ered by a guiding Hand, which, although
it had taken her over storm-tossed seas and stranded her on lone
beaches, had brought her safely, if troubled by the wrack of the waters
she had passed, into harbour.

Incapable of clear thought, she could arrive at no conclusion that
satisfied her.

At last, she went to Windebank to see if he could help.

"What is one to do if one isn't altogether happy?" she asked.

"Who isn't happy?"

"I'm not altogether."

"You! But you've everything to make you."

"I know. But I'll try and explain."

"You needn't."

"Why? You don't know what troubles me."

"That's nothing to do with it. All troubles are alike in this respect,
that the only thing to be done is to mend what's wrong. If you can't,
you must make the best of it," he declared grimly.

After this rough-and-ready advice, Mavis felt that it would be futile
to attempt a further explanation of her disquiet.

"Thanks; but it isn't so easy as it sounds," she said.

"Really!" he remarked, not without a suggestion of sarcasm in his
exclamation.

* * * * *

About this time, Mavis saw a good deal of Perigal. He rented from her
husband the farm that Harold had purchased soon after his marriage, and
in which he had purposed living. Perigal had long since spent the ten
thousand pounds he had inherited from his mother; he was now living on
the four hundred a year his wife possessed. If anything, Mavis
encouraged his frequent visits; his illuminating comments on men and
things took her out of herself; also, if the truth be told, Mavis's
heart held resentment against the man who had played so considerable a
part in her life. Whenever Mavis was in London, the sight of a fallen
woman always fed this dislike; she reflected that, but for the timely
help she had enjoyed, she might have been driven to a like means of
getting money if her child had been in want. Another thing that urged
her against Perigal was that she constantly noticed how negligently
many of the married women of her acquaintance interpreted their wifely
duties, and, in most cases, to husbands who had dowered their mates
with affection and worldly goods. She reflected that, by all the laws
of justice, Perigal should have appreciated to the full the treasure of
love and passion which she had poured out so lavishly at his feet.

Perigal, all unconscious of the way in which Mavis regarded him, went
out of his way to pay her attention.

One s