stand her. He could understand her no better than
Toby, and as she had no use for him otherwise than as the instrument of
her ambition, she was already, within two days of marriage, bored with
him. Sally awaited Gaga's arrival with calm unwillingness. She did not
realise how rapid would be her instinctive progress to repugnance; but
she had no illusions about her marriage.

At last Gaga arrived, his own eagerness unabated, but he was still
shaken by the fact that his mother was seriously ill. With Sally in his
arms he whispered or murmured alternately professions of love and
anxiety. She was all the time secretly astonished at his devotion to
Madam, because it corresponded to nothing in her own nature; but she
comforted Gaga because it was her impulse to do so. She did not dislike
him in this mood. She felt pity for him. It was only for his tremulous
persistency in caress that Sally felt contempt. Gradually she began to
be able to divert his mind to other matters--to their own future, and
the flat they were to take and to furnish; and to the plans they must
make for a slow change of her position in the business. Already Sally
was obtaining a grasp of the details, but she could go little further
until her access to the books and accounts was free. She could do
nothing until some scheme had been made. So the two sat together after
dinner and discussed what they were to do, and where they were to live,
and how the rooms of the flat were to be furnished. It was all, upon
Sally's side, practical and clear; and for Gaga a wonderful revelation
of Sally's wisdom. He became more and more infatuated, as Sally became
more and more cool. And they talked the whole evening through, without
realising that with each moment Sally's dominion was more firmly
established.

It was only towards the end of the evening that Gaga, unhinged by
excitement, became desperately pale, and confessed to a headache. He
found his customary drugs, and took them. But to Sally this headache was
a new and emphatic indication of Gaga's troublesome temperament.
Ugliness and squalor she knew; but sickliness was new to her. In face of
a groaning and prostrate man, she turned away. Her heart sank a little.
Then, with a shrug, she turned to the advertisements of flats to let in
London which she found in various newspapers; and made notes of the
addresses of house agents. This occupation she continued until Gaga
called almost fretfully from the next room, when she