Paul, usually little preoccupied about his food provided there was
plenty of meat, to lyric raptures. The difference she made in Lydia's
life was inconceivable. It was as though some burdensome law of nature
had been miraculously suspended for her benefit. She gauged her past
discomfort by her present comfort.

And yet--

From the first Lydia had had an uneasy feeling in the presence of her
new servant, a haunting impression when her back was turned to Ellen
that if she could turn quickly enough, she would see her cook with some
sinister aspect quite other than the decent, respectful mask she
presented to her mistress. The second girl of the present was a
fresh-faced, lively young country lass, whom Ellen herself had secured,
and whose rosy child's face had been at first innocence itself; but now
sometimes Lydia overheard them laughing together, a laughter which gave
her the oddest inward revulsion, and when she came into the kitchen
quickly she often found them looking at books which were quickly whisked
out of sight.

And then, a day or so before, old Mrs. O'Hern, her washwoman, had come
directly to her with that revolting revelation of Ellen's influence on
her grandson, little Patsy. At the recollection of the old woman's face
of embittered anguish, Lydia shuddered. Oh, if she could only tell Paul!
He was so loving and caressing to her--perhaps he would not mind being
bothered this once--she did not know what to think of such things--she
did not know what to do, which way to turn. She was startled beyond
measure at having real moral responsibility put on her.

Perhaps Paul could think of something to do.

He was waiting for her when she entered the house, having come in from
an out-of-town trip on an earlier train than he had expected to catch.
He dropped his newspaper and sprang up from his chair to put his arms
about her and gloat over her beauty. "You're getting prettier every day
of your life, Lydia," he told her, ruffling her soft hair, and kissing
her very energetically a great many times. "But pale! I must get some
color into your cheeks, Melton says--how's this for a way?"

He seemed to Lydia very boyish and gay and vital. She caught at him
eagerly--he had been away from home three days--and clung to him. "Oh,
Paul! How much good it does me to have you here, close! You are _so_
much nicer than a room of women playing the same game of cards they
began last September!"

Paul shouted with laughter--his p