ion, if I thought I were in the
least bit needful to you as a woman and as a soul, as a helper and a
confidante, instead of a mere puppet to advertise your prosperity, this
would not--could not--have happened. I love a man who would give up the
world for me to-morrow. I have but one life to live, and I am going to
find happiness if I can."

She paused, afire with an eloquence that had come unsought. But her
husband only stared at her. She was transformed beyond his recognition.
Surely he had not married this woman! And, if the truth be told, down in
his secret soul whispered a small, congratulatory voice. Although he did
not yet fully realize it, he was glad he had not.

Honora, with an involuntary movement, pressed her handkerchief to her
eyes.

"Good-by, Howard," she said. "I--I did not expect you to understand. If
I had stayed, I should have made you miserably unhappy."

He took her hand in a dazed manner, as though he knew not in the least
what he was doing. He muttered something and found speech impossible.
He gulped once, uncomfortably. The English language had ceased to be a
medium. Great is the force of habit! In the emergency he reached for his
cigarette case.

Honora had given orders that the carriage was to wait at the door. The
servants might suspect, but that was all. Her maid had been discreet.
She drew down her veil as she descended the steps, and told the coachman
to drive to the station.

It was raining. Leaning forward from under the hood as the horses
started, she took her last look at the lilacs.

CHAPTER VIII. IN WHICH THE LAW BETRAYS A HEART

It was still raining when she got into a carriage at Boston and drove
under the elevated tracks, through the narrow, slippery business
streets, to the hotel. From the windows of her room, as the night fell,
she looked out across the dripping foliage of the Common. Below her, and
robbed from that sacred ground, were the little granite buildings
that housed the entrances to the subway, and for a long time she stood
watching the people crowding into these. Most of them had homes to go
to! In the gathering gloom the arc-lights shone, casting yellow streaks
on the glistening pavement; wagons and carriages plunged into the
maelstrom at the corner; pedestrians dodged and slipped; lightnings
flashed from overhead wires, and clanging trolley cars pushed their
greater bulk through the mass. And presently the higher toned and more
ominous bell of an ambul