the feminine mind. At three o'clock we left
Waterloo for our two hours' journey, and arrived at the old-fashioned
inn, which was to act as rendezvous, before half-past five.

Charmion was awaiting us in a private sitting-room, long, oak-beamed,
spotlessly clean, and a trifle musty, with that faint but unmistakable
mustiness which hangs about old rooms and old furniture. Tea was set
out on one half of the oak dining-table. The china was of the
old-fashioned white and gold order, the cups very wide at the brim and
cramped at the handle, and possessing a dear little surprise rose at the
base, which peeped out through a hoar frost of sugar as you drained the
last gulp. Charmion laughed at my delight over that rose, but I was in
the mood to be pleased, to see happy auguries in trivial happenings. I
hailed that rose as a type of unexpected joys.

Charmion was dressed in business-like grey tweeds, with a soft grey felt
hat slouched over her head. She looked very pale, very frail,
intensely, vibratingly alive. This extraordinary contradiction between
body and mind made a charm and mystery which it is difficult to express
in words. One longed to protect and shield her, to tuck her up on a
sofa, and tend her like a fragile child, at the very same moment that
mentally one was sitting at her feet, domineered by the influence of a
master mind!

I ate an enormous tea, and Charmion crumbled a piece of cake upon her
plate; then we had the things taken away, and drew up to the fire, and
toasted our toes, and looked into each other's eyes, and exclaimed
simultaneously--"_Well_?"

Hitherto we had talked on general subjects, Kathleen's marriage, the
break-up of the old home, my own journey, etcetera, but now we were free
from interruption for an hour at least, and the great subject could be
safely tackled.

"Evelyn! Do you realise that _nothing_ is settled, and that nothing
need be, unless you are absolutely, whole-heartedly _sure_?"

"I am absolutely whole-hearted about several things already. What sort
of things were _you_ thinking about?"

"Well, take the house first. It meets my ideal, but it mayn't be yours.
You must promise to give an unvarnished opinion."

"Make your mind easy! If there is one thing that I may claim to be
above all others, it is `unvarnished'. I have a brutal frankness in
expressing my own opinion. If, through nice feeling, I try to disguise
it, my manner shrieks it aloud!"

"That's all rig