s of his fingers together and looked into the fire.

"I think that the companionship of Lady Engleton has been of great
service to Hadria," he observed, after a long pause.

"Unquestionably," assented Henriette. "She has had an enormous influence
upon her. She has taught Hadria to see that one may hold one's own ideas
quietly, without flying in everybody's face. Lady Engleton is a
pronounced agnostic, yet she never misses a Sunday at Craddock Church,
and I am glad to see that Hadria is following her example. It must be a
great satisfaction to you, Hubert. People used to talk unpleasantly
about Hadria's extremely irregular attendance. It is such a mistake to
offend people's ideas, in a small place like this."

"That is what I told Hadria," said Hubert, "and her mother has been
speaking seriously to her on the subject. Hadria made no opposition,
rather to my surprise. She said that she would go as regularly as our
dining-room clock, if it gave us all so much satisfaction."

"How charming!" cried Henriette benevolently, "and how characteristic!"

As Hadria sank in faith and hope, she rose in the opinion of her
neighbours. She was never nearer to universal unbelief than now, when
the orthodox began to smile upon her.

Life presented itself to her as a mere welter of confused forces. If
goodness, or aspiration, or any godlike thing arose, for a moment--like
some shipwrecked soul with hands out-stretched above the waves--swiftly
it sank again submerged, leaving only a faint ripple on the surface,
soon overswept and obliterated.

She could detect no light on the face of the troubled waters. Looking
around her at other lives, she saw the story written in different
characters, but always the same; hope, struggle, failure. The pathos of
old age wrung her heart; the sorrows of the poor, the lonely, the
illusions of the seeker after wealth, the utter vanity of the objects of
men's pursuit, and the end of it all!

"I wonder what is the secret of success, Hadria?"

"Speaking generally, I should say to have a petty aim."

"Then if one succeeds after a long struggle," said Algitha pensively.

"One finds it, I doubt not, the dismalest of failures."

A great cloud of darkness seemed to have descended over the earth.
Hadria felt cut off even from Nature. The splendours of the autumn
appeared at a vast distance from her. They belonged to another world.
She could not get near them. Mother earth had deserted her child.

A super