I don't think you can complain if I
+try to fill my time with other things--and if Mrs. Herrick is pleasant
+and nice to me I cannot very well refuse to know her, can I?"
+
+"To know her? Certainly not--but there is a difference between knowing
+her casually and being with her all day long."
+
+"I am not that," she replied quietly. "I take her motoring sometimes,
+because it is dull going alone, and it is a treat to her. But of course
+if you object--it is your car----"
+
+"Oh, don't be silly, Toni." All Owen's pent-up irritation found vent in
+the words. "I'm not a dragon--or an ogre, am I? Take Mrs. Herrick by all
+means--have her here if you like, only for goodness' sake don't talk as
+though I wished to condemn you to perpetual loneliness."
+
+"Very well. I won't." She rose as she spoke. "You've finished, haven't
+you? Then I'll go and see Mrs. Blades--she is ill again to-day, Kate
+says."
+
+"Is she? Poor old soul." Owen rose too, and passing round the table laid
+his hands on Toni's shoulders. "Toni, we're not quarrelling, are we?
+Have I neglected you lately? I'm sorry if I have--when the book's out we
+will have a trip abroad, go on the Riviera or somewhere nice and warm."
+
+He stooped, and kissed her, but though she lifted her face obediently
+and even returned his caress, Toni's lips were cold and her eyes had
+lost their sparkle.
+
+Owen's inflexibility frightened her. She had half expected that when he
+knew her real and vital dislike for Miss Loder he would promise to send
+her away; but he had done nothing of the kind: and Toni felt again, as
+she had already felt once or twice of late, that Owen had no intention
+of giving in to his wife's fancies, as some men were always ready to do.
+
+She had intended to offer to give up Eva Herrick's friendship if Owen
+would send away Miss Loder. In the quiet hours of the night such a
+bargain had seemed simple enough; but when it came to making the
+suggestion Toni's heart failed her.
+
+"Are you going motoring to-day, Toni?"
+
+"I had thought of it," she said slowly; "but--do you want the car?"
+
+"No, thanks, dear. I'm going up to town by the twelve-thirty--I promised
+to meet Barry for lunch. Shall you be in?"
+
+"No. I thought of lunching out," said Toni rather vaguely.
+
+"Oh. Well, you'll order Miss Loder's lunch then, won't you? She must
+have it alone to-day."
+
+Owen, occupied with a letter he held in his hand, had spoken
+thoughtlessly; but an exclamation from Toni made him pause and regard
+his wife in amazement. Toni's pallor had given way to a deep flush, and
+her usually sweet eyes blazed with rage.
+
+"Oh, I'll order Miss Loder's lunch." She spoke in sharp staccato tones.
+"You needn't be afraid I will neglect her because you're away. I _can_
+keep house, if I'm not a B.A.; and thank Heaven I shan't have to sit at
+the table and listen to her sneering at me all the time."
+
+"Toni!" In Owen's eyes a flame similar to that in her own had sprung to
+life. "What do you mean by this nonsense about Miss Loder? Let me tell
+you once and for all that I won't have it. You never cease libelling
+that unfortunate woman from morning to night. Considering she is here,
+in your house, in a subordinate position, your behaviour is both
+unladylike and ungenerous; and if you continue to talk in this way about
+a girl who has to earn her own living, and has never done you any
+harm--well, we shall quarrel, that's all."
+
+"I don't care if we do." Toni's hot temper--a heritage from her Italian
+mother--was let loose. "I'd sooner quarrel than submit to everything you
+like to do. If you loved me, treated me as you ought to treat your wife,
+you'd send her away. Oh, I'm not jealous in a silly way--I know you
+aren't likely to make love to her----"
+
+"_Toni!_" Owen's voice frightened her into silence. "Don't dare to put
+such a vulgar insinuation into words, if you please. If you are so lost
+to your own dignity and self-respect as your anger seems to imply, at
+least remember that you are my wife, and don't let me hear such a
+thoroughly degrading and unworthy remark from you again."
+
+"I _didn't_!" Toni, crimson-faced, had tears in her eyes. "I said I
+didn't think it. It's not fair of you to pretend I did.... I only
+meant----"
+
+"I'm afraid you don't know what you do mean," said Owen, his anger dying
+down at the sight of her tears. "But in any case we had better drop the
+subject."
+
+He paused for a moment, then something in Toni's forlorn aspect touched
+his heart and he spoke more kindly.
+
+"Come, Toni, don't let's make a scene over this. You're my wife, you
+know--I didn't marry you because I wanted a secretary, I married you
+because I wanted you for my wife----"
+
+"Even though you didn't love me." Toni spoke quietly, even a little
+sadly, and Owen's heart sank as he realized what her words implied.
+
+"I didn't love you?" For the life of him he did not know what to say.
+
+"No. I thought you did--but it doesn't matter," said Toni a little
+drearily. "I'm sorry I made a scene just now, Owen. Please forgive me. I
+won't do it again."
+
+And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went out of the
+room, leaving Owen staring after her, stirred to the depths of his soul
+by something he thought he had read in her usually child-like eyes.
+
+It was no child who had gazed at him as she spoke those last few words.
+It was a woman who had looked through Toni's Southern eyes in that
+moment of stress; and for the first time since his marriage, Owen
+wondered whether his estimate of Toni had been incorrect after all.
+
+He had thought her soulless, a pretty, light-hearted, unselfish little
+comrade, swayed by feminine whims and caprices, but incapable of rising
+to the stature of the perfect woman; and lo, in one moment of
+unconscious revelation she had shown herself to him as a woman indeed,
+one who had realized that he had married her for some other cause than
+love, yet did not stoop to blame him.
+
+But if Toni were indeed a woman, one capable, moreover, of a totally
+unexpected magnanimity, he had indeed been guilty of a serious mistake,
+and the very idea that he had misread Toni's character so hopelessly
+filled Owen with a humility as disturbing as it was complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The immediate effect of the little scene at the breakfast table was
+unfortunately that of an increased intimacy between Toni Rose and
+Herrick's wife.
+
+Although Toni's exit from the battlefield had been quiet and even
+dignified, she found it hard to forgive Owen's plain-speaking on the
+subject of what he supposed to be her silly prejudice against Miss
+Loder. He had called her conduct vulgar and ungenerous, had spoken,
+moreover, in the tone in which a harsh schoolmaster might censure a
+naughty child; and all her love for Owen could not prevent a feeling of
+humiliation which galled her sorely.
+
+The sight of Miss Loder, trim, competent, complacent, acted upon Toni's
+nerves in much the same way as the red rag is said to act on the nervous
+system of a bull. Although she dared not give vent openly to her
+dislike, Toni's behaviour towards her husband's secretary was by no
+means cordial; and Owen felt a slightly bitter resentment against his
+young wife for what he considered her most unreasonable inability to
+understand his position.
+
+Millicent Loder was a god-send to a harassed literary man; and yet Owen
+began to wonder whether after this book were done it would be advisable
+to dispense with her services. That, however, seemed unfair to the girl,
+who liked her work with him, and would consider her dismissal uncalled
+for; and Owen generally finished his mental discussion with a resolution
+to ignore Toni's foolishness and trust to time to teach her toleration.
+
+It must be remembered that neither Toni nor her husband had the
+slightest notion of what lay beneath Miss Loder's calm exterior. Envy of
+Toni as Rose's wife, scorn of her as the mistress of a beautiful and
+stately house, mingled in Millicent's breast with a strong and
+unreasonable longing to attract Toni's husband to herself; and the very
+fact that the marriage of these two was not what she called a success,
+lent additional keenness to all her emotions.
+
+Oddly enough, Mrs. Herrick saw Millicent in something very like her true
+light, with a vision even clearer than that of the more interested Toni;
+and Eva Herrick, who since her imprisonment hated all men and most
+women, was not ill-pleased by the spectacle of Toni's dislike for her
+husband's secretary.
+
+Very adroitly Eva set herself to foster that dislike. Although she had
+only encountered Miss Loder twice--once on the occasion of a call paid
+in return for Toni's ceremonious call upon her, and again during a wait
+at the station for the London train, Mrs. Herrick had quickly realized
+that Miss Loder liked Toni little better than Toni cared for her; and
+Eva was not the sort of woman to let any knowledge of that kind lie
+useless.
+
+Without saying anything definite, she contrived to let Toni know she
+sympathized with her in the matter of Miss Loder's tenancy of the
+library; and although Toni never let slip a word which might have
+savoured of disloyalty to her husband, Mrs. Herrick knew, with a queer,
+uncanny shrewdness peculiar to her, that the girl's marriage was not
+altogether happy.
+
+If it had been, it is improbable that Eva would have made a friend of
+Toni. As she said to herself now and again, she had no use for happy
+people. Her own life was spoilt--that the spoiling was due to herself
+she would have been the last to acknowledge--and she was in no humour to
+watch other people making a success of their lives. What she wanted was
+to see those around her as unhappy, as disillusioned, as discontented as
+herself; and all Toni's kindness, all her gentle, unselfish
+friendliness, went for nothing when the opportunity arose for a further
+darkening of Toni's already overshadowed sky.
+
+On the surface, however, all was serenity. Eva accepted Toni's
+companionship with outward gratitude, and when once Herrick was
+satisfied that Toni knew what she was doing, he put no obstacles in the
+way of their better acquaintance.
+
+Afterwards he told himself that he should have known better than to
+allow his wife to take advantage of Toni's unworldliness; but at the
+moment he was only too glad to find Eva apparently sincere in her liking
+for the simple-hearted Toni; and assuming, naturally, that Owen did not
+disapprove of the growing intimacy, he watched the affair with a
+gratitude made natural by his intense pity for his wife.
+
+One day Mrs. Herrick asked Toni to accompany her to Sutton, where she
+had made an appointment for twelve o'clock. It appeared that she had
+suffered agonies of toothache while in prison, and although the
+authorities had done all they could for her, she was again in urgent
+need of a dentist's services. She had been informed of the arrival of a
+new practitioner in the little town, who came from a London practice;
+and to Toni's mingled surprise and dismay she found herself invited to
+accompany Mrs. Herrick on a visit to Mr. Dowson's surgery.
+
+On the spur of the moment she confessed to a previous acquaintance with
+Mr. Dowson; and Eva thereupon plied her with questions as to his
+proficiency in his work.
+
+"I don't want my teeth breaking or my jaw dislocating," she said. "Do
+you think the man's any good? It's such a bore to have to go up to town
+every time. Has he ever done any work for you?"
+
+Toni, who had never had toothache in her life, was obliged to reply in
+the negative; but assured Eva that Mr. Dowson had an excellent
+reputation in Brixton.
+
+"Well, I wrote and fixed up an appointment with him," said Eva
+carelessly, "so I suppose I'd better go. But if he isn't any good I
+shan't go again."
+
+"I'll run you over in the car," said Toni eagerly, "and we'll go on to
+lunch somewhere. Miss Loder leaves early to-day, so it doesn't matter
+about my not being at home."
+
+Mrs. Herrick accepted the offer promptly, and at five minutes past
+twelve the big car pulled up in front of Mr. Dowson's modest house, much
+to the excitement of the school children, who were at that moment
+released from the school-buildings at the end of the street.
+
+A quiet little maid showed the visitors into the usual depressing
+waiting-room; and reappeared two minutes later to conduct them into the
+torture chamber itself; and since Eva flatly refused to go alone, Toni
+perforce accompanied her into the operator's presence.
+
+Mr. Dowson's pale face lighted up at the sight of Toni with a radiance
+which even the self-engrossed Eva could not fail to note. He recollected
+himself sufficiently to shake hands professionally with his patient, but
+Toni he greeted warmly, as an old friend.
+
+He had never dreamed of such a glorious happening as this visit. The
+dingy room was transfigured by Toni's presence therein; and his long,
+white, carefully-manicured hands were absolutely unsteady as he opened
+his little cabinet and selected one or two tiny but deadly-looking
+instruments from the shining rows within.
+
+Toni, for her part, was occupied in thanking the Providence which had
+seen fit to equip her with a set of perfectly sound white teeth; and she
+felt an intense sympathy with the hapless Eva, whose nerves, undermined
+by her late experience, were already betraying her into signs of
+agitation.
+
+"I won't hurt you, really," said Mr. Dowson, with a beaming smile, which
+he felt to be out of place, but could not restrain. "Please lean back a
+little more--so. Now open--just a _leetle_ wider--thank you, that will
+do."
+
+It was soon evident that the visit could not be prolonged. Although he
+had not the clue to his patient's intense nervousness, Mr. Dowson's
+professional instincts warned him that he must go warily: and while he
+would willingly have detained Mrs. Herrick, if by such means he could
+enjoy the felicity of Toni's companionship a little longer, his
+conscientious spirit forced him to cut the sitting short.
+
+Another appointment was made for the following week; and after that
+there were others, to all of which Toni accompanied her quaking friend.
+After four or five visits, however, Toni was unlucky enough to contract
+a chill during an unusually prolonged motor-ride; and Mrs. Herrick was
+forced to go alone.
+
+It was Leonard Dowson's intense consternation when told of Toni's
+illness which first opened Eva's eyes to the seriousness of his
+devotion. She had seen from the beginning that he admired the girl, that
+he listened attentively to her lightest word; but she had not realized
+that Mr. Dowson was really and irrevocably in love with Toni; and it is
+only fair to the young man to say that he was quite unconscious of his
+self-betrayal.
+
+He had not been able to hide his anxiety on hearing of Toni's
+indisposition. With all the exaggeration of true love he immediately
+feared the worst; and even Eva's callous heart was touched by his
+incapacity to ask for news on the day of her second visit alone.
+
+He had stammered out a broken question, exhibiting a rather absurd
+concern over an ordinary slight chill; and when Eva replied casually
+that she had heard Toni was going on very well, she noticed, with a
+half-contemptuous amusement, that he had to turn aside and wipe away the
+drops which glistened on his high forehead.
+
+It was during that second visit that an idea came to Eva, bringing a
+malicious little smile to her lips in the intervals of Leonard's
+ministrations.
+
+"You've known Toni--Mrs. Rose--a long time, I suppose?" She asked the
+question casually as she put on her hat before the glass. "You were
+friends before her marriage, weren't you?"
+
+"Yes. I had the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Rose some years before that."
+
+"Really? You knew her as a child?"
+
+"She was just fifteen when I saw her first," said Leonard, his voice
+husky with the emotion called up by the reminiscence. "It was her
+birthday, I remember, and one of her cousins asked me to go home to tea
+with him. They were great people for birthdays, her relations."
+
+"Were they?" Eva adjusted her veil carefully. "Friendly, sociable sort
+of people, I suppose. Was Mr. Rose there that night?"
+
+"Mr. Rose?" For a moment Leonard, lost in dreams of the past, stared
+uncomprehendingly. Then he pulled himself together vigorously. "No, Mr.
+Rose was not there in those days. He--he came on the scene much later
+than that."
+
+"Did he? Was he also a friend of Mrs. Rose's cousins?"
+
+"Oh, no." Mr. Dowson became emphatic. "Nothing of that sort. Toni--Miss
+Gibbs she was then--met him in the course of business. As a matter of
+fact, she was his secretary. And then he fell in love with her; and the
+next thing was that they were married." His tone was dreary.
+
+"Ah, well, I don't wonder he fell in love." Eva watched him closely
+through the mirror as she spoke. "I have no doubt Mrs. Rose had heaps of
+admirers at that time. Why, Mr. Dowson"--she spoke laughingly--"what
+were you about not to seize such a prize before an outsider sailed in
+and captured it?"
+
+Leonard's pallor gave way to an unbecoming brick-red flush, and his
+voice shook as he replied:
+
+"I ... I wasn't lucky, you see. I--I would have given my life for that
+girl, Mrs. Herrick, and she--she wouldn't have me at any price."
+
+His tone of desperate sincerity told Eva all she wanted to know; and in
+a moment she switched the conversation back to safer ground.
+
+"You needn't give your life for her, Mr. Dowson, but I'll tell you what
+you can do. You can lend me your _Punch_ to take her. I promised to
+bring her a copy from Dent's, and he is sold out."
+
+Mr. Dowson was genuinely delighted to follow the suggestion and insisted
+on depleting the table in his waiting-room of various periodicals which
+might relieve the tedium of a day in bed; and Eva took the bundle
+amiably, promising to deliver them in person to Toni on her way home.
+
+She fulfilled her mission punctually; and when Owen, unaware of her
+presence in the house, came to see how his wife was getting on, he found
+her bed literally strewn with the papers which should have soothed the
+fears of the quaking patients in Mr. Dowson's gloomy waiting-room.
+
+"Hallo, Toni." He turned to her smilingly, after greeting Eva. "I hope
+you've got plenty to read. I didn't know you hankered after the
+illustrated papers, or I'd have sent out for some. It's very good of
+Mrs. Herrick to bring you such an assortment."
+
+"Ah, but these were sent by a friend of your wife's," smiled Eva
+sweetly. "I'm not the principal party in the transaction--I'm only the
+middleman."
+
+"Really? Who has been so generous then?" asked Owen, taking up one of
+the papers at random as he spoke.
+
+"Mr. Dowson, the dentist at Sutton," said Eva, turning her large Irish
+eyes on him pleasantly. "You know, of course, he is an old friend of
+Mrs. Rose's, and I must say he is a most gentle and satisfactory person
+in his work."
+
+"A dentist? Dowson?" Owen's eyes roamed from Eva's face to Toni's, and
+something in the manner of both girls puzzled him. "I don't know him, do
+I, Toni? Is he really an old friend of yours? But you've never asked him
+here, have you?"
+
+"He--he's not exactly an old friend," said Toni, annoyed to feel herself
+colouring. "I mean--oh, I've known him a long time in a way--he was a
+friend of the boys--my cousins, but that was all. And anyway he has not
+been here long."
+
+"Oh." Owen was still vaguely perplexed by her manner. "Well, if he's a
+decent chap you must ask him over."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure he wouldn't come." Toni spoke quickly. "He is not your
+sort, Owen. I mean--I don't think he would care to come. Do you, Mrs.
+Herrick?"
+
+Thus appealed to, Eva gave her verdict with a show of hesitation.
+
+"N-no, I hardly think he would." She turned to Owen. "I don't think I
+would ask him, if I were you, Mr. Rose. I expect it would make him feel
+a little--well, awkward."
+
+"But----" Owen did not know what to make of it. "You see, if he is
+sufficiently intimate with my wife to send her all these papers and
+things, it looks rather odd if I take no notice of him, doesn't it? I
+really think we must ask him over when Toni is herself again, eh, Toni?"
+
+"I wouldn't, Mr. Rose." Eva threw a deep earnestness into her melodious
+Irish voice. "Really--it's not my business, of course, but if I were you
+I'd not bother about the matter."
+
+She saw the look of uneasiness in Owen's eyes, and knew she had said
+enough.
+
+"Is it really five o'clock!" She jumped up in pretended dismay. "And I
+promised Jim faithfully I'd be back by half-past four. He gets fidgety
+when I'm out of his sight for long--thinks I'm getting into mischief, I
+suppose."
+
+She laughed rather hardly, and Owen felt an inner repulsion to the woman
+who could thus misconstrue her husband's consideration. He watched her
+bid Toni an effusive farewell and then escorted her downstairs, and
+stood talking to her for a few moments at the hall door.
+
+Somehow he had never liked her so little as on this afternoon; and
+although he admitted that she was a pretty woman in her way, he told
+himself that her face was curiously unattractive.
+
+She looked better now than on her first arrival in the neighbourhood,
+less haggard, a little plumper, but as he compared her dulled and faded
+beauty with Toni's youthful bloom he wondered, not for the first time,
+if her companionship were altogether innocuous.
+
+He was still puzzling over the question when he re-entered Toni's room;
+and his first words showed her what was in his mind.
+
+"Rather bad taste--that allusion to her husband's anxiety. Don't you
+think so, Toni? After all, he might well be uneasy about a woman who has
+once got into such serious mischief as she has done."
+
+"Why? It's not likely to happen again." Toni, poring over _Punch_, spoke
+shortly.
+
+"No, of course not." Owen hesitated, but as Toni evinced no signs of
+wishing to continue the conversation he went out of the room hurriedly,
+leaving his wife alone with the evidences of Mr. Dowson's good-will.
+
+The next time Eva visited Toni she said jocularly:
+
+"Well, I do think you're mean, Toni!" They had recently advanced to this
+stage of intimacy. "Fancy not telling me that Mr. Dowson had once
+proposed to you."
+
+Toni, taken aback, blushed vividly.
+
+"He didn't--at least--not exactly. I mean----"
+
+"Oh, I know what you mean!" Eva laughed. "Of course you couldn't have
+accepted him--he's a nice fellow in his way, but impossible as a
+husband." At times Squire Payton's daughter was quite blatantly
+aristocratic. "But you might have told me, all the same."
+
+"Why? It doesn't matter--now."
+
+"Not to you, dear." Eva jeered lightly. "But the poor fellow is quite
+upset at meeting you again. He told me to-day he would never marry, and
+when I asked him why he said surely I could guess."
+
+"Very impertinent of him," said Toni sharply; and Eva smiled inwardly.
+
+"Oh, you mustn't blame him, Toni. I'm afraid it was my fault. We Irish
+are so sympathetic, you know--people always tell us their secrets. And
+anyhow there is nothing to be ashamed of. If he likes to go adoring you
+privately, you needn't be angry."
+
+She said no more just then, for Toni's manner displayed her displeasure;
+but Eva smiled again when she was alone; and her warped and twisted mind
+seized eagerly on the idea of the very amusing situation which a little
+careful engineering might bring to pass.
+
+Like all true intriguers, Eva kept her thoughts to herself; and Toni had
+not the faintest idea of the plans which her so-called friend turned
+about in her mind as the autumn days glided swiftly by under the golden
+and blue skies of a perfect season.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+Owen and his wife were sitting at dinner one evening when a note was
+brought to Owen whose contents brought an angry exclamation to his lips
+as he, read.
+
+"By gad, Toni, this is a bit thick! What the devil does the woman mean?"
+
+Toni, suddenly pale, bit her lips, while her eyes filled with
+apprehension.
+
+"I ... who is it from, Owen? What does it say?"
+
+"There--read it yourself," said Owen, throwing the blue-grey sheet
+across the table. "I suppose there is some explanation, though I confess
+I can't understand it--yet."
+
+Still deadly pale, her eyes shining like blue jewels, Toni took up the
+sheet and read the letter which Lady Martin had written with so much
+satisfaction a couple of hours earlier.
+
+     "DEAR MR. ROSE,
+
+     "After the occurrence of this afternoon I am sure you will see the
+     advisability of Mrs. Rose's resignation from the Badminton Club. It
+     is with great regret that I suggest this course; but after the
+     scene which took place this afternoon, in the presence of a dozen
+     members and several visitors, among them Lady Saxonby, a former
+     friend of your own, I speak for the Committee when I request you to
+     advise your wife to resign for the present season at least."
+
+Toni laid the paper quietly down on the table and spoke to Owen with a
+mingling of terror and defiance in her tone.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well?" Owen reached across the table and picked up the letter. "What is
+all this about, Toni? Why should you be requested to resign?"
+
+"I don't know"--Toni began in a lifeless voice; then suddenly--"yes, I
+do know. It's all a plot of Lady Martin's and Mrs. Madgwick's. They hate
+me, I always told you so--and now they want to make you hate me too."
+
+"But what happened this afternoon?"
+
+"Oh, it's a long story." Toni spoke recklessly. "To begin with, I was
+elected to the Club a long time ago--in September; and when Mrs. Herrick
+came home she wanted to be a member too. I tried to get her in, but they
+didn't want her----"
+
+"Of course not." Owen frowned. "You never seem to understand, Toni, that
+all people are not so unworldly as you. It was a mistake for Mrs.
+Herrick to attempt to enter a private club of that sort so soon. She
+should have waited until the scandal had blown over."
+
+"Well, she was very disappointed about it. But every member can take a
+friend in once a month, so I took Eva this afternoon."
+
+She broke off in dismay.
+
+"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke
+sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you
+got there?"
+
+"People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the
+whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs.
+Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have
+been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered."
+
+"What did she do?"
+
+"She had a woman with her--Lady Saxonby, someone called her--and she
+heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me
+if I were your wife."
+
+"She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that Vivian's curiosity had nerved her
+to the step.
+
+"Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me--quite
+politely--but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time----"
+
+Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the
+face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection;
+and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny.
+
+"Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on.
+
+"Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw
+her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and
+she bent down and whispered something to her--something about Eva,
+because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva
+heard it too and turned crimson."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a
+message."
+
+"Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?"
+
+"She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as
+happy as she is."
+
+"Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send
+me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption
+on her part."
+
+"Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first
+who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva
+jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an
+honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through
+that man's wife--and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby
+was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world
+to see."
+
+Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set
+his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.
+
+"Well, then there was a scene. Lady Saxonby turned on Eva quite
+furiously, and said she had no right to talk of anyone being ashamed of
+anything, seeing that everyone knew what she had done. And then all the
+other women crowded round, and Eva lost her temper, and said it was
+quite true and she had been in prison and was a criminal and all that,
+but she'd sooner be that than a dishonourable, mercenary woman who would
+jilt one man because another had more money and a title ... and ... oh,
+there was a most frightful row, and the end was that the secretary
+hurried up and asked me to take Eva away quickly before she said any
+more. She was awfully cross, and said I ought not to have brought Mrs.
+Herrick, and that Lady Saxonby would be sure to talk, and the Club would
+be ruined."
+
+"So you came away?"
+
+"Yes. Eva was horribly upset--you know her nerves are all wrong--and she
+fainted dead away in the hall and they had to send for a doctor and we
+took her home ... and altogether," said Toni, breaking at last into
+tears, "it was a fearful scene, and I wish I'd never gone near the
+Club!"
+
+"I wish to God you hadn't!" Owen sprang up, more upset than he cared to
+confess. He could visualize the whole scene: Vivian, with her beautiful,
+scornful face, taunting Eva, playing the hypocrite with Toni, and
+sending insulting messages to the man she had jilted; and the mere
+thought of the talk, the gossip, the raking up of old stories which
+would inevitably follow, set all his nerves jarring furiously.
+
+Even the sight of Toni's tears did not soften his heart. Rather he felt
+exasperated with her, since it was her folly which had precipitated the
+whole scene.
+
+"Come, don't cry," he said rather curtly. "You've done a very silly
+thing, and goodness knows where it will end; but it's no use crying and
+making yourself ill."
+
+Naturally his tone did not tend to set his wife at ease; and she cried
+the more.
+
+"Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!" Owen felt himself to be a brute, but the
+thought of Vivian's malice was gall to his spirit. "The mischief's done,
+and crying won't undo it. But I hope you've learned a lesson, Toni; I
+always told you it was a mistake to go about with that woman, and you
+wouldn't believe me. Well, now you see what's happened. You've made us
+both ridiculous in the eyes of the world, and we shall be more severely
+ostracized than ever."
+
+Suddenly Toni's tears ceased and she raised her head to stare at him.
+
+"You mean people will be horrid--to you--about it?"
+
+"Well, naturally, they'll think me a fool for encouraging you," said
+Owen rather irritably. "If only you would have been guided by me! But
+it's been the same all through. You chose to go your own way, and the
+end will be that we shall have to leave Greenriver and go to live
+somewhere else."
+
+"Leave Greenriver?" She echoed the words dully.
+
+"Well, what can we do?" He spoke impatiently. "You have never seemed
+very happy here, so far as the people go. And now, after this _fiasco_,
+we may expect the neighbourhood to drop us altogether."
+
+"Drop us?"
+
+"Well, you know what I mean. Oh, I don't care two straws about the
+people themselves. They're a stupid lot anyway, and too conventional to
+know how to got the best out of life. But still--Greenriver's my home,
+and I thought we should learn to settle down here."
+
+"And I've prevented you?"
+
+"Well, you've never hit it off with the people, have you? And after this
+I don't see how we can settle down. I'm not going to have people
+neglecting my wife or being rude to her, but still this Badminton Club
+affair is a pretty big slap in the face for both of us."
+
+Toni, resting her small chin on the cup of her hollowed hands, stared at
+him thoughtfully, and in her eyes, still wet with tears, he caught again
+that elusive hint of a tragic womanhood which had puzzled him on a
+former occasion.
+
+"Eva was right," she said, and her voice was low. "She said I was out of
+place here, and so I am."
+
+"Mrs. Herrick said that?" Owen's anger suddenly swung round. "Then it
+was a damned silly thing to say, and I'm surprised you listened to it."
+
+"But she was right. She said everyone wondered why you married me; and
+now that I have seen Lady Saxonby, I wonder too."
+
+Owen's heart sank.
+
+"Toni, what do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I understand now. Lady Saxonby was the woman you were to
+have married. She is very beautiful," said Toni simply. "And she would
+have been the right mistress for Greenriver. I can't understand how it
+was you married me. Eva said--when we were driving home--that it must
+have been pique. She said you wanted to show the other woman you did not
+care ... and when I thought about it, I saw that it was true."
+
+"Toni, it wasn't true." All thought of personal anger was swallowed up
+in Owen's sudden longing to convince the girl that Eva had lied. "I
+married you because"--in spite of himself he faltered--"because I loved
+you. What if Vivian did treat me badly? I was well out of it, since she
+was a woman of that kind."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind--now," said Toni, with a faint smile. "I did at first.
+When Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick said it, last summer, I thought my
+heart would break; but I suppose I got used to the idea, and when I saw
+Lady Saxonby to-day I knew it was just one of the things that no one can
+help."
+
+Owen, not understanding her, only stared.
+
+"You see, I knew all the time it wasn't likely, really, that you would
+care for me," said Toni quietly. "I tried to make myself believe you
+did, but I don't think I ever _really_ believed it. Only I was so fond
+of you--you were so kind--and when we were married you were so good to
+me that I began to hope you might grow fond of me in time."
+
+"Toni--for God's sake----"
+
+"But I soon found out it was a mistake--our marriage--for you. I wasn't
+half clever enough. I was only an ignorant, silly, unformed girl, and
+you were so different. Oh, I tried my hardest to improve. I wanted to
+prove to you that I wasn't quite such a little fool as you thought me. I
+wanted to show you I had a soul--Mr. Herrick said I had, and I tried to
+make myself more companionable to you--oh, I know I didn't succeed very
+well," said Toni humbly, "but, you see, you didn't understand. I only
+bothered you when I tried to help you in your work; and of course you
+didn't want to talk to me about the things that really mattered to you."
+
+"Toni--Toni--don't say such things."
+
+"But you were always kind," said Toni wistfully, "and I sometimes
+wondered if I had been wrong and you did care for me a little. But I
+always knew, deep down in my heart, that it was all a mistake, and
+now"--suddenly the composure which had supported her so far gave
+way--"now I know I ought not to have married you--and--and I'm sorry,
+Owen--I'm most frightfully sorry----"
+
+All at once she pressed her hands to her eyes as though to shut out the
+sight of his face; and then, as he started forward, vague words of
+comfort on his lips, she flung her arms out over the table and laid her
+head down on them in an attitude of utter desolation.
+
+For a moment Owen stood motionless, while the light from the rose-shaded
+candles played over the silky black hair and cast a pool of red colour
+on the smooth white neck rising out of its chiffon draperies. The scene
+was one which would never fade from Owen's memory; and in after days he
+could visualize it to the minutest detail.
+
+The red and yellow of the chrysanthemums in a big silver bowl, the
+purple bloom of the piled-up grapes before Toni, the ruby of the wine in
+the decanters, the reflections cast by the candles in the shining
+surface of the uncovered table, the ruddy glow of the firelight playing
+over Toni's pale-coloured skirts--to the day of his death Owen would be
+able to recall the scene at will: and never would he forget the chill in
+his veins as he realized that the girl he had thought a child was a
+woman after all....
+
+"Toni--Toni dear." He laid his hand on her shoulder. "For heaven's sake,
+Toni, look up and tell me you don't mean all the terrible things you've
+been saying. Of course I love you. Why, haven't I shown you that all
+along? Toni, don't let those silly women and their chatter hurt you. You
+can believe me, can't you? And I tell you I married you because I loved
+you--and Lady Saxonby and all the rest can go to Jericho!"
+
+He half thought he had won her ear; in another moment he felt sure he
+would have had her in his arms, sobbing her heart out--since she must
+cry--in the safe shelter of his breast; but at that moment the young
+butler, deceived by the low voices into thinking the room empty, entered
+briskly to fulfil his duties; and Toni sprang up before Andrews had time
+to advance round the big screen, which fortunately hid her from his
+eyes.
+
+Owen swore softly under his breath at this most untimely interruption;
+but Toni was already half-way to the door, and he judged it best to
+engage Andrews in conversation about the wine and leave Toni to seek the
+sanctuary she desired.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The next day the Secretary of the Badminton Club received Mrs. Rose's
+resignation; and there, for the present, the matter ended.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+When Toni related the episode of Lady Martin's note to Eva Herrick, the
+latter asked a startling question.
+
+"Toni, why don't you leave your husband?"
+
+"Leave my husband?" Toni stared at her, wide-eyed.
+
+"Yes. Oh, anyone can see you're neither of you happy. Mr. Rose knows all
+the time that he ought not to have married you just to get even with
+that horrid Saxonby woman, and anyhow you're not the least bit in the
+world suited to one another."
+
+Toni was very pale.
+
+"You don't think so?"
+
+"I'm sure of it." Eva threw away the cigarette she held and sat upright.
+"You ought to have married a man who would love you whatever you
+did--who wouldn't want you to be booky and clever, but would think you
+perfect in every way. Not a man who feels himself superior to you half
+the time, and finds fault the other half."
+
+"But my husband doesn't find fault." She spoke in a low voice.
+
+"Doesn't he? Well, it sounds like it," said Eva, piling the cushions
+behind her curly golden head. "I heard him scolding you over a book
+you'd mislaid one day, and he nearly jumped down your throat about Miss
+Loder this very morning."
+
+"That was entirely my fault," said Toni quickly; and Eva saw that if she
+were to succeed in her malicious project she must change her plan of
+attack.
+
+Being as quick-witted as she was cruel, she adopted a new method
+instantly.
+
+"Of course. I was only joking. Seriously, I think Mr. Rose is
+wonderfully good. I'm sure it would hurt him awfully to think he had
+been unkind or impatient with you, Toni. After all, he married you to
+please himself, didn't he? And it's not a bit fair to you to visit it on
+your head afterwards."
+
+"To visit--what, Eva?"
+
+"Why, I hardly know what to say." Eva smiled subtly to herself. "Of
+course, it may be only my imagination. I daresay you make Mr. Rose as
+happy as any woman could do. I expect he works too hard and that's why
+he looks so worried."
+
+"Does he look worried?" queried Toni softly. "I suppose I ought to have
+noticed it--but----"
+
+"But you didn't?" Eva leaned across and patted the girl's arm. "Never
+mind, dear, it's probably my fancy. I daresay Mr. Rose is not a very
+lively person at any time--and, after all, one can't always be feeling
+cheerful."
+
+"You mean," said Toni, who, like other primitive people, was apt to be
+disconcertingly outspoken, "you mean that Owen--my husband--isn't happy.
+At least--is that what you mean?"
+
+"Well, I suppose I did mean that," said Eva with pretended reluctance.
+"But it's all nonsense--I had no business to say it, Toni. Do forget it,
+will you?"
+
+"No." Toni spoke very quietly. "I shan't forget it. But I want to know a
+little more. You think Owen is unhappy because he is married to me. Do
+you think he would be happier if I went away and left him? Is that what
+you are too kind, too generous to imply?"
+
+Eva's heart gave a sudden throb. Her first aim in life ever since the
+prison gates clanged behind her at the end of her term of confinement
+had been to do some harm in the world, to make up for the injury which
+she considered had been done to her; and no weak emotions such as pity
+or generosity could be allowed to hold her back.
+
+To her oddly-perverted mind, it seemed that if she could persuade Toni
+to leave her husband, to wreck her home and her future, she would have
+got "her own back" to a considerable degree; and she had a double motive
+in her hatred of Owen, who, as she well knew, distrusted her personally
+and disliked her friendship with his young wife.
+
+Any person connected with a big penal settlement will tell you that
+there is never any certainty as to the moral result of a term of
+imprisonment on any given prisoner.
+
+To some natures, the punishment may be both a deterrent and an excellent
+lesson, while to others the educational value may be great and the
+deterrent effect almost _nil_; but in one class of prisoner--the class
+to which Eva Herrick belonged--imprisonment wakes only the worst and
+basest of all emotions, a desire, perforce stifled during the period of
+punishment, for revenge.
+
+That she had suffered, on the whole, justly, never weighed for one
+instant with Eva herself. That she had been guilty of a crime was less
+than nothing. What did weigh with her was the fact that she had been
+found out, and forced to undergo a humiliating and degrading punishment;
+and from the moment when she came to her senses after the swoon which
+had mercifully cut short the scene in court, Eva Herrick's whole being
+had been in revolt against a world where such things were allowed to be.
+
+Her whole pleasure, indeed, while in prison, had been found in planning
+how, in the future, she could render miserable the life of the husband
+who had not, so she considered, stood by her; and it was a bitter
+disappointment to her to find that try as she might she could not
+torture him to the breaking-point.
+
+He met her most poisoned and bitter shafts with a patience which
+nothing, it seemed, could pierce. When she taunted him, he only smiled;
+and when she reviled him he left her presence; so that the only way in
+which she could win any satisfaction was by detailing to him exaggerated
+accounts of the treatment she had received in prison.
+
+These stories, untrue and impossible as many of them were, made him
+wince, not knowing indeed how cunning was the invention behind them; and
+many times when she was more maddening than usual, Herrick schooled
+himself to patience by reminding himself of the drastic punishments
+which had apparently been meted out to her.
+
+When at length she found that Jim was impervious to her stings, Eva
+looked around her for another victim; and found one in the person of
+Toni Rose.
+
+It did not take Eva long to read, more or less correctly, the position
+between Toni and her husband; and although she was quite shrewd enough
+to realize that the situation would probably adjust itself in time, Eva
+was determined to prevent any such adjustment with every weapon in her
+power.
+
+Unhappily it proved only too easy for a woman such as she was to direct
+the affair pretty much as she willed it; and her suggestion to Toni that
+she should leave her husband had been carefully led up to by scores of
+insinuations, of carelessly-dropped hints, and scraps of repeated
+conversations heard on the subject of the Roses' married life.
+
+She was careful to let none of the elation she felt escape her as she
+replied to Toni's speech after a significant pause.
+
+"Put that way, it sounds dreadful," she said, pretending to shudder. "I
+don't think I really meant that. I only thought that perhaps--your
+husband is a writer, you know, an artist--with the artistic temperament,
+I suppose; and everyone knows that genius is difficult to live with."
+
+"I don't care for myself," said Toni hastily. "I could always be
+happy--with Owen--but if you really think I spoil his life----"
+
+"Oh, don't say that, dear." Eva spoke soothingly. "I daresay I am
+entirely mistaken. Of course, you know best how you get on; and after
+all Mr. Rose is so keen on his work he hasn't much time for outside
+things."
+
+"I wonder what Owen would say--or do--if I left him?" She spoke
+musingly; and Eva's heart beat tumultuously as she noted the result of
+her tentative suggestion.
+
+"Go after you and bring you back, I expect." Such was Eva's reply.
+
+"Then there wouldn't be much use in going," said Toni quickly, and Eva
+read the relief in her eyes.
+
+"No--not if you went like that." Her tone was purposely cryptic.
+
+"But--how else should I go?"
+
+"Why, if you really wanted to go----" Eva broke off with a laugh. "Don't
+be so silly, Toni. You talk as though I had really meant my stupid
+suggestion."
+
+"Didn't you mean it?" Toni's gaze was disconcerting.
+
+"Why, of course not. Come, Toni, let's have tea. I'll send for Jim, too.
+It's getting quite dark."
+
+"Wait a moment," said Toni. "Eva, if I made up my mind to leave
+Owen--for his own sake--how could I prevent him fetching me back?"
+
+"You really mean it?" Eva's tone sent a chill through Toni's veins.
+"Supposing you really saw that it was for Owen's good--that by remaining
+with him you were spoiling his life, ruining his career--making him
+unhappy, in short--you mean in _that_ case how could you prevent him
+searching for you?"
+
+"Yes," Toni said, her eyes on the fire, "that is what I mean."
+
+"There's only one way, Toni." She was careful to speak lightly. "If you
+went away with another man----" for a moment even her nerve failed her,
+but she conquered her weakness and went on calmly, and her grey Irish
+eyes were as cold as ice as she looked at Toni. "Then your husband would
+probably divorce you, and devote himself to his career."
+
+For a second Toni's pallor alarmed her. All the girl's colour died away,
+leaving her curiously white round the mouth, a sign of emotion to which
+Eva was not blind; and Mrs. Herrick wondered, uneasily, if Toni were
+about to faint.
+
+But Toni was in no fainting mood.
+
+"You think that, Eva? You think that if I were gone--out of his life
+altogether--Owen would forget me and find happiness in his work?"
+
+"I think so, yes. Oh, Toni, I know I seem unkind," said Eva, Judas-like.
+"Believe me I wouldn't have told you if you hadn't pressed me. It only
+struck me that perhaps--you will forgive me, dear?--perhaps you didn't
+manage to make your husband very happy--and if you really did want him
+to forget you----"
+
+"No, I don't make him happy," said Toni with a sigh. "It is funny, isn't
+it, when I love him so much? But you're right in one thing. I am
+spoiling his life; and my going away won't help him unless I go for
+good."
+
+"If you merely go, without any apparent reason, your husband will be
+miserable, unsettled, give up everything to find you, to bring you
+back----"
+
+She was startled by a sudden exclamation from Toni.
+
+"But, Eva, if you're so sure he'd want me back----"
+
+"Why should you go?" Eva smiled a little, patiently. "Don't you see,
+dear, if you go like that, Mr. Rose will be so alarmed, so upset, that
+of course he'll want to find you. He would think you'd perhaps run away
+because you were unhappy, and he'd do all he could to get you back on
+your own account. Oh, I know Mr. Rose is very fond of you,
+Toni"--somehow her very inflection made Toni's conception of Owen's love
+shrivel into nothingness--"and he couldn't rest if he thought you were
+unhappy. He would bring you back, and things would be just the same
+again. He would do his work, helped by Miss Loder, I suppose, and you
+would go on as you are now. After all, Toni, you know you have a lot to
+be grateful for."
+
+She looked at the girl to see how far she might safely go, but Toni
+never moved; and Eva was emboldened to proceed.
+
+"You have a lovely home--Greenriver is quite a show place, and after
+all, you and your husband never quarrel, do you? So that on the whole
+you'd be a little fool if you gave up all these very substantial
+benefits. Eh, Toni?"
+
+Eva was clever. She knew exactly the spur to apply to Toni's flagging
+mood, and she smiled to herself when she heard Toni's reply.
+
+"Do you think I would hesitate to give up Greenriver--and all the
+rest--to make my husband happy?"
+
+And looking at her Eva knew she would not. Mistaken, Toni might often
+be--foolish, self-willed, a little intolerant of advice; but she would
+never be selfish. If she could be convinced that her departure would be
+beneficial to the man she loved, she would certainly leave him, though
+it broke her heart to go.
+
+"No, of course not." Eva spoke a trifle vaguely. "But you couldn't go,
+Toni. It would be impossible. Why, your husband would think you were
+mad."
+
+"Would he? Perhaps I am." Toni's smile was a little melancholy.
+"Sometimes I think this is all a dream--that I'm not Owen's wife at
+all--that Greenriver and the gardens and everything else are merely
+imagination. I can't believe it's true. If it is, how is it that
+everything has gone so terribly, horribly wrong?"
+
+She paused, gazing before her with puzzled eyes.
+
+"I thought once that if I married Owen I should be the happiest girl in
+the world. But I'm not. I'm the most miserable. I--sometimes I wish--oh,
+I don't know what I wish!"
+
+"Come, Toni"--Eva rose as though to change the subject--"you mustn't be
+so despondent. Let me ring the bell--it's nearly five, and I'm sure you
+want a cup of tea."
+
+"Not yet, Eva." In Toni's voice was a new note, a note of decision,
+which Eva's ear was quick to detect. "When you say I should go away with
+another man, who had you in your mind?"
+
+A moment Eva waited. Then:
+
+"I meant the man who has the misfortune to adore you, Toni, the man who
+gave up everything, his practice, his prospects, London, everything, for
+your sake. You know the man I mean. You know as well as I do that
+Leonard Dowson adores the very ground you walk on."
+
+"Leonard Dowson!" Toni smiled drearily. "Think of leaving _Owen_ for
+Leonard Dowson!"
+
+"Oh, I know he's not in the same class," said Eva, with ostentatious
+frankness, "and I don't for a moment suppose he would make you happy.
+I'm afraid I wasn't thinking much of you, dear, when I mentioned his
+name. Somehow I forgot that you have as much right to happiness as
+anyone."
+
+"_My_ happiness doesn't matter," said Toni for the second time. "But I
+think you are wrong, Eva. Mr. Dowson never thinks of me--now."
+
+"Doesn't he?" Eva permitted herself to smile. "My dear child, he's just
+crazy about you. He told me all about it one day when you weren't
+there--how he'd loved you for years and years and was heart-broken when
+you refused him. He only came down here to be near you, and if you would
+only smile on him a little he would do anything in the world for you."
+
+"He wouldn't give up his work for me, Eva."
+
+"Ah, you haven't heard of his good luck." Eva had carefully refrained
+from the announcement until the moment was ripe. "He has just come into
+some money--nearly two hundred a year; and he can chuck dentistry
+to-morrow, if he likes."
+
+"Even then, he wouldn't want a scandal----"
+
+"Oh, Toni, I could shake you," said Eva, sitting down with a thump on
+the sofa near her. "Because some people have not got red blood in their
+veins, you think no one has. I tell you Leonard Dowson would throw up
+everything to-morrow--brave any amount of scandal, if only you would go
+with him. He could take you abroad somewhere, America perhaps; and then,
+when your husband had got his divorce, you could marry Leonard and
+settle down as nicely as possible. Then Owen would be free to do as he
+chose with his life, and this unhappy state of things would be
+forgotten."
+
+"Marry him? Marry Leonard Dowson?" Even yet Toni could not assimilate
+the idea.
+
+"Well, why not? He is madly in love with you, Toni. He would give up
+everything in the world for you, and I honestly think that things are
+impossible as they are. But of course you know better than I do, and if
+you feel you must stay with your husband----"
+
+"No--no." Toni's breath came in short gasps, as though she had been
+running. "I can't stay with Owen. I make him miserable, he's ashamed of
+me--I'm no good to him, only a bore--a useless creature who's tied to
+him ... if I were gone he would be really better off--and as you say, he
+could marry again----"
+
+"I don't suppose he would do that," said Eva gently. "You know he _is_
+very fond of you, Toni--I got even Jim to acknowledge that the other
+night"--she watched Toni wince at the "even"--"and it's only that
+you--well, you're not quite his sort, somehow."
+
+Her words seemed to rouse Toni to anger.
+
+"You have said that already," she said sharply. "You needn't repeat it."
+
+"I'm sorry, Toni." Eva's big eyes looked imploringly into hers. "I'm
+afraid I've said far too much to-day. After all, I have no earthly right
+to interfere, and you are quite justified in resenting my interference."
+
+Toni's sudden anger died away.
+
+"Oh, you were quite right," she said, sighing as she spoke.
+
+"I'm glad you said what you did--and I can't help knowing you are right.
+Only"--she shivered, and her face looked white and pinched--"somehow
+until I heard you saying it I hoped I myself was making a mistake."
+
+"But--you'll not do anything rash?" Eva was vaguely uneasy at the result
+of her plot.
+
+"Oh, no, I'll do nothing rash," said Toni, with a queer smile; and Eva's
+uneasiness deepened.
+
+Luckily for her their conversation was cut short at that moment by the
+entrance of Herrick, accompanied by Olga, and followed by the maid
+bearing the tea-tray.
+
+When the lamp had been lighted and the maid had withdrawn, Herrick shot
+a glance at the face of his wife's visitor; and he saw at once that
+something was wrong.
+
+He did not betray his knowledge by the slightest sign; but talked to the
+two girls in his usual kindly, whimsical fashion while Eva dispensed
+tea.
+
+"All the boats are really put away for the winter now," he said
+presently. "I think yours--and ours--have been the last, Mrs. Rose. We
+have had such wonderfully mild weather; but I'm afraid we shan't get any
+more boating this season."
+
+"Shan't we?" Toni sighed faintly. "I'm sorry--I have enjoyed the river
+so much."
+
+"Yes. We've had a glorious summer. But after all the winter will soon
+pass and we'll be getting the boats out again."
+
+"I hope we shan't be here when it's time to get the boats out," said Eva
+crisply. "A winter here would just about finish me off."
+
+"Oh, it's not bad," Herrick rejoined. "Sometimes it is quite pleasant
+all the year round--though we get a fog now and again, of course."
+
+"I don't propose remaining to sample the fogs," said Eva quietly. "Of
+course you will do as you choose, but seeing I've never been properly
+warm for months--we don't have nice fires in prison, you know--I think
+you owe it to me to take me somewhere sunny this winter."
+
+Herrick's face clouded, as it always did at any reference to Eva's
+prison life; and Toni felt desperately uncomfortable.
+
+She put down her cup and rose.
+
+"I must really be going home, Eva. I didn't mean to stay to tea."
+
+"Must you go? I'm sorry. I hoped you'd stay to dinner and enliven us a
+little. Jim and I don't have very jovial evenings, do we, Jim? Sometimes
+I think I might as well be back in my cell."
+
+"Eva--don't." Herrick spoke quietly, and his wife laughed.
+
+"My dear Jim, why be so squeamish? If Mrs. Rose doesn't mind associating
+with jail-birds, I don't see why you should. I'm thinking of writing a
+book on my experiences in prison, Toni. Do you think Mr. Rose would
+collaborate with me--lick my raw stuff into shape, so to speak?"
+
+Before Toni could reply, Herrick interrupted.
+
+"If you are going, Mrs. Rose, I'll take you across the river in the old
+punt, and see you home along the towing-path. It is the shortest way,
+but it's lonely at night."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Herrick. May Olga come, too?"
+
+"Of course. She would be very much hurt if she were left behind."
+
+"How silly you are over that great dog of yours, Jim." Mrs. Herrick
+included even dogs in her universal hatred nowadays. "I declare I wish
+someone would poison the beast."
+
+This threat, uttered not for the first time, made Herrick set his lips
+firmly, and for once his wife regretted her taunt.
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to do it," she said with a laugh. "Good-bye, Toni, if
+you must go. I'll come and look you up in a day or two."
+
+When Toni and Herrick were alone, walking along the towing-path in the
+darkness, Herrick turned to Toni with a sigh.
+
+"Mrs. Rose, I can't tell you how sorry I am--nor how grateful I am both
+to you and Mr. Rose for your kindness to my poor little wife."
+
+"Oh, don't say that," begged Toni, her warm heart filled with pity for
+him. "I like your wife immensely--we are friends, you know, and you must
+not forget she has suffered terribly."
+
+"Yes, I suppose she has. And yet"--he spoke vehemently--"has she
+suffered so much as I have done--as I shall go on doing as long as we
+both live? Oh, I've no right to say it--I ought to be man enough to
+suffer in silence--but it's hard to bear her constant allusions to her
+prison life--her taunts--wouldn't you think she would be glad to forget
+all that, to put it behind her? Yet every day she talks of it. She never
+allows me to forget for one instant that she has been in hell--and every
+word she utters is an indictment of me, a reproach for the cowardice
+which let her go to prison."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Herrick--I'm so sorry...."
+
+The stammered words brought a smile to Herrick's face.
+
+"Poor child! I ought not to blame her--rather to pity her.... I _do_
+pity her with all my heart. But she won't let me sympathize with her.
+One word and she flies at me. She is unhappy here, yet she will make no
+plans for going abroad. She talks as though I kept her here, when God
+knows I would go to the ends of the earth if she wished it."
+
+"Yes, I know, but I think if you go on being patient with her," hazarded
+Toni, "she will come to her better self again. Don't you agree with me?"
+
+"I don't know." His tone was rather despairing. "Sometimes I fear both
+our lives are ruined. It's wonderful what an effect a wife has on her
+husband's life--and _vice versa_, of course. Some people seem to think
+that a man and woman can 'live their own lives' quite apart from each
+other if they like. But they can't. When they are husband and wife they
+are bound to exercise an enormous influence on each other's life; and
+when two people are thoroughly out of sympathy with each other, life,
+for both of them, is bound to be a failure."
+
+"You think so?" Toni's mind had flown to her own unhappiness, but for
+once Herrick did not read what was in her thoughts.
+
+"Yes. Don't you? Now, looking at it dispassionately, how do you expect
+Eva and me ever to re-discover the happiness we have so effectually
+lost? Remember, Eva is convinced that all her sufferings are directly
+due to me. She persists in thinking that if I had chosen I could either
+have prevented her case ever going to court, or could have taken the
+blame myself and gone to prison in her stead. The consequence is, she
+hates me, resents my presence near her, and will bear me an undying
+grudge all the days of her life."
+
+"But you couldn't have taken the blame."
+
+"Of course not, but women are often illogical, and Eva certainly is. No,
+the fact remains that I represent, to Eva, the coward who condemned her
+to a severe and mortifying punishment; and she won't forgive me."
+
+"But in time----"
+
+"Sometimes I am inclined to think it's a hopeless experiment--our life
+together." Herrick spoke sombrely. "I have been wondering seriously of
+late whether it would not be better to make over all my property to my
+wife and rid her of my presence, I believe she would be happier by
+herself."
+
+"You mean--get a divorce?" faltered Toni.
+
+"A divorce?" In spite of himself Herrick laughed. "Oh dear no. I don't
+think I need take quite such drastic measures as that. What I thought
+was to set Eva up somewhere, in some new place, where she could start
+afresh, and then take myself off quietly--to California, or New Zealand,
+or somewhere of the sort, where an able-bodied fellow like me can be
+sure of picking up a living."
+
+"But would Eva let you go?"
+
+"Ah, there's the rub!" He spoke in a lighter tone. "When it came to the
+point she might think that even an unsatisfactory husband was better
+than none. But, speaking seriously, I believe two people so incompatible
+as we two are better apart."
+
+"Do you?" In the dark Toni's eyes were frightened. "Don't you think,
+then, that one ought to stand by one's own actions? I mean if a husband,
+say, honestly thought it would be better for his wife to be free from
+him, would you advise him to go and leave her? Or the other way about.
+Should the wife go, if she was sure that by staying she did the man
+harm?"
+
+Herrick was tired, disheartened by the frequent scenes with his wife,
+depressed by the grim autumn night; therefore for once his sympathies
+wore dormant and his intuition slept.
+
+He had no idea that Toni was speaking personally, that she was calling
+on him to help her to make the most important decision of her life; and
+he was, moreover, in a mood which found the idea of self-sacrifice, of
+renunciation of one's own happiness strangely attractive.
+
+"If he--or she--were practically convinced that departure would be the
+best way out--for both--why then I should say by all means go." In the
+darkness he did not see Toni's sudden deathly pallor. "Of course it
+would always be rather hard to be quite sure on that point; but in a
+case where one could be more or less certain--well, perhaps I'm wrong,
+but I should say the step would be thoroughly justifiable."
+
+For a perceptibly long moment Toni did not speak. Then she changed the
+subject abruptly by asking her companion the time; and after striking
+one or two matches he was able to assure her that it was just six.
+
+"Oh, then Owen will be back." She hastened her steps as she spoke, and
+there was little more conversation between them as they hurried along.
+
+At the gate he bade her farewell, refusing an invitation to enter; and
+Toni went through the garden into the house, there to be met by a
+telegram from Owen announcing that he had been delayed in town and would
+not be home in time for dinner.
+
+Toni was oddly relieved by this fact. She had an important matter to
+think out; and for once Owen's absence was welcome.
+
+She dined alone, a rather forlorn little figure in the big dining-room;
+and after her hurried meal she went into the drawing-room and stood
+looking out over the lawn with unseeing eyes.
+
+The night had turned warm, unseasonably so for November, and Toni
+suddenly felt a great desire to be out in the air among the trees and
+shrubs, which were faintly perceptible in the light of a thin and waning
+moon.
+
+Kate, surprised by an imperative summons, brought a wrap as directed;
+and calling Jock to accompany her, Toni stepped out of the long window
+on to the gravel outside.
+
+For a moment Kate stood watching her young mistress, struck by something
+a little desolate in her appearance; but when Toni had moved slowly away
+down the path, Jock gambolling beside her, Kate withdrew from the window
+and returned to her interrupted supper.
+
+Toni paced slowly up and down for some minutes, while the night air
+played over her bared head. It was less oppressively warm out here than
+in the house, and into Toni's nature-loving heart there stole a sudden
+sense of comfort; as though all the living things around her were
+whispering vague words of love and cheer to her forlorn spirit.
+
+However miserable she might be, Toni was never quite so wretched out of
+doors. It was as though some vital part of her responded to the call of
+her great mother, the earth; as though in her veins ran some fluid akin
+to the sap which coursed through the branches of the trees. Indoors,
+between four walls, she might feel grief as a crushing burden; but once
+outside, with only the vast sky above her head, her sorrow invariably
+lightened; and to-night was no exception.
+
+At the end of half an hour's quiet pacing up and down the gravel walk
+Toni felt herself calmed and strengthened. She told herself there was no
+need at present to dwell further on the matter which filled her
+thoughts. She would banish it from her mind for the time being; and with
+this wise resolution, she turned to retrace her steps up the avenue
+towards the house.
+
+Suddenly Jock barked loudly, following the bark with a low growl; and
+Toni's heart gave a great jump.
+
+She had strolled almost to the big iron gates leading to the road; and
+she wondered for a moment whether a tramp had found his way into the
+grounds on some nefarious errand. She stood still, thinking as she did
+so that she heard a rustle in a bush close at hand, and then Jock
+growled again, a fierce, low rumbling in his throat, which frightened
+Toni almost out of her wits.
+
+With a voice which would shake, she called out to the dog; and then
+there was a sudden silence which was almost more sinister. She had laid
+her hand on the Airedale's collar at the sound of his first bark; but
+feeling really nervous now, she was just about to let him go when there
+was a half-apologetic cough from the bushes behind her, and a voice she
+knew said, rather timidly:
+
+"Mrs. Rose! Please don't be alarmed--it's only me--Leonard Dowson."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Toni was so surprised by the discovery of the unknown marauder's
+identity that she involuntarily released her hold on the dog's collar;
+but Jock's sudden dart across the path, and his snarl of anger as he
+confronted the person whom in his doggy heart he took for an enemy,
+awoke Toni to a sense of the position.
+
+"Jock! Come here! _Jock_, do you hear me?" Her tone showed Jock that,
+much as appearances were against the intruder, his canine instinct had
+been at fault; and he returned, unwillingly, to his mistress, wearing
+the slightly sulky look which an intelligent dog wears when he has made
+an unavoidable mistake.
+
+"Mrs. Rose, I assure you I did not mean to frighten you." Mr. Dowson
+emerged rather hastily from the shadow of the bushes, and advanced, hat
+in hand. "I--I am really most awfully sorry if I have startled you.
+I ... I would have called out sooner, but I trusted you would not
+perceive me."
+
+"Mr. Dowson!" Toni's voice was frankly dismayed. "What are you doing
+here? Were you coming to see me?"
+
+"I--I really don't know." Mr. Dowson moved a step forward and then gave
+an involuntary jump as Jock growled mildly, under his breath as it were.
+
+"But--be quiet, Jock--it's so late--and----"
+
+"Oh, I know it's late." Suddenly Mr. Dowson lost his head. "But I
+couldn't stop away. I--I've been here heaps of times--at
+night--generally I've stopped outside the gates, but once or twice I had
+to come in.... I--I couldn't stop away. It drove me mad to think of you
+here--and I had to come, just to be near you, if I couldn't see
+you--speak to you."
+
+"But----" Toni began, but he cut her short.
+
+"Oh, you can't understand, of course! You've never understood--you've
+never known how much I've loved you--oh, it's no use being angry! I know
+quite well I've no right to speak. You're married, a great lady now, by
+all I hear--but I love you--Toni--oh, my God, how I love you!" The sweat
+stood in great drops on his brow as he hurried on, a certain rough
+eloquence in his words. "After all, I'm a man, I've a right to love
+you--or any woman--and I've loved you now for years--it's not something
+new, just a passing attraction--it's part of me, something in my very
+bones, as near me as breathing or sleeping or thinking--I'm simply eaten
+up with love for you, Toni. You're my life, my everything. I'd die for
+you, I'd go through fire end water for you, I'd do anything in the
+world, bad or good, dishonourable or splendid, if you'd be kind to me,
+smile on me, let me kiss your little feet...."
+
+Toni, swept off her balance by his passion, said nothing, but stood
+opposite to him, panting a little; and after a second he went on with
+his wild confession.
+
+"Oh, I know I'm wrong, I know you're hating me, despising me for telling
+you all this, but it's too much for me. I can't bear it alone any
+longer. It's driving me mad, Toni, mad, do you hear? At night I dream of
+you--sometimes I dream that you've been kind to me, that I've kissed
+you--kissed your little mouth, held you in my arms ... and then I wake
+and know you're another man's wife, and it makes the blood rush to my
+head and I see red, Toni, red...."
+
+Something in his excitement warned the girl that she must soothe him.
+
+"Hush, Leonard." In that moment she reverted to the days of their early
+friendship. "Don't speak so wildly. You--you frighten me."
+
+He passed his hand over his brow, and when he spoke his voice was a
+shade quieter.
+
+"I wouldn't frighten you for the world, Toni, you know that. I love you
+far too well ... oh, Toni, is it quite hopeless! Isn't there a glimmer
+of pity in your heart for me? Won't you ever give me a thought...."
+
+"Leonard, how can I?" She spoke in a low voice, all Eva's horrid
+suggestions rushing over her in a flood. "I'm married; I can't ever be
+anything to you now."
+
+"Oh, I know you're married." He caught his breath in a gasp. "But
+still--oh, Toni, you wouldn't come away with me, would you? I've got
+some money now. I'd be able to give you things, and I'd work for you
+till I died...."
+
+At another moment Toni would have found occasion to wonder at his
+temerity in making the suggestion. She did not know how his imagination,
+fired by Eva's insinuations, played about the figure of Owen Rose's wife
+as the unloved victim of a man's callousness; and although she could see
+that Leonard Dowson was in deadly earnest, she had no conception of the
+sincerity of his belief that she had been wronged, trapped into marriage
+by a man who cared little for her, and neglected her openly.
+
+Such was the manner in which the situation had been presented to Dowson
+by Eva Herrick; and in his genuine acceptance of her story lay Dowson's
+best excuse for his wild plan.
+
+"I ... I couldn't come away with you, Leonard." In spite of her desire
+to set Owen free, Toni's whole soul revolted at the idea of such
+treachery. "I'm married, you know, and I couldn't leave my husband."
+
+"Why not?" in his despair the young man pressed still nearer, and again
+Jock uttered a warning growl. "I know you are married, but still--you're
+not happy--your husband isn't, either, by what I hear. You'd be wronging
+nobody--you've no children to consider"--in some ways Mr. Dowson was as
+primitive as Toni--"if you had, it would be different, but you've only
+yourself to think about. This life doesn't suit you, Toni. It cramps
+you, worries you. Oh, I heard all about that Badminton Club affair, and
+everyone knows you don't hit it off with the bigwigs of the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Who told you that?" For a moment Dowson quailed before her tone; but he
+rallied bravely.
+
+"Oh, what does it matter who told me? It's true, isn't it? Why, you look
+different, Toni. You're not the lively, jolly, animated girl you used to
+be--all smiles and jokes. Toni, you're paler, and thinner--you've grown
+quiet, almost sad. It's because you're not happy--and--and I'd die for
+your happiness any day."
+
+His deadly earnestness could not fail to win response. Here at last was
+a passion unveiled before Toni's wondering eyes; and all at once the
+thing which had seemed impossible came down to the level of the things
+which--sometimes--happen.
+
+Here was a man who only asked to serve her; and if by accepting his
+service she could free her husband from the chain which bound him, all
+unwilling, to her, was it not the act of a coward to refuse?
+
+It may be said, and with truth, that Toni's view of the matter was
+perverted, distorted beyond all bounds of reason and of common sense. To
+leave her husband, to whom in spite of all she clung with every fibre of
+her being, for another man for whom she had not even the smallest atom
+of affection, was surely the most insane, inexcusable action in the
+world; and would after all only result in a negligible good, since the
+insult paid, to the man she betrayed would quite outweigh any relief in
+the freedom thus obtained.
+
+Then, too, she would be wronging Leonard Dowson; since to go away with
+him would lead him to suppose a degree of affection on Toni's part which
+was in reality non-existent; but Toni was not thinking of Dowson in this
+matter.
+
+There is no woman so absolutely ruthless towards the mass of mankind as
+the woman who loves one man completely. In this affair Owen was the only
+man who counted in Toni's mind; and she thought of Leonard Dowson merely
+as a convenient tool with which to effect her husband's release from the
+position he apparently found unendurable. That the reckoning might come
+afterwards, when Leonard should see himself as Toni saw him, she did not
+pause to consider. Indeed, on this occasion her thoughts were so wild
+and chaotic that she could hardly be said to have considered the matter
+at all.
+
+"Well, Toni?" Her long silence made him uneasy, and he paled, fearing he
+had angered her by his persistence.
+
+"Well?" She gazed at him absently for a moment, then woke suddenly to
+life. "Leonard, are you seriously asking me to go away with you? You
+mean you would take me away, and let my husband divorce me--for you?"
+
+"Yes, Toni." He spoke firmly; and, if for a moment all his lifelong
+visions of a respectable London practice, prosperity, the respect of
+those around him, seemed to rise up reproachfully before his eyes, he
+meant his words absolutely.
+
+"Would you really do it? You must be very fond of me," said Toni simply;
+and the young man was emboldened to proceed.
+
+"Of course I would do it, and of course I am fond of you." His voice
+shook a little. "Toni do you really mean that you will think about
+it--will give me the tiniest fraction of hope to keep me alive?"
+
+"Yes. I will think about it." She spoke slowly. "But--I can't tell
+you--now. You must go away and let me think things out."
+
+"Don't think too long," he besought her, fearing that prudence might
+come with reflection. "When will you tell me, Toni? To-morrow? Will you
+write to me? One word--yes--will do; and I'll make arrangements at
+once."
+
+For a moment his earnestness startled her.
+
+"You could do it--like that--at once? Leave your practice and everything
+else at a moment's notice?"
+
+"I'd leave all I have in the world at a second's notice," said Mr.
+Dowson resolutely; and Toni could not but believe in his sincerity.
+
+"Very well." She felt tired suddenly. "I will write--to-morrow. But--but
+you won't be angry if it's _no_?" Toni added childishly.
+
+"I'd never be angry--with you." The young man's commonplace features
+were irradiated by a great light, and for a moment one could forget his
+mean stature and ready-made clothing. "You will never understand--you
+couldn't--what you are to me; but before God," said Leonard Dowson
+solemnly, "I'd devote my life, my soul, all I have to your service, and
+never ask for thanks."
+
+"Well, if you will go now, I will write to you," said Toni, rather
+wearily; and his passion was checked by the fatigue in her voice.
+
+"I'll go now--at once--and you--you will write, Toni? I'll count every
+moment till I get your letter."
+
+"Yes, I will write," she reiterated dully, wishing he would go and leave
+her alone with her thoughts; and without another word he turned and
+vanished into the shadows.
+
+When the sound of his footsteps had died away and all was silence, Toni
+shivered with a feeling of deadly chill.
+
+Leonard Dowson's appearance, following so closely on Eva Herrick's
+suggestions, had given her a queer, eerie sensation of awe, as though
+some inexorable fate were pointing out to her a way of escape from the
+situation she was beginning to find intolerable. She never doubted the
+man's affection for her; and she fully believed that he would indeed die
+in her service. And the very touch of fanaticism in her love for Owen,
+which made her feel that it would be a small thing indeed to die for him
+if by dying she might give him happiness, helped her to realize the
+strength of the pallid, unromantic young dentist's devotion.
+
+True, Toni was too innately sensible a person--perhaps it would be
+fairer to say her love of life and its "sweet things" was too strong--to
+allow her to contemplate death as a solution of the problem of her
+unsuccessful marriage.
+
+She understood, too, with a queer flash of spiritual insight which was
+foreign to her usual simple vision, that her death would bring Owen only
+a great sorrow; and in her darkest moments she never dreamed of courting
+death.
+
+A sudden bark from Jock made her start; and looking round she found Owen
+almost at her elbow. He had dismissed his taxi at the gate, and was
+walking briskly up the dark avenue, when Jock's vociferous welcome broke
+the night silence and brought him to a halt.
+
+"Hallo, old boy, what are you doing here? That you, Andrews?"
+
+Toni moved forward from the shadow, and beneath the dark cloak which had
+deceived him he caught the pale glimmer of her skirt.
+
+"No, Owen. It is I, Toni."
+
+"You? Why, what are you doing here? Oh, I see--you brought Jock for a
+run. Well, it's quite warm to-night--but the air has the feel of rain."
+
+"Yes. I thought I felt a drop just now."
+
+"Did you? Well, we'll get indoors. I'm sorry I am so late, dear, but
+there's been trouble at the office. Oh, nothing much, only Hart, our new
+sub-editor, had chosen to return an article we'd commissioned, because
+he said it was not up to our usual level."
+
+"And wasn't it?" Toni's forlorn heart welcomed his friendly tone.
+
+"Of course it was. It was about the best stuff young Lewis had ever
+turned out--and a fool like Hart, whose taste is distinctly precious,
+hasn't the wit to appreciate good, clean, straightforward English. He
+likes a mass of involved, wordy stuff that only the high-brows can
+understand."
+
+He broke off laughing.
+
+"Well, anyway we sent for it back in double-quick time; but Lewis had
+taken the huff and didn't want us to have it. So Hart had to
+apologize--which _he_ didn't enjoy--and altogether the place was in a
+ferment."
+
+"But it's all right now?"
+
+"Yes, thank Heaven. I say, Toni; I went to see old Vincent about my arm
+to-day, and he says it is fairly normal again. I'll tell you a secret,
+shall I, Toni? As soon as the book is finished I'm going to start a
+play."
+
+"Are you?" Her voice sounded cold, though it was only vague; and her
+unusual lack of interest rather hurt Owen.
+
+"Oh, we'll have our holiday first," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to
+do you out of that. How would you like a few weeks in Switzerland--for
+the winter sports? We could get off in about three weeks, and stay over
+Christmas. Then, when we came home"--in spite of himself his tone took a
+new enthusiasm--"I could get to work again."
+
+"You are going to write a play? But I didn't know you could write
+plays."
+
+Her childishness jarred his nerves, already worn with the minor
+vexations of the day.
+
+"Well, _I_ don't know until I try." He spoke rather curtly. "But I've
+talked it over with Barry, and we think it sounds possible."
+
+"I see. And if it were a success?"
+
+"Why, our fortune would be made." He took her arm in friendly fashion.
+"Then we should have to go and live in town, Toni, take a big house and
+launch out. You'd like that, eh?"
+
+"I should hate it," she said, so fervently that he dropped her arm in
+astonishment and turned to look at her.
+
+"Hate it! Why?"
+
+"I hate big houses--and entertaining--and all the rest. I--I should
+loathe to have to go to receptions and give big parties--I'm never any
+good at talking, you know yourself I look a fool when anyone tries to
+talk to me."
+
+"I know you're a little silly," said Owen teasingly, "but you'll outgrow
+that. Here we are--come along in, Toni, it's really beginning to rain.
+Come in, Jock, and let me shut the door."
+
+Safely inside the hall, Owen turned to Toni.
+
+"Come into the library, will you, dear? I'll send for some sandwiches
+and a whisky and soda, I think. I hurried over dinner and I'm hungry."
+
+Toni gave the order at once, and then followed Owen to the library,
+where a cheerful fire burned, and in the mellow lamplight the room
+looked very stately and charming.
+
+She sat down on the low club-fender in front of the hearth and gazed
+into the leaping fire in silence, while Owen opened the letters which
+had accumulated during the day.
+
+For a few moments there was no sound save the crackling of paper and the
+soft little chatter of the fire. Then Owen crumpled up a letter he held
+and flung it from him with something which sounded like an oath.
+
+Toni, roused from her reverie, turned round to face him.
+
+"What's the matter, Owen?"
+
+"Matter enough, I think." His face wore a frown which boded ill for
+someone. "Toni, what have you been saying to Miss Loder to make her
+write this letter?"
+
+"Saying to Miss Loder?" Every scrap of colour faded from her face, and
+Owen, watching, took her pallor for the ashy hue of guilt.
+
+"Yes. You've said something--I don't know what--but I should like to
+know at once, without prevarication, just what it is."
+
+"I've said nothing to Miss Loder." Her voice was unsteady--she too had
+felt her nerves jarred during this dreadful day.
+
+"Well, you see what she says." He stooped and picked up the letter,
+which he handed to Toni. "Read that, and tell me what you make of it."
+
+With fingers as cold as ice, and a memory in her heart of another letter
+which had brought her misery, Toni took the sheet, and read, in Miss
+Loder's firm, characteristic hand, the letter in which she requested to
+be allowed to resign her post.
+
+"I am not taking this step without serious thought," so the letter ran,
+"and for some time I determined to remain with you as long as you
+honoured me by your acquiescence in the arrangement. But learning, as I
+do, from a quite indisputable source, that my presence in your house is
+distasteful to Mrs. Rose, I have no option but to ask you to release me
+from a position which is not only unpleasant but undignified. If you
+will be kind enough to waive the question of notice, I would prefer to
+terminate the engagement at once."
+
+Here followed her signature, firm and clear as ever; and then came a
+postscript, surely a sign of disturbance on the part of so academic a
+scribe.
+
+"I would prefer to dissever all connection with the _Bridge_ at the same
+time; but am willing to remain at the office until you find a suitable
+person for the post."
+
+Having read the letter Toni let it fall upon her knee, while she gazed
+dreamily into the red heart of the fire, her brain working slowly as she
+tried to understand the significance of Miss Loder's epistle.
+
+Something in her abstraction appeared to irritate Owen; for he came a
+step forward and spoke rather brusquely.
+
+"Well? You've read it? What have you to say about it?"
+
+"To say? Nothing." She lifted her eyes to his, and let them drop again,
+wearily, to the letter on her knee.
+
+"Oh, come, Toni, that's nonsense." Conscious of the irritation in his
+tone Owen paused, then spoke more gently. "Miss Loder is not the sort of
+person to imagine slights--she has been out in the world too long for
+that. But evidently she has clearly seen your antipathetic attitude
+towards her, and feels that in the circumstances she cannot remain."
+
+"I have never slighted Miss Loder." Toni, frightened, sounded defiant.
+
+"Not exactly. But you have shown _me_ very plainly that you resented her
+presence; and I suppose you have not been very careful to hide
+your--well, prejudice--from the girl herself."
+
+"She has no right to say such things," said Toni, a warm flush creeping
+up beneath her ivory pallor. "I have never been rude to her, as you seem
+to think. I have always hated her, I admit--always, from the first time
+I saw her; but----"
+
+"Ah, you acknowledge that." Owen pounced on the admission. "But why,
+Toni? Why should you hate the girl?"
+
+"Why? I don't know," said Toni recklessly. "Simply because I do, I
+suppose--because if I knew her for a hundred years I should never do
+anything but hate her."
+
+"And so, through your senseless jealousy, I'm to lose the best secretary
+I've ever had." Owen's tone was cold. "Really, Toni, I think you've gone
+a little too far this time. Quite apart from the fact that you must have
+behaved in a very childish and unladylike fashion to make the girl so
+uncomfortable, you have also done me an injury. If you didn't care for
+my work for its own sake--and I know neither the _Bridge_ nor my book
+has ever appealed to you--still I think you might have sacrificed your
+personal feelings just a little and considered my position in the
+matter."
+
+From her lowly seat on the fender, Toni looked up at him with a strange
+expression in her eyes. In truth, at that moment Toni's soul was a
+battlefield of conflicting emotions. Anger, defiance, resentment at what
+she considered her husband's injustice, were mingled with a great dread
+of Owen's displeasure; and a wild, miserable despair at the thought of
+his conception of her as indifferent to his aims and ideals. At one and
+the same moment she longed to hurl defiance into his face, and to cast
+herself, weeping, into his arms. But she did neither, only looked up at
+him with that inscrutable expression in her eyes, waiting for him to
+speak.
+
+"Now I suppose I shall have to look out for another secretary." Owen was
+annoyed and showed it. "Thank Heaven, the proofs are about finished, but
+this knocks the play on the head. I suppose I'll find someone else to
+help me, but the whole thing is very absurd and annoying."
+
+Suddenly Toni's self-control, already shaken by the meeting with Dowson,
+deserted her completely.
+
+She rose from her seat like a small whirlwind and confronted Owen with
+scarlet cheeks and blazing eyes.
+
+"Wait a moment, Owen. Don't say any more, please. Remember there is my
+side of the question to be considered." She faced him bravely. "You knew
+from the start that I was not literary or learned--I told you before we
+were married that I wasn't half clever enough for you, and you said it
+didn't matter. Then, when I'd tried to help you and failed, you got Miss
+Loder here in my place. You knew I disliked her, but you didn't know
+what cause I had for my dislike."
+
+Owen, silenced by her vehemence, stared at her speechlessly, and she
+went on hurriedly.
+
+"From the first she despised me. She saw I wasn't well-educated, that I
+wasn't even in her class. Oh, I know she is connected with all sorts of
+people, but she ought not to have let me see so plainly that she looked
+down on me as a nobody. She never lost a chance of humiliating me. Why,
+at lunch over and over again I've sat silent while you and she talked.
+If I ventured to speak, she listened, quite politely, till I had
+finished, and then went on talking as though I'd not spoken. For days
+and days I hardly saw you. You were shut up there with her, and I was
+all alone. I was no one to you, she was everyone. I was your wife, but
+she was your companion. Everyone noticed how I was left alone; they all
+knew you ignored me--I was miserable, but you never saw----"
+
+"You--miserable, Toni?" Owen spoke abruptly.
+
+"How could I be anything else? You treated me always as a child--an
+unreasonable, ignorant child----"
+
+"Well?" Owen interrupted her, but his tone was one meant to conciliate,
+for suddenly he thought he saw a way to end this deplorable scene. "And
+aren't you a child? A pretty, engaging child, I grant you--but
+still----"
+
+"No." It was her turn to interrupt, and white to the lips she faced him.
+"I am not a child any longer--I was until a short time ago, but you have
+changed me into a woman----"
+
+"Come, Toni." Deceived by her quiet tone Owen laid his hand on her arm.
+"Don't grow up too quickly. Let me have my little child-wife a bit
+longer yet----"
+
+She shook his hand off with a violence for which he was not prepared,
+and he spoke angrily, his softer impulses dying away.
+
+"Hang it all, Toni, you needn't repulse me as if I were a snake. You
+_are_ a child, after all, and a jolly bad-tempered one at that!" It was
+the first time he had ever used such a tone, and the girl's anger flared
+up in reply.
+
+"A child--of course--you think so, you always will--you and your
+precious secretary!" As she spoke Toni snatched up a packet of
+neatly-folded proofs from the table behind her. "This is her work, I
+suppose. Oh, how I _hate_ her--and you--and the book! I'd like to
+destroy it all--to burn it up--like that!"
+
+With a passionate gesture she turned round and flung the bundle of
+papers into the very heart of the fire blazing on the hearth behind her.
+
+"There!" She faced him again, her breast heaving, her eyes flashing
+stormily. "I'd burn it all--if I could. You like your book better than
+me--but I've burnt so much of it, anyway."
+
+Owen had started forward as she spoke, but it was useless to attempt to
+save the burning sheets, and he fell back from the hearth with an
+exclamation of anger.
+
+"You are a little fool, Toni." He spoke coldly. "What, good do you
+expect to do by a piece of childish spite like that? Those proof sheets
+were all corrected--now the duplicate set will have to be revised, and
+as they are due in London to-morrow, I shall have to spend several hours
+over them before I can get to bed to-night."
+
+Toni, frightened now at what she had done, stood motionless during his
+speech. As he said the last words her rage melted suddenly into
+contrition.
+
+"Owen--I'm--I'm sorry." She spoke haltingly. "I--I didn't mean to give
+you trouble. Can I--will you let me help you--to make up for what I've
+done?"
+
+He raised his eyebrows and laughed rather bitterly.
+
+"It's very kind of you, Toni, but I think I won't trouble you. Your
+repentance is a little belated, isn't it? And I think I prefer to keep
+my work to myself in future."
+
+The fire of her rage gave one last expiring flicker.
+
+"As usual," she said, "your work is more to you than I. I wonder you
+ever married, Owen. Marriage doesn't seem to mean a great deal to you."
+
+"I sometimes wonder, myself," he said drily. "Certainly I haven't found
+it a very enjoyable state of late. It seems you haven't, either. Perhaps
+we were in too great a hurry after all, Toni."
+
+He did not mean the words, which were wrung from him by his exasperation
+at her childish folly; but the effect on Toni was disastrous.
+
+She could not well turn paler than she was already; but a chill crept
+into her veins, congealing her blood as she stood in front of the fire.
+She shivered slightly; and then with an effort which made her feel
+physically exhausted, she moved slowly towards the door.
+
+"Where are you going, Toni?" Owen questioned her rather coldly.
+
+She turned round; and all the youth was gone from her face.
+
+"I am going to bed," she answered quietly. "Good-night, Owen."
+
+And without waiting for a reply she opened the door and went slowly out
+of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+Quite calmly and quietly Toni went about her preparations for departure.
+
+The scene in the library had turned the scale in favour of her flight.
+Owen had openly avowed his opinion that their hasty marriage had been a
+mistake; and now that the passion of rage and jealousy which had
+possessed her had died away, Toni could see no other method of relieving
+the situation than by leaving Greenriver at once.
+
+She would go away with Leonard Dowson, thereby leaving the way open for
+Owen to divorce her. Her own future life occupied but the smallest
+fraction of her thoughts. Somehow her power of visualizing the future
+seemed to stop short with her departure from her home; and although she
+had a very clear vision of Owen, relieved from the incubus of her
+presence, and free to devote himself to the work which, she had
+persuaded herself, meant more to him than any purely domestic happiness,
+she never gave even a passing thought to her own existence when once she
+had severed the ties which bound her to the old house by the river.
+
+Very early in the morning of the day following her interview with Dowson
+she had posted a note to him. There was only one short sentence on the
+little sheet of paper--only three words; but she know it would be
+enough.
+
+     "I will come. TONI."
+
+That was all; and yet as she wrote the little sentence, Toni had a
+queer, stifling sensation as though she were indeed signing her own
+death-warrant.
+
+The note would be delivered at lunch-time; and about two o'clock Toni
+began to look for an answer, though she knew it was hardly likely the
+young man would reply so promptly.
+
+At three o'clock she went out into the garden. Her head was throbbing
+painfully, her cheeks burnt with a scarlet flush, and it was surely
+quicksilver and not blood which ran so swiftly through her veins.
+
+The day was unseasonably warm, and a slight fog hung about, making the
+air damp and heavy. Owen had gone to town immediately after lunch; and
+Toni was inexpressibly relieved by his absence.
+
+They had barely spoken to one another to-day. Owen was suffering from
+one of his worst neuralgic headaches, which at all times made him feel
+disinclined for speech; and Toni said little because she had nothing to
+say.
+
+At half-past three a note was delivered to her by a lad wheeling a
+bicycle; and when the messenger had withdrawn, Toni opened the grey
+envelope with fingers that shook. Inside she found a fairly long letter,
+which had evidently been written in haste, for the writing was untidy,
+and here and there a word was almost illegible.
+
+"I can hardly believe you will come, Toni." So ran the letter in which
+Leonard Dowson accepted, the happiness promised to him. "It seems too
+good, too exceedingly, marvellously good to be true. Yet your little
+letter lies before me, and you are too kind, too sincere to deceive me.
+So it is true; and the sun has risen on my grey and lonely life. Then
+listen, Toni. I have made all preparations for my own departure
+to-night. I have paid off my servants, the rent, and left everything in
+order; and I am in possession of a sufficient sum of money in notes and
+gold to enable us to live for some months in peace on the Continent. Now
+comes the question of our meeting. I have ascertained that the night
+boat leaves Dover about eleven; and in order to cross to Calais, on the
+way to Paris, we must take the boat train from Victoria. I think it will
+be safer to motor up to town rather than risk meeting any acquaintances
+in the train; and a car will be waiting at the corner of Elm Lane at six
+o'clock. That will give us sufficient time to catch the train, and will
+be pleasanter than the other mode of travelling. With regard to your
+luggage, do not trouble to bring more than a dressing-case; for it will
+be my pleasure and privilege in future to provide you with all you may
+desire. I have still much to do, so will bid you farewell until the
+precious moment which brings you to my side."
+
+He had evidently hesitated over his signature; there were one or two
+erasures; but at length he had written, his name firmly, without any
+attempt at a formal leave-taking.
+
+For perhaps a minute Toni stared at the two words "Leonard Dowson"; and
+a chill, as of anticipatory dread, swept over her at the sight of that
+firm, clerkly handwriting.
+
+Until this moment she had looked upon Leonard's proposal as the one and
+only means of setting Owen free. Once she had taken this step, had
+burned her boats, her husband would surely accept his freedom with a
+feeling of vast relief; and in spite of everything Toni had only one
+thought--that of Owen's good.
+
+But suddenly she was afraid, with a purely human, selfish fear for
+herself. To what was she condemning herself by this unlawful flight?
+When once Owen had accepted her sacrifice, had set in order the
+machinery of the law which should give him his release, what would
+become of her? Would she be obliged to marry a man for whom she felt
+only a tepid friendship, unwarmed by the smallest coal from the fire of
+love? She had found life sad even when married to the man she loved; but
+what would it be to her as the wife of a man to whom she was almost
+completely indifferent?
+
+Quite unconsciously Toni was exaggerating Owen's attitude towards his
+marriage, was accepting as his last word a few irritable sentences wrung
+from him by fatigue and annoyance at having seen the corrected proofs
+destroyed in a fit of childish temper on the part of his wife.
+
+Far from regretting his marriage, Owen merely regretted Toni's
+unreasonableness in the matter of Miss Loder; and once that young woman
+was removed from the scene, Owen had no doubt that he and his wife would
+shake down again quite comfortably and forget the recent scenes between
+them.
+
+But Toni, who always meant exactly what she said, and unconsciously
+expected the same sincerity of speech from others, had taken Owen
+literally; and although for a moment a flood of human weakness had
+overtaken her as she gazed at Leonard Dowson's firm signature, she never
+really faltered in her purpose.
+
+When she had read the fatal letter once more, she went back into the
+house, and there she burned the document with almost mechanical
+forethought.
+
+Then she went upstairs to her room and carefully packed her
+dressing-bag. She did not take very much. Somehow it seemed unnecessary
+to burden herself with many things; and when she had finished her
+packing and had hidden the bag in her capacious wardrobe, she went
+downstairs and sat by the drawing-room fire to wait until Kate saw fit
+to bring tea.
+
+When, at the usual time, Kate entered, she moved across the room to
+light the lamps; but Toni sent her away with this part of her duty
+undone. To-night Toni wished to sit in the firelight. The fog had
+thickened in the last hour, and now it pressed against the windows like
+a chill, ghostly presence, hiding the garden, the river, the trees in
+thick and clammy folds. Looking across the room from her seat by the
+fire Toni shivered; and it seemed unkind of Fate to ordain that her last
+memories of Greenriver should be shrouded in the cold and creeping mist.
+
+She turned back to the fire with a shiver; and sat gazing into the
+leaping flames, while her tea grew cold and the hands of the clock crept
+inexorably onwards.
+
+At half-past five she must leave the house. True, the meeting-place was
+distant barely a quarter of a mile, but Owen might return early, and she
+had no desire to run the risk of meeting him.
+
+A short cut over the fields would both shorten the way and minimize the
+danger of running into her husband; and Toni looked up, startled, when
+the silver clock on the mantelpiece chimed the hour of five.
+
+Only thirty minutes, and her life at Greenriver would come to an end.
+Never again would she roam through the beautiful old house, never sit in
+this charming, panelled room, with its ghostly yet alluring fragrance as
+of bygone lavender and roses. Never again would she wander in the
+garden, revelling in the beauties of colour and scent and form which
+made so lovely a picture in the glorious setting of turf and river.
+Never again would she stroll beneath the tall trees in the summer dusk,
+while the owls hooted eerily and the nightingale murmured luscious
+love-songs to the dreaming roses. The river would know her no more;
+never again would her feet tread the towing-path where in the early
+morning she had been used to saunter, with her faithful Jock by her
+side----
+
+Ah! At the thought of Jock, Toni uttered a little cry. She had forgotten
+him until this moment--his dear canine image blurred by a mist of
+thoughts and tears; but now she remembered him only too well; and her
+heart was pierced by the thought of his fidelity--to be, alas, so poorly
+rewarded. Owen would be good to him, of course. He would be well fed and
+kindly treated, since everyone in the house had a soft corner for the
+jolly, riotous, affectionate Airedale; but he would miss his own loving
+mistress; and Toni could not bear to think of the wistful expression his
+honest brown eyes would wear when he found that she had apparently
+deserted him.
+
+At that moment, almost as though her thought had called him to her, she
+heard him at the door. He did not scratch the panel, after the manner of
+many of his kind, but stood upright and rattled the handle with his
+nose; and Toni ran to open the door, feeling a positive criminal beneath
+the warmth and confidence of his greeting.
+
+She took him to the fireplace and snuggled down with him on the thick
+fur rug on the hearth. She gave him his saucerful of tea, and fed him
+recklessly with macaroons; but Jock was uneasy beneath her
+ministrations.
+
+There is no friend so quick to grasp a tense situation as a dog.
+Although Toni spoke in almost her usual voice, and fondled him with more
+than her usual affection, Jock knew quite well that there was something
+wrong.
+
+Leaving the last macaroon untouched, he came and stood close by her
+side, looking up into her face with a puzzled, wistful expression, and
+presently he stood up on his hind legs and licked her face solemnly with
+his warm red tongue.
+
+"Oh, Jock, you naughty boy," said Toni, between crying and laughter.
+"You know you're not allowed to kiss me! But--oh, Jock, darling, how I
+shall miss you!"
+
+Two great tears fell on the dog's head; and others followed. In a minute
+Toni was weeping her heart out; and the dog, rendered still more uneasy
+by this behaviour, lifted up his voice in a melancholy whine.
+
+Suddenly Toni dashed away her tears and started to her feet with a
+suddenness which almost upset Jock.
+
+"Jock, it's no use going on like this. We're a couple of idiots--at
+least, I'm one, and you're a darling old stupid. But it's time to go,
+Jock. To _go_. Do you hear? I'm leaving Greenriver, Jock, leaving my
+home, my husband, everything I have in the world. I'm going away, Jock,
+going with a man I hardly know. I shall be called wicked, and I suppose
+I am; but I can't help it. I've got to go--but oh, Jock, how much easier
+it would be to die!"
+
+She took a last look round the beautiful room, which like most rooms
+looked its best in the rosy firelight; and then she went slowly out,
+Jock pressing closely to her side.
+
+Up the broad stairs she went. In the gallery the Ten Little Ladies
+burned bravely; and as she walked between them Toni could not see their
+tiny flames for the tears which blurred her sight.
+
+Very slowly she entered her room, Jock pressing beside her all the time.
+It did not take long to don her thick fur coat and soft little hat. She
+remembered a veil, but at first forgot her gloves; and at the last
+moment she had to go back for the dressing-bag and for her purse,
+wherein reposed ten pounds given her by Owen some weeks earlier.
+
+At last she was ready; and bag in hand she opened the door leading into
+the gallery and stood looking round her for one long, last moment.
+
+Jock, puzzled, stood beside her, gazing anxiously into her face; but she
+did not notice him; and when at length she moved slowly away Jock fell
+back a pace and stole behind her down the long gallery.
+
+The old house was very still. From the shut-off regions behind the green
+baize door came, now and then, the murmur of voices; but for the most
+part Greenriver lay hushed in lamp-lit, flower-scented silence.
+
+Never had the big hall looked so attractive as now, in the mellow light
+of the wood fire on the capacious hearth. On the oval oak table a big
+jar of chrysanthemums stood out, white and copper and mauve, against the
+panelled wall; and a sombre corner was lightened by the pink and cream
+blossoms of a tall azalea sent in that morning by an attentive gardener.
+
+Over everything lay the sense of a great peace and tranquillity. The oak
+settee with its big, bright cushions, the tapestries hung on the dark
+walls, the flowers, the books strewn here and there, the big tiger-skin
+hearthrug, the enormous basket-chairs covered, too, with skins of tiger
+and leopard--never had the hall looked so alluring, so safe, so inviting
+to its mistress as on this foggy autumn night when she was about to
+leave its shelter.
+
+With a long shudder Toni descended the last step of the great staircase,
+and drifted slowly across the hall in the direction of the front door.
+Jock, following, pressed a little too closely against her, and turning,
+Toni saw, the faithful little friend whom she was about to leave gazing
+at her with a human appeal in his honest face.
+
+"Take me! Let me go with you where you go! Why go out into the dim cold
+night alone, when you can have beside you one to protect you and give
+you love?"
+
+She could almost fancy he said the words; and two great tears fell
+swiftly as she bent and patted him with her free hand.
+
+"No, Jock darling, I can't take you." She sobbed as she spoke. "I must
+leave you behind--with all the other things I love."
+
+Jock, understanding the finality of her tone, whined uneasily, and
+wagging his tail besought her to reconsider her decision. But Toni could
+bear no more. With a quick, passionate movement she opened the big door
+hurriedly, and, heedless of his whining, passed through blindly into the
+night, pulling the door to after her with the miserable, hopeless
+feelings of a traitor in her heart.
+
+Pausing for an instant she heard Jock sniffing interrogatively beneath
+the door; and knew he was hoping desperately that it would open to give
+him freedom; but with the tears running down her face she went slowly
+down the steps and was swallowed up by the cold, wet fog which lurked,
+ghost-like, round the house.
+
+Leonard Dowson was waiting for her, impatiently, feverishly, by the car;
+but one glance at her warned him that this was no time for lover-like
+protestations.
+
+He helped her in, covering her with the big fur rug he had had the
+forethought to bring; and then, with a delicacy which could only have
+been taught him by love, he left her alone in the interior of the car
+and mounted the seat beside the chauffeur.
+
+Even now he could hardly believe his good-fortune. With all his
+education, his later Socialistic tendencies, his conviction that one man
+was as good, primarily, as another, and that only brains and application
+counted in the race of life, he could never bring himself to look on
+Toni as an ordinary human being, inferior to him by reason of her sex,
+her less scientific brain, her lack of the power, mental and physical,
+which was, to him, the prerogative of manhood.
+
+Other women he might judge contemptuously or admiringly, as the case
+might be. But he could never consider Toni as a woman like those
+others--possibly because to him she was not _a_ woman, but--mystical
+distinction!--_the_ woman. In a vague, unreasoning way he recognized
+Toni's limitations. She was not clever, not even what he called
+well-educated. She would never fill any important position in the world,
+would never shine in any public capacity, would never seek to usurp
+man's prerogatives, and would be content to live quietly in some little
+corner of the world without longing to dash into the battlefield of
+human desires and human conflicts, as other women were doing every day.
+
+But through it all Toni was the one woman he loved, the woman who
+represented to him all that was loveliest and best of her sex; and this
+narrow-chested, narrow-minded and quite unattractive young dentist had
+this much of greatness in his soul, that he could love a woman
+completely.
+
+The car was running smoothly through the streets of a little town when
+there was a loud report, which even Toni, roused from her half-dazed
+stupor, recognized as the bursting of a tyre; and the next instant
+Leonard appeared at the door of the car, concern and apprehension in his
+face.
+
+"I am so sorry--one of the front tyres has burst, and the man will have
+to repair it as well as he can in the fog."
+
+"Where are we?" asked Toni idly, seeing beyond the figure of Dowson a
+few blurred lights as of houses or shops.
+
+"Luckily we are at Stratton," said Leonard more cheerfully. "Right in
+front of some sort of an hotel, too. Won't you come in a moment and get
+warm? It's too foggy and damp for you to wait out here."
+
+Without speaking Toni threw aside the rug and stepped out of the car.
+The raw, chilly air pierced her to the bone, even through the thick fur
+of her coat; and she shivered as she stood there, looking pathetically
+young and slight to the eyes of the man beside her.
+
+"Come into the 'Red Lion,' or whatever they call it." He put a hand,
+rather timidly, on her sleeve, and Toni allowed him to lead her towards
+the entrance of the hotel, whose lamps shone bravely through the fog,
+making blurred splashes of yellow light in the murky grey gloom.
+
+Opening the door, Leonard led her into the cheery entrance hall; and the
+next minute a stout, motherly-looking woman bustled out of a small
+side-office, and asked what might be the visitors' pleasure.
+
+Leonard explained that a slight accident to their car would delay them a
+few moments; and since the night was so inclement, he had persuaded the
+lady to come inside, in search of fire and lights.
+
+The stout landlady grasped the situation immediately, and led the way up
+a short flight of stairs to a sitting-room on the first floor, where a
+bright fire burned, and thick red curtains, closely drawn, successfully
+excluded the clammy fog, and created an atmosphere of well-being and
+good cheer.
+
+"Wouldn't the lady like a cup of tea or coffee, sir?" The woman had
+noted Toni's pallor. "It can be ready in a moment--and a sandwich or two
+as well?"
+
+After consulting his watch and calculating they had time to spare,
+Leonard ordered coffee and sandwiches at once; and the woman withdrew in
+a smiling haste which seemed to betoken the desire to lose no time.
+
+Toni had sunk into a chair by the fire, and was leaning forward holding
+her hands to the blaze. In her face was so patent a misery that for a
+moment Dowson's heart failed him and he stood staring at her with a
+sudden horrible conviction that in luring her from her home and husband
+he was doing a wicked and heartless action. In that illuminating moment
+he could almost have found the strength to give her up, to undo, as far
+as he might, this thing which he had done. And then common sense came to
+his aid. It was not the experiences of this night which had thinned the
+rounded curve of the girl's cheek, had brought the hopeless droop to the
+soft lips, the despair to the once-laughing eyes. It was rather the
+happenings of the months preceding this night, the months of her married
+life; and once again love and desire swept away scruples; and Leonard
+was ready to fight the whole world for possession of the woman he loved.
+
+But somehow he could not stay in the room with that pathetic, appealing
+little figure. He racked his brains for an excuse to leave her for a
+moment or two; and suddenly the idea he sought came to him in a flash.
+
+He had omitted to wire to Paris for rooms in the quiet little hotel he
+had selected for their stay; and although it was not a matter of vital
+necessity to do so, it would perhaps be just as well to make sure of
+them, so that there need be no troublesome delay on arrival. There was a
+post-office a hundred yards away, and he would only be gone for a few
+moments. He did not venture to approach Toni, but speaking from the door
+explained that he had forgotten to engage rooms in Paris, and if she
+would excuse him for a minute or two he would rectify the omission. She
+agreed gently, giving him a tired little smile; and he wasted no time in
+departing on his errand.
+
+When the door had closed behind him, Toni came to herself with a long,
+slow shiver. Somehow until this moment she had not really understood all
+that her flight implied. She had been so intent upon Owen's welfare,
+that save for a few moments in the garden at Greenriver her own had been
+forgotten; and although she had accepted Leonard Dowson's proposal with
+an almost startling readiness, she had done so in the manner of one who,
+drowning, clutches at a straw.
+
+She had known, of course, that there would be a price to pay; but she
+had not realized until this second how great that price would be.
+Somehow the very nature of Leonard's errand had brought the whole
+position home to her with almost overwhelming force; and suddenly Toni
+knew that she could not go on with the adventure she had undertaken so
+rashly.
+
+She could not--_could_ not--go to Paris with this man, who for all his
+devotion was a stranger to her. She could leave Owen, though it seemed
+like tearing her heart out of her breast to go. But she could not go
+away with another man.
+
+Gone all at once was the glamour of her sacrifice. Although she knew
+that by carrying out her scheme to the bitter end she might set Owen
+free, it seemed to her at this moment that such freedom, so basely won,
+could never bring her husband the happiness she craved for him.
+
+For the first time, too, the thought of self would not be banished. She
+saw the whole foolish, irrational, Quixotic scheme in its true light;
+and flesh and blood shrank from a surrender which had no faintest touch
+of love--or even passion--to dignify sordidness.
+
+No. She could leave her husband--and in a sudden blinding flash of
+insight she knew she could not--now--go back to Greenriver; but she
+could not proceed farther on this shameful way.
+
+To go to the hotel in Paris with this other man, to travel with him in
+the enforced intimacy of their dual solitude, to pass, for all she knew,
+as his wife when in reality she was the wife of the one man for whom the
+great mystic trinity of body, soul and spirit passionately craved--oh,
+no. She could not go on--and with the certainty came the need for haste.
+
+Suddenly the only thing which seemed to matter in all the world was that
+she must be gone before Leonard Dowson returned. If once he came back
+and heard her decision, there would be scenes, reproaches, persuasions,
+a hundred emotions let loose; and Toni was guiltily conscious, through
+all her new-born resolution, that she was treating this man who loved
+her unfairly.
+
+He had been gone five minutes--he might return at any second. Tip-toeing
+across to the window, Toni parted the red curtains and lifted a lath of
+the old-fashioned Venetian blind to peer through into the fog.
+
+She could not see much. Outside the hotel she could just distinguish the
+blurred shape of the car, the lamps flaring yellowly in the mist; but
+the shops and houses opposite were blotted out by the curtain of fog;
+and she knew she risked running into the man from whom she longed,
+desperately, to escape.
+
+Where she would go did not matter now. Plans must be made
+afterwards--now she had but one desire, to flee into the fog and be lost
+to sight.
+
+She was actually moving towards the door when a thought struck her.
+Tearing a bit of paper from the fly-leaf of a book on the table, she
+took from the deep pocket of her coat a little pencil, and scribbled a
+message--as short, almost, as that which had announced to Leonard her
+previous decision.
+
+     "I can't go on with you. I am going. TONI."
+
+She had no time for more. Every second was precious; and even now she
+doubted whether she were in time to make her escape.
+
+She opened the door and listened. Nothing was heard but the mutter of
+voices in the bar downstairs; and there was no one in sight. A moment
+she stood, her heart in her throat, driven nearly distracted between
+impatience and terror. Then she turned back into the room, snatched up
+her gloves and purse from the table and ran down the broad stairs and
+across the square hall with frenzied haste.
+
+A sound of footsteps in a passage close at hand made her start
+nervously. Without delaying a second she opened the great door, letting
+in a rush of cold, raw air, and, not venturing to look round, lest even
+now she should be intercepted in her flight, she slipped through the
+aperture and fled into the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+At nine o'clock that same evening Jim Herrick, alone in his shabby yet
+delightful little sitting-room, was roused from his contemplation of an
+etching he had picked up in town that day by a deep-throated bark from
+Olga. She had been lying in the hall; and doubtless her sharp ears had
+heard some approaching footstep which to his duller human hearing was
+inaudible.
+
+Eva was upstairs, trying on some finery she had purchased in London; and
+after waiting a moment Herrick went into the hall to investigate.
+
+Someone was knocking now on the door, thereby rousing Olga's wrath; and
+Herrick held her firmly by the collar as he went to answer the summons.
+
+On the doorstep, an indistinct figure in the fog, stood a young man, and
+on seeing Herrick he began at once to unfold his errand.
+
+"Mr. Herrick, beg pardon, sir; master's sent me over to ask if Mrs. Rose
+is here."
+
+"Mrs. Rose? Are you from Greenriver?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I'm Andrews, sir, and we're all a bit anxious about the
+mistress. She wasn't at home for dinner, and no one saw her go out."
+
+"Comes inside a minute." The man obeying, Herrick closed the door and,
+still holding Olga's collar, led the way to the sitting-room.
+
+"Now, tell me, as shortly as possible, why you thought Mrs. Rose might
+be here?"
+
+"It was Kate's idea, sir--the parlourmaid. When Mrs. Ross didn't come
+down to dinner she thought as perhaps she'd come over here. I thought it
+weren't likely on account of the fog, but we couldn't think of anywhere
+else for Mrs. Rose to be."
+
+"Your master is at home?"
+
+"Yes, sir, got in about seven. He was shut up in his room--the
+lib'ry--till nearly dinner-time, and then he waited and waited for the
+mistress to come down--and when she didn't come he got fidgety and sent
+Kate upstairs."
+
+"And Kate found no one?"
+
+"No, sir. Only the dog--Jock--lying curled up in the very middle of the
+bed--a thing he's never been known to do before, sir."
+
+"Mrs. Rose has not been here," said Herrick. "But just wait a moment. I
+will ask my wife if she expected Mrs. Rose."
+
+He went out of the room, and found Eva coming down the short flight of
+stairs from the upper floor.
+
+"What's the matter, Jim? Who is the man in there?"
+
+"It is the man-servant from Greenriver asking if Mrs. Rose has been
+here. You did not expect her, did you, Eva?"
+
+"Oh, no." She spoke calmly. "We were to meet to-morrow morning, but we
+had no appointment for to-night."
+
+"I see. Odd where she can have got to." Herrick frowned thoughtfully.
+"You can't give me any clue to her movements, Eva? You don't remember
+hearing her say anything about to-night?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea," said Eva, with apparent sincerity, and
+Herrick turned away without asking any other question.
+
+Re-entering the room he quietly told the waiting Andrews that nothing
+had been seen of Mrs. Rose, nor had she been expected on that particular
+evening; and the young man thanked him dejectedly and moved to the door.
+
+"It's a wretched night," said Herrick. "Won't you have a glass of
+something before you go?"
+
+Andrews thanked him, but declined; and seeing he was anxious to be gone,
+Herrick did not press him, but let him depart without more ado.
+
+He turned again into the sitting-room, meditating on this extraordinary
+disappearance; and a minute later his wife joined him, eager to hear the
+reason of Andrews' quest.
+
+She came into the room wearing a satin kimono she had bought that day,
+her curly golden hair bound with a broad pink ribbon, her small, narrow
+foot thrust into satin slippers of the same hue.
+
+At first sight it might have been a schoolgirl who stood there in the
+doorway. A second glance would have shown, to an acute observer, faint
+lines on brow and cheek, an indefinable hardness and sharpness of
+outline which destroyed the semblance of youth; and in its place gave an
+air of cynical maturity, which, reckoning by actual length of years, was
+as deceptive as the former illusion.
+
+"Well?" She came further into the room and spoke interrogatively.
+
+"Well?" Herrick turned to face her. "Mrs. Rose's disappearance is rather
+remarkable, don't you think?"
+
+"Very." For the life of him Herrick could not fathom her tone. "But
+since Toni is a free agent and not a slave, I expect she's gone out on
+business of her own."
+
+"Queer time for business--nine o'clock on a foggy night," Herrick
+reminded her quietly.
+
+"Well, I daresay she got fed up with the house--and the weather--and
+went off to London for a spree." Eva laughed rather hardly. "A theatre
+would be a blessed relief after the dulness of this place."
+
+"She would not be likely to go alone."
+
+"Oh, I daresay she would pick up some man to go with."
+
+"Don't speak like that, Eva, please. Mrs. Rose is not the sort of girl
+to 'pick up' anybody."
+
+"Oh, isn't she?" Eva laughed again. "Your precious Toni isn't a saint,
+you know. Because her husband is a fool and neglects her, that doesn't
+say Toni is too meek and mild to have friends of her own."
+
+Herrick turned to her angrily.
+
+"Look here, Eva, I won't have you insinuating such things. Mrs. Rose may
+not be a saint--I never met one, by the way--but she is a thoroughly
+straight girl; and any friends she might make would be lucky fellows, I
+can tell you."
+
+Eva smiled rather scornfully.
+
+"Even you are taken in by her big eyes and her quiet ways. Well, you'll
+all of you get a surprise one of these days, when you find that Toni is
+as wide-awake as anybody else, and knows a thing or two you don't
+suspect her of."
+
+"Eva, you are talking nonsense, and you know it." Herrick was seriously
+annoyed. "I imagined--foolishly--that you were a friend of Toni Rose;
+and it never entered my head you would say spiteful things of this sort
+about her."
+
+He broke off.
+
+"Unless----" He hesitated, his eyes full of a vague trouble.
+
+"Well? Unless--what?"
+
+"Oh, but that's absurd." He pulled himself together and spoke
+decisively. "I was going to say, unless you had some reason for speaking
+so; unless you knew something we don't know--and of course you don't."
+
+"Of course not." This time the mockery in her tone was perceptible; and
+Herrick questioned her hastily.
+
+"Eva, what do you mean? Do you know anything which would throw a light
+on Mrs. Rose's disappearance?"
+
+But Eva had turned sulky and would say nothing more. After one or two
+vain attempts to induce her to speak, therefore, Herrick abandoned the
+idea; and Eva withdrew with a malicious little smile on her lips which
+rendered her husband still more uneasy.
+
+He wandered restlessly about his small domain, puzzling his head as to
+what could have happened to Toni. He had not seen her often of late.
+Indeed, he had fancied once or twice that she was avoiding him; and he
+was sorry, for the girl had made an instant claim upon his sympathies,
+and he had often meditated over her chances of turning her marriage into
+a success.
+
+Somehow he had a presentiment of evil. Something seemed to tell him that
+Toni's flight was premeditated, that she had fled from her home
+secretly, with the intention of leaving her husband for ever; and
+although he told himself that the idea was monstrous, grotesque, he
+could not shake it off.
+
+Doubtless there were a dozen explanations. Perhaps she had gone for a
+little stroll, and had lost her way in the fog. She might have dropped
+in at some house in the neighbourhood, and, talking, let the hours slip
+by. Ten chances to one, she was even now safe at home; and it was absurd
+to worry about her. And yet----
+
+And yet there _were_ other possibilities. In the fog it would be easy
+indeed to miss one's road--with tragic results. One false step off the
+towing-path, for instance, and the river, dark and silent, would flow on
+its way, carrying with it a burden hardly more animated, yet a hundred
+times more precious, than the sticks and leaves which floated down with
+the current....
+
+Suddenly Herrick sprang up, unable to bear this haunted solitude any
+longer. He felt as though he must go forth to make inquiries for
+himself, to ascertain whether Toni had returned or no, whether all
+possible measures had been taken for her safety.
+
+Surely the people at Greenriver would not take his visit amiss? Seeing
+that his wife and Mrs. Rose were known to be friends, it was only
+natural that Mrs. Herrick should be anxious; and in any case he could
+bear this inaction no longer.
+
+Going into the hall he selected an overcoat and cap, and then, going to
+the foot of the stairs, called out to his wife.
+
+"Well?" She came to the head of the stairs, and stood looking at him
+over the banisters. She had a lighted candle in her hand; and somehow
+the wavering flame seemed to cast a sinister shadow over her face.
+
+"I am going to Greenriver, Eva, to see if Mrs. Rose has returned."
+
+"Oh." For a moment she hesitated, opened her mouth as though about to
+speak and then yawned instead. "Very well. Don't be long. My head aches
+and I want to get to sleep."
+
+"I will be as quick as possible," he said. "I am sorry your head aches.
+Try to get to sleep before I return."
+
+He turned away, leaving her staring after him; and her grey eyes were
+full of a cruel maliciousness. Eva guessed pretty well how the land lay.
+Although she had not expected Toni to give in to the young dentist's
+entreaties so soon, she never doubted that the girl had gone away with
+him; and she laughed as she remembered how quietly the whole affair had
+been conducted.
+
+Except on the occasion of Dowson's loan of magazines, Eva did not
+believe his name had ever been mentioned between the Roses; and
+certainly it would never enter Owen's head that his wife would go off,
+leave him, and leave all the glories of Greenriver, to share the lot of
+the inferior and unattractive Mr. Dowson.
+
+Eva had not the slightest feeling of compassion for the unhappy young
+wife driven to this step, partly by her own childish folly, but partly,
+also, by the evil counsel of the woman she called her friend. Eva know
+very well, had known all along, that there could be no happiness for
+Toni in such a step; and she fully believed that the girl would come to
+hate and fear the life in front of her. But Eva never for one moment
+experienced a thrill of pity for the misguided Toni. Rather the thought
+of the certain misery which faced her filled Eva's perverted mind with a
+wretched triumph; and her only strong emotion at this juncture was a
+passionate hope that Owen would not learn the truth in time to save his
+wife from the worst consequence of her ill-considered action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile all was confusion at Greenriver. At first Owen had been merely
+a little perplexed, not uneasy, at Toni's absence from the dinner-table;
+but when it became apparent that she was nowhere in the house he grew
+alarmed.
+
+Calling Andrews and Fletcher to him, he bade them get lanterns and
+institute a thorough search in the grounds; and the three of them
+searched thoroughly--as thoroughly, at least, as was possible in the
+clammy fog.
+
+Up and down they went, lanterns swinging, in and out of trees and
+shrubs; and into the various summer-houses and garden sheds; but there
+was no sign of Toni.
+
+Back into the house--where once again Owen summoned the servants to a
+conference--and once again was forced to consider himself baffled.
+
+Kate had seen her mistress last when she carried in the tea. Asked if
+Mrs. Rose had said anything about going out, she answered in the
+negative; and neither cook nor Maggie had sat eyes upon her since lunch.
+
+Andrews had been out that afternoon, and knew nothing; and Mrs. Blades,
+when interrogated, merely sniffed and said Mrs. Rose did not often
+honour the housekeeper's room with her presence.
+
+It was at this juncture that Andrews was despatched to Herrick's
+bungalow; and in his absence Owen rang up on the telephone all the
+people who seemed in the least likely to have seen his wife, but without
+result.
+
+A little later he rang up other places--the station, the police station,
+even the little Cottage Hospital; but no one had heard or seen anything
+of Mrs. Rose; and Owen was forced to wait for Andrews' return.
+
+When the man came, bearing no tidings, Owen understood that the matter
+was serious. Toni had gone, left her home in the dusk, departed no one
+knew whither. The whole thing was so unexpected, so incredible, that it
+was small wonder Owen was completely at sea.
+
+Suddenly a welcome thought flashed into his head. It was possible Toni
+had gone to town on the spur of the moment to visit her relations in
+Brixton; and the next minute Owen was turning over the leaves of the
+telephone directory hurriedly in an endeavour to find the number of the
+house in Winter Gardens. Luckily the house boasted a telephone,
+installed for the convenience of one of the boys who was connected with
+an insurance agency which had its headquarters there; and in a very
+short space of time Owen was asking the worthy Mrs. Gibbs over the wire
+for news of the missing Toni. But disappointment awaited him. Nothing
+had been heard of Toni for three weeks; and she had most certainly not
+visited them that day. Mrs. Gibbs, at the other end of the wire, sounded
+apprehensive, but Owen had no time to consider her feelings, and rang
+off abruptly when he found she had nothing to tell him.
+
+Just as he was turning away from the instrument the door bell rang
+quietly; and with a quick movement Owen crossed the hall and threw the
+door widely open.
+
+It was not Toni who stood there, however; and seeing the blank look on
+Owen's face, Herrick hurried to explain his errand as one merely of
+inquiry.
+
+"Come in," said Owen mechanically, drawing his visitor inside the house.
+"It's awfully decent of you, Herrick. You have heard of my
+wife's--disappearance?"
+
+"Yes. I suppose you have no idea what can have taken her away?"
+
+"Not the slightest. The maids say--now--that her thick motor coat and
+cap are gone, and her purse--with a few pounds in, I don't know how
+much--is missing from her drawer. But where she has gone is a complete
+mystery."
+
+"She gave you no hint of her departure?"
+
+"Not the faintest." Owen became suddenly aware that his visitor's coat
+was damp with the wetting mist; and his hospitable instincts awoke. "I
+say, come into the library and have a drink. You're pretty well soaked."
+
+He led the way to the library, regardless of Herrick's disclaimers; and
+the other man thought it best to follow him, first asking permission to
+bring Olga inside the house--a permission readily granted. Once inside
+the warm, tranquil room, Owen insisted upon Herrick shedding his coat
+and accepting a whisky and soda; but though he pressed Herrick to sit
+down and even took a cigarette himself, it was evident that Owen was all
+on thorns with anxiety and apprehension.
+
+"You haven't heard your wife say she wanted a change? You know women are
+restless beings."
+
+"Not Toni. She was always happy here. I'd promised to take her to
+Switzerland for Christmas, and that pleased her; but she was never keen
+about going away."
+
+"I see. She was happy here. Well"--his gaze wandered dreamily round the
+lamp-lit room, with its mullioned windows and well-filled shelves--"I
+don't wonder at that. Anyone might be happy in such a home as this."
+
+"Yes, she always loved Greenriver." Unconsciously both men used the past
+tense. "Ever since I brought her here as my wife she loved the old
+house."
+
+"She was happy, you say?" Herrick felt a sudden desire to probe beneath
+the surface. "You never--forgive me--you never found her
+depressed--or--or unsettled--in low spirits?"
+
+"No. She was sometimes a little--well, what shall we call it?--not
+bad-tempered, but well, a trifle jumpy; but she seemed to be in good
+spirits as a rule."
+
+"You never--I suppose"--he laughed, trying to make the question sound
+casual--"you never had any disagreements--any little fallings-out? Oh,
+don't think me impertinent--I was only wondering whether perhaps Mrs.
+Rose had taken offence at some little thing--and had gone off for a
+short visit somewhere to--well, to punish you."
+
+He had half expected Owen to resent the implication; but Owen took it
+quietly.
+
+"We never exactly quarrelled," he said. "At least, that isn't quite
+true. We did disagree, more than once, on one particular subject; and
+last night we certainly had a few words. We both lost our tempers--I
+confess I lost mine--and I said one or two things I'd have given the
+world to recall afterwards."
+
+"I see." Herrick spoke gravely. "Well, no doubt Mrs. Rose knows you did
+not mean anything unkind----"
+
+"I hope so. By God, I hope so." Owen's voice was hoarse. "If I thought
+Toni had taken my words seriously I--why, I said things I didn't mean in
+the very least, and I never for one instant dreamed she would take them
+as spoken in earnest."
+
+"I see." Herrick repeated the words. "You will pardon me for saying that
+Mrs. Rose always struck me as being more sensitive than the majority of
+women."
+
+"Did she?" Owen stared at him, struck suddenly by the significance of
+his manner. "By Jove, Herrick, I never suspected my wife of any undue
+sensitiveness. She always seemed to me too young, too immature and
+undeveloped to take things much to heart. Her youth was one of the
+greatest charms about her to me. It never struck me she was a woman,
+capable of a woman's sufferings----"
+
+He broke off suddenly.
+
+"Stay, though. Once I thought--she looked at me and I thought her
+eyes looked different--not like the eyes of a child. I wondered
+then ... but ... oh, no, she couldn't think I meant the things I said.
+Once or twice I have felt exasperated at what I thought was her
+childishness, her ignorance of the world, and I've said things now and
+again, unkind things, even cruel things sometimes ... but I've been
+secure all the time in the thought that she didn't understand...."
+
+"You wouldn't have hurt her--wilfully?"
+
+"Hurt her?" Owen stared at him. "Good God, man, what do you take me for?
+A man doesn't wilfully hurt his wife--the woman he loves. And to hurt
+Toni would be like hurting a child."
+
+"Mr. Rose"--Herrick took a resolution to speak plainly--"are you sure
+you did not treat your wife rather too much as a child? Are you sure you
+didn't deny her the right of a woman, the right to share your life, your
+work, your aims? Are you quite sure you never made her feel her
+inferiority to you in different ways, never let her see that in some
+matters she was perhaps hardly your equal? Oh, I know you are
+exceptionally clever, brilliant, and she is only a simple girl; but
+still she was not a child; and it may have been rather galling to her to
+be treated as one."
+
+For a moment Owen sat motionless, his eyes fixed on the other man's face
+with a stare whose earnestness was its justification.
+
+Then--
+
+"Look here, Herrick," he said, "I believe you are trying to tell me
+something--something about my wife which I don't know. Well, what is it?
+I think, as her husband, I have a right to ask you to share your
+knowledge with me. What do you say?"
+
+"I think you have every right," Herrick answered quietly, "and I ask
+nothing better than to tell you all I know."
+
+Without further preliminaries he repeated to Owen the conversation he
+had had with Toni on the day of the Vicarage Bazaar; and a sudden light
+broke over Owen as he listened.
+
+"You are alluding to the occasion when Lady Martin and the Vicar's wife
+called her ignorant, frivolous, empty-headed."
+
+"She told you?" Herrick was surprised.
+
+"Yes--long afterwards. But I laughed at her and told her it was
+nonsense--jealousy, or something like that. I never dreamed she had
+taken it to heart."
+
+"She took it so much to heart that she began to wonder how much was
+true, and how she could best rise above the defects with which they
+endowed her. She honoured me by asking my advice; and I was only too
+glad to help her. She called herself ignorant, and I endeavoured to show
+her how, by study and application, she might repair that ignorance. I
+recommended her books, mapped her out a course of reading--oh, it's no
+use going over it all now; only just what seems important to me is this.
+What had specially wounded her was the fact that they had evidently
+denied her the possession of a soul." He smiled rather tenderly. "And it
+was her passionate desire to show that she _had_ a soul which drove her
+to all those desperate expedients of study and the like."
+
+He paused, but Owen did not speak.
+
+"I wonder if the process of making one's soul is a painful one, after
+all? Like most new-born creatures, I expect it's a delicate, sensitive
+thing at first, easily wounded by a word, a glance.... I don't suppose
+it has a very joyful time in the beginning, struggling towards the
+fuller light like a weak, fragile little flower opening its petals one
+by one to the sun. But luckily a soul is a very vital thing. It can
+stand a good deal in the way of unkindness or neglect without
+shrivelling up. And I daresay a few kindly words, a sympathetic thought,
+are like water to a dying plant--or as the Bible has it 'as the shadow
+of a great rock in a thirsty land.'"
+
+As he finished his speech Owen broke in impetuously:
+
+"Don't say any more, Herrick. My God, what a fool I've been! To think
+that all this was taking place beneath my eyes and I was too blind, too
+self-absorbed to see."
+
+"Well, everyone is blind, at times," said Herrick gently. "I'm not
+trying to make you unhappy, Rose--the whole affair is no business of
+mine, and you may well resent my interference."
+
+"No, no," said Owen hastily. "God knows your interference is only too
+justifiable. But----"
+
+"Perhaps I am to blame, after all, for trying to engineer so delicate a
+situation. The fact is, I felt a great pity for Mrs. Rose. She was only
+a girl after all, and girlhood is a lively, careless, light-hearted
+period. But although her soul appeared--then--to be unawakened, I knew
+it was there all the time; and I confess I hoped that when she came into
+full possession of it you would draw nearer to one another, and a better
+understanding would ensue. But----"
+
+He paused.
+
+"Well? Your plan hasn't worked?"
+
+"I don't know. The thing is, not so much _where_ has Mrs. Rose gone, but
+_why_ did she go? Look here, Rose. I'm perfectly certain that her one
+thought all through has been for your welfare; and though on the face of
+it it seems peculiar that she should take this means of proving her love
+for you, I'm quite convinced she is acting on your behalf in this odd
+disappearance of hers."
+
+"But how could I benefit by her disappearance?"
+
+"I don't know. But I am quite sure----"
+
+He broke off suddenly, and the next instant the two men started to their
+feet as the hoot of a motor-horn sounded loudly outside the house.
+
+"God, Herrick--here's Toni." Owen dashed out of the room followed by
+Herrick, and the two reached the front door at the same moment.
+
+Andrews, who had come running from the kitchen regions at the sound of
+the horn, flung open the door, and disclosed the big car with its
+flaring head-lamps, throbbing itself to a standstill at the foot of the
+steps.
+
+A young man jumped out--a man whom neither Rose nor Herrick had ever
+seen before--and, rushing up the steps, looked wildly round him.
+
+"Where is she?" he demanded loudly. "Where is she?"
+
+"To whom do you allude?" asked Owen coldly, his fastidious soul revolted
+by the spectacle which the young man presented. Dowson was hatless,
+dishevelled. In his agony of mind at Toni's departure he had torn his
+collar apart, feeling himself choking, and during the drive to
+Greenriver he had rumpled his hair so wildly that it stood up in mad
+disorder over his head. His face was dusty, the mist had soaked his
+clothes till they clung tightly to his narrow frame, and about his whole
+figure there was an air of unkempt desolation which was unattractive in
+the extreme.
+
+"I allude to Toni--your wife, if you like to call her that." The
+unfortunate young man was distraught between disappointment and anxiety.
+"Where is she? Has she come home after all?"
+
+"My wife?" Owen raised his eyebrows superciliously. "My good man, what
+are you talking about? If you know anything about Mrs. Rose be kind
+enough to tell us at once what it is, but please remember she is not
+Toni--to you."
+
+"Oh, isn't she?" Beneath the weight of conflicting emotions Mr. Dowson
+was losing his head. "Well, she was going to be, that's all. She came
+away with me to-night of her own free will ... and we wore going to
+cross to Paris, and then ... oh, I don't know what then, but anyway she
+was going to stay with me, and when you had divorced her----"
+
+"Divorced her?" Owen uttered the words in so ferocious a tone that the
+young man fell back a pace. "What the devil do you mean by making a
+suggestion of that sort? And why in God's name should I divorce my
+wife--for you?"
+
+The scorn with which he spoke the last two words drove Leonard Dowson to
+frenzy.
+
+"Why? Why not? You never loved her--you never knew how to treat her. You
+made her miserable, you let her see you thought her inferior to you, not
+good enough for you ... you wouldn't dismiss that woman you had to help
+you though you knew To--your wife hated her...."
+
+He was lashing himself to greater and greater fury at the thought of
+Toni's sufferings.
+
+"Even when you'd made her so wretched that she was ready to die, she
+still thought of you. She knew I loved her as she deserved to be loved,
+and she was coming away with me, not because she loved me, but because
+she thought by leaving you she'd set you free--free to divorce her, to
+cast her off, to marry someone else, for all I know--some lady whom
+you'd perhaps be pleased to call your equal."
+
+Beneath his savage indictment even Owen stood dumb. There is always
+something electrifying about absolute sincerity, and no one, listening,
+could possibly doubt that the man was speaking from the very depth of
+his soul.
+
+As he stood panting, glaring at Owen with hatred in his eyes, Herrick
+stepped forward with a question.
+
+"Excuse me, sir"--neither of them knew, as yet, the name of the
+visitor--"may I ask how you became possessed of all this information? I
+am perfectly sure that Mrs. Rose herself has not been your informant,
+but I fail to see----in the first place, may we ask your name?"
+
+"My name is Dowson, Leonard Dowson." He spoke defiantly. "And as to who
+told me, well, it doesn't much matter, that I can see, but it was a
+friend of--of Mrs. Rose." He dared not again call her "Toni."
+
+"A friend?" In one sickening flash of intuition, Herrick knew who had
+been Toni's evil genius. He stopped short, physically incapable of
+questioning further; but Owen had no such scruples.
+
+"Who is this--friend?" He could not help the sneer; and Herrick paled in
+the lamplight, fearing yet powerless to avert the answer.
+
+"I don't suppose it matters telling you." Dowson paused. "It was Mrs.
+Herrick--Mrs. Rose's best friend--who told me; and she swore that every
+word was true."
+
+There was a short, tense silence; and Andrews, who had been hovering
+unnoticed in the background, suddenly dived through the baize door and
+disappeared, as one who feels his presence an intrusion.
+
+"So it was Mrs. Herrick who gave you this precious information." Owen,
+very pale, turned to Herrick. "Herrick, I won't insult your wife by
+asking if this is true. It's a lie, of course. Mrs. Herrick is a friend
+of my wife's. She would never play such a treacherous, underhand
+part----"
+
+"I ... I don't know what to say...."
+
+"No, I should think you don't." Dowson spoke vehemently. "You know it
+was she who put me up to it all along. She said Mrs. Rose had owned to
+being--well, fond of me in her way, though of course she put her husband
+first. But she told me I had a chance, that if I'd offer to take Mrs.
+Rose away she'd come ... oh, she convinced me fast enough. I daresay I
+was a fool, but I couldn't bear to stand by and say nothing when by
+taking her away----"
+
+He stopped suddenly. Owen had made a threatening step forward.
+
+"Look here"--Owen's voice was choked with rage--"stop talking all that
+rot, and tell me what you've done with my wife. First, of all, where is
+she?"
+
+"How can I tell you when I don't know?" retorted the young man almost
+rudely. "She came away with me right enough, and then we had an accident
+to the car--a tyre burst--and we went into a hotel at Stratton to wait
+for it to be repaired. I went to the post-office to send a telegram, and
+when I came back she'd gone."
+
+"Gone--where?"
+
+"Oh, aren't I telling you I don't know?" In his excitement the young
+dentist's refinement fell away from him, showing the rough human man
+beneath. "She slipped out soon's my back was turned--left a scrap of
+paper saying she couldn't go on with me--and that's all I know."
+
+"But she must have left some traces."
+
+"She left her dressing-bag, if that's anything," said Dowson gloomily.
+"It's in the car outside. I thought at least she'd have come back here,
+and I had to come on to make sure. I"--for a second his rough voice
+softened--"I had to be certain she was safe."
+
+"Well, she isn't here." Owen spoke harshly. "You were very ready to take
+her away, with your damned philanderings and what not, but you might at
+least have looked after her. Where is she? Good God, man, you're not
+only a blackguard and a thief--you're a damned fool as well!"
+
+"I may be a fool, but I'm not a blackguard!" Mr. Dowson's eyes blazed in
+his pallid face. "_I_ didn't marry the girl and then neglect her--_I_
+didn't win her love and then throw it aside as of no importance--_I_
+didn't break her heart with my sneers and coldness, as you did. You may
+be her husband and I'm only a man who loves her, but I'll guarantee I'd
+have known how to treat her a million times better than you ever did."
+
+The two men glared at one another furiously; and for a moment Herrick
+feared Owen was about to strike the man who defied him. Owen's face was
+convulsed with rage, his eyes looked almost black, and a vein in his
+temple hammered madly.
+
+Herrick stepped forward hastily.
+
+"I say, excuse me reminding you that this is not the time for
+recriminations. Mrs. Rose has not returned, and the thing to do now is
+to set all possible inquiries on foot. You agree with me, Rose?"
+
+Owen turned to him, the passion dying out of his face, leaving only a
+great weariness and a great dread.
+
+"You are right. We must find Toni. But how?"
+
+"Well, we'd better make inquiries at Stratton first. You are on the
+'phone? Good. Well, we will ring up the railway station, and the hotels.
+Mrs. Rose may have gone to one of them for the night. And we could try
+the garages. Possibly she will hire a car to bring her home."
+
+"Yes. And I'll order out the car and try the roads myself." Owen looked
+suddenly alert. "If she should be attempting to walk home, or anything
+of that sort, I should pick her up."
+
+"Yes. And I should give orders to the servants to have everything ready
+for Mrs. Rose--food, and fires, and things, when she returns. She'll be
+chilled to the bone with this mist."
+
+"Yes. I'll do it at once. I'll go and get on the 'phone, if you'll be so
+good as to ring for the servants. I'll order a fire in her room, and a
+little supper."
+
+He turned away, full of hope now that there was something to be done;
+and Herrick was following him, when Dowson, who had been temporarily
+forgotten, asserted his presence.
+
+"And what am I to do while you're searching for her?" His rage had died
+away, and he looked the picture of dejection. "Can't I do anything?
+I--you know I'd die for Toni--for Mrs. Rose. Can't you suggest something
+for me to be doing?"
+
+Owen turned on him fiercely.
+
+"_You?_ You've done enough harm for one night. Suppose you take yourself
+off--we've seen all we want of you, I assure you."
+
+"But----"
+
+"Don't stand arguing there," said Owen in a voice whose fury made the
+young man wince. "We've had more than enough of you. Be so good as to
+take yourself off before I kick you out of the house."
+
+Leonard Dowson gave one last look at the other man's face as though to
+see whether this threat was meant to be taken literally. What he read
+there apparently decided him; for with a hoarse sigh he turned away in
+the direction of the front door.
+
+Without waiting to see if he were obeyed or not, Owen hastened away to
+the telephone; and it was Herrick who opened the door and watched the
+young man enter the car.
+
+A second later he dismounted again, this time bearing Toni's
+dressing-bag, which in her hurry she had left behind; and carrying it up
+the steps he put it down, almost tenderly, inside the hall.
+
+"Thank you. That will do." Herrick watched him as he hesitated,
+uncertainly. "Don't let me detain you." He held the door widely open.
+"Good-night."
+
+Thus dismissed, the young man had no option. He went out into the
+chilly, misty night, and mounted the car, which moved swiftly away down
+the gloomy drive.
+
+When Herrick had closed the door he paused a moment, wondering if he had
+not better follow the late visitor's example and vanish quietly into the
+night.
+
+But he heard Owen's voice calling him as he stood hesitating, and found
+that, in spite of his wife's treachery, he himself was not debarred from
+giving help.
+
+He attempted, awkwardly, to take his leave; but Owen was in no mood to
+let him go. Whatever Mrs. Herrick's part in the tragedy, it was evident
+that her husband was to be exonerated; and although his heart was sick
+within him at the thought of Eva's wickedness, Herrick was wise enough
+to see that to implicate himself would be to make matters worse than
+they were already.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But although the two men made all possible inquiries, they could hear
+nothing of the missing Toni. No one had seen her, no one heard of her;
+and as the hours wore on it seemed as though the mist had indeed
+swallowed her up so completely that all trace of her was lost.
+
+After nearly an hour's futile telephoning Owen set off in the waiting
+car to scour the countryside; while at his urgent request Herrick stayed
+behind at Greenriver, in case Toni should arrive in her husband's
+absence and find no one to welcome her. Herrick agreed to stay at once,
+though he knew his prolonged absence would annoy and possibly upset his
+wife. She deserved no consideration, he told himself sternly. It was
+largely through her machinations that this thing had come to pass; and a
+few hours' anxiety would be a small enough price to pay for her
+treachery.
+
+It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when Owen returned, tired out,
+despondent, and with no slightest scrap of news. He came into the
+library looking ready to drop with fatigue, and found Herrick sitting
+over the fire apparently lost in thought. Olga and Jock, who had long
+since fraternized, lay side by side on the hearthrug; and all was quiet
+and peaceful. But when Herrick sprang up, hearing Owen's step, it was
+easy to see that for him, too, the night had worn away in keenest
+suspense.
+
+"Well? Any news?"
+
+"No. None." Owen slipped off his thick coat and sank down, wearily, into
+a chair. "No one has seen anything of her. The hotel people didn't hear
+her go, and no one has the faintest notion where she went."
+
+He shivered, holding out his hands to the blaze.
+
+"Herrick, where can she be? My God, I'd give ten years of my life now to
+know she was safe. But to think of her wandering about in the fog--not
+daring--not even wanting--to come home ... thinking always of me as the
+selfish brute who neglected her and laughed aside her wishes...."
+
+He paused a moment, then began again.
+
+"It wouldn't be so bad if she'd been in love with that fool who was here
+to-night. I could have understood her going off with him then. But it
+was me she loved all along--she was thinking of me when she went out
+into the cruel night to join him.... I'm very certain she shrank from
+the step ... well, events prove it, don't they? ... but she was thinking
+only of my good and so she nerved herself to do it...."
+
+"Yes." Herrick spoke quietly. "There's no doubt, I think, that your wife
+loved you as very few men are loved. It seems--forgive me--a cruel jest
+of Fate that you couldn't return her love...."
+
+"But I _did_--and _do_!" Owen's voice rang out with all its old force.
+"Before God, man, I do love Toni ... oh, I didn't at first. I confess I
+married her without caring for her as a man should care for the woman he
+makes his wife. But I've grown fonder of her ever since. Oh, I know it's
+all true, what that fellow said--I've been thoughtless, unkind, I did
+neglect her, did let her see how I despised her help, but you don't know
+what it is to a man to find his work spoilt for the lack of a little
+intelligent sympathy.... Oh, I'm not excusing myself--I had no right to
+put my work before everything else--even before Toni--and I did. But God
+knows I'm punished for it now."
+
+Again he broke off abruptly, only to go on again hastily.
+
+"I own I was mistaken in my reading of Toni's character. I had no idea
+she was capable of this sort of sacrifice."
+
+"You never saw into the depths of her soul. If you had----"
+
+"I should have realized what she was. Oh, I know," said Owen, with
+humility, "I know now that Toni is a woman, and I pray to God with all
+my soul that my knowledge has not come too late."
+
+"You think if you got her back now you might be happy together?"
+
+"Happy? If I could make Toni happy, she would be happy indeed." His tone
+was still tinged with that new humility, and in that dreary hour Herrick
+began to understand him better than he had ever dreamed of doing.
+
+When at last the grey dawn crept through the large windows Herrick rose
+to go.
+
+"I'll get off home for an hour or two. You'd better try to have a sleep,
+Rose. We can't do anything more just yet; and it's no use wasting one's
+strength."
+
+"Very well." Owen rose and stretched himself, yawning. "I won't go to
+bed--I'll sleep on the couch here. You see she might come at any
+moment."
+
+Herrick saw it was of no use attempting to urge him to go to bed; so
+agreed, at once, that such a return was possible, and two minutes later
+he and Olga were outside the house in the chilly silver dawn.
+
+The fog had lifted in the night, and for that Herrick was thankful; but
+the air was biting, and as he walked briskly along, Olga trotting
+alertly beside him, he owned to himself that a cup of hot coffee,
+followed by a sleep, would be welcome indeed.
+
+He let himself softly into the house and proceeded to make some coffee
+with the aid of the gas-ring. He was gulping it down, feeling the liquid
+driving the cold out of his bones, when Olga growled faintly; and
+looking up, he saw his wife standing in the doorway surveying him
+maliciously.
+
+"Well? Has the lost lamb been found and returned to the fold?" Her tone
+was mockery itself.
+
+"No." For an instant he wondered whether he should accuse her of her
+treachery; but suddenly he resolved to wait till he was more normal,
+after a rest.
+
+"Really? Well, I don't think she will return just yet. I expect the next
+time her loving husband meets our dear Toni, the Divorce Court will be
+their meeting-place."
+
+A wave of anger swept over Herrick.
+
+"So that man was right--it was your doing." He put down his cup and
+looked steadily at her. "It was through your--your advice that that
+unfortunate girl left her home and wont off with Dowson."
+
+"It wasn't through my advice," she said. "As a matter of fact I didn't
+know they had fixed it up so quickly. Three days ago it was only a vague
+notion--quite in the air, I assure you. I had no idea it had actually
+come off."
+
+"You knew, then, that it was a possibility, at least?"
+
+"Yes." Suddenly she stopped and stared at him. "But how do you know? She
+didn't leave any message, I suppose?"
+
+"I know because Mrs. Rose's heart failed her when she had taken the
+first step. She gave this man Dowson the slip at Stratton and he
+immediately returned to Greenriver to ask if she had come back."
+
+"And she hadn't?"
+
+"Of course not." He spoke sternly. "Between you, you have made it almost
+impossible for that poor child to return unless her husband fetches her.
+Why you should have sought to ruin their homes I confess I fail to
+understand. Neither Rose nor his wife had done you any harm."
+
+"No." She stared sombrely at him. "That's true, I suppose. But--oh, you
+can't understand, of course."
+
+"Understand what, Eva?" He tried to speak gently, aware through all her
+mockery of something piteous, tragic in her attitude.
+
+"You can't understand how I hate to see happiness." She threw back her
+head and beneath her white wrapper he saw her breast heave stormily. "I
+was happy once, before those men sent me to prison. I used to sing and
+laugh--as Toni did--I used to enjoy every moment of my life ... and then
+I liked to see people all round me being happy too... But I was taken
+away from it all, from the sunshine, the gay, happy people, the shops,
+the theatres, taken away and shut up like a wild animal in a
+cell ... oh ..." She shivered, and all at once his heart melted
+towards her.
+
+"Don't think of that now, dear." He put his hand with real kindness on
+her shoulder. "It's all over and done with, and there are better things
+in store."
+
+"Not for me." Her tone was unutterably forlorn. "My life is spoilt,
+broken--and now"--all at once her expression changed and she spoke
+vindictively--"now all I can do is to break other lives!"
+
+"Hush, Eva." He removed his hand from her arm. "Don't talk so. And
+remember, if Mrs. Rose comes home safely, you must leave her alone for
+the future."
+
+For a moment she said nothing, biting her lip as though in thought. Then
+suddenly she shrugged her shoulders and moved away without a word.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When daylight came Owen and Herrick resumed their search for the missing
+girl, calling to their aid every device which the wit of man could
+suggest.
+
+They left no stone unturned; and though Owen shrank from the necessary
+publicity Scotland Yard was informed, and a huge reward offered for
+information about the vanished Toni.
+
+But the days passed, glided into weeks, which in their turn grew into
+months; and Toni was not found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+On a sunny afternoon in March of the following year, Toni Rose sat alone
+on the slope of an Italian hill-side overlooking the blue Mediterranean,
+which lay stretched beneath her like a sheet of living turquoise.
+
+The air was delightfully warm and still, and scented with the fresh
+breath of myriads of violets which dotted the short, soft turf here and
+there like a multitude of tiny purple stars. Everywhere the almond
+blossom was in its full beauty of rose and cream, and the sight of an
+orchard away on the hill-side, with the faint blue sky above the
+pink-and-white branches, and the bluer sea behind, gave to the beholder
+the effect of a delicate Japanese water-colour painting.
+
+The Bay of Naples fully deserved its world-wide reputation for beauty on
+this bright spring afternoon. Across its waters rose hill upon hill, the
+sombre giant Vesuvius brooding like some dark monster over the ruined
+countryside at its base, the lovelier, more hopeful snow-crowned peaks
+behind rising like a fairy army beneath whose beneficent gaze the ogre
+was--for the time--vanquished and impotent.
+
+The bay was full of craft, as usual. Big liners, tramp steamers, a grey
+battleship or two, looked scornfully down on the little Italian boats,
+some piled high with yellow fruit, others less imposing, little pleasure
+craft manned by youthful boatmen with swarthy brown faces and ears
+ornamented with huge golden rings.
+
+Land and sea alike smiled in the glorious sunshine. It was a day on
+which life seemed a very sweet and desirable opportunity; but in Toni's
+face there was no hint of gladness, none of her former almost pagan
+delight in the beautiful out-of-door world around her.
+
+Although her skin was delicately warmed and coloured by the genial
+Southern sun, the becoming tan could not hide the thinness of the once
+rounded cheeks, nor disguise the hopeless droop of the lips which had
+been used to smile so readily. Toni looked, indeed, the ghost of her
+former self as she sat gazing out over the Mediterranean; and it was
+very evident that whatever had been the result of her flight to those
+she had left behind, her own happiness had suffered a disastrous
+eclipse.
+
+After all, her disappearance had been easily arranged. On that foggy
+night when she had fled from Leonard Dowson, terrified by the spectre of
+a future life which his words had evoked, she had run, without in the
+least realizing her direction, straight to the railway station; and the
+idea of London had at once presented itself to her mind. A train was
+just starting, and Toni hastily took a ticket and jumped into a carriage
+without giving herself time to think.
+
+Arriving at the terminus she had a momentary indecision as to her next
+step. As she stood on the platform she felt herself to be desperately,
+hopelessly alone; and for one wild moment she wondered how Owen would
+receive her if she went back and flung herself on his mercy.
+
+But something in her, perhaps the sturdy, independent blood of her
+Yorkshire ancestors, seemed to forbid such a course. She could not
+return, creep back to the shelter of the home she had abandoned; and
+even Toni's youthful optimism could not promise her a very hearty
+welcome when the truth of her flight should be known.
+
+If only she had gone alone ... if there had been no man in the case to
+complicate matters and compromise the situation--in that first moment of
+despair Toni hated Leonard Dowson, loathed herself for imagining it
+would be possible to go away with him; and at the same time realized
+that whatever happened she would find it almost impossible to explain
+the man's introduction into the affair in any way save that which, were
+the story known, would be taken, perhaps naturally, for granted.
+
+Suddenly the thought of Italy flashed into her brain, and with the
+thought came instant resolution.
+
+She had still twelve pounds in her purse--more than enough to take her
+to Naples; and once there she could surely discover some friend of the
+bygone days to whom she might apply for advice as to her future
+maintenance.
+
+In Italy she could live frugally, as the peasants lived; and all at once
+Toni felt a great nostalgia for the glowing South, with its sunshine and
+hot blue skies, its orange-groves, its languorous noons and warm,
+scented nights.
+
+The Italian blood in her--the blood transmitted to her by her mother,
+spoke in its turn; and suddenly Toni felt that in that land of warmth
+and colour she could find the rest and peace for which her sorely-driven
+soul cried out....
+
+And then the miracle happened.
+
+Later that evening she was standing on the platform of another great
+station, waiting her turn to approach the booking-office where she might
+obtain her ticket to Italy--and home--when a wail in a thin foreign
+voice fell upon her ear, and she turned round to face a dark and
+agitated-looking young woman, neatly dressed, who was bewailing herself
+in the fluent Italian of the lower classes.
+
+"What is it? Can I help you?"
+
+Toni spoke impulsively, sorry for the young woman even in the midst of
+her own numbing grief; and the other turned round in astonishment at
+hearing her own tongue.
+
+"Oh, Signorina!" She evidently took Toni for a compatriot. "Such a
+misfortune has overcome me--I do not know what is to be done. I am here
+with my charges"--two sleepy-looking English children stood yawning
+beside her--"on the way to Naples, and behold, the English Signora--the
+governess, you understand--who was to have come with us to deliver the
+children safely to their parents is at the last moment unable to come."
+
+"But why can't she come?"
+
+"_Non lo so!_" The woman shrugged her shoulders. "She sends me but a
+telegram to the waiting-room--an accident, illness--I know not--but she
+does not come, and I must go alone with the two little ones, who are
+both delicate and will be ill the whole journey through!"
+
+A wild inspiration flashed into Toni's mind.
+
+"You go to Naples?" she said. "I too wish to go, but hardly care to
+undertake the journey alone. May I then come with you and help you with
+the little ones?"
+
+The Italian's quick mind grasped the idea at once; and she foresaw with
+delighted gratitude that the journey might be shorn of half its terrors
+if the plan were carried out.
+
+She poured forth a stream of voluble explanations. She had already taken
+the tickets for the party; and she was certain that her employer, a
+wealthy English lady, would be only too grateful if the Signorina would
+accept the fare in return for her help in the matter. A carriage had
+been reserved for the party, and the whole journey might be taken in
+complete comfort and security, since this so fortunate meeting with a
+compatriot.
+
+To Toni the idea came as a veritable boon. In her turn, she saw all the
+personal benefits of the plan; and, after all, since she could be of
+real, practical assistance, she saw no reason why she should scruple to
+avail herself of the Italian nurse's offer.
+
+Five minutes later the affair was arranged. The foreigner, Luisa by
+name, was at first incredulous on hearing of her new comrade's mixed
+nationality, but she readily accepted such explanations as Toni gave
+her, and was quick to recognize the value of Toni's perfect English at
+the present juncture.
+
+Toni's lack of luggage puzzled her a little, but Toni murmured something
+about a lost dressing-bag which satisfied the other woman; and when the
+long train steamed out of the station at last Toni was comfortably
+ensconced in a reserved first-class compartment, making friends with the
+two little girls with whom she was to travel.
+
+This fact explains the non-success of all inquiries at the railway
+stations, or, later, on the boat. The authorities were on the look-out
+for a young Englishwoman journeying alone; and never associated the
+young Italian lady travelling, apparently, with her two children and a
+nurse, with the solitary girl for whom they searched.
+
+Toni's fur coat was by no means a unique garment. There were plenty to
+be seen at this time of year; and in any case the girl, protected by her
+unassailable bodyguard, was able to pass under the eyes of the very men
+who were anxiously on the look-out for her.
+
+The journey to which Luisa had looked forward with such apprehension
+passed off well enough. Toni was obliged to rouse herself from her own
+dejection to look after the children, who were both delicate and spoilt;
+but luckily they took an instant fancy to the travelling companion so
+strangely provided, and behaved with commendable good-temper throughout.
+
+When at length the train ran into the railway station at Naples, Toni
+suddenly found herself faced with another problem. The nurse had taken
+her on trust, so to speak, and had been too grateful for her help to
+seek to probe into her private affairs; but now that she must face the
+mother of the pretty children, to whom she had become quite attached,
+Toni realized that she would have to give some more plausible
+explanation of her situation than that which had contented the impetuous
+Luisa.
+
+She got out of the carriage at last, her arms full of the children's
+wraps and toys, with knees which shook under her at the thought of the
+ordeal to come; but one quick look into Mrs. Moody's frank and kindly
+face reassured her a little.
+
+She soon found, moreover, that the lady was as ready to take her on
+trust as the maid had been. When she had heard Luisa's voluble
+explanation of the part Toni had played during the long and wearying
+journey, Mrs. Moody turned to Toni with an expression of real gratitude
+on her still pretty face.
+
+"I really don't know how to thank you, Miss ... er ..." She hesitated,
+and Toni quickly supplied her with the first name she could think of,
+the name of her Italian mother's race. "Oh, but surely you are English?"
+
+In her agitation Toni murmured something about an Italian father, not
+meaning to deceive, but too tired out and confused to pay much heed to
+her words; and Mrs. Moody put her hand kindly on the girl's arm.
+
+"Well, English or not, you've been a god-send to Luisa and the chicks;
+so if you have no friends waiting for you at this moment, you must come
+home with me and let my husband thank you properly."
+
+Somehow Toni found herself stepping into the beautifully-appointed
+motor-car which waited outside the station; and ten minutes later she
+was helped out of the motor and taken up a broad and palatial-looking
+staircase to the large and lofty flat inhabited by her new friends.
+
+Friends indeed they proved to be. Without the slightest hesitation they
+accepted Toni's rather faltering story of an engagement in England which
+had proved unsatisfactory; and on learning that her intention in
+returning to Italy had been to look for another post, they looked at one
+another in a meaning silence which was explained later, when Mrs. Moody
+asked her quietly if she would care to undertake the post of
+governess-companion to the two small children with whom she was already
+on terms of friendship.
+
+For a moment Toni hesitated. To stay on here, deceiving her employers,
+representing herself, falsely, as an unmarried woman, would be a poor
+return for their kindness and generosity; but to tell the truth was
+surely impossible. Yet she could not bring herself to shut the door
+which would open to her a new and honourable life in which she might
+find, if not happiness, at least content; and poor Toni was torn between
+conflicting emotions as she stood listening to her new friend's
+proposals.
+
+Mrs. Moody, reading her indecision in her face, bade her think the
+matter over for a week while she remained with them as an honoured
+guest; and Toni did so, coming at last to the conclusion that, much as
+she longed to accept the post, to do so would not be fair to her
+prospective employers.
+
+She refused, therefore, but with so genuine a regret that the refusal
+could not give offence. The Moodys, however, while recognizing the
+girl's claim to independence of judgment, in their turn asserted their
+claim to befriend her, and Toni was only too ready to accept their
+advice and assistance.
+
+Hearing that it was of importance that she should set about making some
+money without delay, Mr. Moody secured for her a post as
+assistant-librarian and secretary in a big library belonging to an
+Italian friend of his own.
+
+It was something of an irony that Toni's work should take her into an
+atmosphere that could not fail to remind her of her husband and his
+literary aspirations; and her heart used to contract pitifully within
+her sometimes when she entered the big, lofty, book-lined room, which
+was not unlike the stately library in the beautiful old house by the
+river where her married life had come to so tragic a close.
+
+She owed the post to her proficiency in Italian and English rather than
+to any scholarly ability. To the end of her life Toni would never be
+bookish. She would always prefer living to reading about life; and it
+was fortunate that her work in this new library consisted largely of
+translating, roughly, from books in Italian and English, or in typing,
+from dictation, in either language.
+
+She grew to like her employment in the quiet, mediaeval-looking room. Her
+employer, a gentle, sad-eyed elderly man with an invalid daughter,
+treated her with the utmost kindness; and if it had not been that every
+fibre in her being cried out incessantly for Owen, she might in time
+have been content.
+
+Her first friends, the Moodys, had settled her in rooms with an old
+servant of their own who had married a little Italian bookseller, and
+were unremitting in their kindness to her; but Toni desired only to be
+alone in her leisure hours and refused many of the invitations which
+Mrs. Moody sent her from time to time.
+
+So the days passed, quietly and tranquilly enough; and though to Toni it
+seemed that all the joy, all the happiness had fled from life, that the
+"sweet things" had lost their sweetness, the sunshine its glory, the
+flowers their perfume, she was not ungrateful for the peace which had
+come to her so unexpectedly.
+
+Of her husband, of Greenriver, she never dared to think. She guessed,
+drearily, that Owen would feel bound, in humanity, to institute a search
+for his missing wife; but by a fortunate chance she had been able to
+cover her tracks and disappear effectually; and as the weeks glided by,
+and discovery was apparently as far off as ever, she began to feel, with
+a miserable certainty, that in time her husband would relinquish the
+search, and settle down to forget the frivolous, uneducated girl who had
+not known how to appreciate the honour he had done her in making her his
+wife.
+
+To-day, this glorious spring day when the violet-scented air held a hint
+of summer's warmth in its breath, Toni was making holiday.
+
+Her employer was from home, called to London by the hint of a wonderful
+book sale to be held there the following week; and Toni's time was her
+own for nearly eight days.
+
+She had started early that morning on a pilgrimage to the little village
+where, long ago, she had passed the first happy years of her life; and
+had arrived, before noon, to find, as she had half-expected, that none
+of her old friends remained to give her welcome.
+
+Old Fiammetta was dead, as was, of course, the kindly Padre who had
+befriended Roger Gibbs when the young widower had decided to stay on,
+with his little daughter, in the home which his Antonia had made so
+joyous. A few of the children with whom she had played lived here still,
+but they had grown into sturdy, swarthy young men and women who had long
+since forgotten the dark-eyed child whose Italian had been as fluent as
+their own; and though she wandered disconsolately through the straggling
+little village, she met with no single glance of recognition.
+
+She did not know that some months previously urgent inquiries had been
+made at the tiny post-office as to whether a young lady had arrived in
+the village unexpectedly. It had struck Owen as possible that, in her
+madness, Toni might have returned to her childhood's home; but although,
+had she not met Luisa, Toni would probably have done so, that chance
+meeting at the station had turned her feet into another path, and
+naturally no one here knew anything of her whereabouts.
+
+She had intended spending the whole of her holiday in the village; but
+the absence of any welcome depressed her sensitive spirit, and she
+decided to return to Naples in the evening and spend the days of her
+freedom in exploring more thoroughly the fascinating streets and byways
+of the picturesque and romantic town.
+
+It was late when she arrived home, carrying her little valise; and old
+Janet, who in spite of her long residence in Italy was still
+uncompromisingly British, was surprised to see her lodger returning.
+
+"I thought you were going to stay a few days," she said quite
+reproachfully. "Now a real good change would have been the very best
+thing for you, miss, and I'm right sorry to see you back."
+
+"You're not very kind, Janet!" Toni smiled rather wearily, "I couldn't
+stay ... all my friends were dead and gone ... there were only ghosts
+left to welcome me, and I couldn't bear it!"
+
+The old woman read the disappointment in the girl's tone and was sorry
+for her.
+
+"Well, come along in, miss, and I'll bring you some supper right away.
+There's an omelette, and some lovely risotto I'm making for Pietro, and
+a glass or two of Chianti will soon hearten you up--though for my part I
+think a bottle of good English stout is worth all the thin wines in
+Italy!"
+
+When, later, she bustled in again with some excellent coffee, the old
+woman brought a bundle of papers which had been left by Mrs. Moody
+earlier in the day. There were various English and American magazines,
+and a few weekly papers; and had doubtless been intended to lighten the
+loneliness of Toni's holiday.
+
+She sat sipping her coffee and turning the pages rather listlessly.
+Somehow reading appealed to her less than ever nowadays. She was always
+so fully occupied with her own miserable thoughts, that the imaginative
+writings of other people could claim small share of her interest; but
+she dipped into the magazines as she sat alone, and tried to forget
+herself for an hour in the perusal of their pages.
+
+Among the papers was a copy of the _Daily Telegraph_, sent to Mrs. Moody
+occasionally by a sister in London; and Toni was idly turning the clumsy
+sheets when a name she knew attracted her attention.
+
+She scanned the paragraph hurriedly a little pulse beating in her temple
+as she read.
+
+     "We learn on good authority that the famous portrait-painter Mr.
+     James Herrick, better known as Mr. Herrick Vyse, has accepted a
+     commission to paint the two beautiful daughters of Lord and Lady
+     Tregarthen at their historic home in Cornwall. The young subjects,
+     who are twins, are only nine years of age, but are ranked among the
+     loveliest of England's many beautiful children, and doubtless the
+     artist will do their childish beauty full justice. Mr. Herrick has
+     already left his picturesque bungalow on the Thames for Tregarthen
+     House, where he will be the guest of Lord and Lady Tregarthen
+     during the painting of the portrait."
+
+The paper fell from Toni's hands and the light of a great inspiration
+flashed into her face.
+
+Lately she had longed, with ever-increasing intensity, for some
+authentic news of Owen. She felt she would give all she had in the world
+to hear that he was well, that her flight had not ruined his life; but
+she had no means of finding out anything without running the risk of
+giving away the secret of her own hiding-place.
+
+She had sometimes thought of writing to Eva Herrick, binding her to the
+strictest secrecy, and imploring her, for the sake of their old
+friendship, to give her the information she craved. But there were so
+many drawbacks to the plan. Her letter might easily fall into Herrick's
+hands, and though the contents would be sacred to him, the Italian
+postmark would be enough to betray her whereabouts.
+
+But now, during Herrick's absence, she might surely risk sending Eva a
+letter. She felt pretty certain that Mrs. Herrick would not give away
+her secret. By this time Toni was quite able to appreciate the part Eva
+Herrick had played in her unfortunate escapade; and she realised, very
+plainly, that Eva's unhappy desire to ruin other lives as hers had been
+ruined, had been at the bottom of her eager sympathy and pretended help.
+
+Even now Eva would doubtless seek to prevent any real reconciliation
+between husband and wife; and in any case Toni felt that she must take
+the risk; she must have news, hear how Owen had taken her flight; and
+surely Eva would not refuse to answer her letter.
+
+She wrote it there and then. It was very short, only a few lines
+imploring the recipient to give her all news of Owen, while keeping the
+secret of the writer's hiding place. Of herself Toni merely stated that
+she was at work and content; but the few scribbled lines breathed a
+spirit of misery, of supplication which would surely melt even the
+hardest heart.
+
+Having signed her name, and seen that the address at the top of the
+sheet was correct, Toni hastily procured an envelope, thrust in the
+fateful letter, and immediately slipped out of the house to post it.
+
+Up to this moment she had acted impulsively, without giving herself time
+to think, with possibly a lurking fear at the back of her mind that if
+she stopped to consider she would tear up the letter instead of posting
+it. But when once it had left her hand, when she had heard the thud it
+made in falling into the almost empty box, a great terror seized Toni,
+and she stood trembling in the deserted street, feeling that she would
+give all she had to rescind her impetuous action.
+
+But doubts and misgivings were alike useless now. The letter had passed
+out of her keeping, and she must abide by her own deed, trusting
+fervently that no further misfortune would follow her precipitancy.
+
+Realizing at last that regrets were futile, Toni turned away and went
+home, there to spend a sleepless night torturing herself with all sorts
+of premonitions and visions of ill-luck.
+
+But in her wildest flights of imaginative terror over the receipt of her
+letter, and its consequences, Toni never approached the truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Toni's letter was delivered to Mrs. Herrick late one afternoon; and with
+a slight feeling of wonder as to her correspondent's identity, Eva broke
+the seal languidly and took out the thin foreign sheet without the least
+notion that this letter was to her a veritable messenger of Fate.
+
+It did not take her long to read the few scrawled lines in which Toni
+proffered her desperate request; and when she had read them, Eva let the
+sheet flutter to the floor while she pondered on the strange chance
+which led the woman whose life she had helped to ruin to appeal to her
+for aid.
+
+The months which had passed since Toni's flight had not been happy ones
+for Eva Herrick. On hearing of the part she had played in the
+culminating catastrophe, her husband had felt at first that he could
+barely find it in his heart to forgive such deliberate treachery; and
+for a short space of time even the malicious and reckless Eva knew what
+it was to be afraid. She was afraid, not of Herrick's wrath, but of the
+consequences. If, as at times she almost feared, he were to leave her,
+what would her position be? Already disgraced, discredited in the eyes
+of the world, she would find it impossible to face that world all alone,
+without the shelter of her husband's name; and although Toni's plight
+was nothing to her, there were times when she almost wished she had left
+the girl alone and had not encouraged her to take the fatal step of
+leaving her home.
+
+She picked up the flimsy sheet again and re-read the pitiful words. The
+letter could be answered easily enough. If she replied truthfully, she
+would relate a tragic history of a winter of lonely despair lived out in
+the beautiful old house, which to its solitary owner was like a body
+without a soul, a mere empty shell which had once held something
+precious beyond all words.
+
+She could narrate of blank and heavy days, when Owen Rose shut himself
+up in his library and refused to see a single fellow-creature save the
+servants who had known and loved his pretty young wife. Eva could have
+told of the dismissal of the housekeeper, Mrs. Blades, whose long
+service had seemed to her sufficient to warrant an impertinent stricture
+on Mrs. Rose's shameless conduct. She had learned her mistake very
+quickly; and had gone forth lamenting the short-sighted folly which had
+ended her long and tyrannical reign at Greenriver. Further, Eva could
+have related how, when the papers were full of complimentary reviews of
+Owen Rose's novel, the author himself turned away from all praise,
+fulsome and discriminating alike, and took up his pen only to write such
+articles as his position on the staff of the _Bridge_ rendered
+necessary.
+
+But as yet Eva did not know what form her reply would take.
+
+Warped, distorted, malignant as her judgment too often was, there was
+something very vital in that despairing cry from Italy; and in spite of
+herself Eva could not banish its echo from her ears.
+
+She might answer, briefly, that Owen was still at Greenriver, and, so
+far as she knew, in good health and spirits. As she framed the words she
+had a mental vision of Owen as she had last seen him, thin, pale,
+haggard, with the fire of a restless despair burning in his blue eyes.
+Although he went out and about, and greeted his friends much as usual,
+no one could doubt that the whole man was consumed as by a devouring
+flame. He had been tortured with terrible neuralgic headaches all
+through the winter; but though the doctor urged him to try the effect of
+a sojourn abroad, nothing would induce him to leave Greenriver.
+
+His tentative inquiries in Italy having proved futile, he clung to the
+idea that Toni was still in England; and the thought that she might
+return to her home and find him gone was one which recurred to him like
+a nightmare whenever he took even the short journey up to town.
+
+"What shall I say, I wonder?" Eva sat gazing thoughtfully into the fire,
+while the Spring twilight fell over the river which glided so quietly
+past her windows. "If I say she is forgotten it will almost break her
+heart; yet if I tell her that her husband is breaking _his_ heart to
+find her, will she come to England instantly and humble herself till he
+takes her back into his home?"
+
+As she sat there Eva had a sudden vivid sense of the contrast between
+her own spoilt life and that of the girl whose pitiful cry still rang in
+her consciousness and would not be silenced.
+
+Her own life was ruined, she told herself bitterly. But in that
+illuminating moment Eva saw the truth for the first time. She herself
+was to blame for the ruin. She had brought all the shame, all the
+disgrace upon herself, and the bitter experience of her prison life had
+been only the reaping of the harvest which she, by her own act, had
+sown.
+
+But Toni's happiness had been broken and spoilt by other means. It was
+her very love for her husband which had made her so fatally ready to
+believe that only by leaving him could she give him the freedom which he
+was supposed--by his wife--to desire. And Eva knew quite well that
+without her connivance and encouragement Leonard Dowson would never have
+dared to utter his proposal to the young wife of Owen Rose.
+
+Yet if she gave in now and begged Toni to return, assuring her, as she
+knew she might safely do, of her husband's ready forgiveness, would not
+the spectacle of Toni's ensuing happiness bring all the more cruelly
+home to her the wretchedness which must be her own portion from
+henceforth?
+
+Although Jim Herrick treated her with unvarying kindness and
+consideration, Eva had always the miserable conviction that his love for
+her was dead; and although she never showed any feeling in their daily
+intercourse, even her bitter and reckless heart was sometimes sore
+within her.
+
+Long she sat, wondering how best to treat this unexpected appeal from a
+far country; and only when the trim maid who had replaced the more
+haphazard Mrs. Swastika entered with the lighted lamp did Eva rouse
+herself from her reverie.
+
+Then, however, she got pen and paper and sat down at the table to frame
+some sort of reply. It was not an easy task. With Toni's letter lying
+before her, she found it strangely difficult to begin; and was still
+sitting staring at the blank sheet of paper when a sudden deep bark from
+Olga, who was lying, as usual, nose on paws, in the tiny hall, made her
+start to her feet.
+
+"Who's there, I wonder? Olga sounds excited."
+
+She went to the door and opened it, and at the same moment the front
+door was flung widely open and a man stepped into the hall, to be
+greeted instantly by a torrent of wild barking from the now delighted
+Borzoi.
+
+"Steady, old girl! I say, Olga, don't take me for a wolf and tear me to
+pieces!" He laughingly pushed the great dog down and hastened towards
+his wife.
+
+"Hallo, Eva! Have I startled you? I'm sorry."
+
+"I didn't know who it was." She stared at him with dilated eyes. "I was
+sitting in there, and Olga barked so loudly that I thought----"
+
+"Thought I was a burglar!" He kissed her very kindly. "Well, I'm not.
+But I've come back for a bit ... yes, put them down there, will you?"
+
+He turned to the door, his arm through his wife's, and paid the cabman,
+who had placed his portmanteaux in the hall. Then, when the man,
+declining a drink, had gone, Herrick drew his wife back into the little
+sitting-room.
+
+"But--I don't understand. Is the portrait off? Aren't you going to paint
+the children?"
+
+"Yes, of course I am, but not for a bit. Fact is, the poor kiddies have
+started in measles, pretty badly, too, I'm told, so as it was impossible
+to get on with the picture just yet I thought I'd better come home and
+let their parents send for me when the children are out of quarantine."
+
+"I see." Eva was half pleased, half annoyed by his return. "You want
+something to eat, I expect. Shall I go and hurry up dinner?"
+
+"I wish you would, dear." He threw aside his coat as he spoke. "I had
+some lunch on the train, but you know what railway lunches are. I came
+down from Waterloo with Rose. Jove, Eva, that fellow looks a wreck."
+
+"Does he?" Suddenly she remembered that Toni's letter was lying open on
+the table. "I--I suppose he will get over--it--in time."
+
+"I don't think he will. Of course he must really have been devoted to
+her--to his wife--all the time, without knowing it. And I don't wonder.
+She was one of the best, pluckiest, straightest girls I ever met. I
+don't believe she could have done a dishonourable action to save her
+life."
+
+He had spoken quite without any ulterior meaning, carried away by his
+memory of Toni as he had known and admired her; but his words sounded to
+Eva like a direct and deadly insult; and her Irish blood flamed
+instantly into revolt.
+
+"Toni straight!" All softer feelings were forgotten now; again she was
+the unhappy woman at war with all the world, but especially with her own
+sex. "Very straight of her to elope with another man, wasn't it? And as
+for pluck, why, she couldn't even stick to him when she'd done it."
+
+"Hush, Eva!" Herrick's brow wore the frown she hated, and, secretly,
+feared. "You were never fair to that unhappy girl; and both you and I
+know very well that had you acted differently half this misery would
+have been spared."
+
+"I was unfair to her?" Eva's voice was choked with rage.
+
+"Yes." He spoke deliberately, rather sadly. "From the first you treated
+Toni Rose, unfairly. You knew she was very young, and not very wise in
+the ways of the world, and whereas you were an older woman--very little
+older in actual years, I grant you----"
+
+"I suppose you mean older in wickedness." She spoke between her teeth.
+
+"I mean you were old enough to have helped the child instead of
+encouraging her in her foolishness," he said steadily. "But you did not.
+You preferred to inflame her mind by exaggerating her woes, making her
+feel herself misunderstood, unloved, unwanted ... oh, I don't know what
+you said, what passed between you, but this I do know. You saw that
+child shivering on the brink, as it were, of a dreadful precipice, and
+not only did you refrain from pulling her back from the edge, but I'm
+horribly afraid that yours was the hand which sought to push her over."
+
+"You dare to say this to me?" Her voice was like steel, and there was a
+dangerous glint in the Irish eyes which had once been so sweet and gay.
+
+"Yes. Oh, I don't want to be hard on you, to bring it all up again." He
+spoke wearily. "I suppose it was the sight of that poor fellow Rose that
+made me speak like that just now. But you know, you have known all
+along, that I hold you largely responsible for the whole affair, and if
+any harm has come to that poor misguided girl, I'm afraid your
+conscience can never be wholly clear."
+
+"Stop!" With flashing eyes and a stormy flush on her cheeks his wife
+faced him; and even Herrick recoiled a step, aghast at the picture of
+evil, revengeful triumph she presented in that moment. "You are blaming
+me for that affair, are you? Doubtless you and the bereft husband joined
+upon your journey down in calling me all the pretty names which seem to
+fit me--evil genius, bad angel, and all the rest. Well, it may surprise
+you to learn that it is to me that the 'poor misguided child' turns even
+now when she wants news of her loving husband. Oh, you may stare, but I
+know more than all of you. I know just where the misguided Toni is at
+this moment, and what she is doing into the bargain."
+
+She had surprised him indeed. He sprang forward and seized her arm.
+
+"You know that? Then why in God's name haven't you said so before?"
+
+"Because I've only just got to know," she answered defiantly, "and
+because although I _do_ know, I'm not going to hand on my
+knowledge--now."
+
+"What do you mean?" Her vindictive tone made his blood run cold.
+
+"I had meant, when her letter came to-night, to show it to you, to let
+you tell Mr. Rose. Wasn't I a fool?" She laughed scornfully. "Why on
+earth should I give away the precious information? You don't suppose I
+care whether Toni ever sees her husband again? I hope she doesn't, in
+fact. Other women are unhappy--they suffer--let her suffer, too, let her
+know what it is to live in hell, to wish herself dead so that she may at
+least forget her misery."
+
+"Eva!" His voice rang through the room. "You are going too far. Tell me
+this moment--where is Mrs. Rose?"
+
+"Wouldn't you like to know?" While she mocked him she was endeavouring
+to edge past him to reach the table on which Toni's letter still lay.
+Unconsciously he frustrated her, blocking the way in an attempt to force
+her to speak plainly.
+
+"I intend to know." His voice was as cold as ice. "Come, Eva, if pity
+for the girl doesn't move you, think of the man. Why condemn him to this
+mental torture, when a word from you can set him free?"
+
+Suddenly she paused before him; and to his dying day he would never
+forget the hatred in her eyes.
+
+"Did you think of that, when a word from you would have set me free? Did
+you utter the word which would have condemned you to prison but would
+have let me go back to the world of sunshine and freedom? Did any of the
+men who sent me to that hell think of my torture, my agony? Why should I
+think of anyone else now? What does it matter to me if Owen Rose and his
+wife die broken-hearted? Do you think I'd raise a finger to help them to
+find one another? No. No, I tell you, a hundred, thousand times--_no_."
+
+Suddenly the man who listened was filled with a great and marvellous
+compassion. Even now, it seemed, his wife could not see the justice of
+her fate; but somehow her childish comparison of her own position with
+that of Owen and Toni Rose seemed pitiful, tragic, rather than evil.
+
+"See here, dear." He spoke very gently. "You are overwrought. You don't
+know what you are saying. I'm sure in your heart you only want to act
+kindly, nobly, by those two unfortunate people. Tell me, where is Mrs.
+Rose, and when--and how--has she communicated with you?"
+
+"She wrote to me--I got her letter to-night." There was a note of
+triumph in her voice which made him uneasy. "And do you know what I'm
+going to do with it? I'm going to burn it--now--before your eyes."
+
+During her speech she had been edging nearer and nearer the table; and
+as she spoke the last words she made a frantic dart at the letter and
+envelope which had lain there through all the conversation. Quick as she
+was, however, she was almost too late.
+
+Suddenly awake to her meaning, Herrick had swung round in time to see
+her seize the letter; and in an instant his hand was on her wrist.
+
+"Eva! What are you going to do?"
+
+"This." With a wild gesture she tore her hand from his; but again he was
+too quick for her.
+
+"Listen to me." He spoke quickly, wild with anxiety lest she should
+carry out her threat. "You are to give me that letter--at once. At once,
+do you hear? I don't want to hurt you, but I will have that letter, and
+you had better give it to me of your own free will."
+
+"You shan't--you shan't." She spoke gaspingly, using all her force to
+got away from him. Handicapped by his very superiority, Herrick did not
+venture to put forth his full strength, but Eva, held back by no
+scruples, fought desperately to release her hands that she might fling
+the letter in the fire.
+
+Quite suddenly she found herself free. Herrick, his very soul sickened
+within him at the physical encounter, had released her abruptly,
+trusting, perhaps, to some instinct of generosity which should lead her
+to surrender in the moment of victory.
+
+But he trusted vainly. The second she was free Eva flung herself on to
+her knees by the brightly-blazing fire; and as Herrick, maddened by her
+action, bent roughly over her to try, even now, to save the precious
+letter, she thrust her hand almost within the bars that the fire might
+destroy the writing the more completely.
+
+But her own haste was her undoing. The loose chiffon sleeve she wore
+brushed against the glowing coals as she pushed the letter frantically
+between the bars; and a bright tongue of flame shot suddenly up her arm
+and ignited the masses of filmy lace which disguised the thinness of her
+once softly-rounded bosom.
+
+There was a sharp cry from Herrick, a shriek of terror from Eva; and
+then, as Herrick sprang aside to snatch up the heavy travelling-coat
+which would most effectually beat out the flames, Eva rushed frenziedly
+to the door, screaming at the top of her voice.
+
+Again and again he tried to fling the coat round her burning form; but
+she had completely lost her head, and several valuable seconds were
+wasted before he caught her finally and wrapped her completely round in
+the thick, heavy folds of his big coat.
+
+Quite suddenly he felt her collapse in his grasp; and when, having
+extinguished the flames, he unwrapped the coat from her slender figure,
+Herrick had a horrible conviction that he held a dead woman in his
+arms....
+
+She was still alive, however, though terribly burned about the arms and
+body. For nearly a week she lay between life and death, a piteous little
+figure swathed in bandages.
+
+By some miraculous chance, although her golden curls were singed and
+blackened, her face had escaped injury, and as he sat by her side in the
+darkened room, Herrick could trace in the pale and suffering features
+the face of the bonny Irish girl who had won his heart so completely in
+those far-off days of an Irish spring.
+
+For seven days she lay there, half-conscious at times, moaning piteously
+for hours together, though for the most part under the merciful
+influence of the morphia which lulled her agony; and in that terrible
+week Herrick took up afresh the burden of his marriage and determined
+that if Eva recovered he would give up his whole life to her service. He
+would endeavour to win her back to a saner, sweeter frame of mind, to
+make up to her by his unswerving patience and devotion for the misery
+she had endured; and he would relinquish, once for all, the hopeless
+mental attitude which had seemed to say that a life spent together must
+be impossible for both of them.
+
+After all, she was pathetically young and frail. She had sinned, but she
+had paid, was paying now. Every feeble moan she uttered wrung his heart
+afresh; and he longed for her to regain consciousness that he might
+whisper words of love and encouragement into those fragile ears.
+
+He had almost forgotten the cause of the catastrophe.
+
+Toni's letter had been burned to ashes, and he had not the slightest
+idea of her whereabouts; but even Toni's welfare seemed of less
+importance during these days of torture; and beyond sending Owen a note
+to inform him that his wife was certainly alive, since she had written
+to her friend, Herrick had done nothing.
+
+It was quite possible that Eva would die without revealing Toni's
+secret; and even though she lived, what guarantee had Herrick that she
+would unclose her lips even then?
+
+Although, through her intense suffering, she had an irresistible claim
+upon his compassion, her husband did not feel certain that even were Eva
+herself again Toni's tragic blunder would be repaired; and although he
+was fully determined to do all in his power to bring Eva's restless
+spirit peace, there was a possibility that she would return to life as
+callous, as heartless, as vindictive as ever.
+
+Yet as he looked at the wan little face on the pillow, he could not
+forbear a hope that this terrible disaster would mark a turning point in
+Eva's life; and then, as a moan fluttered through the girl's parched
+lips, he experienced a horrible fear that for Eva there would be no time
+for repentance and reparation.
+
+It was nearly one o'clock on the seventh night when Herrick, watching
+closely, saw the grey Irish eyes open suddenly.
+
+He bent over the bed, and found that for the first time his wife was
+sufficiently herself to recognize him.
+
+"Jim? Is that you?" Her voice was the merest thread.
+
+"Yes, dear. Do you feel more comfortable now?"
+
+"I feel ... dying," she murmured, still in that thin whisper.
+"Jim ... I'm so sorry. I've been a wicked girl--but you must forgive me,
+because I'm going to die."
+
+"No, no, dear." His heart stirred within him at the startling change in
+her, and he slipped to his knees beside the bed. "You are going to get
+better and be my own dear little wife again. There is no need to talk of
+forgiveness, Eva. That's all over long ago. Now I have only to love
+you."
+
+"I'm glad you've forgiven me." When she had spoken she closed her eyes
+again; and Herrick felt himself turn cold, thinking she were dying
+indeed.
+
+Presently she re-opened those sunken eyes, and her lips moved faintly.
+Bending down he caught her words.
+
+"Jim ... I'm sorry about Toni. She's safe--in Italy--in Naples...."
+
+"You're sure, dear?" He spoke quietly, though his heart gave a throb of
+relief at her words.
+
+"Yes. I can't remember her address." Her brows contracted pitifully.
+"But she works in the library of an Italian called Zanoni--is that
+enough? Can you find her from that?"
+
+"Why, yes, dear." He knew it would only be a matter of time to trace the
+girl now. "And you must not worry about her any more. Close those big
+eyes of yours and go to sleep."
+
+She gave a little sigh, and her tiny bandaged hand lifted itself feebly
+as though seeking his. Instantly he laid his own warm fingers over hers;
+and a moment later Eva was asleep.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So it happened that Eva did not die, but crept slowly back to life; and
+throughout her painful and often halting convalescence she exhibited a
+patience, a gentleness which won her husband's heart afresh.
+
+It seemed as though the fire had burnt out all the evil thoughts and
+desires which had ravaged her soul. Gone were all thoughts of revenge,
+of callous retribution for the sufferings she had endured. No longer
+bitter and hard and reckless, Eva was once again the engaging girl who
+had won Herrick's love; and although it was probable she would never
+again be quite so light-hearted, so thoughtless as she had been in the
+days before her marriage, Herrick was very strongly attracted to this
+oddly gentle, shy, wistful girl who gave him a new and passionate
+gratitude and love in place of her former half-careless,
+half-contemptuous affection.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Her first question on coming fully to herself had concerned Toni; and
+within a very short space of time Herrick was able to inform her that
+the girl had been found.
+
+"Is she well--happy? Is Mr. Rose going to forgive her?"
+
+"He has done that already," said Herrick with a smile. "By this time he
+is on his way to Italy; and I have no doubt he will bring her home to
+Greenriver as fast as boat and train can do it."
+
+"Must I see her, Jim?" Into her eyes came a look of dread which touched
+him oddly. "I know it was all through my wickedness that she went
+away--but--must I ask her to forgive me?"
+
+"You needn't trouble about that, dear. Mrs. Rose has forgiven you long
+ago. And as soon as ever you are well enough to travel, I'm going to
+take you right away where I can have you to myself and there will be no
+one to bother you all the rest of your life."
+
+"Where are we going?" Her weak voice sounded pitifully glad.
+
+"I'm not sure--but somewhere for away--Canada, or California, or some
+big, wild country where we can ride about all day and imagine ourselves
+back in dear old Ireland again."
+
+She sighed with pleasure; and two minutes later fell asleep with a
+tender little smile upon her lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+On a beautiful evening in June, when the land was sweet with roses, and
+the cuckoos called insistently to one another from copse and wood, Owen
+Rose brought his wife home, for the second time, to Greenriver.
+
+They had spent the intervening weeks in Italy; and to the end of her
+life Toni would look upon those glorious Italian days as her true
+honeymoon.
+
+Now, indeed, she and Owen were really lovers, meeting on an equal ground
+through the very force of their mutual love. Gone for ever were the old
+doubts and misunderstandings, the miserable fooling of inferiority on
+Toni's side, the half-unconscious irritation with which Owen had viewed
+what seemed to be his wife's limitations.
+
+No miracle had been worked. Toni and Owen both knew very well that in
+literary matters Owen would always be superior to Toni; but now that
+they were one in ambition, one in feeling, one in heart and soul, this
+superiority mattered little.
+
+Now that she was no longer frightened, no longer felt herself despised,
+Toni could give her natural intelligence full play; and when once Owen
+took the trouble to study Toni closely, he thanked his gods that he had
+discovered her worth before it was too late.
+
+What he had taken for stupidity was only diffidence. Toni's brain,
+though not so highly specialized as his own, was a very capable, quick
+organ all the same; and in the lonely, dreary months of her absence Owen
+had learned to value at their true worth the precious gifts of laughter
+and sunny, unselfish gaiety which had once lightened the stately old
+house. When Toni disappeared, it seemed as though a living sunbeam had
+deserted the household; and when, on announcing the news of her safety
+and ultimate return, he had seen the faces of the servants break into
+relieved smiles, Owen had felt, with a twinge of shame, that even her
+dependants had valued Toni more than he, her husband, had known how to
+do.
+
+Always, too, the remembrance of the significance of Toni's sacrifice
+would keep Owen humble before her. He knew now, beyond all possibility
+of doubt, that it had nearly broken her heart to leave him; and though
+her tragically childish notion of setting him free by eloping with
+Leonard Dowson often brought a tender, half-quizzical smile to his lips,
+Owen fully appreciated the love and eager longing which had driven Toni
+to that futile step.
+
+If Toni had found her soul, Owen too had gained something which his
+character had hitherto lacked; and in his new humility and comprehension
+there was the germ, also, of a new content for both of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Toni caught her breath in a sob of rapture as the old house came into
+view.
+
+Everyone about the place, servants, gardeners, chauffeur, had worked
+their hardest during the last excited weeks to bring the whole place to
+the highest pitch of perfection; and to Toni's longing eyes the
+beautiful old house, in its setting of tall trees, smooth green lawns,
+and brilliant, many-hued flowers, had never looked so eminently
+attractive, so alluringly home-like before.
+
+There were tears in her eyes as she sprang out of the car and greeted
+the waiting Andrews, who stood beside the open door. In the background
+Kate and Maggie hovered, all smiles and blushes; and it was evident that
+whatever construction a censorious world might have put upon Toni's rash
+departure, these faithful souls, at least, believed no evil.
+
+As a matter of fact very little of the truth ever did leak out. When it
+was known, as Herrick took good care it should be known, that Mr. Rose
+had gone to Italy to join his wife, who was wintering there, and would
+return with her after a few weeks spent together by the shores of the
+Mediterranean, gossip was at once checked and dumbfounded.
+
+If there had been anything wrong, said the neighbourhood, if Mrs. Rose
+had left her husband secretly as had been asserted, surely the fact of
+Mr. Rose's going to Italy to join her would not have been given quite so
+much publicity.
+
+Not only were there paragraphs in all the society papers--here Barry's
+hand was discernible--but there were even portraits of the rising young
+author and his wife, taken together in the garden of their whitewashed
+villa outside Naples; and it was decided, finally, that Mrs. Rose's
+hasty departure had been, after all, a good deal less mysterious than it
+had at first appeared.
+
+There was some consolation, to the more determined gossips of the
+neighbourhood, in spreading a rumour that the young mistress of
+Greenriver was far gone in consumption, and had been ordered to winter
+abroad; but Toni's appearance, on the day of her return, was quite
+sufficient to give the lie to that particular _canard_.
+
+Browned with the sun, her Southern colouring accentuated by the months
+spent in what was, after all, almost her native land, Toni looked the
+picture of glowing, vivid health; and when, late that night, she faced
+her husband with sparkling eyes across the rose-decked table, Owen
+realized, for the first time, that this quaint, half-foreign wife of his
+was giving promise of developing into actual beauty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After dinner they strolled into the garden, Jock, deliriously happy,
+pressing closely to his mistress's side; and as they passed between the
+sleeping flowers Toni suddenly clung to her husband's arm.
+
+"Owen! Listen. The nightingale! Oh, isn't it perfect--that big yellow
+moon--and the roses--and now--_that_."
+
+"Is it better than Italy, Toni? Wouldn't you rather be there--on a night
+like this--in that land of beauty and romance?"
+
+For a moment Toni stood still, gazing round her in silence. She looked
+at the old grey house, from which the mellow lamplight streamed, the Ten
+Little Ladies casting their beams bravely through the big windows of the
+gallery upstairs. She looked at the sleeping roses, the velvet lawns,
+the tall trees; and her eyes were very peaceful. The golden moonlight
+transfigured the scene; from the dreaming river came the creak of oars
+moving gently in their rowlocks; and the nightingale's song was dying
+softly, tenderly, on the quiet air.
+
+Slowly Toni's gaze came back to her husband's face; and in her eyes,
+velvety and black in the moonlight, Owen read her answer before she
+spoke.
+
+"Wherever you are is my land of beauty," she said, in a low voice.
+"But ... oh, I am so glad, so glad you have brought me home--to
+Greenriver."
+
+And as he heard the words, saw, too, the loving little gesture which
+accompanied them as she slipped her hand into his arm, Owen felt that
+for them both Greenriver was home henceforth.
+
+He stooped and kissed her, quietly, on the white brow beneath the ebony
+hair; end as if he had been waiting for the signal, the unseen
+nightingale broke once more into song.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS NOVELS BY KATHLYN RHODES
+
+    THE LURE OF THE DESERT
+    THE DESERT DREAMERS
+    THE WILL OF ALLAH
+    SWEET LIFE
+    AFTERWARDS
+    FLOWER OF GRASS
+    THE MAKING OF A SOUL
+
+Vivid descriptions of the entrancing scenery of the East, incident
+crowding upon incident, romantic situations, exciting intrigues,
+unexpected denouements hold and absorb the interest from start to
+finish.
+
+    KATHLYN RHODES
+    is the assured success of 1918,
+    as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916
+    and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.
+
+Fired with enthusiasm to win fame as a novelist, Kathlyn Rhodes began
+her career before her school days were ended. "Sweet Life" followed
+shortly afterwards; and the appreciation which this won encouraged the
+authoress to follow quickly with other stories. Choice of subject she
+holds to be of primary importance. With the war depressing us all
+around, she believes that many readers prefer stories that permit them
+for the time to forget it; and this she achieves by her delightful
+flights of fancy through the realms of many lands.
+
+These are the stories to send to your soldier friends to combat the
+horrors of warfare and the tedium of the hospitals; and the stories to
+read yourself to relieve the weary vigils we must keep at home.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF A SOUL***
+
+
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