ton would want her
chocolate. Life is a big wheel, and one has to push it round, though its
edges are set with spikes of steel, and our hands are torn in the effort
to keep it moving.

As she dressed herself with trembling hands, she kept saying to
herself--her lips quivering with the unspoken words:

"I have lost Drake--I have lost Drake; I have got to bear it!"

He would be here presently--or, perhaps, he would not come. Perhaps he
would write to her. And yet, no; that would not be like him; he was no
coward; he would come and tell her the truth, would ask her to forgive
him.

And what should she say? Yes; she would forgive him; she would make no
"scene" with him; she would not utter one word of reproach, but just
tell him that he was free. She would even smile, if she could; would
assure him that she was not going to break her heart because the woman
he had loved before he had met her--Nell--had won him back. After all,
he was not to blame. How could any man resist such a woman as Lady Luce?
She--Nell--was just an interlude in his life's story; he had thought
himself in love with her; and, perhaps, if this beautiful creature,
before whom all hearts seemed to go down, had not desired to lure him
back, he would have remained faithful to the "little girl" whom he had
chanced to meet at that "out-of-the-way place in Devonshire, don't you
know." Nell could almost hear Lady Luce referring to the episode in
these terms, if ever it should come to her ears.

No; there should be no scene. She would give him both her hands, would
say "good-by" quite calmly, and would then take her broken heart to the
solitude of her own room, and try to begin to repair it.

Dick shouted for his breakfast, and she went downstairs. He was busy
reading a letter, and his face was full of eagerness, his eyes sparkling
with excitement.

"I say, Nell, what a good chap Drake is!" he exclaimed. "He never said a
word to me about it; but he's been worrying Bardsley & Bardsley for
weeks past, and they've written to say that they think they can take me
on. Just think of it! Bardsley & Bardsley! The biggest firm in the
engineering line! Drake must have a great deal of influence; and I don't
know how on earth he managed it. I didn't know he knew any one connected
with the profession. It's a most splendid chance, you know!"

Nell went round beside him, and laid her hand upon his shoulder.

"I am very glad, Dick," she said.

Something in her voice m