e same way as the red rag is said to act on the nervous
system of a bull. Although she dared not give vent openly to her
dislike, Toni's behaviour towards her husband's secretary was by no
means cordial; and Owen felt a slightly bitter resentment against his
young wife for what he considered her most unreasonable inability to
understand his position.

Millicent Loder was a god-send to a harassed literary man; and yet Owen
began to wonder whether after this book were done it would be advisable
to dispense with her services. That, however, seemed unfair to the girl,
who liked her work with him, and would consider her dismissal uncalled
for; and Owen generally finished his mental discussion with a resolution
to ignore Toni's foolishness and trust to time to teach her toleration.

It must be remembered that neither Toni nor her husband had the
slightest notion of what lay beneath Miss Loder's calm exterior. Envy of
Toni as Rose's wife, scorn of her as the mistress of a beautiful and
stately house, mingled in Millicent's breast with a strong and
unreasonable longing to attract Toni's husband to herself; and the very
fact that the marriage of these two was not what she called a success,
lent additional keenness to all her emotions.

Oddly enough, Mrs. Herrick saw Millicent in something very like her true
light, with a vision even clearer than that of the more interested Toni;
and Eva Herrick, who since her imprisonment hated all men and most
women, was not ill-pleased by the spectacle of Toni's dislike for her
husband's secretary.

Very adroitly Eva set herself to foster that dislike. Although she had
only encountered Miss Loder twice--once on the occasion of a call paid
in return for Toni's ceremonious call upon her, and again during a wait
at the station for the London train, Mrs. Herrick had quickly realized
that Miss Loder liked Toni little better than Toni cared for her; and
Eva was not the sort of woman to let any knowledge of that kind lie
useless.

Without saying anything definite, she contrived to let Toni know she
sympathized with her in the matter of Miss Loder's tenancy of the
library; and although Toni never let slip a word which might have
savoured of disloyalty to her husband, Mrs. Herrick knew, with a queer,
uncanny shrewdness peculiar to her, that the girl's marriage was not
altogether happy.

If it had been, it is improbable that Eva would have made a friend of
Toni. As she said to herself now and aga