ounced next week and we shall
probably be married very soon after you and Althea. I hope that both
our ventures will bring us much happiness. The more I see of Mr.
Kane, the more I realise how fortunate I am.--Yours affectionately,

'HELEN.'

Althea gazed at these words. Then she turned her eyes and gazed at
Gerald, who was not looking at her but straight before him. Her first
clear thought was that if he had received a shock it could not be
comparable to that which she now felt. It could not be that the letter
had fallen on his heart like a sword, severing it. Althea's heart seemed
cleft in twain. Gerald--Franklin--it seemed to pulse, horribly divided
and horribly bleeding. Looking still at Gerald's face, pallid, absorbed,
far from any thought of her, anger surged up in her, and not now against
Gerald only, but against Franklin, who had failed her, against Helen,
who, it seemed, did not win love, yet won something that took people to
her and bound them to her. Then she remembered her unread letters, and
remembered that Franklin could not have let this news come to her from
another than himself. She drew out his letter and read it. It, too, was
short.

'DEAREST ALTHEA,--I know how glad you'll be to hear that happiness,
though of a different sort, has come to me. Any sort of happiness
was, for so many years, connected with you, dear Althea, that it's
very strange to me to realise that there can be another happiness;
though this one is connected with you, too, and that makes me
gladder. Helen, your dear friend, has consented to marry me, and the
fact of her being your dear friend makes her even dearer to me. So
that I must thank you for your part in this wonderful new opening in
my life, as well as for all the other lovely things you've always
meant to me.--Your friend,
'FRANKLIN.'

Althea's hand dropped. She stared before her. She did not offer the
letter to Gerald. 'It's incredible,' she said, while, in the heavy
mist, they walked along the road.

Gerald still said nothing. He held his head high, and gazed before him
too, as if intent on difficult and evasive thoughts.

'I could not have believed it of Helen,' said Althea after a little
pause.

At this he started and looked round at her. 'Believed? What? What is
that you say?' His voice