e had hold of the child. He brought her out where the bank
slopes yonder--no harm done. I can't tell you how I enjoyed that scene.
It made me cry with delight."

As usual, when deeply moved, Lilian stood in a reverie, her eyes wide,
her lips tremulous. Then she stepped forward, and, with her hand
resting upon the wooden rail, looked down. There was no perceptible
movement in the water; it showed a dark greenish surface, smooth to the
edge, without a trace of weed.

"How I envy that man his courage!"

"His power, rather," suggested Mrs. Wade. "If we could swim well, and
had no foolish petticoats, we should jump in just as readily. It was
the power over circumstances that I admired and envied."

Lilian smiled thoughtfully.

"I suppose that is what most attracts us in men?"

"And makes us feel our own dependence. I can't say I like _that_
feeling--do you?"

She seemed to wait for an answer.

"I'm afraid it's in the order of nature," replied Lilian at length with
a laugh.

"Very likely. But I am not content with it on that account. I know of a
thousand things quite in the order of nature which revolt me. I very
often think of nature as an evil force, at war with the good principle
of which we are conscious in our souls."

"But," Lilian faltered, "is your ideal an absolute independence?"

Mrs. Wade looked far across the water, and answered, "Yes, absolute!"

"Then you--I don't quite know what would result from that."

"Nor I," returned the other, laughing. "That doesn't affect my ideal.
You have heard, of course, of that lecture your husband gave at the
Institute before--before your marriage?"

"Yes; I wish I could have heard it."

"You would have sympathized with every word, I am sure. Mr. Quarrier is
one of the strong men who find satisfaction in women's weakness."

It was said with perfect good-humour, with a certain indulgent
kindness--a tone Mrs. Wade had used from the first in talking with
Lilian. A manner of affectionate playfulness, occasionally of caressing
protection, distinguished her in this intercourse; quite unlike that by
which she was known to people in general. Lilian did not dislike it,
rather was drawn by it into a mood of grateful confidence.

"I don't think 'weakness' expresses it," she objected. "He likes women
to be subordinate, no doubt of that. His idea is that"----

"I know, I know!" Mrs. Wade turned away with a smile her companion did
not observe. "Let us walk back again; it g