ltered. And her dismay was justified. Their hostess was a little
stiff, and asked whether Stephen had been obnoxious.

"Indeed he hasn't. He spent the whole time looking after me."

"From which I conclude he was more obnoxious than usual." Rickie praised
him diligently. But his candid nature showed everything through. His
aunt soon saw that they had not got on. She had expected this--almost
planned it. Nevertheless she resented it, and her resentment was to fall
on him.

The storm gathered slowly, and many other things went to swell it.
Weakly people, if they are not careful, hate one another, and when the
weakness is hereditary the temptation increases. Elliots had never got
on among themselves. They talked of "The Family," but they always turned
outwards to the health and beauty that lie so promiscuously about the
world. Rickie's father had turned, for a time at all events, to his
mother. Rickie himself was turning to Agnes. And Mrs. Failing now was
irritable, and unfair to the nephew who was lame like her horrible
brother and like herself. She thought him invertebrate and conventional.
She was envious of his happiness. She did not trouble to understand his
art. She longed to shatter him, but knowing as she did that the human
thunderbolt often rebounds and strikes the wielder, she held her hand.

Agnes watched the approaching clouds. Rickie had warned her; now she
began to warn him. As the visit wore away she urged him to be pleasant
to his aunt, and so convert it into a success.

He replied, "Why need it be a success?"--a reply in the manner of
Ansell.

She laughed. "Oh, that's so like you men--all theory! What about your
great theory of hating no one? As soon as it comes in useful you drop
it."

"I don't hate Aunt Emily. Honestly. But certainly I don't want to be
near her or think about her. Don't you think there are two great things
in life that we ought to aim at--truth and kindness? Let's have both if
we can, but let's be sure of having one or the other. My aunt gives up
both for the sake of being funny."

"And Stephen Wonham," pursued Agnes. "There's another person you
hate--or don't think about, if you prefer it put like that."

"The truth is, I'm changing. I'm beginning to see that the world has
many people in it who don't matter. I had time for them once. Not now."
There was only one gate to the kingdom of heaven now.

Agnes surprised him by saying, "But the Wonham boy is evidently a part
of your