-in short, to get back to nature--was an instinct in all human
beings and all nations, when their zeniths of art and cultivation had
come.

And Halcyone, who had heard it all before and knew the subject to her
finger tips, wandered dreamily into a shadowland where she felt she was
of these people--those far back worshipers--and this was her winter when
Dionysus was dead, but would live again when the spring came and the
flowers.

CHAPTER XXVI

Mrs. Cricklander felt it would be discreet and in perfect taste if she
announced her intention of going off to Carlsbad the week after her
engagement was settled--she was always most careful of decorum. And, if
the world of her friends thought John Derringham was well enough to be
making love to her in the seclusion of her own house, it would be much
wiser for her to show that she should always remain beyond the breath of
any gossip.

In her heart she was bored to tears. For nearly the whole of June she
had been cooped up at Wendover--for more than half the time without even
parties of visitors to keep her company--and she loathed being alone.
She had no personal resources and invariably at such times smoked too
much and got agitated nerves in consequence.

John Derringham--strong and handsome, with his prestige and his
brilliant faculties--was a conquest worth parading chained to her
chariot wheels. But John Derringham, feeble, unable to walk, his ankle
in splints and plaster of Paris, and still suffering from headaches
whenever the light was strong, was simply a weariness to her--nothing
more nor less.

So that, until he should be restored to his usual captivating vigor, it
was much better for her pleasure to leave him to his complete recovery
alone, now that she had got him securely in her keeping.

Arabella could ask her mother down and keep house and see that he had
everything in the world that he wanted--and there were the devoted
nurses. And, in short, her doctor had said she must have her usual cure,
and that was the end of the matter!

She had only made him the most fleeting visits during the week. He had
really been ill after the fever caused by the champagne. And she had
been exquisitely gentle and not too demonstrative. She had calculated
the possibility of his backing out under the plea of his health, so she
determined not to give him a chance to have the slightest excuse by
overtiring him.

No one could have better played the part of devoted, unde