ever loved his wife so passionately
as he loved her while he experienced, for the first time, what it was
like to be without her, in the room where they had hitherto always been
together.

Everything he touched, everything at which he looked, spoke of Helen;
forcing upon him the consciousness of the sweetness of her presence, and
the consequent hardness of her absence.

Yet he had brought this hardness on himself. She had said: "Wouldn't it
be rather lovely to have tea together?" But he had answered: "I don't
think I could bear it." And now he did not know how to bear the fact
that she was not with him.

Then he saw the chair against which he had leaned his 'cello, and with a
thrill of comfort he remembered the Infant of Prague.

How had it fared all this time, in its canvas bag? Perhaps no one had
remembered even to put it back into that.

Having hastily swallowed his tea, lest Blake should arrive at the studio
to inquire what had been amiss with it, Ronnie hurried down the
corridor, entered the long, low room, and turned on the electric light.
As before, a great log fire burned on the hearth; but he needed more
light now, than mere fitful fire-gleams. He wanted to examine the
Infant.

He looked round the room, and there, on a wide settee under one of the
windows, lay a polished rosewood 'cello-case.

Ronnie, springing forward, bent down eagerly. The key was in the lock.
He turned it, and lifted the lid.

There lay the Infant, shining and beautiful as ever, in a
perfectly-fitting bed, lined with soft white velvet. The whole thing
carried out exactly Ronnie's favourite description of his 'cello: "just
like the darkest horse-chestnut you ever saw in a bursting bur." The
open rosewood case, with its soft white lining, was the bursting bur;
and within lay his beautiful Infant!

Helen had done this.

Ronnie's pleasure was largely tinged with pain. Helen, who did not like
his 'cello, had done this to please him, yet was not here to see his
pleasure.

Ronnie drew forth the bow from its place in the lid, opened a little
nest which held the rosin, then tenderly lifted the Infant of Prague and
carried it to the light.

At first sight, its shining surface appeared perfect as ever. Then,
looking very closely, and knowing exactly where to look, Ronnie saw a
place just above the _f_ hole on the right, where a blow had evidently
been struck deeply into the 'cello. A strip of wood, four inches long,
by one inch wide,