go to London."

"Don't go just yet--won't our books be of use to you?"

"I shall see. Have you read this?"

It was a novel from Smith's Library. Lilian knew it, and they discussed
its merits. Mrs. Wade mentioned a book by the same author which had
appeared more than a year ago.

"Yes, I read that when it came out," said Lilian, and began to talk of
it.

Mrs. Wade kept silence, then remarked carelessly:

"You had them in the Tauchnitz series, I suppose?"

Had her eyes been turned that way, she must have observed the strange
look which flashed across her companion's countenance. Lilian seemed to
draw in her breath, though silently.

"Yes--Tauchnitz," she answered.

Mrs. Wade appeared quite unconscious of anything unusual in the tone.
She was gazing at the fire.

"It isn't often I find time for novels," she said; "for new ones, that
is. A few of the old are generally all I need. Can you read George
Eliot? What a miserably conventional soul that woman has!"

"Conventional? But"----

"Oh, I know! But she is British conventionality to the core. I have
heard people say that she hasn't the courage of her opinions; but that
is precisely what she _has_, and every page of her work declares it
flagrantly. She might have been a great power--she might have speeded
the revolution of morals--if the true faith had been in her."

Lilian was still tremulous, and she listened with an intensity which
gave her a look of pain. She was about to speak, but Mrs. Wade
anticipated her.

"You mustn't trouble much about anything I say when it crosses your own
judgment or feeling. There are so few people with whom I can indulge
myself in free speech. I talk just for the pleasure of it; don't think
I expect or hope that you will always go along with me. But you are not
afraid of thinking--that's the great thing. Most women are such paltry
creatures that they daren't look into their own minds--for fear nature
should have put something 'improper' there."

She broke off with laughter, and, as Lilian kept silence, fell into
thought.

In saying that she thought her Companion a "womanly woman," Lilian told
the truth. Ever quick with sympathy, she felt a sadness in Mrs. Wade's
situation, which led her to interpret all her harsher peculiarities as
the result of disappointment and loneliness. Now that the widow had
confessed her ill-fortune in marriage, Lilian was assured of having
judged rightly, and nursed her sentiment of compassion. M