ast life.

Miss Weatherfield told her pleasant new acquaintance that the Varicks,
when they had first come to Chichester, had been very poor, the wife of
an obviously lower class than the husband. But that Varick, being the
gentleman he was, had not minded what he did to earn an honest living,
and that through Dr. Weatherfield he had obtained for a while employment
with a chemist, his work being that of taking round the medicines, as he
was not of course qualified to make up prescriptions.

While Miss Weatherfield had babbled on, Blanche had been able to piece
together what had evidently been a singularly painful story. Mrs. Varick
had been a violent, disagreeable woman, and the kindly spinster had felt
deeply sorry for the husband, himself little more than a boy. But she
admitted that her father, while attending Mrs. Varick, had acquired a
prejudice against the husband of his patient, and she added, smilingly,
that it was without her father's knowledge or consent that she had given
the young man, after the death of his wife, a valuable business
introduction.

Miss Weatherfield evidently flattered herself that this introduction had
been a turning-point in Varick's life, and that what appeared to her his
present prosperity was owing to what she had done. In any case, he had
shown his gratitude by keeping in touch with her, and on the rare
occasions when she came to London, they generally met.

Blanche Farrow, even in those early days, was too much a woman of the
world to feel as surprised as some people would have been. All the same,
she had felt disconcerted and a little pained, that the man who was fond
of telling her that she was his only real friend in the world had
concealed from her so important a fact as that of his marriage.

After some hesitation she had made up her mind to tell him of her
new-found knowledge, and at once he had filled in and coloured the
sketchy outlines of the picture drawn by the rather foolish if kindly
natured Miss Weatherfield. Yes, it was true that he had been a fool,
though a quixotic fool--so Blanche had felt on hearing his version of
the story. At the time of the marriage Varick had been nineteen, his
wife five years older. The two had soon parted, but they had made up
their differences after a separation which lasted four years. Varick's
fortunes had then been at their lowest ebb, and the two had drifted to
Chichester, where Mrs. Varick had humble, respectable relations. After a