woman was esteemed as a serviceable lieutenant; and her hand was a
small soft one, agreeable to fondle--and avaunt! But so it is in war: we
must pay for our allies. What if it had been, that he and she together,
with their united powers . . . ? He dashed the silly vision aside, as
vainer than one of the bubble-empires blown by boys; and it broke,
showing no heart in it. His heart was Nataly's.

Let Colney hint his worst; Nataly bore the strain, always did bear any
strain coming in the round of her duties: and if she would but walk, or
if she danced at parties, she would scatter the fits of despondency
besetting the phlegmatic, like this day's breeze the morning fog; or as
he did with two minutes of the stretch of legs.

Full of the grandeur of that black pit of the benighted London, with its
ocean-voice of the heart at beat along the lighted outer ring, Victor
entered at his old door of the two houses he had knocked into one: a
surprise for Fredi!--and heard that his girl had arrived in the morning.

'And could no more endure her absence from her Mammy O!' The songful
satirical line spouted in him, to be flung at his girl, as he ran
upstairs to the boudoir off the drawing-room.

He peeped in. It was dark. Sensible of presences, he gradually discerned
a thick blot along the couch to the right of the door, and he drew near.
Two were lying folded together; mother and daughter. He bent over them.
His hand was taken and pressed by Fredi's; she spoke; she said tenderly:
'Father.' Neither of the two made a movement. He heard the shivering rise
of a sob, that fell. The dry sob going to the waste breath was Nataly's.
His girl did not speak again.

He left them. He had no thought until he stood in his dressing-room, when
he said 'Good!' For those two must have been lying folded together during
the greater part of the day: and it meant, that the mother's heart had
opened; the girl knew. Her tone: 'Father,' sweet, was heavy, too, with
the darkness it came out of.

So she knew. Good. He clasped them both in his heart; tempering his pity
of those dear ones with the thought, that they were of the sex which
finds enjoyment in a day of the mutual tear; and envying them; he
strained at a richness appearing in the sobs of their close union.

All of his girl's loving soul flew to her mother; and naturally: She
would not be harsh on her father. She would say he loved! And true: he
did love, he does love; loves no woman but the dear mo