what _I_ think. I have known Teresa Mallison
all her life, but, my dear, I know nothing about the Teresa whom Captain
Peignton sees. He in his turn knows very little about the Teresa who
will be his wife at the end of the first two or three years of married
life."

Grizel's hazel eyes widened with a look of fear.

"Does one inevitably change so much?"

"One _grows_!" Mrs Evans said. "How could it be otherwise? Marriage
for a girl means a shouldering of responsibility for the first time in
her life, facing a money strain, a health strain, a curtailment of
liberty. There is more joy one hopes, but there is certainly more
discipline. Troubles must come--"

Grizel threw out a protesting hand. Her thoughts had slipped
instinctively from the newly engaged couple, to the more enthralling
subject of Martin and herself, and the prophecy hurt.

"Why must they, if they aren't needed? Suppose people can be
disciplined by happiness, why need they have the trials? _I_ am
disciplined by happiness. It suits me; it makes me good. It does _not_
make me selfish and unkind. And I _am_ grateful. I go about that
little house, and there's something inside me singing `Thank you!'
`Thank you!' all day long. I'm so brimming over with love and charity
that it's all I can do not to kiss the cook on her cross old face, and
press a diamond brooch into her hand. Anything to make her cheerful!
It hurts to see anyone less happy than myself. Don't, please, say I
must have trouble, Mrs Evans. Let me stay in the sun!"

"Dear child!" said the Vicar's wife, and once again she felt the
unwonted pricking sensation at the back of her eyes. She was used to
sorrow, skilled in offering consolation and advice, but it was all too
rare an experience to meet with joy. In the depths of her kind old
heart she wondered if indeed Grizel were not right, but not for the
world would she have allowed herself to express so unorthodox a feeling.
She walked in silence for some yards, and then, with a sudden change of
subject, asked shortly, "How's Katrine?"

"Talking of love in the sunshine? Oh, Katrine's _well_! She's just
returned from her honeymoon, and Captain Blair has had his old bungalow
enlarged. They had a glorious time. She was married from her friend's
house, and rode off to camp in the wilds. She shed her skirt as soon as
she arrived at the camp, and never saw it again till her return. A
honeymoon in leggings! What would Chumley s