r. "But it was only a mask. I see it now. I think there are
many men like that, perhaps all are to a certain extent. They are only
themselves to one another. No woman would ever love a man if she saw him
as he is."

"My dear! My dear!" Mrs. Errol said. "That's a bitter thing to say. And
it isn't true either. You'll see better by-and-by. Men are contemptible,
I own--the very best of them; but they've all got possibilities, and it's
just our part to draw them out. It's the divine foolishness of women's
love that serves their need, that makes them feel after better things. No
woman ever won a man by despising him. He may be inferior--he is--but he
wants real love to bolster him up. I guess the dear Lord thought of that
when He fashioned women."

But Anne only smiled, very sadly, and shook her head. It might be true,
but she was in no state to judge. She was blinded by present pain. She
felt she had given her love to the wrong man, and though it had
flourished like a tropical flower in the fiery atmosphere of his passion,
it had been burnt away at last by the very sun that had called it into
being. And she would love in that way no more for ever. There was only
duty left down all the long grey vista of her life.

PART III

CHAPTER I

THE POWER DIVINE

"Well, if this isn't a pleasure!"

Thus Lucas Errol, sitting on the terrace on a certain hot afternoon
early in August, greeted Dot, whose multifarious duties did not permit
her to be a very frequent visitor. He smiled at her with that cordiality
which even on his worst days was never absent, but she thought him
looking very ill.

"Are you sure I shan't tire you too much?" she asked him, as he invited
her to sit down.

"Quite sure, my dear Dot!" he answered. "It does me good to see people.
Lady Carfax is coming presently. The mother has gone to fetch her. It
will be her last appearance, I am afraid, for the present. She is
expecting her husband home to-morrow. But I'm glad you are here first. I
was just wishing I could see you."

"Were you really?" said Dot.

"Yes, really. No, you needn't look at me like that. I'm telling the
truth. I always do, to the best of my ability. Is that chair quite
comfortable? Do you mind if I smoke?"

"I don't mind anything," Dot said. "And I'm so comfortable that I want to
take off my hat and go to sleep."

"You may do the first," said Lucas. "But not the second, because I want
to talk, and it's sort of uninteresting