her curiously.

She hesitated momentarily. "Not entirely, no. The woman was dead and you
were alone."

"I was--horribly alone," he said.

"I don't think it was wrong of you to marry," she said. "Only--you ought
to love your wife."

"Ah!" he said. "I thought we agreed that love comes only once."

She shook her head. "Not quite that. Besides, there are many kinds of
love." Again for a second she hesitated looking straight at him. "Shall I
tell you something? I don't know whether I ought. It is almost like a
breach of confidence--though it was never told to me."

"What is it?" he said imperatively.

She made a little gesture of yielding. "Yes, I will tell you. Mr.
Fielding, you might make your wife love you--so dearly--if you cared to
take the trouble."

"What?" he said.

Her eyes met his with a faint, faint smile. "Doesn't it seem absurd," she
said, "that it should fall to me--a comparative stranger--to tell you
this, when you have been together for so long? It is the truth. She is
just as lonely and unhappy as you are. You could transform the whole
world for her--if you only would."

"What! Give her her own way in everything?" he said. "Is that what you're
advising?"

"No. I'm not advising anything. I am only just telling you the truth,"
said Juliet. "You could make her love you--if you tried."

He stared at her for some seconds as if trying to read some riddle in her
countenance. "You are a very remarkable young woman," he said at last. "I
wouldn't part with you for a king's ransom. So you think I might turn
that very unreasonable hatred of hers into love, do you?"

"I am quite sure," said Juliet steadily.

"I wonder if I should like it if I did!" said the squire.

She laughed--a sudden, low laugh. "Yes. You would like it very much. It's
the last and greatest obstacle between you and happiness. Once clear
that, and--"

"Did you say happiness?" he broke in cynically.

"Yes, of course I did." Her look challenged him. "Once clear that and if
you haven't got a straight run before you--" She paused, looking at him
oddly, very intently, and finally stopped.

"Well?" he said. "Continue!"

She coloured vividly under his eyes.

"I'm afraid I've lost my thread. It doesn't really matter. You know what
I was going to say. The way to happiness does not lie in pleasing
oneself. The self-seekers never get there."

He made her a courteous bow. "Thank you, fairy god-mother! I believe you
are right. That may