e," she said. "My dear, don't you think life
tremendously interesting? I do. I wish I could write a novel. Between
ourselves, I've tried. I had Mr. Dewing send it to a publisher, who said
it was clever, but had no plot. If I only could get a plot!"

Honora laughed.

"How would I The Transformation of Mr. Chiltern' do, Elsie?"

"If I only knew what's happened to him, and how he's going to end!"
sighed Mrs. Shorter.

"You were saying," said Honora, for her friend seemed to have relapsed
into a contemplation of this problem, "you were saying that he had
changed."

"He goes away for seven years, and he suddenly turns up filled with
ambition and a purpose in life, something he had never dreamed of. He's
been at Grenoble, where the Chiltern estate is, making improvements and
preparing to settle down there. And he's actually getting ready to write
a life of his father, the General--that's the most surprising thing!
They never met but to strike fire while the General was alive. It
appears that Jerry and Cecil Grainger and one or two other people have
some of the old gentleman's letters, and that's the reason why Hugh's
come to Newport. And the strangest thing about it, my dear," added Mrs.
Shorter, inconsequently, "is that I don't think it's a love affair."

Honora laughed again. It was the first time she had ever heard Mrs.
Shorter attribute unusual human phenomena to any other source. "He wrote
Jerry that he was coming back to live on the estate,--from England. And
he wasn't there a week. I can't think where he's seen any women--that
is," Mrs. Shorter corrected herself hastily, "of his own class.
He's been in the jungle--India, Africa, Cores. That was after Sally
Harrington broke the engagement. And I'm positive he's not still in
love with Sally. She lunched with me yesterday, and I watched him. Oh,
I should have known it. But Sally hasn't got over it. It wasn't a grand
passion with Hugh. I don't believe he's ever had such a thing. Not that
he isn't capable of it--on the contrary, he's one of the few men I can
think of who is."

At this point in the conversation Honora thought that her curiosity had
gone far enough.

CHAPTER IV. THE VIKING

She was returning on foot from the bank in Thames Street, where she had
deposited her legacy, when she met him who had been the subject of her
conversation with Mrs. Shorter. And the encounter seemed--and was--the
most natural thing in the world. She did not stop to ask he