'd forgotten that you
scribble. But you don't take it seriously. I don't mind your playing
at it, so long as you don't get the notion that it's the biggest thing
in life." And he laughed again and pinched her cheek--reassuringly.

She didn't laugh in answer, however. She only gazed at him with an odd
intentness, as if she were seeing him for the first time. Then,
gravely, she inquired: "What would you think the biggest thing in life,
Ted--if you were a woman--a woman like Alice North?"

He drew her down to his knee and whispered into her ear. She was very
still for an instant, her whole body subdued, spellbound, by that
whispered word. Then, with a movement singularly untender, she
withdrew from his arms and stood erect--free--before him. The rich
scarlet still flooded her cheek--now like a flag of reluctant
womanhood--but he searched her eyes in vain for the glow that should
have matched it.

"Well--you'll think so some day!" he insisted gently.

CHAPTER VIII

Sheila was not naturally secretive, and it was a measure of the
antagonism which Ted had aroused in her that she said nothing to him of
her projected visit to Alice North.

She had intended to tell him at once of Charlotte's kindly plan to
interest Mrs. North in her work; she had been impatient to tell him,
and her announcement of Charlotte's return, and Mrs. North's arrival
with her, had been meant only as the preface to the confidence. She
had been so sure of his sympathy, of his ambition for her and his
pleasure in this opportunity to test her power.

His real attitude toward the achievements of women she had never
suspected. He had so gladly and gratefully accepted her help in his
own work, he had so generously acknowledged her ability, that she had
never conceived of any sex distinction in his views. She had been his
comrade--now he would be hers. And oh, she would make him proud of
her! She would see his eyes light for her as, sometimes, she had seen
them light over the story of men's successes. For Ted loved success.

If she looked forward to triumphs, he was always at the heart of them.
Whatever she could do would be done more for his honor than for her
own. Whatever was rare and fine in her she had come to value first
because she was his wife--and afterward for her own profit. She
imagined herself, crowned by Mrs. North's praise, returning to Ted to
cry:

"It is the real, the true thing--my gift! I will do beautiful work