ir imaginations and all the changes and chances of this mortal life.

Round her chair "the dear dogs" lay--this was their practice too, and now
and again the Skye (he was getting very old) would put out a long tongue
and lick her little pointed shoe. For Mrs. Pendyce had been a pretty
woman, and her feet were as small as ever.

Beside her on a spindley table stood a china bowl filled with dried
rose-leaves, whereon had been scattered an essence smelling like
sweetbriar, whose secret she had learned from her mother in the old
Warwickshire home of the Totteridges, long since sold to Mr. Abraham
Brightman. Mrs. Pendyce, born in the year 1840, loved sweet perfumes,
and was not ashamed of using them.

The Indian summer sun was soft and bright; and wistful, soft, and bright
were Mrs. Pendyce's eyes, fixed on the letter in her lap. She turned it
over and began to read again. A wrinkle visited her brow. It was not
often that a letter demanding decision or involving responsibility came
to her hands past the kind and just censorship of Horace Pendyce. Many
matters were under her control, but were not, so to speak, connected with
the outer world. Thus ran the letter:

"S.R.W.C., HANOVER SQUARE,
"November 1, 1891.
"DEAR MARGERY,

"I want to see you and talk something over, so I'm running down on Sunday
afternoon. There is a train of sorts. Any loft will do for me to sleep
in if your house is full, as it may be, I suppose, at this time of year.
On second thoughts I will tell you what I want to see you about. You
know, of course, that since her father died I am Helen Bellew's only
guardian. Her present position is one in which no woman should be
placed; I am convinced it ought to be put an end to. That man Bellew
deserves no consideration. I cannot write of him coolly, so I won't
write at all. It is two years now since they separated, entirely, as I
consider, through his fault. The law has placed her in a cruel and
helpless position all this time; but now, thank God, I believe we can
move for a divorce. You know me well enough to realise what I have gone
through before coming to this conclusion. Heaven knows if I could hit on
some other way in which her future could be safeguarded, I would take it
in preference to this, which is most repugnant; but I cannot. You are
the only woman I can rely on to be interested in her, and I must see
Bellew. Let n