"that I should not go to see her, I will not try to do so. But I
should like to know where she is. You say she is comfortable, and she
has Mairi for a companion; and that is something. In the mean time, I
suppose I must wait."

"I don't see, myself, how waiting is likely to do much good," said
Ingram. "That won't alter your relations much."

"It may alter her determination. A woman is sure to soften into charity
and forgiveness: she can't help it."

"If you were to ask Sheila now, she would say she had forgiven you
already. But that is a different matter from getting her to resume her
former method of life with you. To tell you the truth, I should strongly
advise her, if I were to give advice at all, not to attempt anything of
the sort. One failure is bad enough, and has wrought sufficient
trouble."

"Then what am I to do, Ingram?"

"You must judge for yourself what is the most likely way of winning back
Sheila's confidence in you, and the most likely conditions under which
she might be induced to join you again. You need not expect to get her
back into that square, I should fancy: _that_ experiment has rather
broken down."

"Well," said Lavender, "I sha'n't bore you any more just now about my
affairs. Look after your dinner, old fellow: your starving yourself
won't help me much."

"I don't mean to starve myself at all," said Ingram, steadily making his
way through the abundant dishes his friend had ordered. "But I had a
very good luncheon this morning with--"

"With Sheila," Lavender said quickly.

"Yes. Does it surprise you to find that she is in a place where she can
get food? I wish the poor child had made better use of her
opportunities."

"Ingram," he said after a minute, "could you take some money from me,
without her knowing of it, and try to get her some of the little things
she likes--some delicacies, you know: they might be smuggled in, as it
were, without her knowing who had paid for them? There was ice-pudding,
you know, with strawberries in it, that she was fond of--"

"My dear fellow, a woman in her position thinks of something else than
ice-pudding in strawberries."

"But why shouldn't she have it all the same? I would give twenty pounds
to get some little gratification of that sort conveyed to her; and if
you could try, Ingram--"

"My dear fellow, she has got everything she can want: there was no
ice-pudding at luncheon, but doubtless there will be at dinner."

So Sheila was staying i