must explain how the misunderstanding--'

Rapidly she recounted the incidents of that fatal Saturday afternoon.
At the conclusion her self-command was again overcome; she shed tears,
and murmured broken entreaties for kindness.

'What shall I do, Miss Nunn? How can I live until--? I know it's only
for a short time. My wretched life will soon be at an end--'

'Monica--there is one thing you must remember.'

The voice was so gentle, though firm--so unlike what she had expected
to hear--that the sufferer looked up with grateful attention.

'Tell me--give me what help you can.'

'Life seems so bitter to you that you are in despair. Yet isn't it your
duty to live as though some hope were before you?'

Monica gazed in uncertainty.

'You mean--' she faltered.

'I think you will understand. I am not speaking of your husband.
Whether you have duties to him or not I can't say; that is for your own
mind and heart to determine. But isn't it true that your health has a
graver importance than if you yourself only were concerned?'

'Yes--you have understood me--'

'Isn't it your duty to remember at every moment that your thoughts,
your actions, may affect another life--that by heedlessness, by
abandoning yourself to despair, you may be the cause of suffering it
was in your power to avert?'

Herself strongly moved, Rhoda had never spoken so impressively, had
never given counsel of such earnest significance. She felt her power in
quite a new way, without touch of vanity, without posing or any trivial
self-consciousness. When she least expected it an opportunity had come
for exerting the moral influence on which she prided herself, and which
she hoped to make the ennobling element of her life. All the better
that the case was one calling for courage, for contempt of vulgar
reticences; the combative soul in her became stronger when faced by
such conditions. Seeing that her words were not in vain, she came
nearer to Monica and spoke yet more kindly.

'Why do you encourage that fear of your life coming to an end?'

'It's more a hope than a fear--at most times. I can see nothing before
me. I don't wish to live.'

'That's morbid. It isn't yourself that speaks, but your trouble. You
are young and strong, and in a year's time very much of this
unhappiness will have passed.'

'I have felt it like a certainty--as if it had been foretold to
me--ever since I knew--'

'I think it very likely that young wives have often the same