rk, remunerative and
on a large scale ... if he did not ... However, he would obtain more
work. It was impossible that he should not obtain it. The matter with
Sir Isaac was as good as arranged. And the chances of winning at any
rate one of the two competitions were very favourable.... He dismissed
every apprehension. His health was too good to tolerate apprehensions
permanently. And he had a superstitious faith in his wife's
superstitious faith in him, and in his luck. The dark mood quickly
faded. It had been induced, not by the spectacle of his wife and family
and household seen somehow from a new angle, but by the recollection of
the past. Though he often went through dark moods, they were not moods
of financial pessimism; they seemed to be causeless, inexplicable, and
indescribable--abysses in which cerebration ceased.

III

She was just closing the side gate leading to the studio when he drove
up. He recognized her face over the top of the gate. At the first glance
it seemed to be absolutely unchanged--the same really beautiful lips,
the same nose, the same look in the eyes. Had a decade passed by her and
left no trace? He lost his nerve for an instant, and brought the car to
a standstill with less than his usual adroitness. She hesitated.

"I was coming to see you," he called out hastily, boyishly, not in the
least measuring his effects. He jumped from the car, and said in a
lower, more intimate tone: "I've only this minute heard about Mr. Haim.
I'm awfully sorry. I thought I'd come along at once."

"How nice of you!" she replied, quite simply and naturally, with a
smile. "Do come in."

The tension was eased.

She pulled at the gate, which creaked. He then saw plainly the whole of
her figure. She was dressed in black, and wore what the newspaper
advertisement called a 'matron's coat.' The decade had not passed by her
and left no trace. She had been appointed to a share in the mysterious
purpose. Her bust, too, was ampler; only her face, rather pale like the
face of Lois, was unaltered in its innocent contours. He felt that he
was blushing. He had no instinctive jealousy nor resentment; it did not
appear strange to him that this woman in the matron's coat was the girl
he had passionately kissed in that very house; and indeed the woman was
not the girl--the connexion between the woman and the girl had snapped.
Nevertheless, he was extremely self-conscious; but not she. And in his
astonishment he wondered