cause she was ready to act as well as to pray?--it
seemed to her that her appeal had reached the Infinite. And it was then
that she began to learn that prayer is not only a passive asking, but the
eager straining of every nerve towards fulfilment.

It seemed useless to go to the Abbey for news. She would master her
reluctance and go to Crowther. She was sure that he would be in a
position to tell her all there was to know.

Mrs. Lorimer warmly applauded the idea. The continued estrangement of the
two people whom she loved so dearly was one of her greatest secret
sorrows now. She urged Avery to go, shedding tears over the thought of
Piers going unspeeded into the awful dangers of war.

So by the middle of the morning Avery was on her way. It seemed to her
the longest journey she had ever travelled. She chafed at every pause.
And through it all, Ina's fierce words ran in a perpetual refrain through
her brain: "Love never casts away--Love never casts away."

She felt as if the girl had ruthlessly let a flood of light in upon her
gloom, dazzling her, bewildering her, hurting her with its brilliance.
She had forced aside those drawn blinds. She had pierced to the innermost
corners. And Avery herself was shocked by that which had been revealed.
It had never before been given to her to see her own motives, her own
soul, thus. She had not dreamed of the canker of selfishness that lay at
the root of all. With shame she remembered her assurance to her husband
that her love should never fail him. What of that love now--Love the
Invincible that should have shattered the gates of the prison-house and
led him forth in triumph?

Reaching town, she drove straight to Crowther's rooms. But she was met
with disappointment. Crowther was out. He would be back in the evening,
she was told, but probably not before.

Wearily she went down again and out into the seething life of the streets
to spend the longest day of her life waiting for his return. Looking back
upon that day afterwards, she often wondered how she actually spent the
time. To and fro, to and fro, this way and that; now trying to ease her
soul by watching the soldiers at drill in the Park, the long, long khaki
lines and sunburnt faces; now pacing the edge of the water and seeking
distraction in the antics of some water-fowl; now back again in the
streets, moving with the crowd, seeing soldiers, soldiers on every hand,
scanning each almost mechanically with the vagrant hope