rs was delicious sense. The veritable Katrine
revealed herself more therein than in any letter I have yet received.
And your little discourse on tenderness--that touched me! It is a
quality which, as you say, is wanting in the love of many men, and the
lack of it leaves a record on the faces of weary women. But, after all,
you know, the doing or undoing, whichever you choose to call it, is in
the main the fault of some other woman in the past! Why do mothers
spoil their boys instead of training them in the small domestic
kindnesses and attentions which will be so valuable later on? If I had
a son... upon my life I believe I'd spoil him too!

"Seriously though, Katrine, it must be pre-eminently tenderness which is
filling my heart today, for I _can_ imagine; I _can_ understand! I am
so sorry for you, poor, puzzled girl! Is that a good augury for the
future?

"I shall come in to see you at the Middleton bungalow the day you
arrive. No club meetings for me. Just an hour or two for rest and
refreshment, and then--enter Jim Blair! Poor little girl, are you
trembling in your shoes? If only I could convince you of my sincerity!
Was it for nothing, Katrine, that my heart went out to you across the
seas; was it for nothing that my cry touched your heart; was it for
nothing that after years of block and difficulty, the way was opened out
which brings you here to me? Go on in faith for one week longer!

"Jim Blair."

The letter fell from Katrine's hands and fluttered to the ground. She
hid her face in her hands.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

The delight and excitement which is felt by most travellers on a first
introduction to the East was dimmed in Katrine's case by the pressure of
events past and to come. The shadow of death had loomed too recently to
be easily repelled. The thought of what might have been pierced
knife-like through the thankfulness for what was, and recovered life
seemed a frail and dream-like treasure hardly as yet to be realised.

Katrine found some comfort in the fact that she was not alone in
absent-mindedness and lack of appreciation, since Nancy Mannering also
was far from her normal self. She was restless, and on edge; at once
excited and reserved, affectionate and chilling. She would sit through
a whole meal in silence, and leave the table chuckling with laughter.
She would drag Katrine out for drives through the hot, bright streets,
play the part of show-woman with exaggerated fer