ecision, or conflict with himself. She was saving Brenda from the
same troubles, if not worse: such perhaps as seeing her brilliant hero
made into an unsuccessful struggle-for-lifer. She, the mother, would
swallow by her single self all the mental discomforts that might have
been the general portion, and, nobody being any the wiser, shoulder
hardily for their sakes the consciousness of an obligation which might
to the others have poisoned a gift, if not made it impossible to accept.
No member of her family, it seemed to Mrs. Foss, knew quite as well as
she how simple, native, and without self-conceit was Aurora Hawthorne's
generosity; so that taking from her was hardly different, in a sense,
from giving her something. You did not have to pay with gratitude. You
paid, first and last and all the time, with affection.

* * * * *

Gerald, who had seen as beset with difficulty the role of friend which
he might be called upon to play, heard with relief that Giglioli had
obtained leave of absence and gone to see his family. With Brenda over
the seas, and Manlio in the Abruzzi, the subject of their attachment and
future could fall a little into the background, crowded out by the
nearer things.

The fact became of some consequence to Gerald that in his relation to
Mrs. Hawthorne he was so largely a taker. He did not count as any return
for her hospitalities the time he gave to sight-seeing with her and her
friend; he was modest with regard to his own contributions.

He had in truth not desired to fall into Mrs. Hawthorne's debt. He would
have liked best to keep away from her; but fate, likewise character, set
snares for him. After he had stayed away for a certain length of time,
the thought would rise to trouble him, "She will feel hurt," and all
against the voice of good sense, such a reason as that had power with
Gerald. He would then call, and her welcome would be so kind, her
heartiness so warming, that he would stay to dinner, and promise to go
somewhere with them on the following day, after which he would dine with
them again.

So now the gentlemanly wish defined itself in him to show by some token
that he did not take favors all as a matter of course.

He would have liked to make her an offering a little exquisite, a little
rare, which she might recognize as possessing these points and
accordingly prize. To bestow anything concrete would have been folly. A
few possessions h