ease of the cottage was taken for two years, together with an
option for an additional five years, including the privilege of
purchase. So long as he was letting her go, Lester wanted to be
generous. He could not think of her as wanting for anything, and he
did not propose that she should. His one troublesome thought was, what
explanation was to be made to Vesta. He liked her very much and wanted
her "life kept free of complications.

"Why not send her off to a boarding-school until spring?" he
suggested once; but owing to the lateness of the season this was
abandoned as inadvisable. Later they agreed that business affairs made
it necessary for him to travel and for Jennie to move. Later Vesta
could be told that Jennie had left him for any reason she chose to
give. It was a trying situation, all the more bitter to Jennie because
she realized that in spite of the wisdom of it indifference to her was
involved. He really did not care enough, as much as he
cared.

The relationship of man and woman which we study so passionately in
the hope of finding heaven knows what key to the mystery of existence
holds no more difficult or trying situation than this of mutual
compatibility broken or disrupted by untoward conditions which in
themselves have so little to do with the real force and beauty of the
relationship itself. These days of final dissolution in which this
household, so charmingly arranged, the scene of so many pleasant
activities, was literally going to pieces was a period of great trial
to both Jennie and Lester. On her part it was one of intense
suffering, for she was of that stable nature that rejoices to fix
itself in a serviceable and harmonious relationship, and then stay so.
For her life was made up of those mystic chords of sympathy and memory
which bind up the transient elements of nature into a harmonious and
enduring scene. One of those chords--this home was her home,
united and made beautiful by her affection and consideration for each
person and every object. Now the time had come when it must cease.

If she had ever had anything before in her life which had been like
this it might have been easier to part with it now, though, as she had
proved, Jennie's affections were not based in any way upon material
considerations. Her love of life and of personality were free from the
taint of selfishness. She went about among these various rooms
selecting this rug, that set of furniture, this and that ornament,