r her. And she was very fond of Tommy, but she
was not really intimate with him. They were just good comrades.

As a married woman, she no longer feared the veiled shafts of malice
that had pierced her before. Her position was assured. Not that she
would have cared greatly in any case. Such trivial things belonged to
the past, and she marvelled now at the thought that they had ever
seriously affected her. She was changed, greatly changed. In one short
month she had left her girlhood behind her. Her proud shyness had
utterly departed. She had returned a grave, reserved woman, indifferent,
almost apathetic, wholly self-contained. Her natural stateliness still
clung about her, but she did not cloak herself therewith. She walked
rather as one rapt in reverie, looking neither to the right nor to the
left.

Mrs. Ralston nearly wept when she saw her, so shocked was she by the
havoc that strange month had wrought. All the soft glow of youth had
utterly passed away. White and cold as alabaster, a woman empty and
alone, she returned from the forbidden paradise, and it seemed to Mrs.
Ralston at first that the very heart of her had been shattered like a
beautiful flower by the closing of the gates.

But later, when Stella had been with her for a few hours, she realized
that life still throbbed deep down below the surface, though, perhaps
in self-defence, it was buried deep, very far from the reach of all
casual investigation. She could not speak of her tragedy, but she
responded to the mute sympathy Mrs. Ralston poured out to her with a
gratitude that was wholly unfeigned, and the latter understood clearly
that she would not refuse her admittance though she barred out all the
world beside.

She was deeply touched by the discovery, reflecting in her humility that
Stella's need must indeed have been great to have drawn her to herself
for comfort. It was true that nearly all her friends had been made in
trouble which she had sought to alleviate, but Mary Ralston was too
lowly to ascribe to herself any virtue on that account. She only thanked
God for her opportunities.

On the night of their arrival, when Stella had gone to her room, Tommy
spoke very seriously of his sister's state and begged Mrs. Ralston to do
her utmost to combat the apathy which he had found himself wholly unable
to pierce.

"I haven't seen her shed a single tear," he said. "People who didn't
know would think her heartless. I can't bear to see that deadly
co