y eyes.'

'And you feel better now?'

'Rather hungry.'

Rolfe laughed. He had seated himself on the couch by her and held her
in his arms.

'Why, then we'll have some supper--a cold fowl and a bottle of
Burgundy--a profligate supper, fit for such abandoned characters; and
over it you shall tell me how the world looked to you when you were ten
years old.'

CHAPTER 4

Alma returned to Basingstoke, and remained there until the new house
was ready for her reception. With the help of her country friends she
engaged two domestics, cook and housemaid, who were despatched to
Gunnersbury in advance; they had good 'characters', and might possibly
co-operate with their new mistress in her resolve to create an
admirable household. Into this ambition Alma had thrown herself with no
less fervour than that which carried her off to wild Wales five years
ago; but her aim was now strictly 'practical', she would have nothing
more to do with 'ideals'. She took lessons in domestic economy from the
good people at Basingstoke. Yes, she had found her way at last! Alma
saw it in the glow of a discovery, this calm, secure, and graceful
middle-way. She talked of it with an animation that surprised and
pleased her little circle down in Hampshire; those ladies had never
been able to illumine their everyday discharge of duty with such high
imaginative glory. In return for their humble lessons, Alma taught them
to admire themselves, to see in their place and functions a nobility
they had never suspected.

For a day or two after her arrival at Gunnersbury, Harvey thought that
he had never seen her look so well; certainly she had never shown the
possibilities of her character to such advantage. It seemed out of the
question that any trouble could ever again come between them. Only when
the excitement of novelty had subsided did he perceive that Alma was
far from having recovered her physical strength. A walk of a mile or
two exhausted her; she came home from an hour's exercise with Hughie
pale and tremulous; and of a morning it was often to be noticed that
she had not slept well. Without talking of it, Harvey planned the
holiday which Alma had declared would be quite needless this year; he
took a house in Norfolk for September. Before the day of departure,
Alma had something to tell him, which, by suggesting natural
explanation of her weakness, made him less uneasy. Remembering the
incident which had brought to a close their life in W