t; a grave
husband, of mature years, and with means more than sufficient, seemed,
to the eye of experience, no unsuitable match for a girl such as
Monica. This view of the situation caused Rhoda to smile with
contemptuous tolerance.

'And yet,' she remarked, 'I have heard you speak severely of such
marriages.'

'It isn't the ideal wedlock,' replied Miss Barfoot. 'But so much in
life is compromise. After all, she may regard him more affectionally
than we imagine.'

'No doubt she has weighed advantages. If the prospects you offered her
had proved more to her taste she would have dismissed this elderly
admirer. His fate has been decided during the last few weeks. It's
probable that the invitation to your Wednesday evenings gave her a hope
of meeting young men.'

'I see no harm if it did,' said Miss Barfoot, smiling. 'But Miss Vesper
would very soon undeceive her on that point.'

'I hardly thought of her as a girl likely to make chance friendships
with men in highways and by-ways.'

'No more did I; and that makes all the more content with what has come
about. She ran a terrible risk, poor child. You see, Rhoda, nature is
too strong for us.'

Rhoda threw her head back.

'And the delight of her sister! It is really pathetic. The mere fact
that Monica is to be married blinds the poor woman to every possibility
of misfortune.' In the course of the same conversation, Rhoda remarked
thoughtfully,--

'It strikes me that Mr. Widdowson must be of a confiding nature. I
don't think men in general, at all events those with money, care to
propose marriage to girls they encounter by the way.'

'I suppose he saw that the case was exceptional.'

'How was he to see that?'

'You are severe. Her shop training accounts for much. The elder sisters
could never have found a husband in this way. The revelation must have
shocked them at first.'

Rhoda dismissed the subject lightly, and henceforth showed only the
faintest interest in Monica's concerns.

Monica meanwhile rejoiced in her liberation from the work and
philosophic seventies of Great Portland Street. She saw Widdowson
somewhere or other every day, and heard him discourse on the life that
was before them, herself for the most part keeping silence. Together
they called upon Mrs. Luke, and had luncheon with her. Monica was not
displeased with her reception, and began secretly to hope that more
than a glimpse of that gorgeous world might some day be vouchsafed to
her.