nable?

And, after all, so many improbabilities having converged towards
creating the situation, there was nothing so very unreasonable in Gwen's
whim that old Mrs. Picture should go back with her to the Towers. It was
only the natural solution of a difficulty in a conjunction of
circumstances which could not have varied materially, unless Gwen and
her cousin had devolved the charge of the old lady on some
Institution--say the Workhouse Infirmary--or a neighbour, or had
forsaken her altogether. They preferred carrying her off, as the story
has seen, in a semi-insensible state from the shock, to their haven in
Cavendish Square. Next day an arrangement was made which restored to
Gwen--who had slept on a sofa, when she was not writing the letter
quoted in the foregoing text--the couch she had insisted on dedicating
to "Old Mrs. Picture," as she continued to call her.

* * * * *

It was very singular that Gwen, who had seen the old twin sister--as
_we_ know her to have been--should have fallen so in love with the one
whose acquaintance she last made. The story can only accept the fact
that it was so, without speculating on its possible connection with the
growth of a something that is not the body. It may appear--or may
not--to many, that, in old Maisie's life, a warp of supreme love,
shuttle-struck by a weft of supreme pain, had clothed her soul, as it
were, in a garment unlike her sister's; a garment some eyes might have
the gift of seeing, to which others might be blind. Old Granny Marrable
had had her share of trouble, no doubt; but Fate had shown her fair
play. Just simple everyday Death!--maternity troubles lived through in
shelter; nursing galore, certainly--who escapes it? Of purse troubles,
debts and sordid plagues, a certain measure no doubt, for who escapes
_them_? But to that life of hers the scorching fires that had worked so
hard to slay her sister's heart, and failed so signally, had never
penetrated. Indeed, the only really acute grief of her placid life had
been the supposed death of this very sister, now so near her, unknown.
Still, Gwen might, of course, have taken just as strongly to Granny
Marrable if some slight chance of their introduction had happened
otherwise.

The old lady remained at Cavendish Square three weeks, living chiefly in
an extra little room, which had been roughly equipped for service, to
cover the contingency. As Miss Lutwyche seemed to fight shy of