looms larger in the
affairs of life than the million other scraps that go to make up the
vast patchwork. But it is as well to remember that it is but an
occasional patch in the quilt, even if it be of the most vivid hue. And
there is a lot to be got out of the other patches!"

"If you lost Helena, could you feel like that?"

"In time; beyond a doubt. Memory simply cannot hold water beyond a
certain strain; there comes a rift at last, and the flood pours
through."

"Then if you lost Helena, should you feel as--as--you did when you came
here first? You were--tired of everything--you remember. You told
me--you don't mind my speaking of it?" She was aghast at her
inconsistency, but the magnet in the man was as irresistible as ever.

"Mind? From you? I have never talked to a human being about myself as I
have talked to you. I don't know what would happen to me in such an
event. I am neither a fool nor a drunkard, remember. I think I should
seek entirely new, barely comprehended, lands,--the South Sea Islands,
for instance. I have wasted my life. I have neither the energies nor the
ambitions to pull up now. I should simply seek new oranges and squeeze
them dry. There are always the intellectual pleasures, you know. I
should not be proud of myself, but I should get through the remaining
years somehow."

"There was something else--I should not speak of it--"

They were standing in the shadow of the char-a-banc. Trennahan raised
her hand to his lips. "I was in a state of moral chaos when I met
you,--that is what you mean. I do not think I ever shall be again. Even
Helena could never do for me what you did. You and I made a great
mistake, but we generated one of those singular friendships which no
circumstances nor time can annihilate. Some day we shall take up the
threads where they broke off. I always look forward to that. A man may
be contented with one woman's love, but not with one woman's friendship.
I am glad that you are as dear to Helena as you are to me. In time,
perhaps we may all three live more or less together."

He was a man of humour, but he said that. She was a woman of little
humour, but she laughed.

XX

The breathless state of Helena's affections did not interfere with her
desire to lead in all things those favoured of her acquaintance.
Although, in deference to Trennahan's emphatic wish, she forswore
eccentricities, she taxed her fertile brain to keep Menlo Park in a
whirl of excitement.