ke the idea of seeing people."

Ide, whose absent short-sighted gaze had been fixed on the slowly
gliding water, turned in his seat to stare at his companion.

"Who? Leila?" he said with an incredulous laugh.

Mrs. Lidcote flushed to her faded hair and grew pale again. "It took
_me_ a long time--to get used to it," she said.

His look grew gently commiserating. "I think you'll find--" he paused
for a word--"that things are different now--altogether easier."

"That's what I've been wondering--ever since we started." She was
determined now to speak. She moved nearer, so that their arms touched,
and she could drop her voice to a murmur. "You see, it all came on me in
a flash. My going off to India and Siam on that long trip kept me
away from letters for weeks at a time; and she didn't want to tell me
beforehand--oh, I understand _that_, poor child! You know how good she's
always been to me; how she's tried to spare me. And she knew, of course,
what a state of horror I'd be in. She knew I'd rush off to her at once
and try to stop it. So she never gave me a hint of anything, and she
even managed to muzzle Susy Suffern--you know Susy is the one of the
family who keeps me informed about things at home. I don't yet see how
she prevented Susy's telling me; but she did. And her first letter, the
one I got up at Bangkok, simply said the thing was over--the divorce, I
mean--and that the very next day she'd--well, I suppose there was no
use waiting; and _he_ seems to have behaved as well as possible, to have
wanted to marry her as much as--"

"Who? Barkley?" he helped her out. "I should say so! Why what do you
suppose--" He interrupted himself. "He'll be devoted to her, I assure
you."

"Oh, of course; I'm sure he will. He's written me--really beautifully.
But it's a terrible strain on a man's devotion. I'm not sure that Leila
realizes--"

Ide sounded again his little reassuring laugh. "I'm not sure that you
realize. _They're_ all right."

It was the very phrase that the young lady in the next seat had applied
to the unknown "Leila," and its recurrence on Ide's lips flushed Mrs.
Lidcote with fresh courage.

"I wish I knew just what you mean. The two young women next to me--the
ones with the wonderful hats--have been talking in the same way."

"What? About Leila?"

"About _a_ Leila; I fancied it might be mine. And about society in
general. All their friends seem to be divorced; some of them seem
to announce their engage