ound her like an aura, Mrs. Mansfield thought. She put her arm
through her mother's.

"Tea with you, and then I think I must go to bed. How nice to be in my
own dear bed again! I thought of my pillows on board with a yearning
that came from the soul, I'm sure. Of course, we left the yacht at
Marseilles. The yachting there was such a talk about resolved itself
into the two crossings. I wasn't sorry, for we never saw a calm sea
except from the shore."

"No? What a shame! Sit here."

Charmian threw herself down with a movement that was very young and
began taking off her long gloves. As her thin, pretty hands came out of
them, Mrs. Mansfield bent down and kissed her.

"Dear child! How nice to have you safe home!"

"Is it?"

"What a silly question to ask your only mother!"

"This chair makes me feel exactly how tired I am. It tells me."

"Take off your hat."

"Shall I?" She put up her hands, but she left the hat where it was, and
her mother did not ask why.

"Is Adelaide back?"

"No, I left her glued to Paris. I crossed with Susan Fleet. Oh!"

She rested her head on the back of the big chair, and shut her eyes.

"Only tea. I can't eat!"

"Here it is."

"I feel as if I'd been away for centuries, as if London must have
changed."

"It hasn't."

"And you?"

"Oh, of course, I've shed my nature, as you see!"

"I believe you think I've shed mine."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Her eyes wandered about the room.

"Everything just the same."

"Then Africa really has made a great difference?"

The alert look that Mrs. Mansfield knew so well came into Charmian's
face despite her fatigue.

"Who thought it would?"

"Well, you've never been out of Europe before."

"You did?"

"Wouldn't it be natural if I had fancied it might?"

"Perhaps. But it was only the very edge of Africa. I never went beyond
Mustapha Superieur. I didn't even want to go. I wonder if Susan Fleet
did."

"Do you think so?"

"I'm afraid I didn't think very much about it. But I begin to wonder
now. I think she's so unselfish that perhaps she makes other people
selfish."

"You made great friends, didn't you?"

"Yes. I think she's rather wonderful. She's very unlike other women. She
seemed actually glad to give me the address of the place where she gets
her coats and skirts. If Theosophy made more women like that I should
wish it to spread like cholera in the alleys of Naples. Madre, don't
mind me! I was really ill coming across