child. "You feel
them. You will come again, soon?"

Joan did not answer.

"You're frightened," the child continued in a passionate, low voice. "You
think that people will talk about you and look down upon you. You
oughtn't to think about yourself. You ought to think only about him and
his work. Nothing else matters."

"I am thinking about him and his work," Joan answered. Her hand sought
Hilda's and held it. "There are things you don't understand. Men and
women can't help each other in the way you think. They may try to, and
mean no harm in the beginning, but the harm comes, and then not only the
woman but the man also suffers, and his work is spoilt and his life
ruined."

The small, hot hand clasped Joan's convulsively.

"But he won't be able to do his work if you keep away and never come back
to him," she persisted. "Oh, I know it. It all depends upon you. He
wants you."

"And I want him, if that's any consolation to you," Joan answered with a
short laugh. It wasn't much of a confession. The child was cute enough
to have found that out for herself. "Only you see I can't have him. And
there's an end of it."

They had reached the Abbey. Joan turned and they retraced their steps
slowly.

"I shall be going away soon, for a little while," she said. The talk had
helped her to decision. "When I come back I will come and see you all.
And you must all come and see me, now and then. I expect I shall have a
flat of my own. My father may be coming to live with me. Good-bye. Do
all you can to help him."

She stooped and kissed the child, straining her to her almost fiercely.
But the child's lips were cold. She did not look back.

Miss Greyson was sympathetic towards her desire for a longish holiday and
wonderfully helpful; and Mrs. Denton also approved, and, to Joan's
surprise, kissed her; Mrs. Denton was not given to kissing. She wired to
her father, and got his reply the same evening. He would be at her rooms
on the day she had fixed with his travelling bag, and at her Ladyship's
orders. "With love and many thanks," he had added. She waited till the
day before starting to run round and say good-bye to the Phillipses. She
felt it would be unwise to try and get out of doing that. Both Phillips
and Hilda, she was thankful, were out; and she and Mrs. Phillips had tea
alone together. The talk was difficult, so far as Joan was concerned. If
the woman had been possessed of ordinary intuiti