er. Even now it sometimes gave him a momentary
pang to meet the adoration in Molly's eyes which, with their dark
lashes, she had copied so exactly from Evelyn's.

And now that he could come with ease on what had been forbidden ground,
he had seen of late clearly, with the insight that comes of
dispassionate consideration, that Evelyn, the only woman whom he had
ever earnestly loved, whom he would have turned heaven and earth to have
been able to marry, had not been in the least suited to him, and that to
have married her would have entailed a far more bitter disappointment
than the loss of her had been.

Evelyn made Ralph an admirable wife. She was so placid, so gentle,
and--with the exception of muddy boots in the drawing-room--so
unexacting. It was sweet to see her read to Molly; but did she never
take up a book or a paper? What she said was always gracefully put
forth; but oh! in old days, used she in that same gentle voice to utter
such platitudes, such little stereotyped remarks? Used she, in the palmy
days that were no more (when she was not Ralph's wife), so mildly but so
firmly to adhere to a pre-conceived opinion? Had she formerly such fixed
opinions on every subject in general, and on new-laid eggs and the
propriety of chicken-hutches on the lawn in particular? Disillusion may
be for our good, like other disagreeable things, but it is seldom
pleasant at the time, and is apt to leave in all except the most
conceited natures (whose life-long mistakes are committed for our
learning) a strange self-distrustful caution behind, which is mortally
afraid of making a second mistake of the same kind.

Charles suddenly checked his pacing.

And yet surely, surely, he said to himself, there were in the world
somewhere good women of another stamp, who might be found for diligent
seeking.

He turned impatiently to go in-doors.

"Oh, Molly! Molly!" he said, half aloud, gazing at the darkened windows
behind which the body of Molly was sleeping, while her little soul was
frisking away in fairy-land, "why did you complicate matters by being a
little girl?" With which reflection he brought his meditations to a
close for the night.

CHAPTER V.

Molly awoke early on the following morning, and early informed the rest
of the household that the weather was satisfactory. She flew into Ruth's
room with the hot water, to wake her and set her mind at rest on a
subject of such engrossing interest; she imparted it repeated