t get what
she wanted. The rain, that had been threatening all day, began to fall,
but her umbrella was at Paddington. She was not very far from the
Tottenham Court Road. Fearful of catching cold in her present
condition, she hurried to this thoroughfare, where she thought she
might get shelter. When she got there, she found that places of vantage
were already occupied to their utmost capacity by umbrellaless folk
like herself. She hurried along till she came to what, from the
pseudoclassic appearance of the structure, seemed a place of dissenting
worship. She ran up the steps to the lobby, where she found the shelter
she required. A door leading to the chapel was open, which enabled her
to overhear the conclusion of the sermon. As the preacher's words fell
on her ears, she listened intently, and edged nearer to the door
communicating with the chapel. His message seemed meant expressly for
her. It told her that, despite anything anyone might presume to urge to
the contrary, God was ever the loving Father of His children; that He
rejoiced when they rejoiced, suffered when they sorrowed; however much
the faint-hearted might be led to believe that the world was ruled by
remorseless law, that much faith and a little patience would enable
even the veriest sinner to see how the seemingly cruellest inflictions
of Providence were for the sufferer's ultimate good, and, therefore,
happiness.

Presently, when the rain stopped, Mavis came away feeling mentally
refreshed. As is usual with those in trouble, she applied anything
pertinent she read or heard about sorrow to herself. The fact of her
intercourse with Perigal having been in the nature of deadly sin did
not trouble her so much as might have been expected. She felt that God
would understand, and believed that to know all was to forgive all.
Also, try as she might, she could not see that her sin was of such a
deadly nature as it is made out to be by the Church. It seemed that her
surrender to her lover at Polperro had been the natural and inevitable
consequence of her love for him, and that, if the one were condemned,
so also should love be itself, inasmuch as it was plainly responsible
for what had happened. Now, she was glad to learn, on the authority of
the pulpit, that, however much she suffered from her present extremity,
it would be for her ultimate happiness.

She started afresh to look for a lodging. She needed all the resolution
she could muster. Repulsive-looking