Hugh had made her
in the cornfield on the occasion of their first meeting, and her face
burned afresh as she remembered certain other items of that same
conversation that he must also have overheard. No, on the whole it was
not surprising that he did not greatly care for Hugh--poor Hugh, who
loved her and had so narrowly missed winning her for himself. She
wondered if Hugh were really very miserable. She herself had passed
through so many stages of misery since her wedding-day. But she had
sufficient knowledge of herself to realize that it was the loneliness
and lack of sympathy that weighed upon her most.

Her feeling for Hugh was still an undeveloped quantity, though the
certainty of his love for her had quickened it to keener life. She was
not even yet absolutely certain that he could have satisfied her. It was
true that he had been deeply stirred for the moment, but how deeply and
how lastingly she had no means of gauging. Knowing the indolence of his
nature, she was inclined to mistrust the permanence of his feeling. And
so resolutely had she restrained her own feeling for him during the
whole length of their acquaintance that she was able still to keep it
within bounds. She knew that the sympathy between them was fundamental
in character, but she had often suspected--in her calmer moments she
suspected still--that it was of the kind that engenders friendship
rather than passion.

But even so, his friendship was essentially precious to her, all the
more so for the daily loneliness of spirit that she found herself
compelled to endure. For--with this one exception--she was practically
friendless. She had known that in marrying Jeff Ironside she was
relinquishing her own circle entirely. But she had imagined that there
would be compensations. Moreover, so far as society was concerned, she
had not had any choice. It had been this or exile. And she had chosen
this.

Wherefore? Simply and solely because Jeff, of all she knew, had wanted
her.

Again that curious little tremor went through her. Had he wanted her so
very badly after all? Not once since their wedding-day had he made any
friendly overture or responded to any overture of hers. They were as
completely strangers now as they had been on the day he had proposed to
her.

A sharp little sigh came from her. She had not thought somehow that Jeff
would be so difficult. He had told her that he loved her. She had
counted on that for the foundation of their friends