ged by degrees since his
marriage. His pride made him more formal with the woman to whom he owed
so much, and she felt that she could do nothing to break down the
barrier which was slowly rising between them. She suffered, in her way,
for she was far more sincerely attached to the man than she recognized,
or perhaps would have been willing to recognize, when she allowed
herself to look the situation fairly in the face. For months she
struggled against anything which could make her regret the marriage she
had made. But at last she admitted the fact that she regretted it, for
it thrust itself upon her and embittered her own life. Then she became
conscious in her heart of a silent and growing enmity for Gloria, and of
a profound pity for Angelo Reanda. Being ashamed of the enmity, as
something both sinful in her eyes, and beneath the nobility of her
nature, she expressed it, if that were expression, by allowing her pity
for the man to assert itself as it would. That, she told herself, was a
form of charity, and could not be wrong, however she looked at it.

All mention of Gloria vanished from her conversation with Reanda when
they were alone together. At such times she did her best to amuse him,
to interest him, and to take him out of himself. At first she had little
success. He answered her, and sometimes even entered into an argument
with her, but as soon as the subject dropped, she saw the look of
harassed preoccupation returning in his face. So far as his work was
concerned, what he did was as good as ever. Francesca thought it was
even better. But otherwise he was a changed man.

In the course of the winter Paul Griggs returned. One day Francesca was
sitting in the hall with Reanda, when a servant announced that Griggs
had asked to see her. She glanced at Reanda's face, and instantly
decided to receive the American alone in the drawing-room, on the other
side of the house.

"Why do you not receive him here?" asked Reanda, carelessly.

"Because--" she hesitated. "I should rather see him in the
drawing-room," she added a moment later, without giving any further
explanation.

Griggs told her that he had come back to stay through the year and
perhaps longer. She took a kindly interest in the young man, and was
glad to hear that he had improved his position and prospects during his
absence. He rarely found sympathy anywhere, and indeed needed very
little of it. But he was capable of impulse, and he had long ago decide