and she saw that he was fast
asleep.

The strain of the position upon her back and arms grew greater each
moment, till it was almost more than she could endure; but still she
held out bravely, fearing to move lest she should wake him from the
sleep he seemed so much to need. She knew also that his waking would
mean separation, and she could not bear that thought as yet, before she
had discovered the secret of success. What could she do more than she
had done to make herself indispensable to him? That was the question
which she turned over in her mind with such intensity that she almost
lost her sense of growing distress. Indeed, the distress of body and
mind seemed strangely one, the physical tension but an expression of
the mental.

It was idle, she reflected, to think of studying politics to keep pace
with his widening interests. She had only a vague conception of the
extent to which his mind had been enlarged by contact with the world,
but she was shrewd enough to know that companionship in such interests
was not what he desired in her. In her he sought only rest and charm
and love. Nor was it dress in which she lacked, unless, indeed, he
desired her to deck herself like the rich women of the society he
scorned. Just as a nurse's habit possesses a fascination for some men,
so she had seen that her little cap, her very apron, though badges of
servitude, made a peculiar appeal to his tenderness. Other men, too,
had thought them becoming. It was a dress to reveal her beauty. Her
curves were the softer for its severity, her colour the more radiant
against that black and white. On the street also she knew he could
find no fault with her. Like many a pretty woman of her class, she
possessed a skill in dressing like a lady, and ability in making small
means cover great needs, that amounted to genius. No--there was only
one thing to do, and that was to love him more and more, until a
consciousness of her love so pervaded him, even when absent, that he
must finally come back to her to stay.

The cars had long since ceased to pass, and the silence of the dead of
night settled down over the city. She heard the coloured cook saying
good-bye to her lover at the gate where she herself had waited, their
low, melodious voices and happy gurgles of laughter as soft as the damp
wind that came puffing in through the open window. After what seemed
an interminable lapse of time, an automobile went past, like a
miniatur