ve no complaint to make about it, have you? It does its
work all right. I guarantee that it will exterminate love absolutely. It
is death to love. Have you not found it so?"

"I have found," said Rose, "that it has destroyed the love of others for
me, but not the love of me for others."

The old man chuckled. "That's it. That's right. That's why the people
who deal with me once must deal with me again. You must have one more
little packet."

"This time I want to know what is in it."

The pedlar began to look uneasy. "Don't ask too many questions. We call
it Taedium Vitae. It is a splendid thing."

Rose was highly educated, and she told him that Taedium Vitae meant
life-weariness, and that she would like to know how it acted.

"You go down the hill," said the old man absent-mindedly, as if he were
speaking to himself, "and then, of course, you come to the pine wood."

Rose nodded. "Yes, I know it. Through the wood is the short cut if you
are going to the station. The stile is rather awkward to climb over."

"You can manage it all right. You have done it before. And you know the
dark pool under the trees?"

Rose nodded. This time she did not speak.

"That's another short cut," said the old man with a chuckle. "It's soon
over. The sensation of drowning is said to be quite pleasant. Then there
is no more trouble--no more worrying because you have lost love, and
because life has lost its savour."

Rose was rather frightened. "When do I pay you?" she asked in a husky
whisper.

"That's all right," said the old man ingratiatingly. "You don't pay me
till afterwards. We give credit."

"Afterwards?"

"After the pool. Come, you will take this packet."

"I will not," said Rose with sudden determination, and shut the door in
the old man's ugly face. He kept on knocking.

Then she knew that it was only the knocking of the maid who brought her
one cup of China tea, one piece of thin bread-and-butter, one large can
of hot water, and the news that it was a fine morning.

After that there was a change in Rose. Some of the change was very
subtle. Some of it was quite obvious. Even a lady-companion with the
mind of a sheep can detect a change in personal appearance. She did
detect it, and she spoke about it with discretion.

Rose answered: "Yes, two inches bigger. I don't wear them at all now.
Suppose I shall have to when I go back to town. And I find I simply
cannot stand the other stuff. If I've got brown, that is be