er downstairs, and now when she
had thought it all over and had been feeling very sorry for the poor
lonely dear, there was to be another question!

"Why, what?" she asked, trying to put away unseen her going-away hat,
which she had been trying on. She was afraid her mother might think it
unfeeling.

"A very important question," answered Mrs. Hallam, dropping frailly on
the sofa. "And I'm afraid you may think it an extraordinary one. Do
you really love Hubert? Do you really want to marry him?"

Helena let go of the hat, which fell very gently on the floor beside
the dressing-table; then she went across and put her arms around her
mother.

"Why, you curious old dear," she said. "What on earth makes you ask
that? I _do_ call it extraordinary!" And she laughed.

But her mother was serious. "Don't think it would be wrong or wicked
to say no if you do not. It would be very wicked not to...." She
paused, and as Helena said nothing, she went on; "You see, darling
child, I feel responsible. You are so young, and Mr. Brett being
almost the first man you ever spoke to, except just at At Homes and so
on---- It's not too late, my dear girl, although perhaps I should have
spoken sooner if I could have brought myself to it. Girls often see
more clearly at the last. We can easily announce that the wedding is
postponed, and then you could come down home for a few months and
see--if you're not sure----"

She spoke almost keenly by now, questioning with a hope quite pathetic.
The world for her held nothing but her daughter.

In Helena, however, the words raised a depressing vision.

Home--Devonshire--the lanes and muddy fields--the vicar--the
farmyard--the illustrated papers--the picked novels--the dull
people--her dear, good mother's absurd care of her.... And then,
flashing and dazzling by its contrast, London--its crowds and
mystery--its freedom--Hubert, so brilliant and kind--those jolly times
with him beside the sea or on the 'bus-tops--the talks on Art and Life
and all the things she couldn't understand but longed to--the liberty
to cease being a fool and ignorant--the open gate to real existence....

"I _am_ sure," she answered, with a passion that surprised herself.
"Quite sure." She was not sure about love, but she wished to marry....

Hubert, in fact, wanted to escape his fond sister and a lone old age;
Helena desired to get away from a loving home and her own ignorance.
It is quite possible to fall