thought I was better,
that he would be pleased with my progress, but it's no use--I can see it
is no use! He has no hope. I shall be like this all my life. Babs,
_think_ of it! I am twenty-three, and I may live until I am seventy--
upon this couch! Oh, I shall go mad--I am going mad--I can't bear it a
moment longer. The last ten months have seemed like a life-time, but if
it goes on year after year; oh, Babs, year after year until I am old--an
old, old woman with grey hair and a wizened face, left alone, with no
one to care for me! Oh, yes, yes, I know what you would say, but father
and mother will be dead, and you will be married in a home of your own,
and Spencer very likely at the other end of the world, and--"

"And Jim?" I asked quietly.

"Ah, poor Jim! He must marry, too; it isn't fair to let him wreck his
life. He does love me, poor fellow, but no one else does nowadays. Men
don't like invalids. They are sorry for them, and pity them. Will
Dudley, for instance--he only comes to see me as a charity--because I am
ill, and need amusing--"

"He is engaged to another girl, Vere. Surely you don't want him to come
for love?"

She flushed a little, but her face set in the old defiant fashion, and
she said obstinately--

"He would have loved me if I had been well! Rachel Greaves will never
satisfy him. He cares for her as a sister rather than as a wife. If I
were well again, and gay and bright as I used to be--"

"He would care for you less than he does now. You don't understand,
Vere; but I am certain that Mr Dudley will never desert Rachel for
another girl. He may not be passionately in love with her, perhaps it
is not his nature to be demonstrative, but he has an intense admiration
for her character, and would rather die than disappoint her in any way."

"You seem to know a great deal about it. How can you be sure that you
understand him better than I do?" she asked sharply, and I could only
say in reply--

"I don't know; but I _am_ sure! I think one understands some people by
instinct, and he and I were friends from the moment we met. Besides, I
know Rachel better than you do, and had more opportunity of watching her
life at home. I say her life, but she has practically no life of her
own--it is entirely given up for others. Think what she gives up, Vere!
She could have been married years ago, and had a happy home of her own,
but she won't leave her father, though he is so cross and di