as Caroline Smith. For a
moment, as Maggie looked upon that magnificent figure, the room turned
about her and her eyes were dim. She remembered, as though some one
were reminding her from a long way off, that Caroline had once told her
that she was considering the acceptance of a rich young man in Skeaton.

She remembered that at the time she had thought the coincidence of
Caroline and Paul Trenchard strange. But far stronger than any such
memory was the renewed conviction that she had that fate did not intend
to leave her alone. She was not to keep the two worlds apart, she was
not to be allowed to forget.

The sight of Caroline brought Martin before her so vividly that she
could have cried out. Instead she stood there, quietly waiting, and
showed no sign of any embarrassment.

Caroline was dressed in peach-coloured silk and a little black hat. She
was not confused in the least. She seized Maggie's hand and shook it,
talking all the time.

"Well now, I'm sure you're surprised to see me," she said, "and perhaps
you're not too glad either. Alfred wanted to come too, but I said to
him, 'No, Alfred, this will be just a little awkward at first, for
Maggie Trenchard's got a grievance, and with some reason, too, so you'd
better let me manage it alone the first meeting.' Wasn't I right? Of
course I was. And you can just say right out now, Maggie, exactly
what's in your mind. It's not my fault that we're both in the same
town. I'm sure you'd much rather never set eyes on me again, and I'm
sure I can quite understand if you feel like that. But there it is. I
told you long ago in London that Alfred was after me, and I was in two
minds about it-but of course I didn't dream you were going to marry a
parson. You could have knocked me down with less than a feather when I
saw it in the Skeaton News, 'That can't be my Margaret Cardinal,' I
said, and yet it seemed so strange the two names and all. Well, and
then I found it really WAS the same. I WAS astonished. You of all
people the wife of a parson! However, you know your own mind best, and
I'm sure Mr. Trenchard's a very lucky man. So you can just start off
and curse me, Maggie, as much as you like."

The strange thing was that as Maggie listened to this she felt a desire
to embrace rather than curse. Of course Caroline had done her harm, she
had, perhaps ruined Martin's life as well as her own, but the mistake
had been originally Maggie's in trusting Caroline with more confiden