have who take the trouble to come and look me up."

Chetwynd passed his hand over his brow dreamily. The whole thing was
such a shock to him, he could hardly realise it.

"I hope you are saying much more than you mean," he said at last.
"God knows if you have been dull I never suspected it."

"Because I have not grumbled--because I smiled instead of yawning,
and laughed when I felt like crying, you never suspected it! Did you
ever ask yourself what amusements you were providing for me while you
were out all day? Not for a moment. Men like you never do, when they
marry girls like us. You fancy you have been very noble and
chivalrous and plucky; but what you have really done is to get what
you want and leave me to pay the cost. Once your wife, there was an
end of the matter so far as you were concerned, and to marry you was
to complete my destiny! I was to sit all day long staring at the four
walls, and if I happened to feel lonely, take a look at my marriage
certificate to cheer myself up! well--" she drew a long breath and
suddenly left her seat and came quite close to him. "Well," she said
again, "I am not satisfied--do you hear? It may be the height of
ingratitude, but it is a fact all the same. I am not content and I
have made up my mind (you may as well know it now as at any other
time) to go back to the stage. The life suits me and I am going to do
it." And then she paused.

If she expected her husband to storm and rave, insist and
expostulate, she was disappointed. He sat dumb and voiceless, his
face buried in his hands, and he did not even look up when, with the
air of a victor, Bella marched across the floor, beckoned to her
sister, and went up to her own room.

"I never gave you credit for such real grit," began Saidie,
admiringly; but to her surprise Bella flung herself on the bed and
burst into uncontrollable sobs.

"I wish I was dead," she cried. "I am a beast--an ungrateful beast;
and I have said what is not true. I have loved him always--always."

"Well, you can't go back from your word now," said Saidie; "You said
you would do it."

"Yes, and I will." Bella sat up and dried her eyes. "I will go back
to the stage; but I did not say I would stop there, and I shan't if
I'm not happy, and if it makes a break between me and Jack."

"Don't talk like that," cried Saidie disdainfully, "You make me
tired!"

CHAPTER III.

After this there was a lull; John Chetwynd observed that he had need
of