l
smiling, and with his hat on his knee, perhaps really happier because he
had not seen her, was driven East, once more passing George Pendyce in
the bow-window of the Stoics' Club, and once more raising on his face a
jeering smile.

He had been back at his rooms in Buckingham Street half an hour when a
club commissionaire arrived with Mr. Paramor's promised letter.

He opened it hastily.

"THE NELSON CLUB,
"TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
"MY DEAR VIGIL,

"I've just come from seeing your ward. An embarrassing complexion is
lent to affairs by what took place last night. It appears that after
your visit to him yesterday afternoon her husband came up to town, and
made his appearance at her flat about eleven o'clock. He was in a
condition bordering on delirium tremens, and Mrs. Bellew was obliged to
keep him for the night. 'I could not,' she said to me, 'have refused a
dog in such a state.' The visit lasted until this afternoon--in fact,
the man had only just gone when I arrived. It is a piece of irony, of
which I must explain to you the importance. I think I told you that the
law of divorce is based on certain principles. One of these excludes any
forgiveness of offences by the party moving for a divorce. In technical
language, any such forgiveness or overlooking is called condonation, and
it is a complete bar to further action for the time being. The Court is
very jealous of this principle of non-forgiveness, and will regard with
grave suspicion any conduct on the part of the offended party which might
be construed as amounting to condonation. I fear that what your ward
tells me will make it altogether inadvisable to apply for a divorce on
any evidence that may lie in the past. It is too dangerous. In other
words, the Court would almost certainly consider that she has condoned
offences so far. Any further offence, however, will in technical
language 'revive' the past, and under these circumstances, though nothing
can be done at present, there may be hope in the future. After seeing
your ward, I quite appreciate your anxiety in the matter, though I am by
no means sure that you are right in advising this divorce. If you remain
in the same mind, however, I will give the matter my best personal
attention, and my counsel to you is not to worry. This is no matter for
a layman, especially not for one who, like you, judges of things rather
as they ought to