on the fire savagely.

"Louis, do you remember that schoolmaster on the _Oriana_?" she asked
suddenly, staring thoughtfully at the long, thin leaders.

"Oh, that ass who sat in my chair? Yes. Why?"

"He told me a fearful thing about cancer."

"He would--blighted idiot. What was it?"

She hesitated a minute.

"He said he'd read in some book--he was always reading queer books--that
cancer was an elemental that had taken possession of one's body. A
horribly preying, parasitic life--feeding on one's body--Ugh, it made me
feel sick! And it's so cruel, really, to say things like that. He seemed
to suggest that elementals were something unclean that could not come
except to unclean people. And--mother died of cancer. And mother was
very beautiful."

"Well, you can tell the footling ass from me that he's a thumping liar.
Elemental grandmother! Let me tell you this much--cancers come from one
thing only, and that's irritation--injury, often. Corsets, sometimes--or
a blow--If I were to thump you--"

He laughed, and turned away.

"Yes, I know," she said quietly. She was thinking of that stormy scene
between her father and the two doctors when the faint smell of
chloroform crept round her at the farm while she waited outside on the
landing.

CHAPTER XXIV

For nearly five months peace stole round Castle Lashcairn. Marcella was
almost incredibly happy and so was Louis. Mrs. Twist and Marcella held
long consultations about the baby, but Marcella, afraid of worrying
Louis, tried to make him forget all about it. Even when, as time went
on, she really began to feel tired and unable to work with him, she
fought her tiredness indignantly; she was terrified lest he should get
"raked up" and go along to the hotel for solace. So she hid everything
from him, arranging all details with Mrs. Twist who promised to "see her
through it." There was no nurse within a hundred miles; there was a
dreadful old woman who had brought several bottles of squareface with
her when she attended Mrs. Twist at Millie's birth. They decided to
dispense with her services.

Marcella sent money to Mrs. King to buy things for her in Sydney. They
spent a whole Sunday evening making out the list. Many of the things he
had learnt, from textbooks, to associate with babies, Mrs. Twist thought
unnecessary, but Marcella, with no basic opinion of her own, let him
have his way, and one day in May he took Gryphon, the Twist pony, to
fetch the packages fro