eason. Mrs. Warrender's anxious looks, withdrawn for the moment from
Chatty, fell with little more satisfaction upon her son. He was pale
and thin, with that fretted look as of constant irritation which is
almost more painful to look at than the indications of sorrow. He put
aside with a little impatience her inquiries about himself. "I am well
enough,--what should be the matter with me? I never was an invalid that
I know of."

"You are not looking well, Theo. You are very thin. London does not
agree with you, I fear, and the late nights."

"I am a delicate plant to be incapable of late nights," he said, with a
harsh laugh.

"And how is Frances? I hope she does not do too much: and----"

"Come, mother, spare me the catalogue. Lady Markland is quite well, and
my Lord Markland, for I suppose it was he who was meant by your and----"

"Geoff, poor little fellow! he is at school, I suppose."

"Not a bit of it," said Warrender, with an ugly smile. "He is delicate,
you know. He has had measles or something, and has come home to his
mother to be nursed. There's a little too much of Geoff, mother; let us
be free of him here, at least. You are going to your old rooms?"

"Yes. I thought it might be a little painful: but Chatty made no
objection. She said indeed she would like it."

"Is she dwelling on that matter still?"

"Still, Theo! I don't suppose she will ever cease to dwell on it till it
comes all right."

"Which is very unlikely, mother. I don't give my opinion on the subject
of divorce. It's an ugly thing, however you take it; but a man who goes
to seek a divorce avowedly, with the intention of marrying again---- That
is generally the motive, I believe, at the bottom, but few are so bold as
to put it frankly on evidence."

"Theo! you forget Dick's position, which is so very peculiar. Could any
one blame him? What could he do otherwise? I hope I am not lax--and I
hate the very name of divorce as much as any one can: but what could he
do?"

"He could put up with it, I suppose, as other men have had to do--and be
thankful it is no worse."

"You are hard, Theo. I am sure it is not Frances that has taught you to
be so hard. Do you think that Chatty's life destroyed, as well as his own,
is so little? and no laws human or divine could bind him to--I don't
think I am lax," Mrs. Warrender cried, with the poignant consciousness
of a woman who has always known herself to be even superstitiously bound
to every cause of