to interest
herself in such matters than they came crowding upon her. It was a
new and delightful consciousness to her that she might become part of
the power that was working against the evil in the world, and she
threw herself into the effort with spirit and enthusiasm.

Life became better for her after that. The importance of her position
was borne into her in a new and better way. By being Lady Hurdly she
might hope, perhaps, to do some little service in bettering the lots
of those who were at the other extreme of life's scale from her,
whereas if she had remained in her former position she would have had
as little value at one end as at the other.

Apart from these considerations of pure altruism was the sweet
thought that she was drawing nearer to her mother in spirit, now that
she was trying so hard to give help to others; and sometimes another
thought would come. This was that, far apart as their lives must be,
she was trying to do in her sphere what Horace was doing in his, and
perhaps with the same hope in the heart of each--namely, that the
record of the future might help to compensate for the mistakes and
wrong-doings of the past. She found herself passionately hoping that
he had flung his evil past behind him, just as she was trying to
throw hers.

Under these changed conditions, Bettina's second season in London was
unlike the first in both its object and its results. From some
unknown and unquestioned source she was becoming penetrated with the
"scorn for miserable aims that end with self," and by the time that
she was ready to return to Kingdon Hall her life had become so
informed with its new purpose that she looked forward to the leisure
which her removal there would give with real satisfaction in its
opportunity for better work. Besides, she had now in view a personal
supervision of the affairs on the Kingdon Hall estate, which she was
eager to enter into. She had awakened to the duty of looking after
the interests of tenants and the good of the parish.

Whether she would have the approval of her husband in such work or
not she was unable to guess. So far, beyond a rather cynical and
distant observation of her new interests he had never interfered, but
she guessed that the probable explanation of this fact was that he
felt that her prominence in philanthropic activities, which had been
approved by the best society, was a new way of reflecting glory upon
himself.

For, as time had passed and Bet