y. 'But perhaps
you give them for a mistaken reason.'

'In what you have told me of the growth of her character, there is
nothing that I did not foresee. It is good to know that, even then, I
was under no foolish illusion. But the circumstances were needed, and
you have supplied them. How can I be mistaken in thanking you for
having so tended her who is to be my wife?'

'Wait, Walter. You foresaw into what she might develop; it is true, and
it enables us to regard the past without too much sadness. Did you
foresee her perfect equanimity, when once she had settled down to a new
life?'

He said hesitatingly, 'No.'

'Believing that she had taken such a desperate step purely through love
of you, you thought it more than likely that she would live on in great
unhappiness?'

'Her cheerfulness surprises me. But it isn't impossible to offer an
explanation. She has foreseen what is now going to happen. She knows
you are my friend; she sees that you are giving great pains to raise
her from her former standing in life; what more likely than that she
explains it all by guessing the truth? And so her cheerfulness is the
most hopeful sign for me.'

'That is plausible; but you are mistaken. Long ago I talked to her with
much seriousness of all her future. I spoke of the chances of her being
able to earn a living with her voice, and purposely discouraged any
great hope in that direction. Her needlework, and what she had been
trained to at the Home, were, I showed her, likely to be her chief
resources. I have even tested her on the subject of her returning to
live with her sister.'

'Hope has overcome all these considerations. You kept her sister from
knowing where she was. Why, if there was not some idea of severing her
from her old associations?'

'I explained it to her in one of our talks. I showed her that her
rashness had made it very difficult to aid her.'

'You spoke of me to her?'

'Never, as I have told you. Nor has she ever mentioned you. I pointed
out to her that of course I could not explain the state of things to
the Emersons, and therefore Lydia had better not visit her for some
time.'

Egremont sat down at a distance, and brooded.

'But a contradiction is involved!' he exclaimed presently. 'How can a
girl of her character have forgotten so quickly such profound emotion?'

'You must not forget that weeks passed between my finding her and her
going to live with the Emersons. During all that time the poor g