y, I think Mr. Rose is
wonderfully good. I'm sure it would hurt him awfully to think he had
been unkind or impatient with you, Toni. After all, he married you to
please himself, didn't he? And it's not a bit fair to you to visit it on
your head afterwards."

"To visit--what, Eva?"

"Why, I hardly know what to say." Eva smiled subtly to herself. "Of
course, it may be only my imagination. I daresay you make Mr. Rose as
happy as any woman could do. I expect he works too hard and that's why
he looks so worried."

"Does he look worried?" queried Toni softly. "I suppose I ought to have
noticed it--but----"

"But you didn't?" Eva leaned across and patted the girl's arm. "Never
mind, dear, it's probably my fancy. I daresay Mr. Rose is not a very
lively person at any time--and, after all, one can't always be feeling
cheerful."

"You mean," said Toni, who, like other primitive people, was apt to be
disconcertingly outspoken, "you mean that Owen--my husband--isn't happy.
At least--is that what you mean?"

"Well, I suppose I did mean that," said Eva with pretended reluctance.
"But it's all nonsense--I had no business to say it, Toni. Do forget it,
will you?"

"No." Toni spoke very quietly. "I shan't forget it. But I want to know a
little more. You think Owen is unhappy because he is married to me. Do
you think he would be happier if I went away and left him? Is that what
you are too kind, too generous to imply?"

Eva's heart gave a sudden throb. Her first aim in life ever since the
prison gates clanged behind her at the end of her term of confinement
had been to do some harm in the world, to make up for the injury which
she considered had been done to her; and no weak emotions such as pity
or generosity could be allowed to hold her back.

To her oddly-perverted mind, it seemed that if she could persuade Toni
to leave her husband, to wreck her home and her future, she would have
got "her own back" to a considerable degree; and she had a double motive
in her hatred of Owen, who, as she well knew, distrusted her personally
and disliked her friendship with his young wife.

Any person connected with a big penal settlement will tell you that
there is never any certainty as to the moral result of a term of
imprisonment on any given prisoner.

To some natures, the punishment may be both a deterrent and an excellent
lesson, while to others the educational value may be great and the
deterrent effect almost _nil_; but in one cl