e myself in a linen collar, nor can I conceive of myself as
standing before Michael and informing him that I loved Jim!"

Jane Dalmain laughed good-humouredly, plunged her large hands into the
pockets of her tweed coat, stretched out her serviceable brown boots and
looked at them.

"If by 'strong-minded' you mean a wholesome dislike to the involving of a
straightforward situation in a tangle of disingenuous sophistry, I plead
guilty," she said.

"Oh, don't quote Sir Deryck," retorted Lady Ingleby, crossly. "You ought
to have married him! I never could understand such an artist, such a
poet, such an eclectic idealist as Garth Dalmain, falling in love with
_you_, Jane!"

A sudden light of womanly tenderness illumined Jane's plain face. "The
wife" looked out from it, in simple unconscious radiance.

"Nor could I," she answered softly. "It took me three years to realise it
as an indubitable fact."

"I suppose you are very happy," remarked Myra.

Jane was silent. There were shrines in that strong nature too wholly
sacred to be easily unveiled.

"I remember how I hated the idea, after the accident," said Myra, "of
your tying yourself to blindness."

"Oh, hush," said Jane Dalmain, quickly. "You tread on sacred ground, and
you forget to remove your shoes. From the first, the sweetest thing
between my husband and myself has been that, together, we learned to kiss
that cross."

"Dear old thing!" said Lady Ingleby, affectionately; "you deserved to be
happy. All the same I never can understand why you did not marry Deryck
Brand."

Jane smiled. She could not bring herself to discuss her husband, but she
was very willing at this critical juncture to divert Lady Ingleby from
her own troubles by entering into particulars concerning herself and the
doctor.

"My dear," she said, "Deryck and I were far too much alike ever to have
dovetailed into marriage. All our points would have met, and our
differences gaped wide. The qualities which go to the making of a perfect
friendship by no means always ensure a perfect marriage. There was a time
when I should have married Deryck had he asked me to do so, simply
because I implicitly trusted his judgment in all things, and it would
never have occurred to me to refuse him anything he asked. But it would
not have resulted in our mutual happiness. Also, at that time, I had no
idea what love really meant. I no more understood love until--until Garth
taught me, than you understood it be