e most of their one common interest, although even here they
soon found themselves out of sympathy. Hubert's instincts were
scholastic and lawful, Hadria was disposed to daring innovation. Her
bizarre compositions shocked him painfully. The two jarred on one
another, in great things and in small. The halcyon period was
short-lived. The dream, such as it was, came to an end. Hubert turned
to his sister, in his bewilderment and disappointment. They had both
counted so securely on the effect of experience and the pressure of
events to teach Hadria the desirable lesson, and they were dismayed to
find that, unlike other women, she had failed to learn it. Henriette was
in despair. It was she who had brought about the ill-starred union. How
could she ever forgive herself? How repair the error she had made? Only
by devoting herself to her brother, and trying patiently to bring his
wife to a wiser frame of mind.

A considerable time had elapsed, during which Hadria saw her brothers
and sister only at long intervals. Ernest had become estranged from her,
to her great grief. He was as courteous and tender in his manner to her
as of yore, but there was a change, not to be mistaken. She had lost the
brother of her girlhood for ever. While it bitterly grieved, it did not
surprise her. She acknowledged in dismay the inconsistency of her
conduct. She must have been mad! The universal similarity in the
behaviour of girls, herself included, alarmed her. Was there some
external will that drove them all, in hordes, to their fate? Were all
the intricacies of event and circumstance, of their very emotion, merely
the workings of that ruthless cosmic will by which the individual was
hypnotised and ruled?

As usual at critical moments, Hadria had been solitary in her encounter
with the elements of Fate. There were conflicts that even her sister
knew nothing about, the bewilderments and temptations of a nature
hampered in its action by its own voluminous qualities and its caprice.

Her brothers supposed that in a short time Hadria would be "wearing
bonnets and a card-case, and going the rounds with an elegant expression
like the rest of them."

How different were the little local facts of life--the little chopped-up
life that accumulates in odds and ends from moment to moment--from the
sun-and-smoke vision of early irresponsible days!

Mrs. Fullerton was pleased with the marriage, not merely because
Hubert's father, Judge Temperley, could s