iss Hallin. Everything was
much as it had been, apparently. Edward was still hard at work, still
ill, still serene. "Aldous"--Miss Hallin could not yet reconcile herself
to the new name--was alone in the Curzon Street house, much occupied and
harassed apparently by the legal business of the succession, by the
election presently to be held in his own constituency, and by the
winding-up of his work at the Home Office. He was to resign his
under-secretaryship; but with the new session and a certain
rearrangement of offices it was probable that he would be brought back
into the Ministry. Meanwhile he was constantly with them; and she
thought that his interest in Edward's work and anxiety about his health
were perhaps both good for him as helping to throw off something of his
own grief and depression.

Whereby it will be noticed that Miss Hallin, like her brother, had by
now come to speak intimately and freely to Marcella of her old lover and
their friend.

Now for some days, however, she had received no letter from either
brother or sister, and she was particularly anxious to hear. For this
was the fourth of October, and on the second he was to have delivered
the first of his addresses. How had the frail prophet sped? She had her
fears. For her weekly "evenings" in Brown's Buildings had shown her a
good deal of the passionate strength of feeling developed during the
past year in connection with this particular propaganda. She doubted
whether the London working man at the present moment was likely to give
even Hallin a fair hearing on the point. However, Louis Craven was to be
there. And he had promised to write even if Susie Hallin could find no
time. Some report ought to reach Mellor by the evening.

Poor Cravens! The young wife, who was expecting a baby, had behaved with
great spirit through the _Clarion_ trouble; and, selling their bits of
furniture to pay their debts, they had gone to lodge near Anthony. Louis
had got some odds and ends of designing and artistic work to do through
his brother's influence; and was writing where he could, here and there.
Marcella had introduced them to the Hallins, and Susie Hallin was taking
a motherly interest in the coming child. Anthony, in his gloomy way, was
doing all he could for them. But the struggle was likely to be a hard
one, and Marcella had recognised of late that in Louis as in Anthony
there were dangerous possibilities of melancholy and eccentricity. Her
heart was often