ly be spared going among strangers--'

Her faltering voice sank lower and lower; she seemed as if she would
have hidden her face even under its veil.

'I feel sure you will have no difficulty,' Sidney hastened to reply,
his own voice unsteady. 'Certainly you can get work at home. Why do you
trouble yourself with the thought of going among strangers? There'll
never be the least need for that; I'm sure there won't. Haven't you
spoken about it to your father?'

'Yes. But he is so kind to me that he won't hear of work at all. It was
partly on that account that I took the step of appealing to you. He
doesn't know who I am meeting here to-night. Would you--I don't know
whether I ought to ask--but perhaps if you spoke to him in a day or
two, and made him understand how strong my wish is. He dreads lest we
should be parted, but I hope I shall never have to leave him. And then,
of course, father is not very well able to advise me--about work, I
mean. You have more experience. I am so helpless. Oh, if you knew how
helpless I feel!'

'If you really wish it, I will talk with your father--'

'Indeed, I do wish it. My coming to live here has made everything so
uncomfortable for him and the children. Even his friends can't visit
him as they would; I feel that, though he won't admit that it's made
any difference.'

Sidney looked to the ground. He heard her voice falter as it continued.

'If I'm to live here still, it mustn't be at the cost of all his
comfort. I keep almost always in the one room. I shouldn't be in the
way if anyone came. I've been afraid, Mr. Kirkwood, that perhaps you
feared to come lest, whilst I was not very well, it might have been an
inconvenience to us. Please don't think that. I shall never--see either
friends or strangers unless it is absolutely needful.'

There was silence.

'You do feel much better, I hope?' fell from Sidney's lips.

'Much stronger. It's only my mind; everything is so dark to me. You
know how little patience I always had. It was enough if any one said,
'You _must_ do this,' or 'You _must_ put up with that'--at once I
resisted. It was my nature; I couldn't bear the feeling of control.
That's what I've had to struggle with since I recovered from my
delirium at the hospital, and hadn't even the hope of dying. Can you
put yourself in my place, and imagine what I have suffered?'

Sidney was silent. His own life had not been without its passionate
miseries, but the modulations of this