s
living at the Manor. Her husband and 'Arry were Adela's sole companions;
the former she dreaded, the approach of the latter always caused her
insuperable disgust. To Letty there was born a son; Adela could not bend
to the little one with a whole heart; her own desolate motherhood wailed
the more bitterly.

Once more a change was coming. Alice and her husband were going to spend
August at a French watering-place, and Mutimer proposed to join them for
a fortnight; Adela of course would be of the party. The invitation came
from Rodman, who had reasons for wishing to get his brother-in-law
aside for a little quiet talk. Rodman had large views, was at present
pondering a financial scheme in which he needed a partner--one with
capital of course. He knew that New Wanley was proving anything but a
prosperous concern, commercially speaking; he divined, moreover, that
Mutimer was not wholly satisfied with the state of affairs. By judicious
management the Socialist might even be induced to abandon the non-paying
enterprise, and, though not perhaps ostensibly, embark in one that
promised very different results--at all events to Mr. Rodman. The scheme
was not of mushroom growth; it dated from a time but little posterior
to Mr. Rodman's first meeting with Alice Mutimer. 'Arry had been granted
appetising sniffs at the cookery in progress, though the youth was
naturally left without precise information as to the ingredients. The
result was a surprising self-restraint on 'Arry's part. The influence
which poor Keene had so bunglingly tried to obtain over him, the more
astute Mr. Rodman had compassed without difficulty; beginning with the
loan of small sums, to be repaid when 'Arry attained his majority, he
little by little made the prospective man of capital the creature of his
directions; in something less than two more years Rodman looked to find
ample recompense for his expenditure and trouble. But that was a mere
parergon; to secure Richard Mutimer was the great end steadily held in
view.

Rodman and his wife came to Wanley to spend three days before all
together set out for the Continent. Adela accepted the course of things,
and abandoned herself to the stream. For a week her husband had been
milder; we know the instinct that draws the cat's paws from the flagging
mouse.

Alice, no longer much interested in novels, must needs talk with some
one; she honoured Adela with much of her confidence, seeming to forget
and forgive, in