authority on matters of practical
philosophy, and the old gravedigger became a sort of oracle at the
Cottage. Wilfrid Burton complained that he was incessantly confronted
with some saying of Dodge, and from this there was no appeal.

The news from Italy was still far from reassuring. Valeria was terribly
anxious. But she felt thankful, she said, to be with the invalid and
able to look after him. The doctors would not hear of his returning to
England at the approach of winter. It would be sheer suicide. He must go
further south. Valeria had met some old friends, among them Madame
Bertaux, and they had decided to go on together, perhaps to Naples or
Sorrento. Her friends had all fallen in love with the Professor, as
every one did. They were a great help and comfort to her. If it were not
for the terrible foreboding, Valeria said she would be perfectly happy.
The Professor's presence seemed to change the very atmosphere. He spoke
often about Hadria, and over and over again asked Valeria to watch over
her and help her. And he spoke often about his wife. Valeria confessed
that, at one time, she used to be horribly and shamefully jealous of
this wife, whom he worshipped so faithfully, but now that feeling had
left her. She was thankful for the great privilege of his friendship. A
new tone had come over Valeria's letters, of late; the desperate, almost
bitter element had passed away, and something approaching serenity had
taken its place.

No one, she said, could be in the Professor's presence every day, and
remain exactly the same as before. She saw his potent, silent influence
upon every creature who crossed his path. He came and went among his
fellows, quietly, beneficently, and each was the better for having met
him, more or less, according to the fineness and sensitiveness of the
nature.

"My love for him," said Valeria, "used at one time to be a great trouble
to me. It made me restless and unhappy. Now I am glad of it, and though
there must be an element of pain in a hopeless love, yet I hold myself
fortunate to have cherished it."

Hadria received this letter from the postman when she was coming out of
Dodge's cottage.

It threw her into a conflict of strong and painful feeling: foreboding,
heart-sickness, a longing so strong to see her friends that it seemed as
if she must pack up instantly and go to them, and through it all, a
sense of loneliness that was almost unbearable. How she envied Valeria!
To love with h