and, since she
came to Venice in particular, had shown a feverish desire to fill every
hour with movement and sight-seeing.

But was she, in truth, much better--in body or soul?--poor child! The
doctors had explained her illness as nervous collapse, pointing back to
a long preceding period of overstrain and excitement. There had been
suspicions of tubercular mischief, but no precise test was then at
command; and as Kitty had improved with rest and feeding the idea had
been abandoned. But Ashe was still haunted by it, though quite
ready--being a natural optimist--to escape from it, and all other
incurable anxieties, as soon as Kitty herself should give the signal.

As to the moral difficulties and worries of those months at Haggart,
Ashe remembered them as little as might be. Kitty's illness, indeed, had
shown itself in more directions than one, as an amending and appeasing
fact. Even Lord Parham had been moved to compassion and kindness by the
immediate results of that horrible scene on the terrace. His
leave-taking from Ashe on the morning afterwards had been almost
cordial--almost intimate. And as to Lady Tranmore, whenever she had been
able to leave her paralyzed husband she had been with Kitty, nursing her
with affectionate wisdom night and day. While on the other members of
the Haggart party the sheer pity of Kitty's condition had worked with
surprising force. Lord Grosville had actually made his wife offer
Grosville Park for Kitty's convalescence--Kitty got her first laugh out
of the proposal. The Dean had journeyed several times from his distant
cathedral town, to see and sit with Kitty; Eddie Helston's flowers had
been almost a nuisance; Mrs. Alcot had shown herself quite soft and
human.

The effect, indeed, of this general sympathy on Lord Parham's relations
to the chief member of his cabinet had been but small and passing. Ashe
disliked and distrusted him more than ever; and whatever might have
happened to the Premier's resentment of a particular offence, there
could be no doubt that a visit from which Ashe had hoped much had ended
in complete failure, that Parham was disposed to cross his powerful
henchman where he could, and that intrigue was busy in the cabinet
itself against the reforming party of which Ashe was the head Ashe,
indeed, felt his own official position, outwardly so strong, by no means
secure. But the game of politics was none the less exhilarating for
that.

As to Kitty's relation to hi