d to
force my consent; and for the moment I could not refuse. But this is
Evelyn's first big chance of rising above herself; and if I step in
and do everything I take it right out of her hands. This seems to me
so unfair that I have been seriously wondering whether I ought not
to--go right away till the worst is over." And she reiterated the
arguments she had already put before Theo, as much in the hope of
convincing herself as her friend.

Mrs Conolly, watching her with an increasing thoughtfulness, divined
some deeper complication beneath her unusual insistence on the wrong
point of view; and awaited the sure revelation that would come when it
would come.

"You see, don't you," Honor concluded, in a beseeching tone, "that it
is not easy to make out what is really best, what is right to be done?
And Evelyn's uncertainty makes things still more difficult. One moment
I feel almost sure she would 'find herself' if I were not always at
her elbow; and the next I feel as if it would be criminal to leave her
unsupported for five minutes at a time like this."

"That last comes nearer the truth than anything you have said yet,"
was Mrs Jim's unhesitating verdict. "Frankly, Honor, I agree with Dr
Mackay; and I must really plead with you to leave off splitting straws
about your 'Evelyn,' and to think of Captain Desmond--and Captain
Desmond only. Surely you care more for him, and for what comes to him,
than your line of argument seems to imply?"

Honor drew herself up as if she had been struck. The appeal was so
unlooked for, the implication so unendurable, that for an instant she
lost her balance. A slow colour crept into her cheeks, a colour drawn
from the deepest wells of feeling; and while she stood blankly
wondering how she might best remedy her mistake, Mrs Conolly's voice
again came to her ears.

"Indeed, my child, you spoke truth just now," she said slowly, a fresh
significance in her tone. "It must be _very_ hard for you to make out
what is right."

Honor threw up her head with a gesture of defiance.

"Why should you suddenly say that?" she demanded, almost angrily. But
the instant her eyes met those of her friend the unnameable truth
flashed between them clear as speech and with a stifled sound Honor
hid her face in her hands.

Followed a tense silence; then Mrs Conolly came to her and put an arm
round her. But the girl stiffened under the touch of sympathy
implying mutual knowledge of that which belonged only