g dissatisfaction broke into
such a lively flame that Randolph was obliged to interpose to prevent
her from taking Nannie in hand.

"There, there, sweetheart," he said. "Don't get wrought up about it.
I'm afraid you'd only make matters worse. Better let them rest as they
are. We're not certain that it's so. Steve's a queer fellow."

"I _know_ he's unhappy!" Constance exclaimed. "It's not necessary for
him to speak. There is a silence that is eloquent; then his looks have
changed. There's something so pathetic about his whole bearing."

"Yes, I've noticed that. Poor old man! Well, we can't help it. These
aren't matters for outsiders, my sweetheart--you know that even better
than I do."

"Yes, I know, but I'm so angry with that little minx! See how she has
estranged him from us. He hardly ever comes here now."

"Oh, well, I don't think that we ought to put all the blame of that on
Nannie. A man isn't apt to run around after he's married. Look at
me--you can hardly get me out at all, and I used to be a great
gad-about."

"I dare say, sir, I dare say," said Constance, nodding her head as one
who knows.

Randolph laughed.

"I certainly was over at your house often enough," he said, "but now
that I've run the race and won the prize, I can stay at home and enjoy
it."

"Well, I wish poor Steve had a home to enjoy," murmured Constance as a
last word.

As a matter of course this conversation and the reflections which
followed it did not prepare Constance to give Nannie a very cordial
greeting when she came over that day. Had she known Nannie's state of
mind; had she guessed that the child-wife looked up to her and was so
ready to be influenced by her, the older woman, she would have done
altogether differently. It is the lack of this very knowledge that
makes much of life a mere blundering about in the dark.

She received her coolly, and Nannie was sensitive enough to feel this
so deeply that Randolph's hearty welcome could but partially heal the
hurt. This pain, however, was not without its resultant benefit,
although the lesson for which it opened the way might have come more
gently. Stung to the quick, aching with loneliness, and with a
yearning which she did not understand, the young wife was roused as
never before and her eyes opened to things heretofore unseen. She
noticed the orderliness of the home she was in, its air of thrift and
good management, and its artistic beauty. Nor was this all, for the
best of