l working at
the same place; and once he met her suddenly and unexpectedly in the
street. They passed each other hurriedly and he did not see the
scarlet flush that for an instant dyed her face, nor the deathly pallor
that succeeded it.

He never went to Owen's place or sent any communication to Ruth, nor
did she ever send him any; but although Easton did not know it she
frequently saw Freddie, for when Elsie Linden took the child out she
often called to see Mrs Owen.

As time went on and the resentment he had felt towards her lost its
first bitterness, Easton began to think there was perhaps some little
justification for what Owen had said, and gradually there grew within
him an immense desire for reconciliation--to start afresh and to forget
all that had happened; but the more he thought of this the more
hopeless and impossible of realization it seemed.

Although perhaps he was not conscious of it, this desire arose solely
from selfish motives. The money he earned seemed to melt away almost
as soon as he received it; to his surprise he found that he was not
nearly so well off in regard to personal comfort as he had been
formerly, and the house seemed to grow more dreary and desolate as the
wintry days dragged slowly by. Sometimes--when he had the money--he
sought forgetfulness in the society of Crass and the other frequenters
of the Cricketers, but somehow or other he could not take the same
pleasure in the conversation of these people as formerly, when he had
found it--as he now sometimes wondered to remember--so entertaining as
to almost make him forget Ruth's existence.

One evening about three weeks before Christmas, as he and Owen were
walking homewards together from work, Easton reverted for the first
time to their former conversation. He spoke with a superior air: his
manner and tone indicating that he thought he was behaving with great
generosity. He would be willing to forgive her and have her back, he
said, if she would come: but he would never be able to tolerate the
child. Of course it might be sent to an orphanage or some similar
institution, but he was afraid Ruth would never consent to that, and he
knew that her stepmother would not take it.

'If you can persuade her to return to you, we'll take the child,' said
Owen.

'Do you think your wife would be willing?'

'She has already suggested doing so.'

'To Ruth?'

'No: to me. We thought it a possible way for you, and my wife would
like