e meaning of life. She shrank now, as, with a little
laugh and glancing suggestively at the despatch-box, he said:

"And what do you think of it all?"

She felt as though something was crushing her heart within its grasp,
and her eyes took on a new look of pain. "I did not read the papers,"
she answered quietly.

"I saw them in your fingers. What creatures women are--so dishonourable
in little things," he said ironically.

She laid a hand on his. "I did not read them, Harry," she urged.

He smiled and patted her arm. "There, there, it doesn't matter," he
laughed. He watched her narrowly. "It matters greatly," she answered
gently, though his words had cut her like a knife. "I did not read the
papers. I only saw the word 'Cyprus' on the first paper, and I pushed it
over the paper which had the word 'Egypt' on it 'Egypt' and
'Claridge,' lest I should read it. I did not wish to read it. I am not
dishonourable, Harry."

He had hurt her more than he had ever done; and only the great matter
at stake had prevented the lesser part of her from bursting forth in
indignation, from saying things which she did not wish to say. She had
given him devotion--such devotion, such self-effacement in his career as
few women ever gave. Her wealth--that was so little in comparison with
the richness of her nature--had been his; and yet his vast egotism took
it all as his right, and she was repaid in a kind of tyranny, the more
galling and cruel because it was wielded by a man of intellect and
culture, and ancient name and tradition. If he had been warned that
he was losing his wife's love, he would have scouted the idea, his
self-assurance was so strong, his vanity complete. If, however, he
had been told that another man was thinking of his wife, he would have
believed it, as he believed now that David had done; and he cherished
that belief, and let resentment grow. He was the Earl of Eglington, and
no matter what reputation David had reached, he was still a member of
a Quaker trader's family, with an origin slightly touched with scandal.
Another resentment, however, was steadily rising in him. It galled him
that Hylda should take so powerful an interest in David's work in Egypt;
and he knew now that she had always done so. It did not ease his vexed
spirit to know that thousands of others of his fellow-countrymen did the
same. They might do so, but she was his wife, and his own work was the
sun round which her mind and interest should rev