don't care to think long about
it. Does that mean, I wonder, that I am afraid to think of it?

"Well, f had rather have been taught to read and think about
everything, than be foolishly ignorant as so many women are. This
French author would laugh at my confidence, but I could laugh back at
his narrow cynicism. He knows nothing of love in its highest sense. I
am firm in my optimism, which has a very different base from that of
ignorance.

"This does not concern me; I won't occupy my mind with it; I won't read
any more of the cynics. My husband loves me, and I believe his love
incapable of receiving a soil. If ever I cease to believe that, time
enough then to be miserable and to fight out the problem."

The end of the six months found them still undecided as to where they
should fix a permanent abode. In no part of England had either of them
relatives or friends whose proximity would be of any value. Cecily
inclined towards London, feeling that there only would her husband find
incentives to exertion; but Reuben was more disposed to settle
somewhere on the Continent. He talked of going back to Italy, living in
Florence, and--writing something new about the Renaissance. Cecily
shook her head; Italy she loved, and she had seen nothing of it north
of Naples, but it was the land of lotus-eaters. They would go there
again, but not until life had seriously shaped itself.

Whilst they talked and dreamed, decision came to them in the shape of
Mrs. Lessingham. Without warning, she one day presented herself at
their lodgings, having come direct from Paris. Her spirits were
delightful; she could not have behaved more graciously had this
marriage been the one desire of her life. The result of her private
talk with Cecily was that within a week all three travelled down to
London; there they remained for a fortnight, then went on to Paris.
Mrs. Lessingham's quarters were in Rue de Belle Chasse, and the Elgars
found a suitable dwelling in the same street.

Their child was born, and for a few months all questions were postponed
to that of its health and Cecily's. The infant gave a good deal of
trouble, was anything but robust; the mother did not regain her
strength speedily. The first three months of the new year were spent at
Bordighera; then came three months of Paris; then the family returned
to England (without Mrs. Lessingham), and established themselves in the
house in Belsize Park.

The immediate effect of paternity upon