that we can lead them. Even I know that. What we can do
best is to follow--and pick up the pieces."

He shook his head blankly. "I don't understand. What good would that
do?"

She rose, saying quietly, "I shall have to let you think it out for
yourself."

As he remained seated, his forehead resting on his hand, she passed
behind him. With her arm thrown lightly across his shoulders she bent
over him till her cheek touched his hair. "Thor dear," she whispered,
"we've got our own problems to solve, haven't we? We can't solve
Claude's and Rosie's too. No one can do that but themselves. Whatever
happens--whether he comes back and marries her, or whether he
doesn't--no help would ever come of your interference or mine. If we'd
only understood that before--"

"You mean, if I had."

"Well, Thor darling, you haven't. You see, human beings are so terribly
free. I say terribly, on purpose--because you can't compel them to be
wise and prudent and safe, even when they're making the most obvious
mistakes. We must let them make them--and suffer--and learn." She bent
closer to his ear. "And it's what we must do, Thor dear, you and I.
We've made our mistakes already--though perhaps we didn't know it. Now
we must have the suffering--and--and the learning."

She brushed her lips lightly across his hair and left him.

As she walked through the Square, and past the terminus of the
tram-line, and on into the beginning of County Street, she was obliged
to keep repeating her own words--"Nothing that isn't kind and well
thought out beforehand." Having counseled him against bitterness and
violence, she saw that her immediate task was not to swallow her own
words. Bitterness was beyond suppression, and violence would have been
so easy! "_Well thought out beforehand_," she emphasized. "Whatever I do
I must keep to that. If _I_ don't, God knows where we shall be."

In pursuance of this principle she turned in at her father-in-law's
gate. He and Mrs. Masterman must also be warned. Rosie's rash act would
touch them so closely that unless they were informed of it gently
something regrettable might be said or done.

As to that, however, her fears proved groundless. Masterman himself
opened the door for her as she went up the steps. "Saw you coming," he
explained. "Just got out from town. Ena's been telling me the most
distressing thing--the most damnably theatrical, idiotic thing. Perhaps
you've heard of it."

"I know what you mean. I've