blessed part--for
both of them. And now you see--it gives them such a deal to talk
about'--her gesture indicated the couple in front. 'It's like two sore
surfaces, isn't it, that mustn't touch--you want something between.'

'All the same, William mustn't set his heart--'

'And Hester--dear old thing!--mustn't preach!' said Cicely laughing, and
pinching her cousin's arm. 'What's the good of saying that, about a man
like William, who knows what he wants? Of course he's set his heart, and
will go on setting it. But he'll _wait_--as long as she likes.'

'It'll be a long time.'

'All right! They're neither of them Methuselahs yet. Heavens!--What are
they at now? _Ambrine_!--_she's_ talking to _him_'

But some deep mingled instinct, at once of sympathy with Nelly and pity
for Farrell, made Hester unwilling to discuss the subject any more.
George's death was too recent; peace and a happy future too remote. So
she turned on Cicely.

'And please, what have you done with Herbert? I was promised a
bridegroom.'

'Business!' said Cicely, sighing. 'We had hardly arrived for our week's
leave, when the wretched War Office wired him to come back. He went this
morning, and I wanted to go too, but--I'm not to racket just now.'

Cicely blushed, and Hester, smiling, pressed her hand.

'Then you're not going to Rome?'

'Certainly I am! But one has to give occasional sops to the domestic
tyrant.'

They sauntered back to tea in Hester's garden by the river, and there
the talk of her three guests was more equal and unfettered, more of a
real interchange, than Hester ever remembered it. Of old, Farrell had
been the guardian and teacher, indoctrinating Nelly with his own views
on art, reading to her from his favourite poets, or surrounding her in a
hundred small matters with a playful and devoted homage. But now in the
long wrestle with her grief and remorse, she had thought, as well as
felt. She was as humble and simple as ever, but her companions realised
that she was standing on her own feet. And this something new in
her--which was nothing but a strengthened play of intelligence and
will--had a curious effect on Farrell. It seemed to bring him out, also;
so that the nobler aspects of his life, and the nobler proportions of
his character shewed themselves, unconsciously. Hester, with anxious
joy, guessed at the beginnings of a new moral relation, a true
comradeship, between himself and Nelly, such as there had never yet
been--whi