ect was evidently
unwelcome to the point of pain.

"She writes to _you_?"

"I write to her! Of course she answers. I was always fond of Honor."

"Possibly. Before her marriage. As Stanor's wife, however--"

Pixie bent forward, looking him full in the face.

"I have no quarrel with Stanor's wife. I was angry with _him_. There
was something in me which he hurt very much.--I think," she slightly
shrugged her shoulder, and a flicker of a smile passed over her face,
and was gone, "'twas my pride! It hurt to think he had been _forced_ to
come back. If he'd trusted me and told the truth it would have saved
suffering for us--all! At the time I felt I could never forgive him,
but that passed. I don't say I can ever think of him as I did before,
as quite honest and true, but--" The smile flashed back. "Can _you_ go
on being angry, yourself?"

"I--don't think," said Stephen slowly, "that `angry' is the right word.
I'm disappointed--disappointed with a bitterness which has its root in
ten long years of hope and effort. Practically I have lived my life
through that boy. My great object and desire was to secure for him all
that I had missed. I had made no definite promises, it seemed wiser
not, but in effect he was my heir, and all I have would have gone to
him. Now that's over! The future has been taken from me, as well as
the past. America has absorbed him. He has already, through his wife,
more money than he can use, and the role of an English country gentleman
has lost its attractions for him. There was a time in my first outburst
of indignation when I should have felt it a relief to have had some
power of retaliation, but, as you say, that passed. ... He was the only
person whom I could in any sense claim as my own, and--I've lost him!
He is independent of me now. I can do no more for him." The dark eyes
were full of pain. "That is, after all, the thing that hurts the most.
The lad has faults, but I loved him. I lived through him; now I can do
no more, and our lives fall apart. There's a big blank!"

Pixie did not answer. Her face was very pale; in her ears was a loud
thudding noise, which seemed mysteriously to be inside her own breast.

"As for his wife, she may be a good girl--she appears to have behaved in
an honourable fashion--but to me it's a new type, and I can't pretend
that I'm not prejudiced. There is only one thing that is satisfactory.
The boy is honestly in love, even to the exten