warning for the
future. I must be more on my guard, unless indeed I make up my mind to
tempt fortune and take the plunge--for happiness such as few men have,
or for the ruin of everything."

Meanwhile, pending this determination, Edgar kept himself out of
Leam's way, and days passed before they met again. And when they did
next meet it was in the churchyard, in the presence of the assembled
congregation, with Alick Corfield as the centre of congratulation
on his first resumption of duty, and Leam and Edgar separated by the
crowd and stiffened by conventionality into coldness.

Maya--delusion! That strange trouble, sweet and thrilling, which
disturbed Leam's whole being; Edgar's unfathomable eyes, which seemed
almost to burn as she looked at them; his altered voice, scarcely
recognizable it was so changed--all a mere phantasy born of a
dream--all, what is so much in this life of ours, a mockery, a
mistake, a vague hope without roots, a shadowy heaven that had
no place in fact, the cold residuum of enthralling and bewitching
myths--all Maya, delusion!

CHAPTER XXXI.

BY THE BROAD.

After that scene in the pony-carriage Leam began to take it to heart
that little Fina did not love her. Hitherto, solicitous only to do
her duty unrelated to sentiment, she had not cared to win the child's
rootless and unmeaning affection: now she longed to hear her say to
Major Harrowby, "I love Leam." She did not care about her saying it to
any one else, but she thought it would be pleasant to see Edgar smile
on her as he had smiled at Josephine when Fina had crawled on to her
lap that day of Maya, and said, "You are far nicer, Missy Joseph."

She would like to have Edgar's good opinion. Indeed, that was only
proper gratitude to a friend, not unwomanly submission to the great
young man of the place. He was invariably kind to her, and he had done
much to make her cheerless life less dreary. He had lent her books to
read, and had shown her pretty places in the district which she would
never have seen but for him: he talked to her as if he liked talking
to her, and he had defended her when Adelaide was rude. It was
right, then, that she should wish to please him and show him that she
deserved his respect.

Hence she put out her strength to win Fina's love that she might hear
her say, when next Major Harrowby asked her, "Yes, I love Leam."

But who ever gained by conscious endeavor the love that was not given
by the free sympa