and carry away her cares.

Viola, made restless by her disgust of Pratt as well as by her loss of
respect and confidence in Clarke, did not lose herself till nearly
dawn. Her mind was at first busy with the past, filled with a
procession of the many things he had done to enrich her life. She was
troubled by the remembrance of the grave, sad courtesy of his
intercourse in the days just following his wife's death. At that time
his kindly supervision of her music and his suggestions for her reading
had given him dignity and romantic charm. "He was nice then," she said
to herself. "If only he had stopped there." When he fell at her feet in
the attempt to rouse her pity he had been degraded in her eyes. His
whole manner towards her became that of suppliant--beseeching the
"guides" to sanction their ultimate union. She burned with shame as she
thought of her tacit acquiescence in this arrangement. "You have no
right to interfere with my--with such things," she now said to the
invisible ones. "I do not love Anthony Clarke. I don't even respect him
any longer."

He had, indeed, become almost as offensive to her as Pratt, and the
picturesque, soulful presence which he affected was at the moment
repugnant. In contrast to the young scientist he was mentally and
morally sick, and the world which he inhabited (and which she shared
with him) hopelessly askew. Of this she had a clear perception as her
mind recalled and dwelt upon the taste, the comfort, the orderly cheer
of the Serviss home.

"We never made the spirit-world so awful. Mamma did not take such an
excited view of it all. What has produced this change in us? Tony has.
He has carried us out into a nasty world and he has set us among
frauds and fanatics, and I will not suffer it any longer."

She did him an injustice, but she was at the same time right. Mrs.
Lambert, left to herself, would have kept a serene mind no matter what
the manifestations might be. With her the world of spirit
interpenetrated the world of every-day life, and the one was quite as
natural as the other and of helpful, cheering effect. She had remained
quite as normal in her ways of thought as when in Colorow, and aside
from her dependence upon the spirit-world for guidance would not have
seemed at any point to be akin to either fraud or fanatic.

At last the girl's restless mind, cleared of its anger, its doubts and
its doles, came back to rest upon the handsome, humorous, refined face
of young