would be most desirable. As soon as you are well again, Sabina must go."

"I shall miss her very much. To find anybody who will fall into my ways
may be difficult. When I was younger, I used to like training a
domestic. I found it was better to rule by love than fear. You may lose
here and there, but you gain more than you lose. Human character is
really not so profoundly difficult, if you resolutely try to see life
from the other person's standpoint. That done, you can help them--and
yourself through them."

"People who show you their edges, instead of their rounds, are not at
all agreeable," said Miss Ironsyde. "To conquer the salients of
character is often a very formidable task."

"It is," he admitted, "yet I have found the comfortable, convex and
concave characters often really more difficult in the long run. You must
have some hard and durable rock on which to found understanding and
security. The soft, crumbling people may be lovable; but they are
useless as sand at a crisis. They are always slipping away and
threatening to smother their best friends with the debris."

He chattered on until a fit of coughing stopped him.

"You mustn't talk so much," warned Estelle. "It's lovely to hear you
talking again; but it isn't good for you, yet."

Then she turned to Miss Ironsyde.

"The first time I came in and found him reading a book catalogue, I knew
he was going to be all right."

"By the same token another gift has reached me," he answered; "a book on
the bells of Devon, which I have long wanted to possess."

"I'm sure it is not such a perfect book as yours."

"Indeed it is--very excellently done. The bell mottoes in Devonshire
are worthy of all admiration. But a great many of the bells in ancient
bell-chambers are crazed--a grave number. People don't think as much of
a ring of bells in a parish as they used to do."

Miss Ironsyde brought the conversation back to Abel; but Ernest was
tired of this. He viewed Sabina's departure with great personal regret.

"Things will be as they will, my dears," he told them, "and I have such
respect for Sabina's good sense that I shall be quite content to leave
decision with her. It would not become me to dictate or command in such
a delicate matter. To return to the bells, I have received a rather
encouraging statement from the publishers. Four copies of my book have
been sold during the last six months."

CHAPTER VII

THE WALK HOME

Upon a Bank Holiday S