liment. You have a wonderful charm, of which you are
unconscious. It has made life very easy for you--but it has
responsibilities too. You must not create a situation, and then abandon
it. You must not disappoint people. I know, of course, only too well,
that charm in itself largely depends on a tranquil mind; and it is
difficult to exercise it when one is sad and unhappy; but let me say
that unhappiness does not deprive YOU of this power. Does it seem
impossible to you to believe that I have loved you far better, and in a
way which I could not have thought possible, in these last weeks, when
I have seen you were unhappy? You do not abandon yourself to
depression; you make an effort; you recognise other people's rights to
be happy, not to be clouded by your own unhappiness; and you have done
more to attach us all to you in these days than before, when you were
perhaps more conscious of being liked. Liking is not loving, Howard.
There is no pain about liking; there is infinite pain about loving;
that is because it is life, and not mere existence."

"Ah," said Howard, "I am indeed grateful to you for speaking to me
thus--you have lifted my spirit a little out of the mire. But I can't
be rescued so easily. I shall have a burden to bear for some time
yet--I see no end to it at present: and it is indeed my own foolish
trifling with life that has brought it on me. But, dearest aunt, you
can't help me just now. Let me be silent a little longer. I shall soon,
I think, be able to speak, and then I will tell you all; and meanwhile
it will be a comfort to me to think that you feel for me and about me
as you do. I don't want to indulge in self-pity--I have not done that.
There is nothing unjust in what has happened to me, nothing
intolerable, no specific ill-will. I have just stumbled upon one of the
big troubles of life, suddenly and unexpectedly, and I am not prepared
for it by any practice or discipline. But I shall get through, don't be
afraid--and presently I will tell you everything." He took his aunt's
hand in his own, and kissed her on the cheek.

"God bless you, dear boy!" she said; "I won't press you to speak; and
you will know that I have you in mind now and always, with infinite
hope and love."

XX

HIGHMINDEDNESS

Howard on thinking over this conversation was somewhat bewildered as to
what exactly was in his aunt's mind. He did not think that she
understood his feeling for Maud, and he was sure that she d