ike,' said
Gerald.

'A week! How can one keep in touch with what is going on in a week?
Can't we take a little house there? One of those nice little old houses
in Westminster, for example?'

'A house, my dear! Why, you don't want to leave Merriston, do you? What
would become of Merriston if we had a house in London--and of all our
plans? We really couldn't manage that, dear--we really couldn't afford
it.'

Yes, she saw the life very distinctly, now; that of the former Mrs.
Digbys--that of cheerful squiress and wise helpmate. And, charmed though
she was with her lover, Althea was not charmed with that prospect. She
promised herself that things should turn out rather differently. What
was uncomfortable already was to find that her promises were becoming
vague and tentative. There was a new sense of bondage. Bliss was in it,
but the bonds began to chafe.

CHAPTER XVIII.

On a chill day in late October, Franklin Winslow Kane walked slowly down
a narrow street near Eaton Square examining the numbers on the doors as
he passed. He held his umbrella open over his shoulder, for propitiation
rather than for shelter, since the white fog had not yet formed into a
drizzle. His trousers were turned up, and his feet, wisely, for the
streets were wet and slimy, encased in neat galoshes. After a little
puzzling at the end of the street, where the numbers became confusing,
he found the house he sought on the other side--a narrow house, painted
grey, a shining knocker upon its bright green door, and rows of evenly
clipped box in each window. Franklin picked his way over the road and
rang the bell. This was his first stay in London since his departure
from Merriston in August. He had been in Oxford, in Cambridge, in
Birmingham, and Edinburgh. He had made friends and found many interests.
The sense of scientific links between his own country and England had
much enlarged his consciousness of world-citizenship. He had ceased
altogether to feel like a tourist, he had almost ceased to feel like an
alien; how could he feel so when he had come to know so many people who
had exactly his own interests? This wider scope of understanding
sympathy was the main enlargement that had come to him, at least it was
the main enlargement for his own consciousness. Another enlargement
there was, but it seemed purely personal and occupied his thoughts far
less.

He waited now upon the doorstep of old Miss Buchanan's London house, and
he had co