he
inconveniences of popularity.'

Mark crumpled up the paper and pitched it to the other end of the room
in a fury--it was a conspiracy, they were writing him down--oh, the
malice and cowardice of it! He destroyed both reviews lest Mabel
should see her opinion confirmed, and her faith in him should be
shaken.

However, sundry copies of the reviews in question were forwarded to
him by good-natured people who thought it might amuse him to see them,
and one was even sent to Mabel with red chalk crosses in thoughtful
indication of the more unpleasant passages; she saw the date, and
remembered it as the day on which Mark had fenced himself in at
breakfast. She came in with the paper as he sat in his study, and
putting one hand on his shoulder, bent over him with a loving reproach
in her eyes: 'Someone has just sent me this,' she said; 'you have seen
it I know. Why didn't you trust me, dear? Why have you let this come
from others? Never try to hide things from me again, Mark--not even
for my good! and--and after this let us share everything--sorrow and
all--together!' She kissed him once on the forehead, and left him
there to his own thoughts.

Why, thought Mabel, was he not strong enough to disregard criticism if
he was satisfied with his own work, as he evidently was? She hated to
think of his having tried to keep their notices from her in that weak,
almost underhand, way; she knew that the motive was not consideration
for her feelings, and had to admit sadly that her hero was painfully
human after all.

Still 'Illusion' had revealed a nature the nobility of which no
weaknesses could obscure, and if his daily life did not quite bear out
such indications, he was Mark Ashburn, and she loved him. Nothing
could alter that.

* * * * *

Some weeks later Vincent returned from Italy, and one of the first
persons he met was Harold Caffyn. It was in the City, where Vincent
had had business, and he attempted at first to pass the other by with
the curtest possible recognition; he had never understood his conduct
in the Wastwater episode, and still resented it. But Caffyn would not
allow himself to be cut, and his greeting was blandly affectionate as
he accused his friend of abandoning him up in the Lake district; he
was determined, if he could, to convince Holroyd that his silence as
to Mabel's impending marriage had been due solely to consideration for
his feelings, and then, when confidence wa