might have the effect of
destroying it altogether. For the present, the most she could do, was to
avoid antagonizing him; and even that was no easy task. She was quite
unable to decide whether it took more self-control to accept in silence
his petulance or his caresses. Meanwhile, she was thankful for the
apparently growing friendship between Thayer and her husband. During
late May and all of June, Thayer was with Lorimer almost daily, and
Lorimer came nearest to his old, winning self on the days when he had
been longest in company with Thayer.

With the general scattering of people which heralds the coming of
summer, it seemed to Thayer that, for the time being, Lorimer's danger
was over, and it was with a sigh of utter relief that he saw Lorimer and
Beatrix starting for Monomoy. Strong as he was, Thayer had felt the
strain of the past six weeks; and it was good to hide himself with Arlt
in a Canadian fishing village, dismiss his responsibilities to his
neighbor, and give himself up to absolute idleness and much good music.

He had planned to spend August and September in Germany; but fate willed
otherwise. Less than a week before he was to sail, he received a laconic
epistle from Bobby Dane, dated at the hotel where he himself had spent
the previous summer.

"DEAR THAYER,--Wish you could come down here for August. Lorimer is
raising the deuce, and I can't do much with him. Besides, I am
ordered back, next week. I suppose the devil needs my
ministrations. I'll see to one, if you'll tackle the other.

Yours,
R. F. DANE."

Thayer hesitated for three minutes. Then he wrote two telegrams. One was
to the office of the steamship company. The other was to the hotel near
Monomoy.

The reaction which followed, was a natural one. Late in September,
Thayer returned to New York, preparatory to a concert tour through New
England. Exhausted by the long strain of mastering both himself and
Lorimer, he threw himself into his work with a feverish intensity which
astounded Arlt and roused his audiences to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm. Thayer took his new honors quietly, however. In his secret
heart, he knew that this had been the simplest way to work off his
stored-up emotions, and he reached New York, early in November, with a
greater reputation and steadier nerves than he had even dared to hope.

The