t sense of guilt.

Meanwhile it would be best, perhaps, to await Algitha's arrival, when
affairs might be in a less uncertain state. All decision must be
postponed till then. "Try and come soon," she wrote to her sister.

To add to the anxieties of the moment, little Martha seemed to lose in
energy since coming to the new abode, and Hadria began to fear that the
house was not quite healthy. It was very cheap, and the landlady was
honest, but if it had this serious drawback, another move, with probably
another drawback, seemed to threaten. This was particularly troublesome,
for who could tell how long it would be possible to remain in Paris?
Hadria thought of the doctrine of the sovereignty of the will, and of
all the grand and noble things that the Preposterous Society had said
about it, not to mention Emerson and others--and she smiled.

However, she worked on, putting aside her anxieties, as far as was
possible. She would not fail for lack of will, at any rate. But it was a
hard struggle. Martha had to be very carefully watched just now.

Happily, after a few anxious days, she began to recover her fresh colour
and her high spirits. The move would not be necessary, after all. Hadria
had become more and more attached to the child, whose lovable qualities
developed with her growth. She was becoming singularly like her unhappy
mother, in feature and in colouring. Her eyes were large and blue and
sweet, with a little touch of pathos in them that Hadria could not bear
to see. It seemed almost like the after-glow of the mother's suffering.

Although adding to Hadria's anxieties, the child gave a sense of
freshness and youth to the little _menage_. She made the anxieties
easier to bear.

Hadria came in, one morning, from her work, tired and full of
foreboding. Hat and cloak were laid aside, and she sank into an
arm-chair, lying back to lazily watch the efforts of the child to
overturn the obstinate blue man, who was still the favourite plaything,
perhaps because he was less amenable than the rest.

Martha looked up for sympathy. She wished to be helped in her persistent
efforts to get the better of this upstart blue man with the red cap, who
serenely resumed his erect position just as often as he was forced to
the ground. He was a stout, healthy-looking person, inclining to
_embonpoint_; bound to succeed, if only from sheer solidity of person.
Hadria was drawn into the game, and the two spent a good half hour on
the ru