looking on while you
enjoy. What form does it take--this presentiment of yours? Have you
any definite idea of what is to happen--or when?"

Vanna shook her head.

"Nothing! I only know that the moment I opened my eyes and looked round
I felt a throb of--not surprise, something bigger than surprise, and a
quite extraordinary rush of happiness and hope. Things have not been
cheery with me of late, so it is all the more striking. I feel about
ten years younger than when I left the house."

He looked at her searchingly, and Vanna entered it to his credit that he
spared her the obvious flattering retort. Instead, his own expression
seemed to cloud; he leant his arms on his knees and, bending forward,
stared gloomily into space.

"What sports of circumstances we are! I was looking round the table at
lunch to-day and puzzling for the hundredth time over the question of
temperament. Does it interest you at all? Do you find it a difficulty?
Why are some of us born into the world handicapped with temperaments
which hold us in chains all our days, and others with some natural charm
or quality of mind which acts as an open sesame wherever they go? Look
at Miggles! A plain, lonely old woman, without a sou. If she had been
born with a `difficult' temper, she might have worked, and slaved, and
fought with evil passions, and gone to bed every night of her life
wearied out with the stress of battle, and when the need of her was
past, her employers would have heaved a sigh of relief, and packed her
off with a year's salary. Can't you hear her requiem? `a good creature,
most painstaking--what a relief to be alone!' But Miggles! No sane
creature would willingly send her away. You would as soon brick up
windows to keep out the sun. She radiates happiness and content,
without--this is the point--without effort on her own part! The effort
to her would be to grumble and be disagreeable, yet she receives all the
credit and appreciation which she would have more truly deserved in the
other case. And Jean! Look at Jean! Honestly--we are both her devoted
slaves--but honestly, is it by any virtue of her own? Does she reign by
merit or by chance?"

Vanna smiled.

"I know what you mean. Jean is charming, but it is easier for her to be
charming than for most people. Every glance in the glass must be as
reviving as a tonic. She has no difficulty in making friends, for
people advance three quarters of the way to meet her;