n, and burst into tears.

He had known her hysterical--it was one of her aspects with which he had
no concern--and yet these tears touched him as something unusual. They
were nearer the things that did concern him, such as music. He laid down
his knife and looked at her curiously. Then, as she continued to sob, he
went on with his lunch.

The time came for the second course, and she was still crying. Apple
Charlotte was to follow, which spoils by waiting. "Do you mind Mrs.
Martlett coming in?" he asked, "or shall I take it from her at the
door?"

"Could I bathe my eyes, Tibby?"

He took her to his bedroom, and introduced the pudding in her absence.
Having helped himself, he put it down to warm in the hearth. His hand
stretched towards the Grammar, and soon he was turning over the pages,
raising his eyebrows scornfully, perhaps at human nature, perhaps at
Chinese. To him thus employed Helen returned. She had pulled herself
together, but the grave appeal had not vanished from her eyes.

"Now for the explanation," she said. "Why didn't I begin with it? I
have found out something about Mr. Wilcox. He has behaved very wrongly
indeed, and ruined two people's lives. It all came on me very suddenly
last night; I am very much upset, and I do not know what to do. Mrs.
Bast--"

"Oh, those people!"

Helen seemed silenced.

"Shall I lock the door again?"

"No thanks, Tibbikins. You're being very good to me. I want to tell you
the story before I go abroad, you must do exactly what you like--treat
it as part of the furniture. Meg cannot have heard it yet, I think. But
I cannot face her and tell her that the man she is going to marry has
misconducted himself. I don't even know whether she ought to be told.
Knowing as she does that I dislike him, she will suspect me, and think
that I want to ruin her match. I simply don't know what to make of such
a thing. I trust your judgment. What would you do?"

"I gather he has had a mistress," said Tibby.

Helen flushed with shame and anger. "And ruined two people's lives. And
goes about saying that personal actions count for nothing, and there
always will be rich and poor. He met her when he was trying to get rich
out in Cyprus--I don't wish to make him worse than he is, and no doubt
she was ready enough to meet him. But there it is. They met. He goes his
way and she goes hers. What do you suppose is the end of such women?"

He conceded that it was a bad business.

"They end in t