the blank that lay for her outside her married home.

But there was one person who heard all the plaints and all the outbursts
of bitterness and despair which Janet was never tempted to pour into any
other ear; and alas! in her worst moments, Janet would throw out wild
reproaches against that patient listener. For the wrong that rouses our
angry passions finds only a medium in us; it passes through us like a
vibration, and we inflict what we have suffered.

Mrs. Raynor saw too clearly all through the winter that things were
getting worse in Orchard Street. She had evidence enough of it in Janet's
visits to her; and, though her own visits to her daughter were so timed
that she saw little of Dempster personally, she noticed many indications
not only that he was drinking to greater excess, but that he was
beginning to lose that physical power of supporting excess which had long
been the admiration of such fine spirits as Mr. Tomlinson. It seemed as
if Dempster had some consciousness of this--some new distrust of himself;
for, before winter was over, it was observed that he had renounced his
habit of driving out alone, and was never seen in his gig without a
servant by his side.

Nemesis is lame, but she is of colossal stature, like the gods; and
sometimes, while her sword is not yet unsheathed, she stretches out her
huge left arm and grasps her victim. The mighty hand is invisible, but
the victim totters under the dire clutch.

The various symptoms that things were getting worse with the Dempsters
afforded Milby gossip something new to say on an old subject. Mrs.
Dempster, every one remarked, looked more miserable than ever, though she
kept up the old pretence of being happy and satisfied. She was scarcely
ever seen, as she used to be, going about on her good-natured errands;
and even old Mrs. Crewe, who had always been wilfully blind to anything
wrong in her favourite Janet, was obliged to admit that she had not
seemed like herself lately. 'The poor thing's out of health,' said the
kind little old lady, in answer to all gossip about Janet; 'her headaches
always were bad, and I know what headaches are; why, they make one quite
delirious sometimes.' Mrs. Phipps, for her part, declared she would never
accept an invitation to Dempster's again; it was getting so very
disagreeable to go there, Mrs. Dempster was often 'so strange'. To be
sure, there were dreadful stories about the way Dempster used his wife;
but in Mrs. Phipp