he found great difficulty in assimilating it. And two hours later Lucy, standing in the middle of the drawing-room, was still passionately saying to

h living things again and somebody who sympathises and-is fond of him, he would die, die or go mad; and oh,

ce, continued to assimilate with difficulty. Also her face

he understood, and so be, as she was, filled with confidence and happiness. Not that she was happy at that moment; she, too, was seriously up

t Lucy should be mixed up in it, and mixed up so instantly on the death of her of her natural protector,-of her two natural protectors, for hadn't Mrs. Wemyss as long as she existed also been one? She was bewildered, and couldn't understand the violent reactions that Lucy appeared to look upon as so natural in Wemyss. She would have concl

whistle said this. 'He had to forget, or die himself.

whistle, more and more puckered, 'but I can't help wishing

eating with a kind of stubborn helplessness, that her quarr

trousers,' s

e middle of the room with all the blaze and emotion of what was only too evidently genuine love, was to her aunt an a

d disturbing light, and that now that she knew everything, and the doubts that had made her perhaps be a little unjust were out of the way and she could begin to consider him impartially, she would probably very soon become sincerely

shocked at a touch of naked naturalness? Wasn't there much in what that short-haired child was so passionately saying about the rightness, the saneness, of reaction from horror? Wasn't it nature's own protection against too m

-there were the decencies. However desolate one would be in retirement, however much one would suffer, there was a perio

wasn't just being bereaved-this was something simply too awful. Of course Eve

said Miss Entwhistle, the remembrance of the light trousers at one end of Wemyss a

at that, and her head dro

. 'That was just stupid and cruel. I think I'm hide-bound. I think I've probably

face tenderly, holdin

ou see,' said Lucy, clingin

y much,' said Miss Entwhistle gentl

t five o'clock, it being his bi-weekl

g round the drawing-room as though Miss

said Lucy, wh

. 'Everard's own little love,' he said, kissing a

as, however, so much muffled and engul

ding her tight. 'Isn't this as it should be? Ju

-' began L

nding his ear. 'Yes without any but, you precious

r quite a long time before Lucy succeeded in

might think. 'Who cares?' he said, drawing her to his heart again. 'Who cares? We've got each other. What does

did matter so long as he was there. But the difficulty was that he wasn't there most of the

the least mind not understanding. Aunts. What were they? Insects. He laughed, and said his little love couldn't have it both ways; she couldn't eat her cake, which was her Everard, and have it too, which was her aunt; and he

e upset by what she read in the afternoon. Lucy hadn't mentioned that suggestion of suicide. Perhaps he hadn't told her. Suicide. Well, there had been no evidence. There was an open verdict. It had been a suggestion made by a servant, perhaps a servant

utmost, trying to think. Suicide. How desolate it sounded on that beautiful afternoon. Such a giving up. Such a defeat. Why should she have

ow, it is a long way from the British Museum to Eaton Terrace. Also it was a hot day and her feet ached, and she very much would have liked to be in her own chair in her cool drawing-room having her tea. But there in that drawing-room would probably still be Mr. Wemyss, no longer now to be Mr. Wemyss for her-woul

lornly watching the sparrows inside the garden railings of Belgrave Squa

, she felt it wouldn't have been too small. He would have made love youthfully, shyly. She could have sat quite happily in the dining-room while the suitably paired young people dallied delicately together overhead. But she couldn't bear the thought of being cramped up s

ane Street. There she saw an omnibus stopping to let some one out. Wanting very much to sit down she made an e

thes became steadily more fashionable the farther the omnibus went. She ended by being conspicuous and star

hen it finally stopped she sat still; and the conductor, who had gradually come to share the gr

e wanted Sl

ried to reason with her, but she s

peared into the darkness with the movements of one who is stiff, and

rself in with her latchkey, she felt it had been well worth it;