ing a call, after his return
from Paris, it struck him that her husband offered no very genial
welcome. He had expected this, and willingly kept aloof.

"Read the letter."

Eve did so. It began, "My dear Maurice," and ended, "Ever
affectionately and gratefully yours." The rest of its contents ran thus:

"I am in great trouble--dreadfully unhappy. It would be such a kindness
if you would let me see you. I can't put in a letter what I want to
say, and I do hope you won't refuse to come. Friday afternoon, at
three, would do, if you can get away from business for once. How I look
back on the days when you used to come over from Dudley and have tea
with us in the dear little room. Do come!"

"Of course," said Hilliard, laughing as he met Eve's surprised look. "I
knew what _that_ meant. I would much rather have got out of it, but it
would have seemed brutal. So I went. The poor simpleton has begun to
find that marriage with one man isn't necessarily the same thing as
marriage with another. In Ezra Marr she has caught a Tartar."

"Surely he doesn't ill-use her?"

"Not a bit of it. He is simply a man with a will, and finds it
necessary to teach his wife her duties. Emily knows no more about the
duties of life than her little five-year-old girl. She thought she
could play with a second husband as she did with the first, and she was
gravely mistaken. She complained to me of a thousand acts of
tyranny--every one of them, I could see, merely a piece of rude
commonsense. The man must be calling himself an idiot for marrying her.
I could only listen with a long face. Argument with Emily is out of the
question. And I shall take good care not to go there again."

Eve asked many questions, and approved his resolve.

"You are not the person to console and instruct her. But she must look
upon you as the best and wisest of men. I can understand that."

"You can understand poor, foolish Emily thinking so----"

"Put all the meaning you like into my words," said Eve, with her
pleasantest smile. "Well, I too have had a letter. From Patty. She
isn't going to be married, after all."

"Why, I thought it was over by now."

"She broke it off less than a week before the day. I wish I could show
you her letter, but, of course, I mustn't. It's very amusing. They had
quarrelled about every conceivable thing--all but one, and this came up
at last. They were talking about meals, and Mr. Dally said that he
liked a bloater for breakfast every