rn what life means, as well."

And Meredith's learning began.

They had only been in Italy a month when George Thornton appeared. He
was young, handsome, and already so successful in business that older
men cast approving eyes upon him. He had chosen, at the outset of his
career, to go to the Philippines and accepted an appointment there. He
had devoted himself so rigidly to his duties that his health began to
show the strain and he was taking his first, well-won, vacation when he
met the Fletchers.

Thornton's past had been spent largely with men who, like himself, were
making their way among people, and in an environment in which the finer
aspects of life were disregarded. He had enjoyed himself, made himself
popular, and for the rest he had waited until such a time as his success
would make choice possible. When he met Meredith Fletcher he felt the
time had come. The girl's exquisite aloofness, her fineness and
sweetness, bewitched him. The real meaning of her character did not
interest him at all. Here was something that he wanted; the rest would
be an easy conquest. Thornton had always got what he wanted and lay
siege to Meredith's heart at once.

His approach, while it swept Meredith before it, naturally aroused fear
and apprehension in Doris. To Meredith, Thornton was an ideal
materialized; to Doris, he was a menace to all that she held sacred. She
distrusted him for the very traits that appealed to her sister. But she
dared not oppose, for to every inquiry she hurriedly made--and there was
need of hurry--she received only favourable reports.

Thornton's own fortune and prospects set aside any fears as to mercenary
designs; he had no near relatives, but distant cousins in England were
people of refinement and culture and on excellent terms with Thornton.
Breathlessly Thornton carried everything before him. Six weeks after he
met Meredith he married her.

"Why, you do not know the child," Doris had faltered when the hasty
marriage was proposed, "I'm only learning to know her myself. She has
never grown up. She sees life as she used to see it through the gates of
the park in which she played as a little girl. She has been locked away.
It is appalling. I could not believe, unless I knew, that any one could
be like Merry."

Of course Thornton did not understand.

"Let me have the key," he jokingly said, "let me lead Merry out. It will
be the biggest thing of my life."

And Doris knew that unless the key we