uld admit that the suffering couldn't be helped; the
brutality of enforced marriage doesn't seem to me an alternative worth
considering. It wouldn't seem so to any woman of the kind I mean.'

Would she have the courage to urge one grave difficulty that he left
aside? No. He fancied her about to speak, but she ended by offering him
another cup of tea.

'After all, that is _not_ your ideal?' he said.

'I haven't to do with the subject at all,' Rhoda answered, with perhaps
a trace of impatience. 'My work and thought are for the women who do
not marry--the 'odd women' I call them. They alone interest me. One
mustn't undertake too much.'

'And you resolutely class yourself with them?'

'Of course I do.'

'And therefore you have certain views of life which I should like to
change. You are doing good work, but I had rather see any other woman
in the world devote her life to it. I am selfish enough to wish--'

The door opened, and the servant announced,--

'Mr. and Mrs. Widdowson.'

With perfect self-command Miss Nunn rose and stepped forward. Barfoot,
rising more slowly, looked with curiosity at the husband of the pretty,
black-browed woman whom he had already met. Widdowson surprised and
amused him. How had this stiff, stern fellow with the grizzled beard
won such a wife? Not that Mrs. Widdowson seemed a remarkable person,
but certainly it was an ill-assorted union.

She came and shook hands. As he spoke a few natural words, Everard
chanced to notice that the husband's eye was upon him, and with what a
look! If ever a man declared in his countenance the worst species of
jealous temper, Mr. Widdowson did so. His fixed smile became sardonic.

Presently Barfoot and he were introduced. They had nothing to say to
each other, but Everard maintained a brief conversation just to observe
the man. Turning at length, he began to talk with Mrs. Widdowson, and,
because he was conscious of the jealous eye, assumed an especial
sprightliness, an air of familiar pleasantry, to which the lady
responded, but with a nervous hesitation.

The arrival of these people was an intense annoyance to him. Another
quarter of an hour and things would have come to an exciting pass
between Rhoda and himself; he would have heard how she received a
declaration of love. Rhoda's self-possession notwithstanding, he
believed that he was not without power over her. She liked to talk with
him, enjoyed the freedom he allowed himself in choice of subject