llness in order to miss a day at school. With a leaden
heart she gazed out on the waste of melting snow, and then tried in
vain to read a novel that a review had declared amusing. But a question
always came between her and the pages: was this the turning point of
that silent but terrible struggle, when she must acknowledge to herself
that the world had been too strong for her? After a while her loneliness
became unbearable. Chiltern was in the library.

"Home from church?" he inquired.

"I didn't go, Hugh."

He looked up in surprise.

"Why, I thought I saw you start," he said.

"It's such a dreary day, Hugh."

"But that has never prevented you before."

"Don't you think I'm entitled to one holiday?" she asked.

But it was by a supreme effort she kept back the tears. He looked at her
attentively, and got up suddenly and put his hands upon her shoulders.
She could not meet his eyes, and trembled under his touch.

"Honora," he said, "why don't you tell me the truth?"

"What do you mean, Hugh?"

"I have been wondering how long you'd stand it. I mean that these women,
who call themselves Christians, have been brutal to you. They haven't
so much as spoken to you in church, and not one of them has been to this
house to call. Isn't that so?"

"Don't let us judge them yet, Hugh," she begged, a little wildly,
feeling again the gathering of another destroying storm in him that
might now sweep the last vestige of hope away. And she seized the
arguments as they came. "Some of them may be prejudiced, I know. But
others--others I am sure are kind, and they have had no reason to
believe I should like to know them--to work among them. I--I could not
go to see them first, I am glad to wait patiently until some accident
brings me near them. And remember, Hugh, the atmosphere in which we both
lived before we came here--an atmosphere they regard as frivolous
and pleasure-loving. People who are accustomed to it are not usually
supposed to care to make friends in a village, or to bother their heads
about the improvement of a community. Society is not what it was in
your mother's day, who knew these people or their mothers, and took an
interest in what they were doing. Perhaps they think me--haughty." She
tried to smile. "I have never had an opportunity to show them that I am
not."

She paused, breathless, and saw that he was unconvinced.

"Do you believe that, Honora?" he demanded.

"I--I want to believe it. And I am sure,