let herself be led upstairs. She yielded to his arm,
sobbing in short exhausted gasps, and leaning her whole weight on him as
he guided her along the passage to her bedroom. On the lounge to which
he lowered her she lay white and still, tears trickling through her
lashes and her handkerchief pressed against her lips. He recognized the
symptoms with a sinking heart: she was on the verge of a nervous attack
such as she had had in the winter, and he foresaw with dismay the
disastrous train of consequences, the doctors' and nurses' bills, and
all the attendant confusion and expense. If only Moffatt's project might
be realized--if for once he could feel a round sum in his pocket, and be
freed from the perpetual daily strain!

The next morning Undine, though calmer, was too weak to leave her bed,
and her doctor prescribed rest and absence of worry--later, perhaps, a
change of scene. He explained to Ralph that nothing was so wearing to
a high-strung nature as monotony, and that if Mrs. Marvell were
contemplating a Newport season it was necessary that she should be
fortified to meet it. In such cases he often recommended a dash to Paris
or London, just to tone up the nervous system.

Undine regained her strength slowly, and as the days dragged on the
suggestion of the European trip recurred with increasing frequency. But
it came always from her medical adviser: she herself had grown strangely
passive and indifferent. She continued to remain upstairs on her lounge,
seeing no one but Mrs. Heeny, whose daily ministrations had once more
been prescribed, and asking only that the noise of Paul's play should be
kept from her. His scamperings overhead disturbed her sleep, and his bed
was moved into the day nursery, above his father's room. The child's
early romping did not trouble Ralph, since he himself was always awake
before daylight. The days were not long enough to hold his cares, and
they came and stood by him through the silent hours, when there was no
other sound to drown their voices.

Ralph had not made a success of his business. The real-estate brokers
who had taken him into partnership had done so only with the hope of
profiting by his social connections; and in this respect the alliance
had been a failure. It was in such directions that he most lacked
facility, and so far he had been of use to his partners only as an
office-drudge. He was resigned to the continuance of such drudgery,
though all his powers cried out agai