f emotion to which
Eva was not blind; and Mrs. Herrick wondered, uneasily, if Toni were
about to faint.

But Toni was in no fainting mood.

"You think that, Eva? You think that if I were gone--out of his life
altogether--Owen would forget me and find happiness in his work?"

"I think so, yes. Oh, Toni, I know I seem unkind," said Eva, Judas-like.
"Believe me I wouldn't have told you if you hadn't pressed me. It only
struck me that perhaps--you will forgive me, dear?--perhaps you didn't
manage to make your husband very happy--and if you really did want him
to forget you----"

"No, I don't make him happy," said Toni with a sigh. "It is funny, isn't
it, when I love him so much? But you're right in one thing. I am
spoiling his life; and my going away won't help him unless I go for
good."

"If you merely go, without any apparent reason, your husband will be
miserable, unsettled, give up everything to find you, to bring you
back----"

She was startled by a sudden exclamation from Toni.

"But, Eva, if you're so sure he'd want me back----"

"Why should you go?" Eva smiled a little, patiently. "Don't you see,
dear, if you go like that, Mr. Rose will be so alarmed, so upset, that
of course he'll want to find you. He would think you'd perhaps run away
because you were unhappy, and he'd do all he could to get you back on
your own account. Oh, I know Mr. Rose is very fond of you,
Toni"--somehow her very inflection made Toni's conception of Owen's love
shrivel into nothingness--"and he couldn't rest if he thought you were
unhappy. He would bring you back, and things would be just the same
again. He would do his work, helped by Miss Loder, I suppose, and you
would go on as you are now. After all, Toni, you know you have a lot to
be grateful for."

She looked at the girl to see how far she might safely go, but Toni
never moved; and Eva was emboldened to proceed.

"You have a lovely home--Greenriver is quite a show place, and after
all, you and your husband never quarrel, do you? So that on the whole
you'd be a little fool if you gave up all these very substantial
benefits. Eh, Toni?"

Eva was clever. She knew exactly the spur to apply to Toni's flagging
mood, and she smiled to herself when she heard Toni's reply.

"Do you think I would hesitate to give up Greenriver--and all the
rest--to make my husband happy?"

And looking at her Eva knew she would not. Mistaken, Toni might often
be--foolish, self-willed, a little in